Monday, February 26, 2007

A Tough Way to Break Even

Over the weekend I separated my poker between two different sources. On Saturday I had a four hour session of low-limit Hold Em and on Sunday I played in several Sit and Go’s and some low-limit Omaha Hi/Lo.

Over the course of my session at Brantford here were some of the starting hands that didn’t win:

KK (twice)
AK
JJ
TT
AJ

The sad part of the session was not the fact that I lost with these hands but rather that I won with :

33 (flopped a set and held on through heavy betting and raising)

T8 (these were suited and I turned a flush)

I look at the bright side though and it is pretty simple in this case. When I can still break even after getting a lot of strong starting hands beaten it means I’m able to read my opponents and lay down losing hands before I invest too much money in them.

I did end up making one mistake that I will hopefully learn from. I had a new player sit down two seats to my right. I was dealt ATo UTG. By the time the action got around to me the new player (in the small blind) raised it up. I called as did everyone else in the hand. The flop came A K 9 rainbow. The original raiser bet out, the person on my right called, as did I and most other people in the hand. A lot of argument could be made for me to raise here but with low-limit I wanted to see what would happen on the turn. I’m not knocking anyone out with a raise here and if the small blind checks I’m pretty sure I have the best hand. I realized that I probably had 5 outs, any Ten or Ace. Before the turn came I knew that the person to my right held JQ, and therefore any 10 gives him the nut straight. The turn comes a 6 and the small blind bets out again. The gut to my right calls (chasing a 3 outer) and I decide to fold. A blank comes on the river. The small blind bets out and Mr. Chase folds. The player turns over Jacks and takes down the pot.

Even though I know it was a bad decision to fold now, in the course of the hand it was very easy to put my opponent on AJ, AQ, AK, KK or Aces. He raised pre-flop in the blinds with Jacks. This is usually an overly aggressive move that doesn’t pay off that well. If any over card comes out, in this case two did, then you usually figure your Jacks are no good. At the same time this person came out betting on each street showing no fear with the Ace on board. My mistake was not raising the turn. If I raise the turn the original better probably calls and checks the river, or folds. Even though I may have made more mistakes throughout the session, this was the only one that kept me thinking.

I played several Sit and Go’s on Sunday as well as some low-limit Omaha. I won 1 one of the bigger buy in SnG’s and that took care of the few that I didn’t cash in. I also find that I do better in the non-turbo Omaha Pot Limit H/L Sng’s due to the structure and speed. I find myself making more mis-reads and mistakes during the Turbo sessions.

All in all a mediocre weekend of poker, but I did eek out a profit, I learned that I need to raise on the turn more often and I learned that even I can get lucky and win a pot with T8.