So I finally caved in and bought into Party Poker over the weekend. Most of the buy in came from selling off money from my FFXI account, but that's another story altogher. My time at Party Poker started out well enough, I set out slowly, playing in the $.50/$1.00 limit games figuring they'd be the cheapest way to play enough raked hands to release my $25 sign up bonus.
The first couple of sessions gave me modest gains ($2-$5 or so), I was clearly the greatest poker player to ever live. I was amazed with the low quality of play at the tables. There I was proudly folding low-suited-aces only to watch people win hands with 10 high. I kid you not. 10 high. I loosened up a little and soon I was revelling in the fishiness of it all, although I was hardly proud of myself when I won my first pot with nothing but A high.
After about 5 hours of play spread out over 3 days I had finally played enough raked hands to get my bonus. Eager to try out something other than the micro limit tables I bought into my first $5 SNG. I had a game plan. Play solid. Play tight. Let everyone else drop and when it's down to 4 or 5 players then make your move. First hand comes along, J2o, yay for rags, makes it easy to fold. Second hand, T8s. I'm one off the button, three people in front of me call, I don't exactly calculate my pot odds, but I do like to play suited connectors and suited one gaps when it's cheap enough so I call. The button folds giving me position, the small blind calls and the big blind checks. The flop is 5d Ad Ts. Hmmm, middle pair and four to a flush. I almost wish I hadn't gotten a piece of it. This is quite often my reaction when I get a small chunk of the flop with a mediocre hand and a mediocre draw. Someone bets 90, I have no read on anyone yet, but he just limped in, so I'm thinking he's either got a mediocre flush draw like me or a pair of Aces with a weak kicker. A couple of people fold, one call in front of me, and I call. The turn is the 2d, I'm already counting the chips I'm going to win when the guy who called the 90 chip raise on the flop goes all in. Uh oh. He could easily have my out kicked, but I just don't think he does. Could I lay down a flush here? Probably. Should I? I don't really know. Did I? Absolutely not. The raiser on the flop folds to get out of our way (at least I read him right!) The other guy flips over JdKc and I'm feeling pretty good. I can see why he made that bet, he was drawing to a straight and a flush, and unfortunately it paid off for him when the river comes up 4d. My first SNG and I'm bounced in 10th place on the second hand. How sad, I was almost a 6:1 favorite in that hand.
Oh well, bad beats happen right? Well that was only the start of my bad night at the SNGs. I won't get into any more detail now, but to give you an idea, the next SNG I played I accidentally sat down at a limit Omaha Hi/Lo table and didn't realize until the first hand was dealt. I don't even know exactly how to play Omaha Hi/Lo. I couldn't figure out what made a qualifying low. Suffice it to say that didn't go well either. So yeah, there are fish at Party Poker, lots of them, and right now I'm afraid I'm one of them.
Posted by joshua at September 29, 2004 07:20 PMHahaha!
I made the mistake once of buying into a limit hold 'em tourney by accident. Without being able to raise any significant amount until later rounds, that game took like an hour! I was so eager to get out of there I just keep betting with anything, and kept winning, actually. Wound up taking 1st place in that one, but I wouldn't recommend it as a strategy.
» so sayeth Matt on September 29, 2004 at 07:35 PM