Thursday, September 23, 2004

Badger Poker...Aw hell, might as well stay home and Party

Went off to play poker at Gametime on Wednesday night. To an extent, I don't know why I bothered. I have been running cold this week. Same thing happened earlier so I know I can get out of the rut.
It started with a good table. Buckman was there as was the chimney. Little Gus Hansen. The brotha I had played with earlier. Slick, an aggressive guy. Spectacled man I had no clue on as well as another sitting next to him. It looked to be a solid table to start with.
And things started well. I limped in with A 8 spades and saw 2 spades hit the flop. I called a 500 bet. Turn was the flush card. Chimney checked to me and I bet 1500. He called. River was meaningless. I bet out 2500. After some thought, he called and I took down a decent size pot. With A 5 suited, I raised it up. Though the flop missed me, I bet it out. Badger visor man is a rather weak player. I knew I could force him out and I did.
But from there on, things went cold. A Q was given no support on the board. I limped with A 2, caught 2 diamond for a flush draw but no help. Lost a good size pot to Slick. Before I knew it was down to roughly 5k. Just bleeding away. Chimney caught his club on the river to win a good pot and stay alive. Slick was getting more aggressive after doing nothing for the first hour. I watched as he couldn't even pair the board but called down 4k in bets.
Me, well, I was done in 50 minutes. Was in the small blind with AK. Bunch of limpers. Then the cutoff suddenly raised 5600. I was suspicious because the size of the bet is too high here with blinds of 200/400. He wanted to steal the pot with a weak hand. I called, putting me all in. He showed 10 10. I liked my chance, but needed help. Help that didn't arrive and I was done. My best hands weren't getting any help. That is a sign that it wouldn't be my night.

So off to the pc to log onto Party and make some money. I love how other sites call Party Poker the big aquarium with all kinds of fish looking to be caught. I had played the play money tables in the past, but didn't do anything there for a while because I didn't particularly like the layout. But after reading how easy it is to make some cash there, I had to go. I only plunked in $100 just to see how it is. The bad beat jackpot tables were worth looking into. Sometimes they are over $100k, which isn't bad. I played them for a bit (2/4) with mixed success. After some bad runs, I decided to lay off until the jackpot was over $150k. It made sense since I was doing well on the $25 no limit tables. I could play rather tight and make $25 in half an hour. Plus, following the actions of others, I started playing 2 tables at once. Roughly 15 days later, and only about 7 sessions, my intial stake is just over 300 bucks. Others have done a lot better than I but this level of success is ok to me. I want to build a stake first before taking on the $50 NL game.
But the fish are there. For example, last night I noticed 2 players continually making the same move. One clown would go all in pre flop (with his 20 some dollars) whenever he thought he had a monster hand. He would collect just the blinds (a whopping 75 cents), maybe more if there had been a limper, but not much. He didn't do this all the time, but enough to get a comment or two when he did. Sad part was no one would call him. Finally, I got a hand that allowed me to call. Was dealt QQ. I was down 2 bucks at the time, but was kinda annoyed by the clown. When he pushed I quickly called. He showed A J. Interesting. Is this the kind of hand he was always pushing on? Q hit the flop and he was done (he just about hit the straight but no K came along). Thus I quickly doubled up. That is the thing about Party. People make these kind of plays all the time. On the other table, something similiar happened. Guy went all in with 10 8 on a board that showed 10 high. I called his 10 dollar bet with J 10 only because I knew he wasn't playing a high kicker.
But let's get back to clown #2. This guy loved to raise the pot from the big blind if everyone limped in. Having noticed this, I would call his 3 dollar raise when everyone dropped out. No matter the flop, I bet out a pot size bet. He folded each time. Nerves of steel over there. But this is the way people play at Party. They bluff with terrible hands, pay off aparent flushes, call you down with 3rd pair or A high. Or you can bluff them out by either continuing your aggressive play or by acting you caught your straight or flush. You just need to be choosy on who you bluff. Best yet, you can throw out the occasional lunatic bet ( an all in move that looks like you are buying the pot) and get paid when you did it with the nuts.
I just find it amusing. I am not there to make huges sums of cash, but of course, want to do well. Hopefully I can continue to make some dough and make something big in one of their tourneys, where they say the fish swim in big schools.

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