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crazy eights    Friends

Bitches, obviously.

Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Internet

Just fold queens.

PokerStars Game #18760850768: Tournament #95407544, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/07/12 - 07:39:07 (ET)
Table '95407544 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: jeckill1998 (3115 in chips)
Seat 4: Priestkillah (3665 in chips)
Seat 7: Spades10K (3080 in chips)
Seat 8: FR Vessant (3640 in chips)
Spades10K: posts small blind 100
FR Vessant: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qc Qs]
jeckill1998: raises 200 to 400
Priestkillah: folds
Spades10K: calls 300
FR Vessant: raises 3240 to 3640 and is all-in
jeckill1998: calls 2715 and is all-in
Spades10K: folds
Uncalled bet (525) returned to FR Vessant
*** FLOP *** [4d Ah 7s]
*** TURN *** [4d Ah 7s] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [4d Ah 7s 8h] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FR Vessant: shows [Qc Qs] (a pair of Queens)
jeckill1998: shows [Ks Ad] (a pair of Aces)
jeckill1998 collected 6630 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6630 | Rake 0
Board [4d Ah 7s 8h 3s]
Seat 2: jeckill1998 showed [Ks Ad] and won (6630) with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: Priestkillah (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Spades10K (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: FR Vessant (big blind) showed [Qc Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens

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Luckercoaster going down

Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Internet

And the next tourney:

PokerStars Game #18760286864: Tournament #95407294, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/12 - 06:46:38 (ET)s)
Seat 3: blackj21 (3250 in chips)
Table '95407294 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: FR Vessant (1480 in chips)
Seat 2: Priestkillah (1470 in chip
Seat 4: ziggy765 (1430 in chips)
Seat 5: riera (1480 in chips)
Seat 6: kacof (1330 in chips)
Seat 7: jojobanjo (1580 in chips)
Seat 9: Grollub (1480 in chips)
Grollub: posts small blind 10
FR Vessant: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [4c 3c]
Priestkillah: folds
blackj21: folds
ziggy765: raises 20 to 40
riera: folds
kacof: calls 40
jojobanjo: calls 40
Grollub: folds
FR Vessant: calls 20
*** FLOP *** [6d 7s 5d]
FR Vessant: checks
ziggy765: checks
kacof: checks
jojobanjo: bets 85
FR Vessant: raises 235 to 320
ziggy765: folds
kacof: folds
jojobanjo: calls 235
*** TURN *** [6d 7s 5d] [Kh]
FR Vessant: bets 700
jojobanjo: raises 520 to 1220 and is all-in
FR Vessant: calls 420 and is all-in

He has K6 and has four outs.

Uncalled bet (100) returned to jojobanjo
*** RIVER *** [6d 7s 5d Kh] [Ks]

That's one of them.

PokerStars Game #18760308126: Tournament #95406241, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/12 - 06:48:42 (ET)
Table '95406241 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: LuceBoston (1155 in chips)
Seat 2: alfiwads (1375 in chips)
Seat 3: jfcez (1675 in chips)
Seat 4: Senor 6 (1565 in chips)
Seat 5: JonnyTurbo84 (1450 in chips)
Seat 6: eriddle87 (1670 in chips)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (1325 in chips)
Seat 8: NYCBoro fc (1765 in chips)
Seat 9: Sr. DingDong (1520 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts small blind 25
NYCBoro fc: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qd Qs]

Well, that's a good hand, right?


Sr. DingDong: folds
LuceBoston: folds
alfiwads: raises 100 to 150
jfcez: folds
Senor 6: folds
JonnyTurbo84: folds
eriddle87: calls 150
FR Vessant: calls 125

Be a bit trappy. Look for an undercard flop.

NYCBoro fc: folds
*** FLOP *** [6c 8d 9d]

There it is.


FR Vessant: bets 350
alfiwads: raises 875 to 1225 and is all-in
eriddle87: folds
FR Vessant: calls 825 and is all-in

He has KK. Nice.

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On the luckercoaster

Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Internet

This is how bad it can be. You just want to shoot someone when this happens. This is two tables simultaneously.

PokerStars Game #18760039883: Tournament #95403543, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2008/07/12 - 06:22:23 (ET)
Table '95403543 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: Will Funk (950 in chips)
Seat 4: pgatiger (3265 in chips)
Seat 5: szwerg (3750 in chips)
Seat 6: FR Vessant (2390 in chips)
Seat 8: Placebo T (3145 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts small blind 75
Placebo T: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ac Jc]
Will Funk: folds
pgatiger: raises 450 to 600
szwerg: folds
FR Vessant: calls 525

He's been sort of medium, so I call. I'm not that keen on it, but we'll take a flop and see.

I've played really well up to now, feeling my oats, on top form.

Placebo T: folds
*** FLOP *** [4d Jd 8s]

Nice.

FR Vessant: checks

I go for the checkraise.
pgatiger: checks

No cbet. Most players would bet there but a timid type might check behind AK.

*** TURN *** [4d Jd 8s] [8c]
FR Vessant: bets 750

So I put in a solid bet with my top pair.

pgatiger: calls 750

I'm not too worried by his call. He can have a diamond draw, a pair lower than jacks, a big ace that thinks I'm bluffing.

I will obviously shove most, if not all, rivers.

*** RIVER *** [4d Jd 8s 8c] [4s]
FR Vessant: bets 1040 and is all-in

That's a brick, and has the benefit of making two pair on board, so a lot of big aces might call on suspicion.

pgatiger: calls 1040
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FR Vessant: shows [Ac Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Eights)
pgatiger: shows [Jh Js] (a full house, Jacks full of Eights)


WTF. You have to be pretty unlucky to run into the case jacks.

But yeah, I'm unlucky:


PokerStars Game #18760052346: Tournament #95403541, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2008/07/12 - 06:23:36 (ET)
Table '95403541 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 6: Priestkillah (7590 in chips)
Seat 7: Ronny Lexus (3245 in chips)
Seat 9: FR Vessant (2665 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts small blind 75
Priestkillah: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Jh 9h]
Ronny Lexus: raises 300 to 450
FR Vessant: calls 375


This guy has been super aggro threehanded, so I'm going to call in the hopes of flopping good and stacking him.

Priestkillah: folds
*** FLOP *** [9s 3h 4h]

That's flopping good in anyone's money. Top pair and a flush draw.

FR Vessant: bets 2215 and is all-in

Come on!

Ronny Lexus: calls 2215

YES! He has Ts4s. Terrible, terrible call, obv. Now he has two tens and two fours to make him a winner.

*** TURN *** [9s 3h 4h] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [9s 3h 4h 5s] [Ts]

Oh.

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Lesson: Questions and answers

Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Internet

Okay, here are some answers to Father Luke's questions. It's easier to make a post out of them.

1. ICM

That's one way to understand ICM. Basically, it's like this. If the winner took the whole prizepool, your chips would have a linear value: in a $10 tourney, 1500 chips would be worth $10 and 13500 would be worth $900. You could evaluate actions simply by asking whether they increased your chips on average. But we don't play winner-take-all tourneys very often; we play tourneys that pay three prizes. The key point is that the top prize is only half the prizepool, so the guy who gets all the chips, he only gets half the money. So the relationship between chips and money is not linear, and we need a model of our chips' value.

What the ICM does is figure out what the stack you currently have, in relation to the other stacks, is worth. So what it does is assume that everyone has the same skill and will be affected equally by the vagaries of luck (which has the effect of making the tourney a lottery, in which bigger stacks have better chances of winning and smaller stacks worse, simply because on average the luck will even out, so having more chips will directly mean winning more). For each stack, the ICM works out how often it will win, and then how often it will be second in the case of each other player winning, and then how often it will be third in the case of each other combination of first and second. (This is why you need a computer program to figure it out: that's a hella lot of calculations.) Actually, it's calculated by taking out the winning stack and then calculating your chances of winning what is in effect a new tourney for a new prize.

Each hand affects your stack's value. It will change even if everyone folds, because the BB will gain the small blind's halfbet, making him slightly more likely to win, and changing your equity because every change in others' stacks affects how often you place. Even a change of one chip will affect you in a tiny way!

To help you understand, use this site: http://www.chillin411.com/icmcalc.php

a. Give Player 1 through Player 9 1500 chips.
b. Hit calculate ICM. You can see that everyone's equity is 0.1111. This is 1/9, and if you look under each player, you can see why: everyone has an equal chance of filling every spot (this isn't true in a real tourney of course, because you don't have equal skill).
c. Give Player 9 0 chips and increase Player 1 to 3000 chips. This is what happens when Player 1 doubles up through Player 9.
d. Hit calculate ICM. Now Player 1's chances of winning are double. (Look underneath his name and it says 0.222 for first, which is 2/9. He takes Player 2's chance of winning. But look at his ICM equity. It is not .222. Why? Because he is not twice as likely to be second! There are now eight players, and he is 2/9 to finish first. When he finishes first, someone else must come second. Do you see? The other players share Player 1's surplus minor places. In a winner-take-all tourney, Player 1 doubles the value of his stack, because there are no other prize places to be filled. But in a normal STT, he cannot double his chances of winning all three places, because someone else has to come second and third. He has taken all Player 9's chances of winning (his chances of first go from .111 to .222, but he can't take all his chances of coming second.

2. Push/fold at <10BB

The BB is the big blind, the forced bet that one player makes each round. You begin at t20, which means that the player in the big blind pays 20 chips. Your stack is 1350, so you have 67.5BB.

As the game progresses, the blinds rise. With luck, your stack gets bigger, but even if does, you will have fewer BBs each time the blinds rise. If it's t50, and you still have 1350 chips, you have 27BB. If it's t100, and you have 1350 chips, you have 13.5BB. You have the same chips, and if everyone was still in, and still had the same stack, you'd have the same dollar equity too. But the rising blinds change everything quickly. Each orbit (round of everyone paying the blinds) costs 1.5BB (more when the antes are introduced). That's not too painful when you have 67.5BB, making only tiny changes in your equity, but it hurts when you have few BB, because the amount you are losing not only costs you a lot of equity but brings you closer to being "blinded out"--reaching the point at which paying the blinds leaves you with no chips at all.

You'll become adept at working out how many BB you have (it's important to us), and it's easy enough. If it's t100, you can take the last two figures off your stack and that's basically how many BB you have: 1400 chips is 14BB. If it's t200, you can do the same and halve the result. The same stack would be 7BB.

There are two technical reasons for saying your only play is shove or fold under 10BB. The first is that you want to increase your "fold equity". If you raise, everyone will fold some of the time, and you will win the blinds. Which is cool. We're always happy to increase our stack with no risk of being busted. If you shove, there is more chance everyone folds. Your fold equity is (increase in equity if everyone folds) x (chance everyone folds). It's usually increased if you shove because there's more chance of everyone's folding. Sometimes, you have to do the "wrong" thing because when it works it will preserve your fold equity. (The kind of thing I mean is to take a shove when it's -EV because if you don't, you will in the next couple of hands have to pay the blinds, diminishing your chances of folding everyone out next time you shove).

The other reason is that if you make a standard raise, and someone shoves, you will be priced in to call. Say you have 10BB in the cutoff. You raise to 3BB and the BB puts you all in. You are now asked to call a bet of 7BB to win 13.5BB (the 3BB you've already put in plus the 10BB the BB has put in plus the 0.5BB the SB paid). That's nearly 2 to 1. It's pretty unlikely you have a hand that isn't better than 2 to 1 against the BB's range, so folding would be a mathematical mistake. We try to avoid them. But we don't want to call for all our chips if we can help it. In an STT, we want to avoid confrontation.

3. When to call shoves

No. If the EV is more than the EV for folding, you should call. But it's the EV in dollars, not chips. You should be calling shoves very rarely because of your strong awareness that the chips you win are not worth the same as the chips you lose.

4. Ranges and equity

Say your opponent shoves. What does he have? Well, you know he has a particular hand but you cannot know which one. So what can you do? Well, you can work out which hands he might have. (Figuring this out is one of the hardest skills to acquire in STTs, and it's very valuable.) The hands someone might have given any particular action are his "range". Because we are maximising our wins over the long run, we try to make the correct play in each spot, because that will give us the greatest win when we average out how we did over the long run. So this time he as 87s, and we have a certain amount of equity against that, but next time he might have ATo, and we have a different amount of equity against that. But we make the play that makes most money against both. It might make more against 87s and less against ATo and another play might make more against ATo and less against 87s, but we don't know which he has. So we play against the whole range.

What do I mean by "equity"? It's just a fancy word for your chances. We analyse poker hands with "point in time" calculations, so we give hands a value at the point of decision. The guy shoves. You have a certain hand. If you call, you're going to either win or lose. Say he covers you. You will either double up or be busted. Your probabilities for this hand are of course 1 and 0 (1 = you win, 0 = you lose). It depends what you both have and how the board runs out. But you can't read the future, so you don't know which probability you have. What you can do is work out, if you ran it a billion times, what your chances are. A billion is probably enough to work out your "real" chances (as the number of trials increases, you get ever closer, so that at infinity trials, you'd know exactly what your chances are). You aren't going to be in this spot a billion times, but you play as though you were. (If you've read boots' comments, you'll perhaps see that this is what he disparages in my method: he focuses on the truth that I am making a decision that has only two outcomes as though it had a billion. I say that without knowledge which of the two outcomes will occur, I must make my decision according to which is most likely, and risk the bad outcome when the likelihood is that I increase the value of my stack, even though with any given decision, I will not increase it by the average amount I consider, but by either of the two extremes. Such is probability though.)

So when I say "You have to put your opponent on a range of hands (. . .) calculate your equity against (that range)", I mean:

a. Decide which hands your opponent is likely to have pushed. These generally form a range, and mostly for convenience we count them from the top down in percentiles. We say "he's pushing the top 10%" to mean he pushes the strong hands that on average do the best against a "random hand".
b. Work out how you fare against that whole range, rather than against any particular hand in it, over enough trials (running out of the board) to approximate your "real" chances.

We do this using software, because calculating it is very difficult. You can use lookup tables to figure out your chances against percentage ranges. (I have one that a friend gave me, which saved me the work I was doing on figuring it out with PokerStove.)

PokerStove is useful for calculating your chances against ranges. SNG Wiz calculates how your dollar equity will change against ranges.

The bottom line is, you do it against ranges because poker is a game of incomplete information: you don't know what cards your villain has. But you can use your skill at assembling information to figure out what cards he might have. It's the same at any point in a game. You interpret bets and calls according to the player. Each is conveying information, which you hope to be able to use.

5. Shoving vs calling


This is how a "pushbot" strategy works. Grasp this and you are on the road to becoming good at STTs.

When you push, three things can happen. Either everyone folds, or someone calls and you win, or someone calls and you lose.

When you call, only two things can happen. You either win or you lose.

So when you shove, so long as all the players have a range that is smaller than any two cards, sometimes you will win the blinds without contest. That increases your equity without risk. When called, you will then put your hand up against his hand, and you will have some chance of doubling up and increasing your equity that way.

Let's say we are in the small blind and we are shoving 10BB into the big blind. He also has about 10BB. He will call with the top 20% of hands (for our purposes here, we're assuming we know exactly what his calling range is--20% is on the loose side and most players will call a bit tighter, but this guy has told us that he will call with the top 20%). If we ran it a hundred times, 80 of those times, we would simply win the blinds. The other 20, we would be up against a top 20% hand. But whatever we hold, we have some chance of winning. Even 72o, the worst hand, has equity against AA, the best, simply because there are boards like K7743 and 8725Q.

As it happens, you should shove 72 in that spot, because the 80 times he folds increase your equity enough to make up for the 20 times you are called and mostly lose. If you had 20BB, you would have to fold, because you have more at stake and do not win enough when he folds.

But if you call a shove, you gain no risk-free chips. So you must beat his range sufficiently to make the EV of calling greater than your EV would have been if you had just folded. (Again, your actual equity will either increase by up to 1.8x or be reduced to 0, but you don't know which will happen. In effect, you work this out by solving this equation: (chances of winning x equity when you win) - (equity if you just fold). If it's greater than 0, you should call. But you need to be a pretty big favourite, usually, for it to be greater than 0.)

So don't think of it as "gambling" on shoves, because it's completely the opposite. When you shove you have fold equity: remember, the increase in your equity times the chance that everyone folds, as well as hand equity if called. Getting others to fold doesn't require gambling. It's risk-free gain the times they fold. If you call a shove, you cannot gain fold equity.

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Video

Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Internet

So I made a video, and after much cuntsing around, I've managed to make it small enough to upload:

http://rapidshare.com/files/128834616/4x10s.zip

It's not always easy to see the bet sizes or stacks, but you can at least hear me droning on and can laugh along with me as I suck out time and again. Trust me, the best lesson you're ever going to learn in poker is how to win when you're miles behind.

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Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitches

Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet

This is now getting beyond a joke.

PokerStars Game #18730633755: Tournament #95246525, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/10 - 22:06:45 (ET)
Table '95246525 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: mrdrew34 (1230 in chips)
Seat 2: Theire (2065 in chips)
Seat 3: goalbyrick (1825 in chips)
Seat 4: Tiagostuve (990 in chips)
Seat 5: Reb3186 (1370 in chips)
Seat 6: fgrthodds (1675 in chips)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (1335 in chips)
Seat 8: garsand (1425 in chips)
Seat 9: alain97228 (1585 in chips)
alain97228: posts small blind 25
mrdrew34: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qd Qh]
Theire: calls 50
goalbyrick: folds
Tiagostuve: folds
Reb3186: folds
fgrthodds: raises 200 to 250
FR Vessant: raises 1085 to 1335 and is all-in
garsand: folds
alain97228: folds
mrdrew34: folds
Theire: folds
fgrthodds: calls 1085
*** FLOP *** [2h Kd 5h]
*** TURN *** [2h Kd 5h] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [2h Kd 5h Ac] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fgrthodds: shows [Ad Ks] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
FR Vessant: shows [Qd Qh] (a pair of Queens)
fgrthodds collected 2795 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2795 | Rake 0
Board [2h Kd 5h Ac 9c]
Seat 1: mrdrew34 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Theire folded before Flop
Seat 3: goalbyrick folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Tiagostuve folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Reb3186 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: fgrthodds showed [Ad Ks] and won (2795) with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 7: FR Vessant showed [Qd Qh] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 8: garsand (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: alain97228 (small blind) folded before Flop

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Tilting

Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet

This is what you have to guard against when you take a few bad beats. You start just not wanting to be beat.


PokerStars Game #18730142035: Tournament #95246525, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/10 - 21:42:26 (ET)
Table '95246525 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: mrdrew34 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Theire (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: goalbyrick (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: Tiagostuve (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Reb3186 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: fgrthodds (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: garsand (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: alain97228 (1500 in chips)
Theire: posts small blind 10
goalbyrick: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Jd Js]
Tiagostuve: folds
Reb3186: folds
fgrthodds: folds
FR Vessant: raises 60 to 80

Standard raise with JJ early.

garsand: folds
alain97228: folds
mrdrew34: folds
Theire: calls 70
goalbyrick: folds
*** FLOP *** [6d 2h 4h]
Theire: checks
FR Vessant: bets 120
Theire: calls 120

I don't mind being called because he's pretty unlikely to have me beat here, and quite likely to have hit the flop in some way.

*** TURN *** [6d 2h 4h] [7h]

Not a good card for me obviously.

Theire: checks
FR Vessant: checks

I check behind for pot control.

*** RIVER *** [6d 2h 4h 7h] [3s]
Theire: bets 380
FR Vessant: calls 380

And should fold here. I'm obviously beaten. But I don't want to be.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Theire: shows [5h Ah] (a flush, Ace high)

Awful call preflop. Not so bad on the flop but he should raise mostly.

FR Vessant: mucks hand
Theire collected 1180 from pot

***

Same player.

PokerStars Game #18730251657: Tournament #95246525, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/10 - 21:47:51 (ET)
Table '95246525 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: mrdrew34 (1810 in chips)
Seat 2: Theire (1930 in chips)
Seat 3: goalbyrick (1450 in chips)
Seat 4: Tiagostuve (1470 in chips)
Seat 5: Reb3186 (1470 in chips)
Seat 6: fgrthodds (1540 in chips)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (890 in chips)
Seat 8: garsand (1480 in chips)
Seat 9: alain97228 (1460 in chips)
garsand: posts small blind 10
alain97228: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [As 3s]
mrdrew34: folds
Theire: calls 20
goalbyrick: folds
Tiagostuve: calls 20
Reb3186: folds
fgrthodds: folds
FR Vessant: calls 20
garsand: calls 10
alain97228: checks
*** FLOP *** [8c Ad Tc]
garsand: checks
alain97228: checks
Theire: checks
Tiagostuve: checks
FR Vessant: bets 80

Hope to take it down, but basically betting to protect my hand against the draws that are out there.

garsand: folds
alain97228: folds
Theire: calls 80

Fish can have anything though. His range includes tons of draws, so we'll see what turn brings.

Tiagostuve: folds
*** TURN *** [8c Ad Tc] [2d]

That's a pretty safe card.

Theire: bets 40

Oh dear. I'm probably behind whatever the fish is betting here. Maybe Ax?


FR Vessant: calls 40

But the odds are so good I have to call.

*** RIVER *** [8c Ad Tc 2d] [Qc]
Theire: checks
FR Vessant: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Theire: shows [Ac Ah] (three of a kind, Aces)

wat

Absolutely speechless.

***

PokerStars Game #18730206844: Tournament #95245976, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/10 - 21:45:38 (ET)
Table '95245976 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Yatimoviaz (2890 in chips)
Seat 2: PianoPro (1370 in chips)
Seat 3: duval76 (1450 in chips)
Seat 4: Purjus (1330 in chips)
Seat 5: FR Vessant (1450 in chips)
Seat 6: spideylives2 (1440 in chips)
Seat 8: gary319 (2110 in chips)
Seat 9: MagyarSHU (1460 in chips)
PianoPro: posts small blind 10
duval76: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qh Ac]
Purjus: calls 20
FR Vessant: calls 20

Purjus is reasonably tight, so I limp behind.

gary319 said, "figured"
spideylives2: raises 20 to 40

Retarded minraise. This guy sucks. I've played him before.

gary319: folds
MagyarSHU: folds
Yatimoviaz: calls 40
PianoPro: folds
duval76: folds
Purjus: calls 20
FR Vessant: calls 20
*** FLOP *** [Tc 2d 6h]

Not a great flop but unlikely to have hit retard.

Purjus: checks
FR Vessant: checks
spideylives2: bets 60

Looks like a cbet, so I'll float.

Yatimoviaz: folds
Purjus: folds
FR Vessant: calls 60
*** TURN *** [Tc 2d 6h] [3s]
FR Vessant: checks
spideylives2: bets 100

Still doesn't look like he has anything.

FR Vessant: calls 100
*** RIVER *** [Tc 2d 6h 3s] [2c]
FR Vessant: checks
spideylives2: bets 260

Erm. Maybe he does though?

FR Vessant: calls 260

Naaaaaaah.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
spideylives2: shows [Ah 2h] (three of a kind, Deuces)

I think that if you are going to minraise with that shit, the least the poker gods can do is have a Q come on the flop and let you bust yourself.

***

Luckily, bad players will always do their best to get you back into it:

PokerStars Game #18730380497: Tournament #95245976, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/10 - 21:54:11 (ET)
Table '95245976 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Yatimoviaz (2990 in chips)
Seat 2: PianoPro (1300 in chips)
Seat 3: duval76 (1460 in chips)
Seat 4: Purjus (1245 in chips)
Seat 5: FR Vessant (930 in chips)
Seat 6: spideylives2 (2355 in chips)
Seat 8: gary319 (2230 in chips)
Seat 9: MagyarSHU (990 in chips)
PianoPro: posts small blind 15
duval76: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ac Ad]
Purjus: calls 30
FR Vessant: raises 120 to 150

Not my standard raise but I want to deny Purjus setmining odds. I think it's okay anyway, because if they call 120, they won't fold for the other 30.

spideylives2: folds
gary319: folds
MagyarSHU: folds
Yatimoviaz: folds
PianoPro: folds
duval76: folds
Purjus: calls 120
*** FLOP *** [9s Kd 4d]
Purjus: bets 1095 and is all-in

Well, you can do one of two things here. He's a semitight, winning player (although marginally so), so he should have KK/99/44 here, and you could make a hero fold.

Or you can assume that the reason he's not winning all that much is that he makes completely retarded plays (like our friend duval), and snap it off.

Who am I kidding? I am never folding AA when it's an overpair, particularly not on a K high board (which he can have hit) and doubly not when there's a flush draw there. I snapcalled.

He shows 22.

Nice bluff, dude.

FR Vessant: calls 780 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (315) returned to Purjus
*** TURN *** [9s Kd 4d] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [9s Kd 4d Qd] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Purjus: shows [2s 2c] (a pair of Deuces)
FR Vessant: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
FR Vessant collected 1905 from pot

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Damn duval

Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet

Here's a great start to the day.

PokerStars Game #18729018817: Tournament #95234941, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/07/10 - 20:46:53 (ET)
Table '95234941 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 3: carl carson (6425 in chips)
Seat 4: duval76 (4260 in chips)
Seat 6: FR Vessant (2815 in chips)
carl carson: posts small blind 100
duval76: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Jd Qh]
FR Vessant: raises 300 to 500

Reasonable to raise this.

carl carson: calls 400
duval76: calls 300

Oh dear. Don't want to be called in two places.

*** FLOP *** [Qd 6s Jh]

Superb flop though.

carl carson: bets 600

Brilliant. I will obviously be raising. I am looking at the pot, working out whether I should shove, when...

duval76: raises 3160 to 3760 and is all-in
FR Vessant: calls 2315 and is all-in

Snapcall. He shows Q9. Terrible really. He is drawing dead to running cards, two 9s or K, T in either order.
carl carson: folds
Uncalled bet (1445) returned to duval76
*** TURN *** [Qd 6s Jh] [Ks]

Runner.

*** RIVER *** [Qd 6s Jh Ks] [Th]

Runner.

Oh well. I was only a 50/1 favourite.

Believe it or not, it gets easier to bear beats like that.

***

Same guy.


PokerStars Game #18729899960: Tournament #95240601, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2008/07/10 - 21:30:18 (ET)
Table '95240601 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: leosaye (2090 in chips)
Seat 3: duval76 (1340 in chips)
Seat 4: FR Vessant (1705 in chips)
Seat 5: mago23 (1860 in chips)
Seat 6: Québecois111 (2155 in chips)
Seat 9: Croustillant (4350 in chips)
duval76: posts small blind 50
FR Vessant: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [8c As]
mago23: folds
Québecois111: folds
Croustillant: folds
leosaye: folds
duval76: raises 1240 to 1340 and is all-in

I put him on a wide range here.

FR Vessant: calls 1240

So I call.

He has QJ. His play stinks. Again.

*** FLOP *** [6c 8s Js]

OMG.

*** TURN *** [6c 8s Js] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [6c 8s Js 4s] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
duval76: shows [Jc Qs] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
FR Vessant: shows [8c As] (a pair of Eights)
FR Vessant said, "sigh"
duval76 collected 2680 from pot
FR Vessant said, "sucked out on me again"

Yep.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Bad 3

Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2008 Internet

Not so bad for me, but illustrations of how bad the players you're up against are:

No real read on this villain, but he's played two or three hands so far.

PokerStars Game #18566364285: Tournament #94376096, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/03 - 22:31:48 (ET)
Table '94376096 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: liz_wins (1180 in chips)
Seat 2: makbo (1370 in chips)
Seat 3: Soncy (1480 in chips)
Seat 4: tHeGiPPer17 (1960 in chips)
Seat 5: FR Vessant (1400 in chips)
Seat 6: AceFetish (1620 in chips)
Seat 7: MightyPol (1480 in chips)
Seat 8: Croustillant (1510 in chips)
Seat 9: bigboyjim76 (1500 in chips)
Croustillant: posts small blind 10
bigboyjim76: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Kh Ah]
liz_wins: folds
makbo: raises 60 to 80
Soncy: folds
tHeGiPPer17: folds
FR Vessant: calls 80

I sometimes just call with AKs. If I flop an A, I have a chance of busting worse aces, and if I don't, I haven't cost myself any extra money.

AceFetish: folds
MightyPol: folds
Croustillant: folds
bigboyjim76: folds
*** FLOP *** [8d Ac Tc]

Nice.

makbo: checks

Weird.

FR Vessant: bets 100

If you won't bet, I will.


makbo: calls 100
*** TURN *** [8d Ac Tc] [Ts]
makbo: bets 300

He almost certainly has a weak ace. He is betting because he thinks that he has caught up some of the hands he was behind. Either that, or he's just "OMG two purrrrr" and forgets he even has a kicker.

Actually, what has happened is that we were only afraid on the flop of AT and A8. If he has AT, we're very unlucky, but we caught A8 up.

FR Vessant: raises 920 to 1220 and is all-in

So we push in the hope he just can't fold an ace.

makbo: calls 890 and is all-in

He has A5 and is drawing to the last T for a chop.

*** RIVER *** [8d Ac Tc Ts] [6h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
makbo: shows [5d As] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
FR Vessant: shows [Kh Ah] (two pair, Aces and Tens - King kicker)
FR Vessant collected 2770 from pot

His troubles started when he raised with A5 from UTG+1. It's common for $10 donks to think A high hands are monsters. But A5 is a rubbish hand and doesn't really ever become a good one until you are heads up. And even then it's not one you'd be happy to take to war.

***

At my other table, another player throws her stack at me:

She has just looked loose, but we haven't played enough hands for her to have made a real impression.

PokerStars Game #18566470378: Tournament #94376055, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/03 - 22:37:08 (ET)
Table '94376055 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: rza808 (850 in chips)
Seat 2: luuke2 (1950 in chips)
Seat 3: nickers999 (1420 in chips)
Seat 4: babygetter (1580 in chips)
Seat 5: BodyInFlight (1580 in chips)
Seat 6: FR Vessant (1570 in chips)
Seat 7: uno866 (1720 in chips)
Seat 8: Katie0604 (1290 in chips)
Seat 9: Sharo98 (1540 in chips)
luuke2: posts small blind 15
nickers999: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ac Ah]
babygetter: folds
BodyInFlight: folds
FR Vessant: raises 90 to 120

Standard raise.

uno866: calls 120
Katie0604: calls 120

I don't mind two callers but you prefer just one.

Sharo98: folds
rza808: folds
luuke2: folds
nickers999: folds
*** FLOP *** [4s 3h 8s]

Not the best flop for me. I'd prefer something like K74r, where my opponents can stck themselves with a K. This would be a slightly worrying flop against goodish players, because you could never make money on it, but the low cards hit the pairs they called your raise with.

FR Vessant: bets 360
uno866: folds
Katie0604: calls 360

I am a bit anxious but there many more hands I beat in a fish's calling range than hands that beat me.

With the spades out there, she can have a flush draw. There are plenty of overpairs that she can have that are behind me. It's possible for her to have an 8 but you'd have to think it was fairly unlikely but I guess A8s could be in there because fish love to call raises with suited aces.

*** TURN *** [4s 3h 8s] [7h]

That shouldn't have helped her. In this spot, versus an aggro player, you might check and represent AK that has missed, but I have no reason to believe she's aggro, so I get the money in. I will probably fold out the flush draws and very bad hands, but I may be called by 99+, which will be nice.

FR Vessant: bets 1090 and is all-in
Katie0604: calls 810 and is all-in

She has A8.

I'm totally wtf here. What does she think she's beating? Does she think she's beating anything? Does she think? Is it just "I has TP and will never fold"?

I like to try to understand my opponents. If you know them, you can figure out what they're up to and exploit that.

***

Sometimes you can see what they were thinking but it's just rubbish. In the previous hand, a shorty had shoved, this guy had called, and I had shoved over with KK, hoping for the caller to call. He didn't, and claimed he had A8. So, next hand:

PokerStars Game #18566766365: Tournament #94376096, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/03 - 22:52:12 (ET)
Table '94376096 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: liz_wins (1135 in chips)
Seat 4: tHeGiPPer17 (1035 in chips)
Seat 5: FR Vessant (3615 in chips)
Seat 6: AceFetish (3645 in chips)
Seat 7: MightyPol (2090 in chips)
Seat 8: Croustillant (1035 in chips)
Seat 9: bigboyjim76 (945 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts small blind 25
AceFetish: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ac Ks]

Nice to get when you've just shown KK.

MightyPol: folds
Croustillant: folds
bigboyjim76: folds
liz_wins: folds
tHeGiPPer17 said, "thought id get to see a flop"
tHeGiPPer17: raises 100 to 150
tHeGiPPer17 said, "good raise tho"
FR Vessant: raises 1250 to 1400

Let's do it again then!

AceFetish: folds
tHeGiPPer17: calls 885 and is all-in

He has A8s. I understand not wanting to be restolen from, but you'd have to figure I had a hand that beat his here.


Uncalled bet (365) returned to FR Vessant
*** FLOP *** [3s 5d 6s]
*** TURN *** [3s 5d 6s] [7c]
FR Vessant said, "I hoped you'd call actually"

Naughty.

*** RIVER *** [3s 5d 6s 7c] [6d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FR Vessant: shows [Ac Ks] (a pair of Sixes)
tHeGiPPer17: shows [Ah 8h] (a pair of Sixes - lower kicker)

It's okay though. He gave me his stack anyway.

***

Still, I found a way to fuck it up:

This guy has raised 4%.

PokerStars Game #18566986837: Tournament #94376055, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2008/07/03 - 23:03:39 (ET)
Table '94376055 1' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: luuke2 (930 in chips)
Seat 3: nickers999 (1550 in chips)
Seat 4: babygetter (1805 in chips)
Seat 5: BodyInFlight (2560 in chips)
Seat 6: FR Vessant (2805 in chips)
Seat 7: uno866 (3850 in chips)
nickers999: posts small blind 50
babygetter: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qh Ah]
BodyInFlight: folds
FR Vessant: raises 150 to 250
uno866: folds
luuke2: folds
nickers999: raises 1300 to 1550 and is all-in

I should fold. There's no way I'm ahead of him here.

babygetter: folds
FR Vessant: calls 1300

But I'm retarded. He has AK.

Next hand I shove KQs UTG, which is not a good play. He has AQ. Unreal.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

bad 2

Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2008 Internet

Well, it was nice to have some good luck for a very very short while.

This is a hand after I called a push with AK. The guy had 88. He'd been pushing pretty wide, but I probably should have folded (actually, having reviewed it in Wiz, it was a good call--shouldn't second guess myself so much).

But this takes the cake:


PokerStars Game #18566145478: Tournament #94368340, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2008/07/03 - 22:20:06 (ET)
Table '94368340 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: FR Vessant (551 in chips)
Seat 5: Ruddager (6670 in chips)
Seat 7: cilinking (3919 in chips)
Seat 8: ZeddyNobrows (2360 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts the ante 25
Ruddager: posts the ante 25
cilinking: posts the ante 25
ZeddyNobrows: posts the ante 25
FR Vessant: posts small blind 200
Ruddager: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qs 9s]
cilinking: folds
ZeddyNobrows: folds
FR Vessant: raises 126 to 526 and is all-in
Ruddager: calls 126
*** FLOP *** [Jh 8h Th]
*** TURN *** [Jh 8h Th] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 8h Th Qc] [9d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FR Vessant: shows [Qs 9s] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Ruddager: shows [3s Td] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
FR Vessant collected 576 from pot
Ruddager collected 576 from pot
FR Vessant said, "THAT SUCKS!~"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1152 | Rake 0
Board [Jh 8h Th Qc 9d]
Seat 1: FR Vessant (small blind) showed [Qs 9s] and won (576) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 5: Ruddager (big blind) showed [3s Td] and won (576) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 7: cilinking folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ZeddyNobrows (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Bad

Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2008 Internet

Not enjoying poker at the moment. Not playing at all well. This is a good example. Villain is a fish.

PokerStars Game #18565242677: Tournament #94368404, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/03 - 21:32:04 (ET)
Table '94368404 1' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: bosoxfan55 (1330 in chips)
Seat 2: ChiP0wer (1175 in chips)
Seat 3: FR Vessant (970 in chips)
Seat 5: Dolly W. (3935 in chips)
Seat 8: FALCONFOUR (1348 in chips)
Seat 9: Necabote (4742 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts small blind 25
Dolly W.: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qd Ac]
FALCONFOUR: folds
Necabote: folds
bosoxfan55: folds
ChiP0wer: folds
FR Vessant: raises 100 to 150
Dolly W.: calls 100

Have to raise with AQ but don't really like it. Fish will call with practically anything, and if I miss the flop, I have to cbet with no real idea where I am.

*** FLOP *** [4s 6s 8d]
FR Vessant: bets 150
Dolly W.: calls 150

Oh dear.

*** TURN *** [4s 6s 8d] [9s]
FR Vessant: checks
Dolly W.: checks
*** RIVER *** [4s 6s 8d 9s] [Ks]
FR Vessant: bets 670 and is all-in
Dolly W.: calls 670

So I decide to represent the flush.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
FR Vessant: shows [Qd Ac] (high card Ace)
Dolly W.: shows [5d 5s] (a flush, King high)

No way is fishy folding her 5 high flush. Sigh.

***

In its way, this is also bad:

PokerStars Game #18565351499: Tournament #94371418, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/03 - 21:37:56 (ET)
Table '94371418 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: jr_michels (1630 in chips)
Seat 2: glenwood78 (1450 in chips)
Seat 3: jjms11 (1420 in chips)
Seat 4: YLF10 (1540 in chips)
Seat 5: Rodia (1480 in chips)
Seat 6: MrKirker (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: HitTrips (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: bdmast2002 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: FR Vessant (1480 in chips)
Rodia: posts small blind 10
MrKirker: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ks Kc]
HitTrips: raises 80 to 100
bdmast2002: folds
FR Vessant: raises 200 to 300

Standard reraise but I didn't notice who had raised. HitTrips is a multitabler and he knows I'm a good player. I won't get action from weaker hands if he plays well. He'll just fold them.

jr_michels: folds
glenwood78: folds
jjms11: folds
YLF10: folds
Rodia: folds
MrKirker: folds
HitTrips: folds

Rubbish.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

beeyaaaatches

Date: Wed, Jul 2, 2008 Internet

I have to laugh. I am playing some tiny buyin things, off my head.

But the bitches will not leave me be! I play two tourneys and bust from both in QQ-related frenzy. First I have QQ, and TT flops a T; then I have KK, he has QQ and the flop is decorated with a third Q.

It's almost as though the poker gods were conspiring to make me lol at the madness of it.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Bad bluffs r us

Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2008 Internet

Hilarious. Same guy who had the T6 earlier:

PokerStars Game #18522543165: Tournament #94144547, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2008/07/01 - 23:53:48 (ET)
Table '94144547 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: FR Vessant (1420 in chips)
Seat 5: schpat (2085 in chips)
Seat 6: ImSlumPappie (4320 in chips)
Seat 7: dELmASTRO (2725 in chips)
Seat 9: cleaner05 (2950 in chips)
cleaner05: posts small blind 50
FR Vessant: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [9c Js]
ImSlumPappie said, "ugggh"
schpat: folds
ImSlumPappie: calls 100
dELmASTRO: folds
cleaner05: folds
FR Vessant: checks
*** FLOP *** [9h 7s 9d]

Niiiiiice.

ImSlumPappie said, "runner runner"
FR Vessant: checks

No need to bet. He's sure to put money in on a paired flop. There are no realistic strong draws here either.

ImSlumPappie: bets 200
FR Vessant: calls 200

Just call and hope he tries again on turn.

*** TURN *** [9h 7s 9d] [3s]
FR Vessant: checks
ImSlumPappie: checks

Nope. Okay, we'll put in one for value on river.

*** RIVER *** [9h 7s 9d 3s] [8d]

Not a great card for us because it makes a straight for JT, but luckily we have a J, so that hand is pretty unlikely. 88 is the only hand he can realistically beat us with. You'd have to consider him unlikely to have slowplayed 33 and I can't see 77 slowing down on the turn.

FR Vessant: bets 400
ImSlumPappie: raises 1300 to 1700
FR Vessant: calls 720 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (580) returned to ImSlumPappie
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ImSlumPappie: shows [Ts Qc] (a pair of Nines)
FR Vessant: shows [9c Js] (three of a kind, Nines)
FR Vessant collected 2890 from pot


LOL.

Meanwhile, the curse of the bitches strikes again:

PokerStars Game #18522616249: Tournament #94144314, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2008/07/01 - 23:58:06 (ET)
Table '94144314 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: profunds (1100 in chips)
Seat 3: TDSpecial (5955 in chips)
Seat 5: PJ SHARPIE (1620 in chips)
Seat 7: inteloutside (1275 in chips)
Seat 8: IWearPullups (2375 in chips)
Seat 9: FR Vessant (1175 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts small blind 75
profunds: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ah Kh]
TDSpecial: folds
PJ SHARPIE: folds
inteloutside: raises 150 to 300
IWearPullups: calls 300
FR Vessant: raises 875 to 1175 and is all-in
profunds: folds
inteloutside: raises 100 to 1275 and is all-in
IWearPullups: folds
Uncalled bet (100) returned to inteloutside
*** FLOP *** [4c 7d 8s]
*** TURN *** [4c 7d 8s] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [4c 7d 8s 7h] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FR Vessant: shows [Ah Kh] (a pair of Sevens)
inteloutside: shows [Qc Qh] (a full house, Queens full of Sevens)
inteloutside collected 2800 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2800 | Rake 0
Board [4c 7d 8s 7h Qd]
Seat 1: profunds (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: TDSpecial folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: PJ SHARPIE folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: inteloutside showed [Qc Qh] and won (2800) with a full house, Queens full of Sevens
Seat 8: IWearPullups (button) folded before Flop
Seat 9: FR Vessant (small blind) showed [Ah Kh] and lost with a pair of Sevens


Of course I know that the minraise can be a big hand when a tight player makes it, but even if I knew he had QQ, I wouldn't fold.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Bleh

Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2008 Internet

I am so angry with myself. This is a real leak in my game. Not so much for me as for others, but it's not the first time (and won't be the last) that I've overvalued TPTK.

PokerStars Game #18521927716: Tournament #94144547, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/01 - 23:19:03 (ET)
Table '94144547 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: FR Vessant (1080 in chips)
Seat 2: molotov8 (1540 in chips)
Seat 3: YoungHickory (1380 in chips)
Seat 4: cesanded (1990 in chips)
Seat 5: schpat (1470 in chips)
Seat 6: ImSlumPappie (1480 in chips)
Seat 7: dELmASTRO (1570 in chips)
Seat 8: rmansieh (1360 in chips)
Seat 9: cleaner05 (1630 in chips)
ImSlumPappie: posts small blind 10
dELmASTRO: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [As Jc]
rmansieh: folds
cleaner05: folds
FR Vessant: calls 20

I occasionally limp with AJ. Sometimes I just fold.

molotov8: folds
YoungHickory: folds
cesanded: folds
schpat: folds
ImSlumPappie: calls 10
dELmASTRO: checks
*** FLOP *** [Td Th Jd]
ImSlumPappie: checks
dELmASTRO: checks
FR Vessant: bets 60

I have top pair.

ImSlumPappie: calls 60

Either:

a/ so do I
b/ I don't believe you
c/ I has a ten, please bet again on turn.

dELmASTRO: folds
*** TURN *** [Td Th Jd] [5s]
ImSlumPappie: checks
FR Vessant: bets 120

I still have top pair and don't care that you called flop because you're a fish.

ImSlumPappie: raises 120 to 240

I has a ten, but look at those luvverly pot odds. Call this and let me take you to valuetown on river.

FR Vessant: calls 120

Okay. I'm too dumb to fold even though I know I'm beat.

*** RIVER *** [Td Th Jd 5s] [6h]
ImSlumPappie: bets 180

Pay me a bit more. It's not much.

FR Vessant: calls 180

Okay.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
ImSlumPappie: shows [Ts 6d] (a full house, Tens full of Sixes)

It's no good complaining about his awful limp preflop. They just will do that. Best way to stay out of trouble would be to fold my hand preflop. Lesson learned.

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