February gloom brings a March boom!

By request: another poker post!

So the poker tables were extremely unkind to me in February. I lost $300 in the first 2 weeks of the month....then took the rest of the month off.

I started playing again on March 1st, and I have been positively ON FIRE~! This is the hottest streak of my career. In February, I started listening to a new poker podcast starring Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, and also watching "Live at the Bike", a video show where they show a poker table in the commerce casino....if you want to learn about poker, I recommend both of these (and both are entertaining.) The video show is particularly good....If you watch poker on TV it only shows the big hands, but doesn't really show the grind of a cash game, so you can't learn as much - "Live at the Bike" shows every hand.

Tonight was an interesting night at the tables.

I sat down at the $50 No Limit tables and immediately noticed the player to my left had over $200. Must have been on quite a hot streak ($50 NL means you can only sit down with $50, so he had doubled, no, tripled, no QUADRUPLED up from his starting stack.) After several hands, I noticed another thing, he played EVERY SINGLE HAND (100% VPIP), rather aggressively, too.

I licked my chops, this is the kind of maniac that I eat alive. I promptly lost my $50 buy-in to this donkey:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (6 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx



Hero ($51.20)

SB ($244.39)

BB ($59.50)

UTG ($21.15)

MP ($65.80)

CO ($49.25)



Preflop: Hero is Button with Ts, Tc. SB posts a blind of $0.25.

1 fold, MP raises to $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, SB (poster) calls $1.75, BB calls $1.50.



Flop: ($8) 8s, Jd, 5h (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, MP checks, Hero bets $4, SB calls $4, BB folds, MP folds.



Turn: ($16) 7h (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $10, SB raises to $35, Hero calls $35.20 (All-In), SB calls $10.20.



River: ($106.40) Kc (2 players, 1 all-in)



Final Pot: $106.40



Results below:

SB has Jc 5d (two pair, jacks and fives).

Hero has Ts Tc (one pair, tens).

Outcome: SB wins $106.40.

His J5o beat my pair of 10's - and to be fair, I played the hand SO BADLY - more based on the way this guy had been shoving chips around - still, my call of his turn raise is absolutely HORRENDOUS. I should have been more patient, but instead I lost $50. OUCH! Down $50, but I knew there was money to be made from this guy, so I bought back in, and grinded for a half hour - then I got lucky:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ Hero (6 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx



Hero ($56.85)

UTG ($188.57)

MP ($86.80)

CO ($53.55)

Button ($65.36)

SB ($93.34)



Preflop: Hero is BB with 6h, 6c. SB posts a blind of $0.25.

UTG calls $0.50, MP calls $0.50, CO raises to $3, Button calls $3, 1 fold, Hero calls $2.50, UTG raises to $14.5, MP folds, CO folds, Button folds, Hero calls $11.50.



Flop: ($35.75) 3h, 6s, 7d (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets $10, Hero raises to $25, UTG calls $15.



Turn: ($85.75) Kd (2 players)

Hero calls $17.35 (All-In), UTG calls $17.35.



River: ($120.45) Kh (2 players, 1 all-in)



Final Pot: $120.45



Results below:

Hero has 6h 6c (full house, sixes full of kings).

UTG has Qc As (one pair, kings).

Outcome: Hero wins $120.45.

I hate the guy's preflop re-raise, but he had done it a half dozen times, and showed really weak hands - so I decided to challenge him. I knew if I flopped a set, I would double up, and there was a good chance that I was better than a coinflip. Had I not flopped the set, I may have been in trouble. Can you believe his post flop calls? The guy was giving away chips.

Finally, I drove him into the poor house:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ Hero (6 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx



Hero ($112.95)

UTG ($88.82)

MP ($84)

CO ($57.85)

Button ($67.66)

SB ($122.04)



Preflop: Hero is BB with Tc, Ac. SB posts a blind of $0.25.

UTG raises to $2, 2 folds, Button calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50.



Flop: ($6.25) Ts, 5s, 7d (3 players)

Hero bets $10, UTG raises to $20, Button folds, Hero calls $100.95 (All-In), UTG calls $66.82 (All-In).



Turn: ($204.02) Jd (2 players, 2 all-in)



River: ($204.02) 4h (2 players, 2 all-in)



Final Pot: $204.02



Results in white below:

Hero has Tc Ac (one pair, tens).

UTG has 8s 8h (one pair, eights).

Outcome: Hero wins $204.02.

How poorly can you play a pair of eights? (It's actually almost identical to how I played my tens earlier - and lost, his call on the all-in was worse, but the similarities are strikingly similar.....I guess i have a little "donk" in me.)

Actually, analyzing the big pots tonight, I played poorly in the pots I won, and awful in the pot I lost....

If you are reading this hoping for poker strategy, my advice is: DON'T PLAY HOW I PLAYED - YOU WILL LOSE YOUR SHIRT. I made strange plays based on decent reads on the maniac at the table....I would not recommend making any of the plays from the above text - BEWARE!

So that's it for tonight....off to watch the apprentice. And 24.