Thursday, June 26, 2008

Running Well... and a Cash Game Hand History

Even with the fear of jinxing myself, I'm still going to proclaim that I apparently am running well lately! After my winning last weekend, I've had some good results this week as well: with two $75 tokens earned, a satellite win for entry into the Sunday $750k Guarantee, AND last night I double-cashed the Daily Double tournaments, and finished the "A" in 4th place for ~$680! That's my second final table in a 1,000+ person tournament within a week, and has me feelin' pretty good about the state of my game.

Will do my best to keep up the little win streak, and have plans to get lots of tourneys in over the weekend. And I do NOT plan on cashing out the $T from my satellite win, and rather, I will be competing in the weekly big tournament this Sunday on Full Tilt. So I've got that goin' for me... which is nice.

Anyway... change of subject. Very similar to what Matt's recent posts have discussed, I too have been making a little foray into the realm of online cash games (despite a serious lack of experience, and a very unsuccessful record in previous attempts.) So with the intent of soliciting any and all help I can get, I wanted to post a hand history from last night that I believe really illustrates my inefficiencies at getting the most value out of cash game poker. Any and all thoughts are welcome...

Full Tilt Poker Game #6988060701: Table Anza (deep 6) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:49:52 ET - 2008/06/27 ~ I'm new to all elements of cash game play, including table selection decision making. But, I feel my game is best suited for 6max, and I enjoy the ability of sitting with 200bb to begin, so have preferred these "deep" tables. And I've been experimenting at the $0.50/$1 level, (although I should probably be at the $0.25/$0.50 games being as my bankroll's still well under $5k.)
Seat 1: Boots2323 ($129.70)
Seat 2: jbellis71 ($194)
Seat 3: RaisingCayne ($230.05)
Seat 5: peragroo ($206.90)
Seat 6: Pokerlusky ($101.50), is sitting out
peragroo posts the small blind of $0.50
Boots2323 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [5s 5d] ~ I heard somewhere that this hand is gold.
volition380 sits down
jbellis71 raises to $2
volition380 adds $100
Pokerlusky has reconnected
RaisingCayne calls $2 ~ Definitely calling a min-raise with position and presto. Haven't even seen a single preflop 3-bet in the half hour I've been at the table, and didn't feel the need to bump it here with just a small pp, and the open min-raise was very non-standard, and possibly representative of a monster.
peragroo calls $1.50
Boots2323 folds
*** FLOP *** [4c 4s 5c] ~ Boom!
Pokerlusky has returned
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne checks ~ Table has been playing UBER tight, with NO big pots and NO hands even going to showdown. I thought here that there was WAY too big of chance that ANY bet wins me the tiny pot as is, and I wanted to find a way to get the most out of my flopped full house.
*** TURN *** [4c 4s 5c] [Tc]
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne bets $3.05 ~ I've only got so much patience, need to do something to build the pot.
peragroo folds
jbellis71 calls $3.05 ~ K. I guess that's SOME action.
*** RIVER *** [4c 4s 5c Tc] [Ah]
jbellis71 bets $7 ~ Okay, so the turn completed a flush, and the river's an ace... and villain bets into me. So he's holding something that I need to reraise to get value out of my monster flop.
RaisingCayne has 15 seconds left to act ~ I'm slow. Had to calculate what I thought would be called by either a naked Ace, or a turned flush.
RaisingCayne raises to $20 ~ Advice welcome here as in hindsight think I could've re-raised a bit more, but this is the amount I went with. Not even sure why... was close to ~3x villain's bet.
jbellis71 has 15 seconds left to act
jbellis71 raises to $40 ~ And here's where I get completely perplexed! ??? WTF does this mean? A min-re-raise river 3-bet.? Hmmm...
RaisingCayne calls $20 ~ JUST call.(!????!) WTF!? I didn't even tank either!? I guess I talked myself into being scurred of TT or AA given the min-re-raise 3-bet post-river, but with hindsight I'm thinking this is just pussy poker and I totally should've re-popped. I guess I was just contemplating the scenario of seeing villain shove in response and me not knowing what to do, (read: me making a crying call for a more than I really wanted to risk,) so went with the 'just call' option here.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jbellis71 shows [Ac 6c] a flush, Ace high ~ JUST a flush! A min-RE-raise river 3-bet on a paired board with JUST a flush!? Fawk I should've gotten a lot more out of a villain here.
RaisingCayne shows [5s 5d] a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ Yeah, Presto is gold. Why did I ever even consider that there was any chance it wasn't after how the hand played out?!
RaisingCayne wins the pot ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $93.10 Rake $2
Board: [4c 4s 5c Tc Ah]
Seat 1: Boots2323 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: jbellis71 showed [Ac 6c] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: RaisingCayne (button) showed [5s 5d] and won ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ ... but is now kicking himself as he should've gotten A LOT more out of a flopped full house!???
Seat 5: peragroo (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 6: Pokerlusky is sitting out


Thanks in advance for any and all advice you may have. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

'Til next time...

...Stay classy San Diego,
~Raising Cayne

5 comments:

Mike Maloney said...

I'm rarely ever folding/calling the river with a full house. Obviously there may be circumstances where it is necessary, but they're pretty rare.

The way that river played out, it looks like that ace is a great card for you, because he's playing back pretty hard. It turns out he thought it was a great card for him, but I digress.

You absolutely cannot play cash games, ESPECIALLY 6-max, worried that someone has a higher set than you. That is not likely to happen, and if it does, it's just a cooler, and it happens. But if your opponent is raising you when you have a full house, you need to always be re-raising or shoving. Always. You leave money on the table when you don't.

In this particular hand, it's kind of a toss up for me between re-raising up to $120 or so and just shoving since you only have about $165 behind. Either one is probably fine.

Matt said...

I like this, it's like a battle of who can play cash games worse.

I think I'm ahead right now.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

Schaubs said...

I'd like to join that battle...

Maybe we should organize a donkey blogger cash game one of these days...

Maybe one of these days.

Fuel55 said...

The Presto gods are definitely not impressed with your weak/tight play. It may be a while before Presto strikes gold for you again ...

Joaquin "The Rooster" Ochoa said...

Nice catch...no, very good run, mate. I like those tokens that you have won....those can turn into good money if you go on a good run.