Hella Hold'em

Well... what a night of poker it has been! 3 hours of play at the $25NL table. First off, let me shout out to my table-mates, who were just awesome to play with. Ya know how it feels when ya sit down and chill out and play some cards with a bunch of friends? Our table had that vibe to it. Good times. It seems to happen so rarely amongst strangers (or, you always get the jerk who's name calling or playing like an idiot or other such downers).

On Empire, some of the coolest people I've met:
Jenny1977
Memberley
Pegasus_RC
Super_D_ (who is comping us all dinner)
stives415

Cool folks, ya's are! There were others that came and went from our table, but that bunch was there for most of my 3 hours, and I had a blast. (It took me 2 1/2 hours to actually win any money, but I finally broke the seal and turned a profit).

But before I get all statistical, some stories.

One of the craziest pots I've seen!!

I'm in the BB with 4-3 offsuit. Stives415 is under the gun and raises to $1.00, gets 3 callers. Super_D_ pumps it up to $5. I laugh and fold my junk hand. 2 callers, then Pegasus_RC goes all in for his $21.75. Yikes!! I'm thinking, nice move to take down all those $5 callers, figuring everyone would fold. Boy was I wrong! Next to act goes all in with his $14, and Super_D_ goes all in with his $36!!! Stives415 was having none of that and backed down. (If I remember correctly, I think he said he was holding A-8h). Next to act goes all in with his $16 (why not at this point, right?) Flop comes rags, 3-4-10 rainbow. Turn is a 2s, river a 4d. Guess what hand won it? You're thinking, with all that pre-flop action, we're gonna see some A's, some K's, maybe some Ladies. Maybe a suck-out of trips from a pocket pair that hit on the board. The $90.10 pot went to....

Super_D_ with pocket Jacks.

A pair of J's took that pot down!! Wow. I can't believe the all-in's on that hand. The other 3 players involved showed down KJh, AQs, and pocket 5's.

From then on, it was declared that Super_D_ was buying us all dinner.

My first big hand of the night was much less dramatic. I'm holding AJ offsuit, under the gun. Whenever I see AJ these days, I hear two things: Randy's voice saying, "I *hate* AJ!" and a line I read in a book recently, that went something like, "AJ is not nearly as powerful a hand as you might think it is." It's like, bad karma for the AJ. Really makes me want to fold it! I limped in for 50 cents, praying nobody would raise it (so much for the "if it's good enough to play, it's good enough to raise!" voice in my head - man, AK, AQ, AJ just make me antsy!) . Nobody raised - 3 callers, plus the small and big blinds, so 6 of us go to the flop. Board comes J-K-A rainbow. Hmm. That's either really good for me, or really dangerous. Friggin straights! Memberley was first to act and folded (??? no check? I meant to prod him for that one, but his hand musta been THAT bad). Jenny1977 (BB) checks, and I check to see what's going on out there. Next opponent bets out 50 cents (well THAT looks like a semi-bluff to me), Pegasus_RC folds, next guy calls, Jenny1977 calls, I call. Turn comes 2s. I like that. Time to see what mystery 50-cent raiser really has. Jenny1977 checks, and I bet $3 into a $5 pot. I probably shoulda gone higher to push out any straight draws, but I wanted to get some value out of this hand too - I wanted callers, having a feeling I was leading at this point. Ends up I wasn't leading (mystery 50 cent raiser had the straight with Q-10, I just didn't know it yet). He pushes it to $8. This clears out the other 2 players, and I call. River comes a Jack. As they say on the WPT, now I've got fireworks going off in my head, cuz I figure 50 cent guy has the straight (based on his re-raise), and I just made my boat. I bet out $3 - he's an aggressive one so I'm expecting a re-raise, and he obliges by pushing me to $15. I have $17 left so I push all in for $20. He calls. My boat takes it, for a $58 win. Yahooooooo! My hands were shaking so bad at this point, it's a good thing it was online and not a live game.

That's officially my first $50+ pot online!

Another notable hand of the evening is a tale of how potentially costly it can be to have those fireworks going off in your head. I'm in middle position holding KK. Two limpers, I raise to a buck. Folds around (including SB/BB), 2 limpers call. (Memberley and Jenny1977 - it sounds so crude to call you limpers!) Flop comes 3-6-7, two diamonds. I'm thinking, nice flop for me - got those fireworks going off in my head. It's checked to me, I bet $3. Memberley calls, and Jenny1977 goes all in for $21. Had I been calm, cool, and collected, I'd have noticed her check-raise, but all I was thinking was, damn could she possibly have Aces?? How could she have Aces?? What are the chances of that? She was too good a player to make a bet like that on a draw, but I'm thinking, then why didn't she raise pre-flop with those Aces? DUH. I was so concerned with my overpair that the obvious slipped right under my nose. She flopped a set. Hell-OOOO Shelly! Where's your head at? Bad, bad mistake to get so caught up in what's in YOUR hand that you lose the ability to clearly consider what your opponents are holding. Thank goodness her bet was so huge - there was no way I was calling it (though I did think about it). I folded. It didn't even occur to me that she had a set till after I folded - that's how bad I played that hand. Memberly also folded, and she took a nice pot.

Later I asked her why she didn't just bet smaller so that we'd call her down, knowing her hand probably dominated us. I told her she'd have gotten a ton more money out of my that way, since I was holding Kings and was so freakin' in love with them. She disagreed on the best way to earn that pot, and I thanked her (quite happily, I might add - I could have lost a huge chunk of change on that hand). My luck on that hand wasn't in the cards, but in how strongly my opponent bet into it. Thank you, Jenny1977!! :) (And welcome to Empire!)

That's about it for noteworthy hands. I left the table with $74. Needless to say, I'm very pleased with the outcome. I saw 131 hands of which I played 30, 12 of which were not blinds.

Voluntarily Put $ in Pot: 17.56%
Won $ when saw flop: 24.14%
Went to Showdown: 37.93%
% Win at Showdown: 45.45%

Pre-flop raise: 1.53%
Post-flop aggression factor: 1.38
Total aggression factor (including pre-flop): 0.62

What can I say about these stats? Well, I'm very please with my Vol.P$inPot stat. My goal lately has been to play more tightly, play fewer marginal hands, and I'm doing that. Looking at the went to showdown vs. win at showdown stats, I probably called down a few hands that I shouldn't have, though I was doing pot odds math all night on most of those calls, so if I did showdown with a losing draw, at least I had the odds to do it.

Aggression factor. Whew! Out the window! Where's my aggressive tournament style play?? I am obviously a different person when I have the sensation of "real money" versus chips in front of me. If only they would get rid of the stinkin' dollar signs! Gotta work on that. In this game, I ended up being tight/passive, passive - there's that word again. Yuck.

Now, it is late, and I must go to sleep. Tomorrow night I'm playing in a live tourney at a friend-of-a-friend's house. It will be good to get out of the house after being snowed in the last few days. And with that, I bid thee goodnight!