turning in early
Already back at the hotel room for the night, and it's only midnight. Live poker is so draining, especially when you play for hours on end... plus the worst part about live poker, by far, is the people. Wow are people annoying...especially the live vegas nit grinders who seem to think the key to live poker is some teddy kgb-esque cookie-in-mouth tell which reveals a secret window into the soul. uhmm, yea. Reinforcing this observation is the lack of the fundamental poker skills said players have, that are easily mastered by most .50/1.00 online players.
That's not to say I'm having a poor time, because that's not the case. It's fun to put moves on players live and scoop pots. The toughest part is figuring out what level people are on. For some reason online I feel like I can do this much easier than i can live. I think it's mostly because many live players simply just make random donk plays some % of the time, and trying to anticipate the hands where they seem to "play well" vs the times where they are in donkey mode is an exercise in futility. At least for me. My feeling is that it's probably because most of them stumble onto the "correct" play on accident, or make the "correct" play for the wrong reasoning, and that faulty reasoning later shines through when they are in donkey mode. Or perhaps I just haven't found the "cookie tell". You be the judge.
I did have an interesting exchange with a player today in a live game. This guy is your run of the middle 40ish balding "big tough guy" who feels the need to act like the alpha male at every opportunity. Of course I didn't realize that until this exchange happened.
40ish-balding-probably-mid-life-crisising guy opens for the minimum utg+1 (bellagio 5/10). A few people call, I toss another $10 chip in as I'm in the big blind already with J9o. Flop comes J J 7 rainbow. I check, bald bull checks, others check. Turn K. I pot it, bald bull minraises me. At this point i'm pretty much in wtf mode because it's one of his first hands at the table. He could have kings, he could have a slowplayed jack, or just a pair, or QT i dunno. I decide to just call. River is a blank, and I check it to him (probably a mistake in retrospect, i should probably bet/fold here) and he checks behind.
Bald bull triumphantly turns over KQo (lol) and I'm like "I've got the jack" -- all of a sudden he flies into this tirade about "WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT I'D BET YOUR HAND FOR YOU? WHO DO YOU THINK I AM, I'M NOT BETTING THAT RIVER WITH A KING HAHA I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT I'D BET THERE I'D NEVER DO THAT HAHAHAHAHA" essentially laughing in my face (lol?)
So I quip back: "Hey man thanks for the free lesson. do you have any other tips for me? I'm still trying to learn over here."
He retorts: "Don't be such a smart ass, wow, what a smart ass comment. Don't be such an ass" etc etc etc
While he's going on and on, louder and louder, I try to match both volume and tone saying "listen man, what did you expect me to say when you ask such a question? what response were you looking for? hahaha"
Anyway at this point the rest of the table pipes up for us both to settle down, friendly game, etc. he gives me the tough guy stare down, i look at him and give him the "fuck you" grin-eyeroll-head-back-and-forth-shaking. He proceeds to steam. Anyone that knows me would attest that I'm not exactly out looking for a fight at every corner, in fact I'm usually silent at the table unless spoken to first (as I was in this case, hell I even had the ipod playing...) but certainly I won't let some dumb fuck meathead donkey talk down to me like that. As if I'm going to be intimidated by this guy. HU 4 ROLLZ??? didn't think so.
So yea, good stuff. But the highlight of the day was definitely meeting up with some guys I've played against a lot online at stars/FTP. Me and jalex met up with krantz, foxwoodsfiend, whitelime, and ahnuld of 2+2 at Shintaro, the japanese steak house in the Bellagio. The food was ok, the conversations were hilarious, and those guys all seem really cool. It was fun to put a face to the names and we even relived some old hands played together online (one especially where I bet/3-bet all in on the river as a bluff vs FoxwoodsFiend). Good stuff. Anyway they seem really solid, so hopefully I'll get a chance to chill with them a bit more in the next couple weeks.
Ok that's it for now, I think I'm going to put in an online session tonight, or maybe just go to bed at a reasonable hour. I didn't get in "last night" until 5am this morning. Late night at the Bellagio. So far for the trip I'm down a little (when taking into consideration food/cab fare/etc) but less than a buyin, so no big deal. I haven't run that great live, nothing terrible like some of my online experiences, but certainly below expectation. I felt like I really played my A game today though, playing position well, putting in some big successful bluffs, and generally having a good control over the table. It was a good feeling, but a couple sour hands netted me about -$700. Oh well.
Guess that's it for now, more to come later.
Aaron
That's not to say I'm having a poor time, because that's not the case. It's fun to put moves on players live and scoop pots. The toughest part is figuring out what level people are on. For some reason online I feel like I can do this much easier than i can live. I think it's mostly because many live players simply just make random donk plays some % of the time, and trying to anticipate the hands where they seem to "play well" vs the times where they are in donkey mode is an exercise in futility. At least for me. My feeling is that it's probably because most of them stumble onto the "correct" play on accident, or make the "correct" play for the wrong reasoning, and that faulty reasoning later shines through when they are in donkey mode. Or perhaps I just haven't found the "cookie tell". You be the judge.
I did have an interesting exchange with a player today in a live game. This guy is your run of the middle 40ish balding "big tough guy" who feels the need to act like the alpha male at every opportunity. Of course I didn't realize that until this exchange happened.
40ish-balding-probably-mid-life-crisising guy opens for the minimum utg+1 (bellagio 5/10). A few people call, I toss another $10 chip in as I'm in the big blind already with J9o. Flop comes J J 7 rainbow. I check, bald bull checks, others check. Turn K. I pot it, bald bull minraises me. At this point i'm pretty much in wtf mode because it's one of his first hands at the table. He could have kings, he could have a slowplayed jack, or just a pair, or QT i dunno. I decide to just call. River is a blank, and I check it to him (probably a mistake in retrospect, i should probably bet/fold here) and he checks behind.
Bald bull triumphantly turns over KQo (lol) and I'm like "I've got the jack" -- all of a sudden he flies into this tirade about "WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT I'D BET YOUR HAND FOR YOU? WHO DO YOU THINK I AM, I'M NOT BETTING THAT RIVER WITH A KING HAHA I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT I'D BET THERE I'D NEVER DO THAT HAHAHAHAHA" essentially laughing in my face (lol?)
So I quip back: "Hey man thanks for the free lesson. do you have any other tips for me? I'm still trying to learn over here."
He retorts: "Don't be such a smart ass, wow, what a smart ass comment. Don't be such an ass" etc etc etc
While he's going on and on, louder and louder, I try to match both volume and tone saying "listen man, what did you expect me to say when you ask such a question? what response were you looking for? hahaha"
Anyway at this point the rest of the table pipes up for us both to settle down, friendly game, etc. he gives me the tough guy stare down, i look at him and give him the "fuck you" grin-eyeroll-head-back-and-forth-shaking. He proceeds to steam. Anyone that knows me would attest that I'm not exactly out looking for a fight at every corner, in fact I'm usually silent at the table unless spoken to first (as I was in this case, hell I even had the ipod playing...) but certainly I won't let some dumb fuck meathead donkey talk down to me like that. As if I'm going to be intimidated by this guy. HU 4 ROLLZ??? didn't think so.
So yea, good stuff. But the highlight of the day was definitely meeting up with some guys I've played against a lot online at stars/FTP. Me and jalex met up with krantz, foxwoodsfiend, whitelime, and ahnuld of 2+2 at Shintaro, the japanese steak house in the Bellagio. The food was ok, the conversations were hilarious, and those guys all seem really cool. It was fun to put a face to the names and we even relived some old hands played together online (one especially where I bet/3-bet all in on the river as a bluff vs FoxwoodsFiend). Good stuff. Anyway they seem really solid, so hopefully I'll get a chance to chill with them a bit more in the next couple weeks.
Ok that's it for now, I think I'm going to put in an online session tonight, or maybe just go to bed at a reasonable hour. I didn't get in "last night" until 5am this morning. Late night at the Bellagio. So far for the trip I'm down a little (when taking into consideration food/cab fare/etc) but less than a buyin, so no big deal. I haven't run that great live, nothing terrible like some of my online experiences, but certainly below expectation. I felt like I really played my A game today though, playing position well, putting in some big successful bluffs, and generally having a good control over the table. It was a good feeling, but a couple sour hands netted me about -$700. Oh well.
Guess that's it for now, more to come later.
Aaron
posted by WiltOnTilt at 2:07 AM
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