Donkeys Always Draw

Every year, since 1991, our sophomore year of college, some old college buddies and I have had a “reunion” of sorts. Now, it’s not like we don’t see each other anymore these days, in fact, most of us see each other quite often. So we get together at this little thing called the Bix 7 roadrace. We were all track and cross country athletes in college, so we gather every year in Davenport, Iowa, and have a little fun. A few of the guys try to run a decent time, but for most of us, it’s a weekend of binge drinking/eating/cardplaying/drinking that takes us back to the college days.

There’s not much poker played. Usually, there’s about 4-5 of us that will play a few SnG’s, but Spades is the game of choice with our crew. In fact, this year exactly one game of poker was played. Four people, $5 buyin, winner take all. I lasted exactly one hand. I jammed with my pocket kings on a queen high ragged board, only to have my good buddy Mark, river his two outer on me with pocket fives.

With Numbette, and Numb Jr. gone for the week visiting some of her relatives, I was in no particular hurry to make the three hour trip home Sunday after our festivities, so I decided to check out a local casino’s poker room.

Now I’m no cash game expert. I’m learning how to play cash games profitably, but I’m far from good at it. So what’s the smart thing to do in this situation…buy in to a 2-5 NL game, of course.

After buying in for $200 and sitting down, we were 4 handed, and I played for about an hour and a half. The table size varied from 4-7 during this time.

The good news is that I more than doubled my buyin, cashing out for $437. The bad news is, I wanted to stay longer because this table was just so soft and easy it was unbelievable. Unfortunately, I did have to hit the road.

There were a couple of Asian guys sitting on opposite ends of the table. One with about $1000 in front of him, and another with what I guessed to be about $4-5K in front of him. Other than that, the stacks were generally in the $200-$600 range.

As I stated, I’m no cash game expert, but I was absolutely amazed by some of the play that I saw. I kept quiet, and didn’t play too much for the first half hour. I was trying to get a feel for the game. Due to this (and a lack of decent hands), I developed a tight image. Of course, these players were so loose, I’m sure they thought anyone who would actually fold two hands in a row was tight.

My stack of $200 had dwindled to around $125, when I decided to open my game up a bit. I had a decent take on everyone’s play at this point, and had a pretty good feel for the game.

The Players:

Seat 2: Asian guy with 4K. Liked to give the impression that he was playing wild, but was actually doing nothing more than playing ABC poker, and trying to put up a huge smokescreen. We’ll call him BigStack. Bigstack loved showing just one card when folding.

Seat 3: Occupied briefly by Three-Hand-Doofus. More on him later.

Seat 4: Your Hero

Seat 5: Occupied for the latter part of my time there by Johnny Regular. Nice guy, Knew the staff, obviously a regular. We’ll just call him Regular. I didn’t get involved in any pots with Regular

Seat 6: Silent Guy. This guys stack varied from $50 to $600 while I was there. I think he took every single flop, regardless of the action, or his cards. We’ll call him FlopMaster.

Seat 8: Asian guy that started with about $1500, and lost about $1000 of that during my hour and a half at the table. He shall be known as ChipBleeder.

Memorable Hands:

Silent Guy and BigStack chopping a huge pot when they both flopped boats holding Q-3. Don’t see that too often.

In the first nice sized pot I won, we had two limpers, and I bump it to $15 from the cutoff with K-Qo, I take a flop with FlopMaster and ChipBleeder with position on them both. Q-10-4 rainbow flop. Yay for me. Check, check, I bet $25. FlopMaster calls, and ChipBleeder folds. Turn is fantastic looking King. Double Yay for me. He checks, I bet $40, and he calls. River was a blank, and I jam for about $50 more, and he calls me, showing Q-3. I went on to see FlopMaster later call 6x BB raises preflop with 7-5 off.

Three-Hand-Doofus was something to see. He sat down with $100, and lost about half of it on his first hand, folding to an all-in bet on the turn from ChipBleeder, who had him covered by 20x or so. Next hand, he jams preflop with A-Qo, and doubles up through FlopMaster.

The very next hand, I take a flop for free from the BB with Qs-6s, with Three-Hand-Doofus, the only other participant, in the SB. Flop comes Q-6-3 rainbow. He checks, I check behind, wanting him to hit something. Turn brings a duece, he bets $40 or so, I think about jamming for the rest of his $60, but opt to call. river brought an 8, with no flush on board. He jams, I call, he shows Q-10 off, and gets up and leaves in silence.

A couple of hands later, I pick up black Aces on the button in a hand with a straddle, three limpers, and I make it $40 to go, and BigStack calls. 6-4-2 flop, with two clubs, BigStack checks, I throw out $75, and he hems and haws, and finally folds, showing one Ace. I wait for the pot to get pushed to me, pause for a half-second, and muck my cards face-down, much to his dismay.

I played a little while longer, but decided to cash out, and consider my weekend of binge drinking more than paid for. I had a three hour drive ahead of me, and being hungover, I knew I’d have to get up and spray the bowl in a short time anyway.

Good times man…good times…

I recommend checking out Poker Source Online if you're looking around to sign up for an online poker room. PSO was established in early 2004 and has given out way over $6,000,000 in free gifts and free poker money. If you'd like an alternative to free gifts, PSO also offers rakeback. PSO has 24/7 live phone support, so if you have any questions, it's easy to get answers.

After donking out of a token tourney with some pretty horrendous play last night, I found myself with a very short attention span.  I really wanted to fire up a MTT and sit there and grind away, but I feared that my attention span would be shortened to the point that my patience would not be there.  You know, the kind of patience required to fold K-10 suited from middle position after not seeing a playable hand for 2-3 orbits, and you’re itching to play a hand.

So I tried something that I’ve only tried one other time.  I decided to play three 1-table SnG’s at once.  I figured this way I would always have something to focus on without getting bored, as my ADD-like brain was wanting to wander.

I suppose the right decision would be to pack it in for the night, and actually hit the sack at a decent time.  But I’m not one for getting to bed before midnight.

Back to the SnG’s, I actually played well, and managed to cash in all three, winning one, and finishing 3rd in the other two. I’m not gonna go into any details other than this.

In the SnG that I took down, I ended up HU with a VERY aggressive player.  For the most part I had avoided him the entire tourney, but by the time we were HU, I had a pretty good read on him.  Didn’t really matter though, about 10 hands in, he decides to jam his Q-8 off into my rockets pre-flop, and that’s that.

******************************

Played the Bodog $4500 guaranteed at midnight, which I’ve cashed in before, but not made a deep run in yet.  I like…love this tourney.  The structure is just beautiful, and the players are atrocious.  About an orbit after getting seated at a table in this tourney, it’s pretty easy to spot the donks, as well as the people like myself, just waiting to pounce on the next player to think that TPMK is gold.

I managed to run deep in this thing, finishing 15th of 442.  I’m pleased with my play.  I had spot-on reads the entire tourney, and only once had to rely on a suckout to survive (early on).  I lost the majority of my chips when my Ks-Qs turned a flush on an unpaired board, and some donkey rivered the nut flush with his As-5d.

I had real problem with shortstacks in this tourney though.  Multiple times, I’d isolate a shorty with a better hand, only to be drawn out on.  Hell, of the showdowns that I lost, I’d bet 90% of them came from from shorties who got their money in as a dog.

I put some of Hoy’s ideas regarding stealing and restealing late in tourneys to use with moderate success.  I don’t agree with everything Hoy has to say about it, but for the most part, he’s correct.  If nothing else, it’s a good read that will get you thinking a little bit more about late tourney play.

Of course, right around the third break (about 3:15), Numb Jr. decided to wake up, and demand some milk from  Mommy, so I was little distracted from the game for a short period while there were around three tables remaining.

******************************

Looking forward to the BBT Freeroll tonight.  How deep in this thing do we have to get to make the points? 

Co-hosting the BuddyDank Radio Broadcast last night was a complete blast. I have to admit though, I was a little intimidated at first, having no experience with any type of broadcasting, stage performance, etc… Basically I’ve never been in a position to speak to a crowd of more than say…eight people, so that part of it kind of messed with my head to start with.

I think I’ve figured out the secret to overcoming this…liquor, followed by a little more liquor…followed up by a little bit more liquor. I sipped a few suds last night, and that seemed to calm the nerves a little bit. the only problem was that I didn’t crack the first beer until right about when the Mookie started, thus not giving me enough time to get a decent buzz on quickly enough.

I have two solutions. I can either start drinking beer a little earlier, like say…5:30 or so (the Mook starts at 9:00 my time), or drink something a little harder. Or I could do both, but I do have to drag my ass out of bed in the morning and pay the bills.

I’ll figure it out. Actually, InstantTragedy said it best during one of the breaks…”Just act like your having a regular conversation man.” Advice that is gold Jerry, gold I tell ya.

I must say, it’s actually very cool to finally get to converse with a few of you. GCox25, I hope to attend an Okie-Vegas event sometime in the future, and sorry for knocking you out of the Dookie*. If it makes you feel any better, I bubbled that damn thing. Nothing like a little Turbo Razz to feed the inner-donkey.

* Actually, I’m not sorry about that, in fact I’m never sorry for taking someone’s chips, regardless of how sick of a beat I may have put on them. I just say “I’m sorry” to be polite, but believe me…I’m not sorry.

Sean, you are the Al Michaels of the blonkuments. I thoroughly enjoyed working with you last night, as well as getting to know you a little bit.

And of course, thanks to Buddy, who allowed me to grace his airwaves tubewaves last night.  I guess he kind of felt obligated after I introduced him to my drunken cash game the other night.

Looks like I’ll be making an appearance on BuddyDank Radio tonight during the Mookie.

So, after discovering that BuddyDank lives mere minutes from me here in the greatest city in central Iowa, we finally hook up at my regular “home” game, which I managed to get him into.

After bragging about how the game is well run, and starts on time, I arrive at the location (a party room in a local restaurant) only to discover that the room had been double booked that night. Now how the fuck they double book a room, when our group has played in the same room, every other Monday for the past two years is beyond me, but it happened.

So there’s a few of us hanging around the bar, and I’m wondering if BuddyDank is even around, since the only visual I have in my mind of Buddy is his FTP avatar. I hear my name being called from a few feet away, and he’s sitting there, right in the midst of 8-10 very pissed off wannabe poker players.

Finally… I actually meet a fellow blogger. Buddy’s pretty cool about the whole mixup, and we briefly entertained thought of going home and donking it up in The Hoy before it’s decided that we’ll continue the game, but out on the patio. Being outside is fine, when it’s not 90 degrees at 7:30 pm, with no breeze to speak of.

The game gets underway about 20 minutes late, with 16 runners, a little short of the usual 25 people or so. It’s the usual donkfest that I’ve grown accustomed to with this group. And like always, the blinds get up there waaayyyyy too fast.

After we get down to 11 players, we move the game inside, an area with one of God’s greatest inventions…Air Conditioning.

I end up busting out in 8th or 9th, and Buddy barely makes the cash in 5th place I think.

The cash game is the fun part of the night, and it’s fast and loose. Unfortunately, it’s not in the cards for me to take advantage of this. I reload a couple of times, and make a small run late in the game to minimize the loss. Plenty of beer flowing, and it was a pretty good time. I think Buddy ended up ahead in the game. My cash game skillz need some work though.

So there you go, my first “blogger gathering”. With two of us here in Iowa, maybe we should consider some type of blogger gathering here in the corn state. I don’t have any fancy names like Okie-Vegas or anything like that. The only thing that comes to mind is IowaTucky (no offense to you Kentuckians, but you guys are pretty much all hicks like us, right?).

I might hit up Skype in the near future and make an appearance for the Mookie sometime. My grandmother always told me I have a face made for radio.