I made my first trip ever to Graton Casino on a recent Sunday afternoon and I was impressed. It had the scale and feel of an on the strip Vegas casino, but it looked like a Saturday night in there on a Sunday at 1 pm with 2/3 of the 3,000 (!!) slot machines in use.
The Poker Room (not pictured: a decent view of the poker tables)
I heard from the friends I was with who were Graton regs that you get $25 in free slot play if you sign up for a players card so I did. When I got to the poker room I discovered that you give them your card when you want to be added to the list for a game, your phone number is tied to your card and they text you when your seat is ready. The only options were $4/$8 limit, and $1/3 or $3/5 no limit.
WHY WITH THE $1 CHIP GAMES AGAIN!?
I bought in for $1,000. The max was $1,500, but I rationalized buying in for less by telling myself that I'd never played with any of these players before and $1,000 was enough to cover everyone but one player who had $1,300. I had about $3,000 on me and it felt more comfortable to have three $1,000 buys ins than two $1,500 buys ins. In reality this is hogwash. HOGWASH! My best approach has always been to buy in for the max, try to build up a towering stack and use it for complete and total psychological domination of my mentally weak opposition.
Happily I got off to a hot start. I three bet TT to $90 in the big blind over a raise to $15 and two calls. Only the small blind called. The flop came down T96! Huzzah! I looked over at the small blind's stack and he only had about $160 left. Usually when someone has less than a pot sized bet and is short stacked, it's time to just get it in, but my read on this specific dude was that he would be more apt to call a series of smaller bets than one all in. He checked, I bet $75 and he called. The turn was an 8 putting a one liner to a straight out there and my opponent quickly mashed his remaining chips in the pot with the dexterity and finesse of a 6 month old baby slapping at a serving of puréed carrots. I of course snap called, he rolled over J8 and after another 8 on the river I took down a nice pot.
The next one was a favorite of mine, not just because of the result, but because of my thought process. I called a raise to $15 with 54 of clubs in middle position and we took the flop 5 ways. The flop came down AK8 with two clubs, the preflop raiser checked, I checked and it got around to the button who bet $55. What could this guy have and what does he not have? He never has AA or KK or AK just calling after a raise and multiple calls. With a small raise size preflop he absolutely has every Ax in his range and many Kx hands too. After we all check he's going to bet any piece of that flop, but unless he has exactly 88 or A8 it's really tough for him to call a check raise. Also these other goons between us already checked after the preflop raiser checked so they can't have anything. Of course I had a flush draw as backup, but I think I could make this move with nothing in this exact spot. Going through this is not exactly hard sitting here looking back with all the time in the world, but the fact that all of that hit me in an instant in the moment is very encouraging. I made it $150, the goons folded and the button mucked with frustration. I own your soul you button goon! Let it be a lesson to the rest of you goons!
On top of thinking about "configuration" like in the last hand, one thing I've been working on is playing big hands fast. Most players if they flop huge they are inclined to slowplay to in theory disguise the strength of their hand. So when you do the opposite and just blast away it gets misinterpreted and builds a pot.
I got a chance to executed on this with A4 of clubs in the big blind. The 6 month old baby I stuffed with the TT vs J8 hand raised to $15 in the small blind after 2 people limped for $5. I can not begin to tell you how TRASH this raise sizing is. IT MAKES NO SENSE! IT IS THE MOST RECREATIONAL SIZING OF ALL TIME! Anyway, I flopped the nuts on the Q86 all club flop! The trash baby checked, and I went into fast play mode betting $35. Only the player to my left called. The turn was the A of spades which could be an action killer, but checking made no sense. Part of my brain was saying "GO BIG! GO BIG" and the other part was like "What? Quit shouting at me. You're screaming too much about how these players are trash and babies." I bet $100 thinking that was about full pot, but $125 or even $150 might have been better. The river was the 9 of hearts and I got this feeling that my opponent was just never folding. "GO BIG! GO HUGE!" "What? Are you sure? I'm not sure I want to go huge." I settled on $250, got called right away and regretted not going bigger.
Despite my regrets I think my bet sizing was OK. Certainly I've seen my opposition go something like $30, $60, $100 in similar sports and make half what I did. But if I'm against a 2 pair plus hand like it's clear I was I might have been able to go $125 on the turn and $500 on the river. I'm working on this. I keep telling myself to GO HUGE and then betting 80%-90% of pot which is big but not huge.
The exact colors of Heinz ketchup and relish bottles?
They gave us all "all in" buttons to throw in as needed. I was not in fact all in in the picture and did not get to use my button.
After this picture where I was sitting on about $1,650 I had a slow and steady decline for 3 hours eventually booking a win of $2. The smallest live cash game win of all time for me? Probably.
Teaser: I'll be back a Graton for some tournaments in mid September.
After 36 hours my $10K bankroll is at $10,456.
No comments:
Post a Comment