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We also have a popular post section in the sidebar to check out now and things are cleaned up.
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This book blew my mind. Reading it will not make you a better poker player or anything but it is a riveting look at the dark side of Vegas and high stakes poker. Its got sex, drugs, dirty cops, staking players, porn stars, strippers, depression, jail, sports betting and finally a lot of good poker stories. Unlike Phil Hellmouth’s book it is a very humble look at his own life and mistakes that is not so smothered in self praise that you can actually learn from it. I found it amazing just how many times this guy has won enough money to be set for life yet could not stop himself from throwing it all away.
I think that is the greatest lesson from this book is to have a plan for what you going to do if you ever hit the big time. Without it people will find a way to help you spend your money quick like and you will be broke once again. It blew me away that he at one point had an 8500 a month drug and party habit which is bad enough but it caused him to blow off his entire 2 million bankroll in the cash games. It will be interesting to see if he can recover from all the drug abuse and get it back together to be one of the great players like Doyle Brunson that plays at the highest level their entire life.
Highly recommended…
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I had about 900 in chips and the villain ( nice Irish lad with a beer in his hands ) had about 450. I see A
A
under the gun and make it 7$, and villain right behind me makes it 22$ which 2 people call before it comes around to me. This pot is getting big so I decide to either define the hands right now or just take it down and through in a pot size raise to 65$. Villain thinks for about 10 sec and then calls, everyone else folds. I had only played with Villain for about 1 hour but he seemed like a fairly tight ABC player and he was up when he moved to the table so I assumed he played fairly well.
At this point I put his range on KK, QQ, maybe AK. Since I had 2 of the A’s and 2 people had called the his first raise of 22$ but then folded to my 65$ raise I figured it was likely that one of the other A’s was folded already so I put AK as very unlikely. Given that it took him 10 sec to call I kind of figured he had KK, QQ, JJ and thought he may be up against higher pair and was not even sure he even wanted to see a flop. So going to the flop I was hoping to not see a K, Q, J and just wanted a bunch of baby cards will not scare off smaller pairs and let me break them.
Flop: K
T 6
Nice I thought, if he had QQ, JJ I will not get any money out of him with the scare card and if he had KK he just got ahead. Well I am not going to help him bust me so I check and he checks behind me. His action does not really tell me anything new so we are the same going to the turn.
Turn: 5
Given that he would probably check a set of K’s on the flop I decide to see if he will check it a second time around and if he bets I will see how much it is to get a read on where I am at. He checks behind me and now I know it is not a set of KK’s or even AK as who would check those twice in a row. I am sure he has QQ or maybe even JJ, time to bet the river and make some money if I still can.
River: K
Just before I go reaching for chips I glance at him and see he is already reaching himself. Crap I did not really expect that, had I played my AA’s so passively that he now thought his QQ was good and was deciding to value bet? That seemed far more likely that the other possibilities so I check and let him bet. He bet 70$ which was just under 1/2 the pot, that was far less than I was expecting so it was either a small bluff or weak value bet that was really looking to get called. At this point QQ is still far more likely than any hand containing a K so I have to call.
Villain shows A K.
WTF just happened here, why did he call with AK and then hit top pair and check it two streets?
Talking to him afterward it becomes clear, he was tired and a little drunk so his thinking was a little slow. Shortly after he called the bet he realized that he must be up against AA so even though he hit top pair he knew he was behind and wanted to check it down to the river if possible. But when he hit trips he had to bet it.
I had not really ever thought about that before, usually when I think about what people are thinking about my hand I assume they make a decision and stick with it until they get further information. In this case I did not even think to consider that someone may make a decision, realize it was wrong and then play the rest of the hand differently. Especially a decision that involved someone calling off 1/6 their stack pre-flop.
Lesson learned.
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Until recently I had been a believer of betting your hands and building the pot you want for a couple of reasons:
But now I have become a big fan of checking my good hands and going for a check raise on multiple streets even:
So now I check almost every time I hit. If the board is ugly or there is a good chance I could be outdrawn I check raise right away. If not I will just call and go for a check raise on the turn just to mess with peoples heads. Since a lot of aggressive people are also stubborn I find I get a lot more money in the pot this way.
Sometimes you even get to check raise on multiple street like in this example and people still call your all in with underpairs to the board.
Poker Stars $3.00+$0.30 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t25/t50 Blinds
MP2: t5835 M = 77.80
Hero (SB): t2965 M = 39.53
Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is SB with K A
3 folds, MP1 calls t50, MP2 calls t50, 2 folds, Hero raises to t250, 2 folds, MP2 calls t200
Flop: (t600) A 3 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t250, Hero raises to t800, MP2 calls t550
Turn: (t2200) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t1150, Hero raises to t1915 all in, MP2 calls t765
River: (t6030) 9 (2 players – 1 is all in)
MP2 mucks [2s 2c]
Interesting points about this hand:
He got aggressive and stubborn with an under pair, let me check raise him two streets in a row and get all my money in with him drawing almost dead. I love this game…
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Do not have to sign up or anything, just vote.
On July 22, during National Poker Week, the Poker Players Alliance will present this
petition to the President, asking his support to exempt poker from the
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and for the legalization and regulation of online poker.
