Texas Holdem Poker
Before I start, just want to say that these last 6 weeks I have been in huge rut. Just straight grinding. I'm actually break even for this time period, but this after making more than a $1400 average per month for first 3 months of this year. My luck changed on this night. wow , did it ever.
last night I was playing my usual 6-handed NL100 ($2 big blind) at PP. very loose table for the most part. Chips were flying around, people were busting out and re-buying instantly. My type of table. I just got done doubling up a few mins ago when my AA beat QQ.
NOw this hand. I'm button with 8,9 spades. UTG raised to $6, everyone called to me, I figure this is good drawing type hand, and I have good postion. So i call, both blinds fold. So 4 players in hand. Flop is (10,J,Q) rainbow. Giving me the lower straight (sissy straight). ALL check to me, this kinda surprised me, I bet $10 into $23 pot. Back to UTG who thinks for a second then puts me all-in with his remaining $90. He just reloaded his buy-in twice in last 15 mins, I knew he was a wild player. It was folded to me. I'm thinking with that type of bet there is no way he has AK, I put him on at best a set. So I call his bet,and he shows AQ suited, turn and river were small cards, I win another big pot. Would you guys of called this bet? I think it was an easy call, considering he was a bad player, and probably on tilt. Im just lucky he didnt out draw me. Table then dismantled few mins later unfortuantly with me up $320.
I then felt like playing a tourney and won. It was a $55 sng NL tourney. After this I take a break and go watch the end of the indiana basketball game eat dinner. Still, felt like playing some more. so I head to $5-10 limit. Gotta love the convience of online poker, lol, in last couple of hours I have played NL ring game, a NL SNG and now go play some limit, wow. It was just one of those nights.
So, im at a $5-10 6-handed limit table. first hand at this game, im in BB with A10 clubs, two limpers to me, I raise preflop, both call. FLop was Kclubs, Q spades, and J clubs. COuld I have asked for a better flop? Flop the nut straight and have nuts flush draw. Best part was that these guys gave me lots of action, I drag down a $208 pot! As one guy flops two pair and other guy flops lower straight!!! I decided to leave after I folded next hand. This night was too good and did not deserve a bad beat! I'm glad to say I called it quits for the night, after making over $700 in less than 3 hrs of play. I realize this is not normal type of night here, but hopefully this can finally break my rut of being card dead and getting bad beats. take care and thanks for listening.
Congrats, and I hope this does get you out of the rut. They are no fun. I know January hit me hard, and since I have been running pretty solid, so lets just hope Im not due for cold cards anytime soon. LOL
Good job.
thats a great run...fwiw, i completely agree with calling the $90 with the low end of the str8, if it was PLO, i woulda laid the hand down, but it took a perfect to 2 cards to beat you...easy call, especially when you noticed his habits in previous hands...
thanks guys. It was just one of those days, I could do nothing wrong. I'm glad I realized that and did not try to push my luck. When I first started, after a few big wins, I would try to play some $15-30 or some 200sng's, and end up blowing it all. So i guess its all a big learning process and you learn from your prior mistakes, thats all we can ask for.
I happened to watch some of that NL 100 6 man you were playing ... since the time i met you on PP i remember your name and usually search for guys i know to watch. You really were taking candy from the babies for a while until you left when you had them all about 5-1 chipped. Nice playing and good luck in future.
It's been two days and I'm still ticked off about this so please allow me to vent.
I posted the other day about taking the day off and playing some $10/$25 Pot Limit Omaha and making a pretty good score. I'm not ticked off about that. But it seems that a couple of the dealers began complaining about the quantity of my tokes. Apparently I didn't toke them enough to suit them. How do I know this? Eventually, I was spoken to about it by management. How much did I toke? Well I'll get to that in a moment but in my opinion, it doesn't matter. I never worried about tips as a dealer - all I did was worrying about perfecting my dealing and miraculously, the tips seemed to take care of themselves and by the end of the day it seemed that I was going home with more than anyone else.
Anyway, I did say that I would tell you how much I toked so... normally I toke a dollar a pot regardless of the size of the pot - but since I am dealing this tournament and these were co-workers I upped it to a minimum of $2 even if all I did was steal the blinds and any pot of any quality was $5. When I left the game, I tossed the remainder of my $1 chips to the dealer.
Regardless, the fact that the dealers complained is horrible in my opinion, and the fact that they are your coworkers is even worse. If they have a serious problem with how you toke, they should talk to you, not to management.
Is it a rule that you have to tip a certain amount? If the dealers ever complained to management about how much i tip i would just stop tipping them alltogether, its suposed to be something i do out of generosity and if they don't appreciate it then im gonna stop alltogether. I have never played in a card room/casino so maybe my view of dealer tipping is off but what happend to you seems pretty absurd
I waited tables for years to support my family and put myself through school so I know a thing or two about living off of tips. Complaining about what you make, if it was a crappy night, is something you do to your co-workers, not to management. Also, if we had a co-worker come in to eat we'd love it if they were extra generous, but if they just tipped a normal amount, and it sounds like you tipped more than that, we wouldn't have found that odd or insulting. It sounds to me like they saw you winning and greed made them expect you to tip lavishly since they were working with you, albiet temporarily. I wouldn't let it bother you, especially since you don't have to work with them for long. Also, do you think there was any jealousy involved as many of them probably would love to go pro but aren't there yet?
To the dealers who are bitching about your generosity, tell them about the $4000-$8000 game going on. When the dealer sits down, he gets ONE $25 chip. And not a single chip more for his entire down. Let them go deal that game, and then let them complain.
By the way, since I started making my only income from poker, I have become a VERY stringent tipper. And if I tip more than $1, even when playing $40-$80 or higher, then the pot had to be HUGE... but when a dealer comes in who has gone the extra mile in either customer service, or is absolutely flawless with the cards, then it is duly noted, and my generosity will show that i noticed. So if they complain, its much more likely that the problem is on their side.
Sounds to me like your co-workers are just jealous. They probably don't have the skills to play the same games you do and are POed about it. I think your tips were more than enough based on what you posted.
>> If the dealers ever complained to management about how much i tip i would just stop tipping them alltogether, its suposed to be something i do out of generosity and if they don't appreciate it then im gonna stop alltogether
Were you playing with a bunch of millionaires that were tipping $5 and $10 per pot? Can you remember what others were tipping?
$2 per pot is plenty! They were either getting tipped big by the millionaires who were losing to you, or they were jealous. It is as simple as that. For them to bitch about it is unbelievable, but to go to management, that is plain rediculous.
I bet your glad you only have about 3 more weeks with these idiots!
Sorry to hear about this, but I wouldn't let it bother you too much, and I definately wouldnt tip more because of it. Go down to the Bellagio or Mirage, and play there if they dont like it. Then you can go back to tipping $1 per pot and your score will be over $5000.
There's one other point I had thought to mention on the subject which I forgot but some of your comments reminded me ...
Back when I used to deal regularly there were some dealers whom I would tip much more than others - and it wasn't just because they were good - dealers who also played would get greater tips - cause they would put their tips in action and we would take care of each other. Dealers who just came in and took from the poker community and didn't give anything back got a more conservative tip.
BiNgOsHaDo: Funny story about that $4000/$8000 game... It's true that you get one $25 chip when you sat down but they had a deal worked out with three of us who used to deal it regularly - if, when we got up at the end of our down, they forgot to give us that $25 we were supposed to remind them. If we had to remind us, then we got $50. If they forgot and we reminded them by singing this stupid little song then they gave us $100 which I found to be a pretty humiliating little game. You know, let's watch the dealer make a fool out of himself and we'll give him $50 that's meaningless to us and we'll all have a good laugh at him. They forgot me once and I reminded them as I was leaving the table. One of them suggested I start singing to get the extra $50. I told him, "Ya know, I'm a working man today - I won't always have to work - but I'll always be a man so I'm just gonna pass on the song." Bobby Baldwin was getting a massage at the time and hadn't looked up for 1/2 an hour but he looked up at me then, grinned and tossed me $100.
If someone doesnt like your tipping you should tell them to watch the first 10mins of Reservoir Dogs. I can't stand people who just tip cause they feel its must. Its not like the dealers gonna stop calling the game right, or dealing the cards to you if you don't tip. I think last time I played live I tipped once or twice in a 2 hour game. I came away up bucks up in a 2/4 game, and I would bet I saw other guys draging small pots tipping 2$ just about everytime, people just throwing away money.
My Poker lessons are lessons that I learned usually for the first time the night before. Last night I was playing No Limit Texas Hold'em at Hustler Casino in Gardena California. I think this will become my new home casino. The people there are nuts and the staff is disorganized, but the facilities are clean and the food is pretty good.
Principle #1: Unless you are on a drawing hand or trying to slow play, bet in the first place as much as you are willing to call.
About half way through the night I found myself holding Big Slick (AK) in the small blind. There were a few callers for the five dollar big blind, so I raised it pre-flop to $15. I usually won't come into a hand for less than 3x the big blind.
I do this for three reasons:
1. By raising preflop I am telling my competitors that I have a good hand, so theoretically when the flop comes I will bet into them no matter what. When this is done the other players have no choice but to imagine that I hit my hand. Even if the flop is full of garbage they could think that I hit trips.
2. If the pot is not raised pre-flop then once the flop comes there is no reason reason to try and steal it. A $15 pot, after the house takes their $4 rake, is hardly worth the risk of making a reasonable sized move.
3. If you do hit your flop and are holding a monster hand you will not get any action unless there is a pot with enough chips in it to warrant action.
In this case I came in with just 3x the big blind because although Big Slick is a monster hand, it isn't a monster in it's native state. Unless you hit one of the six cards in the deck that would give you top pair with top kicker or better, then A high isn't all that great. That’s what makes it such a great gambling hand; Lot's of winning potential if it hits, and easy to throw away if it doesn't.
Now here is where I get to my first Principle.
So I bet $15 before the flop from the Small Blind position and everyone folded except for the player to my immediate right, the Button, and he just flat called the $10 raise. He is a good player. He's tight but understands the value of position and at this point I knew he didn't hold a pocket pair or A-10 through AK because if he did, he would have raised in the first round of betting. When he flat called my $15 I put him on high connecting cards like, KQ, QJ, J10, or middle suited connectors.
The flop hit 6 clubs, 9 hearts, King of clubs. At this point I was quite sure I had the best hand and so I decided to bet $50. BIG MISTAKE!!! Right after I bet it I asked myself, 'what exactly was the purpose of that bet? Do I want him to call and milk more money from him, or do I want him to fold and pick up the $45 pot right there and then. " He pondered his move for quite awhile, so during that time I continued my internal dialogue by asking myself the next most likely pertinent questions: 'If he raises back over the top of me, will I call or fold.'. I decided that I would call his raise regardless of the size. At that point I realized that if I was willing to call his reraise I should have just gone All In on the flop.
He ended up raising me back all in, another $125 more or less. At this point I pretty much new he was on a flush draw, or a pair of Kings with a Queen or Jack kicker, as two pair or a straight draw really wasn't possible, so I called. Sure enough the turn was a club and he made his Flush. Turns out he also had a gutshot straight draw, and of course he could've hit runner-runner for trips or two pair. It doesn't really matter what the last two cards were; I had him beat on the flop and if I would've went All In I probably would have won the hand, and if I didn't win the hand at least he would have been CALLING a $175 bet with a drawing hand.
