Poker Perambulation

That is getting closer and closer to a possibility in the area I live in. We’re in the first serious cold snap which is still autumn-like but moves your attention toward the white stuff. In the stud games I’ve been playing, snow has been around even through the July hot spells. It will happen in all type of poker of games though.You look at the flop or 5^th street and see a pretty nice hand. At stud it might be a flush or straight. The other guy just paired that duce that was his door card with a horrid mishmash of other cards that never improve. At times the raising war will even include another snow blind guy. Often you’ll be grimacing and wondering as you help cap the round. It goes to showdown and you finish out of the money. How could this happen?

It is simple; we let the snow blind us. At limit, it ruins a session; at NL, it can run a day or the month. Whether you are a poker giant or fish, it will happen to you. The separator is frequency. If you are good and got snow blinded, you’ll usually get some WOWWWW!!! comments in the chat. If it is a Donkey versus Fish hand, you’ll get the chat tirade – the ones where the site replaces words using asterisks.

At times it is because you make a bad read/assumption. If the only thing that can beat you is a 4 and the betting should have driven that player out earlier, he will flip up A4s or 44 and there she blows. At the stud table that ratty pair can kill you or an unusual, concealed hand does worse. People will let down their guard at the wrong moment. We are blinded by the best hand we’ve seen in weeks and take delight that we’ve got a caller. And then, like the guys in chat, our brain generates its WOW or ***** and we are off to the nearest forum or our blog to post our ‘bad beat’ for commiseration.

Snow blindness can and will happen. It is or should be a temporary affliction. But for some players it becomes a chronic condition. In our animal world, it strangely affects fish and donkeys while wolves seem more immune. Not something that would seem to fit the ecology anywhere but a poker table.

All we can do in a situation that will happen to us again and again is to learn from it and use our improving knowledge to make it happen with less frequency.

ADDENDUM:

Well, I mentioned my best profit hand at stud and now I have a better one. Started with rolled up 9’s. Loved the beat on the guy across the table who’d managed multiple suckouts on me earlier. A true river king for the day but I managed the last laugh for a change. I’d called and seen a completion which I the reraised. The river king had a low card gutshot he called the 2x bet. That was a lousy hand to play — even against the completion by the player on his right– let alone my raise. And he thought he was going to make another suckout. My turn to laugh on one.

Great Example of Snow Blindness in Action

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Friday morning early and I just left a .50-1 table at Stars. Went down over half the $20 buyin and then hit a rush. Left the table with $44.10. Stars is being kinder.

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I wrote this over a week ago and figured it’d go up the next day. It was the result of having read a bad beat forum on the Net. Then Absolute showed up on the doorstep. Having that behind me…hopefully, I thought I’d discuss my coverage of The Fiasco. It has really set poker back and provided all the gory details politicians and media love. While we know an awful lot about the sordid side of poker from this, it is still the tip of the iceberg as to how it will all play out.

I thought my coverage was mediocre. One can either do a factual or editorial view. This one seemed to call for both and that – as the boys from G-Vegas can explain – is dangerous territory. I hope I avoided the worst aspects of such coverage but know I could have done it better.

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If you like doing hand histories like Fuel55 and a few others, let me suggest using one of the online setups that makes it pretty and easier to read. Here is my best win to date at the Stud tables. It isn’t particularly well played but it was profitable and as much read/luck as anything. Its a ‘traditional’ – read ugly – HH. That will be followed by one that was gussied up by a far more interesting player that points out winning at Omaha often requires the absolute nut and how improving on the river for one will often improve the other guy too. Sbrugby offered the hand in his blog on his pay site and shows that top players are human too. Medium strength hands can win a lot of pots and lose some really big ones too. Nice to see a player show all sides of his game — including the gambling aspect of a heads up table. I respect that!

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POKERSTARS GAME #12640264137: 7 CARD STUD LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) - 2007/10/15 - 10:58:46 (ET)

Table ‘Polydoros’ 8-max

Seat 1: stp633 ($12.80 in chips)

Seat 2: Alecoq ($5.75 in chips)

Seat 3: col-river ($3.55 in chips)

Seat 4: phönix21 ($18.75 in chips)

Seat 6: Ken.P ($10.90 in chips)

Seat 7: Viny Win ($6.10 in chips)

Seat 8: godmother69 ($2.95 in chips)

stp633: posts the ante $0.05

Alecoq: posts the ante $0.05

col-river: posts the ante $0.05

phönix21: posts the ante $0.05

Ken.P: posts the ante $0.05

Viny Win: posts the ante $0.05

godmother69: posts the ante $0.05

*** 3rd STREET ***

Dealt to stp633 [Kh]

Dealt to Alecoq [Qs]

Dealt to col-river [7d]

Dealt to phönix21 [6s]

Dealt to Ken.P [Ks Kc 8h]

Dealt to Viny Win [7s]

Dealt to godmother69 [Qc]

phönix21: bets $0.25

Ken.P: raises $0.25 to $0.50

Viny Win: folds

godmother69: folds

stp633: calls $0.50

Alecoq: calls $0.50

col-river: folds

phönix21: calls $0.25

*** 4th STREET ***

Dealt to stp633 [Kh] [Jh]

Dealt to Alecoq [Qs] [6d]

Dealt to phönix21 [6s] [4c]

Dealt to Ken.P [Ks Kc 8h] [9s]

stp633: bets $0.25

Alecoq: calls $0.25

phönix21: calls $0.25

Ken.P: calls $0.25

*** 5th STREET ***

Dealt to stp633 [Kh Jh] [9c]

Dealt to Alecoq [Qs 6d] [5h]

Dealt to phönix21 [6s 4c] [Ac]

Dealt to Ken.P [Ks Kc 8h 9s] [9h]

Ken.P: bets $0.50

stp633: calls $0.50

Alecoq: calls $0.50

phönix21: calls $0.50

*** 6th STREET ***

Dealt to stp633 [Kh Jh 9c] [4s]

Dealt to Alecoq [Qs 6d 5h] [3s]

Dealt to phönix21 [6s 4c Ac] [8d]

Dealt to Ken.P [Ks Kc 8h 9s 9h] [7h]

Ken.P: bets $0.50

stp633: calls $0.50

Alecoq: calls $0.50

phönix21: calls $0.50

*** RIVER ***

Dealt to Ken.P [Ks Kc 8h 9s 9h 7h] [Th]

Ken.P: checks

stp633: checks

Alecoq: checks

phönix21: bets $0.50

Ken.P: calls $0.50

stp633: folds

Alecoq: folds

*** SHOW DOWN ***

phönix21: shows [As 5c 6s 4c Ac 8d 2d] (a pair of Aces)

Ken.P: shows [Ks Kc 8h 9s 9h 7h Th] (two pair, Kings and Nines)

Ken.P collected $7.95 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $8.35 | Rake $0.40

Seat 1: stp633 folded on the River

Seat 2: Alecoq folded on the River

Seat 3: col-river folded on the 3rd Street (didn’t bet)

Seat 4: phönix21 showed [As 5c 6s 4c Ac 8d 2d] and lost with a pair of Aces

Seat 6: Ken.P showed [Ks Kc 8h 9s 9h 7h Th] and won ($7.95) with two pair, Kings and Nines

Seat 7: Viny Win folded on the 3rd Street (didn’t bet)

Seat 8: godmother69 folded on the 3rd Street (didn’t bet)

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FullTiltPoker Game #3936812024: Table Fiat (heads up) - $50/$100 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 21:03:06 ET - 2007/10/22
Seat 1: sbrugby ($29 044.50)
Seat 2: Glove55 ($12 399.50)
sbrugby posts the small blind of $50
Glove55 posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #1

Holecards:
Dealt to sbrugby [ ]
sbrugby raises to $300
Glove55 raises to $900
sbrugby calls $600

Flop:
[ ]
Glove55 bets $900
sbrugby calls $900

Turn:
[ ] [ ]
Glove55 checks
sbrugby bets $2,400
Glove55 calls $2,400

River:
[ ] [ ]
Glove55 checks
sbrugby bets $8,400
Glove55 calls $8,199.50, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $200.50 returned to sbrugby

Showdown:
sbrugby shows [ ] a full house Threes full of Kings
Glove55 shows [ ] a full house Kings full of Threes
Glove55 wins the pot ($24 798 .50) with a full house Kings full of Threes

SUMMARY:
Total pot $24 799 | Rake $0 .50
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: sbrugby (small blind) showed [ ] and lost with a full house Threes full of Kings
Seat 2: Glove55 (big blind) showed [ ] and won ($24 798 .50) with a full house, Kings full of Threes

(This one was done by pokerhands.org)

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 at 8:51 am and is filed under Poker Philosophy. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.