I’ve been very busy with the new job – so far, it’s been way
more responsibility than I ever imagined prior to taking the job. I’ve had to hire a new team of ~30 people,
work personnel conflicts and issues, learn the new program’s processes and
procedures, and ensure my new team is doing the same, all the while learning my
predecessor’s roles and responsibilities.
I’m truly busy from before 7:30 I the morning until at least 5:00 at
night. The pattern has been that I go
back to the hotel, go to the gym, get some dinner, take a soak in the hotel hot
tub and go to sleep. Rinse & repeat,
save for the weekends, where, if I’m not heading home or somewhere with my
family, I have free time to go & explore Denver or get in a solid day of
poker up at Blackhawk. It’s a funny
thing; I started out thinking that the “single” life would enable me to have
more free time, but somehow my free time is fully consumed.
Regardless, live poker out here is an utter joke. The games are so soft it’s unbelievable. Sit on the nuts and they’ll pay you off
without fail. People love to slow play,
making drawing hands super profitable.
The bet sizing for most players is so laughably bad that I find myself
facing true immediate odds compared to the pot, and frequently not even needing
to worry or think about implied odds.
The room is regularly busy, with more than enough fish and tourists to
keep my bankroll sated. I’ve seen so
many people just call or limp their KK / AA hands, and check / call to the end
when their hands are clearly dead. I’ve
seen players pay me astronomical prices for their flush draws or their straight
draws when they’re so way behind in their draws. Lastly, the rewards structure in the poker
room (Ameristar) is pretty decent: they give you your choice of $1 / hr in
comps to be used for slots, $2 / hr in comps for food, or $0.50 / hr in
rakeback. Your choice – and you can
decide to cash out at any point.
In the online front, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a
moment to sit down and get a good online poker session in. I was able to sit down for a good 3 hours
last night, sitting in my new favorite online room, Seals with Clubs. I was afraid that it had been so long since I’d
last played a hand there, the games may have dried up and I would forget how to
be aggressive. My fears were not
realized, because the fish were really fishy and my aggression still
remains. I’m still able to pick off
blind steals, squeeze with air, and generally produce 3bets in the 8%+
range. It’s a cool feeling to see the
regs avoiding big pots with me out of fear, and the fish trying to pay big bets
in the hopes of hitting a miracle. On
one table, all of the players were starting to get pretty deep; 200+BB.
I was sitting on 300+BB when I was dealt TT. A laggy nemesis was trying to 3bet me on
quite a few tables (he was to my left and trying to defend his blinds / BTN);
we’d gotten into a few pissing contests and we were roughly even as far as who
blinks first – perhaps he was 20-30 BB up on me (I’m not keeping track because
I’m more thinking in metagame parameters that he’ll blow up sooner or later). He’s sitting on about 300BB when I raise his
BTN from the HJ for ~3x – no limpers and it’s a steal position from his
perspective. As expected, he opts to 3bet
me 3x to 9BB. Not one to be dissuaded
from a little aggression, I 4bet him to 22BB and he cold calls in
position. Flop comes 9 6 2 rainbow and I
lead for 30BB. He shoves over for 250BB;
is it wrong to call here? What do you
do? Do you fold? This is such a polarizing bet to value / air,
but what can he show up with in this spot?
JJ? QQ? I felt like given the action that he’s not 5
betting me (probably a fold PF), he’s going to show up with so much air. The problem is that we’re so deep at this
point, a 250BB call if I’m way behind is a HUGE mistake.
Thoughts?
