Month: June 2010

I Was Bluffing the River Anyway

Villain and I had been heads up for a while, and based on how he’d been playing, I was pretty confident he had either a flush or a bluff on the turn but not a full house. My intention was to shove over a river bet and rep the full … Read full post

I Slowrolled Myself

This is a very thin river shove to begin with. It’s not that Villain is all that likely to hold better, but it’s also hard to see him paying off with worse. My hand looks very strong here and could easily be a full house. Still, people do talk themselves … Read full post

Call That Down

Villain is a high-stakes MTT and SNG player who’s recently been sitting in the shallow high-stakes cash games as well. Despite his success, my opinion of him is that he makes a lot of borderline-bad calls and shoves. Probably I just think that because historically he’s run well vs. me … Read full post

Best Hand Won

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

SB ($3733)
Hero (BB) ($2918)
UTG ($2394)
MP ($2100)
CO ($2000)
Button ($5294)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, 8
1 fold, MP bets $60, CO calls $60, 2 folds, Hero raises … Read full post

Urban Debate League Wins National Championships

It wasn’t the Boston Debate League, but a team from our sister league in Chicago recently won the National Forensics League Grand Tournament in Kansas City, making them the first Urban Debate League team ever to win a national championship (there are several- the NFL’s are the largest, though arguably … Read full post

Resucked

Granted my flop call isn’t the greatest, but I think most of his bluffing range is just giving up pretty much any turn, so I’m not too worried about getting bluffed out when I’m ahead.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 600/1200 Blinds 150 Ante (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool … Read full post

River Decision

Villain is a pretty good regular. He also plays higher and is well above average for the stakes. We’ve tangled a fair bit in the recent past and have some aggressive history. I believe his turn raising range to be disproportionately semi-bluffs, possibly with as little as a gutshot but … Read full post

River Overbet Bluff

I usually overbet in situations where my opponent’s range consists primarily of hands that are strong but not too strong. Particularly if this is obvious to both of you, the overbet turns even the stronger part of his range into a bluff-catcher by representing either an extremely strong hand or … Read full post

It’s Quickly Becoming Non-Ironic

While I was in Germany, my girlfriend was hanging out in Northern Minnesota (long story). One night, she ironically attended a monster truck rally where she ironically purchased this camouflage hat for me. We’ve been camping in the Badlands of South Dakota, and between the hat and the scraggly beard, … Read full post

Slowplaying When Shallow

In short, you should do it more often and with weaker hands. The two biggest drawbacks to slowplaying are missing out on the opportunity to build a big pot against second-best hands and the reverse implied odds of letting longshots draw for free. When you’re shallow, neither of those are … Read full post

David “Bakes” Baker Wins 2-7 NL WSOP Bracelet

Huge congratulations to David Baker, 2+2’s own “Bakes”, who took down the WSOP 2-7 NL event last night. For those who don’t know, this is a 5-card draw game where the objective is to make the low hand. Aces are high and straights and flushes count against you, meaning that … Read full post

Overbet -> Spaz Out

This is one of my favorite spots for an overbet, either with a very strong hand like this or with a draw, because Villain’s hand is so clearly defined as marginal showdown value. To be honest, given what he shows up with, I don’t understand why he raised the turn:… Read full post

Underbet -> Spaz Out

I get a lot of questions/comments about my underbetting, which is understandable since it’s one of the more non-standard plays in my arsenal. I think this hand illustrates one of the many advantages of such a play, which is inducing spazziness from hands that otherwise wouldn’t give you action.

Villain … Read full post

Praz Bansi Wins Second WSOP Bracelet

I’mPraz Bansi embarrassed to say that I’d never heard of Praz before I played with him during this year’s PCA, but I could tell immediately that he was a great player. He has this intense table presence that you rarely see, where you can tell he is studying everything that … Read full post

Book Review: Cowboys Full by James McManus

When I first heard that James McManus was working on a book about the history of poker, I was surprised that such a book had not yet been written and glad that McManus was the one writing it. His first poker book, Positively Fifth Street, is a personal favorite … Read full post

Stasi Museum

Before leaving Leipzig this morning we visited an excellent museum dealing with the Stasi, the secret police of the East German government. The museum was located in their old headquarters and preserved the look and feel of the place complete with the equipment the Stasi used to bug telephones, detain … Read full post