Posts Tagged ‘pokerstars caribbean adventure’

This week’s WYP is a little different, in that I don’t have a strong opinion about what’s best. I was actually hoping some of you smart people could help me out there, in particular with regard to how V2′s question and timing on the turn influences his range. My own, possibly results-oriented thinking was that it might weight him towards weaker draws. With a flush draw or open-ended draw, I think he might call without really thinking about it. If he’s asking, that could weight him towards gutshots or something like an 8 that has a chance of being good (in his eyes – no one’s saying he’s a great hand reader) plus some outs to improve. I also thought Gareth’s suggestion was interesting that V2′s indecision may have been “between calling/raising with a hand like 86s”.

I say I may be results oriented because I bet 3000, V1 sighed and folded, and V2 called with Jh 8h.

Value Betting

As many of you identified, Hero is very likely to have the best hand on the river. The question, however is not only how but whether he can get value from it. Especially in multi-way pots, where people tend to be more tight and passive, it can be difficult to get value from medium-strength hands.  Read the complete post...

I’m sad to say that I won’t be staying on as a member of PokerStars Team Online in 2012. It was a great honor and a great experience to be a member of the team, but so much has changed since I joined the team last year. Now that I’m unable to play online from my home country, I’m simply not able to commit to logging the kind of volume befitting a member of Team Online. It’s a shame that I only recently, at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, got to meet the other members of the team. They were a fascinating bunch of people, and I loved spending the week with them. My greatest disappointment is that I will no longer be able to call them my teammates. The following is my homage to this extraordinary group of poker players:

I know that there is zero chance of herding fifteen online poker pros into a conference room by 10AM, I tell myself that this is true and that I need not rush, but nevertheless I am there for our PokerStars Team Online meeting at 9:51. I just can’t help being early. This gives me nearly an hour to chat with the other “early” arrivers before we finally begin.  Read the complete post...

This is really the second WYP from the PCA, but the first was technically a “What’s Your Plan?”, and I couldn’t think of a catchier name for this one. It takes during Level 2 of the tournament, with blinds of 75/150 and effective stacks of well over 20K (I forget how much exactly but it wasn’t relevant for the hand).

Hero: It’s me. Late 20′s, wearing a PokerStars Team Online patch and sunglasses, not saying much but friendly when I do happen my mouth. I’ve been quiet so far and recently showed down KK in a 3-bet pot.

Villain 1: Middle-aged Canadian, recreational player, on the loose-passive side. He limps more than he raises in early position.

Villain 2: Young Spanish kid, maybe 22 at the oldest. This is likely one of the biggest events he’s played, as he’s giving off a bit of a “scared money”-vibe.

Villain 1 opens to 450 in early position, Villain 2 calls in the CO, and Hero calls with As Qs in the SB. The flop came Qd 8c 2h and checks all the way around. Hero bets 900 on a 6c turn, Villain 1 quickly calls, and Villain 2 asks how much, thinks for 15-20 seconds, and calls.  Read the complete post...

Today’s mailbag question comes from a comment on the What’s Your Plan? Flopped Pair and Draw: Results post. It was a good question that I felt warranted a thorough response.

Q: Though honestly I agree with what you wrote I just wonder since “Villain is a young online MTT wizard: highly ranked on Pocket Fives, tons of success” we know (and he might not know we know) that he knows he can bet anything and probably get a fold tons of the time because he can have AK and it is much harder for other people to (especially when they don’t check raise the flop). As soon as we call I think Villain needs to become super cautious. Against anyone else I insta fold k10. I actually thought this example was how to outplay a wizard but I was wrong. : -) I guess I leveled myself!

A: If I understand you correctly, you’re asking whether Villain couldn’t bluff this flop with a really wide range since he can represent nutted hands (not only AK but sets as well) more easily than we can. This would be more of a consideration in a heads up pot.  Read the complete post...

Judging from the number of comments, folks found this WYP less compelling than someone. That’s to your credit, because as many commenters advocated, I believe folding the flop is correct. Dangerhorse explains why:

I would probably fold although the pot odds are enticing and your hand (a pair and a draw) superficially seems very strong. This is a super wet board and a good player should not be leading into three opponents without something very substantial. I put him on KQ, AQ and stronger. If you raise all-in, I don’t think he folds much. I also don’t think you have the full 13 outs that a pair-and-an-OESD normally does.

Assuming you call, if your draw comes in, with an ace or a nine, it’s going to be a super-scary board, and it’s going to be tough to get paid off, especially being out of position. On top of that, your opponent will often also have a king, so you may well chop even if your draw comes in – or lose to AK.

Not all pair + draws are created equally. On a board like this, where so many draws are likely, it matters a lot that you have the worst pair and are drawing exclusively to non-nut hands. Out of position in a multi-way pot with action from a good player in early position, you can’t afford to treat this as a strong hand.  Read the complete post...

I had a bit of a rude surprise when checking out of my room this morning. Apparently my hotel package did not actually include the $1000 non-refundable folio that I thought it did, and on which basis I purchased a $300 massage. At first I thought this was an error on Atlantis’ part, but I just reread my confirmation and sure enough it says, “If your package includes hotel plus a $1,000 USD food credit”, which mine apparently did not. It also says, “Any funds that you have not used will be refunded to you upon check-out.” So yeah, I just can’t read. I probably wouldn’t have spent $200 at Nobu last night either…. Then again maybe I would have lost at credit cart roulette (I bought out so I could use the folio credit I thought I had) and eaten the $1500 bill, so I’m going to pretend that that was what was going to happen.

While I’m amending recent blog posts, I also have to admit to backsliding on my “don’t judge assholes” philosophy. I split a cab with fellow PokerStars Team Online member Andre Coimbra, whose flight was half an hour before mine, so I got to the airport plenty early. That was good, because the customs line was massive and there were only two agents working it. People all around me were just losing their minds with frustration.  Read the complete post...

My PCA package includes a $1000 folio for charging expenses to the room, and unlike the last time I was here, when I pocketed more than $500, it’s not refundable. Because I brought my own food, I found myself this morning with $750 to spend in two days. Wheeeee!

There was no way I was going to spend it on food and drink, so I assessed my other options. The snorkeling here is really hokey, because it’s just in one of Atlantis’ fake bodies of water. I’ve heard good things about swimming with the dolphins, but I have some serious ethical objections to keeping dolphins in captivity. Then I remembered Lawrence from Office Space‘s famous answer to the question of what he would do with a million dollars.

Mandara, the spa at PCA, offers a treatment called the Four Hands Massage: “Two therapists working on you simultaneously in synchronicity – and serene silence.” There was a realistic chance this was just an excuse to charge twice as much for a massage, but I figured I’d never have another chance to try it, so I made an appointment and came away impressed.  Read the complete post...

During the second half of Day 1 of the PCA, I had a young, apparently very successful high-stakes cash game player on my left. I didn’t recognize his name or screenname, but he talked about playing 10/20 and 25/50 NLHE games on PokerStars and a 50/100 game here at Atlantis. He clearly had money to throw around, because several of the masseuses knew him by name, and he talked loudly and often about the thousands of euros he’d spent on massages.

In addition to all the bragging, he had a really condescending attitude towards everyone else at the table. A recreational player sucked out on him in a big pot and apologized. He laughed in the guy’s face for apologizing and sent a clear message: “I don’t care about the $10,000, and you’re a fish if you think a bad beat is something you need to apologize for.” When the same player later lost his stack on a questionable shove, the kid said to him, “That’s how you spend my chips?”

People like this used to really get under my skin, especially when they directed their attitude at me. It made me want to prove something to them, and sometimes it even intimidated me. They and other types of unpleasant people (angry people, whiners, degenerates) were a big part of what I didn’t enjoy about live poker.  Read the complete post...