Sunday, August 22, 2010

Trapped over and over. Getting old

A nice lazy Sunday afternoon to get pissed off at online poker some more.

My aces were cracked again of course, and my kings were up against aces, and my 2 pair was up against a set, and my attempted button stealer had AA when I had KQ top pair. The correct play in most of these situations is to lose a lot of money. I did.

Why do I keep getting in these situations, over and over? And when is it my turn to have someone stack themselves against me because that's the correct play?

I'm running over 5 buy-ins below expectation, just looking at my all ins. But all-in luck is such a small part of the picture, and pretty much worthless to evaluate how you're running. It shows bad beat type hands, but doesn't do anything to analyze ranges of hands you should be facing. Here's an example hand.

Moooooooooooraaawwwr.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 6 players

SB: $12.78
BB: $11.41
UTG: $5.20
UTG+1: $10.00 (Hero)
CO: $15.03
Button: $20.43

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG+1 with (6 players)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.30, 2 folds, SB calls $0.25, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.90) (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, SB folds
BB is a 36/30 with a 4.0 aggression. My plan here is to call him down. If the turn brings some type of dangerous draw, I will raise.

Turn: ($1.90) (2 players)
BB bets $1.30, Hero calls $1.30
Fourth suit - no flush draw possible. Straights are very improbable. No sense raising.


River: ($4.50) (2 players)
BB bets $3.50, Hero raises to $7.90, and is all in, BB calls $4.40
The only straight is 78. There are no flushes. I have hit top two pair. This villain will call with AK/AQ, A4, A6, maybe T9 even. I'm behind so little, and have so little back, that the only correct play is to shove for value.

BB showed , and won ($18.95) with three of a kind, Sixes
Hero showed , and lost with two pair, Aces and Tens
BB won $18.95
(Rake: $1.35)

As you see, I was, uh, at the top of the 38/30 LAGgro's range, and played it perfectly. It cost me my stack. This is not all-in luck - this is hitting a hand on the river that pulls ahead of all but a short few hands that the super-loose villain could be playing, and having him show up with one of those few hands.

What's really irritating is that I feel like I'm playing pretty well. I have plugged a few of the leaks I discovered in my last coaching session. I am almost never playing a hand "to see if I flop something" anymore. It's all pressure, raising blinds, punishing limpers, c-betting, double barreling, check-raising with second pair, donking into raisers from the blinds. It's working,


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