I have been playing a little more poker over the last few days. I am trying to get ready to go and play the Heartland Poker Tour event next week at Grand Casino Milacs. I have been in a poker rut the last two weeks. If I raise preflop no matter how much, even over bets, I am getting lots of callers and then not hitting a thing after the flop and then having to fold. An example is last night blinds at 75-150, I have big slick suited and I am two behind under the gun. Under the gun raises to 300. I decide to reraise hoping to get to heads up. I make it 600. 3 people behind me call and so does the initial raiser. Great! Flop comes all under cards and there is a bet and reraise before it get to me. I fold. Hand ends with small blind winning after calling a twice raised pot with J-9 and hitting a flush on the river. I have gotten to the point where I am not raising preflop because of the amount of callers I am receiving which is a bad idea. I will just have to keep at it until this streak ends. I played two sit and go style home games over the weekend. One was a limit horse tournament and one was a NL holdem one. I was consistant. I was the first one out in both events. I had good cards and was always one card short of winning. It was fun to play basically donkless games. I don't get that much where I play. Started my new old job today. It is like riding a bike. It came back very quickly. The good thing is I have a nice schedule. Monday-Friday days. Don't get that much in the restaurant business. More later this week!

MIn. bet or non raising styles in poker

Lately in my bar games I have been noticing an alarming trend among several of the regular players. They have become minimum bet players or worst yet only call players. The main trend is only calling pre-flop with whatever hand they have. They won't call with just anything. It has to be a hand that they believe is a good hand. It can range anywhere from A-A to J-10 offsuit. The problem for you as a player is you never know what they have. They could have a big hand or just a draw. They play it the same way. They will call any bet you make or check it if no one has bet. Here is an example from my bar game last night. I am the big blind with blinds at 75-150. They are 5 or 6 limpers to me. I raise it to 600 with 8-5 offsuit. I am hoping to take it down after the flop after getting some people to fold which only one person folds pre-flop. Flop comes K-J-8 two hearts. Small blind bets 500. I fold and there are two callers. The first red flag to me was the 500 bet by the small blind. He is a min bet guy. If he has a draw or less then top pair he makes a min bet always. So I knew he had a big hand. Turn is a J. Small blind bets 500 again with two callers. River is an ace. Small blind bets 2000. First player calls second player reraises 2000 more. Both players call. Reraiser turns over AA for aces full of jacks. Min bet guy turns over K-J for Jacks full of kings and other person turns over J-8 for Jacks full of eights. So the hand plays out as AA doesn't raise pre-flop, maybe she thought I would reraise pre-flop but I doubt it, and then doesn't reraise preflop. After flop she calls the small bet drawing slim, but why not call a small bet. But why doesn't J-8 reraise after the flop to try and get rid of any players or just win the hand right there. There is certainly enough in the pot at this time. After the turn AA is almost drawing dead. Once again why no reraise from J-8. River is the miracle ace and AA is rewarded for bad play and will continue to play that way because of it. There is so many things wrong with how this hand played out that it's sick. If AA raises pre-flop. Small blind calls with K-J because he thinks it's a big hand. J-8 and myself fold for sure. The rest of the hand plays out the same way because of betting styles. Now the question is how do you deal with this style player. I have had this conversation may times with my poker friend and a very good player Fitzwell. We have yet to come up with a great answer. My thought is you have to recognize this style as soon as possible and adjust your game accordingly. You must play with caution and be willing to fold the winning hand rather then risk too many chips. I have won many chips from this style of player when I am allowed in a hand with a weaker hand and hit on the flop, but also have lost many lo chips when flopping top pair with a good kicker losing to a bigger pair. I would love to hear your opinions on this subject.

Labor Day Weekend

Had a great Labor Day weekend. Spent most of it at the lake where the fishing has been outstanding. My wife and I caught many varieties of fish including several nice walleyes. Photos are coming soon to my facebook account. On Saturday we went to the MN State Fair. Wow was there a lot of people. I would not usually go on a Saturday, but had tickets for the concert that night. The fair was more of the usual. It was fun, but the concert was the highlite of the day. It was 38 Special followed by REO Speedwagon and then Styx. I had never seen 38 Special and they were awesome. They played all there hits and sounded just like I remember them. I have seen REO and Styx several times and thay are always good. The only problem is Styx hasn't changed their set in years and we knew what was coming all night long. It's ok because they still put on a great show. Reo is a little mellow in between the other two, but I can live with that. I went with my wife, my two kids and daughters boyfriend. They all had a great time as they brought in a bottle of peppermint schnapps in water bottles. Me I just enjoyed the music. Have not played much poker lately. I am now running all 3 of my bar games again, so that will change starting tonight. I will post more about poker later this week. Spent yesterday at my parents for a Labor Day family get together. It was fun. Played a few games and ate some good food. I was in charge of cooking burgers and hot dogs. It was very dificult as my parents grill sucks. I know what they are getting for christmas this year. It must have taken 45 minutes to cook the first round of burgers and I guess some still weren't done! LOL Hope I didn't make anyone sick! Next year may have to have it at my lake place. What a great weather weekend we had. I will have to remember this when it's -20 and snowing this winter. It weeks like this that make it great to live in MN. More later!