A lot of poker, though nothing special

Back online for the Skillz game tonight. Ok, Ok, I did play the Brit game Sunday but was gone so fast I don’t think it should count. Kept running flopped sets into turned flushes and straights. Not good if one wishes to go far. Should probably take tonight and tomorrow off too but I like PLO so just couldn’t resist. Not really feeling it just yet but we’ll see how it goes.

Played a little free bar poker with RPT last night. Haven’t been out to one of them for awhile. Never know how I’m going to do in these games just because you never know who is going to be at the table. You have some very good players, you have the chasers and calling stations and you have some folks who haven’t a clue, they are just sitting down to try it out. Making it even better is that it’s free so the tendency to donk is magnified. Combine this with the blind structure which, after the first hour or 90 minutes starts to turn the game into a push fest against the big stacks and you aren’t getting classic poker here. Hey, it’s free poker, not the WSOP, so who cares. It’s a way to kill a few hours, have a few drinks and, if lucky enough to sift thru the mine field maybe win a few bar tab payments. Rigg’s company runs the games and does a damn fine job of it.

So I’m out for the first time in awhile for one of these and first hand I’m BB, structure is 200 to start with 1-2 being the opening blinds, and I get Qs-Ts, a hand worth playing in the blind and even defending against a standard raise. First two fold but MP goes 12. Now, for a lot of RPT players that would be a regular raise but I don’t get that impression from her. That big a raise signals a large hand, A-Q at least, big pair more likely so I figure I’m tossing. Before it gets to me however there a 3 more callers so with 51 chips in the pot I figure it’s worth my 10 to call. Normally I don’t give a rat’s patoot about pot odds when it comes to tournament play but here I figure if I smack the flop I’m going to stack one of these people. Chipping up early is important in these games because after about 90 min it turns into a bingo fest and also you get a lot of young kids who watch a lot of poker on TV and believe the game is played by bullying people off their hand and there are usually a few of them sitting with big stacks and if you are at their mercy if you don’t have the ammo to go with them. Two of these callers give me this impression and I get the impression that the original raiser is going to have problems letting go the big pair unless an ace hits the board and she’s not playing them. I smack the flop. It comes Q-x-T rainbow. I check. Normally I won’t slow play two pair, especially with the draw on the board but I just know one of these characters is going to bet so I want to see what happens, planning to check raise depending on the bet and the players. Well, the original raiser leads out for 25 and all the callers fold so since there is no sense pot building by smooth calling I raise to 75 figuring to try and take it down. After all, if she should be playing A-K why give her the chance for a J although she doesn’t strike me as the type to C-bet if she misses the flop. When she calls I figure A-Q or pp paint, likely Ks. As or Js are likely but might have brought a bigger preflop raise. A lot of people in these games hate to play them. Q’s or T’s also possible but since I had one of each it’s not as likely plus most people in these games would check that flop with a set. Just to let you know, I never have played with these particular people so I have no real reads, just going by my gut and the way they talk and acted before the game giving me impressions to mark up against the general type of player in RPT. Hell, I could be wrong as hell and be going home real quick. The turn put an end to that; it comes a Q giving me the nuts to that point. I value bet another 50 and she calls. River is a brick and I shove, she thinks then calls saying if I have a Q I win. I say I have the Q, along with the T, and she’s the one leaving early. That and one other hand have been the high point of the week. Everything else has been downhill. After that pot I took a few smaller ones but wound up bleeding most of my chips off to the chasers. Three times during the course of that game I spiked a set against a flush draw flop. All 3 times I went pot on the flop and pot on the turn after it bricked. All 3 times I got called down and lost to the flush when the third suited hit the river. Swore that I was forgetting the pot the next time, I was shoving against flush draws from now on. Wound up going out in 8th or 9th place thanks to the chasers. You figure it in these games. At least I made it to the free munchies but even they were a disappointment, no corn dogs so I consoled myself with chicken fries. No sense getting upset, it’s free; had a few drinks, played some poker, got some munchies, saw some friends. Life is good.

If you look at the opening statement you will realize I started this on Tuesday while waiting for the Skillz game to start. Got knocked out of that one so fast that I never got around to finishing it and have stayed away from the computer the rest of the week so working on it today. In the intervening days I played a couple of more RPT games and, last night went back online for a bit. Live recaps first, then cyber.

Thursday I went to another RPT game. Used to like this game even if the prize was smaller than that at other venues. Place is close to my house, they run 3 nights a week. And they were reasonable on drinks and pizza, not to mention I usually do well here. Thursday is making me rethink playing here in the future however. Not the game, the play was donkish but that’s nothing new. The waiter that used to be there is no longer there and his replacement has some attitude problems. I have been playing there for over two years 2-3 times a week before my stroke, was never asked for a credit card to secure my tab, never had a problem getting a drink or food, Keith, the waiter, was always around checking if everything was OK. It’s not a big place and getting up and going to the bar ain’t a big deal but when I’m sitting at a table I resent having to go to the bar to get my drink especially since I’m going to be expected to leave a tip there. I don’t mind tipping but not when I’m doing my own walking. The bartender gets tipped when I’m drinking at the bar, at a table it’s the waiter. So back on track the new waiter asks for my credit card and when I sigh and remark about how sad it is to be gone so long that they start asking for the card I get a whole lecture on how she’s responsible for skipped tabs and how she’s working 3 jobs to pay the bills, etc. I don’t mind giving the card, I was just expressing a regret, more to myself, I didn’t need the attitude. The course of the night would show why this lady needed 3 jobs to pay the bills. I was there two hours and think I saw her twice. She seemed more interested in chatting with the bartender and those customers that either she knew, or were younger and better looking than a crippled old, ugly fat man, than she was in serving said fat man. I was at least two drinks and maybe a slice or two of pizza under my normal level that night. If that is going to be the state of service there in the future I may have to pass on games there.

The poker was no better than the service but that is to be expected at this place. It’s a bigger Donkament than the Numbblowme. I really knew I was in trouble when a certain player sat at the table. I had played with this guy quite a bit, some at RPT but more often at a game run by a different company. I won’t say a competing company since comparing them there is no competition. I usually went to this game for two reasons; one a change of pace because they ran a different structure than RPT and two, I loved the drink and munchie specials at the place it was held. Number two is always an important factor here. In the other group his guy was considered a really good player since he was always near the top of the points standings. Maybe he was different at other games but when ever I played against him he was a total calling station and chaser. He also happened to be one of the luckiest chasers I ever saw. More than once I watched him call off his stack with nothing more than a mid-level flush draw and catch and near felt some poor bastard with top 2 or a set who would try to chase him off that draw. More than once I was that poor bastard. So I knew it was going to be an interesting night. As on Monday night I chipped up early on a bit of a donkey play. I was otb with K-Ts with 5 limpers in front so I call figuring the blinds are going too also so might as well see a flop. Again I smack the flop pretty well, A-K-T with a flush draw. It checks to me so I throw out a pot sized bet figuring it’s pretty useless because with that many people and that many possibilities I’m getting callers, someone may even have the Q-J but one needs to see where one stands. I get 3 callers but no raisers so either they are all drawing or someone is playing it cagey. That is rendered moot when the Q hits the turn. The blinds check and utg leads out for 25 which is about 1/3 the pot. The other two call which makes it about 150 in the pot so I throw my quarter in figuring I might as well take a chance on the 4 outer. Boooom, the river comes a K and I’m set. This is where my brain glitched. UTG bets out for 25 again and again the other two call. Me, not thinking that, in this game at least one of these characters isn’t going to fold that straight no matter what and more likely none of them will, only value bet another 50. I should have shoved and I know I would have had at least one of those stacks if not all three, especially after they all call and they all had that J and all seemed dumfounded when I announced boat. I guess they figured we were all chopping and I was just an idiot for raising. In a sense I was if you phrase it raising it so little. Of course that was about it for the night. I bled most of those chips back the same way I did Monday night though it was thru all ins rather than pot sized bets, I did learn that lesson. However I should have realized even all ins weren’t good enough with my “buddy” at the table. He’s willing to call off his stack with a draw and he did it a number of times. Couple of people got him but both times he was against me he hit his draws taking a large portion of my chips. He eventually got knocked out but someone else took his place, in more ways than one, and I headed home fairly early. Well, it was a fairly cheap night thanks to the service or lack of it. Well there’s more poker and actually a story about the poop police in the offing but this thing has run a bit long, I’m a tad tired and bed beckons.

Hope your eyeballs haven’t gotten too dry getting this far. I appreciate the effort. Thanks.