Black Deuces – Poker Blog

While searching some movies for my new “Why I love Daniel Negreanu”-post I came across this awesome interview.

In part one Daniel talks about his teenage years, his first bracelet, his rise as a professional poker player and tells a very funny story about McDonalds and Evelyne Ng.

In part two he talks about his miracle year 2004, his religious beliefs (yep) and the difference between live and online poker (AND a funny impression of an internet kid -lol).

Great interview indeed.

After a little time out from playing online poker, I really felt like playing a 90 man SNG at Full Tilt Poker last night. And guess what? I won the damn thing.

Although struggeling with a short-stack for most of the tournament I managed to make it to the final table. But at that final-table I doubled up twice fairly quickly, and with only 5 players remaining I knocked out 2 of them at once with pocket kings, giving me 60% of all the chips in play. I even got heads up with a 8 to 1 chip advantage, so the match was quickly over.

(Too bad hand history was disabled, otherwise I could have shown you some of the key hands.)

It feels good to finally book a win again!

Flopping quads can be fun, especially when the other player doesn’t have a clue where he’s at in the hand, and decides to pay off his whole stack with a marginal holding.

Few days ago I was playing in a very friendly small-stakes cash game (actually the game is just an excuse to drink and get stoned amongst friends. ) Anyway, during that session a very fun hand came up.

I was playing a VERY agressive game, almost playing any 2 cards, raising and re-raising every pot. We were playing 0,10/0,20c blinds and I was losing about 20$. I picked up KK under the gun and made my standard raise to 1$ (or 5BB’s). I got two callers behind me. Then the miracle flop hit: KK9. I checked and the player next to me made it 2$ into the 3,40$ pot. The other player folds and I casually throw the chips in (just like I’m floating to hit a pair or am drawing to a flush). The pot is now almost 8$ and we both have about 20$ behind. The turn is a perfect blank: 2. I’m thinking how to get his whole stack in by the river and decide to check, hoping he has 9 or bigger pair and he’ll bet out again. And he does, betting 5$ and again I flat call, hoping that the river is a total blank again. The perfect card completes the board: 3.

Now, my opponent’s actions so far suggests he has a 9 or better. I don’t think he would bet out his flushdraw on the flop and he certainly wouldn’t bet out his draw again on the turn. The question is: if I check will he bet with his hand behind me. I was convinced he would, for several reasons: I was playing a very loose game, so the chance his 9 was good was fairly big. He was stuck, so he probably wanted to extract as much value as possible out of this hand. He could easily have an even stronger hand then just 2 pair, he could have for example flopped a full house with 9′s, and a hand that strong he would certainly bet. And in the rare chance he had nothing, I still give him some room to hang himself. So, I checked.

He didn’t even think long to decide his bet amount: 9$ into a 18$ pot, leaving 6$ of his stack behind. I instantly went all-in and that’s when things got funny.

He looked at me and asked: “Do you have a king?” I chuckled, looked at him and said: “Well, maybe I have two?” The others players at the table instantly knew I had flopped quads, but my opponent was still oblivious to what was going on. Still I felt like I needed to say something to push him over the edge. I said: “I would never check trips kings on the river with that board. Would I now?” He agreed with me and called.

When I turned over my hand he said: “Well, I have to admit that I’m not suprised. Nice speech dude.” The table laughed out loud.

Let’s talk a bit about my favourite pro-poker player Daniel Negreanu. Not only is he arguably the best all-around poker player at the moment, he also seems like a very likeable person.

One of the things Negreanu is most famous for is his ability to read his opponents. I’ll let Youtube do the talking here:

Legendary. “You know what I think he’s got? ACES.” Mr. Negreanu sir, you are a genius.

Another great feat Daniel has mastered, is the table talk. In the previous example his “ACES” banter confused his opponent and as a result Daniel got two free cards! Another example of his talking skills:

First he figured out Sam Farha was weak and secondly he convinced Sammy he had a king. Very nice.

Next time we’ll talk about Negreanu’s humor and impressions, and his own poker blog.

Ever noticed how some players hugely overrate their pocket pairs? A few weeks ago I came across such one player in a local casino. Although he was playing quite a solid game, all of a sudden he decided to blow up with 88′s and as a result donating his whole stack to me.

Here’s what happened:

My pre-flop play might not make much sense: why raise in middle position with K9s? Well, their are several reasons, first of all the table was pretty weak and more importantly I want to keep my opponents guessing. It’s obvious this worked, Mr. Donk here didn’t have a clue what I had, so decided to push all his chips in with a very marginal hand, either on a bluff or just figuring I had AK or a weaker pair. I had been playing very loose ’till that point (basically because the table was playing very tight passive), so he might have actually thought his 88′s were good. Mixing is it up is vital in a poker game!

I decided to call his reraise pre-flop because I had position on him, considered him a weak player that I could outplay post-flop and thought that the player on the button was likely to fold. Well, the button-player didn’t fold, but I was still happy to see a flop with my hand, even with a player (who didn’t show much strength anyway) behind me.

Now, after Donk leads out on the flop I put him on a big pair, at least JJ’s, and I hope he isn’t holding TT’s. Like I said, he was playing a solid game ’till that point, so it was fairly possible he flopped top full. Yet, I’m pretty confident that my is good hand and decide to flat call and see what the player on the button does. He decides to flat call too. Now I know the button player very well, he is either holding a flushdraw or a T, of which both I think a T(J maybe) is most likely, ‘caus I think he would raise a flush draw, just to see where he stands.

On the turn, Donk doesn’t hessitate one second to lead out again, for more then half of his stack. “I smell KK’s or AA’s” I thought at that point. But the question is, should I flat call this and invite the button player in? If he has a flush draw I should move all-in, if he has just a T my flat call would maybe induce him to call too, but I think that’s very unlikely due to the strength Mr. Donk has showed so far. Anyway, I decided to flat call and gamble a bit, if he has a flush draw I want that extra 76$ in the pot, and on the rare chance that Donk is bluffing I don’t want to scare him off his hand. I flat call and the button player folds, excellent result either way.

The river is a blank, Donkey pushes, I insta-call muthering something like “If I’m stupid enough to play K9s, I’m stupid enough to go broke with it too”. The donk asks “You have a ten?” and I show him my trips. He stands up, throws his 88′s open en leaves the pokerroom.

The whole table was shocked at first, then started laughing out loud.