Gambit's Home Game

What a disaster. Some of you may have read what happened to me at the home game over on the Ante-Up Blog. If not here is a copy of it.

Chris's post:
This first one came vs. NewScott (a.k.a Snuffy): With the blinds 100-200 it got folded around to me in the SB. I had A♥4♥. I looked at his chips and he was the shortstack with about 800-900 (it might've been a little more but it happened so fast I think this is right). So he has 200 invested and I make it 500 to go. I chose this amount because I thought it'd look a little suspicious and he might think I was trying to get a little more out of him and would fold. Not that I wouldn't take a shot at eliminating him with A♥4♥ because I would -- I was the chipleader at this point with about 3K. But still, if I could just take it down and get him that much closer to elimination that'd be fine with me. At this point we're 5-handed and paying three spots (Fasso's reign came to an end fairly early). Anyway, he thought and thought and then finally just called, which shocked me. With 1K out there, if I hit the flop at all there'd be no way for me to fold since he only had about 500 or so left. The flop came 6-6-4 rainbow. I pushed with my two pair and he instacalled. What does he have? Are we dead? Was he thinking and thinking because he had a HUGE pair? What does he have? Anyone? Bueller?

OK, he had 5♠3♣ (though he may have been suited, which means nothing really). WOW! He called off what I think was about a third of his remaining stack to a raise from the chipleader with 5♠3♣. He's getting 2.3-1 on his money, but I didn't know what to think of this play. He knows I pretty much can't fold and my raise tells him he's crushed. With only 4 or 5 BBs left isn't he in shove or fold mode here? So he was open-ended and I had my two pair. The turn? 7♥, which did nothing for me because there wasn't a heart on the flop and, of course, completed his straight. The guys moaned when that card came, and I was about to start my usual whining, but then I said, "Wait a minute! A six or a four please." And BAM! A 4♦ on the river gave me a boat. Snuffy wasn't happy. He had a rough night and that only punctuated it. He didn't even say goodbye. Sorry for the re-suck Snuff, but you sucked first. 8-)

My Response:

OK let's break down the tournament last night. I was massively hit with the deck early. In the first few levels I got A,A K,K Q,Q 10,10 twice, 9,9 and 8,8 along with A,K twice, A,Q and A,10 twice. With all of those I had my stack up to 2800 from the original 1500.

The s**t that has been happening to me way too much lately is missing losing coin flips, losing when I have a dominating hand and when I do hit a draw I still end up losing.

OK I am at 2800 and get Q,Q in EP. I raise to 225, Gambit shoves for 1300 and I call. He has A,K hits his A and I am down to 1500 again.

I pick my spots to stay afloat and make some really tough folds. I blind down to 875 when the hand in question comes up. I have 5s3s in the BB and 200 of my 875 is in. This is not an all-in or fold situation. It's an all-in situation 100% of the time. With my suited cards I am getting all my $ in every time here. Here is why I only call. Since I am going all-in anyway on this hand, why not pull a version of the stop n go (even though I am not in position to do it). If you happen to miss maybe there is a slight chance of you folding. Probably not but you are gonna call 100% pre-flop.

When we flip the cards over I have 10 or 11 outs twice. Can't get a better spot than that.

I would make this play every time. I am just sick of losing when ahead, even and behind. I could not have played that game any better last night. I have other comments but I will save them for another time.

Chris Again:

Yeah, you had some tough beats, and you even said early on that you were getting hit with the deck and that only meant bad news for you later on.

I think you could have folded preflop though. My raise means you HAVE to hit that flop somehow because with only 300 more to fight with I can't fold to that no matter what comes. A stop-and-go can't work, and yes I'm glad you said you aren't in the position to make that play. You still have 875 and are in the SB on the next hand. Even if you fold that you have 775 and one double up gets you back to your starting stack. I would have waited, but that's just me.

Hope you don't mind that I posted our hand.


and Me Aganin:

If I folded I would have had 675 (instead of 875) with 100 of it going in the SB.




Let me give you some background on the game. In the cash games I always seeme to drop my initial buy-in and have to scratch and claw back. I usually end up breaking even or have a slight profit in the cash portion of the game. This month I decided to tighten up and play a more solid game. I can think of one Stud 8 hand where I played loose but got out on 5th street before the big bets. The typical hand for me was when I had A,2,3,x suited in the ace in O8B. On the turn I had the nut low draw and the nut flush draw. I raised 4th only to brick out on the river. In the cash game I was stuck for as much as $50 I think and ended up coming back and losing $18. One key hand where if I didn't play it was when the board came 8,8,3. Gambit bet $3 I think, I raise to $12 and he caps the pot at $20. I had and 8,2 in this spot and had to let it go. There is no way I am winning there.

The tournament I think was summarized pretty good above. Thats two months in a row where I played decent only to come away with nothing. Last month I had A,Q run into a short stack K,K and then my K,K lose to A,J. Thats how its been rollin lately.

I am currently on a one week self imposed walk away from online and a one month suspension from live play. The online ban is lifted starting tonight with AIPS, limit style. Ick.