I won and lost some small pots, hovering between 120 and 140K with blinds of 2K/4K/400. I had a fairly active image: even though I’d mostly had solid opening hands like AJ and AQ, I had always either won or lost without showdown.

I opened to 10,000 with JJ UTG+2, leaving somewhere between 110K and 120K behind. One of the internet players 3-bet to 32,000 in the CO, and the action was back on me.

This sizing just screams AK. It’s extremely unlikely that I’m going to call even 20% of my stack from out of position, so a smaller raise would be sufficient to put me to a push/fold decision. This makes me doubt that he’s ever making this particular 3-bet with a hand that’s folding to a shove. At the same time, I think he’d also choose a smaller size with QQ+ simply to entice action and possibly represent a bluff. The big 3-bet that forces a push/fold decision simply screams that he has a hand he’s willing to felt but would kind of prefer not to have to and in particular would prefer not to play post-flop. Probably AK, could be AQ, but same difference when I have JJ.

So can I do anything other than shove? If I knew for certain that he had AK, I could do something like call and shove (or try to induce a shove) on flops that he misses while check-folding when I see a K or A. This is tempting, particularly on the bubble (there were 63 remaining, with 56 to be paid). The problem is that check-folding a K-high flop is a disaster if he happens to shove AQ. Then there’s the chance that he feels similarly uncomfortable with a pair like TT or 99 that I dominate and want to get all in against ASAP. So while its tempting, I think the level of certainty necessary to do something other than shove simply isn’t there.

So I did shove, and he actually thought for a moment before calling with AK (which of course if he ever folds AK or maybe more realistically AQ it’s a huge coup for me though he probably doesn’t even if he does think about it momentarily). Anyone following my tweats knows that I was way overdue to lose a pre-flop all-in, and sure enough there was that K on the flop.

My photo on the PokerStars blog captures the feeling of “Yep, there it is,” quite well, I think:

Despite the swings, it was actually a really boring day. It was a soft starting table, but a couple of people lost their chips early and soon better players had taken their seats. The field is tough enough that it probably was a softer than average table throughout the day, but that doesn’t mean anyone was giving chips away.

I got my first double up early, opening with 22 in early position and getting called by one of the weaker players. I bet-shoved a 2d 7c Tc flop and held vs. ATs. After that I won a small pot raise-calling 44 in the CO vs. a German online player who turned out to have TT but couldn’t win the flip. It was a shame, because we’d been talking and he was the friendliest guy I’d played with all day.

He was soon replaced by Matt Waxman, who proved to be a good player but a much less pleasant table mate.

Another newcomer to the table was Alan Sternberg, winner of the recent Bay 101 Shooting Star Bay 101 event. Not long after he arrived, I opened AJs on the CO and the loosest player at table called on the BTN. Alan squeezed out of the BB, and I decided to 4-bet-call for about 40 BB’s, half my stack. Alan has AK, but based on how he played throughout the day, I’m happy with how I played it and chalking it up to a cooler.

Pretty soon I was in push/fold mode and shoved TT UTG only to be called by Alan’s KK. I turned a set to stay alive and double up.

Excited to have enough chips to play post-flop, I won a few pots that way and got up well over 100K. Then I started tangling with Aaron Merlman, who thanks in no small part to me is now in 2nd place overall. I don’t want to get into details here but I lost some big pots and ended up back in short stack territory.

Blinds had just gone up to 1500/3000/300, and I was in the BB with about 37K. Waxman opened to 6300, which I felt he could do with quite a wide range given my situation. He got flat called by a few players with loose standards, and I woke up to KTo in the BB. At this point the pot was nearly the size of my stack, and while I didn’t expect to have a lot of fold equity, I thought everyone’s ranges were pretty wide and I could probably get it heads up. I shoved, Waxman re-shoved 99, and I won the flip.

He was pretty unhappy about that and berated me a bit, but I’d play it the same again. I just stayed quiet and let him grumble. That stuff doesn’t get under my skin in terms of affecting how I play, but it does making playing much less enjoyable for me, which sucks. People who behave that way are one of the reasons I don’t like live poker.

The next hand, a loose player opened to 8K UTG. He only had about 70K behind. He got two calls from people who would definitely have 3-bet him if they had big hands. I found 88 in the SB. It would be a perfectly reasonable spot to flat 88, but I figured that especially with the dead money in the pot, I could afford to race with UTG. I squeezed it to 25K, and he called, which I was not expecting. Mercifully the other two folded and we saw a 9-high flop with three spades. I don’t know whether I had a spade, but it didn’t matter. I shoved, and he folded, telling me he had AQ no spade. From what I saw of his play, that sounds about right.

After that I just coasted through the rest of the day, stayed out of trouble, and bagged up a slightly below average but very healthy stack. There are 74 players remain, and 56 will be paid $7500. We play 8-handed tomorrow. Wish me luck!

PS I’m told that the Home Game tournament wasn’t available for registration today. Very sorry about that. I definitely scheduled it, but this wouldn’t be the first time the Home Game system deleted a tournament I had scheduled (once it even added one!). We’ll do the 2-7 NL next weekend, when I’ll definitely be available to play.

1 Richard Woodall 81,000
2 Andrew Brokos 30,800
3 Mario Nagel 18,600
4 Douglas Johnson 33,000
5 George Kalaitzis 37,000
6 Mike Beasley 34,300
7 Cliff Josephy 32,100 (JohnnyBax)
8 Chris Bonita 24,500
9 Tony Cousineau 9,400

During round 3 a new, tough player joined the table on my left. I can’t put my finger on who he was but he was definitely familiar to me and played well until he tilted (to someone else, unfortuntaley). He rivered (and value bet) me to take one big pot, then I tried to take A-high to showdown when I should have turned it into a bluff and ended up having to fold the river to him. Was down around 40K at second break.

I didn’t do much during rounds 5 and 6. Table got tougher with the addition of Jon “FatalError” Aguiar and Adam Junglen, thankfully on my right. I lost one sizable pot going for a thin value bet with 88 on a KK433 board and folding to a shove that MIGHT have been a bluff (but probably not).

Rounds 7 and 8 I was just card dead as the table got tougher and more active. Winning pots without a hand was nearly impossible, and I wasn’t even getting cards good enough to bluff with. Despite the fact that I opened hardly any pots, I still got 3-bet like 2/3 of the time. Just got ground down like that and finished the day with 30,800, just 800 chips more than I had at the start of the day.

We lost about the field, so average stack is probably about 60,000. Here’s to a better tomorrow!

Had a beautiful and painless drive from Boston down to Uncasville, CT this morning. It’s a beautiful day, and other than getting yelled at by an otherwise-lackadaisical security guard for trying to drive into a restricted area, the day is off to a good start.

Wish me luck!

For me my biggest problem was that I was always playing 9-12 tables. Because of this, I was making a lot of money but never really working on my game and improving. I think this is a problem that many mid stakes players struggle with as to improve and move up they most likely will need to sacrifice a little bit in the short run in order to progress as a player. I also found that playing heads up greatly improved my hand reading skills along with improving my game in blind battles and when playing OOP. Most of my success at the 5/10 – 25/50 level has come when I was playing 1-5 tables and truly concentrating on every hand instead of just going through the motions.

I often encourage students who come to me for 6-max or full ring coaching to try playing some Heads Up, particularly if they struggle with hand reading and thinking outside of the box.

This bit of advice, on the other hand, is either dated or just plain impractical:

I think when playing HU game selection is so key. Early on when I was putting up a huge winrate at HU I game selected religiously and for the most part just destroyed fish. Once you get into playing other good regulars you’re just looking at a variance nightmare which can often take tens of thousands of hands to iron out. I’d say for the most part just try to concentrate on playing fish or exploitable weaker regulars and you can maintain an extremely high winrate with relatively little variance but if you decide to play other good players expect 20-30 buy-in downswings semi regularly and a much lower winrate

Yes, it would be nice to play heads up all day long with fish at 5/10, but they just aren’t that easy to find. If you aren’t willing to play some decent regulars, it’s hard to find any action at all.

Overall a pretty good and interesting interview, though!

500/1000/100, I open complete 73o in the SB, Lauren checks.

Flop Ks Js Jc, I check planning to call a bet and bluff river. She checks behind.

Turn 7c, I check, she bets 3000, I call.

River 9d, we check, I show my hand, and it’s good. Owen comments on my playing 73o and predicts that I won’t be giving a lot of walks.

I open raise to 2400 with Ad 2d on the Button, Owen calls on the BB.

Flop Kd 9d 5c. He checks, I bet 3300, he calls.

Turn 8d, he bets into me 6400. This is close, but in retrospect I think a big raise to 24K or so is best (I have about 50K behind). He’s never getting away from any flush and may stack off with two-pair or worse putting me on a semi-bluff. However, I called.

River 2d, he check-folds for 9000 and tells me he had two-pair.

Last hand before table breaks, I open raise to 2600 with 33 in MP, prematurely balding Middle Easternish guy calls in BB.

Flop Ad Qd Qh. He bets 4000, I call. I put him on a Q or a bluff, possible with a flush draw. 33 is one of the worst hands to bluff catch with, but I think he’s going to play very predictably on the turn and I may even be able to bluff him off of a turned or rivered pair, so I call.

Turn 3d. He bets 9000, I call.

River blank, he check-calls 10K and looks sick when I show my turned full house. He told me he had a Q, which I’m sure is true.

This one I think I bungled badly. Against a guy who’s capable of hand-reading, bluffing, and thin value betting, I think a call is OK. Against a random live player, I should probably shove turn. He’s rarely bluffing, never folding a flush, and probably not folding trips. Failing that, I should bet bigger on the river, since he’s always either check-folding or check-calling with a Q. Probably 15-17K is best.

My new table was a lot tougher, with Andrew Robl, Paul Wasicka, and a few other solid players whom I didn’t recognize by name. The table also featured wild-haired backgammon legend Paul Magriel. I actually played with Paul on Day 1 of the PCA, and though I don’t think he remembered me, we had a little interaction there. I was wearing my Foucault t-shirt, and the dealer asked who the man on my shirt was.Since most people don’t know who he is anyway, I usually answer that question with “a writer I like”, unless I’m in a book store or coffee shop or something like that.

Paul, however, asked, “Which writer?”

“Michel Foucault.”

“I thought that was Foucault. I don’t much care for him myself.”

Looking Paul up and down, I answered, “Yeah, I figured if anyone at the table would know who Foucault was, it would be you.”

Anyway, at 600/1200/100, Paul opened in MP2 to 3400. He had less than 25K behind, so I made it 8200 to go with QQ on the Button. He hemmed and hawed and called. The flop came 9d 8d 3d, and he open shoved his last 15K or so. I had the Qd, but even without it, this would be an easy call. He showed me 98s for a flopped two pair, but with an overpair and a flush draw, I was still a slight favorite. I didn’t get there, though, and that one hurt me.

A while later, Paul open limped in MP1, and a decent guy who was almost certainly an online tournament pro raised to 3700 with 26K behind. I woke up with JJ and shoved in 38K or so, only to get called by QQ.

Next hand, the UTG player raised, and I was forced to fold whatever garbage I had. Hand after that, I was in MP1 and, without looking at the clock, folded T4o. Then, I saw there were only 2 minutes left in the level, and I realized I should have shoved any 2 before the blinds went up and cut even further into my fold equity. It turns out I would have been called by KQ and lost, but that’s not the point.

I spent 15 minutes on break, came back to 800/1600/200 blinds, and shoved in 7700 with Jc7c UTG+1 on the first hand. The guy on my left called, and it folded to Magriel who put the guy all-in for about 40K. After long deliberation, the first caller folded, and Paul showed Kc 2c. Pretty great spot for me, but the flop gave me nothing to work with, and a K on the turn sealed my fate.

I played some hands well, but failed to get full value from my monsters on more than one occasion. Overall, though, I just don’t think this one was mine to win. I ran good in medium pots but bad in big pots, and that’s just not the way to do it.

On the plus side, I got back to my room in time to late register for the $500 FTOPS main event, which I’m currently playing. Thanks to everyone who followed along and wished me well.

Flop Js Td 9s. Checks to me, I bet 300, SB calls. I think he can have any pair and even a few draws that I’m beating.

Turn 2d. He checks, I bet 900 expecting him to fold anything worse than a pair of Jacks that doesn’t also have a draw.

River 6h. He checks, I bet 1400 expecting him to fold most of his one pair hands. He calls with J9, which is fine.

75/150, I have been very tight but choose to raise to 450 with Jc9c in MP. Jon calls on my left, bad player calls on the CO, spazzy guy calls on the Button, blinds fold.

Flop Js Td 8s. Checks around to button, who bets 600. I call, the others fold.

Turn 6c, we both check.

River Qc, I check and instantly regret it. He’s probably never value betting worse and doesn’t need to bluff all that often. However, he probably calls a bet with lots of stuff, including any two pair and probably any Jack or better if I don’t bet too big.

75/150, I raise Qc 8d to 400 in MP3, Jon calls in the CO, everyone else folds.

Flop Kd Jd 5h. I bet 700, he calls.

Turn 9d, I bet 1700, he tells me he’d call if he had the Qd and folds what was probably QJ.

200/400, spazz open limps in MP, tightish player limps the Button, folds around to me, I check 76o on my BB.

Flop AA9 with no draws. I bet 800 and take it down.

200/400/50, I’ve been kind of active this orbit and raise to 1100 in MP with TT. Amnon calls in the CO, everyone else folds.

Flop Qd 2d 2h, I bet 1700, he calls.

Turn 2c. I bet 3600, he calls.

River 6h. We both check, and my hand is good.

200/400/50, tight-bad Asian kid raises to 1050 in MP, I call 33 on my Button, and the BB calls.

Flop Kd 9h 4h. Checks to me, I bet 800, Asian kid calls.

Turn Th. He checks, I look at his stack. He has around 9000. I think my hand is rarely good but he never has a flush. I bet 2000, he folds.

300/600/75, Dennis Phillips raises to 1650 UTG+1. I’m in MP1 with KcKd and about 24K chips. I consider flat-calling, but I don’t think DP is going to fold as often as he should to a 3-bet, and I also don’t think I’m going to induce a squeeze behind me, so I 3-bet to 4500. Folds to DP who calls.

Flop 9s 4c 3s. He checks, I think for a long time and bet 4000. He calls. Turn 4s. He checks, I think a bit and shove about 15K, he folds quickly. If I have the Ks, I think I check there.

Against a better player, I like the small flop bet. After calling pre-flop, most people aren’t going to fold an overpair, and I think they’ll usually check-shove if they don’t check-fold. They may do the same with something like AK/AQ. DP, on the other hand, is quite capable of calling once and folding the turn, so I probably should have tried to get a bigger flop bet out of him.

Early on, I raised 55 on my CO and called a 3-bet from a fishy player in the BB. I made a questionable call on a 932 flop, then turned a 5 to stack his KK.

The table kept getting tougher, with Amnon Fillippi and a few other solid players (but also Dennis Phillips) filling empty seats. A tight-bad player open limped for 300, I made it 1300 with QQ, Jon called, and Amnon shoved 15K from the Button. I reshoved without much thought but ran into AA.

I’d been playing pretty tightly, but at 300/600/75 I opened to 1600 with K9o in MP3. Jon called in the CO, and Amnon called in the BB. Flop came Kh Kd 6d. I bet slightly over half pot, Jon folded, and Amnon called. Turn 8h, he checks, I bet slightly over half pot again, 6400. He tanks and shoves about 20K, I call, he has Jd 5d. River Qd, and he doubles through me and leaves me at 24K.

I work my way up to about 28K when an aggressive younger guy opens to 2100 in the CO (blinds 400/800/100). Dennis Phillips calls on the Button, and I pick up AA in the SB. I make it 6900, kid 4-bets, Dennis folds what he later claimed was JJ, and I more than double up to about 60K.

A few hands later, I open to 2400 with JJ UTG+1. Dennis re-raises to 6500 with about 21K behind. I reluctantly fold.

Overall I had a tough seat at a tough table and what I’d consider below average luck, but I managed to come out of it with 51,400 chips. We started with 872 runners, and there are 510 left, so my stack is almost exactly average, which would be 51,294.

Sorry the Twitter updates were sporadic, my e-mail-to-Twitter thing isn’t working quite right.