From the Desk of the Poker Philosopher

...but this one is kind of special. I shove flop cuz with these stacks on this board a short-stacker is check-raising any decent hand. Air is definitely the majority of his betting range here, and even when he does randomly call with top pair I have two overs and some backdoor draws. Of course, I didn't expect him to call with air, but that was fine, too. Well, until the river, it was fine.

Poker Stars, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $14,462
BTN: $850
SB: $5,741
BB: $1,569
UTG: $1,000
UTG+1: $4,666
MP: $7,485

Pre-Flop: K J dealt to Hero (CO)
3 folds, Hero raises to $150, 2 folds, BB calls $100

Flop: ($325) 2 5 9 (2 Players)
BB bets $250, Hero raises to $14,312 and is All-In, BB calls $1,169 and is All-In

Turn: ($3,163) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($3,163) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $3,163 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero mucked K J and LOST (-$1,569 NET)
BB showed J T (a straight, Seven to Jack) and WON $3,160 (+$1,591 NET)

Labels: full ring, NLHE, poker, Poker Stars, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

I was really rolling in this for a few hours. There was a giant over-aggressive donkey at my starting table, and I was lucky enough to get more than a few hands against him early on to get up a nice stack.

Then I lost a good sized pot by raising up a bunch of limpers with AQ on my Button. Only the last limper called, and the pot was like twice her stack at that point. She shoved in on a QhJhTc flop and showed me KhQh, which got there.

Other than that I was running pretty well on all ins, won from the wrong end of a few 40/60's against short stacks, and my AK held against Phwap's AJ (pretty bad shove by him but also pretty standard for him) to pick up a nice pot.

We'd cut the field by about 85%, and I was rocking a well-above average stack. I'd been raising a lot from late position, and the table knew that. I'd shown down stuff like K2. But only one guy had been 3-betting me a lot. So I made a play at him:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 500/1,000 Blinds, 125 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG+2: 9,674
MP1: 19,105
MP2: 21,027
Hero (CO): 40,285
BTN: 45,691
SB: 35,075
BB: 56,239
UTG: 34,537
UTG+1: 20,960

Pre-Flop: (2,625) 7 A dealt to Hero (CO)
5 folds, Hero raises to 2,666, BTN folds, SB raises to 7,985, BB folds, Hero raises to 40,160 and is All-In, SB calls 26,965 and is All-In

Flop: (72,025) 3 2 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (72,025) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (72,025) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 72,025 Pot
Hero showed 7 A (Ace King high) and LOST (-35,075 NET)
SB showed Q A (Ace King high) and WON 72,025 (+36,950 NET)


Not sure what to make of this. He tanked for a long time, which suggests a few things: he wasn't 3-betting a polarized range, ie only hands that would snap-call or snap-fold; and he probably would have folded a lot of those hands. That suggests it was a good shove, but then again, I feel like I've been saying that as consolation a lot lately.

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament

Stumble It!

It's so rare to find a tournament with a structure as good as this one. Level increases were gradual and staggered every thirty minutes, and stacks started deep. There were a couple of good tournament players at my table, most notably SCTrojans and mattyv (AKA Plattsburgh). They both probably play better 25 BB poker than I do. But in a deep-stacked, high buy-in tournament, they are welcome at my table. There was no one particularly good at the start and a few downright awful players.

Trojans is famous for being a nit, so I made a kind of big fold to him early in the tournament. Turns out I was good, but I still think it was a good fold, because I imagine he plays KK and AA the same way:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 4,990
BTN: 4,960
SB: 4,980
BB: 5,060
UTG: 5,000
UTG+1: 4,980
Hero (MP): 5,030

Pre-Flop: (30) Q Q dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 60, Hero calls 60, CO folds, BTN raises to 260, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls 200, Hero calls 200

Flop: (810) 8 7 6 (3 Players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks, BTN bets 500, UTG+1 calls 500, Hero folds

Turn: (1,810) A (2 Players)
UTG+1 checks, BTN checks

River: (1,810) 2 (2 Players)
UTG+1 bets 320, BTN calls 320

Results: 2,450 Pot
BTN mucked J J (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-1,080 NET)
UTG+1 showed Q Q (a pair of Queens) and WON 2,450 (+1,370 NET)


There was another interesting spot early on where I turned middle pair, check-called for value, and then decided to turn my hand into a bluff on the river:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP2: 6,051
CO: 7,820
BTN: 4,970
SB: 4,890
BB: 1,641
UTG: 4,555
UTG+1: 5,444
Hero (MP1): 4,629

Pre-Flop: (30) T A dealt to Hero (MP1)
2 folds, Hero raises to 70, MP2 calls 70, 4 folds

Flop: (170) K 2 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets 134, MP2 calls 134

Turn: (438) T (2 Players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets 300, Hero calls 300

River: (1,038) Q (2 Players)
Hero bets 625, MP2 folds

Results: 1,038 Pot
Hero mucked T A and WON 1,038 (+534 NET)


My thinking here was that I could fold out better pairs and random low flushes, since it looks quite a bit like I have Ac and a pair. Then I enticed this guy to shove on me drawing to a gutshot and a running flush:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP1: 4,864
MP2: 7,515
CO: 6,621
BTN: 5,746
SB: 2,519
BB: 6,099
UTG: 6,412
Hero (UTG+1): 4,719

Pre-Flop: (75) A A dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 134, 4 folds, SB calls 109, BB folds

Flop: (318) J J T (2 Players)
SB bets 212, Hero raises to 555, SB raises to 2,385 and is All-In, Hero calls 1,830

Turn: (5,088) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (5,088) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 5,088 Pot
SB showed Q A (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-2,519 NET)
Hero showed A A (two pair, Aces and Jacks) and WON 5,088 (+2,569 NET)


I actually put on a smaller pair and was trying to induce the same play, but this works, too. Probably my favorite hand of the tournament was this triple barrel:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG+2: 4,104
MP1: 12,670
MP2: 7,820
CO: 7,226
BTN: 6,465
SB: 20,698
BB: 10,625
UTG: 10,166
Hero (UTG+1): 7,758

Pre-Flop: (120) 5 5 dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 218, 2 folds, MP2 calls 218, CO calls 218, 3 folds

Flop: (774) T A 8 (3 Players)
Hero bets 540, MP2 calls 540, CO folds

Turn: (1,854) 3 (2 Players)
Hero bets 1,250, MP2 calls 1,250

River: (4,354) K (2 Players)
Hero bets 3,250, MP2 folds

Results: 4,354 Pot
Hero mucked 5 5 and WON 4,354 (+2,346 NET)


There's actually not a lot to say about this one. It was some combination of the board texture and his timing that convinced me to pull the trigger on the river- he called the turn super-quickly, which I don't think he'd ever do with a monster given how many draws were out there. So I'm putting him on either a bare A or a pair and a flush draw. When the draws missed on the river, I figured he was folding nearly 100% of his range.

Plattsburgh was really the perfect guy for this next play. He's pretty aggressive pre-flop, and since I had position on him and stacks were deep, I'd already 3-bet him several times. I know that he's capable of 4-betting light, and I doubt he knows anything about me to think that I could 5-bet light. Plus, since he plays tournaments exclusively, he's rarely going to be playing with stack depths and opponents where light 5-betting is a consideration. So I think his 4-betting range here is going to be way too wide, since he probably doesn't expect me to move on him without Ace-King.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 80/160 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: 2,088
BB: 6,720
UTG: 21,908
UTG+1: 16,737
UTG+2: 16,462
MP1: 13,120
MP2: 7,129
CO: 15,744
Hero (BTN): 11,316

Pre-Flop: (240) Q A dealt to Hero (BTN)
5 folds, CO raises to 420, Hero raises to 1,111, 2 folds, CO raises to 3,124, Hero raises to 11,316 and is All-In, CO folds

Results: 6,488 Pot
Hero mucked Q A and WON 6,488 (+3,364 NET)


For what it's worth, it doesn't matter that I have AQs here, because I think his calling range is QQ+ and AK. The Ace is important, though, because it gives me equity against KK and more importantly because of card removal effects; with an A in my hand, he is that much less likely to hold AA or AK in the first place.

I didn't have much time to enjoy the nice stack, though, because two orbits later I had to make an excruciating fold:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 80/160 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 2,488
BTN: 5,840
SB: 22,248
BB: 15,317
UTG: 16,222
UTG+1: 16,680
UTG+2: 5,609
MP1: 12,460
Hero (MP2): 14,360

Pre-Flop: (240) J A dealt to Hero (MP2)
2 folds, UTG+2 calls 160, MP1 folds, Hero raises to 666, 2 folds, SB calls 586, BB folds, UTG+2 calls 506

Flop: (2,158) 8 4 J (3 Players)
SB checks, UTG+2 checks, Hero bets 1,194, SB raises to 2,500, UTG+2 folds, Hero calls 1,306

Turn: (7,158) 6 (2 Players)
SB bets 3,000, Hero calls 3,000

River: (13,158) T (2 Players)
SB bets 5,000, Hero folds

Results: 13,158 Pot
SB mucked and WON 13,158 (+6,992 NET)


I very nearly folded the turn. For as little as 500 chips more, I would have. It took discipline, but between the T falling on the river to put me behind JT and the fact that the guy kept betting, I just couldn't justify a river call. With every bet, it becomes that much less likely that he's overvaluing QJ or KJ, which is all I can beat at this point. Without a read, it's a fold, though an annoying one.

I won a few more medium-sized pots, mostly by open shoving, but the blinds and later the antes were eating into me. Eventually I shoved over an early positio raise with AKs and lost a flip to 99 to bust out. That's the bad thing about well-structure tournaments: I played for seven hours and didn't even come close to winning anything.

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, 5-bet, bluff, FTOPS, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament, triple barrel

Stumble It!

This one was over quick. I 3-bet AT on the button against a pretty loose bad player in the CO whom I'd 3-bet several times before. He called. The flop came T-high with a flush draw. He checked and called. The turn was a 9, making the board something like T973. He shoved into me for about 120% of the pot. I figured the 9 had improved his hand, but I thought it was most likely to something that I still beat. 87 or or something would make sense. I called, he showed me T9, and that was all she wrote.

Labels: 3-bet, FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament

Stumble It!

My first table was pretty unremarkable except for Erick Lindgren a few seats to my right. He was playing a kind of loose and passive style, but he was making it work for him. After I got myself knocked out in 4th (at that first table), he had more than half of the chips in play 3-handed.

An example of what I mean but loose and passive but not necessarily bad (since I am just a random in his eyes):

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 2,340
BTN: 2,625
Lindgren: 7,415
BB: 6,030
Hero (UTG): 2,025
UTG+1: 1,505
MP: 2,060

Pre-Flop: (120) Q Q dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 225, 4 folds, Lindgren calls 185, BB calls 145

Flop: (675) A 4 8 (3 Players)
Lindgren checks, BB bets 320, Hero calls 320, Lindgren calls 320

Turn: (1,635) 2 (3 Players)
Lindgren checks, BB checks, Hero checks

River: (1,635) 2 (3 Players)
Lindgren checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Results: 1,635 Pot
Lindgren showed A J (two pair, Aces and Twos) and WON 1,635 (+1,090 NET)
BB showed 6 8 (two pair, Eights and Twos) and LOST (-545 NET)
Hero showed Q Q (two pair, Queens and Twos) and LOST (-545 NET)


By the way, BB was a terrible LAGtard and QQ is way ahead of his range when he leads flop. I was definitely not expecting Lindgren to show up with an Ace behind me.

Labels: Erick Lindgren, FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, shootout, tournament

Stumble It!

I knew Monday night's FTOPS was a 1K NLHE, but I was pleasantly surprised when I was "seated" to find only five other players at my table. I had no idea it was a 6-max! I was less pleasantly surprised to find two other regulars in the FTP 10/20 games at my table. Dammit, I play tournaments because I want to play with fish! Not only were these guys ten times better than the average player in the tournament, but I knew they were also going to be much more aggressive when stacks were deep. That meant I would have to play high variance poker, which I'd much prefer to avoid in such a well-structured event.

Thankfully, my table broke pretty quickly and I was moved to a softer one. This time, I got to be the undisputed aggressor. For a while, I was getting no respect:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 20/40 Blinds, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: 8,010
Hero (MP): 6,890
CO: 7,410
BTN: 7,380
SB: 4,930
BB: 4,130

Pre-Flop: (60) J A dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 120, CO calls 120, BTN calls 120, SB folds, BB raises to 520, Hero raises to 1,240, 2 folds, BB raises to 4,130 and is All-In, Hero folds

Results: 2,740 Pot
BB mucked and WON 2,740 (+1,500 NET)


Eventually, that reputation got me a big payday, though:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 60/120 Blinds, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: 4,820
Hero (BB): 5,841
UTG: 7,055
MP: 9,651
CO: 6,488
BTN: 4,895

Pre-Flop: (180) A 4 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG raises to 240, MP calls 240, 3 folds, Hero calls 120

Flop: (780) 8 9 T (3 Players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, MP checks

Turn: (780) K (3 Players)
Hero bets 601, UTG raises to 1,920, MP folds, Hero raises to 5,601 and is All-In, UTG calls 3,681

River: (11,982) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 11,982 Pot
Hero showed A 4 (a flush, Ace high) and WON 11,982 (+6,141 NET)
UTG showed J K (a pair of Kings) and LOST (-5,841 NET)


But it wasn't to last. I lost two medium-sized pots on bad beats to short stacks, then Valuetowned myself against a guy who I still think may have been loose enough to show up with worse Aces here:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 140/280 Blinds, 25 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: 54,174
Hero (MP): 11,705
CO: 11,010
BTN: 10,714
SB: 19,723
BB: 5,384

Pre-Flop: (570) A J dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 780, CO calls 780, 3 folds

Flop: (2,130) T 5 A (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets 1,320, Hero calls 1,320

Turn: (4,770) T (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: (4,770) 9 (2 Players)
Hero bets 2,580, CO calls 2,580

Results: 9,930 Pot
Hero showed A J (two pair, Aces and Tens) and LOST (-4,705 NET)
CO showed A Q (two pair, Aces and Tens) and WON 9,930 (+5,225 NET)


Finally, I shoved A9 on the button over a raise from the chipleader in the CO, but he had AQ and it was lights out for me.

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, 5-bet, 6-max, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, squeeze play, tournament

Stumble It!

This event replaced the usual $200 FTP $750K Guarantee and had an appropriately weak field. I didn't do anything special to chip up, aside from occasionally abusing the fish on my right. I did find check-folding Aces on the turn at one point:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 80/160 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: 4,508
SB: 3,985
BB: 7,345
UTG: 4,061
Hero (UTG+1): 4,680
UTG+2: 1,799
MP1: 4,380
MP2: 6,069
CO: 5,942

Pre-Flop: (240) A A dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 444, 2 folds, MP2 calls 444, 4 folds

Flop: (1,128) 6 7 T (2 Players)
Hero bets 736, MP2 calls 736

Turn: (2,600) 9 (2 Players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets 4,889 and is All-In, Hero folds

Results: 2,600 Pot
MP2 mucked and WON 2,600 (+1,420 NET)


I contemplated check-raising the flop. Maybe this is results oriented, but I definitely wish I had. Then again, I probably would have gotten it in good and lost on a suckout.

Eventually, of course, that did happen. My Queens lost to A4, then I got Queens again and shoved 11BB UTG and mig.com on my immediate left (yeah I wasn't running good at table draws either) cold called. He had AKs, but I lost the flip.

Labels: FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, single table tournament

Stumble It!

I went pretty deep in the $500 heads up matches, finishing in the top 64. Here's a blow-by-blow:

Round 1

My first two opponents were ridiculously soft. I polished the first off in minutes, then waited over an hour for round two.

Round 2

I was so busy playing other tables that I didn't even notice we had started up again. My opponent was happily stealing my blinds. But I got there before too long, and he was so terrible it didn't matter. He never bluffed and always revealed exactly what he had with the size of his bets. Somehow, the match still lasted forever. It had a lot with his 87s beating my ATo all-in pre-flop, then his QJ beat my KK, then he flopped a higher flush than I did. I still came back and eventually pulled off a little suckout to win with K5 > A8s.

Round 3

This was the toughest match of the day. My opponent was very aggressive, and I found myself on the defensive, which is not a good place to be heads up. It was tough to play back at him without cards, but I managed my image well and pulled off some well-timed check-raise and 3-bet bluffs. Eventually we got it all in pre-flop on a flip and my 99 held vs his AJ.

Round 4

Initially, this guy was solid but overly tight. I grinded him down and got in some good value bets. My favorite one was when I raised 43s on the button, and he called in the BB. The flop came K32, and he checked and called a bet. The turn was a K, and we both checked. The river came a Q, he checked, and I bet like 65% of the pot. He called with A5. Ship it!

I think that tilted him a bit, which actually led him to play better in some sense because he got more aggressive. I called a raise with KJ on my BB and checked and called a K64 flop. I was planning to check-call down, but then a 5 came on the turn. Not wanting to see the board check through and turn ugly, I led out for half the pot. My opponent shoved, and I called him instantly. His T8 was much weaker than I expected to see, and I knocked him out on that one.

Round 5

This guy was not good. I googled his name and one of the hits was literally for a ranking of "Most Passive Online Players". I swear I am not making that up.

Unfortunately, he was calling everything pre-flop and hitting every flop. He also wasn't that passive. He raised his button a lot and tended to bet or raise whenever he got a piece of the flop. Eventually I raised JTo on the button and he called. The flop was 983 with two diamonds (I had Jd). He checked, I bet, and he min-check-raised. He'd been doing that a fair bit, and while it meant he had something, it didn't necessarily signify a monster. I shoved, but he tanked and eventually called with K9, which held up.

The fact that he had to think with K9 was a good sign. I'm sure he would have played T9 or K8 the same way, so K9 was very much the top of his range. If he was thinking of folding that, it means my shove was definitely good. Sucks to keep getting so close, but the FTOPS has always been like that for me.

Labels: continuation bet, FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker, heads up, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, semi-bluff, session review, short-handed, tournament

Stumble It!

Event 7 was the $100 rebuy. On the first hand I raised AQ on the button, called a shove for half a stack (ie the guy didn't double rebuy), and got shown AA. I reloaded $100 more and that's all I was in for. It's practically the only hand I played during the rebuy period. 6-max rebuy periods are so much better because you can profitably play a lot of hands even though everone is loose as hell. That's tougher to do at full ring because you so rarely have good position.

The tournament itself was pretty uneventful, too, even though it down to the top 5% or so. Pretty much every key hand was decided pre-flop. There was one early on where I raised KJs UTG for nearly 10% of my stack. The CO called and so did the BB.

The flop was like Ac 9d 7c or something. I bet, and the CO min-raised. Given how much of stack went in pre-flop, I thought he would have re-raised with a good Ace. Plus I had a flush draw, so I shoved on him. He called me with A9s for top two pair, but I drilled the flush on the river to double up.

After that I got away with a lot of blind stealing, especially around the bubble. Even after we were in the money, there were some guys playing ridiculously tight.

Eventually my luck couldn't hold. Everyone was pretty shallow, and my AKs lost to AQ. After 5 hours, I got twice my money back. Thankfully I was doing pretty well in cash games at the same time, so I was still up pretty substantially on the day. Here's a nice little series of hands from that match:


Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $2,156
Hero (BB): $4,281
UTG: $4,287
MP: $4,625.50
CO: $2,186
BTN: $1,436

Pre-Flop: 7 6 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG calls $20, 4 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($50) 8 5 9 (2 Players)
Hero bets $60, UTG calls $60

Turn: ($170) 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets $200, UTG calls $200

River: ($570) 6 (2 Players)
Hero bets $750, UTG calls $750

Results: $2,070 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 7 6 (a straight, Five to Nine) and WON $2,067 (+$1,037 NET)
UTG mucked 6 A and LOST (-$1,030 NET)


Note that I overbet every street with the flopped nuts. And he called down with a gutshot that rivered a weak pair. Naturally I was salivating to flop a set against him:

Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $2,173
Hero (BB): $5,385
UTG: $3,591
MP: $4,365.50
CO: $2,116
BTN: $1,990

Pre-Flop: 2 2 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG calls $20, MP calls $20, 2 folds, SB calls $10, Hero checks

Flop: ($80) 4 K 2 (4 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $80, UTG calls $80, MP folds, SB calls $80

Turn: ($320) A (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $285, UTG raises to $800, SB folds, Hero raises to $5,285 and is All-In, UTG calls $2,691 and is All-In

River: ($7,302) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $7,302 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 2 2 (three of a kind, Deuces) and WON $7,299 (+$3,708 NET)
UTG mucked 4 A and LOST (-$3,591 NET)

I was afraid overbetting again might be a give-away, since he was probably feeling dumb from before. At this point I was praying he would reload, which he did. Sadly, that proved to be bad for me:

Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: $2,013
Hero (MP): $9,083
CO: $2,000
BTN: $3,763.50
SB: $2,056
BB: $2,708

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $88, CO calls $68, 3 folds

Flop: ($166) T Q 8 (2 Players)
Hero bets $180, CO raises to $360, Hero raises to $8,995, CO calls $1,542

Turn: ($3,970) 6 (2 Players)

River: ($3,970) 9 (2 Players)

Results: $3,970 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A A (a pair of Aces) and LOST (-$1,970 NET)
CO showed J A (a straight, Eight to Queen) and WON $4,017 (+$2,047 NET)


I wasn't thrilled to see him min-raise this flop, but obviously I am not folding AA to this clown. Oh well, can't win them all. It was still a sweet day, despite this, a few other beats/coolers, and the close-but-so-far finish in the 100r.

Labels: FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, rebuy, semi-bluff, session review, single table tournament

Stumble It!

The ninth Full Tilt Online Poker Series commenced on Wednesday with a $200 NLHE freezeout. I lasted only about two hours, and this was the closest thing to an interesting hand I could find:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP2: 4,730
CO: 2,095
BTN: 8,050
SB: 7,455
Hero (BB): 4,250
UTG: 2,160
UTG+1: 3,360
UTG+2: 3,610
MP1: 2,150

Pre-Flop: (300) K Q dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls 200, 4 folds, BTN calls 200, SB calls 100, Hero checks

Flop: (800) 2 7 Q (4 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, BTN checks

Turn: (800) 6 (4 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets 550, UTG+1 raises to 1,600, 3 folds

Results: 1,900 Pot
UTG+1 mucked and WON 1,900 (+1,150 NET)


I think this is pretty close, and I'm not sure I made the right decision. I probably would have called a shove, but Villain left himself about 1600 behind, which I think he's way less likely to do with a hand that he doesn't think is best. I was also pretty sure he would have bet top pair on the flop, and I thought it showed strength that he waited until the turn to show aggression.

I also made two tight folds in the Stars weekly $320, but I don't think either of these is all that close:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (8 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Button (t3000)
Hero (t3000)
BB (t3000)
UTG (t3000)
UTG+1 (t3000)
MP1 (t3000)
MP2 (t3000)
CO (t3000)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Qh, Qs.
5 folds, Button raises to t60, SB raises to t200, BB calls t180, Button folds.

Flop: (t460) 2d, 7s, 2h (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t240, Hero calls t240.

Turn: (t940) 6s (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks.

River: (t940) 3s (2 players)
SB bets t660, BB raises to t2560, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t2260

Results in white below:

BB doesn't show.

Outcome: BB wins t2260.


This isn't really a tough fold, but I'm not sure I played the hand well earlier. Villain was pretty good, and I pretty much turned my hand face up. But knowing that, I can comfortably fold here, because I don't think he would try to bluff me off an overpair. I'm not sure what else I can do, maybe bet the flop? I think he just had a bigger overpair and I was destined to lose some money.


Poker Stars, $300 + $20 NL Hold'em Tournament, 15/30 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 1,945
Hero (BTN): 1,800
SB: 3,440
BB: 9,735
UTG: 1,450
UTG+1: 2,775
UTG+2: 2,970
MP1: 5,650
MP2: 3,095

Pre-Flop: (45) K Q dealt to Hero (BTN)
5 folds, CO raises to 90, Hero calls 90, SB calls 75, BB folds

Flop: (300) J 5 Q (3 Players)
SB checks, CO bets 240, Hero calls 240, SB folds

Turn: (780) J (2 Players)
CO checks, Hero checks

River: (780) J (2 Players)
CO bets 1,615 and is All-In, Hero folds

Results: 780 Pot
CO mucked and WON 780 (+450 NET)


I nearly folded the flop here. When he bets big into two players on this flop, I think he usually has AQ+. It's an easy fold to an overbet shove on the river.

Needless to say, I didn't end up doing well in either of these tournaments. I'm playing FTOPS Event 4, which is a $300 1 rebuy/1 add-on, as I write this. Can't say I'm of to a good start, though: forty minutes in, and I'm down to 1300 chips (at 25/50) from the starting 4000 (because I rebought).

Labels: 3-bet, continuation bet, FTOPS, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, Poker Stars, poker strategy, session review, tournament

Stumble It!

Can't complain about this. All three of these hands were from a single session at the same table over the course of about four hours:


Poker Stars, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $5,611.45
BB: $750
UTG: $800
UTG+1: $5,175
MP1: $6,785
MP2: $9,729.30
Hero (CO): $5,000
BTN: $925

Pre-Flop: T T dealt to Hero (CO)
3 folds, MP2 raises to $200, Hero calls $200, 3 folds

Flop: ($475) 4 T A (2 Players)
MP2 bets $350, Hero raises to $900, MP2 raises to $9,529.30 and is All-In, Hero calls $3,900 and is All-In

Turn: ($10,075) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($10,075) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $10,075 Pot ($3 Rake)
MP2 showed Q A (two pair, Aces and Eights) and LOST (-$5,000 NET)
Hero showed T T (a full house, Tens full of Eights) and WON $10,072 (+$5,072 NET)




Poker Stars, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


BB: $5,511.45
UTG: $2,044
UTG+1: $1,397
UTG+2: $800
MP1: $5,150
MP2: $7,010
CO: $4,729.30
Hero (BTN): $9,933
SB: $950

Pre-Flop: 8 8 dealt to Hero (BTN)
6 folds, Hero raises to $133, SB folds, BB raises to $585, Hero calls $452

Flop: ($1,195) 3 2 8 (2 Players)
BB bets $1,000, Hero calls $1,000

Turn: ($3,195) J (2 Players)
BB bets $2,450, Hero raises to $6,250, BB calls $1,476.45 and is All-In

River: ($11,047.90) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $11,047.90 Pot ($3 Rake)
BB showed A K (a pair of Deuces) and LOST (-$5,511.45 NET)
Hero showed 8 8 (a full house, Eights full of Deuces) and WON $11,044.90 (+$5,533.45 NET)


Poker Stars, $25/$50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $12,318
UTG+2: $2,047
MP1: $4,850
MP2: $4,106
CO: $6,108
BTN: $5,000
SB: $925
Hero (BB): $13,116.45
UTG: $3,394

Pre-Flop: 6 5 dealt to Hero (BB)
3 folds, MP1 raises to $150, MP2 calls $150, 3 folds, Hero calls $100

Flop: ($475) 6 5 9 (3 Players)
Hero bets $311, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $311

Turn: ($1,097) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $777, MP2 raises to $1,554, Hero raises to $12,655.45 and is All-In, MP2 calls $2,091 and is All-In

River: ($8,387) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $8,387 Pot ($3 Rake)
MP2 showed and LOST (-$4,106 NET)
Hero showed 6 5 and LOST (-$4,106 NET)

Labels: full ring, NLHE, poker, Poker Stars, poker strategy

Stumble It!

I just happened to notice this post on fellow Poker Savvy Plus pro Dani "Ansky" Stern's blog. He posted the details on PokerHand, but I find it annoying to click a link just to see the action, so here's my summary:

Dani's playing 10/20 heads up no limit almost 250 BB deep. He 3-bets KJo from the BB and calls a small 4-bet. The flop comes 632r, and they check it through. Turn is an Ace, Dani checks, his opponent bets $400, Dani raises to $1000, the guy moves all in $4000, and Dani calls with King-high no draw. His opponent has J7, and Dani wins the pot.

What was he thinking? Visit his blog to find out.

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, bluff, heads up, NLHE, Poker Savvy

Stumble It!

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

Hero (BTN): $2,517
SB: $1,000
BB: $1,888.75
UTG: $5,702.90
CO: $1,017

Pre-Flop: A T dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, Hero raises to $30, SB raises to $90, Hero calls $60

Flop: ($180) K A K (2 Players)
SB bets $180, Hero calls $180

Turn: ($540) K (2 Players)
SB bets $540, Hero folds

Results: $540 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB mucked and WON $537 (+$267 NET)


I knew nothing about this player, but I don't really ever expect a random to be bluffing here. So basically I'm either chopping or losing to quads/Aces full, and a chop isn't that much more likely.

Labels: 6-max, deep stacks, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

I played my first online session in weeks tonight, and it went great. Mostly just running well, though I do think I chose my spots well. I also may not have gotten paid off on the river here if I hadn't gotten tricksy:

Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: $2,187.50
Hero (CO): $2,327
BTN: $2,909
SB: $2,22
BB: $2,000
UTG: $380

Pre-Flop: 7 5 dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP calls $20, Hero calls $20, BTN raises to $120, 2 folds, MP calls $100, Hero calls $100

Flop: ($390) 5 2 8 (3 Players)
MP checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $260, MP folds, Hero calls $260

Turn: ($910) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $444, BTN calls $444

River: ($1,798) 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $400, Hero raises to $1,503 and is All-In, BTN calls $1,103

Results: $4,804 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 7 5 (three of a kind, Fives) and WON $4,801 (+$2,474 NET)
BTN mucked T T and LOST (-$2,327 NET)


MP was a fish and I wanted to get into the pot with him. If this were heads up with the button, I'd have folded to the pre-flop raise. I led the turn because I expected BTN to check back damn near 100% of his range. I also thought it might look weak if I bet kind of small.

On the river, then, I expect him either to have a float or a pair. If he's got a float, he's obviously not calling a river shove, but he'll bluff at it if I check. If he's got a pair, he may or may not call a shove, but he'll almost certainly bet it for value if I check. This is why it's important to notice players who will make thin value bets. When playing live, I think you have to bet this on the river because plenty of people won't even value bet Kings here. So I felt like I'd get one bet in for sure on the river, and then he could either call me or not when I shoved.

Labels: 6-max, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, river check-raise

Stumble It!

Thanks for all the support guys. Today was ridiculous, such a tough table for most of the day, fought tooth and nail to get up to 2 mil then got moved to softer table and picked up quick 2 mil. Alex is an amazing player, had some awful luck today and kept coming back. Even on my right he was ridiculously tough to play against. He deserved to finish higher, but for selfish reasons, not sorry to see him go. Roothlus and Gbecks on my left, also very solid of course. Raptor got moved to table at end of day, but then I was moved not long after. Gah I feel like I've been dangling by the seat of my pants for four days now.

Sorry I don't have a pic with chips stacked up, but believe me that bag was heavy as hell and weighted down with beautiful green chips worth 25K each. I look forward to ripping it open and stacking it all up tomorrow while the rest of my table drools with jealousy.

Here's a wild hand: Alex on my right is super LAG, has been opening like 30% of pots. I've 3-bet a couple of times, recently he called OOP with 87s, check-raise bluffed a K-high flop, and showed when I folded. He told me to stop 3-betting him. I did.

Few orbits later, blinds 10K/20K/3K, he opens to 55K UTG+1, I call, tight player in HJ raises to 200K, Alex calls, I shove for 1 million, tight guy tanks and folds K's face up. Alex folds and tells me he had AK. Deliberately not revealing my hand here, but what do you think of their folds?

Another one, late in the day, I have 3M. Fat middle-aged guy from GA with like 1.5M opens to 80K at 12/24/3, I flat with AKo, everyone else folds. Flop Q44 he bets 125K I call. Turn A he bets 300K I call. River blank he bets 500K I tank. He doesn't seem like the type to triple barrel bluff, and I can't imagine I beat anything he's value betting. I'm afraid he has AQ. I tank some more and try to talk to him.

"Aren't you afraid I have a 4? Did that cross your mind?" No response.

"I wish I knew more about you sir. All I know is you are from Georgia." No response.

Finally I call, he tables KQ. I show AK, and he mucks angrily and asks, "How do you call the flop when I fire?"

I ignore him.

"You call with nothing on the flop?" he asks again.

"Sorry sir, but you wouldn't answer any of my questions," I tell him as I stack his chips.

I'm second overall, with 79 remaining. $77,000 locked up.

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, narrative, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, tournament, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

Seat 1: Garrett Beckman – 515,000
Seat 2: Allen Carter – 413,000
Seat 3: Brad Johnson – 237,000
Seat 4: Reagan Silber – 671,000
Seat 5: Brent Sheirbon – 919,000
Seat 6: Pontus Khosravi – 629,000
Seat 7: Alexander Kostritsyn – 1,137,000
Seat 8: Andrew Brokos – 678,000
Seat 9: Anthony Clark – 397,000

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I'm listed as Andrew Brooks on Poker News, finished the day with 566,500. That's down a fair bit from my peak of 750K but a hell of a lot better than the 65K I started with. I finished level 1 still at 65K, then won a flip for my life against Brandon Adams AK >JJ. After that I won two more big pots against Brandon when he bluffed into my top pair and another with top pair against another really aggressive guy on Brandon's right. I 4-bet AA pre-flop against the same dude, maybe not the best way to play it, but got a decent pot regardless. Then I busted one guy QQ > TT, then busted Mike Mercedes (whom I later learned was MikeyMer- we dropped the ball on that one, research team) with shoving Q9 over his check-raise on a 984 flop to bust his A8. That was all during level 2.

After that I mostly just played good until the bubble, then dropped a brutal beat on some poor bastard named Mitch. We were hand for hand with 668 players left, I raised to 9K (at 1500/3000/400) UTG with 87s because this shorter stack was in the BB. He called, and we saw a Q87 flop. He lead out, I shoved, he called and flipped 77. I'm a sonofabitch and rivered an 8 to bubble him.

Last level I dropped nearly 200K, but I don't think I did anything spewy. Just raised decent hands pre-flop and either missed flops or folded to 3-bets or called 3-bets in good spots but missed flop. No regrets, and still in good shape for today.

We don't start until 1:00, but I'm going for breakfast now. Here's my table draw, looks favorable at first glance, though I haven't googled anyone yet. I'll be doing some research of my own after breakfast, but anything you want to e-mail to me would be greatly appreciated.

245 Huyen Vo Houston Texas 224000 O22 1

174 Graddus Terwiss Cha Van 0 DNR 318000 O22 2

299 Randy Benton Rolla Missouri 176000 O22 3

89 Hai Bo Chu Melbourne Australia 453500 O22 4

18 James Mills Downey California 757000 O22 6 (2_2)

467 Aleksandar Rasic Troy New York 35000 O22 7

255 Cedric Kolstad Mesa Arizona 217000 O22 8

50 Andrew Brokos 566,500 9

Thank to everyone who's been leaving comments as well. It's great to know people are cheering for me, and I'm flattered to have fans I didn't even know existed!

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, NLHE, poker, session review, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Here's my Day 3 lineup. I've never played with Brandon Adams, but from what I've heard, he's very good. I played with Liv last night, she tells me she's a professional, but I didn't think she was especially tough. Very nice, though, and achingly beautiful. I can't say I mind having her at the table one bit. Benvenuti is apparently a pretty successful internet tournament player, though with his current chip stack he won't be a big threat. Peter Hedlund and Michael Meredith have played several big tournaments around the world this year, but hasn't done anything significant in any of them.

Brandon Adams 353,600 O04 01
Mirza Nagji 109,200 O04 02
Irvin Hoffman 31,000 O04 03
Michael Benvenuti 21,400 O04 04
Dominic Prunko 86,500 O04 05
Andrew Brokos 65,100 O04 06
Peter Hedlund 61,300 O04 07
Liv Boeree 36,000 O04 08
Michael Meredith 83,000 O04 09

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Wow crazy today. Climbed steadily to 145K by dinner, got 100K in drawing dead, pulled out AK > JJ for a 90K coin flip, sucked out 6c 3c > AQ on a Qc 4c 4x flop (running straight, baby!), won 12K 22 > AK to get up to 180K, then got rivered for 20K, made some bluffs and a bad call, didn't adapt well to my image and kept getting re-raised, finally ended day with 65K. Average is probably like 100K, blinds going to be 800/1600/200. So I'm not in great shape, but very much in the fight.

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

The numbers are in, and 6,844 players entered the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Fewer than half survived Day 1, and only about 1/3 of those will survive Day 2. Hopefully I will be among them.

I've done some research to learn my Day 2 seating assignment along with the players and chip stacks against whom I'll be competing. Here's the table:

George Price 35,700
James Viglizzo 10,900
Bernd Hirschberg 32,750
Thomas Wayne 11,125
Andrew Brokos 67,125
Drew Matheson 64,925
Steve Wong 43,350
Duane Woolsey 44,850
J McLane 16,525

There's a lot of good news here. I've got the most chips of anyone and far more than most. Google wasn't able to turn up much on most of these players, suggesting that they are probably amateurs with limited poker knowledge/experience.

The bad news is that the players who are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in chips are all lined up on my left. This means I will have to act before them in most pots, putting me at a distinct disadvantage against them. There are also not that many chips at our table. While that means there are fewer threats to my survival, there are also fewer chips for me to win. There's no prize for surviving Day 2, and if I do survive, I'm going to need every chip I can get for future days.

The only recognizable player here is Steve Wong. Steve is a professional originally from Hoofdorp, outside of Amsterdam. He was a very successful tournament player online and has now had a lot of live success as well. There's an interview with him on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F9YV6vC6cM.

Be sure to check out the comments to this post throughout the day, as I'm going to ask a few friends to post comments with update chip counts and maybe some key hands as well.

Labels: NLHE, personal, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I finished my first day at the WSOP with 67,125. I think the average is like 40-50K, so I can't complain. But I was up over 100K with 30 minutes to go and got myself in a really bad spot. I raised K4s to 1100 UTG (tight table, end of the day, especially tight BB) and got called by the CO, who called me fairly often and had nearly 50K in chips.

Flop was Kc 4c 5s, I bet 2000, he called. Turn 2s, I bet 6000, he raised to 24,000 with about 12,000 behind. I had a bad feeling, but 55/44, a total of four combinations, was about the only thing I could plausibly put him on that beat me. I tried talking to him, and he seemed kind of confident but I didnt' feel like he wanted a call either. Eventually I stuck the rest in, and he called so reluctantly that I thought I was good. But he did have 55, and I did not hit my two outer. The more I think about it, the more I think this was a fold.

Oh well, still in good shape. I play again Wednesday. Need to sleep now, but I'll post more later.

Labels: NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

After working most of the morning, I got to the Rio about 4:30 and wandered through the Gaming Life Expo. It was pretty disappointing, way fewer scantily clad women than in past years. There were long lines to meet Chris Moneymaker and Doyle Brunson, but there was no wait for Dario Minieri or David Sklansky. I elected to meet no one.

I planned to get dinner in about an hour, and rather than spend half that time waiting for a cash table, I decided to play a $1K one table satellite, figuring that would take about an hour. Two and a half hours later, I busted in 4th. The blind levels seemed longer than last year, which ordinarily I'd be fine with, but this time I played specifically because I wanted it to be short.

Before we got started, a loud fat guy with a deep voice and unkempt facial and chest hair collected $300 from six of us for a last longer. Two of the six were the first two to bust, which was nice, and they both busted to non-participants.

A few seats to my left was a dude from Indianapolis who owned a business selling sports jerseys. He was talking about how bad the first guys to bust had played and how the pros back in Indiana had warned him there would be terrible play in Las Vegas. In these spots, I am always torn between commiserating because he's right or recognizing that in all likelihood he is also pretty bad.

A couple of hands later, a guy limps in with K2s, overcalls a raise, and ends up stacking KQ when he turns two pair. Indianapolis starts snickering and talking none too subtly about how bad it was to limp-call K2s.

"Oh man [chortle]. Wow. Wow, that is ridiculous. I mean [chuckle] gawd damn, K2s. That's crazy. Whoo. Well, buddy, at least you can get one of those shirts from the gift shop that says, 'But they were suited.' [pause] Wow."

I am glowering at him, and when I catch his eye, I shake my head disapprovingly.

"What?" he asks.

"Don't talk about people who are still at the table."

He laughs at me. "All I said was, 'Wow.'" I sighed and turned up my Ipod. Thankfully I got to bust him when he shoved KQ for 12x UTG and I woke up with AK in the BB. I also won a big flip with JJ > AK to come into a commanding chip lead with five players remaining.

The hairy fat guy was the only other one left in the last longer, and he started talking deal. "You want to each take back our $300?"

I shake my head no. I have more than twice as many chips as he does.

"OK, OK, you take 300, I take 200."

"Whatever. Fine." I shrug and let him have it. He's been going on and on about how he's a professional parimutuel gambler and he makes so much money playing dogs and blah blah blah but he is begging for $200. Whatever.

Then we get down to four-handed, I still have a nice lead, and he wants to talk deal in the tournament. I'm not even engaging him in conversation, just shaking my head no. There's an old Brit at the table who doesn't want it either, so Hairy Fat Fat and the K2 Fish bond over how ridiculous and cheap the Brit Nit and I are.

Blinds go up, some chips change hands, and now Brit Nit is short but the three of us have roughly the same. "Can we take back 1K each now?"

I shake my head.

"Come on, jesus. We have the same number of chips. Just, like, I mean, psychologically, I don't know, I don't like to leave with my tail between my legs. Come on, man. Just take your $1K back then you're playing for profit."

"He's too short," I say, pointing at the Brit.

"Come on, that's like $300 we're giving him. You're being stubborn over $300? OK, can we at least chop up the last longer?"

Jesus, will you shut up with your deals? This guy wasn't awful, but I was clearly better than he was, and I was pretty sure he wasn't going to play well when blinds were big either. I kept shaking my head, and the guy was getting angrier and angrier. "I'm going to enjoy busting you," he tells me. "I'm going to enjoy coming from behind to bust you."

Honestly, I think the retarded deals that people will make increase the EV of these satellites. But that only helps when you are on the good end of them. If you can get someone to let you take your buyin back when you are the short stack, or to chop it 50/50 heads up no matter how big a deficit you're in, that's awesome. But it's annoying as hell when these guys won't shut up about deals that hurt my equity.

Blinds jump from 400/800 to 600/1200, Brit Nit folds, and the other three of us all have 13-16K. K2 Fish open limps the button, which isn't garbage but is far from exclusively primo holdings. I look at Q2 in the SB and decide to shove for 13K. It was the first big move I'd made, having played extremely tight thus far. Unfortunately, Hairy woke up with AJ in the BB, agonized for a while, and called.

I was hoping he would brag or express shock that I had Q2 or something, but instead, the three of them instantly started talking deal. I think my shove is perfectly fine/good, just sucks that he woke up with AJ. I imagine he calls AT and probably folds A9. As for the fishy, I don't know what his calling standards were be, but I'm sure he folds often enough to make the shove profitable.

After dinner I played some 5/10 cash, since there wasn't a 10/25 going. I