High Variance Session
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008 Internet
Yesterday's session was absolutely nuts. There are no other words to describe it, and I definitely did not play optimal. It was a session which gave me a lot of food for thought. So much, I decided not to play today but go through the hands.
So first of all, let's skip towards the end of the session on one of my tables where someone tried to own me by using the BluffCall strategy.
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($70.15) | ($200.00) | | ($488.95) | BTN | | ($135.75) | SB | | ($424.50) | ($921.80) | |
[UTG+1 posted $2]
Pre-flop: ($5, 6 players) Hero is BB
[UTG+1 posts $2]. Let's stop here. What does this mean? Fireworks!
Someone posted his blind out of position after the previous fish busted. This is an incredibly fun situation normally since it will generally lead to the regulars going absolutely insane with isolation raises, resteals, re-resteals and 5bet shoves with 69s. So after seeing I hold the nuts preflop the regulars decide to disappoint me and absolutely fail at creating a large pot before the action gets back to me.
So what is the story here from the fish's perspective? He posted $2 out of position without giving any thought to it, and after posting he realizes he wants to protect his $2 with any two cards. He obviously considers his options, which are minraising, open shoving, and checking (there's no open fold button on FTP) and he chooses the first one.
CO is a decent regular and he chooses to just call. Vs fish's range, any two cards will be playable, but him not isolating instead is a bit suspicious to me. The range I put him on is actually quite strong, so more like a pocket pair, decent strong aces and not much else. Perhaps some random low suited connectors between 56s and 78s. I think if he had a random connected crap he would just iso-raise here preflop.
My raise here is obviously standard, though I do not want to let out what the bottom end of my raising range is here. It's close to any-one-card though.
Flop:
($64, 3 players)Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $64,
Here I have a dilemma. I flop the nuts vs Fish and I do not care what he has. No matter what he holds here, he posted out of position which is a big mistake, he minraised preflop which is another mistake, and me stacking off with TPTK is not a mistake vs his range. So I am going to own him regardless of the results.
But CO is still in the hand. If I bet here, Fish calls/monkey shoves and CO calls, I am forced to pay his sets of because I have to assume hands like AQ/AJ are actually in his range here. And we're over two buyins deep.
Yet if I check, this hand becomes easier to play. Should I check Fish will see yet another opportunity to protect his $2 which he posted out of position, and will generally lead out with their complete range because my check obviously implies I do not hold an ace. Now if CO raises, I am quite certain he will be doing this with a large part of his range since he should be quite certain Fish is betting out his complete range here, meaning CO's range will be wider than sets and AQ/two pair, so I am more than willing to get it in.
CO folds and I complete the stack-a-donk move here, which Fish tries to counter by making a bluffcall. Its an advanced play from the Fish's arsenal, which is done to show sharks that they cannot be bluffed off no hand to inspire fear into them in future hands.
All in all he put in $198 to protect the $2 he posted out of position...
Turn:
($499, 2 players)River:
($499, 2 players)Final Pot: $422
Hero shows:
UTG+1 shows:
Hero wins $496 ( won +$219 )
UTG+1 lost -$200.00
CO lost -$21.00
But before Fish claims the Stupid Play Of The Day Award, I somehow decide to improve my chances on another table:
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($118.65) | ($244.20) | | ($483.95) | BTN | | ($211.15) | ($715.15) | BB | | ($400.00) | |
Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is CO
Here I see some normal-stack dude open up UTG, and I got a suited-crap hand which is not +EV to play vs his stack size, especially not while there's a big-stack behind me who just can't resist squeezing every bloody time I decide to cold-call someone.
Somehow I decide to call here, to trap mr. Big Stack into joining the pot. I know he can't resist squeezing, so my trap succeeds here and he squeezes here as planned so I can call him in-position with suited-crap.
Flop:
($79, 2 players)SB bets $55, Hero calls $55
Hitting a pretty good draw here was not part of my plan. I wanted to flop something like a gutshot at best so I could bluffraise and feel good about myself. Yet here I end up IP with a well disguised draw in position vs mr. Big Stack which is the best I could hope for preflop. I mean, put a 5 and a 7 on the flop when I got a 4 and a 6 means the poker gods must be on my side. I cannot raise here though since I do not want to get raised off my draw in this spot. Which was the ony correct play I made during this hand.
Turn:
($189, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $101, SB calls $101
So after improving to a pair and OESD I hold somewhere about 30% equity vs a real hand villain may have, like an overpair, but my hand also has a decent bit of showdown value. Because we are this deep, I have a few options here. I can bet hoping to fold out worse or hands with 6 outs at best, or I can check behind and hope to hit one of my million outs. I obviously decided to bet here because no other reason besides that I would get a decent price on calling a shove should he do so, and villain's call screams that he holds an overpair.
River:
($391, 2 players)SB checks, Hero goes all-in $292.95, SB calls $292.95
In this spot I try to think of a single hand in villain's range my 4 can beat, and I can think of none since it's bloody obvious he was pot controlling and inducing with a high pocket pair at this time. Yet I get a somewhat decent price to bluffshove this river, which I decided to do before considering what on earth I could be representing here. I'm representing a set, that's it. Villain should know by now his JJ/AA beats any of the hands I could be betting here other than flopped or turned sets, and I somehow oblige by throwing 1,5 buyins more at him?
Final Pot: $976.90
Hero shows:
SB shows:
SB wins $973.90 ( won +$489.95 )
Hero lost -$483.95
UTG+1 lost -$7.00
On the bright side, it seems my stupidity seems contagious, as this hand happened later on the same table vs another player, after I succeeded building up a stack again:
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| ($164.90) | |||
| CO | ($556.80) | ($1660.35) | | ($346.65) | BB | | ($413.05) | |
Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is BTN
UTG calls $2,
Flop:
($26, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $18, SB raises to $56, Hero calls $38
Villain in question played quite taggy, somewhere around 19/15, but my image was quite loose here. On this flop, there was only 1 hand I was really behind to, which is 66. Other than that, I do not see villain not 3betting TT or QQ vs me, nor calling OOP with QT because he's a nit. So what his flop raise means is that he holds 66, a very strong draw which may be close to a favorite over AA, or hands he turns into a bluff.
Reraising here is absolutely no option because it extracts no value from his worse hands, and getting it in here means I am actually a large underdog to his range, because 66 is a decent part from it and the rest of the hands he willingly puts his stack in will have sick equity vs aces.
Turn:
($138, 2 players)SB bets $90, Hero calls $90
A very nice blank (J9 is not part of his range), villain leads out again and at this time I am much more comfortable about my hand. I do not like to mix it up between raising and calling here, because I expect villain to actually be checking some scarecards to me should be hit as I've seen him do before. Again I just call, and am perfectly fine with paying off 66 as long as I make money vs the rest of his range.
River:
($318, 2 players)SB goes all-in $189.65, Hero calls $189.65
With another blank arriving, the call here is standard I think. Villain did not show 66 and called me a fish for making such bad calls...
Final Pot: $697.30
Hero shows:
SB shows:
Hero wins $694.30 ( won +$347.65 )
UTG lost -$2.00
SB lost -$346.65
Why So Serious?
Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2008 Internet
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($206.35) | ($200.00) | |
| BTN | ($254.00) | ($307.55) | |
| BB | ($200.00) |
Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is CO
Flop:
($509.55, 2 players)Turn:
($509.55, 2 players)River:
($509.55, 2 players)Final Pot: $402
Hero shows:
SB shows:
Hero wins $399 ( won +$199 )
SB wins $107.55 ( lost -$200 )
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| ($214.75) | |||
| UTG+1 | ($186.80) | ||
| CO | ($99.95) | ($487.60) | |
| SB | ($197.40) | ($246.15) |
Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is BB
UTG raises to $7,
Flop:
($468.90, 2 players)Turn:
($468.90, 2 players)River:
($468.90, 2 players)Final Pot: $437.50
UTG shows:
Hero shows:
Hero wins $465.90 ( won +$219.75 )
UTG lost -$214.75
BTN lost -$7.00
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($100.10) | ($307.85) | | ($327.20) | BTN | | ($486.60) | SB | | ($193.60) | BB | | ($223.50) | |
Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is CO
Flop:
($17, 2 players)UTG+1 bets $11.65, Hero calls $11.65
Turn:
($40.30, 2 players)UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $24, UTG+1 raises to $96, Hero calls $72
River:
($232.30, 2 players)UTG+1 goes all-in $193.20, Hero calls $193.20
Final Pot: $618.70
UTG+1 shows:
Hero shows:
Hero wins $615.70 ( won +$307.85 )
UTG+1 lost -$307.85
Why so serious? It's only money.
Either that is the common mindset at NL200, or it's just that absolutely nobody is capable of giving any other player the slightest bit of credit for having a better hand.
One huge difference in NL200 compared to NL100 is how players react to 3betting. There are many winning regulars at this limit who open 50-60% or even more from the button but call close to 50% of all 3bets should someone in the blinds decide to 3bet. Further, they even open around 50% from the small blind into any big blind, even if the player in the big blind is solid.
The scary part is how they crush the players who play back at them, even while most try to do so in a bad way. For instance, if someone likes to call when they get 3bet from the blinds while they hold the button often, why are people still 3betting with a polarized range? Why do the cbet every single flop in 3bet pots?
The common mindset at NL200 seems to be that aggressive regulars already know how to adjust to people who 3bet light out of position, and they are incapable of folding often enough because they think they can outplay them postflop. So if people keep 3betting the wrong hands, and play predictable postflop, they just get crushed in these spots.
A hand like this should be a decent example on one way to adjust to them:
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($433.80) | ||
| UTG+1 | ($243.00) | ||
| CO | ($254.00) | ($209.00) | | ($200.00) | BB | | ($133.70) | |
Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is SB
So what is the situation so far: I've sat at this table for an orbit or so, but villain is a regular and played often vs me. He knows I am capable of 3betting light from these spots.
What do we know about villain with a decent sample size:
- He plays 29/23, attempt to steal 33%
- He opens 50% from the button first in
- He calls 3bets 50% of the time on average, so even more when in-position.
- He 4bets 13% of the time
How does he play in 3bet pots?
So far he folded to 35% of the cbets in total, in 3bet pots I have not seen him fold to a cbet that often. It's a mix of calling and raising generally.
Now before making a decision here it's time to plan the hand. First of all, is 3betting or calling better preflop here? Even while KQs is a great hand to call with in these spots, the situation changes vs a player who will call with worse, raise with better, and fold some total junk or unplayable hands like A6o.
Further, when I 3bet this player from the blinds and we get to see a flop, I will be missing the flop a decent amount of the time. So knowing how he reacts to cbets, I will need to checkfold some flops I miss with my range, cbet/3bet some decent boards, cbet/3bet some semi-bluffs, and check-call some hands. Cbetting every flop is just going to burn money vs him.
Another good way to play here is to not 3bet light vs him at all. But even so, I still think KQs is a mandatory 3bet for value here.
Flop:
($50, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN bets $28, Hero calls $28
Here my standard line is to cbet. The board is pretty drawy, and I can earn tons of value from drawing hands here, and hands he'll float with to bluff the turn when checked to. So should I bet here, my standard play would be to check any blank turn to this player because I really want to earn two streets of value here from his complete range.
But like I said earlier, I will be checkfolding a lot of flops vs villain also. If I check here, he'll bet with his complete range, and KQ is just a huge favorite over that range on this board. So I decide to mix it up here and start out by checking TP to him on a drawy board, and just calling his bet.
In this spot I cbet most of the time, CR a decent bit, and check-call now and then.
Turn:
($106, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN checks
River:
($106, 2 players)Hero bets $63, BTN calls $63
Here I messed up. Like I said, I wanted to earn two streets of value vs his complete range. The line I took here only gets value out of second or third pair, since my play makes very little sense. I did manage to extract decent value from his holding here, but my bet size here is terrible.
A much better betsize would be something that would make him realize 2nd or third pair has little to no showdown value here, so villain could consider a bluffshove. Something like 1/3rd pot would make my hand stand out as something like AJ, and a player as aggressive as him and a competent hand reader would not let this spot pass often.
Final Pot: $232
BTN shows:
Hero shows:
Hero wins $229 ( won +$114 )
BTN lost -$115.00
Another example of not cbetting too often in 3bet pots is here vs a certain red pro from FTP. With about 2k hands on her, she again is an example of someone who really tries to abuse position, and makes a decent profit of it. Her attempt to steal from button is about 89%, and she opens around 38% of her small blinds.
How she reacts to 3bets falls under about a different category as the previous villain. She actually folds to 78% of all 3bets, but never 4bets. Meaning that instead of a very polarized range that would be needed should she be folding or 4betting, a wide range is needed to 3bet here: Hands that can be 3bet for value and are not dominated often, and hands that can hit flops decently. In short, hands like 67s are not a fold or call vs her from the blinds, but a good hand to 3bet. AQ is about the cutoff I would be 3betting for value vs her, AJ and KQ would just be a call, since she would not call 3bets with worse hands.
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($439.75) | ||
| UTG+1 | ($151.90) | ||
| CO | ($930.50) | ($226.35) | | ($409.95) | BB | | ($201.00) | |
Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is SB
Her call here makes her range pretty strong, and I have to assume hands like AA/KK/QQ/AK are definitely a decent part of her range here.
Flop:
($46, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN checks
I do not like to cbet here since I do not think it can extract much value from her range. Further, should she continue with her hand here, I'll be seeing hands that crush AQ here quite often. So I decide to check and reevaluate what's going to happen.
Turn:
($46, 2 players)Hero bets $32, BTN calls $32
River:
($110, 2 players)Hero bets $67, BTN calls $67
Because she checked behind on the flop, I do not have to worry that much about being behind now. So the turn and river bets are quite standard here hoping to get called by worse.
Final Pot: $244
BTN shows:
Hero shows:
Hero wins $241 ( won +$120 )
BTN lost -$121.00
So far I cannot complain about my results at NL200 yet. These are the results so far since the 30th of june:
July Results
Date: Fri, Aug 1, 2008 Internet
Even while July has been quite a bitch to me for a week or so, she made more than up for it in the end resulting in me having my first 3k+ month: $2334 normal winnings, $2995 if I include rakeback and $3420 if I include the ironman bonus.
The most interesting about july has not been the winnings though, but the adjustments I have made to my play. Not all of these will be out in the open on these blog entries, but the hand histories I posted should already point some of those out to observant people.
Other events in july that were quite interesting were the sweat sessions. I've done a few sweat sessions with some Cardrunner's members and realized much better afterwards how many different options there were for certain situations. Differences in how to approach certain spots can be so different for each player, even while one option is not always better than the other, but both are still viable. It's just up to me to consider my options better, and decide which one is best based on opponents tendencies.
July Results
Date: Fri, Aug 1, 2008 Internet
Even while July has been quite a bitch to me for a week or so, she made more than up for it in the end resulting in me having my first 3k+ month: $2334 normal winnings, $2995 if I include rakeback and $3420 if I include the ironman bonus.
The most interesting about july has not been the winnings though, but the adjustments I have made to my play. Not all of these will be out in the open on these blog entries, but the hand histories I posted should already point some of those out to observant people.
Other events in july that were quite interesting were the sweat sessions. I've done a few sweat sessions with some Cardrunner's members and realized much better afterwards how many different options there were for certain situations. Differences in how to approach certain spots can be so different for each player, even while one option is not always better than the other, but both are still viable. It's just up to me to consider my options better, and decide which one is best based on opponents tendencies.
Two For The Money
Date: Fri, Aug 1, 2008 Internet
"Still you talk like this. Who the fuck are you, like this is some kind of game. I was betting a few thousand a Sunday when I called you. You pushed me. Every call. All the time with your talk... I lost $380,000 this weekend... I was going to get married... I had a life..."
The above lines come from a movie which is included in the category I described in an earlier blog entry, which are movies from the "never bad enough to not be worth watching" genre.
The movie, "Two for the money", stars Al Pacino as the owner of a Vegas company which resolves around advising sports-betting addicts on what team to pick before a football match takes place. If they are right they get 10% of the addict's winnings. If they are wrong they may lose a customer.
The concept about the company's structure was quite interesting to me. Which is gambling with other's people's money and getting paid if you are right. Which translates into having an infinite bankroll to gamble with as long as the supply of gambling degenerates does not lose the trust in the company and steps over to competitors.
Most of those aspects can actually be applied to poker.
Gambling with other people's money? I probably have to lose over 20k dollars before I have to put in money again which originally did not come from another poker player's paycheck.
Losing customers or having customers move over to the competition? Also quite applicable. I generally get in a lot of situations where some preflop action is directly +EV but not the best one:
Here is one example from those:
$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($480.20) | ($134.85) | |
| CO | ($200.00) | ($240.00) | |
| SB | ($200.00) | ($230.00) |
Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is BB
Final Pot: $21
Hero wins $42 ( won +$12 )
BTN lost -$9.00
UTG+1 lost -$2.00
So what is interesting about this hand? Not the hand itself, but rather my range for deciding on my preflop options here, and my 3bet sizing:
In the above example, there's a 38/10 fish limp-calling, who gets iso-raised by a 23/19 44% attempt to steal regular solid player. In this spot, the regular's range will be huge, and ATs is definitely way ahead of it, but still not that easy to play OOP. The fish's range here is huge here as well.
This is a very +EV spot to make a resteal, and I could show the math behind it if people are interested, but this was the only hand I hated from today's session.
Why is this? Because the times where this fish will limp, and solid player will isolate will be happening tons of times. The direct equity of making this preflop play is a few dollars, but how is it longterm?
The story behind the lines here is that a fish wants to limp into a lot of pots, because he likes to see flops. Curious what K8o can hit? You don't know before the flop! And then there's mr. solid regular who recognizes that, and makes an isolation raise here with tons of trash. He knows he has an edge on the fish and wants to keep other players out.
3betting here takes advantage of that, and is directly +EV. But when I 3bet here it will mean the fish will be slightly more unhappy. He wanted to see a cheap flop by limping in and a lot of people raise and reraise behind him. He has to fold, and does not succeed at what he wants. Yet if I just call here the fish will be happy enough to call and see if he can hit two 8's, I will see the flop 3-ways, even while OOP, there still will be one huge fish in the pot to exploit postflop. And a solid reg with a range I am ahead off.
The positional disadvantage is bad, but keeping the fish in will still make calling here a +EV spot. When I have random trash in these spots, which will happen quite often with this table lineup, I can still exploit the regular a bit by restealing now and then. But just calling here with a decent part of my range will keep the fish in the pot, which is good in itself, and reduces the chance he becomes unhappy by never seeing a flop at all and moving to other tables, or worse, quiting for the day.
The most interesting aspect about the movie was about the person from the quote starting this entry. This world has millions of gambling degenerates who are willing to lose lots of money. Sadly, I am not playing the limits yet where someone ends up crying because he lost 380k dollars to me. I am working on that though.
Almost all the money won by the regulars at FTP at these limits comes from recreational players and small gamblers. Gamblers are people who play expecting to lose, while the regulars are people who profit from their presence.
For instance, my july database which does not include any datamined hands, but only those from tables I were playing at, shows that the total losses made by 4056 different players is $44k. Which equals the total rake paid.
Yet if I change the filter to players who played at least 300 hands at those tables, they did not lose to rake at all. The total profit from those 250 players is about $11k even while over half of them are still fish.
In short, over the last month I've seen recreational players and gamblers donate $55k dollars to the poker community. This means that if that group is so eager to give their money away, I really need to stop making fancy plays vs them and save those for regulars who try to exploit me a bit too often. Why should I not play my hands face-up vs opponents who would not even notice it if I handed them a telescope, and why should I not use exploitable bet sizes vs people who can't spot the difference anyways?
Week 31: MADNESS!
Date: Sun, Jul 27, 2008 Internet
So my last entry I yammered a bit about how cruel July was to me, and all sorts of completely insignificant nonsense like that, but it seems July is actually coming close to becoming quite as hot as all the strippers that borrow her name.
Sadly, before I spoil the results, this entry to my blog is only about the current week, so I have to stick to the plan and focus on that, instead of strippers.
I made an incredibly smart move this week, which is to purchase Holdem Manager. Now before you go thinking this entry will be just one giant Holdem Manager review, you are dead wrong. Considering the sick amounts of hits this blog gets because of people looking for information about Poker EV (and after today, strippers), I will not be responsible for getting one of the two companies bankrupt yet.
At least not tonight.
The reason for not doing so tonight should be quite cliché. I have better things to do this evening. Like watching Nicholas Cage movies.
Now before an observant reader scrolls down and sees the time of this post and thinks out loud (poker players think out loud, blame Techsmith) 'WTF are you doing doing on a sunday evening? Don't you have better things to do than post a lousy blog?!?), the answer to that question should be pretty easy to answer: Yep, as answered above which you have not read if you scrolled down to the bottom already, but I'll be glad to clarify: Nicholas Cage movies have the same quality as movies which involve Sean Connery: They are never bad enough to not be worth watching.
The real reason for watching movies and posting on my blog on a sunday is actually quite simple: 1 sixpack. My stop-loss is set at 4 Heineken. So I won't let myself play today anymore...
To get back on track, July is not as bad as I made her sound. She's just been teasing me a bit. So next time I meet a stripper named July, I'll just think about this week's graph:
Or this week's table:
Even while I have not put in that many hours this week, I think the few I put in were those when I felt I was able to play my A game. Which means not being drunk, distracted, horny, tired or hungry.
The most interesting and incredibly well played pots were some of the dozen of situations where I check-folded some bad flop textures, but posting those in this entry would just bore people, so instead, I'll post some random other hands from this week to keep the readers happy:
Hand 1:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($103.65) | ($145.90) | |
| CO | ($261.95) | ||
| BTN | ($34.55) | ($105.60) | |
| BB | ($146.40) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is SB
Villain in question is a regular at these limits who likes to own the regulars with relentless aggression. I'm a regular too, but dislike to get owned, which changes the metagame between the two of us quite a bit.
His VPIP is 40, PFR 31, attempt to steal 45%. Which are stats that Holdem Manager(TM) shows in the hand replayer without me even asking about them. And when I hold my mouse over his stats in the replayer, it shows that he folds to 3bets 19% of the time, out of 349 hands in july, or rather, out of the 19 times he got 3 bet, which was generally by me.
These are my notes on him:
Does not fold to any of my 3bets, 4bets often
Will check-call flushdraws in 3bet pots
representing hands when IP
OOP will make some large bluffs but won't do anything crazy on rivers without the goods.
leads oesd and continues on turn
So knowing this, I know I will not get him to fold often, but TT is way ahead of his range here, and this screams for a value 3bet.
Even I heard it, so I did.
Flop:
($26, 2 players)Hero bets $16, UTG+1 raises to $34, Hero calls $18
Villain raises me slightly over a minraise here, but this board is not that bad for my range vs his range. There's one overcard, and if he hit that overcard, would he really be stupid enough to raise a hand like AJ here vs my range? Definitely not, so the range I put him on is AJ (like never), air (lots), marginal mid-pair (often) and set (sometimes). Which means that vs his range I'm still ahead, but I cannot get value out of any of his range which I beat here by raising.
Turn:
($94, 2 players)Hero checks, UTG+1 checks
River:
($94, 2 players)Hero checks, UTG+1 goes all-in $99.40, Hero calls $59.10
He checked a blank turn, and bets a second J on the river? I do not think he will be raising a J on the dry flop, not even AJ, which translates into the second J being a blank. Yet what does my hand look like? A marginal pair or perhaps an overpair looking to get to showdown cheap, but definitely not a J. Villain is good enough to realize that, and he'll be 100% correct in this case. So when he shoves this river, he got air or a set. But would he check a set on that turn if he likes money?
Final Pot: $212.20
UTG+1 shows:
Hero shows:
UTG+1 wins $40.30 ( lost -$105.60 )
Hero wins $209.20 ( won +$103.60 )
Hand 2: Same Villain:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| ($138.90) | |||
| UTG+1 | ($254.25) | ||
| CO | ($39.55) | ($104.10) | |
| SB | ($142.10) | ||
| BB | ($100.00) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is BTN
UTG raises to $3.50,
Flop:
($8.50, 2 players)UTG bets $6, Hero calls $6
I absolutely hate raising with a double-gutshot vs a thinking lag. I think hes capable of 3betting AQ etc on these boards should I raise, and my hand is well disguised.
Turn:
($20.50, 2 players)UTG bets $14, Hero raises to $42, UTG folds
Now here I have a mathematical dilemma. My draw is huge, but this player will still be betting unimproved overcards here quite often or marginal pairs, and some draws himself, because he thinks I could be holding a marginal hand/draw myself.
Now vs almost any taggish or standard player I would almost always just call here, because most of the time all my flush and straight outs will be good, and I have a diamond flushdraw on the board I can do something with as well should it hit.
But what vs a player who will not bluff the river should I call here, still does not have a made hand here that often, and will just check-call the river with the best of his range and check-fold all his air on any river unless the board does not change like an extra 3?
Calling here vs a player like that is directly immense EV, but I expect his range to hold so much air still that I actually decided to make a committing raise on this turn thinking it would probably be even more EV because his range would still hold so much air still.
Final Pot: $48.50
Hero wins $74.10 ( won +$22.60 )
UTG lost -$23.50
Hand 3: Another TT:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| ($82.95) | |||
| UTG+1 | ($101.00) | ||
| CO | ($111.20) | ($113.60) | | ($138.55) | ($100.00) | |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is BB
UTG calls $1,
A fish limped, someone with 18/14 yet 40% steal iso raised and a 27/15 coldcalled. The correct decision is about as tough here as choosing between spareribs and tofu.
Rest of the hand does not matter since it was pretty standard for both sides, but I stacked some fish atleast.
Size Matters
Date: Mon, Jul 21, 2008 Internet
I've been silent since my last update. I vaguely remember me describing in the last entry how good July was for me and how juicy the tables were.
My thoughts about the juiciness of July changed a bit because of a downswing peaking at about 15 buyins. Some of the downswing could be credited because of bad luck. Earlier during the month I checked some PokerEV data and it showed I ran about 10 buyins below equity in allin situations, which had a probability of about 16%. So I did run somewhat bad.
PokerEV calculates Sklansky Bucks, but it does a lousy job at calculating Galfond Bucks. Galfond Bucks, G-bucks for short, are about the expected value based on villain's hand range and tendencies. For instance, on the deepstack tables I managed to get KK in vs AA about 3 times. Getting the money in 3 times with kings vs aces will have an expected value of -$384, I ran at -$600 (slightly more losses even since generally I had a larger than 200BB effective stack), so I lost $216 worth of sklansky bucks on those tables.
G-bucks on the other hand were immensely good in those spots, especially vs people who still jam AK and JJ preflop, so those spots were just coolers.
Other than that, I'm really disappointed about my play this month. It's not that I played bad at all, I think I played pretty decent, but I got one huge leak to work on which is the consistency of my plays. I do try to adjust my ranges based on player tendencies well enough, but my bet sizing is way too consistent.
For instance, when playing vs a calling station and I got a strong hand I may bet slightly more than vs a more solid player. This may be fine on the flop, but on the turn and river I noticed after some session reviews my bet sizes are just too consistent vs most kind of players.
When I am playing vs a solid player who check/calls my cbet on an ace-rag-rag board and I hold AK or a set, it's pretty obvious villain is in a check-call mode vs me. Why not bet pot for all 3 streets in spots where I never will be bluffing anyways? But this counts even more vs fish. When I got a decent idea about their hand range, and want to make a value bet, fish won't be paying attention to my bet sizing. Whether I bet $31 in a $39 pot on the river or bet $39 will have absolutely no difference on whether they call or not with a TP-strength hand. So why do I lose value there?
Filtering july's results shows something interesting. If I filter it on the hands where I went to showdown, bet the river, those winnings total at $1,5k worth of winnings in 108 different situations. In the situations where I reach the showdowns and bet the river, I won 73% of the time. I reviewed each of those 108 hands today and realize I probably missed close to $500 worth of value in those spots. Now THAT is a huge leak in my eyes.
On the bright side, even while July has been pretty bad for me, it's not as bad as it sounds. I won only $215 in normal winnings, but when I include the ironman bonus and rakeback, it has been good for about $1100 so far, which is not totally hopeless.
I just realized this entry was completely without any hand histories, so I will make up for it by posting the most interesting hand of the day. It's not the largest pot I won/lost by far, but I think I could have lost a lot of value here by cbetting (and getting called by the fish and bluffed on river) or doing a delayed cbet which would just lead to a fold:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($46.30) | ||
| CO | ($100.00) | ||
| BTN | ($98.50) | ($237.55) | | ($88.90) | |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 5 players) Hero is SB
Villain will not fold his BB often at all, he's a 43% 0.7% aggression fish, folds 23% of the time to cbets, which explains my smaller open from small blind.
Flop:
($6, 2 players)Hero checks, BB checks
I do not like to cbet here. Villain will call with as much as 1 overcard probably, but I could be drawing dead at times aswell. Do I want to check-call the river? No. Will villain check the river down without showdown value should I cbet here and check both turn and river? No. Do I want to bet here and check-call any river? No. Will villain bet this flop without anything? This is the good part: No. So no need to bet for value here and get myself in trouble later on in the hand.
Turn:
($6, 2 players)Hero checks, BB checks
Read flop explanation. A 7 arrived. Will villain bet air/overcards here? Nope. Will he bet a 7? Yep. So this is an easy check again.
River:
($6, 2 players)Hero checks, BB bets $6, Hero calls $6
Did the board change? Nope. Can villain call with worse here? Nope. So no value in betting. Calling stations however do like to try to take pot downs when they suddenly realize their hand is probably no good, but me checking thrice gives them the impression I do not have anything.
Final Pot: $18
Hero shows:
BB shows:
Hero wins $17.10 ( won +$8.10 )
BB lost -$9.00
Back into Action: July
Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet
After leaving June behind me, which is something I do not really mind with the bad start I had starting it on a tilty downswing followed by proceeding the rest of the month putting in way too few hands, June has only been good for a few buyins profit for me.
July on the other hand has started off quite well for me, and the tables seem quite juicy compared to normal, which may be because of everyone trying to earn enough FPP's this month to clear their Ironman bonus.
The most fun hand was vs a Cardrunner's member, who member, who asked me to post the reasoning behind the hand on the CR forums. Atleast, that is my interpretation from his chat, his exact words being "go put thaT ON THE FORUM FISH". Because of that, I were kind enough to oblige, and also decided to post the hand here just in case he happens to miss the specific topic about it:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
4 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Profiles and Stacks:
 | CO | ($131.65) | 14.5/8.2/7.0 (110) | | BTN | ($100.00) | 17.0/15.0/1.3 (100) | Hero | | ($248.45) | 34.9/30.2/3.8 (106) | BB | | ($50.25) | 22.6/12.9/7.0 (62) | |
Sitting to my direct left is another CR member, and a very solid one. Hes not part of this hand since he was sitting out this hand, and my intentions were to leave the table as soon as he showed some interest in my stack (meaning making my life hell).
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 4 players) Hero is SB
Villain in question has taggish stats, has high attempt to steal (atleast over 30%) seems solid but I do not know him that well. I have not 3bet him light that often, and want to see how he responds. With a hand like A6s I generally fold, but because the other CR member was sitting out, all 3 options were available (since I do not fear getting squeezed by the remaining player). I chose to 3bet here though since A6s is a bit too weak to flat with OOP.
Flop:
($26, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN checks
I do not know what kind of hands he'll call me with, but I expect it to be wider than normal because of my own stats (35/30/3.8 with 52% attempt to steal). So here I am somewhat worried about AQ/AJ, but on the other hand, I did hit TP in a 3bet pot. OOP I do not want to bet/fold or bet/call with this hand, so I decide to check. Villain checks behind, which makes it quite unlikely for me that he holds a strong ace here. I do not know if he's capable of checking AQ behind here, but it seems very unlikely to me.
Turn:
($26, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN bets $15, Hero calls $15
Because of his flop check, I expect to be ahead here most of the time unless he holds 99. I still see very little value in betting, and am not certain what to do if I get raised here.
River:
($56, 2 players)Hero bets $12, BTN goes all-in $72.50, Hero calls $60.50
Here I assume I have the best hand, unless he has 99 or hit his flush. I think check-calling is best vs his bluffs, but I am not certain if he'll bluff again in this spot. I also do not like to bet/fold here.
So I decided to make the head-exploding bet here to at least allow him to do something stupid, since my play makes no sense. When I try to induce a bluff, I obviously have to call here.
Final Pot: $201
BTN shows:
Hero shows:
Hero wins $199 ( won +$99 )
BTN lost -$100.00
So, I think my reasoning and play was quite fine in this hand. Because I gave the villain in question some respect I used a bit less straightforward line to keep the pot small and protect myself from bluffs early in the hand, and increased his bluffing range on later streets.
But was this respect for villain justified?
- What was villain representing here?
- What was villain doing at this table with two CR members sitting to his direct left (other CR member is not in HH because he's sitting out)? Obviously this must mean he is quite sure about his ability to outplay both me and the other CR member even while he will be OOP except when he holds the button.
- Why did villain call a 3bet preflop with 79s while only 100BB deep? Again, he must be a great player if he thinks he can play that hand profitably IP in a 3bet pot.
Sure buddy, I'll post it and explain my thought process. Now I dare villain in question to explain his.
Week 25 Update: Running HOT!
Date: Mon, Jun 23, 2008 Internet
Last week I posted an update and I berated myself for not getting in enough hands. This week, I managed to get in even less hands, but damn, I sure managed to run hot while doing so, and think I made very few mistakes.
The position stats are the sickest of all:
I had a VPIP of 38% from the button, and PFR of 33% in that spot. This shows that the tables I played at allowed me to exploit the hell out of position.
I will not be posting the hands of my sunday session vs the Sunday-donks though. I recorded the sunday session without sound, and will probably post a video about it with commentary on Cardrunners when I get time to do so. The session was quite interesting because it shows more about adjusting to game-flow and player tendencies compared to standard optimal lines in certain situations. It also shows some spots where I embrace variance with very marginal holdings because it feels very +EV, and spots where I do the opposite and make some folds which could be perceived as bad/nitty. Overall it should provide enough material for quite an interesting video.
No Respect
Date: Fri, Jun 20, 2008 Internet
Today I again found out why it's pretty stupid to tilt off stacks at FTP, since people are just way too bad at the lower limits (if you table select decently) to really pose much of a problem.
This hand for instance may seem spewy but I'm pretty certain I played it fine.
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
4 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Profiles and Stacks:
| CO | ($71.20) | 28.0/4.0[/1.0 (25) | | Hero | ($149.15) | 33.9/28.9/3.3 (121) | SB | | ($156.15) | 14.5/9.7/4.0 (62) | BB | | ($457.85) | 35.4/28.3/2.1 (99) | |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 4 players) Hero is BTN
At this table I am not really playing that tight. I'm running around 34/29, attempt to steal was around 78%, and even while 9T is a standard open for me here, and a standard fold to a 3-bet, there are a few things to consider here.
I already stepped onto the SB's toes a few times. Not really stepping on them, but more like throwing knives at his toes and hitting. His head was probably about to explode, so the 3-bet here was not that odd. On the other hand, if he makes such a small 3-bet, I'm calling with most of my range. 9To is a bit too weak to call with though, even in position vs a 3bet, so I decided to turn my hand into a bluff since I am quite certain villain's range is huge here because of our history. I decide to 4-bet very small here so he it seems he almost has to call here (even while I want a fold) hoping he sees this as strength and folds his steals.
Flop:
($49, 2 players)SB bets $49, Hero goes all-in $125.15, SB folds
Again something which may seem spewy. Villain pots here, seems pot commited, and I just have an OESD. This seems a standard fold situation. On the other hand, I really cannot think of any hand villain could be potting here for value after I 4bet him PF, so here it's just about hand ranges. What's the whole story of this hand at the moment?
Villain hates my guts. He does not give me credit pf, even while I only steal 78% of the time, and will often decide to make a light 3-bet in this spot.
Villain saw me making a very small 4-bet, which is something he cannot fold to, because he does not want to let a nit like me outplay him, so he calls.
The flop is likely to miss me, if he bets large here he probably expects me to fold most overcard combo's.
Sorry dude, you made a huge mistake here. Would I make such a gay 4-bet preflop with a hand like AK/AQ? Or rather, do I think you expect me to make those raises with those hands? No bloody chance dude.
So taking that into account, I can only see him donkleading potsize on this flop with a hand which has absolutely no showdown value if called (like an underpair). Sadly, underpairs beat me here, so I shove to fold them out.
.
Final Pot: $147
Hero wins $221.15 ( won +$72 )
SB lost -$73.00
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Profiles and Stacks:
| UTG | ($464.25) | 35.4/28.3/2.1 (99) | | CO | ($71.90) | 57.9/36.8/8.0 (19) | Hero | | ($222.90) | 33.9/28.9/3.3 (121) | SB | | ($188.00) | 16.1/12.5/1.0 (56) | BB | | ($100.25) | 25.6/4.7/1.0 (43) | |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 5 players) Hero is BTN
Flop:
($25.50, 2 players)CO checks, Hero checks
Even while I cbet this flop with almost 100% of my range, I do not like to cbet it vs 100% of the villains. Here my image should be something like a total retarded spewmonkey on tilt if villain trusts his stats, and I flop the nuts (TPTK is the nuts when you are a maniac), but sadly, I also hold the ace of hearts here. Which leaves very few hands in villains range to peel one off here, or semibluffraise me with. Because of that, I decided to just check behind here. Another reason to check behind is because my 3-betting range is probably conceived to be pretty huge (even while it isn't, I would only 3-bet him with 74s and better there...).
Turn:
($25.50, 2 players)CO bets $25.50, Hero calls $25.50
villain bets pot while I got the nuts, pretty standard.
River:
($76.50, 2 players)CO goes all-in $34.40, Hero calls $34.40
Villain shoves here for half-pot remaining stack sizes as a bluff. Even when I am on complete monkey tilt I pick better spots to bluff. This shows again how little credit people give you when you got somewhat maniac-donkey-total-drunk statistics at a table.
Final Pot: $145.30
CO shows:
Hero shows:
Hero wins $142.30 ( won +$70.40 )
CO lost -$71.90
This hand was probably the most interesting:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Profiles and Stacks:
| UTG | ($171.00) | 18.1/18.1/5.0 (105) | | Hero | ($146.75) | 21.5/17.0/2.3 (135) |
| CO | ($97.00) | 21.5/15.6/7.0 (135) | |
| BTN | ($246.75) | 29.8/14.5/1.8 (131) | | SB | ($100.00) | 22.2/11.9/0.9 (135) |
| BB | ($105.00) | 17.0 /14.8/6.0 (88) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1
Flop:
($7, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $5.50, SB calls $5.50
My table image here is a bit more normal, but I got enough history with villain to know he gives me very little credit. This is not the best board ever, but still a standard cbet situation.
Turn:
($18, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $13, SB calls $13
I never mind hitting top set, so I am not too shy to put a bit more chips in the middle here.
River:
($44, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $21, SB goes all-in $78.50, Hero calls $57.50
This is where the hand becomes interesting. I know villain gives me little credit on the flop, yet would always raise a flop cbet with a set or straight. He would raise there but would not raise a draw, except his best ones. But if he calls my turn bet, I know he never holds a hand like 67, and 56 he would have played different as well. So if he holds a 6 on this river, it must be because of him holding 66, which also makes no sense since he would fold that to a turn bet. This translates to top set being the nuts here even with 4 to a straight being on the board. I almost bet something like $36 here, trying to get looked up by TP or underpair hands, but was not really certain villain always held a made hand here in this spot, so decided to bet smaller and make it look like a blocking bet. When I make bets like these, I never do so with intention to fold, and here I also got no reason to.
Final Pot: $201
Hero shows:
SB shows:
Hero wins $198 ( won +$98 )
SB lost -$100.00
Largest pot I lost today:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Profiles and Stacks:
| UTG | ($177.00) | 23.8/9.5/1.2 (42) | |
| CO | ($147.10) | 14.5/9.7/4.0 (62) | | BTN | ($200.00) | 35.4/28.3/2.1 (99) |
| SB | ($213.55) | 5.9/5.9/1.0 (17) | | Hero | ($105.00) | 33.9/28.9/3.3 (121) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 5 players) Hero is BB
I obviously gave villain little respect here. He seemed like a total maniac. He played like me a bit. So I 3bet here.
Flop:
($25.50, 2 players)Hero bets $16, BTN calls $16
This is a good board to cbet.
Turn:
($57.50, 2 players)Hero bets $32, BTN goes all-in $171.50, Hero folds
I do not mind the second K arriving on the turn, since it makes it much less likely that villain holds a K here himself. The best part about this spot is that I do not need to bet too much. Even if I just bet half-pot here or something, I can still easily shove the river here should I have a K. Because of that, I get a nice discount on a second bluff, and take it.
Final Pot: $121.50
BTN wins $258 ( won +$58 )
Hero lost -$60.50
WTFrog Do You Think I Have?
Date: Tue, Jun 17, 2008 Internet
I only put in a short session, playing slightly over an hour and putting in slightly over 400 hands. Yet people absolutely gave me no respect at all and tried to treat me like Holland treated Italy and France earlier. Good strategy, but not failing to take one little detail into consideration: I am Dutch.
These were my largest pots for the hour:
• Preflop: Leviathan1 seems a solid aggressive player. I had a quite aggressive image at this table as well and his limp here surprised me a bit. Some fish limped, and he did not make an isolation raise? I had the feeling that if I were going to make an isolation raise myself I'd get slapped in the face by him, so I elected to just limp along in position. Another very aggro player in the BB decides to squeeze here, but his range here should be huge. Even while my hand is not that great, I get decent odds to call and see a flop in position.
• Flop: Villain cbets around pot size here. I do expect him to cbet here with his entire range, but I am not sure about what size he'd use OOP. I have no backdoor draws, but there's a somewhat decent chance my bottom pair is still good here. Even if it's not, I decide to float and see what happens on the turn.
• Turn: So I hit two pair, could still be behind to a few sets and AK but I have to assume vs a very aggro player that I hold the best hand here almost always. When he shoves, I hardly see him doing so with anything which beats me so the call here is standard.
• Preflop: Standard, a minraise here can mean a bunch of things, I do not really care though with a second player in and somewhat nice implied odds.
• Flop: I can't wait to check-fold here.
• Turn: I love free cards. Villain who is not the PFR, but who runs like 41/8, pots this turn. I have little idea about his range here to be honest. He could have the nuts, top set, air, but I am very eager to get the stacks in. I decide to just call though to try to keep the initial PFR in.
• River: I still think I need to raise for value here. I missed out on 0.55 worth of value though.
• I just started at this table, and had no clue what the minraise meant. It could be a draw, set, bluff and I'll be OOP for the rest of the hand. I decided to not fool around and just try to get my chips in the middle. Villain actually just had top pair second kicker here and misplayed it in a pretty terrible way. If hands like these are in the range he'll raise and shove this flop with, I need much less strong hands to continue vs him in the future.
• Another hand vs an unknown who seemed a bit aggressive in the small sample so far. I really dislike how I played this hand though. On the flop I had no clue about his range, so I guessed it could be bluffs, sets, draws, TP etc. I decided to just raise for value here because I had no backdoor draws left. If I held a Q of diamonds, I would just have called. But villain made a very small 4-bet here which screams strength. Correct turn play would probably have been to slam my head into the wall, yet fold regardless since this is rarely a bluff. But I'm a fish so decided to get it in.
Overall I managed to win 3.3 buyins in slightly over an hour, Holland gave Romania the 1-2 Teddy, so nothing to complain about today at all.
Week 24
Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2008 Internet
So why have there been no updates since last sunday a week ago? For the same reason people are silent in non-poker related events: I had nothing to talk about.
I only managed to put in around 6k hands, running at a measly 2.16ptBB/100. Not really something I can brag about on my blog.
One thing I've been wondering about is how I approach my game. I keep making some very high variance plays, probably due to the Fancy Play Syndrome, and a discussion on the Cardrunners forums made me realize the errors of my ways: I should keep the fancy plays for higher limits, bluff much less, and just grind my way up from the toe-itch limits so I can eventually reach the nose-bleed limits.
The hand in question was this one:
Flop: I made a standard cbet here and got called. One thing was certain when facing this player, which is that he does not have two pair here nor TPTK. Turn: I do not want to two-barrel since I expect to get called by his whole range here. So I decide to check, to either get a free card, or to CR him off his marginal hand. The nice thing about CR'ing here is that even if he shoves, I get the correct odds to call. BUT...the equity of my hand would also have allowed me to just check-call here. There was absolutely no need to CR here vs a fish since the pot odds I received were already great, and if I could earn a few more bucks on the river, check-calling here would already have been very +EV, without the variance.
That does not mean I will stop bluffing completely though, nor 3-betting light, though 4-betting light is something I only do now vs people who are really asking for it. I am trying to reduce my light 3-betting frequency when out of position, but when I do so, I do with hands that will make me look like a spewmonkey:
I obviously did not make a value bet on this river even while it's a standard spot to do so, but I really wanted to show down 72o here. Villain will probably give me MUCH less respect when 3-betting vs him when I do so occasionally with total junk, compared to doing so with 56s/33 etc.
Semi-bluffing stays insanely profitable though, and it will stay an important part of my game, be it a check-raise with an underpair (semi-bluffing to 2 outs) on dry boards OOP, but people give me no credit anyways when I have relatively loose stats at a table. If people play so bad at NL100, I got no need to really go fancy, since they'll pay off anyways as long as I show I occasionally make some moves (for much smaller pots):
The difference with this hand compared to the earlier 67s hand is that this is a semi-bluff where I can fold to a shove, AND lack the implied odds since I do not know whether hitting two pair is good here.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Date: Mon, Jun 9, 2008 Internet
Just like any sunday the day starts looking for juicy tables full of fish. And there were tons of them.
This only leads to one problem. When there are like a hundred tables, and like a million fish, why can't I get one of those tables for myself? Every juicy table I manage to find there are atleast 1 or 2 sharks who just don't allow me to bust the fish by myself.
Contrary to the title, I actually did quite decently. Managed to put in around 3k hands, won 2.4 buyins and ended 23rd in a freeroll donkament from my Rakeback site, which sadly only earned me $55.
It was one of those days where KK runs into AA from half-stack fish constantly, sets do not hold up over half the time, AA loses a bunch of times after getting most the money in good, and the large bluffs never seem to work. You know what I'm talking about, those days are sundays.
There were quite some interesting hands but the most interesting ones were vs other cardrunners members.
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($100.50) | ||
| UTG+1 | ($101.50) | ||
| CO | ($316.30) | ($100.00) | |
| SB | ($112.20) | ($101.50) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is BB
Villain in question is a CR member, is very solid and observant. He probably also knows who I am, yet that didn't stop him from attacking the blinds almost every time he was on the CO or button. I do not mind that, except when I am the BB. I expect him to know I will 3bet him often because of that, so I chose to do so at first with a polarized range to see if he'll start 4-betting me or calling in position.
Flop:
($25.50, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN checks
Not a bad flop, but not one I can cbet. Villain will probably be raising me here with tons of hands, regardless of if he actually hit it. So I decided to just check, call a flop bet and check raise all-in on most turns. Villain checked behind though which tells me he has a hand with showdown value.
Turn:
($25.50, 2 players)Hero bets $17, BTN calls $17
Now I got a pair + flushdraw, and I do not expect him to bluffraise me here. If he was going to bluff, he was going to do so on the flop. So I just lead out.
River:
($59.50, 2 players)Hero goes all-in $72, BTN calls $70.50
On the river, what will villain be thinking? I checked the flop on a drawy board, so I never have an overpair. Both the turn and river are 'blanks' so if he was ahead on the flop he must still be. Also, he must realize I know he has a hand with showdown value, so something worse than AQ, probably a lower pair. I decided my best play would be to just shove, since that line screams bluff.
Final Pot: $200.50
Hero shows:
BTN shows:
Hero wins $199 ( won +$97.50 )
BTN lost -$100.00
Hand 2 vs same villain. This hand is more interesting because villain knows exactly what kind of hand I have and makes a great play vs the wrong opponent:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($112.25) | ||
| UTG+1 | ($114.30) | ||
| CO | ($299.80) | ($101.50) | |
| SB | ($100.50) | ($189.00) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is BB
TT is a monster vs villain's range, but I do not like to 3-bet it at this time because of the last hand. Villain will probably not fold to a 3bet, and may start 4-betting me to put me in a tough spot, especially after seeing me 3bet him with 63s earlier.
Flop:
($7.50, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN bets $5, Hero calls $5
My hand is generally ahead on that board but vs this player I am not checkraising there. It's a good board to CR with hands like sets, marginal pairs which include a gutshot and perhaps some random hands without much equity here, like KQ. But I do not think doing so with hands like TT and JJ is optimal play vs this villain. It will be tough OOP vs him, but that's no reason to turn my hand into a bluff. So I just check-called.
Turn:
($17.50, 2 players)Hero checks, BTN checks
I check here hoping to keep the pot small and villain checks behind. I think he never holds an overpair if he checks here, and obviously also never a set. That means my hand must still be good.
River:
($17.50, 2 players)Hero bets $14, BTN raises to $45, Hero calls $31
I make a value bet on the blank river and villain decides to make my life hell by making a substantial raise here. But what is villain representing here after checking the turn?
How does my hand look to villain? I called him OOP preflop, which can mean multiple things except a strong overpair. I check-called the flop, which implies I either have a weak pair or a draw. So when I bet the river here, how strong could my hand possibly be?
Villain's river raise here is not bad because he knows the strength of my hand, but he should realize his line makes no sense vs players who will be thinking about their hands as well. So after raising here the only hands he can represent here are dueces or bluffs.
Final Pot: $107.50
Hero shows:
BTN shows:
Hero wins $104.50 ( won +$51 )
BTN lost -$53.50
Hand 3, this one is vs another cardrunners member:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($100.00) | ($100.00) | |
| CO | ($100.00) | ($135.60) | |
| SB | ($99.00) | ||
| BB | ($81.50) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is BTN
This villain is also quite aggressive preflop, and instead of stealing my blinds constantly, this one keeps stealing my button, which is even worse. vs most aggro players I would 3-bet here with a hand like this, but villain knows who I am, knows I could be 3betting him light, and could possibly do something annoying like 4-betting me here. So I elect to just call. It's my button after all.
Flop:
($8.50, 2 players)UTG+1 bets $6, Hero calls $6
I totally miss the flop, it's a dry one, and vs a solid player I do not really like bluffraising here. If I raise I am representing 33, 44 or the nut flush draw. I would also be raising KQ here, but villain probably does not know that. But it's still my button, so I call.
Turn:
($20.50, 2 players)UTG+1 bets $15, Hero calls $15
Another K arrives making it less likely for villain to hold a K here. But he also knows that I could be floating the flop with some random junk so decides to 2-barrel me. Standard play here is to fold, but villain may still have total air, so I call again. Even while I do not have anything yet, I still have the button and I'm not giving it up yet...
River:
($50.50, 2 players)UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $36, UTG+1 folds
Villain checks, and because he's solid, I know he will be inducing bluffs from me here with hands like JJ/QQ/AA perhaps even TT. I do not expect him to fold many made hands to a river bet. So I make a small enough bet here to get a fold out of hands like 22 or ace high, but large enough so 88 and 99 will probably also fold.
Final Pot: $50.50
Hero wins $84 ( won +$23.50 )
UTG+1 lost -$24.50
6 Tabling
Date: Sat, Jun 7, 2008 Internet
I've been 6-tabling for the last few days, and it really is addicting. The first thing is that when I have little time to play I can easily put in quite some hands, and the second thing is that I can play slightly more straightforward.
It actually is quite more relaxing as well since the variance seems lower. Today I managed to get AK allin vs KK, and get into a 3-way allin with a set vs overplayed aces and an OESD and lost both of them within a 2 minute timeframe. Oddly it didn't seem to bother me at all since I were running over the other tables quite well.
And because I'm slightly less prone to make donkey moves because I am occupied on more tables, I can exploit the other people who like to make donkey moves vs me. I simply lack the time to make too many stupid mistakes.
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($312.05) | ||
| CO | ($165.85) | ($131.45) | | ($128.90) | BB | | ($130.90) | |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 5 players) Hero is BTN
Flop:
($21, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $14, SB raises to $33, Hero calls $19
Turn:
($87, 2 players)SB goes all-in $85.90, Hero calls $85.90
River:
($258.80, 2 players)Final Pot: $258.80
Hero shows:
SB shows:
Hero wins $255.80 ( won +$126.90 )
SB lost -$128.90
Preflop call was quite standard for me. Villain liked to 3bet light and uses pretty bad 3bet sizing OOP.
Also cutting down on 4-bet bluffing preflop and making too many large bluffs postflop seems to lower my variance a bit, though I do like to make a somewhat spewy bluff at times when I think it's neutral EV but great for my image:
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| UTG | ($49.00) | ($128.60) | |
| CO | ($74.60) | ||
| BTN | ($23.50) | ($168.50) | |
| BB | ($17.90) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1
Flop:
($24, 2 players)SB bets $16, Hero calls $16
Turn:
($56, 2 players)SB bets $36, Hero goes all-in $101.10, SB folds
Final Pot: $128
Hero wins $190.10 ( won +$61.50 )
SB lost -$63.50
Another reason to like 6-tabling is that when running pretty good (slightly over 12ptBB/100 in the last few days) that translates to $135 per hour excluding rakeback. Even with half that winrate, which should be sustainable, it's nothing to complain about.
I did not really tighten up that much preflop though, still running around 23/18 with an attempt to steal of around 35%. I did notice though that my postflop game has been simplified a bit, and most plays I make which differ from standard ABC poker is just because of known oppo