Archive for January, 2009

Shantel was a middle-aged black woman who for some reason developed a sort of matronly affection for me. She always told me that I was her favorite person to work with, but I don’t know why and the feeling wasn’t mutual. I didn’t dislike her, but she was a lot less fun than the employees who were closer to me in age and/or maturity (most of the middle-aged men who worked there were just overgrown teenagers). Frankly she kind of gave me the creeps.

There was a huge ice machine in the back room that occasionally spat out batches of frozen cubes into a giant vat. Once per shift, every employee was supposed to shovel the ice into plastic bags, tie them off, and wheel them up into the front to stack them in a display cooler. It was one of the most hated tasks in the store because it was boring, repetitive, and relatively hard physical labor. Usually you needed to hack at the ice with the metal scoop because it all got frozen together, then you had to spoon heavy scoops of the stuff into a bag whose opening was barely larger than the scoop itself. After a few bags, your fingers would be too stiff with cold to tie a good knot, so from time to time a big would spill and then you’d have to clean that up too.  Read the complete post...

I like this line a lot in this spot, but not against the table fish:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($2000)
CO ($1850)
Button ($1329)
SB ($8366)
Hero (BB) ($2197)
UTG ($2274)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, K
3 folds, Button raises to $40, 1 fold, Hero raises to $144, Button calls $104

Flop: ($298) J, A, 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($298) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $203, Button calls $203

River: ($704) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $550, Button calls $550

Total pot: $1804 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had A, 10 (one pair, Aces).
Hero had Q, K (high card, Ace).
Outcome: Button won $1801

Most of the time that I check this flop after 3-betting pre-flop, I’m going to have something with some showdown value. And if I then bet hard at the turn and river, it will be because I was slowplaying a monster or at least pot controlling something pretty good like AK.

So, I like a similar line with a big draw, as compared to just betting the flop and then making a pot-committing turn bet. Maybe I’ll get to check-raise the flop if Villain throws out a feeler bet/bluff, or make a concealed flush (since he probably wouldn’t expect me to check a flush draw on the flop)- with all my outs, I certainly don’t mind seeing a free turn card.  Read the complete post...

I’ll get you off of it eventually…

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($4886.05)
BB ($300)
UTG ($600)
Hero (MP) ($1311.80)
CO ($1318.60)
Button ($1711.10)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 10, A
1 fold, Hero raises to $21, CO calls $21, 1 fold, SB raises to $84, 1 fold, Hero raises to $190, 1 fold, SB calls $106

Flop: ($407) 7, 3, Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $166, SB calls $166

Turn: ($739) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $255, SB calls $255

River: ($1249) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $700.80 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: $1249 | Rake: $3

I like this because the value of my opponent’s hand is so clearly capped (if he had a QQ+ or AK, he’d have shoved pre-flop, if he had a set he’d have shoved before the river) while I’ve shown strength at every opportunity. The river K is icing on the cake, connecting with AK, the single most plausible hand he was still beating on the turn with whatever pocket pair he had.

I imagine he realized all of this as well, because he tanked for a really long time but eventually gave it up.

Not my best double barrel ever, but the A is a good bluff card on the river. That makes it a good time for him to call down light, which makes it a good time for me to value bet light, which makes it a better bluff card in the future….

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($1958.75)
Hero (Button) ($1000)
SB ($1273)
BB ($1000)
UTG ($287)
UTG+1 ($1000)
MP1 ($2117.50)
MP2 ($215)
MP3 ($1187)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, 8
6 folds, Hero raises to $35, SB calls $30, BB calls $25

Flop: ($105) J, 4, 9 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $66, 1 fold, BB calls $66

Turn: ($237) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $177, BB calls $177

River: ($591) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $377, BB calls $377

Total pot: $1345 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had A, 8 (one pair, Aces).
BB had 10, J (one pair, Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won $1342

A few days ago I posted a hand where we were very deep and I feared I may have overplayed a small set/full house. Once again I was deep here against a pretty good player. Were I to fire a third barrel, I’d be showing a ton of strength, so much so that he could probably to fold all worse hands. More importantly, I felt that he wouldn’t expect me to check any strong hand since I already had the betting impetus. Thus, not only can I induce bluffs, but I can also probably get him to value bet most hands that would have called the river anyway:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($864.80)
Button ($2075.80)
SB ($603)
Hero (BB) ($2065.20)
UTG ($428.70)
MP ($2007.80)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 7, 7
1 fold, MP raises to $21, 1 fold, Button calls $21, 1 fold, Hero calls $15

Flop: ($66) 10, A, 7 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $44, Button calls $44, Hero raises to $199, 1 fold, Button calls $155

Turn: ($508) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $345, Button calls $345

River: ($1198) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $800, Hero calls $800

Total pot: $2798 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had K, J (high card, Ace).
Hero had 7, 7 (three of a kind, sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $2795  Read the complete post...

Since I just posted a bunch of whines, here’s a brag. The SB was the table fish, the BB is a very tough and aggressive opponent. I could just 4-bet pre-flop but I think he’d find a way to own me. I decided I was just going to play my position and go with the assumption that he didn’t have much:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($2753)
MP ($1837)
CO ($4028.25)
Hero (Button) ($2697)
SB ($2045.70)
BB ($2032)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, J
3 folds, Hero raises to $35, SB calls $30, BB raises to $170, Hero calls $135, 1 fold

Flop: ($375) 4, 2, Q (2 players)
BB bets $210, Hero calls $210

Turn: ($795) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $333, BB calls $333

River: ($1461) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1984 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: $1461 | Rake: $3

I like floating the flop because even if he fires a second barrel there’s a lot of ways I can continue. If I turn a pair, I’ll call him down, and if I turn a draw, I’ll shove. The turn bet was calculated to set up a roughly pot-sized river shove (Villain had like $1300 left) and/or win the pot immediately. It doesn’t give him a great price to check-raise, so I think he’s mostly going to raise only when he has a legit hand. The small bet also works as a feeler to show me that he probably doesn’t have a legit hand, which means it’ll be tough for him to call a river shove. He tanked forever, which was pretty nerve-racking, but eventually went away.

Weeks ago, I got a comment that I promised to answer in greater depth. Well, I’ve finally gotten around to it. Here was the question:

I read with interest the blog in which you say that you use AQ as a four / five bet semi bluff.

With what hands are you getting called with?

I ask, because in analyzing how to play against Harringbots, I discovered that there are some unusual hands that do well against standard Harrington hand ranges. For example, KJs is almost as good against AQ+/77+ as AQo. The benefit of playing KJs is that opponents will automatically add KQ and AJ to your range which will presumably make the AA/KK hands even more profitable. Of course, KJs does not occur as often as AQo but playing AQo 2/3 of the time and KJs 100% of the time would give you the same semi-bluff frequency.

I think this is an interesting idea, particularly because of the deception it creates. As the commenter points out, people may assume that if you showed up with KJs you will also be shoving hands like AJ and KQ. I was frankly a little surprised when I ran the numbers and saw that the equity difference between AQo and KJs vs a range of TT+ and AK (in answer to the first question, it depends on the spot, but in general my 4-bets aren’t getting called by 77-99) was less than 1%.  Read the complete post...

These are all from tonight. Fair warning: this is pretty much a whine post, but I’m trying to include at least some insight into how precisely running bad can lead to playing bad (aside from the obvious straight-up frustration/tilt). This is the worst one of the night, one of two gin cards falls on the river:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($1000)
Hero (UTG) ($4229)
MP ($2197)
CO ($4117.25)
Button ($3109)
SB ($5835)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 10, 10
Hero raises to $70, 2 folds, Button calls $70, 2 folds

Flop: ($170) A, 2, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($170) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $111, Button calls $111

River: ($392) 10 (2 players)
Hero bets $288, Button raises to $1000, Hero calls $712

Total pot: $2392 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had 8, 9 (straight, ten high).
Hero had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: Button won $2389

Honestly I was pretty unhappy about the river raise but in this case my hand is so under-repped and this opponent is generally an aggro monkey, though I didn’t think it was too likely he was bluffing here. Pretty much just shit luck and a spot where he’s going to get paid. Rightly or wrongly, it probably did contribute to my folding here (different opponent, I just mean that it may have made me a little gunshy):  Read the complete post...