POKERadical
Jason's Poker Blog
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2008-08-12 22:56:47
Badger Poker in Madison, WI
My two friends from Madison are both into poker, so I figured Badger Poker would be a good opportunity to see them. Badger Poker plays almost every day of the week and has some sort of points system and qualifier action to send people to major games, like the WSOP. They also have cash tournaments at the same time, so I signed up for the 20-player $30 game. They also have some sick cash side games: 25c/50c and 1/2 NL. And if people are as loose in the cash games as they are in the tournaments - wow. I should move back just for that!
The Tournament
It was limp city, so when I picked up
in late position, I made a hefty raise. I got 2 callers - cool. The flop brought two small clubs and a ten. Check, check, and I check. These people loved calling to the river. The turn is the 
and both players check to me. I bet the pot, and get called by middle position. The river brings the 
- great :/ She checks, and I decide not to hang myself. She turns over 
. Wow. She called 20% of her stack with ace high, and then didn't even bet it on the river.I switch gears and join the limp-fest with good drawing hands. Nothing much of note, but I was able to take down some pots here and there and get to the final table with a good chip stack. I made two errors and I was out, just like that.
The first error was not believing my opponent would check-raise the flop with an overpair, but he would :) My middle-pair runner-runner straight draw didn't hold up when I put him to the test for all his chips.
The second error was re-raising all in with
when one person was all in and the other player who showed interest in the pot was pot-committed. For some reason I convinced myself it was the best spot to try and 2.5x up. I ended up playing against 
and 
and didn't hit. Ugh.Cash Game
I bought in for every dollar in my wallet - a whole $28. Two of the 6-7 opponents at the table were friends and one of the guys was my friend's roommate, so it was an interesting game.
The Roommate
I felt bad when I flopped a straight draw and turned an open-ended straight flush draw against my friend's roommate. I told him to not bet. I promised him I had him beat. Oops :/
The Finley
One hand against my good friend from college was pretty disgusting. He plays pretty conservatively, and he raised it up from middle position. I was on the button and playing pretty loosely, so I called with
.The flop was
. My friend bet, but something about it smelled like a likely continuation bet, so I called. I put him on something like 
and figured I could hit a four, five, or nine... or maybe I was crushed by a large pocket pair, in which case I still had 4 outs :)He checked, which solidified my read, so I checked behind. In retrospect, I'm pretty sure I missed a bet there. But, lucky me - the turn was the magical
. He looked he wanted to bet, so I suggested he check and flashed the four.The Chad
Chad and I didn't mix it up. I think he folds too much :p
The Girl
At this point I had built my stack up to around $50. I was having a good time pushing real hard, so when I was dealt
and the girl on my right made a raise, I figured it would be fun to put her in for her last $20. She calls pretty quickly, so I figure I'm screwed.I ask her if she's gonna flip up if I do, and she says "no". I say I won't flip over until I hit the flop, and, what do you know, a little ten-bomb climbs out of the deck. I flip over and she doesn't hit a king to go along with her
- yowch!The Guy
I'm up to around $90 when I get into it with the guy-friend of the girl on my right. I paid my left-hand opponent half of the straddle so he'd juice it up, and he obliged. I pick up
and am ready to party. I get two limpers, so I make a speech about how I need to pop it up a bit so nobody calls me. Everybody folds around to the guy.I manage to talk the guy into calling me after I tell him he probably should call because he seems to really want to get my money. He finally calls and the flop comes
. This isn't so good for me, but he bets right out, which seems weak, so I call. I know if I were him, I'd check a jack there.The turn is a rag, and we both check. I checked because if he doesn't have a jack, he's somewhere in between drawing dead and to a two-outer. And if I'm wrong, I might as well keep it small. Who knows, maybe he'll try to bluff me out :)
The river is another rag, and he bets $5 into the $15 pot. I tell him I can't figure out if I should raise or just call. I think for a bit and he decides to inconspicuously show his lady-friend what he's got. He's acting pretty strong, which makes me feel pretty good.
I decide a sucker raise is in order, so I just raise him $5 more and declare I am making a "value raise". He doesn't consider it much and just goes all in for $25 on top of my raise. Again, his body language is that he is just pissed off, so I figure there's a good chance he's full of it. I call pretty quickly and he shows queen-high.
I scoop up the pot and we cash out to get some drinks, courtesy of "the guy".
Verdict
Play cards in WI :p
Update: Evidently I have offended Mr. Willy from WI with this verdict (read the comments below). I apologize to anyone who doesn't recognize this tongue-in-cheek humor. I'm from WI. I have friends in WI. And I'd like to think we are all better-than-average players :)
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