Chipping the rust off

Well, I went out to play poker last night for the first time in a very long time.  My buddy Gerald G.  (pocket G’s I like to call him) was hosting a 10 player no-limit night.  Typical blind structure.  Re-buys until 10:00pm and one additional add-on before going into the elimination round.

 My typical approach to this format is to feel out the crowd by throwing my weight around.  I’m not too concerned about blowing my chips a couple of times and going back to my wallet to reload.  I had not played with about half of the table before so I needed to see some showdowns to learn more.  Fortunately this happened even without my chips in the pot.  It was clear to me that there were some very loose players pre-flop that were very inexperienced post flop.  I was soon able to figure out who I wanted to be up against when the game would progress into the later stages.

I started out with crap cards and took some shots early on when I did hit decent hold cards.  Fortunately I found some good cards and made some good plays about 1/2 hr before the final add-on.  By the time we went into final add-on, I had already reloaded 2 times meaning I had paid for three stacks to this point.  However, I was able to accumulate just shy of 3 times the initial stack size which means I currently owned pretty much all the chips I had bought.  So I naturally added on to have a stack that was about 3rd or 4th going into elimination.

Here are the key hands in chronological order that affected the path to my eventual finish:

1. early on, non-elimination stage:  :As:Js in late.  Call an all-in :Qh:Qd (my stack was smaller).  Another caller behind me with :Ah:Th which upset me before even knowing what everyone had.  I knew a triple up was going to be hard to get with AJ.  Lost hand to QQ which put the conservative, play pairs only player in a super big stack position. 
2. early on, non-elimination stage:  I’ve reloaded about 10 minutes ago.  :Ac:Qc in middle.  I raise 3x.  Weaker player raises all-in.  Conservative big stack pauses for a while before calling.  Thus, I do not put him on a big pair.  With 2-1 odds – a triple up chance – I call.  Weak player shows AK and conservative shows AQ basically killing me.
3. Immediate next hand:  Reloaded.  :Ts:Tc middle. Bet 4x BB.  2 callers.  Flop shows rags.  Bet pot – take it down.
4. nearing end of non-elimination:  :8s:8h late.  Weak player with big stack raises early.  No callers.  I re-raise.  My only self-initiated all-in of the night….which should give you an hint as to where I finished :).  All other all-ins I made were re-raises to existing all-ins to isolate.   Pair holds up against KJ.
5. nearing end of non-elimination:  :Ah:Ks in late.  Weak player with slightly larger stack goes all in.  Re-raise all in to isolate.  Heads up and dominated AQ
6. early on, elimination stage – lost 1/2 stack to same weak player as in hands 2 and 4.  A5s vs KK.  Ouch.  Changed gears to tight and played the stealing game for a while.  Rebuilt stack to a moderate threat size.
7. 8 players remaining.  Knocked out tight conservative from hand 1.  I was in late wite :3h:3c.  His all-in required evaluation.  Normally I’d put him on pairs but he’d been decimated from biggest stack to slightly smaller than mine.  Blinds were coming around and about 1/4 of his stack.  His pause before going all-in made me sense that he was making a final stand on two face cards at best.  He showed :Jh:Th.  My pocket 3s hold up (phew).   That was the KEY hand for me.  That puts me in 3rd and with muscle.
8. 5 players left.  Took down Dave(?) KJ vs 88.  Not a large stack but puts me in 2nd
9. 3 players left.  Jay, by far the toughest competitor, just went down to Pete – an unknown but I feel is not experienced at shorthanded play.  Me:  :Ad:8c on button.  I raise 3x BB.  Pete defends.  Flop:  AKJ rainbow.  Pete goes all-in.  But his body language told me he didn’t hit an A, more likely the K.  I knew he didn’t pair both cards so I put him on KT – a reasonable play for him with that hand.  I call knowing I’m favourite.  He shows K8 which was even poorer than I expected.
10. The rest is history.  I’m slightly smaller stack heads up against the weak player from hands 2,4 and 6 but quickly double up calling a KJ all-in with my A3.  Then it’s lights out when I call all in with :Tc:8c vs AK with a straight and flush draw on the flop.  I hit the hardest of my outs with a runner runner 88.

In the end, I don’t feel I was portraying any type of image at the table.  Perhaps tightness early on and some loose aggressive midway through.  But I think people were pretty much playing their cards and making moves based on their stack sizes and the size of the BBs not on what I had.  I don’t recall any significant hand where I bluffed and won the pot using my image to do so.  Of course there were bluffs later on going heads up, but when the table was short, it seemed that players were going all in quickly and very few flops were ever seen.  Which may have been a good thing for me in the end.  I only had to try to figure out the hold cards instead of work strategy post-flop….which considering the lack of playing time I’ve had lately, I think I would have been at a disadvantage against most players who are regulars these days. 

However, I am pleased with the way I bet pre-flop and post-flop on the few occassions that came up.  I must have raised well over 75% of my hands I played and very rarely just called unless I caught a read.  I felt I had a good idea what I was going up against and I was able to use my position wisely while staying out of hands in early position that were marginal to good.   I had great confidence that I was in control of my game at all times and the table was mine for the taking that night.   Must have been a combination of cards, avoiding the good players (skillfully and by happenstance in many cases) and challenging the weaker players, ensuring I went heads up against them by re-raising their all-ins to force out remaining players.  

Tip:  If you’re not last to act, if you have a hand you want to challenge an all-in with, you may not wish to simply call the raiser.  I’ve seen it happen way too often where an excited player will call an all-in and watch as a player behind with a bigger stack goes over the top and now your no longer heads up and in a poor table position.  In many cases, take a moment to see if a re-raise of an all-in will assure you a heads-up situation.

Overall, a good night where I didn’t have spectacular cards, but the situations suited me and the tough players were knocked out so that I didn’t have to cross swords with them.  I recognized key situations and evaluated the hands properly.  At the same time, I detected some weaknesses in my game that will need to be improved for next time:  my post-flop play.