NLH 6-Handed Round 5-6

It is not surprising, looking back over what I've written, that I focus on the hands where I took a beating; they're simply more memorable. This is true for all poker players. We remember the beats and the lay downs more than the wins. Oddly, and excuse me for waxing philosophically, this is a microscosmic representation of the general human condition. We remember the times we were snubbed or disappointed much more acutely in every relationship than we do the times that we were happily surprised. Which leads me to my next point. With 7000 in chips we still have a healthy stack, although half what we had before. Still, playing 25 antes and 100 200 blinds, we're at a place where we will be all in on many hands we play. Pots will have 550 before cards are dealt. Either we will push all in or be pushed all in often (not so much as a true short stack, which would be about 5000! Here goes Donkey.

Seat 4 raises to 500 and we call from seat 5 with JQ. Seat 6 (scary guy is Vietnamese guy named Jimmy. Very famous player. I'm sure many of you know who he is. I don't.) and the SB call, making it a 2000 plus pot. Flop comes 345. BB and Seat 4 check. Now's the time to represent a mid-pair like 88. We bet 1600. Everyone folds.

We do something similar 3 times - each time we call a pre-flop raise, check the flop and then raise the turn when someone bets it. Once we get re-raised and suffer the pain of folding. Once we hoped someone would call as we flopped a flush, but no one did. Anyway, twice no one called, so we got the pot plus whatever was bet post turn. Anyway, we're back up to about 10,000 and our table is soon to break.

Table breaks and we go to White 53, where we are the smallest stack on the table. We have over 10k now, but the first hand we fold and watch someone go all in for about 16k pre-flop; play time is over.

Our new table has a guy from our first table who has gathered about 40,000 in chips, what looks like a few European Internet players and a woman.

We watch the first 10 hands without seeing a flop. That's rather expensive, but less expensive than playing terrible cards at a table where people show a propensity to push lots of chips in. We even fold an A9 in the bb to a 325 raise.
Hand 11. Seat 3 raises to 525 and gets called by seats 5 and 6. We call from SB with 9T and BB calls. 5 players. First 5 player hand I've seen tonight; we start praying. Flop comes 36J rainbow. Terrible, but likely bad for everyone unless someone hit a set or is playing AJ. We bet 1600. Seats 3 and 6 call. Turn comes 2. Couldn't be a bigger rag. We can only win by bluffing. Do we check and live for another hand with the chips we have left or bluff? In comes the Donkey! They have to view me as a tight player. I've sat out every hand since I got here. We could make a large bet, but that wouldn't leave us enough chips to make a meaningful river bet. We push all in, with no hope but that they believe us and don't have much. The all in should push out hands like QK and maybe even JT. They both fold. Donkey still alive!

We picked up over 5000 on that hand. Time to get back to real poker, and maybe a massage just to calm down.

Seat 4 makes it 550 and Button calls. We're in SB with 68d and call putting 450 more in the pot. Pot odds were right until the BB pushed all in for about 10000. Everyone folds. We're back in playtightland.

In seat 4 we raise to 550 with AKc, premium hand! BB calls. Flop comes 347 rainbow with one club. Terrible. She checks and we continuation bet 725. She folds. Good result. We end round 5 with almost 15000 in chips and enter Round 6 playing 150 300 with a 25 ante.

Seat 3 raises to 750 and gets called by seat 5 and 6. The SB pushes all in for 7000. He has a huge push range and has pushed twice recently. We think about pushing with JK to isolate him on what's probably a race. If everyone folds, it's a great move, but we risk getting handicapped badly if we lose. We fold and everyone else does too. He shows 66. Statistically we should have pushed IF we knew everyone else would fold.

We play a good number of hands winning when we have good cards and losing when we don't. A couple moves here and there and we're headed to dinner at the end of Round 6 with 17000 in chips. I suspect half the board is dead already, but Donkey has his legs still.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

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