Posts Tagged ‘Full Tilt Poker’

One of my criticisms of Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time, which I generally liked, was that the authors neglected opportunities to play Ace-high for showdown value and turned such hands into a bluff too frequently. Today I had the misfortune of having one of the authors to my immediate left in the $200 FTOPS 6-Max, but I did catch him turning Ace-high into a bluff:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP (t3970)
CO (t6725)
Button (t5075)
SB (t2240)
Hero (BB) (t6789)
UTG (t10726)

Hero’s M: 75.43

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2, 2
UTG bets t180, 4 folds, Hero calls t120

Flop: (t390) 7, 6, 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: (t390) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets t246, UTG raises to t645, Hero calls t399

River: (t1680) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

Total pot: t1680

Results:
Hero had 2, 2 (two pair, sevens and twos).
UTG had Q, A (one pair, sevens).
Outcome: Hero won t1680

Gary Wise’s new article on ESPN.com, Choosing Between Career and Home, about the recent decisions by Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars to forbid residents of Washington state from playing on their sites. Obviously this decision, made to comply with a long-standing Washington law making online poker a felony, makes it rather difficult for professional players to earn a living while living in that state. Apparently, some Washington lawmakers are less than sympathetic:

Washington state Sen. Margarita Prentice, an ex officio member of the Washington State Gambling Commission, was behind the 2006 law that made playing online poker a felony. The state House of Representatives passed the law 93-5. The state senate passed it unanimously.

Four years later, Prentice remains opposed.

“I just think some of these arguments are utter nonsense,” Prentice told ESPN.com. “You mean you’re going to move so you can play poker? Gee, lots of luck in your life. … I have nothing against card playing. That’s fine. If you want to do that, but I’m sure not going to worry about someone … you know. Let them go pump gas.”

The responses from our allies at the federal level, however, are heartening:  Read the complete post...

A lot of players are torn about what to do when they know an opponent is frequently betting the flop without a hand. Is it better to float, or to bluff-raise? I’ve written a strategy article on the subject, but in the 1K FTOPS tonight, I had the chance to do both in the same hand:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t9676)
SB (t1885)
BB (t5429)
UTG (t9245)
MP (t2815)
CO (t8180)

Hero’s M: 107.51

Preflop: Hero is Button with J, 9
UTG bets t150, 2 folds, Hero calls t150, 2 folds

Flop: (t390) 2, 10, 4 (2 players)
UTG bets t210, Hero raises to t526, UTG raises to t1035, Hero calls t509

Turn: (t2460) 9 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t999, 1 fold

Total pot: t2460

Results:
Hero didn’t show J, 9.
Outcome: Hero won t2460

Villain was tight and extremely aggressive when involved in a hand. Nevertheless, I don’t think there’s a single value hand he 3-bets on this flop. I was betting any turn and expecting him to fold, but I don’t think that’s a reason to check a 9, as I don’t feel I can call a bet on most any river.

This wasn’t anything that I planned from the get-go. It was just that on each street, I kept feeling like he could be weak enough for an underbet to show a profit. I almost shoved the turn, and then I was like, “Screw it, 80% of what he folds to a shove probably folds for 1/3 pot”. Given that he called, that might not be true, but it just made the river shove that much more profitable. By the way, Villain has only about $260 left in his stack, so even though I potted it, the shove was effectively half-pot.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($453.80)
BB ($418)
UTG ($400)
UTG+1 ($402)
MP1 ($402)
MP2 ($427.20)
MP3 ($400)
CO ($240)
Hero (Button) ($962)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, 9
6 folds, Hero bets $8, SB calls $6, BB raises to $36, Hero raises to $77, 1 fold, BB calls $41

Flop: ($162) 6, K, 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $66, BB calls $66

Turn: ($294) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $99, BB calls $99

River: ($492) 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $492, 1 fold

Total pot: $492 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero didn’t show A, 9 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $489

About 3 hours into today’s $300 6-max, I got moved to a table with two Pocket Fives superstars. One was to my immediate right, and one two seats to my left. We tangled in a few interesting spots, and while I definitely got the best of the one on my right, the results were more mixed vs. the one on my left:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 170/340 Blinds 25 Ante (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t38915)
UTG (t29428)
MP (t12937)
CO (t32263)
Hero (Button) (t19680)
SB (t11504)

Hero’s M: 29.82

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, Q
2 folds, CO bets t680, Hero raises to t1555, 2 folds, CO calls t875

Flop: (t3770) 3, Q, 8 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t1666, CO raises to t5433, Hero raises to t9200, 1 fold

Total pot: t14636

Results:
Hero didn’t show K, Q.
Outcome: Hero won t14636

Against better players I would flat the check-raise and get it in on the turn, but I think this guy is giving up his bluffs like 95% of the time, so it’s better to get the money in on the flop.

So then he tries to steal my blind with the old raise-bet-and-give-up technique:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com  Read the complete post...

Finished a very frustrating 12/500 in this, capping off a long and shitty day of poker. I was in very good shape approaching the bubble, then got scooped in two sizable pots to get busted down to average as we approach the final two tables. Cyndy Violette took two more big pots off of me, including a questionable value bet that I made with a rivered pair of Aces into her two pair. I can’t complain, really- I was never great at Stud/8 anyway, and I was really rusty to boot. Probably I didn’t even deserve to make it this far. Man another FTOPS win would have been sweet though. Maybe this weekend.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 ($126.70)
CO ($508.10)
Button ($470.80)
SB ($443.50)
Hero (BB) ($823)
UTG ($469.40)
UTG+1 ($793.10)
MP1 ($400)
MP2 ($376.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, 10
1 fold, UTG+1 bets $12, 4 folds, Button calls $12, 1 fold, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($38) J, 5, 10 (3 players)
Hero bets $28, UTG+1 calls $28, Button calls $28

Turn: ($122) 3 (3 players)
Hero bets $99, 1 fold, Button calls $99

River: ($320) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $210, Hero calls $210

Total pot: $740 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had K, Q (one pair, fives).
Hero had 9, 10 (two pair, tens and fives).
Outcome: Hero won $737

UTG is a predictable TAG regular, and BTN is a loose-ish random. I donk the flop because my hand isn’t good enough to call a c-bet but also doesn’t generally want to see the flop check around. Also I am already thinking about possibly getting UTG off of an overpair by three-barreling.

After the flop action, I am confident that UTG has a better hand than mine and that BTN is on a draw. The turn bet puts a lot of pressure on UTG. Not just anyone will fold top pair/an overpair here, but I think he will, if not now then on the river. Of course having him fold and BTN call is the ideal outcome.  Read the complete post...

FWIW I shouldn’t have 3-bet this guy pre-flop because he rarely calls but often 4-bets and KQs isn’t quite so good that I’m happy about 3-bet-calling it (although I did after remembering who this guy was).

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($205.20)
Button ($615)
Hero (SB) ($1643.25)
BB ($439.60)
UTG ($464.10)
UTG+1 ($1420.30)
MP1 ($426.70)
MP2 ($406)
MP3 ($400)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, Q
6 folds, Button bets $8, Hero raises to $32, 1 fold, Button raises to $70, Hero calls $38

Flop: ($144) 6, A, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $20, Hero raises to $123, Button raises to $545 (All-In), Hero calls $422

Turn: ($1234) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($1234) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $1234 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had 9, Q (high card, Ace).
Hero had K, Q (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won $1231

His flop shove is atrocious because he’s so often drawing slim to dead when called. Check-raising his underbet is very important. Although he probably will fold sometimes, there’s no way he makes a bet like that without expecting me to play back at a fair bit of the time. That means that he’s sometimes trying to induce with some big hand (a set, perhaps) and also that he’ll float and/or rebluff it. Although I have blockers to his rebluffing range, we can see that he’s willing to be quite liberal about it.