tag:www.getminted.com,2008-05-12:/pokerblog//7 2008-06-25T14:44:33Z Getminted Online Poker Blog Movable Type Publishing Platform 4.0 tag:www.getminted.com,2008:/pokerblog//7.1036 2008-06-25T14:36:11Z 2008-06-25T14:44:33Z

Sitting down in seat four, I decided to wait until the button passed so that gave me time to size up the player. It was a typical crowd for a $3/$6 limit table on a Saturday night and included retirees,...

Jason Kastner ]]>
The next hour of play was fantastic with a number of great hands. Suited big slick that made the nut flush, a top pair of jacks with an ace kicker which beat out the king kicker, and a flopped set of nines left me nearly $100 up. I considered a hit & run and taking my 100% profit home but decided to stick around. After all, I came to play so why leave now?

Thus began a long slide. I only saw one non big blind flop over the next hour, all the while putting in my blinds. Hour three gave me some more playable hands but not much hit the flop. In the final hour it turned around and I was able to claw my way back up but not from any significant hands. The most exciting is when my K,Q suited saw a flop of A,A,_. A third Ace on the turn caused everyone to start saying "Jackpot", but my opponent didn't have a pocket pair and he tossed his hand when I bet the river after it gave us a K.

That was pretty much it for the night. The cards really slowed down, a slow table (it seemed like we were barely getting 20 hands an hour), small pots meant that it was pretty boring. I never really had much else that I wanted to play very hard, so I gave things up pretty easily. The result was a small gain for the night.
]]> tag:www.getminted.com,2008:/pokerblog//7.988 2008-06-11T08:36:35Z 2008-06-11T08:38:47Z

In my previous posts you've seen me put some thought into the hands and the descriptions, but it isn't always like that. Sometimes I get home and can't be bothered with things like adverbs, adjectives and even complete sentences, but...

Jason Kastner In my previous posts you've seen me put some thought into the hands and the descriptions, but it isn't always like that. Sometimes I get home and can't be bothered with things like adverbs, adjectives and even complete sentences, but instead just copy my notes over from my phone. This is one of those times.
Sit at a $100 buy in no limit table with $1/$2 blinds. First hand A9. Flop an A but the other guy had one too with a better kicker. Too aggressive on my part. Chips! In for another $100.

98 hearts raised to 10 and I call. Raised 15 more and I call again. Not tight like I promised myself, but there were 4 other players and that's not a bad hand for a multi way pot. Even better when 997 with two clubs comes out. Fellow bet 25, another guy went all in for 30 and then I went all in to isolate. I'm sure that I'm ahead but I can't let anyone catch up. Original better lays it down and the other guy missed his flush. Up $50 total.

Lost 100 in the next hand. AJ in early position. I make it 15 and two callers. with AQQ on the flop. Checked around. I bet 40 on the blank turn and get a caller. Uh oh....but I think he only has an A. When he raises my 40 on the blank turn, I know he has a Q. I muck. He showed that he had AQ. He played it well.

KK in early position. One guy goes all in for 11. Call. I raise to 25 and another guy calls. A K 5 rainbow. Nice that there's no flush out there yet, but I could see a QJ being in this hand. I'm out of position and want to see if I can do a check raise, but it checked around (not too surprising since there were only two of us. This was a misplay on my part). 5 on the turn. Wow, what a wonderful card for me. Now I'm hoping that the flush or the straight hits. I get a call with my 25 bet. Q on the river, great card if he has a J10, which is another hand I can put him on. How much can I bet and still get the call? I bet 30, he calls with his straight.

QJ in early and I make it 6; many callers. QJ2 all clubs. Sb makes 15. I make it 30 he calls. Crap, he has the flush already or an A. But a Q comes on the turn so now the question is how to play it...I bet 30 and he calls. Blank river and I bet 50 and he calls. He flopped the flush and was pissed. Up 170. I should really be going, but I do want to play a bit longer. Not keeping to my strategy...

AK a couple of times but they don't go anywhere.

QQ middle position. I make it 15 and get 3 callers. Probably should have bet more to reduce the number of players. J K 6 on the flop  Checked to me. I bet 30 and get called. Crap, that almost certainly means he has a king. Blank turn and we both check. A on the river. He checks. What should I do, if I bet I might win...but I'm really not happy with the board I check and he shows his K. I shoulda took a stab at it.

Hand I wasn't in: AA against KJ. Board is AJJKJ. Wow. The guy with the AA has had really bad luck; he was the flush I cracked earlier.

QQ. I make it 20 and get one caller. QJ7 on the flop. I make it 50. He thinks...talks to the shoe shine guy...gets a coin from him and tosses it. Heads so he calls. He has K9 for a gut shot! He didn't hit it, thankfully! Up $160.

AA in middle position. I make it 25 and no one plays with me. Bummer.

AQ. I make it 20. A fellow goes all in for 30 more. There's someone behind me with a really big stack. I feel pretty good about my big cards but I don't want to really tangle with it. I decided to isolate the raiser by going all in for $200. He has 10s and I hit my Q. Gotta love it.

Up $220, so it is time to go. Waiting for the button I play AJ hearts. I raise 15 and get one call. Flop is 2 more hearts. I check and he bets 30 all in. Crap. This is already a nice pot and I have a lot of outs. I call and his 55 holds up. Leaving for home, up $171

Final verdict on the strategy? No problem...as long as you have great cards to back it up! Now that I'm home I'm happy that I left when I did even though I played for less than 3 hours.

]]> tag:www.getminted.com,2008:/pokerblog//7.946 2008-05-30T13:56:15Z 2008-06-11T08:31:49Z

This night wasn't very much fun for a variety of reason. First of all, the cards weren't great. Even the ones I threw away wouldn't have made for a winning hand after looking at the board. I also had a...

Jason Kastner ]]>
I then had a very long time of dull hands. Just nothing really playable, and when I did have something I could limp in with, I totally missed the flop. After nearly an hour and a half I flopped a nut straight but wasn't able to bring many people into the pot. I scared everyone off when I re-raised on the turn, but in a limit game that's usually the best place and I guess nobody had anything worth chasing.

A half an hour later I was down to about $30 when I got K2 of hearts in late position. What the hell, might as well play it, right? Actually, I shouldn't have played it but I was feeling a little bored (that's one of my biggest problems at the table, I need to spend more time looking at other players when I'm not in the hand. More on that later). The flop came out with two hearts, so I bet, was raised, then I called. Another heart on the turn gave me almost the nuts, but it was clear from the play that there was another flush. I hoped he didn't have the ace, and we both bet strong on the turn. The last card was a blank, but at this point I only had $2 left so I went all in. If I had had more money, I bet he would have raised and I would have re-raised. So because I didn't have enough chips, I lost out on at least $4, and maybe $10 or $16. It turns out that he had only medium hearts and my king high flush took the nearly $100 pot.

I hadn't had much in the way of pockets during this session, so when I finally had a medium pocket pair of 9s, I was pretty excited. I was the small blind, and it wound up three bets to me. I called, as did 5 others. A pair of queens came on the flop and I checked, but it was only one bet by the time it came back to me so I decided to come along. The turn brought a 9. I checked, the big blind bet and 4 people called. When it came to me I called time and after thinking about it, I raised. The big blind re-raised, and a couple people actually came along for the ride. The river was an A. I bet, was re-raised, and I figured that I would go for it. Hell, I had 9s full of queens after all. I re-raised, he called and turned over the A,Q. (Why didn't he raise? The only thing that could beat him was there wasn't a QQ out there since he had one, so the only thing that could beat him was AA.) I got up and cashed out my remaining $11 in chips, down nearly $150 for the night.
]]> tag:www.getminted.com,2008:/pokerblog//7.881 2008-05-12T15:23:16Z 2008-06-11T08:40:57Z

Jason Kastner lives in Pasadena California and has been seriously playing poker at card rooms and casinos, online casinos, and in home games for over a decade. A skilled amateur in Texas Hold'em, he also plays some Omaha and HORSE...

Jason Kastner online casinos, and in home games for over a decade. A skilled amateur in Texas Hold'em, he also plays some Omaha and HORSE just to mix it up. He holds a doctorate in applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology, but thinks that his (usually) rational behavior and his observational abilities are what really keep his bankroll positive.
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What you will find are tales of my experiences while playing poker. This will include observations about the people around me (either at the casino, home games, or online), histories of the hands I played, and thoughts about what I think I did well and where I need to improve. It is hoped that you will find this both entertaining and interesting, so let's get into it!

I usually play at the Commerce Casino, so let me start there.

Another Saturday afternoon and once again I found myself playing poker. I decided to play some limit and went to the $3/$6 table. I was the first one to arrive at the newly opened table and I picked seat 8. I don't really care where I sit but I have grown fond of the "corner" seats over the years because they have more room. There was a slight scuffle when one player tried to sit down and this old fellow said "that's my seat". It seems that neither one of them wanted to sit in 5 that was (along with the 7 that they were fighting over) the only seat left.

The first half-hour gave the table lots of aces; three pocket pairs (they won two of the three times) and at one point three of them on the board. Of course people were excitedly hoping for the jackpot, but that never happened. During all this time I didn't have any of the aces. My best pocket pairs were 10s but they didn't amount to anything.

In one hand I had Q,J of hearts and the flop came A,K,J with one heart. The turn gave another heart, but the flush didn't show on the river. However, a 10 did appear and that was enough to split the pot with a fellow who had flopped the straight. It wasn't very much money since after the turn it was just us playing. In another hand I was the big blind and that was the only reason I was playing my 52 offsuit. The flop gave us 5,2,K rainbow. I started betting strong but the turn was a second club. When the river put a third club on the board I just checked. It was bet by one fellow so I put my $6 into the pot and, of course, he turned over the flush.

Another hand that I'll mention is one that I'll be thinking about some. I started with K,J suited in early position. I raised and got four callers. The flop gave us 10,10,5 and it was a check all the way around. When a 7 came on the turn (no flush possibility for me), I bet it and everyone folded. I won the pot and can't feel bad about that, and I know that I would have folded if it had been raised. But should I have really been betting it in the first place? You can't win pots if you aren't aggressive, but I want to make sure I don't slide into stupid.

I did misplay a couple hands today though. Once again I went the entire distance with my pocket Aces only to have them lose to the straight that he made on the river. I should have folded when he raised me, but I had gone the distance and after previously watched him unsuccessfully bluff a number of times (he lost over $300 in the 3 hours I was there) so that's why I decided to call. In retrospect I don't think that it was a bad play, but it maybe wasn't great. In another example of a bad play, I bet my trips on the flop and everyone folded. I should have waited until the turn since there really wasn't much of a straight possibility out there and even there was two to a flush, you gotta take those chances sometimes.

The best hand of the day was when I had K,7 of hearts in late position. I decided to play it and the flop gave us two more hearts. There was a lot of action because of a straight draw possibility as well. The third heart fell on the river and I decided to raise it even though the ace was unaccounted for. I got called and took the pot. The fellow who called me, a 60 year old who had been playing fairly tight, started muttering to himself and slamming his chips around. He left for another table soon thereafter!

As for me, I left soon too. I played for over 4 hours and was now up $5. Better not quit my day job! I like playing on Saturday afternoons. I'm not feeling as rushed to get there after work, I can have a nice lunch before hand, and I am more awake and aware. I wasn't able to translate these pluses into a big winning session this time around, but at least I didn't lose anything.
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