Poker Perambulation

All my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay

 Yesterday, I talked about an aggressively played hand. Both people were weak but had potential. I can actually live with how they played it out. It is nice to show strength when you at least have some potential left. It may be vague but it is nice to get those suckouts too.  You want to be aggressive with dog and giants.  Aggression with mid-holdings can be deadly.

 Today, in another day and there are more hand histories to browse over on PokerNews. Today looks like it will soon be yesterday for some of the ideas gone with.

 ‘donpeters’ byline:

 James Keeps Cruising

The button raised to 150 and Kenna James made the call from the big blind. Both players checked on the flop of .

The turn came the and James checked. The button bet 350 and James called.

The river was the and James checked again. The button fired 850 and James made the call.

James showed to best his opponent’s and move to 15,500.

Same writer – different cast:

 Tilly Makes a Good Call

Jennifer Tilly was in the big blind when she and the small blind saw a flop together with the pot at around 1,000. It came . The small blind bet 600 and Tilly raised to 1,200. The small blind called.

The turn was the and the small blind led for 600. Tilly made the call.

The river was the and the small blind bet 1,400. Tilly went into the tank and stared at the board, trying to figure out what her opponent could hold. She then made the call and showed for a set of eights.

Her opponent showed only ace high with and Tilly raked the pot. The good call put her up to 13,800.

Miss Tilly’s beau kept the tables lively with:

 The Phil Laak Comedy Show

Phil Laak has really been amusing his table. The flop was and he showed after his opponent bet. Laak then commented, “I haven’t folded yet! Well, I fold now that he’s seen it.”

A few hands later, Laak struck up this conversation.

“In his book, Gus [Hansen] says how he folded deuce-seven. Nine hands later [Gus] says “I folded deuce-seven nine hands ago and was getting 4.6-1,” and that he was unhappy.” The whole table laughed.

Now all this transpired with the blinds at either 25-50 or 50-100. You don’t get a huge play in your starting stacks but this is very early. Negreanu calls the style of play from the pros you have just viewed “small pot poker”. He isn’t very original but the point is very valid and it was followed by the pros in the hands we’ve looked at. You or I might take Kenna’s hand and raise on the river – after all it was the best hand and we want to maximize our profits. But, the only guy who’ll call is the one that can likely beat you. Miss Tilly had the hand that could have done Kenna in. Both players played to live on as much as maximize profits.

 Phil’s going on Comedy Central isn’t the point there. The point was letting continuation bets win where the risk:reward doesn’t give you a lot of reason to continue. His remark about Hansen seems to point to that too.

 The top two hands had opponents that didn’t really have horrid ideas at the start. But, they did have players that didn’t/couldn’t change from their original idea when it wasn’t working. Instead they built nice pots for the opponent. I call that worse than missing out on occasionally maximizing the win.

 ADDENDUM:

 Check out the coverage of the WSOP on our main page. I’m biased but I think Aaron and Katie are giving some of the best coverage you can find on the net. Also, check out Clearspine’s ragging of Negreanu’s new book.

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Here’s a final thought on Yesterday:  Yesterday, I blew a buyin in my last play after being ahead a bit going into that one..  That one isn’t making the top of the charts with a bullet.

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A Jewish farmer, walking through his hay field, notices a man kneeling and drinking from his pond. The farmer shouts: “Trink nicht die wasser! Die keyen haben gesheissen dorten.” (Meaning, “Don’t drink the water! The cows shit in it.”) … The kneeling man shouts angrily, “I am a Muslim. I speak Arabic and English. If you can’t speak the sacred tongue of the Koran, speak to me in English.” … The farmer replies: “Use both hands! You’ll get more.”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Journal, Tournaments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.