Vincent's Poker Blog » Personal

Seven duece game made me a huge pot

Vincent — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:57:37 +0000

We were playing the seven duece game at private game in The Netherlands a couple weeks ago (blinds €5/€10 NLH) and the extra €10 from every player was really making a huge difference (lol, it’s so about the ‘macho’ness of the 72 isn’t it)… Anyway, I picked up 72 utg and decided to play it. I raised it up to €50 pre-flop and got two callers behind me.

The flop came:

752 rainbow.

Good flop for me and I decided to bet right out (€110) as I probably would most of the time with AA or KK in that spot. The first guy behind me folded and then I got raised to €250. I made the call and turned a seven to fill up. I checked to show weakness and the guy behind me quickly moved all-in for his last €600. I made the call and chuckled when he turned over two fives…

The guy obviously didn’t like it (and neither would I in that spot) but I dragged the pot and took an extra €80 on the side.

Awesome!

I’ve Been Playing Under Par…

Vincent — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:07:08 +0000

I’ve been playing under par for over a couple weeks and I’ve decided to give poker a rest for a couple of weeks while working on a big project at work. I’m still up for 2008 but my online poker (full tilt this time) results are way below standards and in the VERY soft live games I play in in the local casino I’m only a slight winner too…

No biggie though, time to suck it in and get my game back together…

Will be back in a couple weeks!

2009 World Series of Poker

Vincent — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:18:28 +0000

I realize I’m a year early, but I’ve decided I’m going to try hard to get into the series in 2009. I’m not going to Vegas to just play one event so I’m hoping to have at least $20k to buy in to a couple events apart from the main event.

I’ll probably be doing a couple of small-number player satellites hoping to get in on the cheap and I’ve started putting 5% profit asides from this month on. I’ll keep you up to date of my progress. Wish me luck!

Kings versus Aces twice in one hour

Vincent — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:28:58 +0000

Aargh. Just got home from my weekly home game, and even though ended up after pulling off a big bluff in the final half hour, I’m still steaming. During the first hour of play, I had KK twice, and was up against AA twice. Twice against the same guy, twice no suckout.

We even ran it twice (two full boards) the second time (I think he felt bad for me hehe), but no suckout on the ten-shotter either…

I’m quite pleased to end in the positive numbers, but do feel kind of sick from being on the wrong end of these cold deck situations twice in such a short time….

Oh well

Giving Betfair a go

Vincent — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:29:19 +0000

I’ve decided to give Betfair a little go after I discovered they accept paypal deposits. I’m not too sure about the software now that I just installed it, but I suppose I could end up getting used to the somewhat flash-feel it has…

Will keep you posted, hopefully not with bad beat screenshots hehehehe

Two poker wins this weekend

Vincent — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:34:41 +0000

Hi everyone! Played quite a lot of poker this weekend, and ended up with two reasonably big poker wins in tournaments this weekend.

The first one was a pretty easy 45-player sit ‘n go on Full Tilt Poker. Can’t believe how easy this was. I was a card-wreck. Picked up KK in the first hand, doubled up against a guy holding QJ (hit the Q on the flop) — picked up AA a couple hands later, took another big chunk of chips as I made a set of aces against his A9. Cruised on, never really got into trouble. Went heads-up with an 8-to-1 lead. Good stuff.

Second one was a 180-player SnG. Was carddead throughout the first 60 minutes, and actually only played like 3 hands in the first hour — but ended up doubling up twice with only 25 players to go. Got on the final table in 7th chip position, picked up 9T of hearts to make me a nut straight (against lower straight) — and got a lucky break when my KK beat AA. Once I won that hand, I pretty much sailed to victory.

Decided to take a break for a few days, kind of tired.

3-Card Omaha Poker

Vincent — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:31:57 +0000

I’ve had the best poker night EVER yesterday — not quite because I won a lot of cash (I ended up about $200 in the game, enough to cover about 20BB on my usual levels hehe), but because of the 3-Card Omaha poker variant we played. I’m converted, it beats Texas Hold’em with a pineapple (pun intended).

Anyway, pretty much a table full of people playing 3-card omaha for the first time resulted in loose play, and a lot of people seeing flops. I decided early on that I would focus on playing hands with Omaha-value — raising big with pocket pairs too, though. What really seemed to work were the pocket pair + suited connector hands… One killer was when my friend picked up KKQ with KQ suited. He flopped a set of kings, but ended up winning with the nut straight. Lovely!

Anyway, 3-card omaha is a great poker game. Remember: if you don’t use two hole cards, you’re playing pineapple, and it’s a lot less of an action-game.

Knocked out with JJ vs. A8

Vincent — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:55:33 +0000

Awww — just got home after being knocked out of my first live tournament of ‘08. Was playing aggressively throughout the first 3 hours, accumulated quite a good chip amount, got crushed when my aces were cracked by a set (got to hate those hehe), and finally went out when my pre-flop all in worth only 15BB got called down by the chip leader with A8.

No escape — flop was 4-8-10, so it’s not like my money wasn’t going in anyway. Eight on the turn pretty much ended it for me — but I had fun…

Finished in the money, buy-in+30%… Better than my stock is doing…

Poker Etiquette

Vincent — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:08:46 +0000

More of an example of poor poker table etiquette, actually. I was at the table yesterday playing the €10/€20 game – a limit pretty high for no-limit games in Central Europe. Anyway, the game was pretty decent, and there were a couple of €2500+ pots every hour. Good action.

At one point, a pot comes to a showdown, about €1200 in the pot. First player doesn’t show his pair of eights, but announces it. The other guy showed a king to make his pair of kings – and throws the other card in the center of the table. It’s turned face down. All of a sudden, player one turns over his eight, and declares the pot his: “he can’t muck half his hand, once he does that, the pot is mine!”.

The whole table was like: “you’re joking, right?”. But – he wasn’t. Casino manager came in – decided player one was right. Dude took the pot – the other guy lost about 500 in the hand.
I mean – wtf? Is that poker etiquette in most casinos? :s

Losing AA vs. Q9 — pre-flop all-in

Vincent — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:01:47 +0000

I’m NOT going to turn this into my own little persional poker blog on which I complain about the bad beats I encounter while playing online poker and live poker in the casinos in the neighborhood — but this one was so sick I just can’t get over it.

Second hand of the night — everyone has their initial buy-in of about $1000 in front of them, and I pick up a couple of aces on the button. I have a raise in front of me, and one caller (under the gun raised 3BB — call middle position) — so I decided to re-raise about 8BB. The initial raiser made an instafold — middle position re-raised me the minimum. The pot was about $250 at that point, so I decided to go for the pot with the rest of my chips.

When the other side of the table started doubting — i put him on a middle pair — nines, tens — a hand I would probably fold if I were him — but playable none the less…

After about two minutes, the guy says: “nah, you don’t have it” — and he calls. I instashow my aces, and he says: “well, I”m on the draw” — and show me Q9 O/S.

Flop comes — A93 rainbow. Great — i’m well-ahead now. The turn makes my full house — another nine. My opponent is dead to the case nine. The river brings… A FRIGGING 9.

YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME. Opponent starts making noise and yells about how great he is — he just KNEW it… Awesome, dude! Anyway — I don’t mind aces being cracked — I do when it’s by a freaking one-outer on the river…

Oh well….