Rollin, Rollin, Rollin On The River

What a weekend. Saturday night was solid, followed by an unsuccessful outing at the World Blogger Tour III, and then my second biggest night ever on the tables as I send a player on tilt. How Poker was meant to be. I’ll start with the blogger tourney. I left the few notes I took at home so I don’t have much of a recap. It was fun playing although I didn’t really know anyone involved. I managed to take the chip lead for a very short period of time early in the tournament when my full house ended up being bigger than another players. My apologies for not having his identity but like I said, my notes are at home. I continued to play card dead for quite some time after that. I splashed in a few pots but eventually found myself shortstacked with 435 in chips. I was on the button and found myself looking at pocket 7’s. An EP raised and I foolishly decided to make my stand, pushing all in. I wasn’t going to survive much longer due to blinds but I should have known better. I thought I would be up against over cards and race to the river. SB called me for his all-in and the three of us went to the river with no help. I went down to the Hilton Sisters. I finished 19th out of 30. My only solace is in the knowledge that Otis knocked me out and he went on to win the tourney. So it stands to reason that he was the only player at the table better than me. Surely I would have finished second if we did not start out on the same table. That’s sound logic, isn’t it? :)

Saturday night I played two separate tables. Looking back at the numbers I probably should have just stayed on the first one, live and learn. I went down early on table one and after struggling to come back I worked a profit. I wasn’t feeling entirely comfortable against the players so I decided to find a different table. The next table turned out to be a total grind. I spent twice as much time on it and only earned about 1/3 as much. Overall I had a solid night.

Table One – 56 minutes, 9BB, 9.64BB/Hr, 67 hands
Table Two – 102 minutes, 2.5BB, 1.47BB/Hr, 133 hands
Overall – 158 minutes, 11.5BB, 4.37BB/Hr, 200 hands – This win cancelled out the previous nights loss leaving the UB bankroll still able to handle 1/2 action.

Sunday Night. First the tourney, then back to UltimateBet for some 1/2 limit action. As in the previous nights play I started out down and contemplated changing tables. We were starting to get some turnover, which was like changing tables, so I decided to stick it out. This, as it turns out, was the smart play to make. I went on a tear and found myself seated with a table comprised of primarily very tight players. These players would be aggressive preflop, raising it up but then go passive if they didn’t flop a hand. This made the pot’s decent to begin with and the odds dictated allot of post flop play. As I mentioned earlier I managed to send a player on tilt. I’m sure I’ve done this in the past and will do so in the future, but this is the first time I can remember a player actually throwing out comments. He did not attack me personally and I never responded to him directly, but his chatter certainly helped me take down more pots as he swayed others to his thinking. I should probably reward him by offering up a toke, nnnaaaahhh, I’ll just look for him next time and try to do the same thing again.

Since it amused me so, I will share with you what happened. It all started innocently enough. I was dealt QhTh UTG and limped into see the flop. The flop came two hearts with a J high on the board. Tilter lead out from the SB and I called. Turn brought a T giving me second pair so I raised him, and he called. River brought a heart and I took down the pot. He held a QJ so I did river him and he remained silent at this time.

Exactly one orbit later I limp in with Jc10c, Tilter in SB raises and I call. Flop came 6,8,10 all diamonds. Tilter bet out, I had top pair on the board and he was so weak/tight I knew a raise would shut him down so that’s what I did. Everyone else folded and he checked to me on the turn. I bet he called. River brought a J giving me the two pair and again tilter checked and called. I took down his AA with my two pair. Again I rivered him, and if he had played his AA back at me I would have folded the flop. This is where slow playing can kill you. Even though the flop showed flush the odds are in the 150’s to 1 that you will flop a flush. I’ve seen it happen on several occasions but he should have reraised me to see where he was at. This of course is where he went on tilt. UltimateBet does not seem to put the chat into the hand histories so I don’t have the quotes but he made reference to me rivering him twice.

I then took another pot with another player where the river gave me two pair. I was ahead before the river and would have won anyway but the tilter was fixated on the fact that I two-paired the river and again made a comment. This distracted everyone from actually paying attention to my play and the pot. I started getting raised up and the straw that broke the tilters back wasn’t even against him. I was in MP w/ KQ and raised preflop. The flop came 9TQ giving me top pair and the inside straight draw. The turn was another 9 and the river brought a J giving me the straight. Again I was ahead the whole time as my opponent had QJ and the river gave him two pair. Tilter didn’t see this though and began making comments about how I called the flop without even a draw. Huh? I was labeled a river chaser from that point forward and was paid off nicely because of it for the rest of the night. Eventually tilter left and the play became pretty straight forward. I decided to take my bounty and leave.

Table – 138 minutes, 37.75BB, 16.41BB/Hr, 188 hands

I’ve heard bad things about the Party 1/2 tables being hard to beat. I’ve done alright with the tight play at UB though so I’m going to give it a shot at Party. See You There.