Monday, December 28, 2009

La virtud de ser paciente: sometimes you just have to let it go ... yet again.

Una de las diferencias notables entre jugar poker online y live, es el numero de manos que juegas; mientras que online puedes estar jugando muchas manos a la vez y literalmente estar tomando decisiones importantes cada segundos, live la mayor parte del tiempo es contemplacion.
A veces los juegos son tan buenos live que simplemente una buena dosis de paciencia y tu ABC game es suficiente para ganar. Sin embargo este concepto de paciencia es tricky, a veces piensas que estas siendo muy paciente y por fin te llega una mano jugable contra el maniac, la paciencia no se debe terminar preflop, el hecho de que has tenido suficiente paciencia para aguantar jugar en muchas situaciones marginales, no garantiza que este pot sera tuyo, no debes echar el analisis por la borda, no hay tal cosa como merecer ganar un pot, no cometas el error de desesperarte postflop, esto me ha pasado montones de veces y es un leak que es muy costoso. En mi ultima sesión perdí todo mi stack por ejemplo con un par de 88, en un board T9494, porque el maniac me debía seguramente de estar blofeando, y aun cuando si existía esa posibilidad, analizando mas detenidamente la jugada, era mas mi willingness to play a pot que un objetivo análisis de los posibilidades de estar siendo blofeado lo que me hizo perder un buy in. La paciencia no solo se aplica preflop, nunca eches tu analisis por la borda, la paciencia es importante pero sin tu analisis situacional en realidad no vale gran cosa. Even when you have waiting a lot, sometimes you just have to let it go, yet again.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Live Poker is much better than Internet Poker, I mean if you enjoy having fun

What a night yesterday at Aria, it was full of good poker action, playing 2-5 NL and I was involved in so many good hands to fill the remainder of the year on the blog.
For example one hand I raised preflop with JJ, 2 callers, flop came QJ9, I have a pretty good hand right?, well, I folded in the flop after a bet, call, raise, reraise, all in, all in, fold !!! (my actions bolded), the other 2 guys happened to have QQ and KT !!!!; another one when I was "trapping" with the same JJ and a board QJ447, raising the guy in the river, just the "correct" amount and just being called with QQ !!!!. Another one preflop with a raise, reraise, rereraise, call!, and me going all in and doing my best AA impersonation, making both of them fold !!
I won't tell the details of this and other hands right now, but I do want to make this point. Hands like this is why we love poker, and it's a hell of a lot different to experience them live than online, live all the action mounting, all the decisions, the whole table excited, the all ins, the agonizing sick fold, the agonizing sick call,looking into the souls of your opponents, the trash talk, the mind games, the word games, analyzing all your options, just being there !!!, I guess all that beats the hell of "Honey, can you believe what just happened" (that's when you're one of the lucky ones, some have to settle with talking to their dog about the incredible poker hand).
I know internet poker and live poker are two different animals, hell yeah, just saying live is way, way more fun than online.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Are the nuts, really the nuts? La importancia de la posición cuando compartes las nueces.

Esta noche jugue en Aria 2-5 NL otra vez, esta vez solo unos 90 minutos, gane unos $350 y me fui porque la mesa no estaba muy buena.
La mano mas interesante que jugue fue la siguiente, en la que se puede ver claramente la importancia de estar en posicion:

Con 10c7c llame en LP, quizás era MP que parece LP porque el juego era 10-handed, lol. Llame porque llamaron varios antes de mi y la mesa no estaba haciendo mucho raise, asi que la probabilidad de que alguien hiciera raise despues era poca; llamaron varios mas los $5 y como unos 7 vimos el flop:

AsKhQc

Checan yo checo y todos los demas checan, jajaja

Turn fue Js

Como pueden ver tengo los nuts pero pues con tanta gente jugando, seguramente alguien mas las tiene, aqui mi estrategia es tratar de ganar lo que se pueda, es decir si alguien apuesta solo llamar, si no, apostar poco, para que agun KJ o algo asi se quede, so much for the plan, BB apuesta $20, EP le hace raise a $60, mmmmmmm, no me gusta la accion pero pues los nuts son los nuts y solo llamo los $60, los demas se tiran y ahora BB decide irse all in con $261 mas, arrggghhh, porque arrrggghhh diran ustedes, despues de todo tengo los nuts no?, pues si, pero el problema es que a la mejor todos los que estamos en la mano los tienen y alguien puede tener 10s9s por ejemplo, o sea nos puede ganar en el river, asi que a lo mas vamos a ganar poco (casi nada) o perder mucho, EP se queda pensando y decide llamar los $261 (tiene como $500 mas atras), demontres, ahora mas probabilidad de que alguno tenga el flush draw, pienso un poco y decido que como EP no se fue all in, no tiene el flush draw, asi que si existe un flsh draw solo es posible que lo tenga BB, pero pues este no era particularmente un buen jugador, asi que igual y solo tiene el T y ni cuenta se ha dado del flush draw, asi que decido llamar los $261 y me quedan como $600 atras.

El river es un Ad

Perfecta carta para mi, pues tengo posición sobre EP, el checa como era de esperarse y que hago yo, pues obviamente ya se que tiene así que me voy all in, se queda piense y piense y piense como 3 minutos, agonizando pensando que me llego el full house y que yo andaba llamando con 2 pares, jaja, seguramente, pero pues al final decide llamar y se alivia al ver que todos solo tenemos el T, y hacemos un split, BB efectivamente ni flush draw tenia solo el T, lo cual hace que su movida all in sea bastante mala. Fue una mano divertida donde casi no gane nada pero jugue el river perfecto y casi me sale, pero pues se puede ver claramente la importancia de la posicion y la importancia de poner presion en tus oponentes.

Les dejo aqui una foto mas de City Center, esta es en Crystals, son esculturas de hielo, si, hielo de verdad de ese de agua congelada, jaja, y como dije en el pasado blog, todo City Center es espectacular.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Aria opened at Vegas and of course I was there to inaugurate their poker room

City Center grand opening was today, Aria casino opened at 11:59PM Wednesday, I tried to be there on time, but I couldn't find any parking and wasted a lot of time, at the end I could find one between the Montecarlo and New York New York casinos, I wasn't really late since by 12:10AM I was already in the poker room which was really packed, and by 12:15AM I was already playing my first hand at the Aria, probably the first 2-5 NL game that opened ever !!, my table was good, since only 4 of us (out of 10) bought in for $500, rest of the table bought between $200 and $300 which is always a good sign. My stack at the beginning of the session


The first hand I was UTG, so I was the first to fold a hand, next hand I won my first pot betting a K22 flop with my 78o; everybody started to play really careful, but as usual after a little while people start to get anxious to play pots, and my table didn't dissapoint, there were two German guys, one of them who tried to bluff me a little too much; one guy who was known by a lot of the people there since he was a WPT finalist or something, 3 young friends with one of them pretty happy and drinking, tipping dealers left and right and just hemorrhaging money at the table, 2 other middle age guys who looked like pros but played pretty tight for my taste, basically the table was pretty, pretty good for me, since I could not identify a single player who was going to be a threat. Don't remember many hands, one I raised to 20 with 88 in EP, German guy called me, flop was J72, I made a $35 continuation bet, he called, next card was a 7, I decided to check and he bet $50, I called, river was a 4 and I checked again, he promptly bet $100, I thought for a while and was going to muck but he insisted on showing his hand to his friend and when I hinted I was gonna call, he made a motion to show his hand, there was something about his willingness to show that didn't add up, so I called and he just had AK. Another hand I remember was a pretty funny one, between German guy, happy guy and a pretty nice lady, they were all in after the flop, German guy won the main pot, but happy guy and lady didn't realized there should be a side pot and both mucked their cards !!!, which I found pretty hilarious.
Session went pretty smooth and I booked a pretty good win, without too much effort to be honest, they let me win some pots because they didn't use too much pressure and also some of them insisted on calling all my value bets, so this was my stack at the end after 5 hours of playing (with $3 chip on first plane)


By 5AM I was really tired, so I decided to call it a night, but I think I will be back today and the weekend and hopefully I find some other good tables to play, there is a good chance since the place is new and everybody want to play and be there.

This is a picture I took from the outside when leaving



The place is really something, all City Center looked beautiful, Aria, the Veer towers, Crystals, the tram, everything was great and it was very enjoyable just to walk here and there, there was art everywhere and all was really modern and cool, man, I love Vegas.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Golden Globe Nominees

I'm yet to see 3 out of the 5 best picture drama nominees, I so want to go and see Avatar, trailer looks great, I liked The Hurt Locker but not as much as the critics circle, and I liked Inglourious Basterds a lot, being a big Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction fan, I'm glad Tarantino is back up there in the awards circle. Hopefully I can find some good movie bets and hopefully I don't chicken out this year and bet like a man, lol, but seriously, I have left money there by not betting more last years, every year I have made money betting on movies so far and I want to continue that lovely tradition.


Motion Picture, Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Motion Picture, Comedy/Musical
500 Days of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Actress, Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabby Sidibe, Precious

Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Actor Comedy/Musical
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joe Gordon Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Actress, Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated

Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Screenplay
Neill Blomkampt & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Original Score
Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are

Foreign Language Film
Baria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon

Original Song
“Cinema Italiano,” Nine
“I Want To Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine
“I See You,” Avatar
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart
“Winter,” Brothers

Monday, December 14, 2009

Perdí, pero estoy feliz

Porque estoy jugando !!!, en estos 4 días logre jugar mas de 2500 manos en Internet cash games, lo cual es un tremendo logro para mi, jugué 2-4 NL, 3-6 NL, 5-10 NL y 30-60 LH, de hecho hasta algunas manos de Razz 30-60; ja, hasta un torneo de $33 (en el cual llegue al dinero, a whopping $62). Gane en todos los limites con excepción del .... 2-4 NL, así es, el que se supone debe ser mas fácil para mi y me fue horrible, tan horrible que opaco mis ganancias en todo lo demás y salí perdiendo un poco por los 4 días. En un siguiente post explicare porque creo que se dio este fenómeno, por lo pronto me siento muy bien porque estoy jugando bastante lo cual es bueno, solo paciencia y los resultados vendrán.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Checa el flop y dejalos imaginar que el pot ya es de ellos

Con la agresividad de los jugadores en internet hoy en dia y puesto que la mayoria de ellos son buenos, no dejan pasar una oportunidar de apostar, hacer value bets y comprar pots, tienes que ingeniartelas para contrarrestarlos .
Por lo general si tu hiciste raise antes del flop, no es bueno dejar de apostar el flop con manos marginales, pero a veces sobre todos con jugadores que se creen que al checar tu el flop ya el pot es de ellos conviene hacerlo.
En la siguiente mano eso fue lo que hice, es un juego de 3-6 NL en Stars, hice raise en posición con una mano marginal, me salio solo un 7 en el flop lo cual es bastante marginal, pero eso fue suficiente para ganar unos $70 extras nada mas por checar el flop.

***** Hand History for Game 36436115598 ***** (Poker Stars)
$600.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, December 08, 05:10:31 ET 2009
Table Walhalla III (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: kocobeware ( $600.00 USD )
Seat 2: radocz999 ( $668.85 USD )
Seat 3: MuckeDBoY ( $1849.05 USD )
Seat 4: sirio11 ( $602.10 USD )
Seat 5: TheKaas ( $600.00 USD )
Seat 6: tallie23 ( $759.00 USD )
tallie23 posts small blind [$3.00 USD].
kocobeware posts big blind [$6.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sirio11 [ Js 7s ]
radocz999 folds
MuckeDBoY folds
sirio11 raises [$18.00 USD]
TheKaas folds
tallie23 calls [$15.00 USD]
kocobeware folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7h, Kh, 3c ]
tallie23 checks
sirio11 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
tallie23 bets [$18.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$18.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 3d ]
tallie23 bets [$48.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$48.00 USD]
tallie23 shows [Ts, Jc ]
sirio11 shows [Js, 7s ]
sirio11 wins $171.00 USD from main pot

algunos de estos jugadores compradores de pots no lo pueden evitar, les checan el flop y automáticamente viene su apuesta en el turn y como les llamaron pues tienen que aventarse otro bluff en el river; quizás a muchos les pueda parecer mi jugada pasiva, pero en el medio actual tan duro de jugar en Internet donde parece que todos son pros o semipros pues te las tienes que ingeniar. No digo que jugar al check-call sea bueno, lo que digo es que en ciertos spots quizás sea la jugada mas profitable.

Monday, December 07, 2009

I hate folding trips on the flop, but it was the right thing to do, or so I think

This Saturday, Sunday morning I arrived at The Winn to play 2-5 NL at 1AM, I started winning but at the end after some 11 hours it would be a disastrous session, pretty good table but I just couldn't win; I've been there, so I just need to suck it up and hope to have better luck next time.
The most interesting hand was the following:

UTG raised to $15, everybody called and I had 87o in LP, so I called with the rest of the table, family pot.

Flop: 7h7d2h

pretty nice, exactly what I want, UTG bet $20, UTG+1 raised to $80 !!, folded to me, I didn't think much of his raise, but I wanted to price the flushes over there, my options were call or raise, the original raiser was a bad player and if he had a big pair he was going to play his stack with that flop, I opted for raising, and I did it t $215, now the fun came, the next guy pondered my reraise and flat called !!!!, damn, I did't like it at all, but then the button guy went all in for like $1600, what???, what the fuck, folded to me, pretty big pot by now and I had about $600 left, so I thought my chances now where pretty, pretty slim to win and most possible I was way behind (one of the two HAS TO have 22 or something like A7 right?), so I decided to fold, next guy since he had more than $1000 behind agonized to make the decision and at the last moment decided to call his stack with 74s !!!!
Button guy had AQh !!!!!, blanks (Td and Kc) on the turn and river and 74s guy won a monster pot. It was the most commented hand of the night, everybody commenting about if button's decision to go AI was terrible or just pretty bad, if my decision to fold was right and if 74s guy decision to call was the right move.
Pretty, pretty interesting to analyze the 3 decisions, what do you think?

Friday, December 04, 2009

Creando tus pots en un torneo

Just for a change, decidí ponerme a jugar un torneo online, el de $150+12 en PokerStars, no se porque razón, pero me dieron ganas de jugar un torneo.
A pesar de tener mucho tiempo de no jugar torneos me sentí cómodo, la verdad no capte grandes diferencias con respecto a la ultima vez que jugué torneos online seguido, aunque una cosa que me extraño, fue que no se completaran los jugadores para el guaranteed de $100,000, con 661 jugadores, casi se completa.
Para ganar un torneo necesitas de toneladas de suerte, ganar all in tras all in, pero en medio de todas esas manos en las que solo te queda esperar la gracia de los dioses del poker, existen algunas manos básicas en las que tu creas tu suerte y son las que te permiten seguir adelante. Aqui les mostrare un ejemplo:

***** Hand History for Game 36257336803 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, December 04, 06:09:09 ET 2009
Table 234011045 19 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: CORNDOGGOLF ( $3020.00 USD )
Seat 2: Kalimeth ( $3070.00 USD )
Seat 3: ALbaNiAnStaR ( $2830.00 USD )
Seat 4: PRETTY ILLY ( $2960.00 USD )
Seat 5: paulgees81 ( $2690.00 USD )
Seat 6: bdamages ( $2980.00 USD )
Seat 7: Yingda ( $3700.00 USD )
Seat 8: 12eeDe12 ( $2920.00 USD )
Seat 9: sirio11 ( $2840.00 USD )
PRETTY ILLY posts small blind [$10.00 USD].
paulgees81 posts big blind [$20.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sirio11 [ Ad Tc ]
bdamages folds
Yingda calls [$20.00 USD]
12eeDe12 folds
sirio11 raises [$80.00 USD]
CORNDOGGOLF folds
Kalimeth folds
ALbaNiAnStaR folds
PRETTY ILLY calls [$70.00 USD]
paulgees81 calls [$60.00 USD]
Yingda calls [$60.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6d, 3s, 9d ]
PRETTY ILLY checks
paulgees81 checks
Yingda checks
sirio11 bets [$240.00 USD]
PRETTY ILLY folds
paulgees81 calls [$240.00 USD]
Yingda calls [$240.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
paulgees81 checks
Yingda bets [$140.00 USD]
sirio11 raises [$620.00 USD]
paulgees81 folds
Yingda calls [$480.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]
Yingda checks
sirio11 bets [$1100.00 USD]
Yingda folds
sirio11 wins $1100.00 USD
sirio11 wins $2280.00 USD from main pot

Esta fue una mano en una etapa no tan relevante del torneo, pero fue la mano donde gane mas BBs de todas las manos que jugue en el torneo (unas 67), y lo mas importante, fue una mano creada, donde solo dependí completamente de mis acciones y los dioses del poker fueron simples espectadores.
Tenemos un caller en early position, mi raise con AT es digamos semistandard, tengo posición sobre el caller, llamaron las blinds, asi que tengo posición sobre todos lo cual es magnifico. El flop no me trajo nada, pero al checar todos, es un buen flop para hacer un continuation bet, aunque 2 de ellos no cooperan llamando. En el turn BB checa y EP hace una apuesta debil, es hora de mostrarle que mi raise preflop si significaba un par grande así que le hago reraise, BB se va pero EP llama; así que o tiene un flush draw (good) o tiene un 9 y no me cree (bad, but not that bad), en el river checa y apuesto pero no all in, para que parezca value bet y se tira. Muchas veces es difícil tirar el tercer barril, después de que ya te llamaron flop y turn, pero hay circunstancias en las que tienes que hacerlo y esta es una de ellas.