Posts Tagged ‘4-bet’

The second installment of my trip report from the 2011 World Series of Poker main event is now appearing in the September edition of 2+2 Magazine. It covers my experiences on Days 3, 4, and 5:

There are people who are good at poker, and then there are people who are downright intimidating, players who are ready to fight for literally every pot that they believe they can win. A player like that is not someone you want on your left when you have a lot of chips. I tightened up my game pre-emptively, folding hands I otherwise would have raised because I knew that Gonzalez was waiting to attack me and I needed better than average cards to stand up to him. I watched him give hell to a lot of others at the table.

If you haven’t read Part 1, you can find it here.

In other news, the weather here in Canmore has been fascinating. Last week it was warm, sunny, and clear. This week clouds rolled in, blanketing the valley in fog and rain. Today they started to clear, and through the breaks in the clouds you can see all the snow that fell in the mountains. I never realized the extent to which the weather could be both cloudy and sunny at the same time!

In a recent mailbag, I discussed the potential for exploiting players who size bets one way when they want to induce a raise and another when they don’t. I had the opportunity to take advantage of such a player last Sunday.

I’d already folded to re-raises twice  this orbit, so I probably had a bit of a weak-LAG image going on, ie it looked like I was stealing a lot but giving up easily. Villain was new to the table, so I didn’t know anything about his raise sizing, but I could from even preliminary stats (something like 30/25) that he was aggressive and didn’t like to give up pots. I didn’t expect him to take kindly to a blatant steal of his BB. That, combined with the fact that his re-raise was uncommonly small when could have set me up very well to shove on him led me to think he was light. I risked more than I ordinarily would on a light 4-bet, but based on his sizing he really seemed like he wasn’t going to call:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 25 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t14399)
BB (t22144)
UTG (t12436)
UTG+1 (t6698)
MP1 (t27056)
MP2 (t7691)
MP3 (t17795)
Hero (CO) (t13200)
Button (t23608)

Hero’s M: 19.56  Read the complete post...

Thanks to everyone who commented on the latest What’s Your Play? If you haven’t already, please take a look at the original post and think about what you’d do before you read my thoughts and the results.

With Hero’s commanding chip lead and the fact that Villain is in 2nd/3rd place with more than twice as many chips as some of the short stacks, this looks like a good spot to play the bully… and that’s precisely why it isn’t. Not too many of you were fooled by this, so good for you!

As I was watching this hand, I thought to myself, “Oh BB has got a huge hand here.” Sure enough, Hero shoved his T8s and lost to AKo, which honestly was about the weakest hand I expected to see from Villain.

The distribution of chips, with so many concentrated in the hands of one player and the rest distributed relatively evenly among the other eight makes this similar to a satellite bubble. The correct strategy for the shorter stacks is avoid risking elimination until others have been eliminated. Even doubling up will leave any one of those guys in a distant second (or worse), so he has a lot more to lose by busting than he has to gain by doubling.  Read the complete post...

Edit: Sorry, I made a significant typo when posting this. As many of you realized, the BB is actually 250K, not 500K.

With the WCOOP coming up in barely a week, here’s a “What’s Your Play?” that focuses on tournament play. This is a hand that occurred early at the final table of last week’s PokerStars Sunday Million, which I was hosting. I’m not able to get the hand history, but here are the relevant details:

Hero and Villain recognize each other as the two most capable players at the table and have been the most active so far. Hero has accumulated a huge stack through heavy (but controlled and generally very good) aggression and good luck on the final table bubble. He’s been appropriately aggressive so far at the final table, with a lot (but not too many) min-raises pre-flop. He’s twice 3-bet the other medium stack at the table, once picking up the pot and once folding to a shove. Hero and Villain have not yet tangled at the final table.

SB 1,878,787 after posting 125,000 SB
BB (Villain) 7,774,233 after posting 250,000 BB
UTG 7,026,299
UTG+1 2,550,514
UTG+2 3,909,483
MP1 2,201,536
MP2 (Hero) 32,406,413
CO 2,840,833
BN 4,061,972

Everyone has anted 25,000. Action folds to Hero, who min-raises to 500,000 with T8s. Action folds to Villain who re-raises to 1,450,000. What’s Hero’s play?  Read the complete post...

Pretty sure I’ve used that title before, but that just goes to show you what a nit I can be in these silly tournaments. Check out this one, where I 3-bet-fold AKo with a 21BB stack. UTG+1 is very active but seems good. I previously 3-bet him from the button with this same size and folded to a 4-bet. Obviously I intend to stack off to him.

The cold caller is a fish, don’t mind his getting involved too much. The BB has been playing SUPER nitty, like 13/9 with 16% ATS. He is risking nearly 60BB vs. the UTG+1 raiser who still has a live hand.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 25 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t24889)
Hero (MP2) (t5341)
MP3 (t8975)
CO (t7176)
Button (t13816)
SB (t11246)
BB (t17704)
UTG (t10097)
UTG+1 (t14679)

Hero’s M: 8.90

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K, A

1 fold, UTG+1 bets t500, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1111, 1 fold, CO calls t1111, 2 folds, BB raises to t17679 (All-In), 3 folds

This one is crazier and less good. I was ready to fold to the 3-bet until I saw Villain’s stats. He’s 44/33, though I hadn’t yet seen him 3-bet. I 4-bet intending to get it in, but his min-5-bet gave me pause:  Read the complete post...

Hero and Villain are heads up on four tables at Villain’s request. Villain bought in short at all four but promised not to quit no matter how big his stack got, and he’s been true to his word. He’s not a professional but has proven surprisingly capable. He is playing 71/60 with a 21% 3-bet and 49% Aggression Frequency. His c-bet % in 3-bet pots is 67%.

Hero is likely perceived as aggressive but good, have attempted some big bluffs and also some thin value bets. Hero has not folded often when in position on dry flops. He has taken stabs like this when checked to in the past, sometimes getting folds and sometimes not. Villain is the guy who made this call. Other than that there’s no history particularly relevant to this situation.

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

Hero (SB) ($2074)
BB ($1113.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K♦, J♥
Hero bets $20, BB raises to $66, Hero calls $46

Flop: ($132) 3♦, 5♦, 5♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $44, BB calls $44

Turn: ($220) 8♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $123, BB calls $123

River: ($466) 7♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero?

If you want to bet, please specify your size and your plan if raised. I’ll post my thoughts on Monday.

Part 1 of my trip report from the 2011 WSOP Main Event is now appearing in the August edition of 2+2 Magazine. This covers my first two days and includes everything you could want from the WSOP: big calls, big bluffs, scared money, fearsome Russians, surly Frenchmen, bad beats, and a pretty sweet value bet. Here’s a preview:

After some thought, my opponent moved all in for 36,500. This is another spot that I’d never put myself in online, betting without a plan for what I’d do if my opponent raised. In a live game, though, I have the added option of staring him down. I stared intently at him for a good three minutes not even thinking about anything in particular but just watching him and letting him sweat for a bit and trying to see what kind of a feel I could get from him.

When I decided that he’d basted in his own perspiration for long enough, I reached towards my chips and watched again for a reaction. He blinked and turned towards me a bit. That felt weak, but it wasn’t decisive, so I just made a note of it. Never taking my eyes off of him, I confirmed with the dealer the amount I would need to call. My opponent swallowed. I counted out the appropriate number of chips but held them in my hand, starting to lean towards a call but not having made up my mind yet. He blinked again and looked uncomfortable. I pushed the chips into the pot.  Read the complete post...

I owe you guys an apology. After sending a mysterious tweet from the table claiming that it was “literally a miracle” that I didn’t bust on a particular Day 6 hand, I took my merry time in providing any explanation and actually posted the hand in BBV before posting it here. So anyway, here’s the very fortunate turn of events that resulted in my confounding fate in the WSOP Main Event:

Blinds were 15K/30K/5K. I opened to 70K UTG with AA. John Esposito called in MP, Matt “Ch0ppy” Kay overcalled, and everyone else folded. Both Villains covered me.

The flop came K77. I bet 150K, John folded, and Matt called.

Turn was a blank, we both checked.

River K, I checked, he bet 250K, and I called. He quickly tabled pocket Kings for quads. “I did not see that you’d raised,” he told me as he scooped the pot.

As I mucked my Aces, I got a glimpse of an alternate universe where Kay reads the action correctly. He surely squeezes, and then I 4-bet, and then he shoves, and obviously I call with the nuts, but then he makes quads to send me to the rail.  Read the complete post...