Quest of a Closet Poker Player

In the event that anyone thinks it’s a good idea to head to a regular underground card room, read this harrowing story from G-Vegas about one of the regular stops being held up.

I’ve always loved playing in live home games, but I’ve always avoided playing in underground card rooms.  Call me a sissy-girl, but I just think there are too many bad things that can happen in these places.  It’s not like TeddyKGB’s place in New York with the secret knock and levels of security; most of these places are houses that are readily accessible and well-known.  And what safer place to make a quick buck than to rob a bunch of 21st Century Poker Players.  While I admire the poster’s confidence in being able to disarm someone, it’s an act I hope I’m never confronted with.

HU5, the ongoing heads-up tourney, started this week.  I drew Fuel55, my bestest poker buddy in the world.   He happened to also make out the brackets and said it was a random draw.  Right.

He must have looked up my stats at SharkScope as he told me I was 41% ROI.  I checked my SNG/Tourney stats on PokerTracker, and he was right (maybe I should play more tourneys?).

I played stupidly in the first of the best of three format, shoving on the 5d-4d-6d flop with Ah-5h.  He had Qd-Jd, and in four hands Game 1 was in the books to Fuel.

We were playing his preferred no blind increase format on PokerStars ($21+1),  and the second game went 264 hands.  I had one big suckout with pocket 6’s vs his jacks, but otherwise I played really great.  I think I lost focus on the final hand and made a play probably out of boredom on the bustout hand:

POKERSTARS GAME #11742741350: TOURNAMENT #59577749, $21+$1 HOLD’EM NO LIMIT - MATCH ROUND I, LEVEL I (15/30) - 2007/08/28 - 16:33:48 (ET)
Table ‘59577749 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Fuel55 (1620 in chips)
Seat 2: csquard (1380 in chips)
csquard: posts small blind 15
Fuel55: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [5s 4d]
csquard said, “three more cards and I would have had you dominated”
csquard: calls 15
Fuel55: raises 60 to 90
csquard: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [6s 9s 5h]
Fuel55: bets 360
csquard: raises 930 to 1290 and is all-in
Fuel55: calls 930
*** TURN *** [6s 9s 5h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [6s 9s 5h Td] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Fuel55: shows [Jh Js] (three of a kind, Jacks)
csquard: shows [5s 4d] (a pair of Fives)
Fuel55 collected 2760 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2760 | Rake 0
Board [6s 9s 5h Td Jd]
Seat 1: Fuel55 (big blind) showed [Jh Js] and won (2760) with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: csquard (button) (small blind) showed [5s 4d] and lost with a pair of Fives

He asked me if I’d put him on a flush draw, and I honestly told him I handed really thought about it.  It was more about randomly deciding to make a play without much good logic.

I have the utmost respect for Fuel’s game, but I really wanted to win the second game and wished I’d been ready to play in the first game.  ElkY talked about the ability of being able to perform at the highest level at the end of a ten or eleven hour session, and I have to admit I’m not there yet.

My SNG/Tourney stats also surprised me.  38% ROI is what would be called very good, but I don’t really play SNG’s much and rarely play tourneys due to the amount of time required.  The SNG’s seem to have gotten pretty rock-like above $20+2, often with 4-7 players still left when shovebot kicks in.  Tourneys mean alot of time.  Maybe I should put aside more time to play them regularly, I don’t know.

Anyways, congrats to Fuel and the other winners, and gl.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 8:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized.