Playing Poker
I went over to Harrah's and played some $3-6 last night and had a great time. Friday nights at the 3-6 table just seems like the perfect time to go. Throughout the night I would say half of the people at my table really knew what they were doing. For the other half it was probably their first time playing live poker, or if it wasn't they have some serious issues. That is a typical Friday night, but the great thing was most of the newbies were sitting on one side of the table and most of the good players were sitting on the other. This formed a kind of "us against them" feeling and everyone was very friendly. I don't think a single person on my side of the table was down at the end of the night except sunglasses boy. We'll get to him in a second. Let me tell you about the characters at this table.
The guy sitting next to me always ask how much it was to call when he was in a hand--every time. He had trouble seeing the cards in the middle of the table and I swear he was partially def as well. There was another guy who looked like a disgusting Santa Claus. He was big and fat and had a bushy white beard. The disgusting thing was he took is coat off and had only white sleeveless t-shirt.
We had a sunglasses guy at our table. He was straight from the NL tables and raising just about every pot early on. I broke a rule with myself not to get involved in large pots with players like this and I lost a top pair to a bottom 2 pair. I have serious troubles with players like this because I continuously underestimate their hands.
There was also an old lady at the table for a while. Old ladys are great to play against because if they are betting you KNOW they have a good hand and if they are raising...duck and cover. Most of the time they are content to let other people bet their hands because they are scared. This lady raised pre-flop once the entire night. I think she had one caller and he folded right after the flop.
I have to tell you about one more character at this table because I had the great read on him. I'll call him happy-young-guy. He was drinking beer and had a buddy at the table. The great thing about this guy is he would try bluff but had the most obvious tell. He would put his hand over this mouth and get this mischievious look. I started calling it "that twinkle in his eye". I never got a chance to exploit this read but the guy sitting next to me once called him down with a pair of fours to win the pot.
I did find an opportunity to bluff a pot at one time during the 6 hours I was there. I had K-8 of diaminds and decided to raise pre-flop. The reason was several people were already in the pot, I was in good position, and I had an extremely tight image at this point. I wanted to build the pot in case I flopped a good draw, and I wanted to loosen up my image a little bit.
Everyone calls the raise and the flop comes all low cards with 2 hearts and a diamond. Everyone checks to me so I thought I'd take a shot at it. A bunch of people fold and its down to me and 2 other guys. The turn is diamond. Now I actually have a draw. At this point, even before they checked to me I could tell the other guys weren't really interested in this pot. They check and I bet again. One of them folds. When the other guy called something told me he had a heart draw. It wasn't really his betting pattern because I would have expected this guy to bet the flop with 4 to a flush. Then again, I had raised pre-flop so he probably knew I would bet the flop for him. And if he had bet it he was thinking I would have raised him on the flop and that would have knocked out all of the other players diminishing his profits if he actually hit the flush. All of that flashed through my head between the time he called and the dealer threw the river out there which was a black card-total blank. He checks and I fire another bet with my King high. He actually thinks about it for a second making me think he had a pair, but then he folds.
Now, technically this wasn't the greatest bluff in the world. I probably had the best hand with King high, but I was a situation where I used my table image to take in a decent sized pot.
Another great thing about the table was that the newbies would go crazy with obviously beaten hands. For example in this one pot I had AK. The flop brings an ace and 2 low cards. I bet, sweaty-guy raises, I re-raise and he calls. I bet the turn and he raises. At this point I'm pretty sure I'm beat. He's got to have 2-pair right? I call and call him on the river. To my amazement he flips over A5. He had nothing but a pair of aces on the flop with a 5 kicker and he turned a gut-shot straight draw.
This sweaty-guy was a real character as well. He sat down at the table with his fresh rack of $100 and could barely stack his chips because his hands were shaking so much, and he literally had beads of sweat on his forehead. He won a couple of big pots right away and settled down a bit.
One more guy I have to mention. He was only at my table for 30 minutes or so before he moved over the $4-8, but he made an impression. This guy would not shutup. It didn't matter if he was in hands or not the running commentary continued. It was literally hard to think or pay attention to any player besides him the whole time he was there. He was teasingly asking our dealer if she would give him a ride home when she got off work.
"Come on, please...I need to go see my buddy who is in prison."
"At 11 o'clock at night?"
"No, I mean I'd spend the night with you and then go see him in the morning."
"Ummmm..."
"No? It's probably because I'm black right?" He pulls a wad of cash out of his pocket. "Look at this,"I've even got a bunch of money and she won't have anything to do with me."
Then the best comment of the night: The dealer says "Those are all 1's. You probably just came from the strip club."
You just can't experience this stuff playing online. I've written a lot now and I still haven't told you about half the people at the table or very many of my interesting hands. This is why I love live poker so much and I can't bring myself to start playing online. Playing with real people is a fun evening of entertainment.
The guy sitting next to me always ask how much it was to call when he was in a hand--every time. He had trouble seeing the cards in the middle of the table and I swear he was partially def as well. There was another guy who looked like a disgusting Santa Claus. He was big and fat and had a bushy white beard. The disgusting thing was he took is coat off and had only white sleeveless t-shirt.
We had a sunglasses guy at our table. He was straight from the NL tables and raising just about every pot early on. I broke a rule with myself not to get involved in large pots with players like this and I lost a top pair to a bottom 2 pair. I have serious troubles with players like this because I continuously underestimate their hands.
There was also an old lady at the table for a while. Old ladys are great to play against because if they are betting you KNOW they have a good hand and if they are raising...duck and cover. Most of the time they are content to let other people bet their hands because they are scared. This lady raised pre-flop once the entire night. I think she had one caller and he folded right after the flop.
I have to tell you about one more character at this table because I had the great read on him. I'll call him happy-young-guy. He was drinking beer and had a buddy at the table. The great thing about this guy is he would try bluff but had the most obvious tell. He would put his hand over this mouth and get this mischievious look. I started calling it "that twinkle in his eye". I never got a chance to exploit this read but the guy sitting next to me once called him down with a pair of fours to win the pot.
I did find an opportunity to bluff a pot at one time during the 6 hours I was there. I had K-8 of diaminds and decided to raise pre-flop. The reason was several people were already in the pot, I was in good position, and I had an extremely tight image at this point. I wanted to build the pot in case I flopped a good draw, and I wanted to loosen up my image a little bit.
Everyone calls the raise and the flop comes all low cards with 2 hearts and a diamond. Everyone checks to me so I thought I'd take a shot at it. A bunch of people fold and its down to me and 2 other guys. The turn is diamond. Now I actually have a draw. At this point, even before they checked to me I could tell the other guys weren't really interested in this pot. They check and I bet again. One of them folds. When the other guy called something told me he had a heart draw. It wasn't really his betting pattern because I would have expected this guy to bet the flop with 4 to a flush. Then again, I had raised pre-flop so he probably knew I would bet the flop for him. And if he had bet it he was thinking I would have raised him on the flop and that would have knocked out all of the other players diminishing his profits if he actually hit the flush. All of that flashed through my head between the time he called and the dealer threw the river out there which was a black card-total blank. He checks and I fire another bet with my King high. He actually thinks about it for a second making me think he had a pair, but then he folds.
Now, technically this wasn't the greatest bluff in the world. I probably had the best hand with King high, but I was a situation where I used my table image to take in a decent sized pot.
Another great thing about the table was that the newbies would go crazy with obviously beaten hands. For example in this one pot I had AK. The flop brings an ace and 2 low cards. I bet, sweaty-guy raises, I re-raise and he calls. I bet the turn and he raises. At this point I'm pretty sure I'm beat. He's got to have 2-pair right? I call and call him on the river. To my amazement he flips over A5. He had nothing but a pair of aces on the flop with a 5 kicker and he turned a gut-shot straight draw.
This sweaty-guy was a real character as well. He sat down at the table with his fresh rack of $100 and could barely stack his chips because his hands were shaking so much, and he literally had beads of sweat on his forehead. He won a couple of big pots right away and settled down a bit.
One more guy I have to mention. He was only at my table for 30 minutes or so before he moved over the $4-8, but he made an impression. This guy would not shutup. It didn't matter if he was in hands or not the running commentary continued. It was literally hard to think or pay attention to any player besides him the whole time he was there. He was teasingly asking our dealer if she would give him a ride home when she got off work.
"Come on, please...I need to go see my buddy who is in prison."
"At 11 o'clock at night?"
"No, I mean I'd spend the night with you and then go see him in the morning."
"Ummmm..."
"No? It's probably because I'm black right?" He pulls a wad of cash out of his pocket. "Look at this,"I've even got a bunch of money and she won't have anything to do with me."
Then the best comment of the night: The dealer says "Those are all 1's. You probably just came from the strip club."
You just can't experience this stuff playing online. I've written a lot now and I still haven't told you about half the people at the table or very many of my interesting hands. This is why I love live poker so much and I can't bring myself to start playing online. Playing with real people is a fun evening of entertainment.
posted by Tim at 8:05 AM
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