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I need simple hands and simple situations to do a great job handreading - I was on this hand all the way through, and had a plan the whole way.
Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
UTG+1: $24.94
UTG+2: $10.22
MP1: $3.14
MP2: $18.25
CO: $22.65
Hero (BTN): $31.59
SB: $40.46
BB: $14.97
UTG: $97.14
Pre-Flop: 6
6
dealt to Hero (BTN)
6 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, SB folds, BB calls $0.50
Standard open raise on the button with a small pocket pair. Blind defends. He's got broadway, pairs, suited connectors, suited aces. Bad players have any ace.
Flop: ($1.60) 5 5 T
(2 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks
Flop that misses most everything. No draws. Villain checks. I think he donks with his pairs, knowing I missed all this too. Or he might checkraise (with a pair or with air, knowing it's unlikely I hit this board also). In either case, it's the standard "way ahead or way behind" situation, and giving a free card usually doesn't hurt. If he has 2 overs, I'm a 3-1 favorite to his 6 outs. If he is planning a checkraise, then my flop check behind foils that.
Turn: ($1.60) 4 (2 Players)
BB bets $1, Hero calls $1
A good card, starts percolating some baby straight and flush draws. My check on the prior street makes villain think I have nothing, he will bet ace high here. I'm calling this bet, and I'm calling a normal river bet too, unless maybe the backdoor flush gets there, then we'll have to see.
River: ($3.60) 2 (2 Players)
BB bets $3.60, Hero calls $3.60
Great card for me. A3 straight got there, and pocket twos. 3-6? Nah, no way. If he's got them, he wins, I'll pay it off. Everything else stays unchanged. My guess is he's got something like ace-jack. I am certainly following through and calling.
Results: $10.80 Pot ($0.54 Rake)
Hero showed 6 6 and WON $10.26 (+$4.91 NET)
BB showed J Q and LOST (-$5.10 NET)
Suited broadway - right in the range I assigned him on the flop. My flop check got 2 streets of value with a small, unimproved pocket pair. He was able to put me on nothing after the flop, and several draws on the turn, so he tried to push me off all that with bets out of position. I win a 20BB pot.
Note that there's no guarantee of victory as I call the pot size river bet. He flips over pocket fives for quads and I get to puke. Or pocket fours, or AT that he was planning on checkraising, or the Ace-3 wheel. I could lose. But these hands are far outweighed by all the other stuff he can have and bluff - his range is weak, he's out of position, and firing and hoping. And I'm calling him down.
Needed a change, so I logged onto my UB account (they're offering me a small bonus to clear). I also get rakeback there, whereas I don't get it on Full Tilt, and never, ever can, based on their ridiculous terms of service.
So I played 1000 hands this weekend, at a basically break even pace. I felt like the play there was overall weaker than Full Tilt. Then, tonight, I sat at the most lovely table, shown in the attached screenshot.
4 players playing at or near 50% of their hands. Action aplenty. Just wait for a hand (one hand? C'MON!) and bust someone. Easy game.
About 2 hands after I took this screenshot, pocket kings. I raised 4x. Guy on my left called. Guy in the upper right shoved his tiny stack in. I reraised all in, then the guy on my left called all-in.
I was up against ace-four off and jack-eight suited. I won.
And I earned $8 in rakeback for my troubles too.
The purists would tell me to stay away from this site, and they surely have a point, but it's simply cheaper to play there. Much cheaper. And the games seem softer, too.
Guess it's time for a break - poker isn't very fun at the moment. I am not hitting a flop. I have no draws. My sets miss, and my pocket pairs are outflopped by overcards. My moves are counter-moved. Top pair looks like a flipping straight flush right now.
Just not fun.
It appears that my image is officially shot in my Thursday night cash game. All my limper iso-raising and 4x raises with 67s have got people convinced that I'm usually full of shit. Last night, Mr Pietzak lead into me on a dry flop with a nearly pot sized bet. I had called a raise on the button with ace-ten suited in my attempt to play more position pots postflop. There was so little on this raggy-high board for him to hit, and so little for him to continue with - I felt a raise was in order. I made it $15 - 2.5 times his bet, and he raised it yet again, committing himself to the pot. Of course I folded my ace-high, and Mr. Pietzak decided to show his hand - jack-nine, a complete whiff for him too. Caught bluffing with the best hand!
The way the aggro player gets paid off is to finally hit a big hand while someone is taking a stand with top pair. I'm still waiting for that to happen. My biggest hand of the night was pocket kings, but the flop and turn were so nasty that I ended up checking out of position and shooting for a small pot. The river king filled me up on a straighty and two-pairy board, but my slight overbet didn't get called, so I won the minimum with a monster hand.
Certain hands occur that make me stop and realize that my skills are improving, which of course is so hard to tell between the non-stop waves of variance washing over you. In tonight's hand, I had raised up two limpers with king-queen, and had missed the 3-5-7, two spade flop. I fired out a big $10 c-bet trying to clear out the queen/jacks and the ace-rags. Mr. Pietzak called me - telling me he had some part of this board, some part, and then Bill shortstacked his last $14 into the pot. I called the mandatory $4 raise, as did Pietzak.
The turn brought a brick - I still had nothing, but I had a plan. To this point I had raised limpers and fired big into two opponents, and also called the $4 baby raise. If not for that last part, my line looked pretty strong so far. I checked the board one more time - if Pietzak had three of a kind, or even a bizarre 4-6 straight, he would have likely raised b/c of the two spades on the flop. I felt his hand was more in line with a pair/gutshot type of thing.
Bill, on the other hand, was so shortstacked - he could have made his stand with a baby overpair like pocket eights, or top pair (67/78), or a flush draw. I had 6-out equity against most of his range, and I felt like Pietzak's hand wasn't strong enough to stand a big bet. If I could clear out Pietzak and force him to give up his equity, I would basically take it for myself against the all in player, and get a free showdown into a $50 pot.
I shoved all in, with king high.
Pietzak folded as I predicted, and I got to see a showdown with Bill with what I figured would be a 25% chance to win a giant pot, heads up. What he showed was even better than I could expect - he had a nine-ten flush draw, and I was a 70% favorite to win!
Sadly, I did not win the hand - Bill spiked one of his pair outs on the river, but I was not deterred. I had gotten myself a chance to win a very big pot by getting BOTH a better hand to fold AND a worse hand to call, and I had nothing myself. Over the long haul, that type of play will be rewarded.
Very soon - the wife, 2 kiddies and I will be boarding the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas for a well-deserved vacation. The wife went back to work this year for the first time in 13 years - she deserves it more than anyone. 5 days of lounging and exploring, and 5 nights of.... gambling?
Yes, there is a casino on board, but it appears the Texas Holdem is not a regular game there. (reports on the web vary). Anyway, I thought I would learn some the basic strategy of some poker-like table games, in case my game of choice wasn't available.
Tonight's lesson was Let It Ride. Fun game, and fairly easy to play a solid strategy. As a poker player, it's fun to be able to count your outs on the "turn" and "river" and know the basic odds of hitting your hand.
It's also a game with a pretty low house edge, so it seems like one could play for quite a long time and not lose (or win) much money, but have some fun wiling away the hours while the fam is snoozing away in bed.
I finished up the night with 32 hands of Rush poker, and that went well, too, so I took a small win to bed.
.10/.25 blinds.
Villain (same 40/3 player from prior post) limps.
I raise behind him with AQo for $1.
Villain calls.
Flop 256, two diamonds.
Villain checks.
I bet $1.25
Villain calls.
Turn is a jack.
Villain bets .25 into a $4.50+ dollar pot.
I call.
River is a queen, non-diamond.
Villain bets .25 into a $5.00+ dollar pot.
I raise to $2.50 with my top pair/top kicker
Villain calls, mucks jack-eight suited (hearts).
Villain (in chat): Unbelievable.
Me: What's that?
Villain: lucky river.
Me: One might say the same thing about the turn.
Villain: (no reply).
Villain is a 40/3 drooler, has just called a river raise with second pair when an overcard hit.
Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
UTG: $28.35
CO: $54.76
BTN: $12.22
SB: $15.15
Hero (BB): $27.39
Pre-Flop: 8
3 dealt to Hero (BB)
3 folds, SB calls $0.15, Hero checks
Flop: ($0.50) 3 4 2 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.25, SB calls $0.25
Bottom Pair, I bet.
Turn: ($1) 8 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.60, SB raises to $1.20, Hero calls $0.60
Minraise, looks strong, could he have flopped a straight? Maybe...
River: ($3.40) 3 (2 Players)
And the runner/runner boat....
SB bets $4.44, Hero raises to $25.69 and is All-In, SB calls $9.01 and is All-In
Results: $30.30 Pot ($1.51 Rake)
SB showed 4 4 and WON $28.79 (+$13.74 NET)
Hero showed 8 3 and LOST (-$14.90 NET)
I was behind from the beginning, yet my hand improved with each street. What's funny is that this exact sequence has already happened to me this month! (don't believe it? Read and weep)
I'm not sure anyone is folding that hand. Are you supposed to fold an underboat for 60 big blinds? I seriously doubt it. But I have to question it - because when you lose big hands over and over - you don't just want to keep calling them coolers - sounds like a convenient excuse, right? The good player is supposed to keep analyzing, keep studying, keep trying to learn from his mistakes.
tonight was the night I was to try the newly opened Gemini Players Club - a private club nearby that deals rake-free poker after a $25 entrance fee.
I got there at 7:45, and a nice woman at the door told me the club was temporarily shut down - at the request of the city. The city has received some neighborhood pressure and wants to make sure the club is legal. Gemini is confident that they will re-open after a meeting this week.
Didn't help me tonight, though. I went home and had all my hands get caught on the river for 3 hours, then called it a night, down a buy-in. My two biggest losses were 2 pair caught by a higher two pair (a 3 outer), and a flush caught by a full house (a 4 outer). The third worse was K9 against a shortstack donkey shover who had A9. His shove could have been any pair or any draw, so the all in call was easily warranted, just another cooler in the month of a thousand coolers.
I had the hot hand early in the live cash game last night. Called a raise with KJs - the rookie hand. Flop KQx, I call Tony's (smallish) c-bet. Turn is a blank, check/check - I'm trying to induce a river bluff and keep the pot small with my meh kicker. River is a brutal card - third diamond and paired queen. Tony fires out $8. He has told the perfect story with AQ or the flush.
Maybe too perfect. Tony can easily fire off on scare cards - this one fits the bill. I take an extra 30 seconds or so to think it through, then toss the chips in. "I'll pay to see it" I say, he sheepishly turns over ace high.
An orbit later, I call a raise again with pocket sevens. Jack high board, he checks. This time I smell a rat for some reason, I check behind. Turn he checks, then calls my bet. On the river, the same $8 bet, but again something isn't adding up. Tony NEVER checks the flop out of position, and his check-call then sizable river bet is an improbable bluff on this raggedy board. I toss my lower pair away this time, and he says "sure you fold to THAT eight dollars".
I was locked in all night - I knew where I was in almost every hand. I laid down pocket aces on the river when they couldn't beat anything. I laid down a junk two pair from the blinds after a raise and re-raise when an ace hit the turn (Both had hit higher two pairs, christ-the-luck). I laid down top two pair on a 4 flush board and my straightforward opponent betting solidly with some heart.
My good hand reading kept me from going broke, but that was all it could do. I never had the best hand by the river on this night, and kept folding my second or third best hands. Down half a buy-in.
Not much time tonight, just enough for an hour of Rush Poker. I'm playing well and I'm up $9.50 or so.
My internal clock tells me it's time for bed. Couple more hands. I am highly motivated to post a win tonight for self-confidence sake. I feel like I'm playing ok but on the wrong side of luck lately, Any amount in the green for the night will feel good.
Pocket queens in the big blind. Hoo-boy, here we go. Late position raiser. My first instinct is to 3bet, blow him out of the hand, but I've been working on what my coach told me. Don't be afraid to call from the blinds. Don't use your big hands as a bluff. Why would you want to fold out A5 here, or other hands you're crushing? Don't be afraid to play postflop.
Truth be told, I am afraid to play postflop, at least out of position I am. My pokertracker database says I suck at it, too, so my fear is based in reality. But I'm not gonna learn without practicing. I call with pocket queens out of the blind.
A nice safe flop, 2 4 9, bottom two are hearts. It's Rush poker and I don't have a single hand of stats on how this guy plays, so I check with the intention of checkraising. He bets exactly the pot, and I make it three times that, figuring the hand will be over. He calls. Ok, he likes the hearts, or he hit the nine and isn't folding top pair. He could have an overpair to the nines, too - half of which I'm ahead of, the other half I'm behind.
The turn pairs the four, and brings a second club. Now there are 2 flush draws for him to get his money in, and I'm a 4-1 favorite on most of them. If he raised from late position with garbage that includes a four, well then I'm officially the unluckiest bastard this month, aren't I? If he's had kings or aces the whole time, well that's some more crap luck for me, but just a delay of getting it in postflop instead of preflop, like two big broadway overpairs often do.
Time to work on getting it in. It doesn't follow my original plan to play safe and book a small win on the night, but it's the correct poker play. My hand is way under-repped because of my call on the flop - the intention of which is to keep worse hands in. I am crushing his range, my hand strength is very hidden, and therefore the correct play is to get maximum value.
I bet 6.25 into $10. He follows the script and shoves his chips in. I figure I'll be dodging 9 outs on the river... until he flips over pocket eights. Whew. I done good.
An eight on the river would make this a standard bad-beat story - but it didn't come. A king of clubs gives me a 130 big blind win.
The script worked! I kept a dominated hand in the game and stacked him.
I decide that's my last hand of the night.
Play in a turbo tourney. Never again.
My friend texts me - oooo! $20 buy in wins you $30,000. True, that is a big overlay, and there were 12 redline pros playing. I signed up. Aces cracked by K7 - that's fun, so I shoved with jacks and won, then shoved (total overbet) with AK and got called by AQ. I had 5000 chips and thought I was in fat city.
Nah. Lost one showdown, went to break, and found myself from average stack to 10 blinds in 10 minutes. Ridiculous. Lost a race to get knocked out in 2785 place.
It's not poker, or anything close to poker. It's just silly.
Should have probably known it was coming when I got to showdown with a straight and flush draw, hitting a pair on the river, and seeing my opponent had the same, but higher flush draw. Another big cooler waiting in the wings.
20 minutes later, I hit the king high flush on the river (with both cards), and faced an all-in. There is no right play. You are folding the best hand or calling with the second best hand, seemingly 100% of the time.
I called.
I'm at an interesting spot in my development. I am trying to get into more postflop situations, trying to play the range game and decide if I'm ahead or behind, working on my hand reading. It's not going well so far. I am getting dominated, or hitting large, unfoldable, second-best hands. Is it bad luck trying to force me back into my nitty, can-beat-10NL-but-not-much-else ways, or am I playing poorly and making large postflop mistakes?
2 unfoldable coolers tonight in the space of 30 hands.
Big blind free play - ace-two-off. Flop is 3-4-5, but all spades. I have the ace of spades, and a straight. My opponent will get it in with every "overpair", probably whether he has the spade or not. I'm ahead of so much here.
Not ahead of 67, though, and that's what he's got. My redraw doesn't hit, and I'm stacked.
20 minutes later, 39 suited in the big blind, another freebie. Flop is nothing except bottom pair 3 (along with 5Q).. I bet and I'm called. Turn is another 3 - things are looking up. I bet and I'm called. River is gin - a nine. Boat city. I am bet into, raise big, and am called - by pocket fives. I was behind the whole time.
Put someone on their villain on that hand and fold the river, I dare you.
My biggest hand of the night was aces, but I had to dodge 18 outs on the river for them to hold up. Eighteen! Fun having aces with one card to come and being only a 2-1 favorite. Villain had flush draw, gutshot draw, and one pair to improve to a set or two pair.
Despite the coolers that drained 2 buy-ins, my net loss is only one on the night, playing well the rest of the way.
I'm even for the month.
pocket tens burned me twice tonight, flopped set, flopped quads. Ridonkulous. Stacked off on the set, too.
I reviewed my opponent's hand range from our big hand Thursday night (review here). I was pretty tired and I missed some hands. I missed ace king (hard to fold trip kings/top kicker), and decided to include all KQ in his range, not just KQh. Finally, I added queen-ten with the queen of hearts - who has a straight draw and the second nut flush draw. I added this last hand as being only half as likely as the others, since it might not be a hand this player raises preflop.
My equity vs. this range is 59.19%. If I take that as an accurate representation of his range, then going to the wall with my nut flush is fine, and folding is a big mistake.
AK,AA,KK,KQ,QhQ,JJ,KJ,ThT(50),QhT(50)
I'm driving home from work last night. A CPMG tourney is in 90 minutes, and I've got about 80 minutes of stuff to do before I get there. The last 10 minutes are reserved for the catnap that will stave off the sleepiness caused by my late night cash game antics last night.
As I mentally prepare for the tourney during the drive home, I think to myself "wouldn't it be great for once to get dealt some cards early in the tourney instead of folding the first three levels"?
90 minutes later, I pay my $40 entrance fee and sit down at the black table as seat #4, which puts me under the gun. First to act in the whole tourney. I check my holecards when the dealer completes his gig.
Ace of diamonds.
Ace of spades.
Not a bad start. I open the betting for 200, four times the starting 50 chip blind. Two callers. A fairly ragged board - ten, eight, three. Let's see, pot is 600, I'll bet 400. One caller. Turn is a four. The three and four are both diamonds. I'm not scared of the board much at all.
What to bet? What to bet? I want to look weak, so my bet needs to "peter out", like I don't want to put much more money in the pot. It's 1400 now, so I make it 600, just a bit more than the flop bet.
The caller calls the 400 and makes it 1800 more, A bet I really shouldn't call. I either have to fold or stick all my chips in the middle.
On the first muther-luvin hand of a 200 big blind, slow-structure, deep stack tourney.
So, what's he got? Who the frick knows? I have never played a single hand with this player. He might be the tightest player in the known universe, called a raise with pocket tens and flopped his 8-1 against set. Or he could be loosy-looserson and played Freddie's 3-4. Either way I'm toast. Or he could be a 100,000 hand a month online guy and is simply putting the screws to me on the first hand, knowing there isn't much I can comfortably get all in with this early.
What to do? What to do? I zero in on something called the Baluga theorem, which states "strongly reevaluate one-pair hands facing a turn raise". It's a great rule of thumb, and it's probably the right overall play given the information I have to this point (which ain't much).
I fold my pocket aces, on a straight-less, flush-less board, with 12% of my stack in the middle, and long for the good old days when I simply folded the first three levels.
Of course, you get more information as the tourney goes on. I see the same player call a raise in position (initial raiser is Julie, our host - solid TAG) - then raise her on the turn. Just like he did to me. When she folds, he lets out a wry smile and mutters something about having ten high. I see him punish limpers. I see him squeeze a raiser +1 caller, then show ten-six as he drags the pot preflop.
Loooooovely.
You show me those plays before my aces, maybe even two of those three plays, and I'm all in with the aces and high-fiving the strangers on either side of me. But the absence of information, and perhaps the slight embarrassment of not wanting to bust out on the first hand of my Friday night tourney, caused me to fold the best hand.
After I bust out, I go upstairs to the "loser's lounge", where my opponent is playing online. Julie tells me he plays professionally in Atlantic City. More information. "Why couldn't I have known that before the tourney started?" I think to myself. If Phil-flippin-Ivey comes at you hard and you've got aces - you stick your chips in the middle. The chances of him making a play on you go up 1000% once you know he's a pro player. He's testing the neighborhood donkeys, and I had to goods to pass the test.
Back to the action - my aces were the only early shot I got. Much, much later - I three bet with ace-king and 20 blinds, ready to go the wall. Got a fold. I got a free flop with with 56o and hit top-pair-open-ender on the 345 rainbow board. I checkraised all-in and got a fold, from A4. This got my stack respectable. Then I made 2 preflop raises in the middle of the tourney, got called both times, and lost them both. (once in showdown, pocket nines to KT, and once on a whiffed flop and someone donkbetting into me). Back to a non-respectable stack.
No good opportunities to play the shoving game. Raises in front of me, or multiple limps. I probably should have tried an all-in squeeze or something- my best opportunity to try it was queen-eight. Not much of a hand. I passed, hoping for one more solid hand that didn't come.
The blinds doubled again right before they reached me, leaving me only 6 blinds. I paid my big and knew my five blinds couldn't generate folds anymore, so I was going to have to try something else. Linda, a squeaky-tight player, raised in early position. The action folded around to me and I found king-nine. Good enough. I couldn't get a fold by shoving all-in, so I tried the old stop-n-go - call the raise, shove any flop and hope she missed it. I got the nice-uncoordinated board I was looking for, and the bonus of a king for myself, so I stuck it in.
The stop-n-go isn't about what I have, though, it's about what my opponent has. She had king-queen, and it was buh-bye time for me.
Folding the best hand early, and getting it in dominated late. I don't hate either play given the situation and the known information at the time, but both awful mistakes from a "fundamental theorem" standpoint, and plenty enough cause for an early exit.
BIG turnout at my Thursday night cash game had us at 2 tables for awhile. Some new and infrequent players made for some new challenges and opportunities.
The first two hours I felt like a fat kid in front of the bakery window, with no money. I got to watch lots of chasing and bad play but I had no cards to do anything about it.
My table position didn't allow for aggression. The player right behind me was the classic calling station. "All I needed was that 5 to hit" he would say and flash the weak gutshot (on the all 3 flush board, of course). Other bad players were trying to bully the pots, and the calling station was not up for being bullied.
I moved to the second table halfway through and my cards improved. I dug out back to a couple bucks over even, but I wasn't happy with this. I played a suited ace in position. Flop comes ace-queen-rag, a new Australian dude makes a bet - just like every other flop that he's been in. I play my new favorite game "you don't have an ace, I have an ace" game and raise him (this game is more fun when you actually DO have an ace, but it's not required of course). He pushes all in almost instantly, and I'm not quite desperate enough to call the all-in with a 5 kicker. He shows his set of queens - I've picked the wrong time to test his continuation bet.
Late in the evening, back at one table, I try the suited ace on the button game again, calling a raise from the same Australian. Mr. Pietzak is sandwiched in between. This time, the flop is more to my liking - three hearts, and whaddya know - I've got the ace of hears and a rag heart to go with it! A lovely development. I hear the carnival music spin up in my head as the Australian bets and Mr. Pietzak calls. Time to raise? Nah, I think an overcall is best here- one of them might draw to a smaller flush.
The turn pairs the top card on the board, a king. The carnival music in my head starts to make that cartoony sound where it dies down like a machine out of juice. Those paired boards might be bad news to the nut flush, huh?
Australian guy bets again. Mr. Pietzak folds. My head is clear and I'm on my game tonight - so I go through my options of his possible holdings.
Full house: KJ/JJ/55/K5. If he has the floating boat, he's betting big on the river, and, unless I fold, all the money will get in.
Aces: he can't have the ace of the flush card b/c I have it. This player seems good enough that he would fold to a raise here, with 2 kings and 3 hearts out there. I will win this pot unless the case ace comes on the river.
Ace-King. Trip kings, but he can't have a flush card then (the ace is in my hand, the king is on the board). Hard for players to fold high trips, he might do it, though.
King-Queen or pocket queens with the queen of hearts. This would be nice - trips and a redraw to a second best flush. He would be drawing very thin.
Some smaller pocket pair with a heart redraw. Not very strong.
There's only one big choice to make - am I willing to fold the nut flush on this hand? Smart or not, my decision is no, I'm not willing to fold it. I'm not good enough to calculate my equity live now that the board is paired, but I figure there are still plenty of hands I'm ahead of, and lots of hands that think they have redraws to a flush I already hold. Once I decide I'm not going to fold, then the choice is easy - I need to raise NOW while he still thinks he has redraws, because he probably won't call a big river bet with QQ or KQ after the river bricks. My action won't matter when I'm already losing, but to maximize on the hands I'm winning, we need to get it all in before the last card is dealt.
I raise to $25, committing myself to the hand. He doesn't look too happy, but he goes all in for his last $18 more. I make the trivial call, thinking he'll turn over KQ with the queen of diamonds.
No such luck. Pocket jacks. He's not thrilled b/c he's got the underboat and figures I have the king and possible way to overboat him, but in reality I'm drawing dead. We deal the meaningless river and I ship most of my chips over to him.
I gauge my mental state after the hand - it's strong. I'm not upset. Did I play the hand poorly? Does anyone fold the best flush as soon as the board pairs, ESPECIALLY a king - when there are so many trip kings in his possible hand range? I don't think so. Maybe a pro can put a villain on such a lockdown solid range that he knows his flush is most likely behind - I'm not good enough to do that. I'm also facing an aggressive, good player who is keeping the pressure on with bets on every street - I don't have to take his betting as gospel.
I tried to put a range in for this player, once he goes all in. Here's what I came up with.
AA,KK,KQh,QhQ,JJ,KJ,ThT(50),KT,9h9(50),8h8(50)
You need Hold'em ranger to calculate equities using this syntax. KQh means he has a king and specifically the queen of hearts. The (50) means that these hands are only half as likely as the others. vs. this range, my equity is 55%.
..But I'm still making mistakes as I try and take in all this new stuff. Occasionally my hand-range-finder works pretty well (at least it's trying to figure out what he has), but then the villain is tricking me and I lose the pot.
Example:
Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
UTG: $28.71
Hero (CO): $25.35
BTN: $27.46
SB: $28.55
BB: $25
Pre-Flop: 7 8 dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.75, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50
Flop: ($1.60) K 8 5 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1, BB calls $1
Villain check-calls. Looks like a heart draw or someone who doesn't believe my c-bet.
Turn: ($3.60) Q (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks
check/check. Does he slowplay after hitting his flush?
River: ($3.60) 5 (2 Players)
BB bets $2.75, Hero calls $2.75
I check over the betting again. If he had a king, wouldn't he checkraise or lead out because of the flush draw? If he had TT/99, could he bet for value here? If he had flush, wouldn't he have bet turn?
Well, maybe he was going for the checkraise, and my check behind kept the pot small. I decide there are enough bluffs in his range to try and snap him off with third pair.
Results: $9.10 Pot ($0.45 Rake)
Hero mucked 7 8 and LOST (-$4.50 NET)
BB showed J K and WON $8.65 (+$4.40 NET)
Villain had the king all along, something I discounted.
I finally won a big pot with a flush over flush, and some small ones to post a win on the night. When I lost back to back hands with AK (4 bet preflop by tight player, folded), and AQ (vs QT, called a bluff raise with a gutshot and hit a 3 outer ten on the turn), I knew my luck had run out for the night.
Another losing night tonight, but I halved my early losses so I felt a bit better about it, anyway. In review, the following 3 hands were my biggest losses:
a blind steal attempt from the small blind that flopped 2 pair, then got it in with A8 that had an open ender. He hit. He only had half a stack.
top set queens on a brutal board - broadway straight was there with AK, flush was out there. The turn got checked, so I was able to call a reasonable size bet on the river - villain had king high straight flush. Whoops. Probably a fold in all truth, but it's hard to fold top set.
My worst play of the night. My coach has suggested a bluff line I have never tried, and I tried it at a horrible time - a raise on the river on a AA557 board. I knew he had an ace from the flop, so I'm not sure what my river raise accomplished, other than me losing twice as much money.
So the night was not great, but I'm not too far away. Eliminate a couple bad plays and I'll be close to even, despite what seemed like always running into the top of my opponent's range. Gotta stay positive.
happening at the worst times lately. Today during the big tourney, I had QQ and smacked into them.
Tonight in the cash game, the player on my left three bet over my blind steal 3 times in an hour. I took my stand and 4 bet with suited connectors - he minraised over that 4bet. The warning bells went off and I ignored them - I considered that I had the right hand to crack the big overpair and I went with it. He had the aces. Must be nice to three bet the same guy three times and then show up with rockets the fourth time.
Of course my all-in call was a tilt-call - I don't feel like I get tilted that often, and I guess there's no other word for it here - but I was also trying to send the message that I wasn't going to be pushed around all night. Great time to to stand up to the bully, huh?
I played ok in Rush for my last half hour - just over even - then somebody slow played KINGS against me and my ace ten and I lost a big pot again to make my night even worse. Hitting the flush draw on the turn is what sealed my fate (of course, a suckout by hitting the flush or one of the other 5 outs to crack the kings would have been nice, not tonight though).
These AA/KK slowplayers are cracking me all over the place this month - my ramped up aggression is running right into them time after time.
My own aces and flopped sets won nothing past the flop - so my night was a disaster.
Played in a 3500+ man tourney tonight, took 391st place. They paid 378.
D'oh!
Went out in a blaze with 2 live cards: KJ vs. AQ, but I didn't get my help. Fine.
Today I stacked someone holding J4o.
It was fun.
As my skills improve, I'm finding that sometimes I have a pretty good idea of what a player is holding, but I don't always take the necessary action to do something about it.
In my live game last night, a player limped in early position. This guy limps into too many pots, but can play postflop aggressively. I checked my option in the big blind with Jh9h, and hit a pretty big flop, a jack for second pair, along with an ace and a rag, both hearts. Middle pair, flush draw, but out of position.
I lead out the betting, trying to set my price, but the limper raised. I have seen him raise in position twice before this evening. Once he had top pair (but no real kicker), and the other time he had a set.
The chances of the set were very remote - pocket aces and pocket jacks are raising preflop, not limping from early position. He would have to have the rag in order to have a set. Only one two-pair combination makes solid sense - the ace-rag two pair (ace-jack maybe, but again, more of a raising hand).
So my gut tells me most combinations of hands he could hold are some medium ace, who can't love his kicker. I've got a strong draw to beat that - 14 outs including 9 hearts, 2 jacks, and 3 nines, and I've got fold equity to make a re-re-raise a +EV play.
But I don't pull the trigger. I call the raise, hoping to hit an out. I do not hit one on the turn or river, and meekly give up the pot at showdown.
"I play so bad" I say out loud as I collect the deck to start shuffling as the small blind.
I correct my mistake later, against a different player. This guy is pretty straightforward, though he did take a large pot from me earlier tonight simply calling with aces in the blind and crushing my pocket jacks that stayed an overpair.
In this hand, the player min-raises to $2, under the gun. This is an unusual play for anyone at our table, so my radar is up for a big hand. This guy folds almost all of his early position hands. We get one more caller and it comes to me in the big blind, where I sit with six of diamonds, nine of diamonds. I call with great pot odds and the chance to crack what I figure might be a monster preflop hand.
A nice flop for me - seven, eight, four, with two diamonds. Flush draw, open-ended straight draw. If my read is right, this player has aces or kings and will definitely bet this board. I check. He fires out for $3, and I become the aggressor with a checkraise. He doesn't look like he's ready to go to the wall, but he's not ready to fold, either. He calls the extra seven bucks.
The turn card is an eight, which pairs the high card on the board. The draws never seen to come when you need them, but I quickly re-adjust my strategy and realize that this is a great bluffing card for a guy that just checkraised with "top pair", who now has trips. The only danger is if he somehow is holding an eight himself, but I can't think of many hands that this player minraised under the gun that contain an eight in them. This tight, positionally-aware player is simply folding every eight (except pocket eights) I can conceive.
If my read is wrong and he somehow ends up with top pair, now trips, then God love him, he won't be folding, but I need a chance to win this pot without hitting one of my 15 outs. I lead into the pot for $12. His reply is interesting - something like "I'm going to lay this down, I just don't feel comfortable right now", and he flashes pocket queens.
The rabbit-hunted river reveals that I would have hit my flush with the ace of diamonds, but the ace would have prevented the queens from paying me off with a stack. So I did ok for myself there, winning 14 blinds with what amounted to nine high.
A valuable lesson re-learned - I made someone feel "not comfortable", and dragged a pot for my efforts. This pot helped me stay afloat with my second buy-in - my night ended with me down the exact amount of my big jacks-vs.-aces cooler, so I broke even otherwise. There were lots of ways I could have made this money up at the table last night, but the cards didn't cooperate.
after a good night tonight - I decided to play 30 minutes of Rush Poker. If I went down a quick $10 like last night, I was just going to quit.
Bizarre to think I was even playing the same game as I was last night. The "Rush Pool" was so much more passive than last night. No three bet defending from the blinds. No four bets. It played like a normal .10/.25 table, just faster. I must be victim to some sort of "Rush Villain variance" to see such a difference in one day.
I played 36 hands. I lost the blinds in 5 of them. I won 10 of them, including $13 on a queen-ten that I wasn't folding after hitting my queen against a short stack. But when he donkbet on the flop, on a dry, queen-high board, I wondered why he would lead with a strong queen. I called. He bet pot again on the turn. Now I figured he wanted me to go away, and he only had a pot sized bet left. I denied his wish and called again. He shoved it all in on the river - I figured he was going to show QJ and I would get outkicked, but I wasn't folding. Pocket eights. I quickly closed the client and decided that was as lucky as I was going to get.
Contrast to last night when I got sticky with a pair and got outkicked two or three times. I'm trying to stay aggressive, trying to put opponents on ranges, trying to incorporate all I'm learning - sometimes you lose the kicker battle and look like a donkey calling three bets with QT or A7, but and sometimes it works out ok.
I wonder if Rush Poker is doing something to the online player pool. My .10/.25 game tonight played like something out of a play money game. Raises were three bet routinely. When I three-bet, I got four-bet. cbets are floated with regularity.
Unbelievable frustration. I played 58 hands - fifty-eight! - before posting a win of any kind. No successful steals, no showdown wins, nothing, just down, down, down, until hand 59 when I won the blinds.
Hand 59 didn't start a trend, either. Just another night of being on the wrong side, over and over. I would try a different line and step into a trap. I would slow down and the bad turn card would come.
I'm doing everything possible to work on my game. Reviewing sessions, reading books, articles, forum posts, videos, live coaching, talking poker, thinking poker. Everything. Am I getting any better? Is it just variance? Who can tell?
