Archive for December, 2008

The frustrating thing about monster hands like Quads is that they rarely get paid off, since it’s so hard for your opponents to make second best hands. But I managed to win two stacks with quads tonight:

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $4,802
BTN: $5,473
SB: $2,040
BB: $3,671
UTG: $3,813

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG raises to $60, Hero raises to $210, 3 folds, UTG calls $150

Flop: ($450) A 8 A (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $277, UTG calls $277

Turn: ($1,004) 5 (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: ($1,004) K (2 Players)
UTG bets $740, Hero raises to $4,315 and is All-In, UTG calls $2,586 and is All-In

Results: $7,656 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A A (four of a kind, Aces) and WON $7,653 (+$3,840 NET)
UTG mucked K K (a full house, Kings full of Aces) and LOST (-$3,813 NET)

Obviously this is a pretty cold deck for Villain. I think I have to check the turn just because it’s far too likely I have trips or better if I bet. Honestly Villain can almost find a fold on the river, and in fact he did tank for a long time. It’s just so unlikely I’m jamming here with less than Aces full.  Read the complete post...

I guess this is fairly standard and notable mostly for the sum of money involved:

Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

CO: $12,483
BTN: $16,645
Hero (SB): $10,000
BB: $17,688
UTG: $5,000
MP: $9,875

Pre-Flop: 9 8 dealt to Hero (SB)
3 folds, BTN raises to $150, Hero raises to $555, BB folds, BTN calls $405

Flop: ($1,160) 7 4 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $777, BTN calls $777

Turn: ($2,714) J (2 Players)
Hero bets $1,888, BTN calls $1,888

River: ($6,490) 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $6,780 and is All-In, BTN folds

Results: $6,490 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero mucked 9 8 and WON $6,487 (+$3,267 NET)

Naturally I double barrel when I turn the gut shot and a potential overcard to whatever pair my opponent may have. I do wish I had bet a hair more so that river would be a slightly less than pot shove rather than slightly more. Basically I think without history and at stakes that are higher than either of us usually play, I am getting called only by AQ or better (and even AQ is close). Given that the deuce on the river makes sets less likely and Villain is probably 4-betting QQ-AA a decent amount of the time pre-flop, I think this is a highly profitable shove in a vaccuum. Of course, a reputation for stuff like this will get you called down by 66- which then again is not bad at all as long as you can adjust.

Villain was some random I’d never seen before and knew nothing about:

Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG: $534.20
MP: $2,144.40
CO: $2,000
Hero (BTN): $2,000
SB: $2,215
BB: $1,015

Pre-Flop: J J dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, MP raises to $30, CO folds, Hero raises to $105, 2 folds, MP calls $75

Flop: ($225) 2 J T (2 Players)
MP checks, Hero bets $177, MP calls $177

Turn: ($579) 4 (2 Players)
MP checks, Hero checks

River: ($579) 9 (2 Players)
MP bets $214, Hero raises to $888, MP raises to $1,862.40 and is All-In

Results: $2,355 Pot ($2,355 Rake)
MP showed AQo and LOST (-$1,170 NET)
Hero showed J J and LOST (-$1,170 NET)

I generally don’t give even fairly good players, let alone a random, credit for being able to 3-bet bluff the river for such a small amount, even though this is a decent spot for it. However, when playing against randoms, you do need to allow for the spaz factor. Because they generally are not thinking through a hand in a disciplined and systematic way, there is always the chance that they will go and do something crazy for reasons that they couldn’t explain if they tried. In this case, I think the guy just decided I had nothing and then refused to change that read even when I raised him on the river. Whereas a better player would revise the range of hands he assigns me and contemplate whether he should call, fold, or raise (whether for value or as a bluff), the spaz factor causes a player to say, “pfft, he’s got nothing, I’m all in”.  Read the complete post...

There are some hands that I almost always 3-bet (AA, KK) and some that I almost never 3-bet (72, 95), but in the middle are a whole bunch of hands and spots that are at least kind of close. What if you are 100BB deep, a tight-aggressive player opens UTG, and you hold AKo UTG+1? What if the effective stacks are 200BB, UTG+1 opens, CO calls, and you hold KJs on the button? What if you are in the SB with KQo and a tight-aggressive player opens on the CO?

What’s really important in these closer spots is how good your opponents are. Remember that most players are going to make bigger post-flop mistakes when stacks are deep relative to the pot size than when they are shallow. This is especially true when you have position, though you may also find that against better players you 3-bet hands like KQo from out of position in order to make the stacks shallower for your own benefit whereas you are more comfortable making post-flop decisions out of position against less-talented opposition.

Last night was my biggest to date playing exclusively cash games, topped only by the WSOP (obviously- not sure that even counts since it took two weeks) and my win in the UB 200K last November. Funny thing is while I wasn’t playing badly I don’t think I was playing particularly great poker either. There were just a lot of cards falling my way. For once I won the vast majority of my flips at 25/50 Cap, which was nice since I was playing as many as four tables of it. The big night was also despite getting thoroughly owned by a very good player in this hand:

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

SB: $2,227
BB: $4,711
UTG: $7,963
Hero (CO): $7,237.50
BTN: $1,144.50

Pre-Flop: J 9 dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $70, 2 folds, BB raises to $260, Hero calls $190

Flop: ($530) 3 T K (2 Players)
BB bets $375, Hero calls $375

Turn: ($1,280) 8 (2 Players)
BB bets $875, Hero calls $875

River: ($3,030) 5 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2,222, BB raises to $3,201 and is All-In, Hero folds

Results: $7,474 Pot ($3 Rake)
BB mucked and WON $7,471 (+$3,739 NET)  Read the complete post...

Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BB: $1,154
Hero (UTG): $2,707
BTN: $1,072
SB: $5,637.50

Pre-Flop: 2 2 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $35, BTN folds, SB calls $30, BB folds

Flop: ($80) 5 8 Q (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $55, SB calls $55

Turn: ($190) A (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($190) J (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $144, SB raises to $622, Hero raises to $2,617 and is All-In, SB folds

Results: $1,434 Pot ($2 Rake)
Hero mucked 2 2 and WON $1,432 (+$720 NET)

To the extent that there is a “standard” spot for such a play, this is it. Opponent is either bluffing with a hand that is better than mine (hard to put him on air when he calls out of position on a dry flop) or trying to value raise something like two-pair, but it’s extremely unlikely that he has the nuts or something close to it (doubtful he calls pre-flop or flop with KT or T9, strange line with JJ/QQ/AA as well).

In light of my recent article on Creative Bet Sizing, here are two river check-raise overbets I made against the same player. The situations are similar: I have an unlikely monster hand and my opponent has a well-defined strong-but-not-too-strong hand. By “well-defined”, I mean that he probably realizes that I know roughly what he has and specifically that he is very unlikely to have a huge hand. That puts him in a rough spot when I overbet, because he doesn’t know what I will do with the information I have, ie whether I am trying to get value or force him out.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($6099)
Button ($4299)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, 5
Button raises to $54, Hero calls $34

Flop: ($108) 5, 10, A (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($108) J (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: ($108) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $55, Hero raises to $345, 1 fold

Total pot: $218 | Rake: $0.50

Hero: LOL

You may wonder why I say I think he has some kind of hand here. It’s because he’s passed on two good bluffing opportunities on the flop and turn. That tells me has something, and based on how he’d been playing, I expected him to try for thin value with a lot of his range on the river.  Read the complete post...

Bear wasn’t an employee, but he was one of our most colorful regular customers. I mean that both figuratively and literally: he was a hulking biker dude covered in ink from head to toe. Rose bushes encircled naked women on his arms, and his shiny bald head was decorated with the snearing face of a bear. Bear was a tattoo artist himself and the proprietor of a tattoo parlor called The Bear’s Den.

Bear was easily 6’6, rippling with muscles, and, as I’ve said, covered in tattoos. Under no circumstances would I have gotten on his bad side, and it’s a testament to human stupidity that anyone ever did. He told me a story once about a customer of his who requested a custom-designed tattoo. They negotiated a price, and Bear spent a couple of hours inking him up. When he was finished, the guy reached into his pocket and said, “Oh, shit, I’ve only got eighty-seven bucks.”

They went back and forth for a bit, but the guy insisted he couldn’t get his hands on any more money and pleaded with Bear to accept much less than the price they’d agreed upon. Bear finally relented and told the guy to leave a warm, wet compress on the ink for 24 hours.  Read the complete post...