Great Blue Heron Trip Report
Well I had a day to myself so I decided to make a trip to GBH to play some live poker. GBH is less than an hour's drive from home....so I went yesterday morning.
I haven't been there in quite some time. I signed up for 5/10 play. Interest and waiting lists were already there for some of the other games (10/20, the Omaha and mixed games around 20/40 limits I believe with half kills).
The game had the usual older players plus some guys who were stuck from last night's play. I was able to read players' hands pretty good based on the action so I felt comfortable at the table.
I won some big pots early in the session to put me about 30BB's in the black at one point. However, the second half of the session was dreadful....I may have had about 5 playable hands which never went anywhere or I got outkicked (flop trips but the other person had the same trips with a better kicker...you get the idea). I ended the session about 6 hours later with 10BB profit...so I can't complain.
Now I'll talk about a couple of hands plus some observations....
In the big blind, I was mostly checking my option when players were just limping in the pot without looking at my cards. Then I would check the flop and then look at my hand when everyone else was making their decisions. Usually, I find there is no point raising preflop there as everyone else is going to call anyway....thus leaving a big pot that would be correct for players to chase their draws. On one hand, I did that and looked after to see....AA. Oops....maybe I should have looked earlier :-\. It checked around and I made two pair on the turn. Got a nice pot out of it...but still....
I want people to remember that hold'em does not have just the flop, turn, and river....it also has the post-hand analysis. That is when people at the table start talking about their hands and what they should have done (or not done). The guy on my immediate right was doing this a lot so I learned a lot about his play (and to stay out of his way when he raised...that meant he had it). I strongly advise you guys to pay attention to this part of the hand....it will save you some trouble (but I might be preaching to the choir here).
At the other end of the table, there was a black guy (only mentioning his skin colour as GBH regulars reading this may know who I'm talking about) who was raising and re-raising a lot pre-flop. I think he normally plays higher stakes judging by some of his table talk. Originally, I thought he was nuts but I started thinking (judging by the hands he showed) that he liked to raise his draw heavy hands (10-7, 8-6 etc...regardless of his position) to have better odds to call after the flop. It makes sense since people who put money in before him were pretty much guaranteed to call anyway). So I just pegged him as a player with a looser opening range and played him accordingly (and was able to win some hands in the process). I also decided to avoid him for the most part when out of position.
Can you bluff in the game? Yeah, it can be done and I did it a couple of times. You just have to be very selective. If, for example, the flop brought a pair and there was few people in the pot, I would take a stab at it....and that worked for awhile. However, don't try that with a larger group seeing the flop.....someone is guaranteed to have trips. Just pay attention to the action at the table and you should be fine.
One last point....towards the end of the session a young 20-something sat down with his ballcap and sunglasses on. I got a couple of pointers for you guys. First of all, you must have something better to do on a Saturday afternoon than sitting in the casino (I'm a late 30's guy whose wife happens to be out of town...so that's my excuse). Second, I know that on tv, the players wear sunglasses and stuff. Sometimes, it is to look cool...other times it is to reduce glare from the tv lights and such. Anyone who has been to GBH knows that with the dark walls and dark blue poker felt...there ain't no glare in there. Maybe it looks 'cool' on TV....but in GBH in a 5/10 game....you look like a jackass....pretty stupid looking. Just saying.
I've been evaluating in my head some mistakes and such I made or how to play certain hands better. I think the big one is calling raises less and re-raising more with certain hands than what I actually did. I'm going to head back next weekend after doing some further study.
Any thoughts/concerns/feedback? Feel free to reply.
I haven't been there in quite some time. I signed up for 5/10 play. Interest and waiting lists were already there for some of the other games (10/20, the Omaha and mixed games around 20/40 limits I believe with half kills).
The game had the usual older players plus some guys who were stuck from last night's play. I was able to read players' hands pretty good based on the action so I felt comfortable at the table.
I won some big pots early in the session to put me about 30BB's in the black at one point. However, the second half of the session was dreadful....I may have had about 5 playable hands which never went anywhere or I got outkicked (flop trips but the other person had the same trips with a better kicker...you get the idea). I ended the session about 6 hours later with 10BB profit...so I can't complain.
Now I'll talk about a couple of hands plus some observations....
In the big blind, I was mostly checking my option when players were just limping in the pot without looking at my cards. Then I would check the flop and then look at my hand when everyone else was making their decisions. Usually, I find there is no point raising preflop there as everyone else is going to call anyway....thus leaving a big pot that would be correct for players to chase their draws. On one hand, I did that and looked after to see....AA. Oops....maybe I should have looked earlier :-\. It checked around and I made two pair on the turn. Got a nice pot out of it...but still....
I want people to remember that hold'em does not have just the flop, turn, and river....it also has the post-hand analysis. That is when people at the table start talking about their hands and what they should have done (or not done). The guy on my immediate right was doing this a lot so I learned a lot about his play (and to stay out of his way when he raised...that meant he had it). I strongly advise you guys to pay attention to this part of the hand....it will save you some trouble (but I might be preaching to the choir here).
At the other end of the table, there was a black guy (only mentioning his skin colour as GBH regulars reading this may know who I'm talking about) who was raising and re-raising a lot pre-flop. I think he normally plays higher stakes judging by some of his table talk. Originally, I thought he was nuts but I started thinking (judging by the hands he showed) that he liked to raise his draw heavy hands (10-7, 8-6 etc...regardless of his position) to have better odds to call after the flop. It makes sense since people who put money in before him were pretty much guaranteed to call anyway). So I just pegged him as a player with a looser opening range and played him accordingly (and was able to win some hands in the process). I also decided to avoid him for the most part when out of position.
Can you bluff in the game? Yeah, it can be done and I did it a couple of times. You just have to be very selective. If, for example, the flop brought a pair and there was few people in the pot, I would take a stab at it....and that worked for awhile. However, don't try that with a larger group seeing the flop.....someone is guaranteed to have trips. Just pay attention to the action at the table and you should be fine.
One last point....towards the end of the session a young 20-something sat down with his ballcap and sunglasses on. I got a couple of pointers for you guys. First of all, you must have something better to do on a Saturday afternoon than sitting in the casino (I'm a late 30's guy whose wife happens to be out of town...so that's my excuse). Second, I know that on tv, the players wear sunglasses and stuff. Sometimes, it is to look cool...other times it is to reduce glare from the tv lights and such. Anyone who has been to GBH knows that with the dark walls and dark blue poker felt...there ain't no glare in there. Maybe it looks 'cool' on TV....but in GBH in a 5/10 game....you look like a jackass....pretty stupid looking. Just saying.
I've been evaluating in my head some mistakes and such I made or how to play certain hands better. I think the big one is calling raises less and re-raising more with certain hands than what I actually did. I'm going to head back next weekend after doing some further study.
Any thoughts/concerns/feedback? Feel free to reply.
Comments
If you can get a 10/20 Omaha game going they play super loose and profitable. Wish I was rolled for the 20/40 Omaha since 2 of 9 players only usually know how to play the game. The rest play to see a flop and yell BINGO.
Yeah, it's all limit at GBH with the exception of the tournaments. I know they were trying to get a spread limit game going but I don't think it ever caught on based on what I've read in the different forums.
The poker room is still in the same area from when I went a couple of years ago but the rope has been replaced by a more permanent glass divider.
I still agree with you, but some people have significant eye/looking/staring tells.
I'm thinking the choir has been singing for hundreds of years so it bears repeating. Fanboy alert - have you read The Elements of Poker or simply the Sixth Street excerpt in one of Tommy Angelo's online articles? If not, I think you'll really like it.
True...no doubt about that....however your opponents would have to be perceptive to these tells to make it worth hiding and, let's face it, I doubt that most of the players in this lower game at GBH are looking for stuff like that. At higher limit games, I could understand it (although if you watched HSP there have been discussions against sunglasses in high stakes games)....but at 5/10 limit most GBH players are not going to care since all they are looking at is their hand and the board. It just looked out of place in that game.
Another thought would be that these weaker players may not want to play with someone who is wearing them if he is giving off the image of a serious pro.....not a good thing if you want them to stay in the game and spew their money.
I pop in once in like a year and I still read this dumb shit?
Okay...care to elaborate?
Dan well said!