This is going to be a blockbuster photo dump without too much commentary and with zero (well, almost zero) poker content. If you don’t give two shits what some guy you don’t know is doing on his vacation, then you can go ahead and skip this post now.

Alkmaar

Our first stop in the Netherlands was Alkmaar, a small city in North Holland. The town itself was charming enough, but mostly it served as a base for making a few day trips in the region. The most famous thing about Alkmaar is probably its cheese market, where men in traditional clothing run around carrying huge wheels of cheese out into a market square. It’s no longer a real market – purely a tourist attraction – and it’s extremely boring. There is some neat stuff to see around the town, though:

The view from our hotel

That's not a canal - it's a moat!

A narrow sidestreet in Alkmaar (the main streets aren't so scenic - they look more like shopping malls)

Egmond

A short bus ride from Almaar brought us to Egmond, a seaside town that happens also to be within bicycling distance of some lovely tulip fields. We rented bikes and set out, more or less following a designated “Bloemen Route” between vibrantly colored rows of flowers and quaint little houses (and a few gaudier, newly built homes):  Read the complete post...

After the popularity of the What’s Your Play? Street-by-Street in the WSOP Main Event edition, I’ve been on the look-out for another hand to present in the same way. In one of the first SCOOP events last Sunday, the $2100 SCOOP-2-H, I believe I found a good one.

I’m the Hero. Villain is a regular in the mid- to high-stakes 6-handed NLHE games on PokerStars. We’ve played together a fair bit, though I couldn’t tell you what he thinks of me. He’s active in those games, playing something like 25/22 with a 70% Fold to 3-Bet and 20% 4-Bet. Of course it’s open to interpretation how that would translate to the early stages of a 9-handed tournament. Overall he’s a smart player and good hand reader and almost certainly a winner in those rather tough games.

It’s still very early in the tournament, and neither of us has done anything too significant. The table isn’t soft, but it’s probably par for the course in an online $2K.

PokerStars – $2000+$100|30/60 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 9,290.00
UTG: 9,903.00
UTG+1: 11,228.00
Hero (UTG+2): 10,517.00
MP: 7,131.00
MP+1: 11,411.00
CO: 14,790.00
BTN: 6,490.00
SB: 9,240.00

SB posts SB 30.00, BB posts BB 60.00

Pre Flop: (pot: 90.00) Hero has Qh Qs  Read the complete post...

The weather in Berlin looked iffy, but after nearly an hour on the train to Oranienburg, the sun was shining and the sky was a clear and beautiful blue. Foregoing the bus, we had a nice stroll of about 1.5 miles through quiet suburban streets.

We later learned that prisoners bound for the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen sometimes arrived by more or less the same route, taking a public train from Berlin to Oranienburg where they were paraded through the streets. Residents of the town were encouraged to shout and throw stones.

I stepped off of the sidewalk to make way for an old woman on a bike. As she passed, she gave me a merry “Danke schön!” It was the friendliest interaction we’d had with a random German on the street, most of whom seemed brusque and withdrawn. At the end of the block she dismounted and walked into a house directly across the street from the entrance to the concentration camp cum museum and memorial. How does anyone, let alone some so cheery, live across the street from such a place?

Finding the idea of picnicking in a concentration camp odd, Emily and I sat on a bench at a bus stop just outside and ate the sandwiches we’d purchased at the train station. It turns out that one of the old camp administration buildings is now a cafe, but we weren’t expecting any food to be available inside.  Read the complete post...

My latest poker strategy article, Worrying About a Raise, has just been published in the May issue of Two Plus Two Magazine. Broadly speaking, it’s about how to assess the merits of pot control vs. hand protection and building the pot:

A mistaken check can be expensive. Not only does it cost you the equity you would have accumulated from worse hands that would have called, but it sometimes costs you a much larger third value bet that you could have made on the river had you built the pot on the turn. Checking can also cost you a bet from hands that would have paid off on the turn but not on the river, and in worst case scenarios it can cost you the pot when a hand that would have folded gets to see the river for free.

The May issue of the magazine is just now being published, ten days into the month, because of the hacking and subsequent forum downtime at Two Plus Two. I know that a lot of people are frustrated by this, particularly those with SCOOP and/or WSOP packages to sell on the marketplace, but I actually think that Mason Malmuth et al deserve considerable praise for the decision to shut down the forums rather than put sensitive user information at further risk.  Read the complete post...

When I first posted our tentative Europe itinerary, a lot of people questioned why we were spending so much time in Amsterdam. Well, there are only so many countries from which one can easily play on PokerStars.com, and we found a pretty sweet apartment in Amsterdam that we could rent for the full two weeks. It was a touch outside of what we’d budgeted for lodging, but a couple of key points sold us on it:

1. Washer/dryer - This may not seem like a big deal, but we’re carrying virtually everything we’re going to use for three months (minus a few items mailed ahead to our penultimate destination in Germany) on our backs, which means very limited clothing. Nearly everything we have with us is quick drying non-cotton, for ease of washing in hotel sinks, but it’s nice not to have to do that.

2. Monitor - The owner of the apartment agreed that I could use his computer monitor while we’re here, which of course is tremendous for playing poker. It’s especially helpful since the computer I have with me is extremely small. I love how lightweight it is, since remember I have to carry it everywhere on my back, but the small screen does make poker tricky.

3. Rooftop terrace - This was the real selling point. Check out this view:  Read the complete post...

High

Never really got anything going in the $2K. Played one interesting hand that you’ll see in a “What’s Your Play?” feature, but other than that pretty much just grinded down to half starting stack then got it in on a flip and lost.

Medium

Kind of interesting bustout hand in this one. I was suspicious of Villain’s turn check, but I had such a good semi-bluffing hand that I went for it anyway. I definitely check behind a non-heart turn. You do see people making those little check-raises sometimes just as a cheap steal attempt because they know you are continuation betting a lot, so I was hoping that was what was going on here:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP1) (t14148)
MP2 (t10330)
MP3 (t11346)
CO (t29033)
Button (t13114)
SB (t16577)
BB (t5082)
UTG (t41931)
UTG+1 (t46386)

Hero’s M: 13.47

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 9♥, 10♥
2 folds, Hero bets t800, 4 folds, SB calls t600, BB calls t400

Flop: (t2850) 7♠, 2♥, 8♦ (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t1444, SB raises to t2888, 1 fold, Hero calls t1444

Turn: (t8626) K♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t10410 (All-In), SB calls t10410  Read the complete post...

High

I busted the $2K turning top pair into a bluff in a blind battle. I thought he was probably light on the turn, so I called planning to call blank rivers. His sizing on the river, combined with the fact that I felt I could represent a flush draw pretty well, convinced me to turn my pair into a bluff.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2100 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t25653)
UTG (t57814)
MP (t17922)
CO (t22938)
Button (t11401)
SB (t45147)

Hero’s M: 28.50

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5♥, K♣
4 folds, SB bets t840, Hero calls t440

Flop: (t1980) 3♣, 9♦, 10♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t777, SB calls t777

Turn: (t3534) K♠ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t1888, SB raises to t4812, Hero calls t2924

River: (t13158) 8♦ (2 players)
SB bets t5263, Hero raises to t19174 (All-In), SB calls t13911

Total pot: t51506

Results:
SB had 7♣, 6♥ (straight, ten high).
Hero had 5♥, K♣ (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: SB won t51506

In some sense this is a one-outer, since the 8d is the only card on which he gets my whole stack. On diamonds that don’t complete his draw, there’s a good chance he bluffs me out, though, so there were actually quite a few good rivers for him.  Read the complete post...

Thanks to everyone who commented on last week’s “What’s Your Play? Four Flush on the River” post.

Calling

I want to begin my analysis by quickly ruling out calling as an option. Virtually every hand Villain would have called to the river now beats us: middle pair made trips on the turn, clubs got there, and top pair has a better kicker. Even the few straight draws that missed will sometimes have made some small flushes.

Moreover, Villain can have a relatively wide value range. I’d expect even a somewhat weak player to throw out a small value bet with the Tc when checked to. His value bets outweigh his bluffs with worse hands by so much that we can’t call with the bottom of our range.

Bluffing

Though several commenters discussed bluffing, only Jeff put it in the context of game theory. Game theoretically optimal play entails bluffing with the bottom of your range. For the same reasons that Villain is unlikely to hold a weak hand, so is Hero. I would rarely bet the flop and turn with a hand that would be weaker than K5 on this river. That is in itself an argument for bluffing.  Read the complete post...