Wednesday, January 7, 2009

some simple handreading

Squeezed in one tourney tonight and played well. Early on, one opponent, with a +2% Sharkscope ROI (a decent player), raised the blind 10x (300 on 15/30 blinds). Everyone folded, and he showed KK. Then he typed into the chat "I hate when an ace calls", trying to justify his big raise. Well, he got what he wanted, but also got no value for the second best hand in Hold'em.

Later, he 2x raised, also from early position, and I wondered what this could mean. I didn't exactly get to find out, as someone 3 bet him and he folded. But, so far, big raise = big hand, small raise = small hand.

My cards were ca-ca so I was folding. I hadn't played one hand for the first 20 or so, and decided to try a blind steal with an awful hand (93o, I think), but the big blind called me, then donked into my bet on a high broadway board. I folded with no resistance.

A couple hands later I received my first real hand of the night - two Jacks. The player before me raised it up to 150. I had about 1200 chips, a reraise would put around half my stack in, a call was too weak, a fold was out of the question. As is often the case, there was no right way to play these two Jacks.

Let's look at my image - I had played only one hand so far. If my opponent was paying attention, he would have to put me on a big hand if I reraised or shoved. I wouldn't mind a fold here - Jacks are not easy to play post flop.

One last look at the opponent - Sharkscope said he was bad, over negative 30% ROI. This raised the chances that he might call with a weak ace, small pocket pair, or some other hand that I was well ahead of.

I shoved it all in, and my opponent called right away. I expected to see AK/AQ and be racing, but instead I saw... Q8s. Ok, forget all that stuff about my image, and if my opponent was paying attention - he just put all his chips in the middle with Q8s. I was 70% to win and did so, launching me from the bottom of the pack to second in chips.

A couple hands later, Mr. 10x bet with kings limped in. To review, I had seen him bet big with big hands and small with small hands. Continuing logically, this small bet was probably a small hand. He had seen me fold 20 times in a row and then shove it in with JJ. I had KT in the big blind and raised it up 4x. He folded immediately.

I was later able to cripple this same player with another free play in the big blind. This time I had King-Three and got to see a flop, which paired my King. I checked, not sure if I wanted to value bet here with no kicker, and he checked behind. The turn was another King and I had trips. I was now ahead of every non-King hand. In a SNG, this is enough to go to the wall with. I checkraised all in. When he clicked call, I thought for sure I was dead with KQ/KJ, but he flipped over a pair of tens. The fact that I hadn't bet the flop with top pair had tricked him into discounting a king in my hand. This was a decent player, he soon typed "what a donkey call by me". I typed "happens to everyone".

I made the money without too much incident. The bubble guy was 14-tabling and started ICM shoving at the proper moment - the big stack called him with a mediocre hand (QT, I think) and it paired up to knock out the 14-tabler. The big stack graciously typed "gg", and the 14-tabler took time out of his busy poker schedule to reply with "f### you donkey". Glad to see manners are still alive and well in the virtual rooms.

I got another read when the big stack told me "funny thing, I was on another table with this same guy, and he bubbled in that one too".

Hmmm, this big stack is playing two three-man tourneys at the same time (at least, maybe more). That can be distracting, no? I wonder if some blind steals would work. I started raising this guy's button regarless of my cards. He let me take the blinds once but then reraised over me. Ooops, maybe the other tourney ended and he was paying attention now. Or, maybe he actually got a hand, not sure. He eventually knocked out the #3 player and we were heads up.

Heads up was a long affair, made longer by the fact that the puppy started whining in her cage downstairs. Everyone else was asleep and I needed to hurry it along. I overshoved with AK and 99 but got folds each time. I also got all my chips in behind once - AJ vs. A5, but I caught a runner-runner wheel draw to stay alive.

I started down 10.5 - 2.5 K, then flipped it around, but couldn't put the guy out. His move was to overshove on any sign of weakness, so all I needed was a good hand to limp in with as a trap. This finally came at the 90 minute mark - AQo. Good enough. I limped, he shoved into me, and I called. He had a worse ace and I avoided a suckout to take first.

2 comments:

bastinptc said...

Glad to see that you played later at night, when I think the games might be a bit softer than earlier in the evening.

Memphis MOJO said...

congrats and nice recap.