Weekend Poker Update

This weekend I went to Turning Stone a casino in upstate New York where you have to be 18 or older to gamble. This was the weekend of my 20th birthday, and one of my friends already won a ticket to their weekly $300+40 tourney, and offered to sell me the ticket for $100. Despite a decently fast structure I decide to buy the ticket.

We start with 300 chips with 30 minute blinds, here are the first few rounds:
25/50
50/100
75/ 150
100/200

As you can see blinds go up very quickly, especially with 30 minute levels. I decided to play very aggressively and splash around in a lot of pots. Here was a very interesting hand I played about 25 minutes in coupled with some analysis.

A player in the Cutoff (position to the right of the button) raises to 125. I look down at 8 5 of diamonds on the button and call, fully knowing the 2 blinds will fold, because they are super tight.

Flop: 8 6 5 (1 diamond)

Opponent leads out with a bet of 600 which was 2 times the pot. I reraise him to 1800 trying to just take the pot and see where I stand. I was at 7100 before this hand started. My opponent had about 500. My opponent called.

Analysis: My opponents hand screams overpair. I strongly think he comes over the top with a set and he probably wants to take a card off before pushing because i could easily have a hand like A 7 and be a coinflip vs him if he pushes with two 10's.

Turn: 7 (diamond)

This card is both a money card for me and possibly a terrible card. If my opponent has two 9s for a straight, I am a dog with 4 cards for a boat, 9 for a flush and then 3 for the same straight giving me a 34% chance to win but a 2 to 1 dog.

Analysis: My read on my opponent was overpair and only 1 overpair would hurt me here. My opponent has no chance to make a full house now. My opponent might be scared of this card, but at the same time I cannot let my opponent get a free card with two 10s.

Action: I go all in and my opponent mucks and shows the Ace of diamonds. My opponent either had the nut flush draw or 2 aces. I made the right bet, because regardless smy opponent did not have me beat and no point in letting him draw.

Tournament summary: 250 people bought in to this tourney, and top 30 make the money. I finished in 24th place. I was a big stack most of the tournament. I got busted with two 7s all in preflop for about 20 big blinds vs. two 4s. If I won that hand I probably would have made the final table which paid a profit of $1000+. I cashed for $600 which is a nice profit for a couple hours worth of work.

Strategy corner:

This will be a new segment in my poker posts. Here I will make a post about strategy and ask for YOUR input. This could be a hand or a tournament structure or something on those lines.

This posts problem: I might be playing in a very juicy game in my dorm and here is the structure. 1/2NL cash game min buy in 60 max buy in 300. I was thinking about bringing $100. The players are very loose (especially post flop) and are super aggressive. They make you not want to gamble and will raise to $11 preflop. They will also call of a ton of money with two 4s to gamble on a coinflip.

My question is: How do you play these guys (bring more money or is 100 good). Play super tight and wait for the cards. Play really passive and limp a lot and try to hit flops. Be hyper aggressive with good hands and let them make mistakes. These are all options. Is it possible to beat a game like this without hitting cards?

I will give you guys 2 hand scenerios about this game. One of my buddies is super tight and bought in for 100. He basically got blinded down most of his stack. Made a preflop raise with AQ got called. Flop was A K Q and the money got all in vs J 10 (guy called 11 preflop with J10).

Another hand my friend raises with A Q to 11 another reraises to 40. My friend is on tilt shoves for 80 and the opponent calls showing QQ.

This will provide some help for you guys....how should I play these guys?