Archive for August, 2009

Edit: On further reflection, I actually think his call is OK. He needs barely 33% equity, as he probably isn’t behind the SB caller, and my range is likely weighted towards the strong draws, against which he is a slight favorite, than the strong made hands that have him in bad shape.

A little over an hour into the PLO8 FTOPS Knock-Out event. I’ve been getting a lot of crap but also playing conservatively and have just a hair over the 5K starting chips. Blinds are 50/100, I raise UTG+1 with Ac Jd 4c 2h. MP2 calls and BB calls.

Flop comes Kc 8d 7c, giving me nut flush draw, overcard, and nut low draw with counterfeit protection. I bet 650 into 950, both players call. Turn is the Qs, and I have just about a pot-sized bet left in my stack. I shove, and the MP guy calls me with AA54 for an overpair, a gutshot, and a shitty low draw.

But of course against a few other hands in my range he doesn’t fare so well:  Read the complete post...

This is one of the biggest leaks that I’ve helped my students to find, and as these hands illustrate, it’s not something I’m immune to myself. I’m talking about choosing the wrong hands to defend against a possible bluff/semi-bluff when there are still cards to come. It is so much more important to defend with draws that have good equity against your opponent’s range than with hands that are “made” (which is really a meaningless concept anyway).

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

SB ($2060)
Hero (BB) ($2239)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, 9
SB bets $60, Hero raises to $200, SB calls $140

Flop: ($400) J, 3, J (2 players)
Hero bets $244, SB raises to $520, Hero raises to $2039 (All-In), SB calls $1340 (All-In)

Turn: ($4120) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($4120) A (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $4120 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
SB had Q, J (three of a kind, Jacks).
Hero had 9, 9 (two pair, Jacks and nines).
Outcome: SB won $4119.50

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($3011)
Hero (BB) ($2010)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, K
SB bets $30, Hero raises to $111, SB calls $81  Read the complete post...

Guy was a decent player, if a bit of a LAGtard. This is a pretty bracingly bad call though. Honestly, I think every move he made after the open raise was a mistake:

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

Hero (BB) ($7751)
SB ($2253)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, K
SB bets $60, Hero raises to $211, SB calls $151

Flop: ($422) Q, 6, 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $244, SB raises to $488, Hero raises to $7540 (All-In), SB calls $1554 (All-In)

Turn: ($4506) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($4506) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $4506 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
SB had 7, 5 (one pair, fives).
Hero had J, K (high card, King).
Outcome: SB won $4505.50

Actually, maybe it wasn’t such a bad call, if he knew that winning would tilt me:

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

Hero (SB) ($5159)
BB ($4831)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, 10
Hero bets $60, BB raises to $200, Hero calls $140

Flop: ($400) 2, 10, 7 (2 players)
BB bets $280, Hero calls $280

Turn: ($960) A (2 players)
BB bets $800, Hero calls $800

River: ($2560) Q (2 players)
BB bets $1900, Hero calls $1900  Read the complete post...

Evidently there was a glitch on Poker Stars heads up Sit-and-Go’s that enabled players to start a new game using the “Rematch” button even if they did not have sufficient funds in their accounts. What you see here is a small stakes grinder who figured this out and hit up the 5K’s. Clearly the guy’s a thief, but still, it takes some stones for a $100 player to put up $5000 (pretty sure he did have to pay his first buy-in) in the hopes that the glitch exists in the higher stakes games as well.

Scotty from Poker Stars support is supposed to be on next week’s 2+2 Pokercast to explain how Stars is handling the issue, which I’m quite curious to hear. Several 5K SNG regulars have posted e-mails purported to be from Stars explaining that money they won from people abusing this bug has been confiscated. I haven’t yet seen an e-mail confirming that money lost to these players was refunded, though if that happened (and if you think about the optimal strategy for someone abusing this glitch, it’s actually quite unlikely that anyone playing a number of games with them would lose in the long run) I’d be very surprised if Stars didn’t handle it properly. They have far and away the best customer support in the business.  Read the complete post...

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

UTG ($2958)
MP ($1428.50)
CO ($1029)
Hero (Button) ($4157)
SB ($649)
BB ($770)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 9
3 folds, Hero bets $40, SB calls $30, 1 fold

Flop: ($100) 4, 8, 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $33, SB raises $100, Hero raises $527, SB calls $460

Turn: ($1220) 6 (2 players)

River: ($1220) 2 (2 players)

Total pot: $1220

Results:
Hero had 10, 9 (straight, ten high).
SB had A, 3 (high card, Ace).
Outcome: Hero won $1217

To be honest, his A high is good here quite often. The results here illustrate the problem, of course. My equity is so good even when he has the best hand that he can’t profitably call.

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

UTG ($1027)
MP ($980)
CO ($1442.40)
Hero (Button) ($1471.25)
SB ($1000)
BB ($1336)

Preflop: Hero is Button with J, J
UTG bets $35, MP calls $35, CO calls $35, Hero raises to $165, 4 folds, CO calls $130

Flop: ($415) K, 9, 9 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($415) 5 (2 players)
CO bets $130, Hero calls $130

River: ($675) 8 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $376, CO raises to $1147.40 (All-In), Hero calls $771.40

Total pot: $2969.80 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had J, J (two pair, Jacks and nines).
CO had K, A (two pair, Kings and nines).
Outcome: CO won $2966.80

I’m not a big fan of my river bet to begin with, and if he’s capable of this, it’s awful. I just didn’t expect him to check any big hands on the river, since it looks so much like I’m just trying to pot control/show my hand down cheaply. In other words, I don’t think he can expect me to bet the river too often.

This one was against a really awful player:

No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – Hold’em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($1705.40)
SB ($240.80)  Read the complete post...

Emily and I were looking at used cars today, and though we weren’t even at the point of negotiating prices or anything, I found a few parellels to poker that I thought were interesting.

I should tell you about the guy we were dealing with first, because he was a character. By nature, he was about as far as you could get from the stereotype of a used car dealer. He’d been a high-end photographer and was only really passionate when talking about all the interesting people he’d shot, from famous poets to Uri Gellar to Chuck Norris. He hinted at some odd turn of fate that had left him selling used cars, but mostly he seemed quite zen about the whole thing.

Despite this, he did occasionally employ some classic salesperson techniques that generally came across as forced, like he was trying out something he’d read in a book or learned during training. However, he twice employed a “I’m not usually one to say this but…” line which sounds like a line but which he delivered in a far more genuine fashion than he had with his other lines. The one that really stood out was, “I can tell you, because I did the intake on this one personally, the woman who brought this car in was a classic. She was the picture of the little old lady who just drives to and from work, never goes over the speed limit, hands at 10 and 2. She’s easily the most perfect prior owner I’ve seen.”  Read the complete post...

Small Stakes No-Limit Hold ‘em
by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn

Professional No Limit Hold ‘Em, Volume 1 (PNLHE) is one of my all-time favorite poker books and the one that I recommend to anyone looking to get started to the game. I eagerly awaited the publication of Volume 2, which was rumored to deal with short-handed games and more advanced concepts, and mourned its loss when its authors parted ways with Two Plus Two Publishing.

Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn ultimately self-published the book now known as Small Stakes No-Limit Hold ‘Em (SSNL), and it’s even better than I’d hoped.

Read the full review including my “Two-Minute Recommendation” in the Book Reviews Section of the site.

Read the full review