Posts Tagged ‘triple barrel’

Yesterday’s inaugural Thinking Poker Tournament Seminar was a great success. I think all the participants got a lot out of it, and I learned a few things that I can do to make future seminars even better. So thinking of future seminars, the next one will be on Tuesday, November 15th, 6-8 PM Eastern. The topic will be Big Bluffs: Recognizing, Creating, and Taking Advantage of Good Spots.

These seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on the most common mistakes and skills gaps that I see in my NLHE tournament students. Each two-hour seminar costs $150 per person and is capped at five participants, to enable individualized attention and opportunities for everyone to ask questions and participate in discussions. The content is prepared and the discussion facilitated by me- it’s like an interactive poker video!

Participants will learn how to identify a capped range, how to set-up a multi-barrel bluff, how to choose the best hands for bluffing, and how to size bluffs for maximum profitability. In addition to the seminar itself, all participants receive a syllabus of recommended study materials to help prepare for the session and apply newly acquired skills in their future play.  Read the complete post...

If you’ve been enjoying my BCPC trip reports, be sure to check out my write-up from the WSOP Europe, now appearing in 2+2 Magazine:

Loose-aggressive play has become so common among the best players that many of them tend to assume that anyone who doesn’t open 50% of hands from the CO can’t be all that good. No American in the tournament is going to be bad, since we all had to travel quite a ways to play, but I think that playing the way I did gave the impression that I was merely competent and perhaps uncomfortable in deep-stacked spots. That’s a fine image to have as long as you know how to exploit it by stealing in spots they don’t expect.

As always, please let me know what you think!

The conclusion of my 2011 WSOP main event trip report is now appearing in the October issue of 2+2 Magazine. We’re down to Day 6, and needless to say, things are starting to get tense:

“The last hand before a break, especially a dinner break, always means fireworks. Some people are eager to fold and get out of the room, which makes other people more inclined to steal, which makes other people more inclined to resteal. Ranges get wider and sometimes it just turns into a pissing match.

I was dealt 9′s in the CO, which are exactly the sort of medium-strength hand that can be tough to play with that sort of dynamic. The action folded to me, and I opened to 60K. Marc called on the Button, and the blinds folded.

We got a J62 flop with two hearts. I bet 85K, about half the pot, and he raised to 225K.”

Read on to find out how I navigated this and other dicey spots on my final two days in the tournament!

Sorry for the lack of posts on here. It’s just that I’ve been playing so much poker that when I’m finished I don’t feel like spending another half-hour at the computer putting together a blog post.

Also I haven’t done anything of great interest in any of the recent WCOOPs. In fact, this is going to be a bit of a whine post. I’ve lost a lot of big pots with set under set and similar “cooler” situations. In most cases, though, I think there’s at least a case to be made that I could have played the hand differently and lost less, so hopefully it will be a little interesting to look at these. I’m actually less likely to make hero folds when I know I’ve been getting coolered a lot recently, because I start to trust my judgment less. I question whether I’m really beat or just seeing monsters under the bed.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds 25 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 (t6562)
MP3 (t18842)
CO (t9399)
Button (t1569)
SB (t4358)
BB (t5425)
UTG (t8312)
UTG+1 (t1171)
Hero (MP1) (t14061)

Hero’s M: 34.72

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A♥, Q♥
2 folds, Hero bets t300, 1 fold, MP3 calls t300, 2 folds, SB calls t240, 1 fold  Read the complete post...

Round 1

My first opponent was a guy I didn’t recognize from China. Before cards were even dealt, he typed “lololol pro so cool”. Based on that alone, I predicted that he was going to give me no credit and try to outplay me.

Picking up JJ on the first hand was a dream come true. Blinds were 25/50, and he opened to 150. I made it 550, and he shoved for 7500.

This wasn’t precisely the result I wanted. I generally prefer not to play big pre-flop pots in these tournaments when I’m up against someone I expect to have an edge against, because in deep-stacked HU NLHE, edges can be very big. Based on his pre-flop chatter, I expected that he would be spazzing here a lot and dominating me rarely to never. It’s unfortunate that some of his spazzes are near-coinflips against me, but I’m on the right side of the coinflip, and even a 5% edge in a 300BB pot is pretty significant. He could also have some pairs that I dominate. So I called and won a flip against KQo to win the match on the first hand.

FWIW I probably would have folded AQ, not because I expected to be behind, but because I’d expect to find better spots.  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 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...

Edit: Oh snap! I just saw that Villain in this hand went on to win the tournament! And it was his second WCOOP bracelet. Congratulations 2FLY2TILT!

I skipped the PL Draw event because I don’t know how to play that game, and I registered three hours into the Triple Stud because I wanted to be fresh for the $1000 NLHE rather than frustrated from three hours of Stud. I won a nice pot almost immediately in Razz, but it was all downhill from there. I think this is pretty standard for people who know something about Razz, but it illustrated the problem with trying to bluff in this game:
PokerStars Game #67119394260: Tournament #2011090008, $200+$15 USD Triple Stud (Razz Limit) – Level VIII (200/400) – 2011/09/06 14:48:20 MT [2011/09/06 16:48:20 ET]
Table ’2011090008 11′ 8-max
Seat 1: capoch (2998 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: 2FLY2TILT (5744 in chips)
Seat 3: kasparov007 (7808 in chips)
Seat 4: kimsen (5902 in chips)
Seat 5: johnny5rings (3754 in chips)
Seat 6: Ghoyteep (8772 in chips)
Seat 7: Terry_Toria (3799 in chips)
Seat 8: foucault82 (4960 in chips)
capoch: posts the ante 40
2FLY2TILT: posts the ante 40
kasparov007: posts the ante 40
kimsen: posts the ante 40
johnny5rings: posts the ante 40
Ghoyteep: posts the ante 40
Terry_Toria: posts the ante 40
foucault82: posts the ante 40
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to capoch [3s]
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd]
Dealt to kasparov007 [7s]
Dealt to kimsen [8s]
Dealt to johnny5rings [Tc]
Dealt to Ghoyteep [4d]
Dealt to Terry_Toria [Th]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s]
2FLY2TILT: brings in for 60
kasparov007: folds
kimsen: folds
johnny5rings: folds
Ghoyteep: folds
Terry_Toria: folds
foucault82: raises 140 to 200
capoch: folds
2FLY2TILT: calls 140
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd] [5h]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s] [Qd]
2FLY2TILT: bets 200
foucault82: calls 200
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd 5h] [Jh]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd] [Qc]
2FLY2TILT: bets 400
foucault82: calls 400
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to 2FLY2TILT [Jd 5h Jh] [5s]
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc] [8h]
foucault82: bets 400
2FLY2TILT: calls 400
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to foucault82 [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc 8h] [Ks]
foucault82: checks
2FLY2TILT: bets 400
foucault82: calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
2FLY2TILT: shows [3d Ac Jd 5h Jh 5s Ad] (Lo: A,A,J,5,3)
foucault82: shows [7c 3h 4s Qd Qc 8h Ks] (Lo: Q,8,7,4,3)
foucault82 collected 3520 from pot  Read the complete post...