Posts Tagged ‘6-max’

The next installment in the Thinking Poker Tournament Seminar series will be on Saturday, December 3rd, Noon-2 PM Eastern. The topic will be Playing Out of Position: Value Betting, Bluffing, and Getting to Showdown. Virtually all of the toughest spots in poker arise from playing out of position, and good players assume that they can get away with playing almost anything when they have position. Learn to punish them by giving them what they don’t expect: tough, creative opposition, even from out of position!

Thinking Poker Tournament Seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on the most common mistakes and skills gaps that I see in my NLHE tournament students. Each two-hour seminar costs $150 per person and is capped at five participants, to enable individualized attention and opportunities for everyone to ask questions and participate in discussions. The content is prepared and the discussion facilitated by me- it’s like an interactive poker video!

Participants will learn how to defend their blinds against late and early position raisers, how to deal with post-flop aggression, and how to pull-off the ever-vexing donk bet. In addition to the seminar itself, all participants receive a syllabus of recommended study materials to help prepare for the session and apply newly acquired skills in their future play.  Read the complete post...

We had an interesting discussion in last week’s Extracting Value seminar about slowplaying on wet boards (i.e. when there are a fair number of draws possible). It’s overall not a great idea, but I do advocate doing it with often with top set. Good hand readers don’t expect you to slowplay on such boards, and consequently they won’t give you credit for a big hand on future streets. Thus, I like to have a few strong hands in my checking range, and top set is usually a good candidate. Even if an opponent makes a flush or straight on the turn, top set has a lot of outs, and you usually aren’t missing out on a flop bet since it’s hard for an opponent to have a second best hand.

This isn’t the best example of a wet flop, but it is a good example of an opponent refusing to give me credit because I checked the flop:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 162 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 40 Ante (5 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t13725)
Hero (UTG) (t6371)
MP (t9263)
Button (t14823)
SB (t15087)

Hero’s M: 9.80

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 10♣, 10♦
Hero bets t750, 3 folds, BB calls t450

Flop: (t1850) 10♥, 5♥, 2♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks  Read the complete post...

This is from the PokerStars $150 6-max Sunday tournament. People are often surprised by calls that I make out of the big blind when I’m getting very good odds. I don’t know how helpful it is when I say things like, “The more you feel that you have a skill edge, the more you can get away with calling,” because everyone thinks he has a skill edge and besides that’s a hard thing to quantify. This is an extreme example, but the point is that you’ve got to be capable of getting pretty creative in terms of stealing pots from out of position. I’m not saying to attack every pot- far from it- but you can’t just call hoping to showdown your fair share of winning hands cheaply.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 162 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds 15 Ante (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t10373)
UTG (t9236)
MP (t5939)
CO (t6108)
Button (t8074)
SB (t4615)

Hero’s M: 38.42

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6♦, 3♦
3 folds, Button bets t280, 1 fold, Hero calls t160

Flop: (t710) 5♠, 5♥, 10♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: (t710) 4♣ (2 players)
Hero bets t472, Button calls t472

River: (t1654) A♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t550, Hero raises to t2444, 1 fold

Total pot: t2754  Read the complete post...

I didn’t expect Villain to much Kx in his flatting range. Then again, I wouldn’t have expected him to flat the hand he showed up with, either, so maybe that’s a bad read. In any event, I felt I was in very good shape versus his betting range but a call would freeze him up and probably after that he only puts money in the pot when I’m beat or a great bluffing card comes. So I decided to raise and call a shove:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (4 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($555)
Button ($184.30)
Hero (SB) ($498.40)
BB ($415)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, J
1 fold, Button bets $10, Hero raises to $28, 1 fold, Button calls $18

Flop: ($60) 3, K, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $20, Hero raises to $48, Button raises to $156.30 (All-In), Hero calls $108.30

Turn: ($372.60) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($372.60) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $372.60 | Rake: $2

Results:
Button had J, A (high card, Ace).
Hero had Q, J (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: Hero won $370.60

I’m really upset at myself for spewing off my stack in the 4-max. It’s such a fun tournament, especially in the early stages when everyone is really deep and trying to play loose aggressive. Many otherwise good tournament players are just clueless about playing wide ranges super-deep and seem to think that being deep is a justification for never folding anything preflop and that being shorthanded is a justification for never folding anything ever. So of course what do I decide to do but run some huge bluff. I accidentally left $6 behind, which in this case didn’t affect anything since Villain snap-shoved over my river bet and presumably had the nuts (I probably should have called just to see his hand, though I did run the $6 up to the $72 before getting bad beat!). I think in theory this is a fine line, but the way people were playing in this tournament he might not even fold like two-pair.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t4313)
SB (t7167)
BB (t4705)
UTG (t3795)

Hero’s M: 95.84

Preflop: Hero is Button with K♠, 8♠
1 fold, Hero bets t60, SB raises to t160, 1 fold, Hero calls t100

Flop: (t350) Q♣, 8♣, J♥ (2 players)
SB bets t250, Hero raises to t666, SB calls t416  Read the complete post...

I played so badly in the $265 that there weren’t even hands worth posting. Here are some interesting ones from the Second Chance, though.

The Villains in Hand 1 both have nitty pre-flop stats, so I think 7′s are extremely unlikely for either of them (not to mention that I’m not at all convinced either would play trips this way). Having the Ad in my hand is helpful because it makes it less likely anyone will have a flush draw he wants to get crazy with and also gives me a little equity against a stubborn pair or even the unlikely 7.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 134 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP) (t5676)
CO (t4624)
Button (t4255)
SB (t4780)
BB (t5603)
UTG (t4738)

Hero’s M: 126.13

Preflop: Hero is MP with J♣, A♦
UTG bets t75, Hero calls t75, CO calls t75, 1 fold, SB calls t60, BB calls t45

Flop: (t375) 7♥, 10♦, 7♦ (5 players)
SB bets t120, 1 fold, UTG raises to t270, Hero raises to t711, 3 folds

Total pot: t1035

Results:
Hero didn’t show J♣, A♦.
Outcome: Hero won t1035  Read the complete post...

Edit: Oh snap! I just saw that Villain in this hand went on to win the tournament! And it was his second WCOOP bracelet. Congratulations 2FLY2TILT!

I skipped the PL Draw event because I don’t know how to play that game, and I registered three hours into the Triple Stud because I wanted to be fresh for the $1000 NLHE rather than frustrated from three hours of Stud. I won a nice pot almost immediately in Razz, but it was all downhill from there. I think this is pretty standard for people who know something about Razz, but it illustrated the problem with trying to bluff in this game:
PokerStars Game #67119394260: Tournament #2011090008, $200+$15 USD Triple Stud (Razz Limit) – Level VIII (200/400) – 2011/09/06 14:48:20 MT [2011/09/06 16:48:20 ET]
Table ’2011090008 11′ 8-max
Seat 1: capoch (2998 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: 2FLY2TILT (5744 in chips)
Seat 3: kasparov007 (7808 in chips)
Seat 4: kimsen (5902 in chips)
Seat 5: johnny5rings (3754 in chips)
Seat 6: Ghoyteep (8772 in chips)
Seat 7: Terry_Toria (3799 in chips)
Seat 8: foucault82 (4960 in chips)
capoch: posts the ante 40
2FLY2TILT: posts the ante 40
kasparov007: posts the ante 40
kimsen: posts the ante 40
johnny5rings: posts the ante 40
Ghoyteep: posts the ante 40
Terry_Toria: posts the ante 40
foucault82: posts the ante 40
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to capoch [3s]
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd]
Dealt to kasparov007 [7s]
Dealt to kimsen [8s]
Dealt to johnny5rings [Tc]
Dealt to Ghoyteep [4d]
Dealt to Terry_Toria [Th]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s]
2FLY2TILT: brings in for 60
kasparov007: folds
kimsen: folds
johnny5rings: folds
Ghoyteep: folds
Terry_Toria: folds
foucault82: raises 140 to 200
capoch: folds
2FLY2TILT: calls 140
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd] [5h]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s] [Qd]
2FLY2TILT: bets 200
foucault82: calls 200
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd 5h] [Jh]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd] [Qc]
2FLY2TILT: bets 400
foucault82: calls 400
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd 5h Jh] [5s]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc] [8h]
foucault82: bets 400
2FLY2TILT: calls 400
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc 8h] [Ks]
foucault82: checks
2FLY2TILT: bets 400
foucault82: calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
2FLY2TILT: shows [3d Ac Jd 5h Jh 5s Ad] (Lo: A,A,J,5,3)
foucault82: shows [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc 8h Ks] (Lo: Q,8,7,4,3)
foucault82 collected 3520 from pot  Read the complete post...

I played all of today’s WCOOPs but only did anything notable in the $320 6-handed shootout. My starting table feature PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis, thankfully on my right, and four players I didn’t recognize. I’d been playing aggressively against Lex, generally with the best hand, and finally he’d had enough. I picked up QQ in the BB and got him to 4-bet all-in with A7o in the BB. With his chips in my stack it wasn’t too much trouble to get down to the heads up.

My opponent was pretty much an ideal heads up opponent. I felt totally in control of the match the entire time, since by the time two bets had gone into the pot I knew everything I needed to know about what he had and where I stood. I played extreme smallball with him because I was sure my edge was huge. At first he was only continuing past the flop if he had a pair, so I was c-betting everything and calling all of his pre-flop raises. Eventually he started continuation betting, but again I caught on so quickly to what he was doing that I started check-raising him and was back in control in no time. I polished him off and waited a solid hour and a half for the next match to start.  Read the complete post...