Welcome To Good Karma Kid!!!

Friday, October 6th , 2006
By GoodKarmaKid
in Poker Blog ,with

I had a very nice, quick session today on PartyPoker. I normally play two games of 20-40 limit hold’em simultaneously, sometimes three depending on the action of the games, how mentally aware I am, and my general mood. If there is a lot of action and players playing fancy, trying to give you the shake and bake, check-raising with nothing, etc than I normally stick to two games so I can keep track of the monkeys in the zoo. I didn’t really feel like playing today, so I was hoping to login and book a quick winner and be done with poker for the day. Well, I got my wish

After about an hour of play I was $1000 winner, I had the checkboxes cleared for the “autopost” and was prepared to quit when the blind came to me. I won one small pot on one of the games I was playing, and won a gigantic pot ($1000)in the second game. I was in middle position with 99, and a relatively loose player directly to the right of me raised. I don’t really like “calling” in this position with this hand, I much prefer the “pump it or dump it” philosphy. With a holding like 99 I want to play the hand heads up as much as possible. The problem with just calling in this spot, especially online, is that you are inviting all the monkeys behind you into the pot, and they will routinely call 2 bets cold with ace-rag, k-x suited etc, hoping to win a big pot. In a multi-way pot you have to avoid to many overcards. My strategy almost worked :).

Everyone folded except the small blind who happened to be an exceptionally aggressive, action maniac who called the $60, the big blind folded, and the original raiser capped the action at $80.

I got a nice but dangerous flop of J 9 3 all hearts. I flopped middle set. On these kind of flops I never slow play (I almost never slow play big hands under any circumstances, but I will save that for a different story), the small blind leads out and the orginal raiser raises, I three bet, small blind calls, original raiser caps it. I’m not really worried, I put him on an overpair with a possible heart redraw, I wasn’t entirely sure what the small blind had, but he only had $80 going into the turn, so I didn’t really care.

The turn was a black 4, and as expected, the small blind bet $40 of his last $80, original raiser just called, I raised to $80 putting small blind all in, and the other guy now made it three bets?? Did he really have the flush? I didn’t think so, and I went with my original read, overpair with possible heart redraw, and capped the turn at $160.

The river was a black queen, which I wasn’t crazy about as it was a straight card, and the original raiser may have had qq, but his hand felt more like kk or aa. Small blind was all in, and the original raiser bet into the river. I scratched my head a little, but chose to go with my original read that he had aa or kk and popped the river also, even though there were several hands that I couldn’t beat. When the player just called I knew I had the best hand. Pot was huge, just slightly under $1000. The small blind had qj off ( you got to love the internet) calling 3 bets out of small blind. The original raiser had a real hand AA with the ace of hearts, but he overplayed his hand and lost way more than he had to. None the less, I was happy as a clam, Won $1900 in just over an hour

Today’s Poker Lesson: Never underestimate the value of a quick hit and run poker session. While I generally advise that if the game is good and you have an edge you should continue to play, there are certain exceptions that I make to this rule. If you have been “running bad” it is often a good idea to “book a winner” the psychological edge of a winning session is often all it takes to get a player back on track. Another time to hit and run is when you didn’t really feel like playing anyhow or you may have just played 3 or 4 long sessions in the previous days. Take the money, go get a massage or just relax and could back the next time fresh and on a positive not.

One Response to “The Value in a Quick Poker Session”

1. Danielle Says:
   April 16th, 2006 at 1:18 am

   As a former dealer, I really wished more people realized the “hit and run” is a good thing and not try to get greedy and ride the wave. I too have been guilty of that in the past. Love your blog.

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