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Notes -
Update on my poker tournament from two weeks ago: We ended up being only 5 players, so decided on a two-winner (70/30 split) tournament mode. I'm not a great storyteller nor claim to remember it perfectly (especially not exact cards, as I noticed while writing, sadly), but I'll try to roughly give the outline of the evening. I hope it's interesting. Thanks for the help, in particular @FiveHourMarathon!
It was more fun and went better than I expected. At first I played very conservative and simple rules (fold pre-flop without a face card, only raise post-flop with at least double pair, get out if anyone is raising too much), allowing me to watch the table closely. We only had one guy at the table I didn't know, so I tried reading him in particular. Two of my friends (let's call them the host and finance bro) mostly played tight which was unsurprising because that's what they're like in general, and another one was a bit more loose (let's call him gym rat), which again wasn't surprising too me, either.
The newcomer turned out to start very aggressive, and I happened to sit right behind him. He constantly raised, often even pre-flop, though only ever the minimum, and collected a lot of blinds that way. I, on the other hand, was mostly bleeding money slowly. I got him once with decent cards staying in and raising a bit up to the reveal, not a super large amount but enough to be even again. Rinse and repeat a bit, but overall I'm losing more than winning. The host is doing even more poorly, also bleeding money at first due to conservative play, and then in addition even losing a high-stakes table to the newcomer. Shortly thereafter he loses another high-stakes table going all in to finance bro, both having a full house, which was perceived by the rest of the table as very lucky. I also don't think the host really played badly, he was very low on chips at that point, had already invested most of it, and full house was pretty much the best hand with those community cards. Just plain bad luck.
The general situation at the table was now finance bro in clear first, gym rat and newcomer pretty close, and me last. The newcomer plays increasingly aggressive pre-flop, and after calling pre-flop, post-flop I get into a similar situation as the host: Going all-in against the newcomer with a pair of some number in hand, and a third on the table, because my chips are getting too low and the community cards overall didn't seem too threatening. Fortunately, the newcomer only ends up having a double pair, and I get my big break. The host - now out of the game - notes my behaviour over time and comments that I'm a mathematician and probably playing better to the odds than him, but that I'm also quite predictable. The rest of the table immediately agrees, so at that point I started to realize that I need to change my behaviour a least a bit to capitalize on that impression, instead of being drowned by it. Ironically I don't think I was better, but it's of course the impression of the table that matters at the moment.
When I had a decent starting hand (I think it was jack+10 or so), I try a small experiment: I double the newcomer's raise pre-flop. If it got too much, I'd get out, but I wanted too gauge his behaviour. He stays in. Post-flop I get nothing, he raises, I immediately double his raise again anyway. He folds. At that point I feel a psychological edge. He gets less aggressive, and I continue to now bleed him instead with a mix of bluffing (being careful to eventually fold if possible to avoid people seeing my cards) and just plain good cards, and he also loses a high-stakes table to gym rat. In fact he's getting very low on chips (less than me) and plays even less aggressive, so I eventually play more conservative again. There is another event, where I call a lot of finance bro's raises with a good-but-not-great hand, which the host yet again comments on: Finance bro raises fast and confident, I call only after thinking a lot. Finance bro has not yet been shown to bluff, and is generally not the kind of person to do so. I agree, realize my mistake, and fold instantly. But it hurts, and it is another lesson to try and be less obvious to read, or to ideally even capitalize on it.
It's now the newcomer's turn to go all-in to finance bro, both show their cards and finance bro thinks he has lost with only a double pair or so ... until someone else at the table points out that by only using one card from his hand he can have a flush. Everyone else at the table gets pissed, but this cements his lead.
The state now is finance bro in near-unassailable lead, gym rat in second, me in last place again. Since we're all nerds, we openly talk a bit strategy, where finance bro admits that he plans to mostly play very conservative now since his stack is larger than mine and gym rats combined. He keeps true to his word, and I stay out of his way; He folds a lot, but if he does raise, I fold fast. Position-wise I'm behind gym rat now, which is to my benefit. In general the dynamic has changed substantially since the blinds are getting high and the low number of players increases the winning chances. Both me and gym rat play very similarly now, frequently staying in up to the reveal with some raises here and there, but rarely too much, and mostly treading water (this unfortunately also means that people also start to catch on that I do occasionally bluff now, especially pre-flop).
Unlike me, gym rat does get into some (bad) fights with finance bro, since he has some hopes to switch places. He's bleeding, but still has more chips than me. I finally get an amazing starting hand, while also sitting in last place: K+K. I raise only the minimum pre-flop, which at that point I had done regularly, even with bad cards, and gym rat calls without thinking twice. Flop is king, queen and a low number, gym rat raises after thinking for a moment. I pretend to also think a long time, and then call. Turn comes, it's another low number. Gym rat raises again. The pot is getting close to the size of my own chips. I think again for a while, but decide to go all-in, since neither straight nor flush are possible yet with those community cards, loudly commenting that my stack is getting too low. Gym rat thinks and is clearly somewhat unsure, but not terribly long, and calls. River is ... another queen. I show the full house, and gym rat complains how lucky I got, but elects to not show his cards. I'm pretty sure the full house was irrelevant, since there really aren't that many possibilities to even beat just the triple king with those community cards.
Now the placements are reversed, me in second, gym rat in last. He's bleeding blinds for a short while, especially since I continue playing rather aggressive pre-flop, and he's getting low on chips. He completely stops picking fights with finance bro as well, who still elects to mostly just give his blinds away anyway. But then gym rat suddenly reacts to one of my pre-flop raises with an all-in, almost taking no time to think. I have Q+9 and genuinely think a long time, since his stack is still large enough to reverse the roles yet again if I should lose. But I remember the last time, that pre-flop is sufficiently random - even against most starting pairs I'd have something like 1-in-3 chance to win I think? - and that I had been waiting for the chance to kick him out and secure second place, which is the best I can reach anyway. So I call. He reveals a surprising ... 9+7, commenting that at least he's going out with a stylish bluff. Pretty lucky for me, not only a bad hand but also the matching number means even less outs for him. I reveal my cards, and the table is surprised yet again, since despite my small early bluffs that got caught, they expected more. Gym rat probably also just thought he could scare me off.
The community cards come in, and reveal pretty much nothing except one queen.
So second place it is. I'm pretty happy, obviously with the place, but also with most of my game. I think it was smart to play it simple early, since it made it easier to read the table. I also had pretty terrible cards for a long while at first, and bluffing "blind" is really not my strong suit. The first all-in I'm somewhat unsure about, but it did get rewarded. It also opened up the possibility to exploit the newcomer, which worked pretty much exactly how I wanted it. But again, there was some luck involved in that I never got forced into actually revealing a bluff. Of course I was also often easy to read, and I really have to thank the host for pointing it out that second time against finance bro; I might have just lost then and there.
And I'm most proud about how the play went against gym rat. He probably also got tired and careless so I shouldn't attribute too much to myself, but I have the feeling that especially for the K+K hand it was my exact play that lured him in, and if I had done it differently he wouldn't have gone along. On calling his all-in I'm also feeling quite comfortable that I had decent odds overall, though I didn't expect such a hard bluff.
Overall poker is still not really my kind of game - even with decent play there is a lot of luck involved - but I held my own, and even made some money (though not much, the split sucked pretty hard).
So you made like 50% profit? Nice.
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Great work! Sounds like you had a good time!
Poker is fun, but it's one of those games where I find the advanced strategy kinda lame and boring. If I could find a regular table where I was neither the fish nor the shark, I'd probably want to play more regularly.
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