Posts Tagged ‘river check-raise’

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...

It’s a clear and lovely evening here in Canmore, great for unwinding after a long day of poker.

I played both of the $200 WCOOP events today but didn’t last long in either. Honestly I consider that a fine result. The one thing I dread every time WCOOP rolls around is playing for six hours and bubbling, or for ten hours and min-cashing. PokerStars made more of the events two-day tournaments this year, which I think is a very good change.

Anyway the upshot is that I don’t have a lot of really interesting hands to post. Here are two from the 6-max event, in which I got a rather difficult table draw for an event with mid-four-figure participation.

Liv Boeree was on my immediate left and playing very well, and there was a well-known online MTT’er at the table who was actually not playing that well (mostly just unaccustomed to deep-stacked play I think). Of the three people I didn’t recognize, two were decent, and the major mistake the sixth guy made was playing too loose, which is a tough thing to exploit when he’s two seats to my left. Between him and Liv, I couldn’t open many pots.

This one is against Liv and I’m not happy with how I played it:  Read the complete post...

There were tons of comments on the most recent “What’s Your Play?” post, which is awesome. I’m going to go ahead and post the results, but especially after seeing the comments I think it’s very close and I don’t mean to hold my play up as the best possible decision. This is really one I posted because I thought it was interesting and close, not because I thought there was a clear but unconventional best play.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($2074)
BB ($1113.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K♦, J♥
Hero bets $20, BB raises to $66, Hero calls $46

Flop: ($132) 3♦, 5♦, 5♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $44, BB calls $44

Turn: ($220) 8♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $123, BB calls $123

River: ($466) 7♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $333, BB raises to $880.50 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: $1132 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
BB didn’t show
Outcome: BB won $1131.50

I went for the bet-fold line, which quite a few of you suggested. Special props to jas and bond2king for predicting my exact bet size! (I do have a penchant for betting all one digit).  Read the complete post...

Hero and Villain are heads up on four tables at Villain’s request. Villain bought in short at all four but promised not to quit no matter how big his stack got, and he’s been true to his word. He’s not a professional but has proven surprisingly capable. He is playing 71/60 with a 21% 3-bet and 49% Aggression Frequency. His c-bet % in 3-bet pots is 67%.

Hero is likely perceived as aggressive but good, have attempted some big bluffs and also some thin value bets. Hero has not folded often when in position on dry flops. He has taken stabs like this when checked to in the past, sometimes getting folds and sometimes not. Villain is the guy who made this call. Other than that there’s no history particularly relevant to this situation.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($2074)
BB ($1113.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K♦, J♥
Hero bets $20, BB raises to $66, Hero calls $46

Flop: ($132) 3♦, 5♦, 5♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $44, BB calls $44

Turn: ($220) 8♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $123, BB calls $123

River: ($466) 7♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero?

If you want to bet, please specify your size and your plan if raised. I’ll post my thoughts on Monday.

One of the cooler hands from my time splashing around in the small stakes:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($100.50)
BB ($51)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K♦, Q♠
Hero bets $2, BB calls $1

Flop: ($4) 5♣, 10♥, 2♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($4) 7♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.85, BB calls $1.85

River: ($7.70) 4♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $3.65, BB raises to $10, Hero raises to $30.05, 1 fold

Total pot: $27.70 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
Hero didn’t show K♦, Q♠ (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $27.20

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10 BB (2 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Hero ($1000)
BB ($3855.15)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8s, Ts.
Hero raises to $30, BB calls $20.

Flop: ($60) 8c, 5d, Qd (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $44.6, BB calls $44.60.

Turn: ($149.20) 8h (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $96.5, BB raises to $230, Hero calls $133.50.

River: ($609.20) Ah (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $221.5, BB calls $221.50.

Final Pot: $1052.20

Results in white below:
BB has Kd 9d (one pair, eights).
Hero has 8s Ts (three of a kind, eights).
Outcome: Hero wins $1052.20.

I put Villain on a draw but flatted the turn expecting that he would bluff missed rivers. Clearly I was wrong about that part, but I’m pretty happy that I got him to “snap me off” with K-high.

His river checking range consists of draws/bluffs that are giving up and huge hands that are never folding no matter how much I bet. Most of the latter actually beat my hand, though they are very much in the minority.  Read the complete post...

I’ve posted a lot lately about overbetting, so here’s a spot where overbetting with (functionally) the nuts would be a bad idea:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $6 BB (8 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB ($696)
BB ($645)
UTG ($785.70)
UTG+1 ($493)
MP1 ($368.50)
MP2 ($201)
CO ($109.30)
Hero ($747)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kc, Kd.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $18, 3 folds, Hero raises to $50, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $32.

Flop: ($109) 5c, Jh, 4d (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($109) Ks (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $66, UTG+1 calls $66.

River: ($241) Qs (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $111, UTG+1 raises to $270, Hero raises to $631, UTG+1 calls $107 (All-In).

Final Pot: $1249
Results in white below:
UTG+1 has Qh Qc (three of a kind, queens).
Hero has Kc Kd (three of a kind, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins $1249.

In this case, the hands that can call an overbet, namely QQ and JJ, will in all likelihood check-raise the river anyway. Better to make a smaller bet that can be called by hands like AA, AK, or KQ, since you probably won’t miss out on value from lower sets anyway.