Thursday, April 3, 2008

Progress Post #13.1: Maniacs and Madness, More Craziness at Morongo.

Since I'm heading out to Morongo again this weekend, I'll just wait till I come back to update my winnings.

So I went out last week. Todd came along, and we met Derrick out there. Derrick and his buddy were playing blackjack.
It took us almost 3 hours to get there. Traffic was very bad. As in like you just got all in set over set bad.

Anyways, by the time I get there, Derrick is up $500 in blackjack. I'm pretty impressed. SK, I found who you need to learn from.

I get on the 2/5 list and get a seat pretty quickly. Morongo had a few dealers call in sick, so they had to call someone off break to get a table started. I sit down and look around at what people are buying in for. There are two people who buy in for 1k, several $500s and a few smaller. I think a bit and buy in for $500, of the $1,000 I brought, I wanted to see how people played before putting myself into a tough spot against unknown deepstack opponents.

I start off poorly. Seat 2 proves he's a maniac without a care in the world about money. He is hyper aggresive and much of his betting is uncalled for. The table dynamics shift as people look to get into pots with him.
I end up losing a good sized pot when another deepstack called me down light with a weak top pair. I'm down about 200, so I load up $400 more. I want more in case I get it in with the maniac.
Unfortunately the best plans often go awry. I was sent away to another table after losing another $100.

At the new table, it was much more calm. I sat down and tried to run the table over. However, I kept missing flops and people kept catching against me. It made it really hard. After not too long, a bad player opened to $25 in middle position. I decided to flat call with JJ on the button. I wanted to underrep my hand, cause I felt it would be easy to extract postflop, and I felt 3betting would fold out everything I beat, and get hands I flip with or are dominated to call/raise. Both the blinds call, which kind of ruins my plans. The flop comes out a nice 997 rainbow. Both the blinds check, and the bad player bets $50. I call with my JJ, planning to extract a lot of money out of lower pocketpairs, which I felt was most of his range. I expected a bigger bet from an overpair. Both the blinds fold, which was a great sign. The turn is an 8 and the guy thinks, then says all in. He pushed for $250 about, which is a little over a pot sized bet. I didn't really like the sound of that, but I thought his range was still mostly composed of hands I beat. If I am beaten, I probably have 6 outs to a gutshot or set, unless he had a made boat. I didn't think a boat was likely unless he just turned it. So I called, figuring I had around a decent chance I was ahead of like 22-66, behind 77+, and beating some random pairs.

He shows me 88 for a turned set. Gotta say I was dissapointed.
I was down to about $130 after that. I got AJs, made it $25 to go. The tightest player on the table pushes all in over me. I died inside, cause I knew she had me beat, but it was only $35 more. I called and she shows QQ. I whiff again.

I'm down to $60. Todd lost a huge pot to the maniac on the other table. Nut flush vs a rivered boat.

I say hell with it. I live straddle and pick up 54o. 4 calls (which is really funny, since I think it's pretty off what I'm doing.) I did infact push. The SB calls me with ATo (perfectly reasonable). I catch two pair and triple up almost. I apologize and say, I was just going home if I lost.

In the BB I pick up 92o. I checked and the flop came out 982. I bet out $30 or so, and the tight girl raises to $70. I puke. I figured she could be going nuts with a draw or maybe TT or A9. either way I'm not really folding two pair this short. I put her in and she has 99 and I'm drawing practically dead.

I wait around for a while then straddle again. This time I get K3s and with $130 behind. I make it 50 to go over 4 callers. The calling station limp/reraises me all in. I call (priced in), and she has AQo. A on the flop and I catch running spades for a flush. I apologize again, with the exact same excuse.

The maniac sits down at our table. I find out his name is "Frank." I dunno if that's actaully his name, but that's what I'm calling him. Anyways he blind raises to $100 like every other hand. It's hilarious cause people keep calling, and folding to his flop bet of $100-$500. Eventaully he opens to $100 blind, I get KQo and push over. The guy on the BTN pushes over me for another $50 or so, and I'm like fuckkkkkkk, I'm crushed by his range. The maniac shows J5o and folds it. The BTN has TT! A Queen on the flop puts me ahead and I win a $700 pot. The irony is the board comes out AQ243 and the maniac would've beat us both if he called.

Now with $700, I wait around and wait for good spots to get in against Frank.
He loaded up over $6,000 more, when the guy on his left bought in for $2,000 more.

I call his $100 with 99. The flop comes out K77 rainbow. I check he bets $200, I push in for another $400 and he folds his 8 high. This pushes me up to around $1,000.

He ends up taking $300 off me, when I river top two pair and he catches a gutshot. He berates me for calling, but I don't really care.

Frank is constantly getting his money in bad, and talking lots of trash. I just laugh inside, because he is free money against any decent player.
I lose some money waiting for a while, then get AJ and reraise to $300 over his $100 blind raise. He calls. The flop comes out AJT, he checks and I push all in for $600 or so. He folds. I've seen him call with gutshot draws and middle pair so I felt it was ok.

I call a small raise from his this time $35, which is quite small compared to before. I had Q9d and position on him. The pot goes 4 way and the flop comes out JT8! Catching the nuts is nice. Frank checks for once, (of course the only time I catch something.) I check also, trying to induce a bet from someone. The turn is a K giving me second nuts now. Frank checks AGAIN, so I have to bet now. I make it $100, and the calling station pushes all in over that for another $200 or so. Frank folds and I call. We're all in and she's drawing dead with K7. I'm up almost $500 now. Pretty good from being at $60 from my $900 buyin.

The maniac leaves with his buddy to get food.

The table calms down a bit. I get caught bluffing a few times, and get drawn out twice.

This was a sick hand. 3 limpers, and the tight player on my right limps. He's unimaginative and tends to be quite conservative postflop. I complete T9o and we're off 5 way. The flop is QsJx4s. It checks through, and the turn is the 8s. I have the Ts in my hand, so I fire out about $30. The calling stations calls (obviously), and the player on my right calls. I have the calling station on a pair of some variety maybe with a spade draw. I figure the guy on my right to have a high spade, maybe KT with the Ks, or a Queen with a spade. The queen falls on the river, which is what I felt was a great card. I felt it was unlikely someone had a boat, so I valuebet $50 on the river. The calling station calls, and then the tight old guy on my right raises to $200! I just stared at him. I couldn't believe it. I had him on exactly 88 when he made that play. MAYBE Q8. But I was feeling 88. I puked, and mucked my hand. I'm glad I thought long enough to revaluate my analysis. Otherwise, I might've stacked off. The calling stations calls with Q7, and the old man did infact have 88.

When I'm around $900 again, I get ATo. The calling station reloaded again. She raises to $15, I call on the CO. The BTN also calls. He is pretty decent, but again unimagnative and pretty straightfoward (meaning he's easy for me to read). The flop comes out AdQs5s. The calling station bets $25, I call and the BTN calls. The turn is the Ts! That probably one of the best cards in the deck for me for improving my hand, but it could also improve me to a strong second best hand. The calling station bets out $25 again, and I think. I think the BTN won't 3bet my raise with a flush or straight. I felt he would just call and try to trap. I raise to $60, just enough to try to freeze action with my big hand. The BTN indeed just calls, and I instantly put him on a made flush or straight. The calling station folds. The river brings my gin card, a Tc. I think and bet $200 which is close to a pot sized bet. He thinks and thinks and then calls with J6s. I felt like I read the hands perfectly although if I realized how much was in the pot, I would've bet more on the river. The calling station said she had QTo. Too bad she didn't stay in.

Anyways, in the end Todd lost a lot of money. I came up $150 total.

Hilarity ensued, when a guy on another table had an issue with something that happened in a hand. He kept arguing with the floor and the dealer. The security was called in and he was forcibly removed from the casino. I don't really know what was going on except the whole card room froze as everyone got up and watched. It was pretty funny.

I'm heading back out there again on Saturday. Hopefully, I'll run good. As a side note, Rob, Winston, Nate and I are working on a new project called Degenerate Gamblers. We plan to have a website that provides poker related content that is entertaining and educational. Keep an eye out for it.

No comments:

Post a Comment