Actual Poker Content

I just got back from a marathon 8-day trip to Las Vegas and Chicago on business. My apologies for slacking on blog entries. I got my first chance to play poker in quite some time, and ended up with an interesting/amusing hand.

I played the nightly tournament at Venetian last week. It was the first live poker I’ve played in quite some time. I bought in about an hour late, but at the Venetian, as long as you buy in within the first 80 minutes, you get a full stack of chips. So, I started in the 6 seat with 7500 in chips, and blinds of 100-200, with a 25 ante.

I felt like I was reading my table pretty well. I picked up two small pots from a lady in the 8 seat that was pretty timid. I took the lead heads up against another player, making pot-sized bets on the flop and the turn. He called both, and the river brought a potential flush. My read was spot on, in that I checked, he bet, I folded, and he turned up his made flush. While this hand cost me a bunch of chips, I *didn’t* pay off the river, and I did give him the wrong price to call.

There was an Asian guy to my left with an average stack. His MO was to raise frequently in limped pots in order to pick up some easy chips. He was very successful at this. I just needed to get the right opportunity, and I could win a bunch of chips off of him.

Not long after I sat down, that opportunity. UTG, I was dealt two queens. I limped, hoping for the standard response of a few limpers, and my Asian friend putting in his big raise. The guy to my left called, as well as the cutoff. Then, a fairly quiet kid wearing headphones who seemed to be an okay (not great) player, raised to 700. My Asian friend thought about it briefly, looking around, before calling the extra 500.

I was pretty sure he was calling because of the odds, figuring someone behind him (like me, who had been playing a lot of pots) would call. There was the chance that he had a monster, but I didn’t feel that was likely at all.

I waited about 20 seconds before doing exactly what I had planned, shipping my chips to the middle. I was all-in for another 4800. It was folded around to the SB, who went into the tank for a few minutes.

Since he was in the 4 seat, he couldn’t really see me. While he was trying to stare around the Asian guy at me, the Asian guy got up and walked away, as we had just started the break. The dealer admonished him for getting up while still involved in the hand, but it seemed that the kid already knew (like me) there was no way Asian guy was calling.

Asian guy sits back down, making it harder for the kid to see me. Kid cuts the chips out a few times, shuffles them back in his stack. He has about 6000. He finally calls, and I table my two queens. He looks at me and says, “Wow. I definitely misjudged that.”

He shows me KQ of spades. I’m a pretty solid favorite.

Then he flops 3 spades. 🙂

I turn a Q to make things interesting, but don’t improve, and IGHN.

I’m really happy with how tuned in I was after not playing for a long time. This should bode well for my first foray at the World Series of Poker this summer.