Poker PlayerIDs I like

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what would you do? underboat on river vs. probably fish

Feral Cow Poker
HEM/Full Tilt NL Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 9 players

MP: $15.98 a 65/0 after 17 hands.
MP2: $9.52
HJ: $10.35 (Hero)
CO: $4.00 posted after sitting back down. 11/4 after 92
Button: $10.00
SB: $10.00
BB: $11.01 26/6 after 90 hands.
UTG: $12.63
UTG+1: $10.00

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is HJ with (9 players)
2 folds, MP calls $0.10, MP2 folds, Hero calls $0.10, CO checks, 2 folds, BB checks
I would normally raise a limper here, but with a poster behind me, one other to act, and a loose guy in the big blind, I decide to limp along.

Flop: ($0.35) (4 players)
BB checks, MP checks, Hero checks, CO checks
A whiff in a 4 way pot. Easy check.

Turn: ($0.35) (4 players)
BB checks, MP bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20, 2 folds
Hey now, a set. But a flushy board (and a 34 straight). If he's just stabbing, a raise does no good. If he's got a flush or straight, then a raise gets reraised and I'm in more trouble. But a set is too strong to fold, so let's see a turn and keep the pot small.

River: ($0.75) (2 players)
MP bets $0.70,


Call here, or raise for value?


Hero raises to $1.50, MP raises to $3.00, Hero calls $1.50

MP showed ,
Hero showed ,
Hero won $6.40

I decided this guy was bad enough to call a raise with a flush on a paired board, so I raised for value. I wasn't sure if I was going to call a shove with the under-boat - with someone this loose, you can't put them on a hand, and A5, A9 are certainly possible. Fortunately for me, he didn't shove - he minraised, and I decided I could lose 31 big blinds with the underboat. But I won!

PS: bet size was tricky on river. If I bet too much, I may have odds to call a shove, which I don't want to do. I probably could have made it 2.20 or so, though and gotten away with it, especially if he was going to minraise.

the new villain - aggro calling station

4 positive sessions in a row - even though they are modest wins, I consider simply not losing a victory right now.

I had trouble with a certain type of villain tonight - he was a 41/7, but a 4.4 aggression factor, with was something like 9.0 on the river. His play was to get to the river and then make a pot sized bet. He did it over and over. He would minbet flop and turn, or call when facing a bet - if you raised the flop minbet he would call anyway, then get to the river and bet just over pot, and everyone would fold. I'm sure he was very pleased with himself.

He was immediately on my right, so I was pounding him with iso raises - but they didn't work of course - he just called, then he called the cbet. I suppose I should have just shoved a turn or two against him.

He took a nice pot from me by outflopping me. I raised his limp with AJ he called. The board ended up 39T4J - I decided to call his pot-sized river bet this one time with top pair - he had JT.

So my reads were good, but they deceived me that time.

Live Tourney (mini) Report - Sep 24

No in-depth details on hands today - we're going to try and make it a poker-free Saturday. I started off well getting paid with pocket kings and 3 small streets of value with a set of fives. I moved to a new table where people didn't respect my raises (lol) and chipped back down. I LOVED my table draw the third time around, kept my chips near the 10BB line, then shoved with AQ and got called by AK to go out around 14th out of 40 players. That's poker. The best thing I can say is that I didn't make any mistakes, especially late.

The cash game afterwards was a different story - a couple mistakes where more aggression wins me a bit pot. I can forgive myself for one - we were playing Omaha and I'm obviously not experienced there. I knew I had a strong hand with queens overpair and a king high flush draw, but I had to call an all in and I couldn't quite do the math in my head to figure if I had a good pot odds call.

The second hand was an ace king that I could have threebet preflop vs. a shortstacked raiser (on a table where raising preflop was rare) - we went three way. I had top pair but a flushy board - lost to a two pair king-eight.

I'm starting a new mantra "out of position, bet-fold", "out of position, bet-fold". I find myself playing very badly out of position now, over and over. Sure it's hard to win money from there, but when you hit top/top at a five-handed table, you gotta bet. You gotta.

Hello, my name is George. I'm unemployed and live with my parents

Felt a bit like George Costanza at my .50/$1 game last night - every instinct I had was wrong. The fun started early with a flopped set of nines on a nine-ten-king board. Wiley was out of position and lead into me. I raised, then he called.

Turn brought an eight, not changing a whole lot. This time Wiley checked, I bet for value, and he went all in. Ehhhh. No strong draws on this board, just a made jack-queen. No flush draws to semibluff, and semibluffing is usually done on the flop anyway, not the turn. What hand could he play this way? All I could come up with were the hands that had a set of nines beat. A higher set or the made straight. I made what I felt was a very disciplined fold. Wiley told me later it was a bad one.

I went over the hand again and I wasn't angry - my instincts said I was beat and I went with them. Poker players are constantly trying to trick each other at the table - sometimes they succeed and you tip your cap. Perhaps I should have called only because Wiley hadn't bought in for the full 100BB - but if you think you're beat, even with a set, why put more money in at all? I stood by my own decision.

A couple hands later, with a bit of resolve to make sure I wasn't being so weak-tight - I raised up limpers with AK. The big blind reraised. He was also short, so I put him all in. He called, with aces. Whoops. Wiley said to me "you didn't see that coming - limp/reraise?". Uh, he was a limper? Great, now I'm not paying full attention to the action and losing big pots because of it. Ok, that's a bit irritating. I can forgive myself for coming up with a wrong decision based on the available information, but to miss available information at the table is not forgivable. Why am I at this table if I'm not paying full attention?

I did manage to keep my composure despite folding winners and shoving into monsters. Always look for a silver lining, even when you're mired in shit, I suppose. I did manage to make a correct decision when a player I didn't know represented a nine on a board with two more of them - I folded and he showed. Had he waited one more street, the fourth nine would have come, and I would have been sitting with a hard-to-escape full house. So I managed a little victory there and saved some chips.

It didn't matter. The chips dribbled away - no cards, no flops. My last hand had me all-in with two diamonds on a board with four spades and three opponents. A hopeless ending to a hopeless evening.

I'll be taking a shot at the live $50 tourney tonight. Let's hope for some better play.

an even 100

100 hands on the nose tonight. One table, focusing hard on reads/ranges. I played fine. 8 hands lost, 12 won. Went up a couple bucks and then back down, ended the night up 1 BB. I read somewhere that when things are going poorly, focusing on breaking even can introduce subtle, positive elements to your game.

Tonight I felt it slipping away, whether it's "luck" or "karma" or whatever - I knew it was time to quit. I punished a limper with some connector and he called, as well as another loose player. I was out of position on both. I cbet a KKQ board and was met with a raise and a call. They both had kings (K8s and K6s to be exact), and ended up chopping up my money. I tried one more preflop raise, got 3bet, and saw my blind was one hand away. Time to fold and call it a night. My hand against the two king-rags was the biggest pot I saw in the 100 hands - a loss of 13 blinds. No big wins or losses. Not much to discuss. So why I am writing about it? Goodnight.

Not much play tonight...

Worked on my game. Watched a video of people practicing ranges as a group. I really need to start doing this. I've got my HUD up, I understand "loose" and "tight" and variations thereof, but putting hand groups to the numbers I see is a mystery.

I've been thinking of ways to learn the ranges. One idea I had was flashcards - show a random hand, you have to guess what percentage is falls in within 5% blocks (ex: Q9s is at about 15%). I may still write this program.

So I watched half this video, and learned a lot. I learned that 18% is "any two broadway, any pair". That's a great benchmark to know. I'm guessing knowing 3 or 4 more benchmarks will help me get these down in no time.

I did squeeze in a few hands - 93, to be exact. I played a single table and practiced my range-finding. Not easy with an 86/74 at the table (I ignored him), but the 24/9 and the 14/11 started looking like groups of hands instead of numbers. I think I used my newfound skills to win some money on this play.

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
HEM/Full Tilt NL Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 9 players

BB: $10.91 20/9/1.0 after 45 hands.
UTG: $8.99
UTG+1: $3.35
MP: $4.05
MP2: $10.00 23/15/0.5, only 13 hands
HJ: $4.50 30/5. 20 hands. Just posted after sitting out.
CO: $8.96
Button: $12.66 (Hero)
SB: $12.26

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is Button with (9 players)
3 folds, MP2 calls $0.10, HJ checks, CO folds,
Well, there's a poster, and MP2 seems to like to raise but he limps this time. Maybe I'll just limp behind and see a nice multiway flop....

SCREW THAT NOISE. MP3 raises 15%, that's close to all broadways and pairs. I'll guess his limp percentage between 15 and 23 then are connectors and maybe some suited aces. Those don't hit many flops hard. The poster just adds another blind worth of dead money. Raise that SH*T up!


Hero raises to $0.60, SB folds, BB calls $0.50,
Oh crap, a call behind me. Didn't want that. Let's see, he's a 20/9 - so I'll put him on pairs and some not quite "3bettable" broadways for now, like AQ/KQ, and suited broadways. (in the heat of battle, I couldn't quite figure out this guy's range, to be honest. I didn't want him in the hand!)

MP2 calls $0.50, HJ folds
And Mr. limper comes along too...

Flop: ($1.85) (3 players)
BB checks, MP2 checks,
Ok, a nice unconnected low flop. All the unpaired broadways have whiffed. The connectors have gutshots and nothing more (except 34). Diamonds like this board. There's not much either guy should be able to continue with, and my preflop raise looks strong. Time to blast them out of the hand if I can.

Hero bets $1.15, 2 folds

I've made plays like this before, probably even with 44. But tonight it was a bit different. I started to see cards in their hands. It's very early, very fuzzy, I need a ton of work and practice, but this might have been the night I started thinking about poker a different way. The right way.

What would you do? AA on turn vs. a 77/9

When you're sitting at a table with a 77/9 and a 75/32, and you're playing 14/8 - you should occasionally, just fucking occasionally, end up with a better hand than they have.

Not tonight.

Tell me what you would do on this turn.

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
HEM/Full Tilt NL Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 9 players

MP2: $3.40
HJ: $10.37 77/9/1.2, 79 hands. You read that right.
CO: $10.00
Button: $10.00 16/7/2.7, 56 hands.
SB: $10.15 18/13/1.5, 78 hands.
BB: $21.98 75/32/3.4 76 hands.
UTG: $10.00 (Hero)
UTG+1: $6.48
MP: $13.13 10/8/2/3, 155 hands

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG with (9 players)
Hero raises to $0.35, UTG+1 folds, MP calls $0.35, MP2 folds, HJ calls $0.35, CO folds, Button calls $0.35, SB calls $0.30, BB calls $0.25
Brilliant. Let's take aces to the flop 6 handed, shall we?


Flop: ($2.10) (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, MP checks, HJ checks, Button checks
Wanted to checkraise here, I thought someone would be the king, or even the nine. They don't.

Turn: ($2.10) (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $1.10, MP folds, HJ raises to $2.20, 3 folds,
Villain who is raising me is 77/9/1.2. There's no way to tell what he has. He could have K2 here.

I won't post the end of the hand. If I folded, I'm a moron for folding an overpair vs. a 77/9. If I called/shoved and was beaten, I'm a moron for not listening to Baluga. Maybe I should have just check/called the aces to the river and won/lost a small pot.

That doesn't work either, by the way. If you play them slow, then someone catches two pair on you. Playing fast runs you into the hands that beat you - playing slow lets the hands you beat catch up. You can't win.

All of the variance with none of the benefit

I spent a LONG time this afternoon watching a video of a coach reviewing a player's database, and going through some optimal stat ranges. I compared most of my stats with those of the students to try and find my own leaks.

The biggest thing was too much passivity preflop. Less cold calling, more three betting, more squeezing, even more blind stealing is in order. I'm sure there are postflop problems, too (big problems), but these are things I can work on right away.

I tried it tonight, but didn't get the results this session. Much of my preflop aggression was called anyway, and then I would whiff the flop. Pocket eights three bet from a blind stealer, then a JTx flop. No way to win that one. My W$SD for the session was a crappy 25% - meaning I rarely had a hand when I got to the river.

No biggie for one session, I'll keep working.

One other note - I can easily play 3 tables now with all my Rush training - and will be increasing to 4 this week.

moving away from Rush

I played 2 tables of 9max, NON Rush poker tonight. I will add tables next week - I was simply too tired tonight. A losing session overall but it was all one hand - I took a stand with pocket eights vs. a 71/57 player who had three bet percent of 25%. He had AK this time and won the race.

This started him off on a rant of how bad I was and how he owned me, which I found humorous. I found it more humorous when he paid off my JQ two pair river bet with 9-2s on a JQ964 board. Third pair, no-kicker, on a straighty board, good for a value call. He got me overall, but I have marked him for future encounters (hopefully).

I did some work looking over my database this week, and found that I wasn't three-betting enough. I have vowed to look for more opportunities to do this. Tonight I had good luck, especially on one table, where you can see my stats below. I ran 17/14 with a 10.4% 3 bet percentage in 201 hands. Looks like I'm finding some more opportunities.

My face hurts...

...from getting smacked by the deck all night. Our cash game fell apart from lack of players, so Tony came over anyway and sweat (sweatted?) a session of Rush. Uh, he has to come over every night now. +4 buy ins in 800 hands. And a fairly effortless session, too. Top pair/kicker called by worse, two pair over another two pair. This is what happens (at least long term) when you play better cards than your opponents. Here's my favorite hand, which happened at the very end of the session - this is the kind of stuff that I've been on the wrong side of lately.

This converter is going to be a cash cow...
HEM/Full Tilt NL Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 9 players

MP: $8.64
MP2: $15.21
HJ: $10.63
CO: $4.13
Button: $1.81
SB: $14.60 (Hero)
BB: $2.78
UTG: $7.38
UTG+1: $15.87 I've got 10 hands on him, he's played 7 of them. Let's go with loose.

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with (9 players)
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $0.10, 5 folds, Hero calls $0.05, BB checks
I rarely iso-raise from the blinds. In position, I raise this all day. Might be a leak. My thinking is "position is power", so therefore, "out of position is no power".

Flop: ($0.30) (3 players)
Hero bets $0.16, BB calls $0.16, UTG+1 calls $0.16
I also like to stab at limped pots of all sorts. A 70/0 doesn't always have an ace, right?

Turn: ($0.78) (3 players)
Hero bets $0.60, BB calls $0.60, UTG+1 calls $0.60
...And GIN. Turned sets might be the most hidden hand in all of holdem. A bigger bet this time...

River: ($2.58) (3 players)
Hero bets $2.00,
When the river queen hit, both Tony and I paused for a second. We looked at each other. "Oh God, please have a queen!" I said. I bet pot.
...BB folds, UTG+1 raises to $5.00,
And get raised...
Hero raises to $13.74, UTG+1 calls $8.74
...and shove and get called.

Hero showed ,
UTG+1 showed ,
Hero won $28.06

Not easy to win 130 big blinds in a limped pot.

Still a losing month overall, but overall very good results at the 9man tables.

a quick 157 hands before dinner...

Just enough to get stacked again, KK vs. AA preflop. JFC, this is ridiculous.

a rant

I AM FUCKING SICK AND TIRED OF NEVER HAVING THE BEST GODDAMN HAND AT SHOWDOWN.

Aces vs. Kings all in preflop. I hit my fucking ace for top set. I lose the hand.
Set of tens all in on the broadway flop. Dead to a set of kings.
Pocket Aces beat by KQ.

Over and over and over. I try hard not to whine about bad beats - I know that nobody cares. But over and over and over is too fucking much. Sometimes your hand has to hold up. I understand why bad players never have the best hand at showdown - they're always outkicked or couterfeited or somesuch. But I'm playing 17/13 this month. I'm not in many pots. My holdings are strong when I start battling.

This is why good players quit the game.

Soccer and poker

At times, poker has a way of turning a nice evening into a kick in the nuts. My girls won their second soccer game, despite their #1 goalie dramatically walking off the field last weekend and quitting the team mid-game. But the girls played together, and with great effort, and notched a 3-1 win.

Honestly, I wasn't sure we would win a game all year with some of the fighting and personality problems on the team. So I was left with a good feeling....

..until I sat down and played a few hands. Just your run of the mill stupid luck - flop hidden trips vs. a flopped full house. Aces in a raised pot cracked by J8s, getting it all in with KK vs. 88 preflop and losing. That's 130 BB of bad luck - I was down 90BB on the night. Flip a couple of those around, a fine night for me. (hell, just flop the KK vs. 88 around, it's a positive night)

I'm wondering if I made a bad call on the trips hand, you be the judge.

This converter is going to be a cash cow...
HEM/Full Tilt NL Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 9 players

HJ: $21.33
CO: $10.00 (Hero)
Button: $1.67
SB: $6.86
BB: $5.01
UTG: $5.76 67/0, 3 hands of history.
UTG+1: $8.17
MP: $6.30
MP2: $24.08

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is CO with (9 players)
UTG calls $0.10, 4 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, 3 folds, UTG calls $0.30
Iso raise with a suited 1-gapper. Look at me, I'm a LAG!

Flop: ($0.95) (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.40, UTG calls $0.40
....And flopped trips.

Turn: ($1.75) (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $1.10, UTG calls $1.10
What's he calling with?

River: ($3.95) (2 players)
UTG bets $3.86, Hero calls $3.86
Well, there's a pot sized bet left and he puts it in. He can't figure me for a nine, but what's his value range right here? Am I supposed to fold trips b/c I really can't beat much in his value range?

UTG showed ,
Hero showed ,
UTG won $10.90

the old flopped boat, really sick. Good thing he only had half a stack. Should I have folded that river?