I just saw a guy who was holding pocket jacks three times in a four hand span. Tell me the odds of that.
Now, tell me the odds of him flopping a set on all three.
He did. The last time was against my pocket queens.
1 year ago
Monday, November 30, 2009
a thousand hands in 4 hours
VACATION THIS WEEK, hip-hip-hooray, and scarcely little to do except play poker. The wife and kids are out working and schooling, and I'm home all alone. Poor, poor me.
I set the goal for myself to play 1000 hands of .10/.25 capped hold-em today, and I completed my task in just over 4 hours. At the peak, I had 4 tables going at once. The action was fairly fast, but I managed to stay on top of it all for the most part. I made one mechanical mistake - folding a small pocket pair I wanted to limp - but I would have missed my set anyway, so no harm done.
Did I do well? Not really. I lost $23.39, or 4.64 BB/100 hands. Not a good rate over the long term. As I like to do, let's study my biggest losses and see if I made any real mistakes.
1. I raise a limper with AsQs, and a player cold calls behind me. She is a 75/8 through 24 hands. Not enough hands to get a true read, but limping with three quarters of the hands in just about any sample size is usually a mistake. The flop comes ace-eight-seven, but all clubs. I bet for value, then shove the turn, she calls with ace-king. Arrrrgh! This hand tilted me the most, even more than the bad beats. She plays 3/4 of her hands but gets ace-king when I have ace-queen. No justice. She goes just as broke with AJ/AT here, even with no club in her hand.
2. I raise up AsQs (again, looks like a bad hand for me), and I'm called from the blind. Flop is TT3, two spades. I cbet-he checkraises, I get it all in with my flush draw. He has king-ten. I miss. Do I fold the nut flush draw after he raises? Maybe in a capped game, yes. I had trouble putting him on a ten, though - his stats were 9/3 after 33 hands. I thought maybe he was taking a stand with 99/88, and my overcards were good as well. Maybe a small mistake, but not a huge one (feel free to disagree).
3. pocket aces, cracked by pocket queens. No mistake here.
4. pocket aces, cracked by AT suited (runner-runner-flush). Ooofa.
5. pocket kings, cracked by Q8 (top pair on flop, 8 on turn). Lovely.
That's it for getting stacked. I have plenty of 2.50 - $4.50 losses, most appear to be strong preflop hands that whiff and there is action on the flop, or my c-bet is floated.
---
I did some analysis of isolating limpers for the month (ever since I did the research on how and when to do such a thing). I must say that isolating limpers is like printing money. For the month, I am winning .90 big blinds per hand. Basically, every time I raise a limper, I win a big blind. So far, I'm only doing it with a specific range of of hands - I wonder what happens if I open up my range even wider?
The filter that you need in PokerTracker 3 was tricky to create, but it came down to "Any Preflop Raise and NOT (Raise First In) and NOT (Facing Raise Preflop)".
I set the goal for myself to play 1000 hands of .10/.25 capped hold-em today, and I completed my task in just over 4 hours. At the peak, I had 4 tables going at once. The action was fairly fast, but I managed to stay on top of it all for the most part. I made one mechanical mistake - folding a small pocket pair I wanted to limp - but I would have missed my set anyway, so no harm done.
Did I do well? Not really. I lost $23.39, or 4.64 BB/100 hands. Not a good rate over the long term. As I like to do, let's study my biggest losses and see if I made any real mistakes.
1. I raise a limper with AsQs, and a player cold calls behind me. She is a 75/8 through 24 hands. Not enough hands to get a true read, but limping with three quarters of the hands in just about any sample size is usually a mistake. The flop comes ace-eight-seven, but all clubs. I bet for value, then shove the turn, she calls with ace-king. Arrrrgh! This hand tilted me the most, even more than the bad beats. She plays 3/4 of her hands but gets ace-king when I have ace-queen. No justice. She goes just as broke with AJ/AT here, even with no club in her hand.
2. I raise up AsQs (again, looks like a bad hand for me), and I'm called from the blind. Flop is TT3, two spades. I cbet-he checkraises, I get it all in with my flush draw. He has king-ten. I miss. Do I fold the nut flush draw after he raises? Maybe in a capped game, yes. I had trouble putting him on a ten, though - his stats were 9/3 after 33 hands. I thought maybe he was taking a stand with 99/88, and my overcards were good as well. Maybe a small mistake, but not a huge one (feel free to disagree).
3. pocket aces, cracked by pocket queens. No mistake here.
4. pocket aces, cracked by AT suited (runner-runner-flush). Ooofa.
5. pocket kings, cracked by Q8 (top pair on flop, 8 on turn). Lovely.
That's it for getting stacked. I have plenty of 2.50 - $4.50 losses, most appear to be strong preflop hands that whiff and there is action on the flop, or my c-bet is floated.
---
I did some analysis of isolating limpers for the month (ever since I did the research on how and when to do such a thing). I must say that isolating limpers is like printing money. For the month, I am winning .90 big blinds per hand. Basically, every time I raise a limper, I win a big blind. So far, I'm only doing it with a specific range of of hands - I wonder what happens if I open up my range even wider?
The filter that you need in PokerTracker 3 was tricky to create, but it came down to "Any Preflop Raise and NOT (Raise First In) and NOT (Facing Raise Preflop)".
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Chip and a Prayer, Part 2
Part 1 here.
So I've come back from the brink to a short-but-respectable stack, but like in all tourneys, the blinds are going up and you're usually just going to find yourself back in the same predicament. With no hands, the blinds went up on me and I was back to 9 blinds, and once again I took my stand with king-queen by pushing all in. This time, someone behind me called with a weak ace, and I was a 60-40 dog. The flop helped me with a jack and a ten - not yet ahead but a straight draw to go with my pair outs. The turn bricked but the river brought a king and I paired and kept ahead of the pack once more.
As the next hand got underway, Anthony announced that we had ten left and were about to combine for the final table. In our last hand of my table, someone else got knocked out (the same guy who tried to take out my king-queen - rivered twice in a row to get knocked out of the tourney. Poker is a brutal game).
So I carry my stack from table 6 to table 1 and the nine of us start it up. Anthony is paying 5 tonight, and I don't have enough chips to fold to the money - so I'm planning on staying aggressive and stealing some blinds from late and maybe even earlier position.
Within 3 hands of the final table - a three way all in ensues that knocks two people out. 7 left. At this point, the 7 of us agree to take $10 out of each envelope and give the 6th place finisher his $50 buy-in back. Therefore, the next one out is the official bubble boy. I swipe a blind with 56o, then again with J9o, to stay ahead. Bubble boy drops off, then #6, and I'm officially in the money!. We play five handed for quite awhile, then a race ensues between an all-in with a pair and the big stack with AJs - and big stack hits his ace, so we drop to 4.
Four handed play goes on for about an hour - 2.5 blind levels. Most of it is "raise and take it" poker. I survive another all-in battle and double up when I shove with pocket tens and am called by ace-jack.
In one hand, I raise up Jc4c and the big blind defends. I hit two clubs on the flop so I decide not to c-bet and get checkraised off my draw. The turn pairs my four. I think hard about betting, but decide the free card is very valuable, and I have showdown value with the pair. The river bricks, and I win my showdown, but unfortunately have to show the table I played jack-four sooooted.
It looks like I've become a target now. Twice I raise up the pot, a blind defends, then donkbets into me on dry, low flops. Twice I let the hands go. Once I raise it up with a real hand - ace-jack, and a player goes over the top of me, all in. I think long and hard about calling, but decide I don't need to race for the tourney right now. I fold my AJ face up, hoping it restores a bit of credibility to my hand selection. My opponent returns the favor by showing pocket kings. Nice fold by me.
The key hand of the night - one of the players raises my blind, and I see two little letter "A"s when I turn over the corners of my cards. The rockets, for the first time tonight! For deception, I just call the preflop raise, and decide to either come out firing on a wet flop, or check on a dry flop and hope he bets. I plan on getting it all in on any flop, though - if he cracks pocket aces to put me out in fourth because I let him see a flop - I can live with that.
The three flop cards show nine, five, deuce - all different suits. Pretty dry, I would say. I check. My opponent thinks for a second or two before announcing "I'm all in", and I think I half-shout "call" before he even gets the word "in" out of his mouth. I reveal my hand before his - he twists his face up in a frown and sighs, tabling ace-five. He is dead to 3 outs, and the percentages stay with me as I move myself up in the money.
I like his play on this hand very much, actually - he hit a pair and put me on a very logical range - random overcards that missed this board. He exerted maximum pressure, but happened to fall into a trap. Fortunately for me, I hit a hand to lay the trap at just the right time.
We discuss a three-way chop at this point, our three stacks are very close in size - but an older gentleman wants to play on. He is no typical cadgey-codger type - he has been raising lots of pots and showing down big hands. I have been avoiding him until now. After a few non all-in losses, he has become the short stack and he makes a stand - I check out ace-queen suited (spades) in my hand, and take a shot of knocking him out by calling. He shows pocket threes and wins his race - I double him up. A bit later, I raise up ace-king and he shoves over me. I call. He shows pocket eights - again I'm behind!, but I hit a king on the flop and knock out #3.
I am a big chipleader going into heads up. My opponent half-jokes "I'll take $100 out of your winnings and call it a chop right now", but this wouldn't be very equitable on my end due to my large advantage. I decide to play on.
Very first hand of heads up - I shit you not, I get pocket aces. I limp. My opponent checks, and I hit a monster ace-five-five board for a full house. We both check the flop. I try a feeler bet on a nine-turn, but my opponent folds. I laugh and laugh and show him the bullets, he just shakes his head. I probably should have checked the turn as well.
A few hands later, he pushes all-in, and I take a shot at knocking him out with 79s, but I double up his king-rag when neither of us pairs.
At this point, our stacks have evened up a bit. I re-offer him the chop suggestion he made at the start of heads up - $800 for me, $550 for him (instead of the normal $900/$450 split). He thinks for a moment, then reasons "if it were only midnight, I would want to play on, but it's 1am and I'm tired. Let's do it". We shake hands, and I've won my third Waterbury monthly in two years.
(edit: apologies to my readers that the final table details in my post are a bit sparse and fuzzy. I was pretty tired Friday night, and lucky to make the final table at all, especially after getting knocked to 1.5 big blinds. Should have brought my notebook to record the action, but it slipped my mind).
So I've come back from the brink to a short-but-respectable stack, but like in all tourneys, the blinds are going up and you're usually just going to find yourself back in the same predicament. With no hands, the blinds went up on me and I was back to 9 blinds, and once again I took my stand with king-queen by pushing all in. This time, someone behind me called with a weak ace, and I was a 60-40 dog. The flop helped me with a jack and a ten - not yet ahead but a straight draw to go with my pair outs. The turn bricked but the river brought a king and I paired and kept ahead of the pack once more.
As the next hand got underway, Anthony announced that we had ten left and were about to combine for the final table. In our last hand of my table, someone else got knocked out (the same guy who tried to take out my king-queen - rivered twice in a row to get knocked out of the tourney. Poker is a brutal game).
So I carry my stack from table 6 to table 1 and the nine of us start it up. Anthony is paying 5 tonight, and I don't have enough chips to fold to the money - so I'm planning on staying aggressive and stealing some blinds from late and maybe even earlier position.
Within 3 hands of the final table - a three way all in ensues that knocks two people out. 7 left. At this point, the 7 of us agree to take $10 out of each envelope and give the 6th place finisher his $50 buy-in back. Therefore, the next one out is the official bubble boy. I swipe a blind with 56o, then again with J9o, to stay ahead. Bubble boy drops off, then #6, and I'm officially in the money!. We play five handed for quite awhile, then a race ensues between an all-in with a pair and the big stack with AJs - and big stack hits his ace, so we drop to 4.
Four handed play goes on for about an hour - 2.5 blind levels. Most of it is "raise and take it" poker. I survive another all-in battle and double up when I shove with pocket tens and am called by ace-jack.
In one hand, I raise up Jc4c and the big blind defends. I hit two clubs on the flop so I decide not to c-bet and get checkraised off my draw. The turn pairs my four. I think hard about betting, but decide the free card is very valuable, and I have showdown value with the pair. The river bricks, and I win my showdown, but unfortunately have to show the table I played jack-four sooooted.
It looks like I've become a target now. Twice I raise up the pot, a blind defends, then donkbets into me on dry, low flops. Twice I let the hands go. Once I raise it up with a real hand - ace-jack, and a player goes over the top of me, all in. I think long and hard about calling, but decide I don't need to race for the tourney right now. I fold my AJ face up, hoping it restores a bit of credibility to my hand selection. My opponent returns the favor by showing pocket kings. Nice fold by me.
The key hand of the night - one of the players raises my blind, and I see two little letter "A"s when I turn over the corners of my cards. The rockets, for the first time tonight! For deception, I just call the preflop raise, and decide to either come out firing on a wet flop, or check on a dry flop and hope he bets. I plan on getting it all in on any flop, though - if he cracks pocket aces to put me out in fourth because I let him see a flop - I can live with that.
The three flop cards show nine, five, deuce - all different suits. Pretty dry, I would say. I check. My opponent thinks for a second or two before announcing "I'm all in", and I think I half-shout "call" before he even gets the word "in" out of his mouth. I reveal my hand before his - he twists his face up in a frown and sighs, tabling ace-five. He is dead to 3 outs, and the percentages stay with me as I move myself up in the money.
I like his play on this hand very much, actually - he hit a pair and put me on a very logical range - random overcards that missed this board. He exerted maximum pressure, but happened to fall into a trap. Fortunately for me, I hit a hand to lay the trap at just the right time.
We discuss a three-way chop at this point, our three stacks are very close in size - but an older gentleman wants to play on. He is no typical cadgey-codger type - he has been raising lots of pots and showing down big hands. I have been avoiding him until now. After a few non all-in losses, he has become the short stack and he makes a stand - I check out ace-queen suited (spades) in my hand, and take a shot of knocking him out by calling. He shows pocket threes and wins his race - I double him up. A bit later, I raise up ace-king and he shoves over me. I call. He shows pocket eights - again I'm behind!, but I hit a king on the flop and knock out #3.
I am a big chipleader going into heads up. My opponent half-jokes "I'll take $100 out of your winnings and call it a chop right now", but this wouldn't be very equitable on my end due to my large advantage. I decide to play on.
Very first hand of heads up - I shit you not, I get pocket aces. I limp. My opponent checks, and I hit a monster ace-five-five board for a full house. We both check the flop. I try a feeler bet on a nine-turn, but my opponent folds. I laugh and laugh and show him the bullets, he just shakes his head. I probably should have checked the turn as well.
A few hands later, he pushes all-in, and I take a shot at knocking him out with 79s, but I double up his king-rag when neither of us pairs.
At this point, our stacks have evened up a bit. I re-offer him the chop suggestion he made at the start of heads up - $800 for me, $550 for him (instead of the normal $900/$450 split). He thinks for a moment, then reasons "if it were only midnight, I would want to play on, but it's 1am and I'm tired. Let's do it". We shake hands, and I've won my third Waterbury monthly in two years.
(edit: apologies to my readers that the final table details in my post are a bit sparse and fuzzy. I was pretty tired Friday night, and lucky to make the final table at all, especially after getting knocked to 1.5 big blinds. Should have brought my notebook to record the action, but it slipped my mind).
Chip and a Prayer
Monthly live tourney, $50 buy-in. 47 players this month.
My table draw is not encouraging. Terry, on my left, plays in my home game occasionally. To his left, Mike, a gentleman who has won two of the past three tourneys. A quick glance after the action starts shows two other players shuffling chips and talking about play at our downtown charity poker room. Not one soft spot to be found. Peachy.
These tourneys usually start off as limpfests, but in the second level, Terry raises up a pot size flop bet, then takes it down on the turn with another big blast. He reveals his cards - connectors hit a straight on the turn - meaning that he raised the pot big on the flop with a draw. Not all ABC poker here.
Ace-ten for me in the big blind, second level. Limpers to me. I might raise up ace-jack, but AT is a bit too weak, let's see a flop. Seven-Eight-Nine gives me an open-ender. I check into 4 people, someone takes a stab with a minbet of 30. This chases nobody away, they all call. I call as well.
Turn pairs the eight, and the same guy stabs the same amount. My thought is that this will now get expensive, with someone slowplaying a set that is now a boat or hit his third eight, or had a straight all along, but everyone just calls. I call as well with huge odds, and this pot is looking pretty big for an early level.
The river brings me an ace, a nice card for me, but plenty of other hands beat me and I'm out of position. I figure a check-small-bet-call is in order, but nobody bets, and my aces and eights takes the pot.
I give all this back in the next level. I limp with 7d8d, and Walt raises it up to 200. Walt played in my cash game last week - he's pretty good, but I think I know where I'm at here, so I make the call hoping to smash an overpair. The board is 466 with one diamond and two hearts. Walt repeats the bet of 200. I should fold here with nothing but a gutshot, but I make the call. There are a ton of turn cards that might make this hand interesting - a miracle 5 of course, but a diamond gives me a flush draw, a ten gives me a double gutter, and a 7 or 8 might even give me the best hand to a missed AK/AQ. I make the call. The river bricks out with a black 3, and I give up on the hand, chastising myself for making a cash game call in a tourney.
Not much else doing - we get to the first break and Anthony chips up the red $5 to greens. I count myself out and I've got 1500, precisely the amount of chips I started with.
At level 75/150, the player to my right makes a minraise to 300. I look at his stack - he's got about the same smallish stack as I do, and is right on the edge of push-or-fold mode. My cards are KQo. This player is solid and has something here - he's not in position to steal blinds, and he's not overly aggressive. I decide he's got a medium ace or a smaller pair, and perhaps he will buckle to some pressure. I put my stack in. He takes about .0000023 seconds to call and tosses over the bullets. Whoopsie-daisy. I hit an queen on the flop but that's as far as I go, and I start stacking em up, knowing that's it for me. Well, almost. We compare stacks and I had him covered by 275 chips. He ships me back two black 100s and three green 25s, and I've got less than 2 blinds left.
I'm debating whether I should go all-in blind, but the dealer button just passed me and I've actually got a few hands to wait for something. Mr. Aces limps to me, and I flip over ace-jack-off. Something! I stick my "stack" in and get 2 callers. The flop is all low garbage - they both check, trying to knock me to the rail. The turn brings my jack, and the river hits the low stuff again. I might be good! Mr. Aces has a jack but his kicker's no good, and I triple up to 900. Still desperate, but breathing.
Next orbit, I'm in the small blind and there's one limper. I check out pocket kings. Hello Frisco! Should I complete and try to trap? Should I minraise? I consider for quite a bit - too long, actually, and I'm aware that I've probably given myself away by the length of my consideration. I finally decide on the straight play - all in with 6 big blinds. No need to get fancy here - if everyone folds, then so be it. Terry in the big blind make a quick call - he's in worst shape than I am and needs to make something happen. The limper gives it up and I'm heads up against queen-ten suited, and I hold up, putting me at 2200, 15 big blinds and back in contention, with some work to do. From 275 to 2200 in two orbits - not too shabby.
Part 2 to follow.
My table draw is not encouraging. Terry, on my left, plays in my home game occasionally. To his left, Mike, a gentleman who has won two of the past three tourneys. A quick glance after the action starts shows two other players shuffling chips and talking about play at our downtown charity poker room. Not one soft spot to be found. Peachy.
These tourneys usually start off as limpfests, but in the second level, Terry raises up a pot size flop bet, then takes it down on the turn with another big blast. He reveals his cards - connectors hit a straight on the turn - meaning that he raised the pot big on the flop with a draw. Not all ABC poker here.
Ace-ten for me in the big blind, second level. Limpers to me. I might raise up ace-jack, but AT is a bit too weak, let's see a flop. Seven-Eight-Nine gives me an open-ender. I check into 4 people, someone takes a stab with a minbet of 30. This chases nobody away, they all call. I call as well.
Turn pairs the eight, and the same guy stabs the same amount. My thought is that this will now get expensive, with someone slowplaying a set that is now a boat or hit his third eight, or had a straight all along, but everyone just calls. I call as well with huge odds, and this pot is looking pretty big for an early level.
The river brings me an ace, a nice card for me, but plenty of other hands beat me and I'm out of position. I figure a check-small-bet-call is in order, but nobody bets, and my aces and eights takes the pot.
I give all this back in the next level. I limp with 7d8d, and Walt raises it up to 200. Walt played in my cash game last week - he's pretty good, but I think I know where I'm at here, so I make the call hoping to smash an overpair. The board is 466 with one diamond and two hearts. Walt repeats the bet of 200. I should fold here with nothing but a gutshot, but I make the call. There are a ton of turn cards that might make this hand interesting - a miracle 5 of course, but a diamond gives me a flush draw, a ten gives me a double gutter, and a 7 or 8 might even give me the best hand to a missed AK/AQ. I make the call. The river bricks out with a black 3, and I give up on the hand, chastising myself for making a cash game call in a tourney.
Not much else doing - we get to the first break and Anthony chips up the red $5 to greens. I count myself out and I've got 1500, precisely the amount of chips I started with.
At level 75/150, the player to my right makes a minraise to 300. I look at his stack - he's got about the same smallish stack as I do, and is right on the edge of push-or-fold mode. My cards are KQo. This player is solid and has something here - he's not in position to steal blinds, and he's not overly aggressive. I decide he's got a medium ace or a smaller pair, and perhaps he will buckle to some pressure. I put my stack in. He takes about .0000023 seconds to call and tosses over the bullets. Whoopsie-daisy. I hit an queen on the flop but that's as far as I go, and I start stacking em up, knowing that's it for me. Well, almost. We compare stacks and I had him covered by 275 chips. He ships me back two black 100s and three green 25s, and I've got less than 2 blinds left.
I'm debating whether I should go all-in blind, but the dealer button just passed me and I've actually got a few hands to wait for something. Mr. Aces limps to me, and I flip over ace-jack-off. Something! I stick my "stack" in and get 2 callers. The flop is all low garbage - they both check, trying to knock me to the rail. The turn brings my jack, and the river hits the low stuff again. I might be good! Mr. Aces has a jack but his kicker's no good, and I triple up to 900. Still desperate, but breathing.
Next orbit, I'm in the small blind and there's one limper. I check out pocket kings. Hello Frisco! Should I complete and try to trap? Should I minraise? I consider for quite a bit - too long, actually, and I'm aware that I've probably given myself away by the length of my consideration. I finally decide on the straight play - all in with 6 big blinds. No need to get fancy here - if everyone folds, then so be it. Terry in the big blind make a quick call - he's in worst shape than I am and needs to make something happen. The limper gives it up and I'm heads up against queen-ten suited, and I hold up, putting me at 2200, 15 big blinds and back in contention, with some work to do. From 275 to 2200 in two orbits - not too shabby.
Part 2 to follow.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
There's a difference...
There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
-Morpheus, the Matrix
I've read the books, studied hands, watched videos, listened to podcasts. I know how to play poker, at some intermediate level. I'm no math wiz, but I can usually figure out when I have equity in a hand. I often know the right play is to be aggressive, sometimes without the cards to back them up.
But I don't always make the correct move, even when I know I should. Call it fear of getting stacked, or fear of failure, or just some generalized fear. It's not the money - I've got a little separate live poker fund in the dresser drawer, and if I blow it all chasing flushes - the mortgage still gets paid, the kids still get dinner.
I have felt the need to start working the correct +EV plays into my live game. Not waiting until I know I'm ahead, or even pretty sure I'm ahead. To a small extent, I started tonight.
There is a new player at the table tonight, a guy from the neighborhood that I've tangled with in the monthly tourney, but never in the cash game. I think he's solid and straightforward, perhaps a bit too loose with his king-nines and ace-sevens. Another player, a non-regular, is also in the game, and I think I've got him pegged as fairly weak-tight. Tony can outplay me, as can Mr. Pietzak, but I think I can handle the other 4 at our 7 handed table. I should be able to make money here.
AJ in early position. Not a fun hand to play, but I raise it up. Mr. Pietzak cold calls me. The board is jack-rag-rag, and I lead out for pure value, knowing he will call if he's got cards around the rags. He does. The turn brings a 7 - only a gutshot or a weird two pair is ahead now, or a flopped set. I bet big again, Mr. Pietzak goes all in, but my call is mandatory with his little remaining stack. He's still on a draw and misses the river, and I vault over my starting amount early. Normally I would be a bit hesitant to build a big pot with a pair, even top/top, but my read was true and I stuck it in there, ahead the whole time.
CS raises to 3 - that's his standard raise, and it means he has a face card. J6 will do just fine. Ace-rag is golden. Connectors, sure. I peek at pocket queens and pop it back up to $11. He thinks a long time and calls. He likes his hand, but he doesn't love it.
The dreaded overcard hits - K 5 6. CS donks into me for $10. That's a big bet for him - his bet sizes tend to telegraph his hand. I think he has a king now. But I remember how he thought long and hard about calling- he doesn't think hard about AK, KQ, KQ, even KT. With two broadway cards in his hand, he will see a flop without hesitation. Nope, I think he likes his king but not his kicker.
I make it $25. I'm not sure I can push him off any top pair, but I have been playing pretty tight and I have shown tremendous strength now on the flop and turn. He likes to hang around in small pots and chase two pairs and gutshots, but I'm not sure he'll do it in a pot that looks like it might end up all in. This is what I think - I don't know it, but the right way to play this hand is to continue the aggression when you feel he's week. Taking a call/call/call line when you think you're behind ain't gonna get it done.
"Fifteen more?" he asks in a surprised tone, and I think I have him. He finally gives it up, saying "if I had two pair, I'd call, but I think you've got aces". He confirms my read later and tells the table he had the king.
I try walking the path a couple more times in the evening, but it doesn't work out for me. I raise up a bunch of limpers on the button with T4s, but CS has plenty of chips in front of him and wants to see flops now. He donks into me again on the flop, this time for $15. This is a HUGE bet by him - and he's not one to make big bluffs. This bet tells me that he thinks he has the best hand, and I'm not getting him to fold this time.
I raise up a few more buttons, sometimes with cards, sometimes not. I win a few standard hands at the flop, but the sledding is tough.
I'm don't think I show a hand down on the river for the last two hours, until the very last hand. I'm at about $100 from a starting stack of 60. I limp with A2s in early position - not aggressive, but the cold-callers come out more and more as the hours get later. We get the free flop and I hit two pair, with a jack in between. Tony's brother Fred goes all in for his last $21 - having taken a brutal hit to his large stack a couple hands ago by pushing into the nuts. I don't feel like AJ is here - Fred is aggressive enough to have raised up limpers with AJ preflop. The hidden sets are always out there, but otherwise I'm good. I make the call and he shows J2 for the big blind special two pair, and I've got him dead to a jack. I stack him and the night ends as Fred leaves the game, leaving us with too few players to play.
$125 on the night - double my buy in. Good enough.
-Morpheus, the Matrix
I've read the books, studied hands, watched videos, listened to podcasts. I know how to play poker, at some intermediate level. I'm no math wiz, but I can usually figure out when I have equity in a hand. I often know the right play is to be aggressive, sometimes without the cards to back them up.
But I don't always make the correct move, even when I know I should. Call it fear of getting stacked, or fear of failure, or just some generalized fear. It's not the money - I've got a little separate live poker fund in the dresser drawer, and if I blow it all chasing flushes - the mortgage still gets paid, the kids still get dinner.
I have felt the need to start working the correct +EV plays into my live game. Not waiting until I know I'm ahead, or even pretty sure I'm ahead. To a small extent, I started tonight.
There is a new player at the table tonight, a guy from the neighborhood that I've tangled with in the monthly tourney, but never in the cash game. I think he's solid and straightforward, perhaps a bit too loose with his king-nines and ace-sevens. Another player, a non-regular, is also in the game, and I think I've got him pegged as fairly weak-tight. Tony can outplay me, as can Mr. Pietzak, but I think I can handle the other 4 at our 7 handed table. I should be able to make money here.
AJ in early position. Not a fun hand to play, but I raise it up. Mr. Pietzak cold calls me. The board is jack-rag-rag, and I lead out for pure value, knowing he will call if he's got cards around the rags. He does. The turn brings a 7 - only a gutshot or a weird two pair is ahead now, or a flopped set. I bet big again, Mr. Pietzak goes all in, but my call is mandatory with his little remaining stack. He's still on a draw and misses the river, and I vault over my starting amount early. Normally I would be a bit hesitant to build a big pot with a pair, even top/top, but my read was true and I stuck it in there, ahead the whole time.
CS raises to 3 - that's his standard raise, and it means he has a face card. J6 will do just fine. Ace-rag is golden. Connectors, sure. I peek at pocket queens and pop it back up to $11. He thinks a long time and calls. He likes his hand, but he doesn't love it.
The dreaded overcard hits - K 5 6. CS donks into me for $10. That's a big bet for him - his bet sizes tend to telegraph his hand. I think he has a king now. But I remember how he thought long and hard about calling- he doesn't think hard about AK, KQ, KQ, even KT. With two broadway cards in his hand, he will see a flop without hesitation. Nope, I think he likes his king but not his kicker.
I make it $25. I'm not sure I can push him off any top pair, but I have been playing pretty tight and I have shown tremendous strength now on the flop and turn. He likes to hang around in small pots and chase two pairs and gutshots, but I'm not sure he'll do it in a pot that looks like it might end up all in. This is what I think - I don't know it, but the right way to play this hand is to continue the aggression when you feel he's week. Taking a call/call/call line when you think you're behind ain't gonna get it done.
"Fifteen more?" he asks in a surprised tone, and I think I have him. He finally gives it up, saying "if I had two pair, I'd call, but I think you've got aces". He confirms my read later and tells the table he had the king.
I try walking the path a couple more times in the evening, but it doesn't work out for me. I raise up a bunch of limpers on the button with T4s, but CS has plenty of chips in front of him and wants to see flops now. He donks into me again on the flop, this time for $15. This is a HUGE bet by him - and he's not one to make big bluffs. This bet tells me that he thinks he has the best hand, and I'm not getting him to fold this time.
I raise up a few more buttons, sometimes with cards, sometimes not. I win a few standard hands at the flop, but the sledding is tough.
I'm don't think I show a hand down on the river for the last two hours, until the very last hand. I'm at about $100 from a starting stack of 60. I limp with A2s in early position - not aggressive, but the cold-callers come out more and more as the hours get later. We get the free flop and I hit two pair, with a jack in between. Tony's brother Fred goes all in for his last $21 - having taken a brutal hit to his large stack a couple hands ago by pushing into the nuts. I don't feel like AJ is here - Fred is aggressive enough to have raised up limpers with AJ preflop. The hidden sets are always out there, but otherwise I'm good. I make the call and he shows J2 for the big blind special two pair, and I've got him dead to a jack. I stack him and the night ends as Fred leaves the game, leaving us with too few players to play.
$125 on the night - double my buy in. Good enough.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
a sweet session
Played 403 hands tonight over exactly 2 hours. About half of the session was on 3 simultaneous tables.
My multi-table-fu (new word!) is definitely improving. I had no trouble following the action. I knew how each table was playing, and where the donkeys were. One table was 4 other "standard" players - with play much like myself, and one guy who limped a bit too much but other than that was ok. Nobody at this table felt like defending their blinds, so I stole them with abandon. For awhile, the player to my left folded every single time I raised from the small blind. I was sad to see him go.
The fates were with me tonight. My steals were either folded, or defended with a call and the folded to a c-bet. I was stacked only twice - once with aces vs. nines, and once shoving with sevens on a bad player whom I had seen call an all-in with ace-queen after missing the flop. He was strong against me with pocket queens, though.
One blip in an otherwise great 400 hands - with a $38 profit (152 blinds).
This hand, which happened at the very end of the night, is one I'm quite proud of, because I was able to follow the action all the way through, while 2 other tables were going. My reads were good and I was able to put the villain on a range and decide quickly if I was ahead.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($12.75)
UTG ($15.72)
Hero (MP) ($32.99)
Button ($10.30)
SB ($19.87)
Preflop: Hero is MP with 4
, A
1 fold, Hero bets $0.75, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50
Preflop raise with an ace in the cutoff. The big blind defends. I only have 9 hands of history on him so far, but he has played 4 of the hands and raised 2, so I think his range is pretty wide.
Flop: ($1.60) Q
, 4
, 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1, BB calls $1
Hey, I hit my four! I bet out and he calls. I put him on a weak pair (queen, nine, or pockets), or a flush draw. Most of what he calls me with is ahead of my bottom pair, though.
Turn: ($3.60) 2
(2 players)
BB bets $0.25, Hero calls $0.25
He bets the minimum. This is either "I've got a draw and I'm trying to get there", or sometimes "I've got a big hand and I'm praying to raise". I'm not raising with bottom pair, though, but I can call this tiny minbet.
River: ($4.10) A (2 players)
BB bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50
Two pair on the river, and he bets out, but less than half pot. Feels weak instead of a value bet. I feel like I just drew out on almost his entire range - all pairs are dead, flush draws didn't get there. If he's betting weakly with a set to get value, I'll pay off a third pot bet.
Total pot: $7.10 | Rake: $0.35
Results:
BB had A, 7 (one pair, Aces).
Hero had 4, A (two pair, Aces and fours).
Outcome: Hero won $6.75
Villain hit the ace on the river while chasing a flush and figured maybe he drew out on me.
My multi-table-fu (new word!) is definitely improving. I had no trouble following the action. I knew how each table was playing, and where the donkeys were. One table was 4 other "standard" players - with play much like myself, and one guy who limped a bit too much but other than that was ok. Nobody at this table felt like defending their blinds, so I stole them with abandon. For awhile, the player to my left folded every single time I raised from the small blind. I was sad to see him go.
The fates were with me tonight. My steals were either folded, or defended with a call and the folded to a c-bet. I was stacked only twice - once with aces vs. nines, and once shoving with sevens on a bad player whom I had seen call an all-in with ace-queen after missing the flop. He was strong against me with pocket queens, though.
One blip in an otherwise great 400 hands - with a $38 profit (152 blinds).
This hand, which happened at the very end of the night, is one I'm quite proud of, because I was able to follow the action all the way through, while 2 other tables were going. My reads were good and I was able to put the villain on a range and decide quickly if I was ahead.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($12.75)
UTG ($15.72)
Hero (MP) ($32.99)
Button ($10.30)
SB ($19.87)
Preflop: Hero is MP with 4
, A1 fold, Hero bets $0.75, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50
Preflop raise with an ace in the cutoff. The big blind defends. I only have 9 hands of history on him so far, but he has played 4 of the hands and raised 2, so I think his range is pretty wide.
Flop: ($1.60) Q
, 4, 9 (2 players)BB checks, Hero bets $1, BB calls $1
Hey, I hit my four! I bet out and he calls. I put him on a weak pair (queen, nine, or pockets), or a flush draw. Most of what he calls me with is ahead of my bottom pair, though.
Turn: ($3.60) 2
(2 players)BB bets $0.25, Hero calls $0.25
He bets the minimum. This is either "I've got a draw and I'm trying to get there", or sometimes "I've got a big hand and I'm praying to raise". I'm not raising with bottom pair, though, but I can call this tiny minbet.
River: ($4.10) A
(2 players)BB bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50
Two pair on the river, and he bets out, but less than half pot. Feels weak instead of a value bet. I feel like I just drew out on almost his entire range - all pairs are dead, flush draws didn't get there. If he's betting weakly with a set to get value, I'll pay off a third pot bet.
Total pot: $7.10 | Rake: $0.35
Results:
BB had A
, 7 (one pair, Aces).Hero had 4
, A (two pair, Aces and fours).Outcome: Hero won $6.75
Villain hit the ace on the river while chasing a flush and figured maybe he drew out on me.
Monday, November 23, 2009
forced stop-loss, and hand review,.
Only got in 187 hands tonight - daughter got a virus on her computer about 10 seconds after she downloaded "these cool themes for facebook", and it started knocking out every running program and spitting up porn websites. Greaaaat.
Probably just as well - I got unlucky to the tune of 83 big blinds in those 187 hands. KK all in vs. 77 and Q8s would have been a nice triple up - nope, 77 hit his set. Someone called my shove semi-bluff with AcTc on a 457 rainbow board. I had 88 for the weak overpair and a gutshot - she had 6 outs and hit. 2 hands where I'm a 3-1 favorite and lose both. I did manage a win with KK vs. AK, though, so one of three all-ins on the night held to form.
3 all-ins as a favorite - a good indicator that I'm still playing well. For more proof, I checked all my all-ins this month where the expected amount won or lost was at least ten BB - I've got 23 positive vs. 14 negative. So I'm getting my money in in good much more often than bad.
To review even further, I went over the top 10 negatives (in terms of equity) to see what mistakes I've been making:
1. AKo. Raise flop, get a caller. Hit TPTK, get it in on turn with a [Ac 2c 8d 4c] board. Could be dead to a flush, but villain is donkey and I still expect value here. He had called my raise with 35o and had the straight. Ok then. Keep calling raises with 35o and winning 30 BB, donkey - that'll work.
2. AJo raised (punishing limpers), hit a J32 rainbow board. Get it in TPTK, against a set of threes. This is fine - pocket threes also won't make long term money calling a raise in a capped game.
3. AK vs. K6, he hit two pair on the flop. Played correctly, unlucky that he hit 2 pair.
4. A9o - raised from button, blind defends. [Ac Qd 8d] board. He leads out, I raise, he calls. 8 pairs on the turn, we get it in, he had K8 and tripped up. More luck. I was ahead preflop and outflopped him - he drew out.
5. My KQ vs his KK. Got it in bad here, no way to sugarcoat this one. Whoopsie.
6. JJ vs. QQ. Cooler. It happens. Got it in bad, but tough to fold JJ in a 30 BB game (would need to review the player's stats to see if maybe he was tight enough to fold).
7. JT, limped behind limpers, hit top pair/crappy kicker on a normal board (flush draw, but only a baby straight draw), got it in vs. slowplayed aces. I hate the way I played this hand - should have either folded the flop or tried to punish limpers (would have probably found out I was against aces preflop. if he slowplays and just calls, I probably slow down myself in a raised pot). Anyway, donkey play by me, I deserved to get stacked.
8. My own aces, slowplayed from the small blind, vs. Tony with early position limp and an aggro-donkey in the big, who I was trying to trap. Tony hit a set of fours on me. Screwed this one up, too. I very rarely slowplay aces, and I got cute this time, and it cost me.
9. I three-bet a supper-aggro with KQo, he calls. Flop is QQJ, I check thinking he'll bet, but he doesn't. Turn is a 7, we get it in, he had 77. Sucks to lose this one, but I played it right - I gave an aggressive player a free card and a chance to bluff me with 2 outs to win, and he hit one. That's a long term good play.
10. Mr. Pietzak 5 outs me - I raise A8 from the button, he defends with K9 - I bet pot when I hit my ace, he calls with bottom pair and hits two pair on the turn. Good play again until the turn.
It seems like I'm getting into many these hands with the best of it and I'm getting drawn out on. If someone played this exact same way in a full buy-in game, they would lose a ton of money - you can't defend top pair to the death for 100 big blinds. But for 30 blinds, it's fine.
Sorry if this looks like a bad beat post - it really wasn't meant to be - I think it's important to occasionally review my hands and look for problems, especially this month since my winrate has crept pretty low (1.26 BB/100 hands in 3700 hands).
Note that I wasn't truly looking for opponent suckouts/bad beats - to do that, I would check for hands with high expected equity when the money went in, but then lost. In all of the cases above, I got my money in bad for some reason or another, and I'm trying to figure out why. In many cases, I'm getting in with a top/top type hand and the people who are ahead have gotten that way by playing a hand that was unprofitable to do so, but hit this time (like calling a flop bet when way behind but then hitting a 5 outer on the turn). So when I get my money in bad, I'm probably ahead of the range of hands they might have, but they happen to have hands at the top of that range.
Probably just as well - I got unlucky to the tune of 83 big blinds in those 187 hands. KK all in vs. 77 and Q8s would have been a nice triple up - nope, 77 hit his set. Someone called my shove semi-bluff with AcTc on a 457 rainbow board. I had 88 for the weak overpair and a gutshot - she had 6 outs and hit. 2 hands where I'm a 3-1 favorite and lose both. I did manage a win with KK vs. AK, though, so one of three all-ins on the night held to form.
3 all-ins as a favorite - a good indicator that I'm still playing well. For more proof, I checked all my all-ins this month where the expected amount won or lost was at least ten BB - I've got 23 positive vs. 14 negative. So I'm getting my money in in good much more often than bad.
To review even further, I went over the top 10 negatives (in terms of equity) to see what mistakes I've been making:
1. AKo. Raise flop, get a caller. Hit TPTK, get it in on turn with a [Ac 2c 8d 4c] board. Could be dead to a flush, but villain is donkey and I still expect value here. He had called my raise with 35o and had the straight. Ok then. Keep calling raises with 35o and winning 30 BB, donkey - that'll work.
2. AJo raised (punishing limpers), hit a J32 rainbow board. Get it in TPTK, against a set of threes. This is fine - pocket threes also won't make long term money calling a raise in a capped game.
3. AK vs. K6, he hit two pair on the flop. Played correctly, unlucky that he hit 2 pair.
4. A9o - raised from button, blind defends. [Ac Qd 8d] board. He leads out, I raise, he calls. 8 pairs on the turn, we get it in, he had K8 and tripped up. More luck. I was ahead preflop and outflopped him - he drew out.
5. My KQ vs his KK. Got it in bad here, no way to sugarcoat this one. Whoopsie.
6. JJ vs. QQ. Cooler. It happens. Got it in bad, but tough to fold JJ in a 30 BB game (would need to review the player's stats to see if maybe he was tight enough to fold).
7. JT, limped behind limpers, hit top pair/crappy kicker on a normal board (flush draw, but only a baby straight draw), got it in vs. slowplayed aces. I hate the way I played this hand - should have either folded the flop or tried to punish limpers (would have probably found out I was against aces preflop. if he slowplays and just calls, I probably slow down myself in a raised pot). Anyway, donkey play by me, I deserved to get stacked.
8. My own aces, slowplayed from the small blind, vs. Tony with early position limp and an aggro-donkey in the big, who I was trying to trap. Tony hit a set of fours on me. Screwed this one up, too. I very rarely slowplay aces, and I got cute this time, and it cost me.
9. I three-bet a supper-aggro with KQo, he calls. Flop is QQJ, I check thinking he'll bet, but he doesn't. Turn is a 7, we get it in, he had 77. Sucks to lose this one, but I played it right - I gave an aggressive player a free card and a chance to bluff me with 2 outs to win, and he hit one. That's a long term good play.
10. Mr. Pietzak 5 outs me - I raise A8 from the button, he defends with K9 - I bet pot when I hit my ace, he calls with bottom pair and hits two pair on the turn. Good play again until the turn.
It seems like I'm getting into many these hands with the best of it and I'm getting drawn out on. If someone played this exact same way in a full buy-in game, they would lose a ton of money - you can't defend top pair to the death for 100 big blinds. But for 30 blinds, it's fine.
Sorry if this looks like a bad beat post - it really wasn't meant to be - I think it's important to occasionally review my hands and look for problems, especially this month since my winrate has crept pretty low (1.26 BB/100 hands in 3700 hands).
Note that I wasn't truly looking for opponent suckouts/bad beats - to do that, I would check for hands with high expected equity when the money went in, but then lost. In all of the cases above, I got my money in bad for some reason or another, and I'm trying to figure out why. In many cases, I'm getting in with a top/top type hand and the people who are ahead have gotten that way by playing a hand that was unprofitable to do so, but hit this time (like calling a flop bet when way behind but then hitting a 5 outer on the turn). So when I get my money in bad, I'm probably ahead of the range of hands they might have, but they happen to have hands at the top of that range.
multitable madness
Played 655 hands last night, including an hour of 3 tables at the same time. I consider it a success in that I didn't make a mechanical mistake all night (thinking I was acting on one table and hitting my key, when I was actually acting on another). I was also able to keep some track of the players at each table - knowing that one table had two 78/4 spazzmonkeys (wait for hand and punish), and the other table was full of tighter, possible-multitablers (steal more, C-bet more).
No profit on the night - a small $5 loss. My play was sound, though.
No profit on the night - a small $5 loss. My play was sound, though.
Friday, November 20, 2009
thursday night break even.
No traction in the Thursday night cash game - I don't think I flopped top pair one time. I ended the night down $8, thanks to a few non-standard plays.
Punish the limpers - bringing my online research on isolating limpers over to my cash game - with two tighter, straightforward players on my right, I was able to isolate raise their limps a couple times with hands I would have limped behind in the past. AT, KJ became raises. Twice I took the pot preflop, once I got a caller who donked into me. I had whiffed the flop and considered coming over the top of him with air, but I let that one go.
Stone bluff - I defended my blind with a weak ace, and missed the flop for the 125th straight time by seeing eight, nine, three. My opponent bet, and I checkraised with air. This was one of the straightforward opponents, and I just couldn't see this board hitting him often. He thought a long, long time, then folded, showing a nine! (but complaining that he didn't like his kicker).
Fear of God - limped along, with ace-ten from the small blind (iso-raise from the blinds not as good, out of position if you're called). Good news - two pair, bad news - all spades on a AKT board. Straightforward guy bets $6, I raise to $15, and he thinks again, long and hard, then folds, showing red this time QJ for a flopped straight! This guy seemingly fears every draw - need to keep that in mind for the future...
Not a fun night - cards not cooperating, felt more like digging a hole than enjoying myself playing poker.
What is becoming more clear to me is that I am too timid a player. I made a few plays tonight as I described above, but there were certainly more to be made, and at the time I just couldn't pull the trigger. I am definitely more aggressive online than live. On a night like this one, with no cards and nothing going on - do I want to be satisfied with a break-even performance?
This is the next great barrier to cross. I know most of the plays and the math. I am improving on categorizing players and how they're trying to win. I know how to counteract what they're doing. Now I just need to do it, and stop fearing going busto.
Punish the limpers - bringing my online research on isolating limpers over to my cash game - with two tighter, straightforward players on my right, I was able to isolate raise their limps a couple times with hands I would have limped behind in the past. AT, KJ became raises. Twice I took the pot preflop, once I got a caller who donked into me. I had whiffed the flop and considered coming over the top of him with air, but I let that one go.
Stone bluff - I defended my blind with a weak ace, and missed the flop for the 125th straight time by seeing eight, nine, three. My opponent bet, and I checkraised with air. This was one of the straightforward opponents, and I just couldn't see this board hitting him often. He thought a long, long time, then folded, showing a nine! (but complaining that he didn't like his kicker).
Fear of God - limped along, with ace-ten from the small blind (iso-raise from the blinds not as good, out of position if you're called). Good news - two pair, bad news - all spades on a AKT board. Straightforward guy bets $6, I raise to $15, and he thinks again, long and hard, then folds, showing red this time QJ for a flopped straight! This guy seemingly fears every draw - need to keep that in mind for the future...
Not a fun night - cards not cooperating, felt more like digging a hole than enjoying myself playing poker.
What is becoming more clear to me is that I am too timid a player. I made a few plays tonight as I described above, but there were certainly more to be made, and at the time I just couldn't pull the trigger. I am definitely more aggressive online than live. On a night like this one, with no cards and nothing going on - do I want to be satisfied with a break-even performance?
This is the next great barrier to cross. I know most of the plays and the math. I am improving on categorizing players and how they're trying to win. I know how to counteract what they're doing. Now I just need to do it, and stop fearing going busto.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
worst night in awhile
nothing went right for me tonight - not sure I played badly, at least early. Pietzak sucked out on me with a 5 outer twice by calling me with middle pair (he never thinks I have anything, but I had top pair and an overpair these two times), and he hit two pair on the next card to wipe me out. So that was $21 out the window.
That doesn't even account for half of the losses, though - I got pummeled for $30 more, and took away 2/3 of my net winnings for the month in one night.
Tried to review the session - I don't think I made too many mistakes. I see a ton of 1.50 and 2.00 losses that are preflop raises that either got 3-bet or lost on the flop.
Raised 9Ts, got 3 bet, folded. Villain shows JJ.
Raised pocket 5s, get called. Lost a small pot to 99.
Raised pocket 6s, get called. Lost a small pot to AQ (hit a Q).
Raised A3 from the button, got 3 bet all-in. Folded.
Raised KQo, Pietzak calls with T6s, hits a ten. Lovely.
Raised AKo, called from blind, lose to pocket eights. C-bet impossible here, this villain called to river with any piece (saw him call all the way with unimproved pocket twos).
I see a couple mistakes in the hand histories. Someone raised and got a caller, I called behind with pocket nines. A great spot to squeeze, I failed to do it.
But overall, just variance, I think. I felt tilty as the session went on, don't get me wrong, but I don't think it affected my play. It looks like I made normal plays, and just whiffed every flop. Maybe I need to find a way to win a couple of those pots - but it's hard putting a bunch of money in when you see people call with almost nothing. You've got to hit a hand and get value to beat those guys - I didn't hit any hands. As they say, Alrighty then.
Live game tomorrow - after a week off. Maybe I got the crap cards out of the way tonight. I owe Pietzak a couple 5 outers...
That doesn't even account for half of the losses, though - I got pummeled for $30 more, and took away 2/3 of my net winnings for the month in one night.
Tried to review the session - I don't think I made too many mistakes. I see a ton of 1.50 and 2.00 losses that are preflop raises that either got 3-bet or lost on the flop.
Raised 9Ts, got 3 bet, folded. Villain shows JJ.
Raised pocket 5s, get called. Lost a small pot to 99.
Raised pocket 6s, get called. Lost a small pot to AQ (hit a Q).
Raised A3 from the button, got 3 bet all-in. Folded.
Raised KQo, Pietzak calls with T6s, hits a ten. Lovely.
Raised AKo, called from blind, lose to pocket eights. C-bet impossible here, this villain called to river with any piece (saw him call all the way with unimproved pocket twos).
I see a couple mistakes in the hand histories. Someone raised and got a caller, I called behind with pocket nines. A great spot to squeeze, I failed to do it.
But overall, just variance, I think. I felt tilty as the session went on, don't get me wrong, but I don't think it affected my play. It looks like I made normal plays, and just whiffed every flop. Maybe I need to find a way to win a couple of those pots - but it's hard putting a bunch of money in when you see people call with almost nothing. You've got to hit a hand and get value to beat those guys - I didn't hit any hands. As they say, Alrighty then.
Live game tomorrow - after a week off. Maybe I got the crap cards out of the way tonight. I owe Pietzak a couple 5 outers...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
bit o this, bit o that
Pietzak was in the mood to challenge me to some 6-max tourneys tonight. I bombed out of 2 (got my money in good both times) but we made it heads up in the third, and he prevailed. Second place money for me.
Add to that 288 hands of the capped 6-max ring game and a profit of $16.39, and my net profit on the night was a cool $10, thank you much. Not bad considering I had overpairs cracked twice by unpaired undercards in the tourneys, AA vs J7, and QQ vs. 74s. Love that Pietzak.
Reviewed the times I got stacked in the cash game.
1. All in with QQ vs AQ, got nailed by a straight. Bad luck.
2. Tried to steal blinds with 67s, got called from BB. Flop was J45, bettor lead out into me. I raised all-in as a semi-bluff, he called with KJ. Aggressive play, had fold equity and 8 outs to a winner - don't have a problem with this hand.
3. Raised AhQd, got called. Flop was all diamonds (TJ3), no pair for me. C-Bet and got called. Turn was 8d, we both checked. River paired the board with a ten. I checked and player shoved. Should have folded, but I called with the queen high flush. Player had 88 and hit his set on the turn and boat on the river. Bad call by me here - there wasn't a whole lot I was beating. This one cost me the most as it was the one time I got stacked in the .25/.50 stakes (the others were all .10/.25).
So certainly a bad play, but the rest was good. Some suckouts prevented a nice profit, but I still came out up a few bucks, so I'll take it.
Add to that 288 hands of the capped 6-max ring game and a profit of $16.39, and my net profit on the night was a cool $10, thank you much. Not bad considering I had overpairs cracked twice by unpaired undercards in the tourneys, AA vs J7, and QQ vs. 74s. Love that Pietzak.
Reviewed the times I got stacked in the cash game.
1. All in with QQ vs AQ, got nailed by a straight. Bad luck.
2. Tried to steal blinds with 67s, got called from BB. Flop was J45, bettor lead out into me. I raised all-in as a semi-bluff, he called with KJ. Aggressive play, had fold equity and 8 outs to a winner - don't have a problem with this hand.
3. Raised AhQd, got called. Flop was all diamonds (TJ3), no pair for me. C-Bet and got called. Turn was 8d, we both checked. River paired the board with a ten. I checked and player shoved. Should have folded, but I called with the queen high flush. Player had 88 and hit his set on the turn and boat on the river. Bad call by me here - there wasn't a whole lot I was beating. This one cost me the most as it was the one time I got stacked in the .25/.50 stakes (the others were all .10/.25).
So certainly a bad play, but the rest was good. Some suckouts prevented a nice profit, but I still came out up a few bucks, so I'll take it.
Friday, November 13, 2009
quick hitter
tired tonight, so I caught up on some TV, then logged in for 50 quick capped cash game hands.
I sat down with 2 players I had played 100+ hands with before, except now I had my new HUD, and it immediately won me money from both.
Guy to my right raised my blind twice in a row. Checked his steal blinds percent - 38%. That's high. Shoved over him with pocket eights - he folded. He also stopped raising from the button.
(to be fair, I might make this same play with pocket eights and an unknown read, but the high steal percentage makes me more confident that he's raising with garbage much of the time).
Later, guy on the other side of the table limped - his stats were 38/6. Lots of limping. My new "limp then call a raise" stat said he only called 33% of the time. I figured the sample size was too low, but I hovered over the stat and said it was 10 calls out of 30 limps-then-raised-behind.
So he's a speculator, and he folds to preflop pressure. I had K8s and raised- he folded.
I also hit set over set and won a stack, and cashed out in 50 hands with a 40 BB profit.
I sat down with 2 players I had played 100+ hands with before, except now I had my new HUD, and it immediately won me money from both.
Guy to my right raised my blind twice in a row. Checked his steal blinds percent - 38%. That's high. Shoved over him with pocket eights - he folded. He also stopped raising from the button.
(to be fair, I might make this same play with pocket eights and an unknown read, but the high steal percentage makes me more confident that he's raising with garbage much of the time).
Later, guy on the other side of the table limped - his stats were 38/6. Lots of limping. My new "limp then call a raise" stat said he only called 33% of the time. I figured the sample size was too low, but I hovered over the stat and said it was 10 calls out of 30 limps-then-raised-behind.
So he's a speculator, and he folds to preflop pressure. I had K8s and raised- he folded.
I also hit set over set and won a stack, and cashed out in 50 hands with a 40 BB profit.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Into the Toolshed for some new tools.
In my last post, I discussed the need to work on my game in cases where there are several limpy-limpersons at the table. I know that the standard strategy is to isolate limpers, but I wasn't sure when to do this - with what hands, against which types of players.
So last night I did the work. I found a great forum post on isolating limpers, and read it three times. I also made several changes to my HUD, adding several stats - many of which help in these scenarios.
Limp-Call% - percentage of times a limper calls a raise behind him.
Fold to Flop bet% - percentage of times a player folds to a c-bet.
WTSD% - went to showdown percentage.
$WSD% - percentage player wins at showdown.
These stats can help you decide if a limper is worthy of isolation. Some limpers are willing to speculate with all kinds of garbage, but will fold preflop in the face of a raise. Others will pay the price of the raise to see the flop, but then fold once they see it and miss. Some players will call to the river with pocket threes even if the board is AQK58 with four hearts. The stats above can help identify these players and choose a course of action.
After getting my shiny new HUD all set up, I fired up two .10/.25 CAP tables to take it for a spin. It would be sweet justice and a good story to say that I won 100 big blinds in 300 hands, but sadly this wasn't the case. My two pair all-in was cracked by a flush draw, and my own flush-draw semi-bluff shove didn't come (Mr. Pietzak called my shove with ace-high, and was ahead of my KQs, to add insult to injury).
So I ended the night down $17.58 - the second down night in a row. I was able to employ the limper isolation strategy once or twice - my new tools didn't help all that much on this night, but I am 100% sure that they will add to my win rate over the long haul.
So last night I did the work. I found a great forum post on isolating limpers, and read it three times. I also made several changes to my HUD, adding several stats - many of which help in these scenarios.
Limp-Call% - percentage of times a limper calls a raise behind him.
Fold to Flop bet% - percentage of times a player folds to a c-bet.
WTSD% - went to showdown percentage.
$WSD% - percentage player wins at showdown.
These stats can help you decide if a limper is worthy of isolation. Some limpers are willing to speculate with all kinds of garbage, but will fold preflop in the face of a raise. Others will pay the price of the raise to see the flop, but then fold once they see it and miss. Some players will call to the river with pocket threes even if the board is AQK58 with four hearts. The stats above can help identify these players and choose a course of action.
After getting my shiny new HUD all set up, I fired up two .10/.25 CAP tables to take it for a spin. It would be sweet justice and a good story to say that I won 100 big blinds in 300 hands, but sadly this wasn't the case. My two pair all-in was cracked by a flush draw, and my own flush-draw semi-bluff shove didn't come (Mr. Pietzak called my shove with ace-high, and was ahead of my KQs, to add insult to injury).
So I ended the night down $17.58 - the second down night in a row. I was able to employ the limper isolation strategy once or twice - my new tools didn't help all that much on this night, but I am 100% sure that they will add to my win rate over the long haul.
New Music Alert - Them Crooked Vultures.
I have a new favorite band. Dave Grohl gets all Zeppelin-y (I would imagine asking John Paul Jones to be your bass player would help greatly in that effort).
Debut album out next week. Entire album available on Youtube now.
Track 1 has some serious LedZep influence - especially when it changes over at the 2:44 mark. Can't wait to hear this on a real stereo system. I'm giddy!
Listen here.
Debut album out next week. Entire album available on Youtube now.
Track 1 has some serious LedZep influence - especially when it changes over at the 2:44 mark. Can't wait to hear this on a real stereo system. I'm giddy!
Listen here.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
more adventures up high
270 hands of .25/.50 tonight - the table was tough again early on, but I played ok and eeked out a small profit. Then the table turned to limper heaven, and non-believers who would call your flop (or turn, or river) bet with bottom pair or friggin ace high, so I had to switch to "hit a hand and bet it hard" mode. Not easy when your cards dry up.
I need to learn how (and when, especially when) to isolate limpers. I tend to revert too much to my cards at these limpy tables. I stop stealing blinds because the 38/8 guy and the 55/16 guy have both limped in front of me. I need to get some experience in raising these yahoos up and taking their limps, and not waiting for AK to do it.
I did manage to get 2 outed and 5 outed and get stacked twice - these things happen of course, so my net for the night was negative. Wish I could have played at that table all night - lots of bad play in the second half.
I need to learn how (and when, especially when) to isolate limpers. I tend to revert too much to my cards at these limpy tables. I stop stealing blinds because the 38/8 guy and the 55/16 guy have both limped in front of me. I need to get some experience in raising these yahoos up and taking their limps, and not waiting for AK to do it.
I did manage to get 2 outed and 5 outed and get stacked twice - these things happen of course, so my net for the night was negative. Wish I could have played at that table all night - lots of bad play in the second half.
Monday, November 9, 2009
using your reads.
I moved up to the .25/.50 capped 6-max cash game tonight and played about 150 hands. The sledding was much tougher - most of my opponents seemed to know what they were doing, and were playing either tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive poker. I had to make my money using reads and some decent cards.
First off, the player to my immediate left seemed to be taking extra time with every decision. This is often an indicator of a multi-tabler. Another indicator was that he was the tightest player at the table - playing around 10% of hands. Sure enough, I looked him up and he was playing 6 tables at the same time. This is a good player to have to your left - one who isn't paying very close attention. I was able to steal his big blind about 5 times or so when the action was folded to me.
There was one loose aggressive player when I sat down. After 20 hands, his stats were 35/25. I raised up pocket nines and he shoved all 30 blinds in over me. This was the third time he had 3-bet shoved in the 20 hands I witnessed, so I called. I was up against King-Eight suited and my nines held up.
One player made an unusual 5x preflop raise to $2.50, and then folded when a king-queen-x flop showed itself. Since he didn't hit the king or queen, and he didn't have pocket aces, my theory was that a bigger raise from him meant a weaker hand (maybe a smaller pocket pair). Later in the action, I got pocket aces in late position, and Mr. 5x was in one of the blinds. Trying to use his own logic against him - I made it a 5x raise as well, hoping he would think that I was playing like he did. Sure enough, he defended his blind against the 5x raise. I also made a weak c-bet on the flop, and he minraised over me. In a capped game, you never have a problem justifying a shove with pocket aces on the flop, so I shoved and got a fold.
I raised up KQo, another blind defended me. He was a 43/29/4.0 - super-aggressive. My queen paired as the top card on the board, and he lead into me. I called instead of raising, figuring he would bet all three streets, and the only card I was afraid of coming was an ace. When the river paired the queen, giving me trips, I no longer had to fear the ace, either. He fired again, and I called. There wasn't enough left on the river for him to do anything except shove, and so he did, and once again I called, with the best hand by far (he had a busted draw), and I had walked the aggro-dude right down the path to a capped pot.
I was $20 up when the aggro guys left the table and were replaced my more "normal", TAGGY players. I didn't feel like I had an inherent skill advantage over any of these players, so I left the table and switched back down to .10/.25. While waiting for the blinds to come around to me, I watched a player call all-in with ace-ten, lose the rest of his stack, then leave the table.
This was more like the poor play I was used to.
I played two .10/.25 tables at once and was able to continue to play well. I earned another $20 before my first big loss of the night- getting stacked with AJ on a J-2-3 board vs. a set of threes. His preflop call of my raise with pocket threes is not correct in a capped game - the implied odds aren't big enough to make a profit setmining tiny pairs, but he hit so good for him, no biggie for me. I hit the bed with a $30.74 profit.
First off, the player to my immediate left seemed to be taking extra time with every decision. This is often an indicator of a multi-tabler. Another indicator was that he was the tightest player at the table - playing around 10% of hands. Sure enough, I looked him up and he was playing 6 tables at the same time. This is a good player to have to your left - one who isn't paying very close attention. I was able to steal his big blind about 5 times or so when the action was folded to me.
There was one loose aggressive player when I sat down. After 20 hands, his stats were 35/25. I raised up pocket nines and he shoved all 30 blinds in over me. This was the third time he had 3-bet shoved in the 20 hands I witnessed, so I called. I was up against King-Eight suited and my nines held up.
One player made an unusual 5x preflop raise to $2.50, and then folded when a king-queen-x flop showed itself. Since he didn't hit the king or queen, and he didn't have pocket aces, my theory was that a bigger raise from him meant a weaker hand (maybe a smaller pocket pair). Later in the action, I got pocket aces in late position, and Mr. 5x was in one of the blinds. Trying to use his own logic against him - I made it a 5x raise as well, hoping he would think that I was playing like he did. Sure enough, he defended his blind against the 5x raise. I also made a weak c-bet on the flop, and he minraised over me. In a capped game, you never have a problem justifying a shove with pocket aces on the flop, so I shoved and got a fold.
I raised up KQo, another blind defended me. He was a 43/29/4.0 - super-aggressive. My queen paired as the top card on the board, and he lead into me. I called instead of raising, figuring he would bet all three streets, and the only card I was afraid of coming was an ace. When the river paired the queen, giving me trips, I no longer had to fear the ace, either. He fired again, and I called. There wasn't enough left on the river for him to do anything except shove, and so he did, and once again I called, with the best hand by far (he had a busted draw), and I had walked the aggro-dude right down the path to a capped pot.
I was $20 up when the aggro guys left the table and were replaced my more "normal", TAGGY players. I didn't feel like I had an inherent skill advantage over any of these players, so I left the table and switched back down to .10/.25. While waiting for the blinds to come around to me, I watched a player call all-in with ace-ten, lose the rest of his stack, then leave the table.
This was more like the poor play I was used to.
I played two .10/.25 tables at once and was able to continue to play well. I earned another $20 before my first big loss of the night- getting stacked with AJ on a J-2-3 board vs. a set of threes. His preflop call of my raise with pocket threes is not correct in a capped game - the implied odds aren't big enough to make a profit setmining tiny pairs, but he hit so good for him, no biggie for me. I hit the bed with a $30.74 profit.
Losing the Drama in Cash Game world
No online tourneys for quite awhile. I considered playing in a big Sunday affair last night but got a few other things done instead.
I've been plugging away at the 6-max, .10/.25 capped cash games instead. Fairly boring poker, really - hit top pair and go to the wall. Sample hand:
Button raises to $1.10 (4.5 BB).
I shove with AK. (capped game, the shove is $7.50).
He calls with KJs.
I win $7.50. (if i avoid the 3 outer).
Don't get tricky. Don't slowplay anything. Don't 3 bet light with connectors (you could argue not to play connectors at all b/c of the cap). Don't defend your blind with ace-seven or other easily dominated hands. Play more in position.
The quality of play down here is low. Players are playing way too many hands, especially for a capped game, so there's easy, easy money to be made. When people are playing incorrectly at a poker table, money is flowing away from them. Just sit at the table and give that money a new place to travel to.
I'm hoping the play is similar up in the next couple levels - I am going to move up to .25/.50, hopefully permanently.
I'm liking the cash game - if somebody sucks out on you, just click a button and reload, and you live to fight another day (and perhaps exact some revenge, even).
I've been plugging away at the 6-max, .10/.25 capped cash games instead. Fairly boring poker, really - hit top pair and go to the wall. Sample hand:
Button raises to $1.10 (4.5 BB).
I shove with AK. (capped game, the shove is $7.50).
He calls with KJs.
I win $7.50. (if i avoid the 3 outer).
Don't get tricky. Don't slowplay anything. Don't 3 bet light with connectors (you could argue not to play connectors at all b/c of the cap). Don't defend your blind with ace-seven or other easily dominated hands. Play more in position.
The quality of play down here is low. Players are playing way too many hands, especially for a capped game, so there's easy, easy money to be made. When people are playing incorrectly at a poker table, money is flowing away from them. Just sit at the table and give that money a new place to travel to.
I'm hoping the play is similar up in the next couple levels - I am going to move up to .25/.50, hopefully permanently.
I'm liking the cash game - if somebody sucks out on you, just click a button and reload, and you live to fight another day (and perhaps exact some revenge, even).
Friday, November 6, 2009
Annoyed with my play
I made a poor showing in the Thursday night cash game. I was not aggressive enough, got involved in some marginal situations, and made some poor river showdown calls to lose decent pots. I was not happy with my play. I chipped up enough small pots to keep from losing my stack entirely.
I was down $30 or so when the monster hand of the night came up. I took a free look at the flop from the big blind with 6h9h, and liked what I saw when the board was dealt 5c 7c 8s. I had the nuts. It was a multiway pot so I checked with the intention of checkraising. Mr. Pietzak made his standard $3 "feeler bet" and I got a caller in between us. I briefly considered smooth calling, but decided there was no need to get fancy here - I didn't want to do anything stupid to lose a pot I was most assuredly winning, at least at the moment. I made it $16. Mr. Pietzak announced that he was all in, without barely two second's hesitation.
I checked my cards and the board one more time to make sure I hadn't misread anything. 5-6-7-8-9. Yup, that's a straight. All black on the board, but no flush - two clubs and a spade. Most poker theorists agree that you should call an all-in with the best possible hand, so I took their advice.
"I call".
"Whaddaya got over there, 6-9?".
"Yes, I do".
It wasn't over. Mr. Pietzak had 4c6c - he had flopped the small end of the straight, and had the flush draw to go with it. 2 of the flush cards gave him a sweet little straight flush. His straight was almost no help, though - a nine would give us a chop, and the nine flush cards made for 10 outs. (with the nine of clubs removed from one of those two groups). He really got cold-decked here. He could have easily been ahead of a flopped set or a pair/flushdraw combo, or even a badly-played overpair (especially with the way I was playing tonight) - I had the one, single hand that put him behind here. But he still had plenty of ways to catch me by the river.
"You want to run it more than once?", Mr. Pietzak offered. I thought it was a splendid idea with one of those colossal, no-way-either-of-us-was-going-to-fold hands that hit us both hard, and left us with a 60-40 shot at a $100 pot. A chop would be fine. I posed "Let's run it twice", and Mr. Pietzak agreed.
In a shocking turn of events, the next four cards were club-less, and I got my late night double up to pull out from the red into the black. One more well-timed squeezed with pocket kings took down another pre-flop "raise, call, call" pots to add just a bit more.
In a sign of an honest, clear self-evaluation of my game, I was irritated with myself all night, even after winning the monster pot - which was the result of a cold-deck and luck rather than any sort of skill. My 10 year old daughter would have won that pot. There were several lost posts earlier in the evening, though, where a well-timed raise or fold would have kept my stack more healthy.
I was down $30 or so when the monster hand of the night came up. I took a free look at the flop from the big blind with 6h9h, and liked what I saw when the board was dealt 5c 7c 8s. I had the nuts. It was a multiway pot so I checked with the intention of checkraising. Mr. Pietzak made his standard $3 "feeler bet" and I got a caller in between us. I briefly considered smooth calling, but decided there was no need to get fancy here - I didn't want to do anything stupid to lose a pot I was most assuredly winning, at least at the moment. I made it $16. Mr. Pietzak announced that he was all in, without barely two second's hesitation.
I checked my cards and the board one more time to make sure I hadn't misread anything. 5-6-7-8-9. Yup, that's a straight. All black on the board, but no flush - two clubs and a spade. Most poker theorists agree that you should call an all-in with the best possible hand, so I took their advice.
"I call".
"Whaddaya got over there, 6-9?".
"Yes, I do".
It wasn't over. Mr. Pietzak had 4c6c - he had flopped the small end of the straight, and had the flush draw to go with it. 2 of the flush cards gave him a sweet little straight flush. His straight was almost no help, though - a nine would give us a chop, and the nine flush cards made for 10 outs. (with the nine of clubs removed from one of those two groups). He really got cold-decked here. He could have easily been ahead of a flopped set or a pair/flushdraw combo, or even a badly-played overpair (especially with the way I was playing tonight) - I had the one, single hand that put him behind here. But he still had plenty of ways to catch me by the river.
"You want to run it more than once?", Mr. Pietzak offered. I thought it was a splendid idea with one of those colossal, no-way-either-of-us-was-going-to-fold hands that hit us both hard, and left us with a 60-40 shot at a $100 pot. A chop would be fine. I posed "Let's run it twice", and Mr. Pietzak agreed.
In a shocking turn of events, the next four cards were club-less, and I got my late night double up to pull out from the red into the black. One more well-timed squeezed with pocket kings took down another pre-flop "raise, call, call" pots to add just a bit more.
In a sign of an honest, clear self-evaluation of my game, I was irritated with myself all night, even after winning the monster pot - which was the result of a cold-deck and luck rather than any sort of skill. My 10 year old daughter would have won that pot. There were several lost posts earlier in the evening, though, where a well-timed raise or fold would have kept my stack more healthy.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
here's a guy you want at your table
Check out the ninja on the far right of the table. Yes, his stats are 100/15 after 46 hands. He's played every hand.I took 72 blinds from him in 27 confrontations. Interestingly, he won 18 of the 27 confrontations, but won $5.35 in those 18 hands, whereas I won $23.35 in the 9 hands I won.
It's not about winning pots, it's about winning money.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Notetaking at the table
Some people were curious about the notes I take at the table. Here is a scanned page, along with some explanationThe first line is a chip count. I started at 120, am currently at 98.
The next block reads
QT straddle chop
TJK bet/call
check/bet/call
check/check
This means I limped with QT during a straddle for $4. On a flop of ten-jack-king, I bet my bottom pair, open-ender and got called. On the turn, I check/called. On the river we both checked. The top line "chop" tells me the villain also had QT.
The next hand reads
A7 Btn straddle - donkey play
called 10-15
folded 50 on A3388
Quad 8s.
Translation- I limped for a $4 straddle on the button with A7 off.
I called $10 on the flop, and $15 on the turn,
Then I folded to a $50 river bet with the final board Ace-Three-Three-Eight-Eight.
The villain shows pocket eights, for quads.
The note "donkey play" refers to my own play - I realized at the table I played this poorly.
The last line reads "AQs UTG whiff".
This means I raised with AQs while under the gun, missed the flop entirely, and gave up on the hand.
Some of the notes are almost illegible later - I find my hands shaking to the point of hardly being able to write after a huge hand. More evidence that I need to work on controlling emotion at the table...
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Wheeling Trip Report, Part 3 - big hands, big pots
During dinner, Tony and I decide that this evening session will be our last, and we will drive home around 11 pm. Tony will either lose the rest of his bankroll for the trip, or he will make some money and want to leave on winning note.
We get seated at different tables this time. I am in seat 1, next to the dealer. I don't enjoy this seat because I can't see the action on the other side of the table. I decide to come to the table with a couple more bucks - $140 this time. It's a good thing that I do. I start my night be calling reasonable preflop raises with pocket threes and pocket nines, neither of which set up or are playable post-flop because of scary boards.
In the third orbit of the night, someone raises up a straddled board to $17, and I again look down on pocket nines. "Ugh", I think to myself, "is this the session where I fritter away my chips trying to hit sets all night", but there's already a caller and I decide to give it one more try. I call.
Thank God I do call, because I would have kicked myself back to Cleveland had I folded. The flop is a stunning 9-7-7, and I have boated up. I check and pray the preflop raiser or the other caller has pocket aces. Both players check behind.
Fourth street is even more improbable - the case nine hits - giving me quad nines. Now I'm praying for something different - I hope someone has pocket sevens, as quads over quads will qualify us for the bad beat jackpot. A board of 9-9-7-7 is a good board to fire a "bluff" into with ace high, but I check again. We get to the river, and the pot isn't very big yet.
I don't even remember the river card - it doesn't matter much when you're holding the stone cold nuts. The first better checks, and I decide to bet out a weak $12 into a $52 pot, hoping I look scared with ace high. My plan works as someone raises me $30 more. I take a long time to consider whether to minraise again, or maybe shove, and conclude that nobody can really call me anyway unless they have pocket sevens, so I push all-in. My opponent, a very good player, tosses his cards away saying "well, I found out that you have the nine, I only have the seven", and chucks his cards away. "Actually, I was hoping you had pocket sevens", I reply, and reveal my quads. This player shakes his head - he is a casino regular and is always aware of the bad beat jackpot, and realizes we were one card away from a nice extra payday (the jackpot was "only" 23,000 at the time, but I wasn't going to complain).
My big hands continued. Pocket Jacks got a caller, but then I folded to a huge raise of my c-bet, with a king on the board. The raiser didn't show but claimed he had hit a set with pocket eights. It doesn't matter if he had the set or not - I don't usually need to call large bets on a "50-50" read. There are plenty of other spots to make money without guessing.
My stack is about where it started when I limp in the cutoff with 45s. I am rewarded with a flush draw and a slowly building pot, and actually hit the flush on the river, but get some bad news when one of the blinds turns over a higher flush. This one hurts, but it's part of the game. I reload another $100 to keep my stack up.
Soon after the reload, pocket aces arrive, and I raise em up. The board is Ten-Eight-Four rainbow. I c-bet $25 and a decent player takes a long time to think over his options. Then he eyes my stack. Then he eyes my stack again. Finally he settles on a $50 raise - to $75, which is a bet I cannot call. I either have to shove or fold.
This is a real nasty decision. There are few draws on the board (79 and J9 for straights), so there's little chance that this is a semibluff. My cards have caused me to splash around at this table quite a bit, so my image is pretty aggressive. He could have jacks or queens here, or even JT, and has just decided that I am c-betting a whiffed flop with AK/AQ, and he's going to put me to the test. In the end, I choose to fold my aces, but I'm not happy about doing so. I think there's a chance I folded the best hand.
When looking at this hand using stack-to-pot ratio concepts, I made a clear error. I had about 120 bucks preflop, and my raise to $12 made the pot about $26. My SPR was 4.15 - the perfect number to commit with an overpair. Sets are always possible, but a player holding an set with an SPR of 4 has already made a mistake - he did not have the necessary implied odds before making his preflop call to call for set value. Had I been running SPR through my head, I would have checked the SPR, and have gladly got all my chips in the middle on the flop, beaten or not - knowing it was a +EV play to do so. Of my entire weekend, I am most angry about my play of this hand.
I got tangled with this same player soon after - I open raised with JcQc, and he defended from the blinds. Once again the board was all low, and two clubs gave me a strong draw with overcards and 9 outs to the flush. The strong player leads into me for $15, and this time it's my turn to go all in on him. He considers his options and then folds, flashing a 6 for a pair. He was temporarily ahead, but I was actually a tiny favorite in this hand, so my semi-bluff all-in was actually a value bet with a slight edge.
Since my table was more aggressive (and more talented) than the usual $1-$2 table, I decided to try a limp with pocket aces when I got them an orbit later. (told you I was getting big hands). The good, loose-aggressive player to my left decided to fold this time, and then the limp-fest continued along, so I got to play pocket aces in a limped pot with 5 players. Botched again.
I took the lead in betting on an 889 board, and someone called me to the river, which brought another 9, so the final board was 8899x, and he lead into me with a $35 bet, and I knew my aces had been cracked again. This time, I allowed them to be cracked, though. I'm not as angry about this hand as the prior one because I made a specific attempt at a play hoping for a preflop steal raise, and it didn't come. That's not a mistake as much as it is a play that just didn't go according to plan.
I only have $80 left, and I'm not planning on reloading again, so if I can't win a pot or two soon here, my night will be over early. Fortunately, the hits keep coming. I get JJ in late position and raise to $15. As someone calls, this time I am thinking more clearly about my stack sizes - I will easily commit all-in if the jacks stay an overpair, or of course if I hit a set.
I get the good news and bad news - I hit a set of jacks, but the board is all hearts - Ace-Jack-x. My opponent checks and I push all in. He thinks for a few minutes and decides to call with a black ace-queen, and I double up. The aggressive friend to my left is lamenting that he folded two small hearts. That's what my preflop raise is supposed to do - fold out weak hands that occasionally hit powerhouse flushes and straights.
A third pair of nines - this time under the gun. I limp, and we actually get an 8 way, family pot. I hit a set yet again, and bet out. One player minraises me, and I put him all in. He calls with the nut heart flush draw. He hits the seven of hearts on the turn, then I hit the seven of spades on the river to boat up and knock him out. He storms away to reload, and I can barely keep my head on straight with all the crazy action flying around this table.
There's still more to come. I raise up a straddle and a limper to $18 with pocket kings, and get a single call from an older man. This guy isn't the typical "cagey codger" type - he preflop range has appeared to be pretty tight, but I have seen him make some pretty wild bets post-flop. I pretty much stop thinking about this range, though, when the flop comes King-King-Queen. Yes, I have flopped quad-freaking-kings, for my second quads hand in 4 hours. Unbelievable.
I'm sitting around wondering how I might get paid off here, when my opponent leads into me for $25. Fine, I'll take your free money, as I'm holding the immortal, no-doubt-about-it nuts. I call.
Before we see the turn card, I once again consider what he might be holding. Many players often lead out into a paired flop when they hold the other card to see where they are at. In this case, if my opponent were doing so, he would be doing so with a queen. Since he's a tight preflop player, I start thinking about hands in his range with a queen. AQ, KQ, certainly, but the the obvious thought enters my mind - pocket queens. If he's got pocket queens, then are we about to hit the bad beat jackpot? Sadly, I don't think we are. I think this casino has the minimum losing had as aces-full-of-jacks, so we would be just under the necessary required hand. I can always hope for the case queen to appear on the turn...
It doesn't come. We check the turn, and I make a callable value bet on the river, which the older guys pays off. I get to show down my quad-freaking-kings, and the table collectively shakes their heads again. I am now the table luckbox.
My head is spinning so much on the hand after the quad-freaking-kings, that I fail to notice that it's my action - not once but twice. Preflop, I fail to notice it's my turn to act, then decide to limp along with jack-ten offsuit. Then, a few seconds later, I am looking down, playing with my chips, when I realize that everything is quiet around me, and the dealer is looking at me waiting to act after an opening flop bet. I had not even remembered that I was in a hand! I fold meekly and apologize to the table for being so distracted.
I knock the old guy out of the game a bit later. I raise up pocket queens and he calls in position. The board comes ace-two-four and I lead out to show strength. Old-guy reraises me all-in. I figure he most obviously has an ace, but some of his earlier wild postflop play makes me think there's a chance that this is a move. Anyway, his stack was small enough that a call was fine, even with an ace on the board. He declines to flip his cards over as the rest of the board is dealt, but turns away from the table shaking his head as I flip over the ladies.
Two more smaller hands complete my night. My stack is around $400 now, so I'm playing with a wider range. I limp in position with ace-nine, then raise up a weak player who leads out on an Ace-Queen-Ten board. When he calls, I figure I'm behind, but he checks both the turn and river, and I get two free cards to beat his two-pair queen-ten. I fail to do so, so I lose a medium pot, but I love the way I played it - calling three bets would have been more expensive than raising one, and left me much more sure of where I stood.
I also played 7d8d and hit my flush on the river, and again won a medium pot when a solid but aggressive player paid me off with a set of tens.
As promised, Tony and both got up from our tables at 10:30pm, had a drink to cool off from the poker high, then drove home. Tony's miserable trip continued into the third session - he was not in much of a mood to hear my tales of quad nines and quad-freaking-kings, and I don't blame him one bit. We discussed his game - we came to the conclusion that he needs to play with a deeper stack than I do, as his postflop skills are more advanced than mine, and he needs room to maneuver in tricky spots. He was also simply unlucky this trip - making good-but-behind two pair hands and getting put in impossible decisions, where folding and calling had a 50% chance of being right or wrong. In the end, sample size and variance are a bitch, and you can't take the results of one poker weekend as a sign of how bad you're playing. I also reminded him that he lost a huge pot in the first session with a set of queens that was behind a set of aces, where he held a hand that was clearly too strong to fold - those are the types of hands where losing a ton of money is the correct play. What can you do in those cases?
I am pleased with my play. I suppose it's not too difficult to win a few bucks with some of the huge hands I had, so I'm not using a weekend as a sign of great skill. But I'm definitely better than the limp-with-everything, call-with-any piece guys out there, and I should have no trouble extracting their money over the long haul.
I also need to work on my emotions during and after huge hands, and when I first sit down.
Total for the third session - plus 133 dollars
Total for the Wheeling trip - plus 187 dollars
We get seated at different tables this time. I am in seat 1, next to the dealer. I don't enjoy this seat because I can't see the action on the other side of the table. I decide to come to the table with a couple more bucks - $140 this time. It's a good thing that I do. I start my night be calling reasonable preflop raises with pocket threes and pocket nines, neither of which set up or are playable post-flop because of scary boards.
In the third orbit of the night, someone raises up a straddled board to $17, and I again look down on pocket nines. "Ugh", I think to myself, "is this the session where I fritter away my chips trying to hit sets all night", but there's already a caller and I decide to give it one more try. I call.
Thank God I do call, because I would have kicked myself back to Cleveland had I folded. The flop is a stunning 9-7-7, and I have boated up. I check and pray the preflop raiser or the other caller has pocket aces. Both players check behind.
Fourth street is even more improbable - the case nine hits - giving me quad nines. Now I'm praying for something different - I hope someone has pocket sevens, as quads over quads will qualify us for the bad beat jackpot. A board of 9-9-7-7 is a good board to fire a "bluff" into with ace high, but I check again. We get to the river, and the pot isn't very big yet.
I don't even remember the river card - it doesn't matter much when you're holding the stone cold nuts. The first better checks, and I decide to bet out a weak $12 into a $52 pot, hoping I look scared with ace high. My plan works as someone raises me $30 more. I take a long time to consider whether to minraise again, or maybe shove, and conclude that nobody can really call me anyway unless they have pocket sevens, so I push all-in. My opponent, a very good player, tosses his cards away saying "well, I found out that you have the nine, I only have the seven", and chucks his cards away. "Actually, I was hoping you had pocket sevens", I reply, and reveal my quads. This player shakes his head - he is a casino regular and is always aware of the bad beat jackpot, and realizes we were one card away from a nice extra payday (the jackpot was "only" 23,000 at the time, but I wasn't going to complain).
My big hands continued. Pocket Jacks got a caller, but then I folded to a huge raise of my c-bet, with a king on the board. The raiser didn't show but claimed he had hit a set with pocket eights. It doesn't matter if he had the set or not - I don't usually need to call large bets on a "50-50" read. There are plenty of other spots to make money without guessing.
My stack is about where it started when I limp in the cutoff with 45s. I am rewarded with a flush draw and a slowly building pot, and actually hit the flush on the river, but get some bad news when one of the blinds turns over a higher flush. This one hurts, but it's part of the game. I reload another $100 to keep my stack up.
Soon after the reload, pocket aces arrive, and I raise em up. The board is Ten-Eight-Four rainbow. I c-bet $25 and a decent player takes a long time to think over his options. Then he eyes my stack. Then he eyes my stack again. Finally he settles on a $50 raise - to $75, which is a bet I cannot call. I either have to shove or fold.
This is a real nasty decision. There are few draws on the board (79 and J9 for straights), so there's little chance that this is a semibluff. My cards have caused me to splash around at this table quite a bit, so my image is pretty aggressive. He could have jacks or queens here, or even JT, and has just decided that I am c-betting a whiffed flop with AK/AQ, and he's going to put me to the test. In the end, I choose to fold my aces, but I'm not happy about doing so. I think there's a chance I folded the best hand.
When looking at this hand using stack-to-pot ratio concepts, I made a clear error. I had about 120 bucks preflop, and my raise to $12 made the pot about $26. My SPR was 4.15 - the perfect number to commit with an overpair. Sets are always possible, but a player holding an set with an SPR of 4 has already made a mistake - he did not have the necessary implied odds before making his preflop call to call for set value. Had I been running SPR through my head, I would have checked the SPR, and have gladly got all my chips in the middle on the flop, beaten or not - knowing it was a +EV play to do so. Of my entire weekend, I am most angry about my play of this hand.
I got tangled with this same player soon after - I open raised with JcQc, and he defended from the blinds. Once again the board was all low, and two clubs gave me a strong draw with overcards and 9 outs to the flush. The strong player leads into me for $15, and this time it's my turn to go all in on him. He considers his options and then folds, flashing a 6 for a pair. He was temporarily ahead, but I was actually a tiny favorite in this hand, so my semi-bluff all-in was actually a value bet with a slight edge.
Since my table was more aggressive (and more talented) than the usual $1-$2 table, I decided to try a limp with pocket aces when I got them an orbit later. (told you I was getting big hands). The good, loose-aggressive player to my left decided to fold this time, and then the limp-fest continued along, so I got to play pocket aces in a limped pot with 5 players. Botched again.
I took the lead in betting on an 889 board, and someone called me to the river, which brought another 9, so the final board was 8899x, and he lead into me with a $35 bet, and I knew my aces had been cracked again. This time, I allowed them to be cracked, though. I'm not as angry about this hand as the prior one because I made a specific attempt at a play hoping for a preflop steal raise, and it didn't come. That's not a mistake as much as it is a play that just didn't go according to plan.
I only have $80 left, and I'm not planning on reloading again, so if I can't win a pot or two soon here, my night will be over early. Fortunately, the hits keep coming. I get JJ in late position and raise to $15. As someone calls, this time I am thinking more clearly about my stack sizes - I will easily commit all-in if the jacks stay an overpair, or of course if I hit a set.
I get the good news and bad news - I hit a set of jacks, but the board is all hearts - Ace-Jack-x. My opponent checks and I push all in. He thinks for a few minutes and decides to call with a black ace-queen, and I double up. The aggressive friend to my left is lamenting that he folded two small hearts. That's what my preflop raise is supposed to do - fold out weak hands that occasionally hit powerhouse flushes and straights.
A third pair of nines - this time under the gun. I limp, and we actually get an 8 way, family pot. I hit a set yet again, and bet out. One player minraises me, and I put him all in. He calls with the nut heart flush draw. He hits the seven of hearts on the turn, then I hit the seven of spades on the river to boat up and knock him out. He storms away to reload, and I can barely keep my head on straight with all the crazy action flying around this table.
There's still more to come. I raise up a straddle and a limper to $18 with pocket kings, and get a single call from an older man. This guy isn't the typical "cagey codger" type - he preflop range has appeared to be pretty tight, but I have seen him make some pretty wild bets post-flop. I pretty much stop thinking about this range, though, when the flop comes King-King-Queen. Yes, I have flopped quad-freaking-kings, for my second quads hand in 4 hours. Unbelievable.
I'm sitting around wondering how I might get paid off here, when my opponent leads into me for $25. Fine, I'll take your free money, as I'm holding the immortal, no-doubt-about-it nuts. I call.
Before we see the turn card, I once again consider what he might be holding. Many players often lead out into a paired flop when they hold the other card to see where they are at. In this case, if my opponent were doing so, he would be doing so with a queen. Since he's a tight preflop player, I start thinking about hands in his range with a queen. AQ, KQ, certainly, but the the obvious thought enters my mind - pocket queens. If he's got pocket queens, then are we about to hit the bad beat jackpot? Sadly, I don't think we are. I think this casino has the minimum losing had as aces-full-of-jacks, so we would be just under the necessary required hand. I can always hope for the case queen to appear on the turn...
It doesn't come. We check the turn, and I make a callable value bet on the river, which the older guys pays off. I get to show down my quad-freaking-kings, and the table collectively shakes their heads again. I am now the table luckbox.
My head is spinning so much on the hand after the quad-freaking-kings, that I fail to notice that it's my action - not once but twice. Preflop, I fail to notice it's my turn to act, then decide to limp along with jack-ten offsuit. Then, a few seconds later, I am looking down, playing with my chips, when I realize that everything is quiet around me, and the dealer is looking at me waiting to act after an opening flop bet. I had not even remembered that I was in a hand! I fold meekly and apologize to the table for being so distracted.
I knock the old guy out of the game a bit later. I raise up pocket queens and he calls in position. The board comes ace-two-four and I lead out to show strength. Old-guy reraises me all-in. I figure he most obviously has an ace, but some of his earlier wild postflop play makes me think there's a chance that this is a move. Anyway, his stack was small enough that a call was fine, even with an ace on the board. He declines to flip his cards over as the rest of the board is dealt, but turns away from the table shaking his head as I flip over the ladies.
Two more smaller hands complete my night. My stack is around $400 now, so I'm playing with a wider range. I limp in position with ace-nine, then raise up a weak player who leads out on an Ace-Queen-Ten board. When he calls, I figure I'm behind, but he checks both the turn and river, and I get two free cards to beat his two-pair queen-ten. I fail to do so, so I lose a medium pot, but I love the way I played it - calling three bets would have been more expensive than raising one, and left me much more sure of where I stood.
I also played 7d8d and hit my flush on the river, and again won a medium pot when a solid but aggressive player paid me off with a set of tens.
As promised, Tony and both got up from our tables at 10:30pm, had a drink to cool off from the poker high, then drove home. Tony's miserable trip continued into the third session - he was not in much of a mood to hear my tales of quad nines and quad-freaking-kings, and I don't blame him one bit. We discussed his game - we came to the conclusion that he needs to play with a deeper stack than I do, as his postflop skills are more advanced than mine, and he needs room to maneuver in tricky spots. He was also simply unlucky this trip - making good-but-behind two pair hands and getting put in impossible decisions, where folding and calling had a 50% chance of being right or wrong. In the end, sample size and variance are a bitch, and you can't take the results of one poker weekend as a sign of how bad you're playing. I also reminded him that he lost a huge pot in the first session with a set of queens that was behind a set of aces, where he held a hand that was clearly too strong to fold - those are the types of hands where losing a ton of money is the correct play. What can you do in those cases?
I am pleased with my play. I suppose it's not too difficult to win a few bucks with some of the huge hands I had, so I'm not using a weekend as a sign of great skill. But I'm definitely better than the limp-with-everything, call-with-any piece guys out there, and I should have no trouble extracting their money over the long haul.
I also need to work on my emotions during and after huge hands, and when I first sit down.
Total for the third session - plus 133 dollars
Total for the Wheeling trip - plus 187 dollars
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