Well, the good news is I’ve had some initial success with the “any two cards” strategy I talked about earlier. If you recall, the idea was in a PL or NL game, you should limp into the pot from late position with any two cards if there are two or more limpers in front of you. You have to be relatively certain that the blinds aren’t going to steal raise whenever you do this, and you have to have enough chips in your stack to gamble a bit without it hurting too much. Remember, the whole idea is to see a flop cheap and (hopefully) hit it big, with 2-pair or higher.
I woke up early this bright and sunny Christmas morning and played a $2 SnG. Yes, this sounds sacrilegious on Christmas day, but our family actually celebrates the traditional German way by opening gifts, singing carols, feasting, etc the night before on Xmas eve. The next day is usually just a laze-around-the-house-eat-and-goof-off-day. In other words, the perfect kind of day for poker. Anyway, the house was quiet, the kids, dogs, cats, and wife still sleeping. I love mornings like this, as I can usually get some writing done and have a head start on the day. But this morning I decided to play a quick game before getting going. So what happened?
A new feature in FT is the ability to hover your mouse over the opp’s screen names and see where they’re from. My table had two Germans, a UK citizen, someone from Canada, and the rest USA players. I started out tight per plan, and quickly realized my table had two Yank maniacs and the rest totally tight-passive players. The US maniacs went to war on hand number two with 66 vs. Q2o into a three flushed flop with an ace and a king showing. Wow, talk about bad play. The 66 held up and we were down to eight players. A few hands later, the 66 player busted out with another small pocket pair, going all-in on an A-Q-K board. Like I said, crazy.
Anyway, I built up a decent chip stack with some medium aces and kings. Nothing wondrous enough to write home about, but regardless I found myself with some chips to gamble with. With the maniacs gone, I was able to start seeing flops cheap from late position. The first few laps I hit nothing but air with my “any two.” A little while later, just before the blinds were going to go up, however, I came in with 56-offsuit in the cutoff with three limpers in front. The SB completed and the BB checked. The flop was 7-6-3, giving me middle pair and a gutshot draw. The SB bet the minimum, and everyone limped around to me. I didn't have two-pair or better, but I was nonetheless getting great odds to call, so I did and the flop filled my straight. Woo Hoo! Long story short, I doubled up on the hand and knocked another US player out. The implied odds of the "any two" strategy paid off big! YES! From there, I built up a significant chip lead with aggresive "fox" antics against the tight-passive players, and then turtled my way into the money once we got to the bubble.
Once into the money, the remaining two players (both from Germany) totally shifted gears. I’ve noticed that Europeans tend to be more “gamble-happy” in general with their chips, willing to reraise with nothing, pushing hard with TPTK, seeing a lot of flops, etc, especially once into the money. These zwei guys were no exception. In other words, it was a perfect opportunity for me to just tread water and wait for the opp to go to war with each other. It didn’t take long, and we were suddently down to two.
Okay, now we get to the Bad News part of the story. Shorthanded, I was playing reasonably smart poker, picking my spots, playing only big cards, wired pairs, and aces. I stayed away from connectors and such unless I could get in cheap (in short-handed play, connectors and suited cards aren't as strong as big face cards and any pairs). The opp wasn’t going to let me see anything cheap, however. He loved the all-in move if I limped from the SB, so I settled in for the long haul. And long it was; we went back and forth for quite a while. The blinds were getting huge by now, however, so I was looking to pick a spot. Any ace is a raising hand from the button heads up in this situation, so I raised to pot with A2o. The opp however pushed all-in, and, rather than laying my hand down (like I would normally do 99 times out of 100), I called the raise. Can you say dumb? This was a classic case of getting into a situation where I was trying to dodge a bullet, instead of waiting for an opportunity to fire the gun. At best I was a 50-50 coin flip against other semi-playable hands he might have held, at worst I was dominated by another ace or big pair.
He turned over kings, and of course I didn't hit my 3-outer. Arhghg. Second place is better than 3 through 9, right? Sure. It certainly didn't feel very good this time; I had had a legitmate shot at winning the whole thing outright. Instead I made just one boneheaded play and had to settle for 2nd place money. I can’t help but to be mad at myself for playing such a good thinking game up to that point….and then melting down on a true beginner's mistake at the end.
Oh, well. Das ist poker. Time to go feast on leftover Xmas goodies.
All-in for now…
-Bug
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