Posts Tagged ‘bad beat’

The biggest news is that fellow PokerStars Team Online member and old-school MTT forum member Shane “Shaniac” Schleger won the 2-7 Triple Draw WCOOP yesterday! My excitement for him was tempered only slightly when I double-checked the terms of our staking arrangement and confirmed that I had 20% of him in all of the NLHE events but 0% in the other games. As some of you may know, he was a hair’s breadth away from final tabling the 6-Max Shootout last week, which was a tournament in which I did have an interest! Oh well, he’ll just have to run deep in yet another one.

Speaking of running deep, I had two solid WCOOP finishes today, 89/1253 in the $200 NLHE Rebuy and 13/1426 in the $109 8-Game. Almost everything I did in the NLHE event would qualify as a standard, and I busted on a bit of bad luck:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 1500/3000 Blinds 375 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t91766)
BB (t466222)
UTG (t63769)
UTG+1 (t100304)
Hero (MP1) (t72475)
MP2 (t121184)
CO (t45801)
Button (t121198)

Hero’s M: 9.66

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 7, 7
2 folds, Hero bets t6000, 4 folds, BB calls t3000

Flop: (t16500) 3, 10, 10 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets t7777, BB calls t7777  Read the complete post...

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 was really kicking ass in this thing, had twice-average stack of 150 BBs approaching the bubble, and then it all went to shit in about 25 hands. This was the first one that took a big chunk out of me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 500/1000 Blinds 125 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 (t37143)
MP1 (t146405)
MP2 (t41652)
MP3 (t36296)
CO (t42449)
Button (t45988)
SB (t23216)
BB (t16685)
Hero (UTG) (t108755)

Hero’s M: 41.43

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A♥, J♦
Hero bets t2000, 2 folds, MP2 calls t2000, 4 folds, BB calls t1000

Flop: (t7625) 4♥, 3♦, J♥ (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t4444, MP2 calls t4444, 1 fold

Turn: (t16513) 10♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t8800, Hero raises to t102186 (All-In), MP2 calls t26283 (All-In)

River: (t86679) 5♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t86679

Results:
Hero had A♥, J♦ (one pair, Jacks).
MP2 had 10♣, 10♠ (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: MP2 won t86679

The guy actually tanked before calling, and I was convinced I was good. I don’t think it was a deliberate slowroll. He probably gets my stack if either T turns, but this was obviously the gin card for him.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 500/1000 Blinds 125 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com  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...

I love this game. For those who don’t, the blinds are always 5 and 5, but the antes get progressively larger every level. So what you end up with is a large pre-flop pot but no one player any more committed to it than any other. The rules are otherwise the same as NLHE, but it’s really a very different game. You can’t just autopilot it the way you can other NLHE tournaments, and that gives a big advantage to people who actually understand poker and how to adapt to new situations.

The single most common mistake people make is folding pre-flop. In an unraised pot, you can be getting 100:1 or better to limp in. Even if it’s very likely that someone will raise, folding 72o UTG is still a mistake. Yet people fold constantly because they are used to folding junk hands.

I limp everything in early position. It’s an easy way to improve your relative position. You still have any two cards, you’ve put virtually no money in the pot, but now you get to see what happens behind you before you decide whether and how to play your hand. If I’m UTG+1 or UTG+2, I’ll even limp big pairs behind other limpers.  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...

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!

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...