Aces Cracked at Tourney

I just finished 36th out of 94 at the Bay 101 Spread-Limit tourney. The game plan going in was to play tourniquet tight. I played only 5 of the first 50 hands dealt to me mainly because the cards were arid. The best hand I saw in the first three rounds was 2-2. After the first break I was in the ICU with only 1200 chips left and the blinds at 300-600. In late position, I woke up with KJ suited. I tossed in my two big blinds realizing I would not probably see anything better before I was forced to play. The asian mafia dude immediately next to me goes all in for $5000. The big blind only has $600 left so he calls. The BB turns over a pair of 9s and the guy next to me flips up American Airlines. The flops comes out 10-K-6. Not dead yet. The turn is another K and the river a J. The full boat triples me up and I am back in the game. Two hands after reaching the $7000 mark with pocket aces, I get them again in middle position. The dude under the gun, goes all in preflop for $10,000. I have visions of winning the tourney as I immediately call thinking I can double up yet again when the raiser turns over KQ. I have him in a full metal jacket! The flop comes out 8-K-6. The turn is a 4 giving him no flush or straight draw. So he has only another King or Queen as outs (5 total). I am at least an 8-1 favorite to win this nice tasty pot. Just as I cracked aces, my were cracked when a king floats up on the river and I go home.

Budweiser Binge Guy and Going Hollywood

I have now been playing for almost three hours and am up about $100 bucks. I have played relatively tight and am now ready to take a few more chances. Again, I am in the big blind. That has been a very good position for me lately for some unknown reason. This time I have 4-4. Two guys raise to $15 bucks one in early position, one in late position. I am thinking: "Do they have high pairs and am I dominated if I call?". I think for a second and toss in the $15 bucks, hoping they have KQ or AK. The flop comes 4-K-J. I quickly check the set hoping to trap the raisers on the turn. One guy bets $20 and the other calls. I act like I am thinking for a few seconds and then call. The turn is an eight. No straight out there yet. I don't want anyone hanging around so I make $25 more to go. One guy folds and the other guy immediately calls. What does he have? Certainly a King or a Jack. Perhaps A-Q. The river is a 2c, no flush, no straight. The titanium nuts is trip kings. Could this guy be slow playing that hand? I think for a moment and decide to check. Was that weak or smart? The guy I am up against is the Budweiser Binge dude who is still hammered. When I check, he immediately makes it $80 bucks to go. I go into the pseudo tank. He is simply too hammered to lure my set of 4s into his pocket kings. I count out the $80 chips slowly and then decide to add on $60 bucks more, all in.

He again quickly calls and I stare at two pair KK-JJ. I really didn't mean to slow roll my set but I guess I did because he accused me of "Going Hollywood" when I eventually flipped over my set and hauled in a Silver Oak Magnum like pot. I didn't care what he thought as I stacked up HIS chips....

Chance from Surgical Poker.com

Quad 8s, No Action

Same spread limit game with another big blind special, 8-5 offsuit. No raisers so I limp in. The flop is 8-Q-8. A set for Daddy. I check. Two other limpers check. The turn, another 8. I now have quads. I check. So do the other limpers. A set on the board with a queen. The river comes out with a 6. This time I tried to look like I am stealing the scanty pot and bet 20 bucks. The two other guys fold and I flip over the quads. It would have been nice to get some action on that hand.

Chance from Surgical Poker.com

3-100 Spread Limit at Garden City

I decided to try to the new 3-100 Spread Limit at Garden City in San Jose. You can buy in for a maximum of $100. In the beginning I played tourniquet tight and try to get a feel for the game. It was a VERY tight game with several reasonable good players and one drunk guy with $500 bucks in front of him. He must have built the stack before his Budweiser Binge.

My first pot was a big blind special K-8s. No one raised it so I saw the flop for free. It came out Q-7-4, all spades. I had flopped the almost nut flush. I check it to three limpers who also check it. The turn was an A of hearts. So, I bet out like I had an ace--25 bucks. Two of the three limpers folded but and one guy called me. The river is a 3 of clubs. No help to anyone. So, I bet out another $25 feeler bet hoping to get called. No call, an all in raise!! What's going on here? Was the guy slow playing a made flush? Did he have the ace of spades? If he did, I will lose. I think about for a second and then call his all in. He flips over J-8 of spades and I show my king high flush for a very nice pot.

Chance from Surgical Poker.com

Menlo Dads Tourney

Just finished playing in the Menlo Dads tourney. Forty nine players and I took third place. Overall, an excellent night with lots of fun. Lost on the last hand when my queen-jack got busted by trip tens. A great bunch of guys and I look forward to playing in next year's gig.

AM

SurgicalPoker

London Pot Limit Hold'em

Recently, I was travelling on business in Europe. At the end of the trip I had one free night in London. Fortunately, they have poker there. I played 3/3 (British Pounds) pot-limit for about 4 hours. After two hours I was up about 60 pounds. I had played very tight and aggressive poker winning several small pots before the flop with cards like A-Q and Q-J suited. It was about 2am when I got frisky and loosened up way too much. I found myself in pots with middle pair and flush draws after the turn. The players in the game were uniformly excellent and all knew eachother. This should have been my sign to get out. Also, the poker luck was not in my seat. During my four hour gig, quads came up three times at my table never in my hand. When I woke up with A-J under the gun with 50 pounds left in my stack and a J-9-5 on the board, I went all in against the big bully at the table. The turn is a 9 and the river is a 9 making me a full house. I am happy until the bully turns over A-9 for quads. It is 4:15 am at that point and I head back to Paddington Station for the train to the airport.

Good memories bad beat?, AM

SurgicalPoker

Quad Jacks over a Boat

From Aloha B.

I decided to try the spread limit game at Garden City again this past weekend. I was 7th on the list so I decided to play some 6/12 while waiting for a spread limit game. I won four nice sized pots in about an hour when I looked down to find J J from under the gun. I limped in as well as three others, then LP raised, SB & BB fold and the four of us call. The flop came J J rag (wahoo, I haven't had quads for a few months). I bet and three players fold, the LP raises, so I re-raise and LP calls. Now it's heads up and the turn is an A, I bet, LP raises, I re-raise, he re-raises, I call. The river is another rag, and I bet, he raises, I re-raise, he re-raises and I call (oops, I forgot in heads-up there's no cap in raising). Anyway the poor guy has a boat A's over J's and I have the quad J's and a nice pot. How would you play this hand?

They announce that they're starting a new spread limit table and my name is called. I play the spread limit game for about 2 hours and although I didn't get any quads, I did hold my own.

more stories at Surgical Poker

Getting back into the Game

I haven't played ANY poker in over a month now. The day job, family and getting sick have prevented me from seeing any action. I am ready to jump back into the fray. Any comments about playing after a hiatus?

AM

Spread Limit Poker

Spread limit is a hybrid of limit and no limit. Typically, there are forced fixed blinds say $2 and $5. Then the top or most amount you can bet is fixed at $100 or $200 bucks. So, the minimum bet is $5 and the maximum is $100, thus "Spread-Limit". It is an interesting game to play. It keeps players honest and almost eliminates the "no fold'em hold'em". I have played in a couple tourneys where the spread limit rises with each round. I have yet to play the Garden city game but I here it is good.

Do they have spread limit down under??

AM

SurgicalPoker.com

Garden City Spread Limit Game

I was near Garden City Saturday, so I decided to stopped by and check out the nl game. It's actually not an nl game it's a spread limit game with $100.00 buy-in. The spread is $3 - $100 with 1/3 blinds. The waiting list for the spread game was very long, so I mainly played 6/12 while waiting. I was only able to play the spread game for about 30 minutes before I had to leave. Half of the player's were pretty solid, the other's were decent and one super loose aggresive guy who was raising almost every round. He didn't last too long before he was knocked out of the game. If you play tight aggressive, you can do well in this game. I wonder if Bay 101 will start having a spread limit game too! It seems to be a very popular game at GC.

More info about poker and vegas at: SurgicalPoker.com

AlohaBruce's Poker Story

I'm playing 2/5 nl at the Bellagio over Christmas this past year. I'm in the BB with KQ clubs, four player's limp in and LP raises, I call as well as two other's. The flop is 2, 8, 10 clubs (Yahoo for me), I lead out with $30 and everyone calls. The turn is an A s, I check( thought I was going to c/r) as well as the next two players, LP pushes all-in for about $500. After going in the tank for a few moments, I'm thinking that the best he could have is a set of A's. I call and push all-in for approximately $350, everyone else folds and the river is 3 clubs. Oh crap, I didn't want to see another club. Of course I have my K high flush and he has an Ac and Qd for the nut flush. I'm thinking, you pushed all-in with A pair and flush draw? Oh well, it won't be the last time I lose on the river.