More LAG practice

I always refer to myself as a nitty TAG, but I look for spots where I can make moves. I had two such spots in my 1-2 session today at the Cleveland Horseshoe.

In the first, an ABC player made his standard $11 raise and I called in position with pocket tens. There was another caller as well, and we saw a flop 3 ways. That flop came Jack-Queen-four. The original raiser bet $16, which was also a standard half-pot bet size for him. (I had seen this script a few times this session). Normally folding third pair is a no-brainer, but I floated this time to see if I could spot an opportunity to take this pot away from him later.

The cards cooperated and put a nine out there. No made hand for me, but it did give me an up-and-down straight draw. The villain bet $20 into this pot - a classic, weak-ass "please don't raise me" kind of bet.

If ever there was a time to make a move, this was it. A weak bet into a draw-heavy board, with me holding two blockers to the nuts. I made it $55 to go, and got a frustrated fold.

His tiny bet actually made a call correct, or at least close to correct, pot-odds-wise. But when you think he'll fold often, the semi-bluff is far superior.

In the second hand, I had raised from middle position, and a female player called me out of the blinds. She was new to the table, but we had already tangled in one hand - I had raised , she called out of the blinds, and then donked into me on a Queen-six-four, all red board. I had no pair and no draw, so I let this one go.

In this new hand, the flop came King-Nine-Four, rainbow suits. Again, she donked into me for $12. I had already seen her play too many hands, and this donking thing was a bit annoying, so I raised to $25. She didn't seem to like it, but after a few seconds she called the raise.

A ten came on the turn, completing the rainbow. Now, after apparently forgetting that I had just raised her bet one street before, she donked into me again, this time for $20. Again, I raised, to $60. She gave it a few seconds thought and then moved in. I called quickly.

"You have the straight"? She said.

"Yes", and flipped over queen-jack.

"Damn, the only hand that beats me", she said rather incorrectly, and flipped over king-ten. Second nuts, sixth nuts, I'm not one to quibble.

My flop raise with a gutshot straight draw was obviously way shaded toward the "bluff" side of a semibluff, with only 4 outs to a winning hand. I felt like her donk bets into me were weak and there was a decent chance to move her off a hand like king-ten. I obviously got that part wrong - she wasn't the type that liked folding top pair. My bluffing would have ended on every other turn card, even if I paired up. The ten was the trainwreck card for her - fulfilling her dreams of cracking my aces or ace-king and my longshot dreams of holding the nuts for the first and only time in my 6 hour session.

Vegas, baby

Survived my first Vegas trip. Got in 3 sessions of poker for around 15 total hours, and net about $650. But I actually should have lost about $100, except for getting pushed a large pot that I later found out I lost...

So I'm in a morning session at the Aria, and my 1-3 table is the usual mix of recreational guys and ladies of varying skill. Seems like a normal table for me to make a couple of bucks, if not for one exception - the player on my immediate right is a competent LAG. He is punishing limpers at what seems a 100% rate. He is squeezing and 3betting more than normal. His cbets are big. He raises cbets with draws. In short, a pretty formidable opponent at a 1-3 table.

Having him on my right is better than on my left, because at least I can know what he's doing before he acts, but having him at the table at all is making it pretty tough to win any money. I am considering a table change when I notice something - when he's not in a hand, he passes the time by firing up his mini iPad and surfing the web. I catch him surfing the 2+2 poker forum more than once.

A solid read - as a reader of the 2+2 forum, I can deduce that he's most likely a student of the game, trying to play well. Maybe I could have deduced this purely from his playing style, but seeing him read 2+2 gave me an idea - maybe he would fold to a bit of pressure from me. I decided that the next hand I received that was playable, I was going to 3bet him and try and get a fold.

That hand came soon enough - he punished a limper for $16, and I checked my cards to find . Not a great hand, but good enough (and an ace blocker!). I made it $45.

My opponent looked at me and thought for a bit. I half-expected a fold, and the other half a 4bet. I was folding to the latter. Instead, he chose neither option and called the $45. I decided this was either AK, AQ, or a middle pair like nines, tens or jacks that were hard to fold preflop. I didn't like my hand against this range.

Until the flop came, that is. It was . I had flopped 2 pair and was ahead of every possible hand I could conceive him carrying.

He checked to me. I knew that I was going to get all his money if he had AK, and probably AQ also. I needed to see if there was a way to get him to stick his stack in with his other hands. Could I fool him into thinking I didn't have an ace myself, and get him to exert his will on me? After a second, I decided a bigger bet might look like jacks, queens, or kings desperately trying to get someone to go away. I settled on a $70 bet into a $90 pot. After only a few seconds, he slid his stack to the middle, carrying the chips along on a sled of $100 bills. I called instantly of course.

I flipped my hand over (I didn't have to), and his eyes got big as to both the weakness of my holding, and the strength of how I hit the flop. He didn't look happy, and he left his cards concealed.

The dealer dealt the turn and river, and then it was my my turn to be unhappy. He dealt a jack, and then another jack. My two pair had become three pair, and my A7 was now losing to AK or AQ.

I looked over at him and said "Ace-king is a winner, I'm counterfeited". He smiled, shook his head, and mucked. I doubled up from $350 to $700. I wondered what the heck he could have had. Clubs? Five-six? Just air, trying to muscle me off whatever he felt I had?

A few hands later, I admitted to him that I 3bet him light because I saw he was reading 2+2, and I was a member myself. We chatted for a bit, and he told me to look up his "trip report" thread, where he documented his sessions and trips to Vegas. I promised to do so.

When I got home, I did look up his trip report thread. He documented his big hand with me, and told the world he had Ace-king! I replied to this thread, and told him if this was true, then he folded the winning hand. He seemed pretty upset in the threads that followed.

I'm not sure how he missed that I got counterfeited, especially with me telling him that ace-king was a winner without me seeing his cards. This seems quite odd to me. I have an alternate theory as to what happened - that theory is that he didn't want to show his 56 or busted draw or whatever he had, so he made up the ace-king holding for the forum, not realizing that this hand was the winning one after the cards ran out. A modern day, poker version of a the old "I caught a fish this big" story.

No matter, either way (at least now). He was a nice guy, certainly a pain-in-neck opponent, and it's great to meet fellow members of the worldwide poker community that you can go back and say "hi" to in the future. And his mistake turned my first Vegas trip into a winner.

Note: even if he DID have Ace-king in that hand, and properly showed it and won that giant pot, I would still feel good overall about getting my money in good (after the tilting irritation of losing the giant pot on a suckout, of course).

Practice session

Las Vegas trip coming in 10 days. (!) But first a 7 hour $1-$2 session at the Cleveland Horseshoe...

I felt like I was on my A game for most of the night. I double barreled the only decent player at the table with nothing and got a fold. He sighed as he folded to my bet after a Queen came on the turn and said "I think I was ahead until that card came". "yeah, I got lucky", I replied, not completely lying. (I did get lucky enough to get a broadway card that I knew would apply pressure on him).

2 big hands accounted for my profit. One was top set vs. second set vs my friend LR - a standard cooler that doubled me up and took a bite out of his 4 buy-in profit. This one wasn't really worthy of discussion, we both played the hand correctly and he would have stacked me had the hands been reversed.

The second big hand for me was the last of the night. I didn't start this hand well, I actually limped with . It was a really weak table, but I was still in too early of position to limp with this hand. (This was one of the reasons I was sure it was time to go, actually) The button made it $10- he was a tightish, straightforward player. And then the big blind called - he was the worst player at the table. He bought in for $100 at a time and had reached into his pocket to rebuy 3 times already. I called behind.

The flop was a mixed bag, as it often the case with weak preflop holdings - we see a board. Trip aces for me, but the straightforward player was likely to have raised up my limp with a big ace. I was way ahead of big pairs or way behind the fourth ace.

Bad blind checked and so did I, waiting for the button to cbet. He checked behind. I already knew he was a chronic slowplayer, so I kept AK/AQ/AJ in his range for now.

We saw a , so now a flush was out there. I was looking to get the showdown. We both checked to the button again, and this time he bet out $15 into the $30-ish pot. Bad button called right away. I felt like I could still be behind bigger aces, and now KK caught me, but I also felt like KQ could be one of his hands, especially with the as a flush redraw. I was happy to make this $15 call into a $60 pot and see what would happen on the river.

What happened was the .

What a card! I caught just about every hand except AK. I could get value from all other his big aces, from KK, maybe 99 (I didn't think 99 was a very likely preflop raise from this player, and I knew A9 was not possible). I couldn't see any possible flush this player would have, either.

So I needed to bet something that AQ and AJ could call. If he raised, I would be in some kind of pickle, thinking he could do this equally with KK (which I was beating) or AK (which I wasn't). There are exactly 3 combos of each left. I tried hard not to think about this possibility.

I slid out $55. He looked a little surprised, but he thought for a second and then made the call. I knew right then I had him because he didn't raise.

Then, as a bonus, bad blind tanked also! He had something he was thinking about calling with. After about 30 seconds, he said "I have a flush, I'm not folding" - slid out a stack of red chips, and tabled .

I flipped over my full house, and the original raiser mucked. AQ/AJ I'm pretty sure.

I had one more hand to go before the end of the orbit. I folding something (can't even remember what it was), tipped the dealer $3, and then started putting my chips in a tray. 113 big blind profit on the night.

Results Oriented

My Texas Holdem tutorial of the day is to not be results-oriented.

I'm sitting in my home game on the button. We get the typical no-foldem limpfest, and I limp behind with pocket sevens. A raise won't thin the field with this bunch, so I've just got to limp along and try and flop my set.

Ann lo and behold, I do hit a set, on a king-seven-four flop. One of the blind leads out, he gets one caller, and I raise it up. Both players call.

The small blind is a god-awful player - he's calling with any king or four, trying to hit two pair or trips. I of course hope he hits one of them.

The turn is some type of brick, and they both check to me. My big question is bet size - will he call a big bet, or should I keep it manageable. This time, I decide on a big bet. My awful opponent thinks for a long time, agonizes a bit, and then folds. He hates folding top pair.

I won the pot but I'm not happy with the final pot size. I think I left some money on the table.

Fast forward 1 week, and I'm in another cash game with the same player. We're only 3 handed because we're waiting for players to get knocked out of the tourney. I call a minraise from the blinds with King-Ten, and see a super nine-queen-jack flop. Hello nuts!

I check and one of the two players bets, and my friend calls. I'm definitively checkraising, I just need to choose the bet size. Remembering last week, I opt for a smaller size this time, and my friend instantly calls.

What I'm not happy with is the turn card - a king. It turns out my friend is holding ace-ten, and I get stacked.

They joy of poker. Play poorly and win a small hand, play great and lose a big one.

Bet or check

Cash game this weekend went ok - lost 60BB. I'm not winning much these days, but I can't find much wrong with my play. I lost the most on 2 hands, AQ vs. AK, and JJ vs. KK, both against players that could be holding much, much worse. Coolers, nothing more.

I had one interesting decision. I raised up a limper with Queen-Jack offsuit on the button. Both blinds called me, the original limped folded. We went 3 way to the flop.

The board came king-six-four with two spades, a total whiff for me. Both players checked. I decided to c-bet the board, hoping I could get at least one fold, and then barrel against the other player on any broadway or club. However, both players called.

I was pretty much done with the hand, but the turn gave me some equity - a ten of clubs. I now had an open-ended straight draw.

Again, both players checked to me. Against one player, I would double barrel this card all day. But in this situation, vs. two players, having somewhere around 6 outs, I felt like a check was best. I couldn't count on getting two folds, and there is always the worry of a checkraise blowing me off my draw (maybe not MUCH of a worry in this straightforward game).

That way my only interesting decision on the night. It was made more interesting by the fact that I hit the nuts on the river with a red nine. I chose a bigger sized bet, 25BB (close to pot) and got INSTANTLY called by king-ten. Had I bet the turn, my river bet (and subsequent winnings) could have been even bigger. But I still think the check was best.

Tourney recap

wow, I'm not playing much poker these days. This Friday was my monthly tourney, and while getting ready I realized that I had played only one other time since the last tourney.

I played this tourney well. Two hands stick out. In the first, I had pocket jacks, raised, and got one caller. He was an opponent I had played with several times before. I considered him a decent player. The flop was nine-ten-four, with a flush draw. He checked and I made a value bet, which he called.

The turn paired the nine, the second card on the board. He checked-called a second bet.

The river bricked the straight and flush draw, and my opponent bet 800 into the pot, a big bet.

Bleah. Big fun for me - a tourney-committing bet in the second level. I went through the hand - he could have a few different nines, but I also felt like he could have either the flush or straight draws, which both busted out. He was also a good enough player to take this kind of shot at me. Thirdly, his river bet was ultra-quick, which seemed a bit off to me. Lastly, I decided if I called and was wrong, I would just fire up the after-tourney cash game a bit early.

"Well, you might have a nine, but I call", I said. He quickly "nice call" and mucked.

In the second hand, I was dealing with a guy 2 to my right who was getting aggressive. He stole my blinds twice and made a couple other raises as well. In this hand, he raised from middle position while I was on the button. I decided that if my cards were anything playable, I was going to three-bet him with position.

My turn came, and I checked my cards. Four-Seven of spades. Playable? Eh, sort-of. What the hell.

I raised it up. As often does with the best-laid plans, mine seemed instantly ruined when the small blind flat-called my three bet. He was a nitty fish who had already limped with AK and pocket tens tonight. His call made the original raiser's call easier, and he did so.

We saw an Ace-Jack-6 rainbow flop, and both players checked to me. I figured I needed to fire one more bullet - since everyone always puts you on Ace-King, I needed to represent it here. I bet just under half pot and got two folds.

I made it to the final table with a nice stack, but my cards then became unplayable for 3 levels. I busted out sixth, shoving a king-nine into 2 limps. One of them had pocket tens and decided to call me.

LAG Practice

I think I've overcome a small hurdle in my attempt to become a more loose-aggressive poker player. In the past, I would make a move or two that wouldn't work, and then grouse about losing the 40 big blinds, which would revert me back to a more ABC/TAG style.

I'm trying to look at these small unsuccessful events as investments in a bigger future.

A month ago I was playing at the Cleveland Horseshoe and the usual bad table was having fun trapping with pocket aces. They would call and trap and call and trap and get a big kick out of winning a small or medium pot. Two of these were against me - allowing me to take myself to valuetown twice. I grumbled to myself and looked forward to the day their bad play would be rewarded me them losing their stack to me.

Fast forward to yesterday - again at the 'Shoe - the player to my left makes a small $7 raise as the first to act. 2 or 3 people call the small raise, and I call from the big blind, holding 5 6. I'm not big on calling speculative hands like this from the blinds - probably a losing play for most players (myself included) - the combination of the small raise size and multiple callers made it appealing. The last thought was one I've been working on keeping top of mind - stay aggressive on draws, play your equity. Work on your LAG style when you get the opportunities.

So we see a multi-way flop, which comes Q 9 4. Flush draw for me. I check, the original raiser bets $10 into the $28 and gets one caller. I've got to call $10 into $48 for a flush draw. Sounds like good odds to me, I take them and call.

The turn is an amazing card for me hand - a black 3. Now I've got 15 cards to a straight or flush. I decide to take the betting lead and bet $15 - my original hope is that everyone will call and I will given myself a cheap price to see a river, but that isn't how things worked out. The original raiser called my $15 bet, but then the other caller, a semi-maniac who has been stuck for maybe 2 buy-ins in his first hour, announces "all-in". This startles me at first, but I look over at the stack he has slid into the middle and it's pretty tiny - so small, in fact, that I'm not sure he has even doubled my $15 bet. I ask for a count, and the deal stacks them up and tells me it's exactly $30.

Which means I can re-raise if I want.

Do I want to? The original raiser hasn't shown much strength so far - I've got him for a hand like AQ or KQ. He might even have a drawing hand like JT or a heart draw like myself (the poker gods LOVE to give people bigger flush draws when I play smaller ones - it's already happened once today). Maybe I can push him out of this pot with a raise, and take a free crack at the stuck LAG with at least 15 outs. Hell, my pair outs might be good against him if he has JT. Plus, it fufills my promise to myself that if I want to play hands like 56s out of the blinds, I have to play them aggressively and win some pots.

I make it $85. That's a big enough "I mean it" bet to tell KQ, JT, maybe even AQ to get the hell out. I like my move pretty well, until the original raiser thinks for about .0003 seconds and says "call", counting his chips.

Ah, the life of a LAG. One second you're contemplating a perfectly-executed, well-considered semibluff, and the next second you've built a giant pot with 6 high.

Clearly I was going to need one of my outs to pass him. I had a second to think what could happen. Obviously hitting a brick would be a simple check-fold, and me reaching for the last $100 in my pocket. I was going broke on a heart river -if he had a higher flush draw, then he wins. More likely, I thought he had a set of queens or nines, or Ace-Queen, and finally the idea that the old slowplayed aces from the last session were back to torment me again. Put pocket kings in there for the same reason.

It didn't matter much what he held when the amazing 2 came on the river. I had only $55 left on the table and stuck it in. He wasn't calling with a busted draw himself, but it seemed to me that all his made hands weren't folding for $55 when they called $80 on the last street. The UTG player called again right away and flipped over pocket kings.

"Straight" I said, probably a bit too triumphantly, and flipped over 56. My opponent stopped dead with his mouth open, realizing what just befell him. "He got what he deserved, playing pocket kings that way", I thought.

As for me, I'm not sure if I played the hand well or not, but I chose an aggressive action in an attempt to bluff someone out of a pot, and then got bailed out by excellent equity when the bluff didn't work out. It felt pretty good.