PokerStars – $2000+$100|200/400 Ante 50 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 91.04 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 14)
SB: 79.65 BB (VPIP: 27.91, PFR: 9.52, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 43)
Hero (BB): 29.43 BB
UTG: 20.47 BB (VPIP: 23.89, PFR: 9.82, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 113)
UTG+1: 20.85 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
MP: 29.11 BB (VPIP: 21.03, PFR: 15.98, 3Bet Preflop: 5.75, Hands: 196)
MP+1: 102.62 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
CO: 40.3 BB (VPIP: 27.91, PFR: 18.60, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 43)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has 4c 7c
fold, fold, MP raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop : (5.5 BB, 2 players) 3d 5c 6c
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn : (5.5 BB, 2 players) 6d
Hero bets 3.09 BB, MP calls 3.09 BB

River : (11.67 BB, 2 players) 5d
Hero bets 5.84 BB, MP raises to 21 BB, fold

MP wins 23.34 BB

There may be a case for betting bigger than I did on the turn. Villain is generally drawing dead or two two outs, though, so I’m not too concerned about the price I’m laying him. The river is obviously not a great card, but moreso because of how much it strengthens my range than because it’s likely to give Villain the river.

I suspect a lot of people will want t check-call here, but I don’t see any value in that. Villain is too likely to have showdown value that he won’t turn into a bluff. I see my options as bet-fold or check-fold, and given how capped Villain ought to be, I think a thin value bet is best.

Unfortunately he manages to find a raise. It’s awfully hard to see him doing this without a 6, regardless of how improbably it is that he played a 6 this way to the river. I suppose my hand is a reasonable bluff-catcher, but still, I just don’t expect to see a bluff here. Among other things, I expect Villain to put me on a more polarized range than I actually have.

Next up was the $1K Main Event, where I wriggled my way out of at least one dicey spot:

PokerStars – $1000+$50|125/250 Ante 30 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 85.65 BB (VPIP: 22.09, PFR: 15.34, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 164)
MP+1: 67.92 BB (VPIP: 26.84, PFR: 18.42, 3Bet Preflop: 2.70, Hands: 193)
Hero (MP+2): 78.2 BB
CO: 62.44 BB (VPIP: 18.18, PFR: 10.81, 3Bet Preflop: 2.60, Hands: 189)
BTN: 53.54 BB (VPIP: 38.39, PFR: 22.32, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 112)
SB: 82.09 BB (VPIP: 21.62, PFR: 12.61, 3Bet Preflop: 9.62, Hands: 112)
BB: 33 BB (VPIP: 16.22, PFR: 10.81, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 112)
UTG: 51.23 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 13.39, 3Bet Preflop: 2.13, Hands: 112)
UTG+1: 26.18 BB (VPIP: 18.92, PFR: 11.71, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 112)

9 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.58 BB) Hero has Kd Kc
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BTN raises to 5.28 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 13.33 BB, BTN calls 8.05 BB

Flop : (29.24 BB, 2 players) 7h Ac Qd
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (29.24 BB, 2 players) 9d
Hero bets 6.66 BB, fold

Hero wins 29.24 BB

Eventually, though, I lost a pretty big pot in a pretty good spot:

PokerStars – $1000+$50|200/400 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 45.27 BB (VPIP: 23.12, PFR: 14.52, 3Bet Preflop: 6.49, Hands: 187)
SB: 35.65 BB (VPIP: 26.29, PFR: 17.84, 3Bet Preflop: 2.35, Hands: 216)
Hero (BB): 88.34 BB
UTG: 22.05 BB (VPIP: 18.57, PFR: 10.58, 3Bet Preflop: 2.20, Hands: 212)
UTG+1: 76.72 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)
MP: 56.37 BB (VPIP: 21.64, PFR: 12.69, 3Bet Preflop: 9.23, Hands: 135)
MP+1: 47.31 BB (VPIP: 17.91, PFR: 11.19, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 135)
MP+2: 23.96 BB (VPIP: 19.26, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 3.28, Hands: 135)
CO: 9.53 BB (VPIP: 17.91, PFR: 11.28, 3Bet Preflop: 6.15, Hands: 135)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Ah Kc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.25 BB, fold, Hero raises to 6.67 BB, BTN raises to 14.25 BB, Hero raises to 88.22 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 30.89 BB and is all-in

Flop : (91.91 BB, 2 players) 8c 2s 3s

Turn : (91.91 BB, 2 players) 4s

River : (91.91 BB, 2 players) Jh

Hero shows Ah Kc (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 74%, Flop 81%, Turn 69%)

BTN shows Js Ac (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 26%, Flop 19%, Turn 31%)

BTN wins 91.91 BB

I got my second and final High cash of the SCOOP in the $1K 6-max turbo, though because it was a turbo those were pretty much all uninteresting pre-flop spots.

Thanks to everyone who followed along here, on Twitter, on Twitch, or anywhere else. I’m in Las Vegas now, I’ve actually been here for over 48 hours and am yet to play a single hand of poker. I had dinner with Keone last night, and he, Carlos, and I will be picking Nate up at the airport in a few hours.

At the moment, I’m on way out the door to a Red Chip Poker meet-up. Details on a nitcast meetup will be coming soon. So much to do in Vegas this time of year even without setting foot in a poker room!

The only High buy-in event I played on Saturday was the $2000 Six-Max Progressive Super Knockout Variable Level Times. Say that three times fast. It was basically a turbo with bounties, pretty fun though my bounty was collected in rather gruesome fashion. First off, just because I’ve posted a lot of failed bluffs lately, here’s one that actually worked:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|40/80 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BTN): 71.63 BB
SB: 93.38 BB (VPIP: 39.29, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 28)
BB: 38.31 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 28)
UTG: 52.94 BB (VPIP: 35.90, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 39)
MP: 79.88 BB (VPIP: 30.77, PFR: 23.08, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 13)
CO: 42.81 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 28)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9d Jh
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, SB calls 2 BB, fold

Flop : (6 BB, 2 players) 7c 4h Td
SB bets 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB

Turn : (12 BB, 2 players) 6c
SB bets 6 BB, Hero raises to 20.5 BB, fold

Hero wins 24 BB

And here’s where the last of my chips ended up:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|125/250 Ante 30 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BB): 15.65 BB
UTG: 30.24 BB (VPIP: 32.31, PFR: 16.92, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 65)
MP: 13.6 BB (VPIP: 38.10, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
CO: 17.02 BB (VPIP: 27.63, PFR: 24.66, 3Bet Preflop: 18.52, Hands: 76)
BTN: 21.04 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 22)
SB: 48.32 BB (VPIP: 26.15, PFR: 21.54, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 65)

6 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.22 BB) Hero has Tc 8c
fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 1 BB, fold, Hero checks

Flop : (3.22 BB, 2 players) 6c 9s 7s
Hero bets 2.41 BB, BTN raises to 4.82 BB, Hero raises to 14.53 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 9.7 BB

Turn : (32.28 BB, 2 players) 7h

River : (32.28 BB, 2 players) 9h

Hero shows Tc 8c (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 34%, Flop 91%, Turn 88%)

BTN shows Th 9c (Full House, Nines full of Sevens)
(Pre 66%, Flop 9%, Turn 13%)

BTN wins 32.28 BB

Thursday was a $1K Super Knock-Out, though my bounty was collected before I could nab any of my own. This first hand wasn’t a huge pot, but I’m disappointed in myself for calling the river:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|15/30 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 210.43 BB (VPIP: 24.75, PFR: 16.75, 3Bet Preflop: 2.11, Hands: 204)
SB: 165.67 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
BB: 156 BB (VPIP: 19.35, PFR: 12.90, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 31)
UTG: 55.37 BB (VPIP: 37.04, PFR: 18.52, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 55)
UTG+1: 237.3 BB (VPIP: 37.25, PFR: 13.73, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 52)
Hero (MP): 137.67 BB
MP+1: 234.8 BB (VPIP: 13.64, PFR: 11.36, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 44)
MP+2: 166.67 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
CO: 159.93 BB (VPIP: 22.00, PFR: 14.00, 3Bet Preflop: 12.00, Hands: 50)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Kc Kh
fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 2.5 BB, fold

Flop : (7 BB, 2 players) Jh 3d 7c
SB checks, Hero bets 5.23 BB, SB calls 5.23 BB

Turn : (17.47 BB, 2 players) 2s
SB checks, Hero checks

River : (17.47 BB, 2 players) 5h
SB bets 17 BB, Hero calls 17 BB

SB shows 5d 5s (Three of a Kind, Fives)
(Pre 20%, Flop 10%, Turn 5%)

Hero mucks Kc Kh (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 80%, Flop 90%, Turn 95%)

SB wins 51.47 BB

I don’t think Villain is bluffing, and with that sizing, he’s not value betting worse either.

I had a bad feeling about this one, but I think, despite the outcome, I was correct to suppress it as “seeing monsters”:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|30/60 Ante 5 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 310.33 BB (VPIP: 27.31, PFR: 16.97, 3Bet Preflop: 2.29, Hands: 285)
MP+2: 14.77 BB (VPIP: 17.71, PFR: 11.46, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 96)
CO: 50.67 BB (VPIP: 14.10, PFR: 8.97, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 79)
BTN: 74.15 BB (VPIP: 21.05, PFR: 14.04, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 57)
SB: 150.58 BB (VPIP: 36.92, PFR: 16.15, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 133)
Hero (BB): 62.23 BB
UTG: 74.27 BB (VPIP: 21.77, PFR: 12.90, 3Bet Preflop: 5.17, Hands: 125)
UTG+1: 140.47 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 12.35, 3Bet Preflop: 7.32, Hands: 82)
MP: 123.92 BB (VPIP: 24.43, PFR: 13.74, 3Bet Preflop: 8.20, Hands: 131)

9 players post ante of 0.08 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Kd Ks
fold, UTG+1 raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, MP+2 calls 3 BB, fold, BTN raises to 7.02 BB, SB calls 6.52 BB, Hero raises to 20 BB, fold, MP+2 calls 11.68 BB and is all-in, BTN raises to 74.07 BB and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 42.15 BB and is all-in

Flop : (149.75 BB, 3 players) Tc 9d 8s

Turn : (149.75 BB, 3 players) 5d

River : (149.75 BB, 3 players) 7h

Hero shows Kd Ks (One Pair, Kings)

Main Pot [54.82 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot [94.93 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)

BTN shows Ah As (One Pair, Aces)

Main Pot [54.82 BB]: (Pre 65%, Flop 79%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot [94.93 BB]: (Pre 82%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)

MP+2 shows 5h 5c (Three of a Kind, Fives)

Main Pot [54.82 BB]: (Pre 17%, Flop 9%, Turn 90%)

MP+2 wins 54.82 BB
BTN wins 94.93 BB

I also Twitched some PLO8 on Thursday, you can find that here.

I’ll be playing all day tomorrow, probably late registering the earliest tournaments by a bit just so I don’t end up with an insanely long day, but hey, it’s the last day of SCOOP, gotta make it count!

PokerStars – $2000+$100|1500/3000 Ante 375 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (MP+2): 21.83 BB
CO: 67.09 BB (VPIP: 27.79, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 10.73, Hands: 403)
BTN: 157.16 BB (VPIP: 10.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
SB: 15.14 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 10)
BB: 45.85 BB (VPIP: 18.79, PFR: 12.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 166)
UTG: 36.72 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG+1: 65.67 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 12)
MP: 23.49 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 20.66, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 123)
MP+1: 14.18 BB (VPIP: 23.08, PFR: 22.58, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 65)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Kh Jh
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.22 BB, CO raises to 5 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 2.78 BB

Flop : (12.63 BB, 2 players) 5h 9s Qs
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn : (12.63 BB, 2 players) Tc
Hero checks, CO checks

River : (12.63 BB, 2 players) 6d
Hero bets 16.71 BB and is all-in, CO calls 16.71 BB

Hero shows Kh Jh (Straight, King High)
(Pre 36%, Flop 30%, Turn 97%)

CO shows Jc Js (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 64%, Flop 70%, Turn 3%)

Hero wins 46.04 BB

I saw Kim do a lot of pot control and delayed continuation betting yesterday, so I was ready to check-raise the flop (in part because his betting range is probably more polarized than some people’s) and also the turn. When neither of those things happen, I think he’ll feel obliged to call an overbet with some hands, and because his range is likely capped, it’s a situation where I can and should shove the nuts and some air. I was a bit lucky not just to drill the gutshot but also that he had such a good bluff-catcher.

The next orbit, he did actually catch me in a bluff:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|1500/3000 Ante 375 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BB): 45.54 BB
UTG: 44.76 BB (VPIP: 27.70, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 11.17, Hands: 408)
UTG+1: 154.25 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 34.93 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 15)
MP+1: 43.73 BB (VPIP: 18.24, PFR: 12.35, 3Bet Preflop: 3.90, Hands: 171)
MP+2: 21.2 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
CO: 63.54 BB (VPIP: 35.29, PFR: 23.53, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 17)
BTN: 23.99 BB (VPIP: 26.98, PFR: 20.63, 3Bet Preflop: 7.27, Hands: 128)
SB: 15.18 BB (VPIP: 22.86, PFR: 22.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 70)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Jd As
UTG raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop : (6.03 BB, 2 players) 5h Td 5d
Hero checks, UTG bets 1.83 BB, Hero calls 1.83 BB

Turn : (9.69 BB, 2 players) Kd
Hero checks, UTG checks

River : (9.69 BB, 2 players) 9c
Hero bets 6.3 BB, UTG calls 6.3 BB

Hero shows Jd As (One Pair, Fives)
(Pre 28%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)

UTG shows Qd Qc (Two Pair, Queens and Fives)
(Pre 72%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)

UTG wins 22.28 BB

There may be some runouts where I can just check and try to show my hand down unimproved, but this isn’t one of them. Between the King coming on the turn and his passing up a decent bluffing card, there’s little chance that AJ is good. The flush getting there makes this just about the bottom of my range, and he’s got plenty of underpairs and maybe AQ that will be hard-pressed to call, so I think a bluff is clearly correct. QQ isn’t a hand I’d expect him to fold, especially after he saw me value bet a relatively weak hand in a spot like this yesterday.

I picked up some more chips busting a short stack AK > AJ, then lost JJ < QQ versus another short stack. The only other interesting one that went to the flop was this:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|2000/4000 Ante 500 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 25.39 BB (VPIP: 43.70, PFR: 36.44, 3Bet Preflop: 21.43, Hands: 123)
MP+2: 51.78 BB (VPIP: 26.54, PFR: 12.96, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 162)
CO: 25.98 BB (VPIP: 20.68, PFR: 13.62, 3Bet Preflop: 12.26, Hands: 238)
BTN: 169.98 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 15)
SB: 75.43 BB (VPIP: 27.63, PFR: 22.37, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 78)
BB: 24.22 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 9.38, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 64)
Hero (UTG): 23.35 BB
UTG+1: 29.85 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 17.51 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Kd Ad
Hero raises to 2.22 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.22 BB

Flop : (6.07 BB, 2 players) 8d 3h 7c
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (6.07 BB, 2 players) Js
BB checks, Hero checks

River : (6.07 BB, 2 players) 3d
BB bets 2.81 BB, fold

BB wins 6.07 BB

Villain’s stack size makes betting the flop awkward. Especially as he could shove semi-bluffs, bet-folding causes me to forfeit a lot of equity, but I don’t really want to bet-call either. I tanked a while before folding the river. Yes, he could easily be bluffing, but my entire range can beat a bluff, so I don’t need to call with all of it. I can have some 7s, maybe even some 8s or Js, and 66 and 55 make particularly good bluff-catchers as they block a few of his 7x and 8x combinations. Folding all of my non-pairs might still be a bit exploitable, but especially in a tournament I’m OK with that.

As it happened, Randal Flowers, who eliminated me from the previous 2K event and nearly busted me on the bubble of this one, ended up taking the last of my chips when his AK beat my KK.

The upside was that I got to spend some time outside and take a long walk. I’d planned on having today as a day off, and it felt that way even though it technically wasn’t. Here are some pics from my walk around Stanley Park:

Thanks to everyone who wished me well today or showed up to rail. I start tomorrow at 11AM Pacific playing all three Super Tuesday tournaments, though I’ll probably late register the Low and Medium PLO events at that time as well. I’ll post the new podcast tomorrow morning, but wanted to get this up first as I didn’t want to leave you hanging concerning results.

PokerStars – $2000+$100|40/80 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 126.5 BB (VPIP: 14.86, PFR: 8.11, 3Bet Preflop: 5.13, Hands: 75)
SB: 133.29 BB (VPIP: 8.11, PFR: 4.05, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 75)
Hero (BB): 101.28 BB
UTG: 94.94 BB (VPIP: 13.70, PFR: 9.59, 3Bet Preflop: 3.57, Hands: 74)
UTG+1: 125 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
MP: 158.91 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 14.81, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 27)
MP+1: 142.38 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 18.06, 3Bet Preflop: 8.70, Hands: 74)
MP+2: 151.38 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 68)
CO: 100.48 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 49)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Qd Qc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, BTN raises to 7.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 18.05 BB, fold, BTN raises to 126.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 83.23 BB and is all-in

Flop : (205.55 BB, 2 players) 5c 2s 6c

Turn : (205.55 BB, 2 players) 6s

River : (205.55 BB, 2 players) Kc

Hero shows Qd Qc (Two Pair, Queens and Sixes)
(Pre 18%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

BTN shows Ac As (Two Pair, Aces and Sixes)
(Pre 82%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)

BTN wins 205.55 BB

In the afternoon events, I managed to get up stacks in both the $200 and the $2000, though I probably misplayed and got lucky on the first critical hand from the High:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|30/60 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: 159.08 BB (VPIP: 21.28, PFR: 19.15, 3Bet Preflop: 5.00, Hands: 48)
UTG+1: 130.07 BB (VPIP: 10.42, PFR: 4.17, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 48)
MP: 166.17 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 20)
MP+1: 166.67 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
MP+2: 165.33 BB (VPIP: 13.64, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 44)
CO: 152.48 BB (VPIP: 20.83, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 48)
BTN: 157.45 BB (VPIP: 19.57, PFR: 13.04, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 48)
SB: 169.05 BB (VPIP: 21.62, PFR: 13.51, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 37)
Hero (BB): 150 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has As Ks
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 9.5 BB, MP+1 calls 6.5 BB

Flop : (19.5 BB, 2 players) Th 7h 5s
Hero checks, MP+1 bets 10.43 BB, Hero calls 10.43 BB

Turn : (40.37 BB, 2 players) Qs
Hero checks, MP+1 bets 28.75 BB, Hero calls 28.75 BB

River : (97.87 BB, 2 players) 8s
Hero checks, MP+1 bets 66.15 BB, Hero raises to 101.32 BB and is all-in, MP+1 calls 35.17 BB

Hero shows As Ks (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 62%, Flop 41%, Turn 66%)

MP+1 shows Jh 9h (Straight, Queen High)
(Pre 38%, Flop 59%, Turn 34%)

Hero wins 300.5 BB

This is basically just weak-tight play on my part, but my thinking was that Villain wasn’t going to fold better to a turn shove. His sizing meant either a monster or a big draw, not a hand like JT that would fold to a shove. That leaves open the question of what exactly I’m going to do on blank rivers. Calling isn’t beyond me, but I think I’m better off just sticking it on the turn. It turns out I got the gin card on the river, which I want to be sure to acknowledge because I’ve been on the wrong end of some similar spots recently and I want to combat the selective memory of those spots.

For much of the day, I was stuck at a tough but interesting table with several good cash game players, including Dong Kim. That meant a lot more pots than usual were going to flops, as these players preferred to play post-flop rather than get into the pre-flop raising wars in which the tournament pros specialize. I usually prefer the former myself, but sensing less of an edge than usual in that regard, I switched to a strategy of employing larger open raises. That said, I did get in a nice value bet against Kim that, though not really a tough decision, gave me the warm and fuzzies:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|400/800 Ante 100 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 100.43 BB (VPIP: 19.85, PFR: 13.58, 3Bet Preflop: 7.81, Hands: 268)
CO: 30.25 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 15.11, 3Bet Preflop: 4.41, Hands: 141)
BTN: 74.91 BB (VPIP: 30.45, PFR: 23.02, 3Bet Preflop: 13.16, Hands: 266)
SB: 43.76 BB (VPIP: 19.62, PFR: 11.36, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 266)
Hero (BB): 60.52 BB
UTG: 85.96 BB (VPIP: 17.89, PFR: 10.53, 3Bet Preflop: 6.12, Hands: 96)
UTG+1: 40.53 BB (VPIP: 24.43, PFR: 15.33, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, Hands: 265)
MP: 26.38 BB (VPIP: 32.58, PFR: 17.98, 3Bet Preflop: 3.20, Hands: 267)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Qs 6s
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.2 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop : (5.9 BB, 2 players) Ks Qc 9h
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (5.9 BB, 2 players) 3s
Hero checks, BTN checks

River : (5.9 BB, 2 players) 8h
Hero bets 4.17 BB, BTN calls 4.17 BB

Hero shows Qs 6s (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 55%, Flop 66%, Turn 86%)

BTN mucks Jc 9c (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 45%, Flop 34%, Turn 14%)

Hero wins 14.23 BB

The main lesson here is that just because you are value betting a hand that is relatively weak in absolute terms doesn’t mean you should use small sizing. After the flop and turn action, any middle pair is a strong hand, and Kim will feel compelled to pay off even a somewhat large bet with weaker in order to prevent me from bluffing.

That’s not to say I never got outplayed postflop. Here’s one against another heads-up player where I may well have folded the best hand:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|700/1400 Ante 175 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG+1: 28.46 BB (VPIP: 19.06, PFR: 12.58, 3Bet Preflop: 7.19, Hands: 321)
MP: 35.01 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 14.00, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 50)
MP+1: 52.96 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 7)
MP+2: 65.05 BB (VPIP: 30.09, PFR: 22.33, 3Bet Preflop: 12.59, Hands: 319)
CO: 148.32 BB (VPIP: 26.92, PFR: 19.23, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 26)
Hero (BTN): 54.59 BB
SB: 57.54 BB (VPIP: 20.95, PFR: 11.49, 3Bet Preflop: 7.04, Hands: 149)
BB: 39.88 BB (VPIP: 24.76, PFR: 15.92, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 318)
UTG: 121.86 BB (VPIP: 19.11, PFR: 13.16, 3Bet Preflop: 4.48, Hands: 157)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Ks Kd
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2.25 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 6.35 BB, fold, fold, MP+1 calls 4.1 BB

Flop : (15.32 BB, 2 players) 5h 9h 3c
MP+1 checks, Hero bets 6.35 BB, MP+1 calls 6.35 BB

Turn : (28.02 BB, 2 players) 7h
MP+1 bets 7.13 BB, Hero calls 7.13 BB

River : (42.28 BB, 2 players) Qs
MP+1 bets 33.01 BB and is all-in, fold

MP+1 wins 42.28 BB

I don’t know that here’s anything I can do but fold my actual hand, but it sucks playing with players good enough to take advantage of spots like this one. With the Kh, I think I would have called.

The nice thing about SCOOP is that, even many hours into a $2K, you do still get some truly weak players, and I managed to double through one of them:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|600/1200 Ante 150 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 36.52 BB (VPIP: 19.74, PFR: 13.03, 3Bet Preflop: 7.43, Hands: 310)
MP+2: 88.66 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 10.26, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 39)
CO: 33.59 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 4.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 25)
BTN: 73.91 BB (VPIP: 29.87, PFR: 22.48, 3Bet Preflop: 13.08, Hands: 308)
SB: 116.29 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 15)
Hero (BB): 41.91 BB
UTG: 51.65 BB (VPIP: 19.71, PFR: 10.95, 3Bet Preflop: 6.06, Hands: 138)
UTG+1: 52.29 BB (VPIP: 25.33, PFR: 16.17, 3Bet Preflop: 6.72, Hands: 307)
MP: 147.98 BB (VPIP: 19.86, PFR: 13.48, 3Bet Preflop: 4.84, Hands: 146)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has 8d 8s
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop : (7.63 BB, 2 players) 9h 5h 7d
Hero checks, CO bets 6 BB, Hero raises to 38.78 BB and is all-in, CO calls 24.47 BB and is all-in

Turn : (68.56 BB, 2 players) 9s

River : (68.56 BB, 2 players) Kh

Hero shows 8d 8s (Two Pair, Nines and Eights)
(Pre 67%, Flop 81%, Turn 89%)

CO shows Qc 7c (Two Pair, Nines and Sevens)
(Pre 33%, Flop 19%, Turn 11%)

Hero wins 68.56 BB

Despite all of this, I was whiffing a lot post-flop and Kim had the button when I had the BB so I wasn’t getting any walks easy BB defenses. By the time the bubble rolled around, I had barely 10BBs and was forced to make some tight folds, including AJs facing a raise from a pretty active player.

On the exact bubble, I was dealt JJ in middle position. I think the big jump from no prize to $4000, followed by very gradual prize increases thereafter, would have forced me to fold it if someone had opened in front. It seemed too good not to open jam, though, even on the bubble, so I shipped it. None other than Randal Flowers, who’d busted me in the morning $2K, quickly shoved over the top. I actually said out loud, “Are you FUCKING kidding me?!”, which is quite out of character. Thankfully he “just” had AKs so I had a few heart-stopping seconds to sweat but I did manage the cash.

Once we were in the money I was pretty card dead but won one more flip for my tournament life, which means I’m coming into Day 2 with just over 20 BBs, in 71st place out of 86 remaining players. Play restarts at 11:30 AM Pacific time, and I’ll probably late register the triple stack at that time as well.

Of course you have to accept more of that when you play in tougher tournaments, and yesterday’s 6-max shootout and today’s 4-max both featured tough fields. Furthermore, because they were short-handed, there were a lot more spots where it both my opponent and I began with wide ranges, which introduces more variance and more opportunities for coolers and bluff coolers.

The 4-max met my expectations in the sense that there were a lot of accomplished tournament players, but many of them were (IMO) playing overly aggressive. For whatever reason, even many very good players approach 4-max more aggressively than they do a ring game table in which the first five players have folded, though strategically they ought to be the same (or even a bit tighter in 4-max, during ante levels).

What was frustrating was that players with extremely wide ranges kept making monster hands against me:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|15/30 NL (4 max) – Holdem – 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 170.33 BB (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
Hero (BB): 157.83 BB
CO: 315.47 BB (VPIP: 41.67, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 13)
BTN: 167.67 BB (VPIP: 66.67, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 3)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Tc 7s
fold, fold, SB raises to 2.4 BB, Hero calls 1.4 BB

Flop : (4.8 BB, 2 players) 5s 8c 5c
SB bets 2.4 BB, Hero calls 2.4 BB

Turn : (9.6 BB, 2 players) Ts
SB checks, Hero bets 9.6 BB, SB raises to 24 BB, Hero calls 14.4 BB

River : (57.6 BB, 2 players) Ac
SB bets 36 BB, Hero calls 36 BB

SB shows 8s 5d (Full House, Fives full of Eights)
(Pre 37%, Flop 99%, Turn 95%)

Hero mucks Tc 7s (Two Pair, Tens and Fives)
(Pre 63%, Flop 1%, Turn 5%)

SB wins 129.6 BB

My entire play in this hand is premised on the assumption that Villain’s range is wider than it should be, which given that he shows up with 85o seems like a reasonable assumption. So I float the flop with backdoors and, in all likelihood, two live cards.

On the turn, he’s either giving up or bluff-catching (or trapping, though only a very small portion of his range is strong enough for that), which is why I’m going for a big value bet. The raise is worrisome, but my pot-sized bet is a bit “out of rhythm” and may induce some spazziness (as I said, the 4-max was full of over-aggressive play), so I think my hand is too good to fold. The river is not as bad as it looks, because I don’t think Villain will value bet a bare 5, especially not for a big bet, and I can’t imagine Villain taking this line with all of his flush draws on the turn. It may, however, look like a very good card for Villain to fire again if he was bluffing the turn. Believe it or not, I feel pretty good about my line on this one.

I feel a little less good about this next one:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|20/40 NL (4 max) – Holdem – 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 115.55 BB (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
Hero (BTN): 152.6 BB
SB: 316.28 BB (VPIP: 43.18, PFR: 27.27, 3Bet Preflop: 11.76, Hands: 46)
BB: 149.05 BB (VPIP: 62.86, PFR: 22.86, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, Hands: 36)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Ks 8h
fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop : (6.5 BB, 2 players) 3c 3h 8c
BB checks, Hero bets 3.25 BB, BB raises to 10.5 BB, Hero calls 7.25 BB

Turn : (27.5 BB, 2 players) 4d
BB bets 20 BB, Hero calls 20 BB

River : (67.5 BB, 2 players) 6h
BB bets 47.5 BB, Hero calls 47.5 BB

BB shows Jd 3d (Three of a Kind, Threes)
(Pre 41%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)

Hero mucks Ks 8h (Two Pair, Eights and Threes)
(Pre 59%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

BB wins 162.5 BB

I half-pot my entire range on this flop, which makes this hand quite close to the top. Really, even from the button, I don’t have much 3x in my range. Clubs miss on the turn and Villain may have picked up a gutshot or just be firing again, so I call again. River is where I think a fold is possible. Villain was a weaker player, and although spazzing isn’t out of the question for him, and this probably is one of the best bluff-catchers in my range as it blocks 88 (which, say, KK would not), it might be best just to make an exploitive fold. It definitely “felt” like he had it, though I’m less inclined to rely on that kind of feeling when I’ve been running bad because of “monsters under the bed” syndrome.

This last one is the best example of running into a tough spot because of the field. It was against Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|25/50 NL (4 max) – Holdem – 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 154.36 BB (VPIP: 40.38, PFR: 30.77, 3Bet Preflop: 19.05, Hands: 55)
Hero (CO): 61.64 BB
BTN: 188.34 BB (VPIP: 45.78, PFR: 31.33, 3Bet Preflop: 15.63, Hands: 87)
SB: 182.44 BB (VPIP: 45.95, PFR: 21.62, 3Bet Preflop: 5.71, Hands: 77)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8s 9s
Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (4.5 BB, 2 players) Qc 4h 7s
BB checks, Hero bets 2.24 BB, BB calls 2.24 BB

Turn : (8.98 BB, 2 players) 5s
BB checks, Hero bets 6.72 BB, BB calls 6.72 BB

River : (22.42 BB, 2 players) 2s
BB checks, Hero bets 16.8 BB, BB raises to 66.64 BB, fold

BB wins 56.02 BB

Against most people I’d consider this a, not exactly easy, but definitely correct fold. I can only beat a bluff, and while two spades makes for a pretty good bluff-catchers, a lot of people are just never bluffing here. Does Lichtenberger fall into that category? I probably shouldn’t assume so. The more I think about it, the more I think my range can include at least sets and 86, so even though this is one of the worst flushes I can have, I might just have to suck it up and call. I want to emphasize, though, that this is only a gross spot because of who the Villain is. I really think it’s a clear fold otherwise, crazy as that may seem.

I busted with AJs vs 99 in the blinds, so I guess I got what I asked for in that regard.

The Variable Level Times was a neat format. Stacks started extremely deep – 25,000 BBs, to be precise – but blinds went up every 3 minutes at first. Over time, the blind increases got less frequent. There was a LOT of craziness in those early levels. People were really not adjusting well to the deep stacks and playing all kinds of junky hands out of position. Unfortunately I didn’t get much opportunity to take advantage, but the mistakes were plain to see.

I made a pretty big fold with a flush in this one as well:

PokerStars – $665+$35|600/1200 Ante 150 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 28.35 BB (VPIP: 23.53, PFR: 23.53, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
BTN: 74.15 BB (VPIP: 31.62, PFR: 16.24, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 120)
SB: 109.83 BB (VPIP: 35.88, PFR: 23.08, 3Bet Preflop: 15.09, Hands: 132)
BB: 38.83 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 14)
UTG: 22.73 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 20.39, 3Bet Preflop: 2.22, Hands: 106)
Hero (MP): 82.32 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Qc Js
fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, CO raises to 4.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 2.5 BB

Flop : (11.25 BB, 2 players) Kc Tc 2c
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn : (11.25 BB, 2 players) 7c
Hero checks, CO bets 5.5 BB, Hero calls 5.5 BB

River : (22.25 BB, 2 players) 5h
Hero checks, CO bets 18.23 BB and is all-in, fold

CO wins 22.25 BB

For better or worse, if Villain had bet the flop, we could have gotten all in. His range for 3-betting and then checking the flop has a LOT of Ax in it, though, and not a whole lot else. Among other things, this is a very plausible line for AcK, AcQ, and AcA. If he were going to bluff, I think he’d most likely just bet the flop. This isn’t exactly a fluke turn card. It’s irrelevant that I have the Queen when he shoves. He’s either got the nuts or a bluff, and I’m proud of myself for laying this one down.

I busted this one on a coin flip as well, AK < 77.

I’m not going to skip a Sunday, so I’ll be starting at 8AM Pacific in the Warm-Up. There’s a good chance I’ll take Monday off, though, unless I”m not able to because of a Day Two!

The field in the $2K 6-Max was no joke, either. My Round One opponents consisted of three top-notch tournament players (Amak16, P0cket00, and SmokRokFlok) and a sixth player I didn’t recognize. Honestly, I was a bit intimidated. Not that I didn’t think I could hold my own, but I certainly wasn’t expecting much of an edge.

That last player turned out to be pretty weak, which was a relief, and it wasn’t as tough as I thought to spot fundamental leaks in the other players’ games. Two of them quickly ran PFRs into the 30s, and people were just generally playing too many hands pre-flop. Of course they were tough post-flop, but if everyone is tough post-flop, then the player with the best pre-flop ranges has the edge. I aimed for that player to be me.

I think I accomplished that, but I still had to be tough post-flop, and that’s where my chips got off to:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|30/60 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 64.28 BB
BB: 157.52 BB (VPIP: 45.83, PFR: 29.17, 3Bet Preflop: 13.64, Hands: 49)
UTG: 28.67 BB (VPIP: 31.37, PFR: 22.00, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 52)
CO: 160.78 BB (VPIP: 26.53, PFR: 16.33, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 49)
BTN: 88.75 BB (VPIP: 16.95, PFR: 8.47, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 59)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4s 4h
fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.15 BB, Hero calls 1.65 BB, BB calls 1.15 BB

Flop : (6.45 BB, 3 players) 7s 5d 2c
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN checks

Turn : (6.45 BB, 3 players) 5h
Hero checks, BB bets 3.22 BB, BTN calls 3.22 BB, Hero calls 3.22 BB

River : (16.1 BB, 3 players) Ah
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets 8.7 BB, Hero raises to 25.45 BB, fold, BTN calls 16.75 BB

Hero shows 4s 4h (Two Pair, Fives and Fours)
(Pre 54%, Flop 76%, Turn 80%)

BTN shows Kc As (Two Pair, Aces and Fives)
(Pre 46%, Flop 24%, Turn 20%)

BTN wins 67 BB

I don’t think his call with this hand speaks to the value of the bluff one way or the other. Ax is the vast majority of his range here, and he needs to call with some of it, and he might as well include AK in his calling range in case I’m ever going for thin value with a worse Ace. So I either ran into the top of his range, or he’s never folding any Ace, which would make the bluff bad – can’t tell from the results.

I do think this is a good bluffing candidate. My range for overcalling the flop is not wide, I suppose I could have 86s though I don’t think I’d call with that pre, so this is both the bottom of my range and blocks 54s which may be relevant.

I took two “gambles” in the $1000, putting the money in with hands I usually would not because of the bounties. The first seemed pretty straight-forward:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|50/100 Ante 10 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 151.59 BB (VPIP: 27.03, PFR: 18.92, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 37)
Hero (BB): 114.91 BB
UTG: 46.2 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
UTG+1: 23.84 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 9.68, Hands: 70)
MP: 184.24 BB (VPIP: 27.88, PFR: 12.12, 3Bet Preflop: 8.75, Hands: 165)
MP+1: 51.98 BB (VPIP: 13.58, PFR: 8.64, 3Bet Preflop: 1.33, Hands: 163)
MP+2: 36.25 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
CO: 87.32 BB (VPIP: 27.66, PFR: 16.43, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 141)
BTN: 45.75 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has Td 9d
fold, fold, fold, fold, MP+2 raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 1.5 BB, Hero raises to 8 BB, MP+2 raises to 36.15 BB and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 28.15 BB

Flop : (75.2 BB, 2 players) 2h 5d Qc

Turn : (75.2 BB, 2 players) 7s

River : (75.2 BB, 2 players) Qd

Hero shows Td 9d (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 38%, Flop 27%, Turn 14%)

MP+2 shows As Js (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 62%, Flop 73%, Turn 86%)

MP+2 wins 75.2 BB

The real question is whether to squeeze with the intention of calling in the first place. Once he shoves, calling needing just 37% equity even in the absence of the bounty is pretty trivial with a strong suited connector. Flatting pre-flop has some merit, and although I like having a shot at winning the pot immediately, my hand’s equity does hold up well in a multi-way pot, and I can also take a shot at Villain’s stack post-flop (as it happens, though, I may well have been bet off of a good bet of equity if I’d gone to the flop).

After the tournament, I took a walk and began to question this second call in my head. Then I crunched some numbers and it turns out to be a clear call:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|75/150 Ante 20 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 110.57 BB (VPIP: 27.06, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 13.33, Hands: 85)
Hero (MP+2): 38.44 BB
CO: 68.59 BB (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
BTN: 46.95 BB (VPIP: 32.20, PFR: 13.56, 3Bet Preflop: 5.45, Hands: 118)
SB: 149.75 BB (VPIP: 28.64, PFR: 13.15, 3Bet Preflop: 8.00, Hands: 213)
BB: 20.25 BB (VPIP: 12.86, PFR: 7.62, 3Bet Preflop: 1.03, Hands: 211)
UTG: 25.03 BB (VPIP: 23.33, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 30)
UTG+1: 58.2 BB (VPIP: 27.13, PFR: 15.51, 3Bet Preflop: 2.35, Hands: 189)
MP: 84.79 BB (VPIP: 32.14, PFR: 23.21, 3Bet Preflop: 6.90, Hands: 56)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.7 BB) Hero has 4d 4s
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2 BB, Hero calls 2 BB, fold, BTN calls 2 BB, fold, BB raises to 20.12 BB and is all-in, fold, Hero raises to 38.31 BB and is all-in, fold

Flop : (45.94 BB, 2 players) 2s Ts Qs

Turn : (45.94 BB, 2 players) Ks

River : (45.94 BB, 2 players) Jc

BTN mucks 7h 7d (One Pair, Sevens)
(Pre 0%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)

BB shows Ad As (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 82%, Flop 93%, Turn 100%)

Hero shows 4d 4s (Flush, King High)
(Pre 18%, Flop 7%, Turn 0%)

BB wins 45.94 BB

Against {77+,KQs,KQo,ATs+,AJo+} it’s barely a fold even without the bounty. Tightening Villain’s range slightly by removing the KQo and KQs barely changes my equity at all, and pulling out the ATs and AJo makes a bit closer but still a call given the bounty. I really can’t imagine his range being any tighter than that.

Tomorrow is Big Antes at 8AM Pacific and then 6Max Shootout at 11AM, the latter of which is another I’m really looking forward to.

The $700 Ante Up was disappointing because I love the format and look forward to the tournament, but despite some good luck in all-in pots, there was just too much going wrong. I got some bad runouts, and despite making some big laydowns (AQo pre-flop, flopped trips, flopped top pair, that kinda stuff), I think the biggest mistake I made in the tournament – probably the biggest mistake I’ve made in the SCOOP so far – was not folding this on the turn:

PokerStars – $665+$35|5/5 Ante 100 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 3451.2 BB (VPIP: 61.82, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 55)
BB: 1430.8 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 9.52, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 84)
UTG: 1060.2 BB (VPIP: 63.64, PFR: 10.91, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 55)
UTG+1: 1659.2 BB
MP: 2451.6 BB (VPIP: 58.18, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 12.90, Hands: 55)
MP+1: 2633 BB (VPIP: 50.91, PFR: 5.45, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 55)
Hero (MP+2): 1275.8 BB
CO: 2889.2 BB (VPIP: 60.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BTN: 1385.4 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 16.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 50)

9 players post ante of 20 BB, SB posts SB 1 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 182 BB) Hero has Kd Ks
UTG calls 1 BB, UTG+1 calls 1 BB, MP calls 1 BB, MP+1 calls 1 BB, Hero calls 1 BB, CO calls 1 BB, BTN calls 1 BB, SB checks, BB checks

Flop : (189 BB, 9 players) Js 2c 9d
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 bets 1 BB, MP calls 1 BB, MP+1 calls 1 BB, Hero raises to 111 BB, fold, BTN calls 111 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold

Turn : (414 BB, 2 players) Qc
Hero checks, BTN bets 246.8 BB, Hero calls 246.8 BB

River : (907.6 BB, 2 players) 9h
Hero checks, BTN bets 1006.6 BB and is all-in, fold

BTN wins 907.6 BB

Limping behind pre-flop is certainly risky, but at this stack size I’m not going to have a raise-fold range, and there were still four players to act, including an over-active button who was raising really wide ranges in a lot of bad spots. I’d say there was a 60%-70% chance someone was going to re-open the betting after I limped.

I really don’t know what I’m beating on the turn. AQ and probably KQ raise pre, not to mention I block KQ, and Villain isn’t likely to have a bluff after calling the flop. Not to mention that even if he is bluffing, he’ll shove most rivers, and there aren’t many I can call.

If you’re curious for more Ante Up strategy, I’ve got a whole series about it on Tournament Poker Edge.

I’ll be back at it at 11AM Pacific tomorrow in the $1K Progressive Super Knock-Out.

I won Round One of the $700 in dramatic fashion:

PokerStars – $665+$35|40/80 NL (2 max) – Holdem – 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 58.33 BB
BB: 66.68 BB (VPIP: 76.81, PFR: 44.93, 3Bet Preflop: 17.65, Hands: 72)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Ah Ks
Hero raises to 2 BB, BB raises to 5.5 BB, Hero raises to 12.49 BB, BB calls 6.99 BB

Flop : (24.98 BB, 2 players) 9h 4h 3c
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (24.98 BB, 2 players) 3h
BB bets 15.25 BB, Hero calls 15.25 BB

River : (55.48 BB, 2 players) 6d
BB bets 38.94 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 30.59 BB and is all-in

BB shows 8d 5d (One Pair, Threes)
(Pre 40%, Flop 23%, Turn 9%)

Hero shows Ah Ks (One Pair, Threes)
(Pre 60%, Flop 77%, Turn 91%)

Hero wins 116.65 BB

Unfortunately in Round 2 I went down to a bad beat and a cooler:

PokerStars – $665+$35|40/80 NL (2 max) – Holdem – 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 71.3 BB
BB: 53.7 BB (VPIP: 78.26, PFR: 53.62, 3Bet Preflop: 14.71, Hands: 70)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7h 9c
Hero raises to 2 BB, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (4 BB, 2 players) Kh 7s 4d
BB checks, Hero bets 2 BB, BB raises to 6.8 BB, Hero calls 4.8 BB

Turn : (17.6 BB, 2 players) 7c
BB bets 10.55 BB, Hero calls 10.55 BB

River : (38.7 BB, 2 players) Js
BB bets 34.35 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 34.35 BB

BB shows 4s 4h (Full House, Fours full of Sevens)
(Pre 51%, Flop 98%, Turn 84%)

Hero shows 7h 9c (Three of a Kind, Sevens)
(Pre 49%, Flop 2%, Turn 16%)

BB wins 107.4 BB

PokerStars – $665+$35|40/80 NL (2 max) – Holdem – 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 98.35 BB
BB: 26.65 BB (VPIP: 76.92, PFR: 53.85, 3Bet Preflop: 15.63, Hands: 66)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Qc Qh
Hero raises to 2 BB, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (4 BB, 2 players) 2c 7s Js
BB checks, Hero bets 2 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Turn : (8 BB, 2 players) Kh
BB checks, Hero bets 6 BB, BB raises to 22.65 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 16.65 BB

River : (53.3 BB, 2 players) 9h

BB shows Tc Qs (Straight, King High)
(Pre 11%, Flop 9%, Turn 18%)

Hero shows Qc Qh (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 89%, Flop 91%, Turn 82%)

BB wins 53.3 BB

I got to take a few minutes off before the rebuy events started. I got off to a good start in the $700, then ran into this spot:

PokerStars – $665+$35|200/400 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 37.5 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 9.76, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 42)
MP+1: 12.62 BB (VPIP: 21.31, PFR: 21.67, 3Bet Preflop: 3.85, Hands: 61)
MP+2: 13.15 BB (VPIP: 12.77, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 47)
CO: 18.98 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 42)
Hero (BTN): 64.76 BB
SB: 48.04 BB (VPIP: 19.05, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 42)
BB: 43.54 BB (VPIP: 26.19, PFR: 19.05, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 42)
UTG: 23.57 BB (VPIP: 18.52, PFR: 12.77, 3Bet Preflop: 3.45, Hands: 189)
UTG+1: 14.23 BB (VPIP: 21.43, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 5.00, Hands: 42)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Ad Qc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, SB raises to 5.95 BB, fold, Hero raises to 13.89 BB, SB raises to 47.92 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 34.03 BB

Flop : (97.96 BB, 2 players) 6h 9d Tc

Turn : (97.96 BB, 2 players) Kh

River : (97.96 BB, 2 players) 9s

SB shows Ac Kd (Two Pair, Kings and Nines)
(Pre 75%, Flop 84%, Turn 91%)

Hero shows Ad Qc (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 25%, Flop 16%, Turn 9%)

SB wins 97.96 BB

Getting it in pre is on the thin side, but I don’t see how else to play it. I guess flatting the 3-bet is an option, but even for 50 bigs AQ is a pretty big hand button vs SB.

I got the last of my money in good, but I’m still not sure I played it optimally:

PokerStars – $665+$35|250/500 Ante 60 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 31.23 BB (VPIP: 19.75, PFR: 19.23, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 81)
BB: 19.08 BB (VPIP: 11.67, PFR: 8.77, 3Bet Preflop: 3.85, Hands: 60)
UTG: 14.72 BB (VPIP: 14.55, PFR: 12.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 55)
Hero (UTG+1): 16.51 BB
MP: 99.18 BB (VPIP: 21.82, PFR: 18.52, 3Bet Preflop: 8.70, Hands: 55)
MP+1: 24.02 BB (VPIP: 25.45, PFR: 16.36, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 55)
CO: 4.48 BB (VPIP: 17.82, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 202)
BTN: 11.89 BB (VPIP: 21.82, PFR: 16.98, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 55)

8 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.46 BB) Hero has Ah Ks
fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (5.46 BB, 2 players) 5h 2h 9c
BB checks, Hero bets 1.8 BB, BB raises to 15.5 BB, Hero calls 12.59 BB and is all-in

Turn : (34.24 BB, 2 players) 7h

River : (34.24 BB, 2 players) 6c

BB shows Th 6h (Flush, Ten High)
(Pre 37%, Flop 49%, Turn 84%)

Hero shows Ah Ks (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 63%, Flop 51%, Turn 16%)

BB wins 34.24 BB

Arguably just shoving pre is better. I do have a raise-fold range from this stack size, though, and I definitely do get three-bet when I open in spots like this. I could also see checking or jamming flop, too. I mean, it’s not like I WANT action from Th 6h.

I’ll be playing again tomorrow starting at 11AM Pacific with the $2000 Super Tuesday replacement. I usually tweet interesting hands while I’m playing, so if you aren’t already, you might want to follow @thinkingpoker.

I had a bit of friction coming into Canada yesterday, nothing too serious, but the most difficult I’ve encountered on any or my trips here. The first customs agent asked me the usual questions but seemed satisfied with my answers and sent me on my way. Thinking I was in the clear, I retrieved my bag and went to leave the airport, handing my declaration form to another customs agent on the way out. The first agent must have marked something on there, because the second did a double take and then sent me to the immigration office.

The agent there was polite and a bit less aggressive than the customs people usually are, which was nice. He asked about how often I came to Canada, how long I planned to stay, and where I planned to stay. He also asked whether poker was my only source of income, and when I mentioned coaching and writing, he asked whether my writing was entirely online. I’m not really sure why that was important, but he told me to leave my bag and have a seat, then he disappeared for at least fifteen minutes.

Finally he returned and told me I’d be allowed in (he never actually inspected my bag). He said they’d had problems with online poker players staying in Canada for months at a time, returning to the US only briefly, and then coming back to Canada again. Apparently my track record of relatively brief visits over the last few years reassured them, and I was allowed into the country. Still, this was a bit of a scare, and also significant for being the first time a customs/immigration officer I’ve dealt with has demonstrated an awareness of the phenomenon of US poker players coming to Canada to play online.

Now that I’m here, it’s great to be playing the SCOOP on the west coast. Event 1 started at 5AM, which was early even for me, but from here on out none of the tournaments starts before 8AM or after 2PM. 8AM might sound early to some of you, but it’s roughly when I tend to wake up anyway, and I’m glad not to have events starting at 5PM and running until 5AM (I skipped several events last year for this reason).

I late registered all three Event 1s and came somewhat close to cashing in the $1K, ultimately busting on a coin flip:

PokerStars – $1000+$50|250/500 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 34.46 BB (VPIP: 26.92, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
MP+1: 26.33 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 11.54, 3Bet Preflop: 21.43, Hands: 26)
MP+2: 25.08 BB (VPIP: 24.44, PFR: 15.56, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 45)
CO: 41.15 BB (VPIP: 12.33, PFR: 5.48, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 73)
Hero (BTN): 30.1 BB
SB: 13.1 BB (VPIP: 23.08, PFR: 11.54, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
BB: 14.84 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 8.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
UTG: 40.98 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 26)
UTG+1: 75.37 BB (VPIP: 26.92, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 26)

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has Jh Ac
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 5 BB, fold, fold, CO raises to 41.05 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 25 BB and is all-in

Flop : (62.4 BB, 2 players) 3s 4c 9h

Turn : (62.4 BB, 2 players) 6h

River : (62.4 BB, 2 players) 4s

CO shows 6d 6s (Full House, Sixes full of Fours)
(Pre 55%, Flop 76%, Turn 100%)

Hero shows Jh Ac (One Pair, Fours)
(Pre 45%, Flop 24%, Turn 0%)

CO wins 62.4 BB

Relatively standard I think, though I can see a case for flatting pre-flop as well.

The 6-max progressive knock-out was a lot of fun, and I wish I’d lasted longer in that one. I got off to a pretty good start, three-betting quite a bit against a very active player on my right and generally getting the better of the many pots we played together. Then I lost a chunk running JJ into his QQ. I would have been ready to lose it all, but he just flatted my three-bet out of position, and we didn’t end up getting stacks in post.

I once again miraculously managed not to go broke here:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|75/150 Ante 20 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: 60.97 BB (VPIP: 5.88, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
MP: 282.54 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 22)
CO: 61.31 BB (VPIP: 47.37, PFR: 32.43, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 38)
BTN: 147.22 BB (VPIP: 35.96, PFR: 19.70, 3Bet Preflop: 2.17, Hands: 203)
SB: 77.58 BB (VPIP: 24.50, PFR: 13.91, 3Bet Preflop: 5.13, Hands: 155)
Hero (BB): 61.95 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.3 BB) Hero has Qd Ks
fold, fold, CO raises to 2.16 BB, BTN calls 2.16 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.16 BB

Flop : (7.78 BB, 3 players) 6s Qh As
Hero checks, CO bets 3.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 3.5 BB

Turn : (14.78 BB, 2 players) Qs
Hero checks, CO bets 12.5 BB, Hero calls 12.5 BB

River : (39.78 BB, 2 players) 7s
Hero checks, CO bets 14 BB, Hero calls 14 BB

CO shows Ac Ah (Full House, Aces full of Queens)
(Pre 86%, Flop 95%, Turn 98%)

Hero mucks Qd Ks (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 14%, Flop 5%, Turn 2%)

CO wins 67.78 BB

Villain could have easily shoved the river, and given that there was a $500 bounty for eliminating me, I think he clearly should have.

Ultimately, I was busted by a player who went after my bounty a bit more aggressively:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|75/150 Ante 20 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 167.27 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
BB: 373.33 BB (VPIP: 41.30, PFR: 34.78, 3Bet Preflop: 40.00, Hands: 47)
UTG: 107.29 BB (VPIP: 52.38, PFR: 40.32, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 63)
MP: 61.73 BB (VPIP: 35.53, PFR: 18.86, 3Bet Preflop: 2.75, Hands: 228)
CO: 68.97 BB (VPIP: 23.30, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.30, Hands: 180)
Hero (BTN): 24.38 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.3 BB) Hero has 2c 2h
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 24.25 BB and is all-in, fold, BB calls 23.25 BB

Flop : (49.79 BB, 2 players) Tc Ah Ks

Turn : (49.79 BB, 2 players) 8h

River : (49.79 BB, 2 players) Th

BB shows 8d 2d (Two Pair, Tens and Eights)
(Pre 37%, Flop 15%, Turn 98%)

Hero shows 2c 2h (Two Pair, Tens and Twos)
(Pre 63%, Flop 85%, Turn 2%)

BB wins 49.79 BB

The most interesting pot I played was against Chris Moorman in the $2000 Sunday Million replacement:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|50/100 Ante 10 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (UTG): 135.17 BB
UTG+1: 105.97 BB (VPIP: 38.46, PFR: 23.08, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
MP: 69.55 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 8.89, 3Bet Preflop: 2.22, Hands: 91)
MP+1: 23.7 BB (VPIP: 21.11, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 91)
MP+2: 108.03 BB (VPIP: 31.87, PFR: 19.78, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 91)
CO: 105.24 BB (VPIP: 22.47, PFR: 17.98, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 89)
BTN: 104.23 BB (VPIP: 20.69, PFR: 8.62, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 60)
SB: 103.1 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
BB: 95.76 BB (VPIP: 16.44, PFR: 13.70, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 74)

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has As Ac
Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO calls 3 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop : (8.4 BB, 2 players) 3d 4c 7c
Hero checks, CO bets 4.2 BB, Hero calls 4.2 BB

Turn : (16.8 BB, 2 players) 7s
Hero checks, CO bets 8.4 BB, Hero calls 8.4 BB

River : (33.6 BB, 2 players) Jc
Hero checks, CO bets 22.39 BB, Hero calls 22.39 BB

CO shows 5d 5h (Two Pair, Sevens and Fives)
(Pre 20%, Flop 23%, Turn 14%)

Hero shows As Ac (Two Pair, Aces and Sevens)
(Pre 80%, Flop 77%, Turn 86%)

Hero wins 78.38 BB

It was all downhill from there, though. I was really card dead, barely opening at all and getting three-bet almost every time I did (except when I had Kings, of course!) Eventually I open jammed 13BBs with JJ and lost a flip to AK in the big blind.

Tomorrow is the heads up, which should be a lot of fun!

Monday

I played all three of the Action Hour tournaments. For those who don’t know, these are tournaments where the blinds go up very quickly for the first hour or so, during which rebuys are permitted. After that, the blinds go back down and the tournament ends up playing very deep as a result of all the chips on the table. Combine that with the long structure on a SCOOP-H event, and this made for frankly an absurd tournament. I played for hours and busted nowhere near the money, though I did manage a shallow cash in the $50. I’m not too thrilled with my bustout from the $500:

Poker Stars $500+$30 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t75/t150 Blinds + t20 – 6 players – http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2501934

CO: t11046 M = 32.02
BTN: t14568 M = 42.23
SB: t19535 M = 56.62
Hero (BB): t13608 M = 39.44
UTG: t26519 M = 76.87
MP: t23706 M = 68.71

Pre Flop: (t345) Hero is BB with 7s 9s
4 folds, SB calls t75, Hero raises to t450, SB calls t300

Flop: (t1020) 9h 8s 8h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t510, SB raises to t1388, Hero calls t878

Turn: (t3796) 4c (2 players)
SB bets t2688, Hero raises to t11750 all in, SB calls t9062

River: (t27296) Qh (2 players – 1 is all in)

Tuesday

After 48 hours of clouds and rain, the sun finally appeared over Montreal. I took the opportunity to ride to the Marché Jean-Talon, which is just about my favorite thing to do in Montreal.

In the afternoon I played the M and H heads up events without cashing. I think I was pretty fortunate in my High matchups, in that I twice drew tournament players who didn’t seem to have a lot of heads up experience. The second match ended with me five-bet jamming AQo into his KK, which could probably be called “standard” although I really try to avoid big pre-flop pots against opponents like this who are so easily outplayed after the flop. You only only take that so far, though, and while I wouldn’t have 4-bet AQ to get it in, that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong to 3-bet it or to shove it over a 4-bet.

I also managed a shallow cash in the Super Tuesday $1000 SCOOP. As reported here, I made Day 2 with only about 20BBs. They all went in when I got AJs in the BB against a min-raise and a call, so it was a spot I felt quite good about it although the raiser had AQ and busted me.

Wednesday

I played and whiffed all three Super Knockout tournaments. I think in some spots I made a little too much allowance for the large bounties (seeing a lot of flops early) and in others not enough:

Poker Stars $1025+$1025+$50 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t30/t60 Blinds – 9 players – http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2501938

Hero (SB): t7127 118.78 BBs
BB: t5156 85.93 BBs
UTG: t4964 82.73 BBs
UTG+1: t9403 156.72 BBs
UTG+2: t3672 61.20 BBs
MP1: t7236 120.60 BBs
MP2: t3712 61.87 BBs
CO: t1932 32.20 BBs
BTN: t9301 155.02 BBs

Pre Flop: (t90) Hero is SB with Qh Qd
3 folds, MP1 raises to t150, MP2 calls t150, 2 folds, Hero raises to t750, 1 fold, MP1 raises to t1525, 1 fold, Hero calls t775

Flop: (t3260) 8h Th 4c (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets t1285, Hero folds

This was a complicated hand. I expected my squeeze to look very strong, and the original raiser was quite good, but the caller was really weak so I figured I could just blatantly build the pot with him. I took it for strength that the first player was willing to raise the weaker one out of the pot, but in retrospect because he covers me he really has a lot of incentive to get it in preflop with AK and maybe even worse than that, so I probably should have gone with this, post-flop if not pre. Trying to setmine to the 4-bet was likely the worst option.

Thursday

I love the Ante Up format, and I played all three tournaments. The fields were disappointingly small, and I took bad beats early in the L and M events, but i ended up making quite a deep run in the H. I was really happy with the adjustments I made to the format, and I think that my recent live cash game experience helped because I was much more familiar with hand reading in deep, multiway pots than was anyone else and was able to make some nice plays as a result. Unfortunately I ended up taking it too far and running a suicidal bluff into a full house, ultimately finishing 19th.

The tournaments didn’t start until 5PM, though, so I got to spend the day with Luisinho, whom some of you may recognize from the blog comments. Vegetarian chili, the best coffee in Montreal, and some of the best natas (Portuguese egg tart) in the world were a great start to the day.

Friday

I played the $10 and $100 Big Ante events. I was on the fence about playing the $1000, but it drew a small and tough-looking field and I wasn’t at my sharpest after staying up until 5AM playing the Ante Up the night before, so I passed. Nothing remarkable happened in the other two.

Saturday

I played all three six-max shootouts and made the semifinals of both the H and the M. If I’d used the same tactic as on Friday and monitored the H field closely, I probably wouldn’t have played, but unlike on Friday I was really feeling sharp and pretty roundly outplayed my first table. The second table just wasn’t winnable from my seat. I got set under set for half of my stack and then lost a flip to bust the other half.

The $200 event was much more interesting, but I’ll likely cover it in a series for Tournament Poker Edge, so I won’t get into too many details here.

Sunday

Sundays are such brutal days. The fields are just so huge that even running well for hours on end isn’t enough to guarantee success. I finished in the top 2% of the L Warmup event for less than $200 and near-bubbled the M and H Sunday Million tournaments. The big news was final tabling the Sunday $100 rebuy, ultimately finishing 4th for about $30,000. Really I just ran absurdly hot. I won’t deny that I made some good plays along the way, but in retrospect my play at the final table was embarrassing. I guess if nothing else it’s a good wake-up call that I’ve grown rusty in this regard, which when you’re playing tournaments you simply can’t afford to do.

It reminds me of a point I always scold my MTT students about, which is not being confident with heads up play. When you enter a tournament, you simply can’t afford not to play well at the final table or heads up. Even though they don’t come often, so much of your equity depends on making the most of these situations.

Prior to this hand, I’d really been hammering on the player in the CO. Mostly it was out of the BB, where I basically never folded to his button min-raises, sometimes 3-betting, sometimes calling and getting stubborn post-flop, but definitely not making it easy for him just to raise and take pots from late position.

It’s not that I think the BB’s cold 4-bet is weak exactly, just that there’s a little more room for it to be light than you might otherwise expect. My pre-flop and flop calls seem pretty unambiguous to me.

The turn is where it gets interesting. On the one hand, it’s a dicey spot for him to barrel. On the other hand, I’m getting 4:1, and he’s repping a really narrow range. I don’t see him betting AA here, with or without a heart. Even against that narrow range, I’m drawing pretty live. So basically on the turn I’m worried but don’t think I can fold.

In retrospect, I think that’s a reason to fold the river. Of course he’s still repping a really narrow range, and my hand is a decent bluff-catcher in that I block a couple things like AhQh, QhJh, and KQ that could play this way. However, I probably have enough trips, flushes, and boats in my range that I don’t really need to call with pure bluff-catchers like this.

My thinking is that even though my turn call is actually pretty strong Villain may just desperation shove the river with all his air once he gets that far. Probably that would be more plausible in a random $100 rebuy or something, but not so much in a $2K SCOOP event. Not to mention that I didn’t really think he had that much air in his turn range, though admittedly that was a weak read.

PokerStars – $2000+$100|250/500 Ante 60 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 67.91 BB
BTN: 59.46 BB
Hero (SB): 113.82 BB
BB: 91.59 BB
UTG: 24.84 BB
MP: 14.75 BB

6 players post ante of 0.12 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.22 BB) Hero has Qc Qh
fold, fold, CO raises to 2 BB, fold, Hero raises to 6 BB, BB raises to 14.4 BB, fold, Hero calls 8.4 BB

Flop : (31.52 BB, 2 players) Kc 4h 8h
Hero checks, BB bets 11.11 BB, Hero calls 11.11 BB

Turn : (53.74 BB, 2 players) Kh
Hero checks, BB bets 17.78 BB, Hero calls 17.78 BB

River : (89.29 BB, 2 players) 5d
Hero checks, BB bets 48.19 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 48.19 BB

BB shows Ac Ks (Three of a Kind, Kings) (Pre 43%, Flop 87%, Turn 77%)
Hero shows Qc Qh (Two Pair, Kings and Queens) (Pre 57%, Flop 13%, Turn 23%)
BB wins 185.67 BB

Never really got anything going in the $2K. Played one interesting hand that you’ll see in a “What’s Your Play?” feature, but other than that pretty much just grinded down to half starting stack then got it in on a flip and lost.

Medium

Kind of interesting bustout hand in this one. I was suspicious of Villain’s turn check, but I had such a good semi-bluffing hand that I went for it anyway. I definitely check behind a non-heart turn. You do see people making those little check-raises sometimes just as a cheap steal attempt because they know you are continuation betting a lot, so I was hoping that was what was going on here:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP1) (t14148)
MP2 (t10330)
MP3 (t11346)
CO (t29033)
Button (t13114)
SB (t16577)
BB (t5082)
UTG (t41931)
UTG+1 (t46386)

Hero’s M: 13.47

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 9, 10
2 folds, Hero bets t800, 4 folds, SB calls t600, BB calls t400

Flop: (t2850) 7, 2, 8 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t1444, SB raises to t2888, 1 fold, Hero calls t1444

Turn: (t8626) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t10410 (All-In), SB calls t10410

River: (t29446) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t29446

Results:
SB had K, K (three of a kind, Kings).
Hero had 9, 10 (one pair, tens).
Outcome: SB won t29446

Low

It was about 2AM local time when we made the money in this one. It was the only tournament I was still in, and I was not looking forward to staying up all night to win $100 or whatever. Here’s one fun hand, both Villains were extremely active but seemed decent, which is to say capable of reading my raise as very strong:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 27 Tournament, 1250/2500 Blinds 325 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t34504)
Button (t60222)
Hero (SB) (t75387)
BB (t58480)
UTG (t126182)
UTG+1 (t229165)
MP1 (t104585)
MP2 (t63462)
MP3 (t138455)

Hero’s M: 11.29

Preflop: Hero is SB with 2, 10
3 folds, MP2 bets t5025, MP3 calls t5025, 2 folds, Hero raises to t15550, 2 folds, MP3 calls t10525

Flop: (t41550) 6, 7, 5 (2 players)
Hero bets t16500, 1 fold

Total pot: t41550

Results:
Hero didn’t show 2, 10.
Outcome: Hero won t41550

I ended up getting all-in on a flip, albeit in a kind of interesting way. By this time, it was 3AM and I was actually rooting for the other guy to win:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 27 Tournament, 2000/4000 Blinds 500 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 (t122448)
CO (t242233)
Button (t202332)
SB (t201054)
BB (t61786)
UTG (t154286)
UTG+1 (t110469)
MP1 (t50670)
Hero (MP2) (t82812)

Hero’s M: 7.89

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 8, 8
UTG bets t8000, 2 folds, Hero calls t8000, 1 fold, CO calls t8000, 1 fold, SB calls t6000, BB calls t4000

Flop: (t44500) 7, 3, 7 (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks, CO bets t15000, 3 folds, Hero raises to t74312 (All-In), CO calls t59312

Turn: (t193124) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t193124) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t193124

Results:
Hero had 8, 8 (two pair, eights and sevens).
CO had Q, A (two pair, Aces and sevens).
Outcome: CO won t193124

I busted the $2K turning top pair into a bluff in a blind battle. I thought he was probably light on the turn, so I called planning to call blank rivers. His sizing on the river, combined with the fact that I felt I could represent a flush draw pretty well, convinced me to turn my pair into a bluff.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2100 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t25653)
UTG (t57814)
MP (t17922)
CO (t22938)
Button (t11401)
SB (t45147)

Hero’s M: 28.50

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5, K
4 folds, SB bets t840, Hero calls t440

Flop: (t1980) 3, 9, 10 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t777, SB calls t777

Turn: (t3534) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t1888, SB raises to t4812, Hero calls t2924

River: (t13158) 8 (2 players)
SB bets t5263, Hero raises to t19174 (All-In), SB calls t13911

Total pot: t51506

Results:
SB had 7, 6 (straight, ten high).
Hero had 5, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: SB won t51506

In some sense this is a one-outer, since the 8d is the only card on which he gets my whole stack. On diamonds that don’t complete his draw, there’s a good chance he bluffs me out, though, so there were actually quite a few good rivers for him.

It still seems like a good spot to me, given that I knew nothing about my opponent, but of course it’s not going to be profitable if he won’t fold this hand. That said, I think his call is probably a good one, given that I may well shove most of my flush draws over his turn raise. Still, it’s not something I’d give an unknown credit for recognizing.

Medium

In the $215, I got AK all-in against QQ on a 345 flop for 35 BBs. Nothing too exciting there.

Low

In the $27, I had a shallow cash but then ran A6s in the BB into the SB’s AKo.

My first opponent in the 250 was absolutely awful. He played 63/1 over the course of the match (he open limped his button when he didn’t fold it) and played pretty badly post-flop. I dispatched him tidily and drew a more challenging opponent in the second round. He was up nearly 2:1 on me when I 3-bet him with KK, bet a J95 flop, and called a shove. He had JT and caught another J on the turn, and that was that.

Things were tougher in the 2500. I didn’t recognize the name of my first round opponent, but my research revealed that he was a significant winner at 1/2 – 3/6 NLHE heads up cash games. He played well but a little too stubbornly, basically never giving a hand up on the flop. I sucked out on him once, AJ > AK, after getting kind of short. The way the hand went down we pretty much had to get it in pre-flop.

Then I really stuck it to him with this one:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2600 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t7955)
Hero (BB) (t12045)

Hero’s M: 100.38

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5, A
SB bets t160, Hero raises to t555, SB calls t395

Flop: (t1110) K, 6, 10 (2 players)
Hero bets t789, SB raises to t1800, Hero calls t1011

Turn: (t4710) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t2200, Hero raises to t9690 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t9110

Results:
Hero didn’t show 5, A.
Outcome: Hero won t9110

Remember what I said about him not giving up flops. One way I can exploit that is to call a flop raise and check-shove turn with a good draw in a spot where he’s repping mostly air.

He ground a bit of a stack back up then made an inexplicable 4-bet shove with 62s into my AQo, which held to bust him.

In Round 2, I drew teaccuppoker, who is sort of a buddy of mine. We met at the 2006 WSOP and have played with each other online quite a few times since. We have a friendly relationship and always wish each other well. This match was a tight one with a lot of back and forth and lasted nearly two hours.

I blew a chance early in the tournament to stack him:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2600 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t10375)
Hero (SB) (t9625)

Hero’s M: 106.94

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, 10
Hero bets t155, BB calls t95

Flop: (t310) A, 8, 10 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t199, BB raises to t540, Hero raises to t999, BB raises to t2460, Hero raises to t3921, 1 fold

Total pot: t5230

Results:
Hero didn’t show A, 10.
Outcome: Hero won t5230

He told me he folded T8, which I believe. I put him on a worse two pair, and while lesser players won’t fold that, I can see why he would. I think either shoving flop or calling and getting it in on the turn are both much better options than min-5-betting.

I got him in another big one here:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2600 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t10611)
Hero (SB) (t9389)

Hero’s M: 52.16

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, 4
Hero bets t240, BB calls t120

Flop: (t480) 4, J, A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t480) 4 (2 players)
BB bets t240, Hero raises to t999, BB calls t759

River: (t2478) 10 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1675, BB calls t1675

Total pot: t5828

Results:
Hero had Q, 4 (three of a kind, fours).
BB mucked A, 3 (two pair, Aces and fours).
Outcome: Hero won t5828

Then he coolered me to take a big lead:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2600 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t7821)
Hero (BB) (t12179)

Hero’s M: 67.66

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6, Q
SB bets t360, Hero raises to t1000, SB calls t640

Flop: (t2000) 3, Q, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t1234, SB calls t1234

Turn: (t4468) Q (2 players)
Hero bets t9945 (All-In), SB calls t5587 (All-In)

River: (t15642) 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t15642

Results:
SB had Q, J (three of a kind, Queens).
Hero had 6, Q (three of a kind, Queens).
Outcome: SB won t15642

Yeah, on the one hand, you have to expect some domination when you 3-bet Q6. But unless that case Q turns, I don’t lose my ass on this one. That’s legit bad luck in my book.

My bustout hand was also a cooler, though I think I could have played it better:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2600 Tournament, 80/160 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t12437)
Hero (SB) (t7563)

Hero’s M: 31.51

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, 10
Hero bets t320, BB raises to t800, Hero raises to t7563 (All-In), BB calls t6763

Flop: (t15126) Q, 2, 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t15126) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t15126) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t15126

Results:
Hero had 10, 10 (one pair, tens).
BB had Q, Q (three of a kind, Queens).
Outcome: BB won t15126

The size of the 3-bet just puts me in an awkward spot with this exact hand. I think shoving is better than 4-bet-calling, and I felt like my hand was a little too strong/vulnerable to call, but I also think the size of my shove means I’m not getting called by a lot of worse hands. I think maybe flatting is the best of some imperfect options.

The thing about a 4-max tournament is that you have to play a lot of pots with everyone at your table; there’s no avoiding anyone. That’s good news if you’re the best player at the table, but bad news if even one of the others is better than you, especially if he knows it and takes full advantage of it.

Call me cocky, but I feel like I’m a favorite over a huge percent of the field in a $300 SCOOP event, and sure enough I dominated the first few tables I was at. That gameplan ran into a brickwall when I ended up at a table with ZeeJustin and a high-stakes PLO player who also played very well. Suddenly I was the third best player at the table and was getting killed.

Justin was running the table over, playing like 62/36 with a 35% 3-bet on his BTN. Given that, I think my only option here is to 4-bet call. Folding seems out of the question, and I think 4-bet-calling can only be superior to shoving since it might occasionally entice him to 5-bet a worse hand that folds to a shove. Spiking was key not only because it doubled me up but because it took my number one competitor out of the picture:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 250/500 Blinds 60 Ante (4 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t64518)
Hero (BB) (t44303)
UTG (t65592)
Button (t45679)

Hero’s M: 44.75

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, Q
UTG bets t1378, Button raises to t4200, 1 fold, Hero raises to t11111, 1 fold, Button raises to t45619 (All-In), Hero calls t33132 (All-In)

Flop: (t90354) A, 8, 6 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t90354) 9 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t90354) 4 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t90354

Results:
Button had K, K (one pair, Kings).
Hero had A, Q (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won t90354

Here’s a play I made against another nemesis at another table. He wasn’t necessarily better than I- in fact he’d just sat out against me at a heads up cash table- but he was good and a thorn in my side. Initially I thought his call was bad, but I guess it is the top of his range and a spot where I can be expected to turn hands into bluffs:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 350/700 Blinds 85 Ante (4 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t195024)
Button (t77029)
SB (t71730)
Hero (BB) (t102099)

Hero’s M: 73.45

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4, 4
UTG bets t1699, 2 folds, Hero calls t999

Flop: (t4088) 2, K, 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t3115, Hero calls t3115

Turn: (t10318) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

River: (t10318) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t6125, Hero raises to t22222, UTG calls t16097

Total pot: t54762

Results:
Hero had 4, 4 (two pair, sixes and fours).
UTG had A, K (two pair, Kings and sixes).
Outcome: UTG won t54762

On the final table bubble, the player running the table was a woman I’d never heard of named Roxie Boxx who was employing relentless aggression extremely well. She was 3-betting something like 38% of hands, targeting me in particular, and because of the stacks and the tournament situation there was very little I could do about it. It was definitely a beat that with 5 players left, I ended up heads up with her. I did manage to pick off one big bluff from her by basically setting her up to try to run me off of a hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 8000/16000 Blinds 2000 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t856387)
SB (t3455151)

Hero’s M: 30.59

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2, Q
Hero bets t32000, SB calls t16000

Flop: (t68000) 8, Q, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t16000, Hero calls t16000

Turn: (t100000) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t48000, Hero calls t48000

River: (t196000) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t176000, Hero calls t176000

Total pot: t548000

Results:
SB had 8, 3 (one pair, eights).
Hero had 2, Q (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: Hero won t548000

Unfortunately, I ruined it all with what will probably go down as one of the great mistakes of my poker career. I’m so angry about and embarrassed by this one. Not only is it unlikely spot for her to bluff given the action and the recent history (see above), but I was so tired that I failed to even consider 7’s full as a possibility for her, even though in retrospect it’s the single most likely hand for her to have:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 10000/20000 Blinds 2500 Ante (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t1219222)
BB (t3092316)

Hero’s M: 34.83

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, 10
BB bets t60000, Hero raises to t150000, BB calls t90000

Flop: (t305000) 7, 9, 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t111111, BB calls t111111

Turn: (t527222) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t255555, BB calls t255555

River: (t1038332) 7 (2 players)
BB bets t1820000, Hero calls t700056 (All-In)

Total pot: t2438444

Results:
Hero had 10, 10 (two pair, tens and nines).
BB had K, 7 (full house, sevens over nines).
Outcome: BB won t2438444

That busted me in 5th, just shy of the final table. I had a big edge against two of the remaining players, and while the other two were pretty solid, I believe I was probably the best one remaining. I sure didn’t play like it, though.

Needless to say, it was a tough field. My first few tables actually weren’t bad, but they were breaking quickly, and eventually I ended up at a table with three guys who all play higher stakes cash games than I do.  Granted, one of them seemed to be a net loser, and one of them was David Benyamine, but still.

I ended up losing my stack in two big pots with Justin “Boosted J” Smith. This first one is going to look bad, but I’m actually OK with it. I may not always 4-bet my biggest pairs, but I’m pretty sure 99 is at least near the top of his perceived range for me, so I don’t mind playing it strongly.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 3150 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t2955)
UTG (t9559)
Hero (Button) (t4237)
SB (t4885)

Hero’s M: 94.16

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, 9
1 fold, Hero bets t60, 1 fold, BB raises to t270, Hero calls t210

Flop: (t555) 4, 6, 6 (2 players)
BB bets t380, Hero raises to t777, BB raises to t2685 (All-In), Hero calls t1908

Turn: (t5925) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t5925) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t5925

Results:
Hero had 9, 9 (full house, sixes over nines).
BB had 10, 10 (full house, sixes over tens).
Outcome: BB won t5925

This next one… not so much. Boosted is famous for calling 3-bets really light, so it can’t be that bad, but it’s just lazy poker:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 3150 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t7323)
SB (t7936)
Hero (BB) (t1762)
UTG (t4910)

Hero’s M: 39.16

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, K
1 fold, Button bets t90, 1 fold, Hero raises to t300, Button calls t210

Flop: (t615) 4, 8, 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t270, Hero raises to t1462 (All-In), Button calls t1192

Turn: (t3539) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t3539) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t3539

Results:
Button had J, 8 (two pair, eights and fours).
Hero had A, K (one pair, fours).
Outcome: Button won t3539

The good news is I’m still in the $300, 31 left but I’ve got barely half the average.

For those who don’t know, in this structure, the blinds always stay the same: $5 and $5. However, the antes get bigger every round. This means that as early as Level 2, you are getting better than 20:1 odds to limp into any unraised pot. By late in the tournament, it can be well over 1000:1. Sure, a lot of pots get raised (though again, people have to invent “standard” bet sizes from scratch), but it’s never correct to fold any two cards in an unraised pot. You could tell immediately who was trying to think about the format, because they were the ones at least limping into every pot, and sometimes limp-re-raising. Personally, I was playing something like 60/15.

I definitely managed to pick up a few pots with junk post-flop. The other thing that not a lot of people seemed to realize was that, even in spots where 6 people saw the flop, it was unlikely anyone had much since many of those people were playing any two cards. I was showing a profit betting like half pot with gut shots into 5 players.

Here’s one where I limp 62o UTG and win it post-flop with a gutshot:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 1575 Tournament, 5/5 Blinds 60 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 (t5504)
CO (t5775)
Button (t7416)
SB (t8460)
BB (t6085)
UTG (t7791)
Hero (UTG+1) (t8953)
MP1 (t2833)
MP2 (t6305)

Hero’s M: 16.28

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 2, 6
UTG calls t5, Hero calls t5, 2 folds, MP3 calls t5, 1 fold, Button calls t5, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: (t570) 5, 3, 3 (5 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks, MP3 bets t311, 3 folds, Hero calls t311

Turn: (t1192) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP3 checks

River: (t1192) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets t777, 1 fold

Total pot: t1192

Results:
Hero didn’t show 2, 6 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t1192

And here’s another fun one:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 1575 Tournament, 5/5 Blinds 175 Ante (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 (t42336)
MP1 (t18025)
MP2 (t23708)
CO (t16533)
Button (t52258)
SB (t6187)
BB (t40219)
Hero (UTG) (t33088)

Hero’s M: 23.47

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q, J
Hero calls t5, UTG+1 calls t5, 1 fold, MP2 calls t5, CO calls t5, 1 fold, SB checks, BB bets t1050, Hero calls t1045, 4 folds

Flop: (t3520) A, 6, 10 (2 players)
BB bets t1855, Hero calls t1855

Turn: (t7230) 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t2222, BB calls t2222

River: (t11674) 10 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t7777, 1 fold

Total pot: t11674

Results:
Hero didn’t show Q, J (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t11674

Sadly, I only min-cashed in both tournaments, but I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun playing a poker tournament.

I lost about half my stack early on in the $500, but managed to recover. Then there was this hand that really gave me a boost:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $500+$30 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds 25 Ante (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t11229)
BB (t7109)
UTG (t4199)
MP (t11233)
CO (t11561)
Button (t21931)

Hero’s M: 24.95

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7, A
3 folds, Button calls t200, Hero calls t100, BB checks

Flop: (t750) Q, A, K (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, Button bets t500, Hero calls t500, 1 fold

Turn: (t1750) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t2000, Hero calls t2000

River: (t5750) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t5200, Hero calls t5200

Total pot: t16150

Results:
Button had 9, 7 (high card, Ace).
Hero had 7, A (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won t16150

Not that his line makes a whole lot of sense anyway, but I’d previously seen him check the flop and lead out for half pot on the turn with a set, so I was even less inclined to believe his overbet. I doubt he’s open limping AQ, AK, QQ, KK, or AA on the button, so JT is literally the only made hand I could expect him to have.

So things were going well, and I had a not-too-tough table, except for a guy some of you may know who plays under the handle teacuppoker. He’s a good player who’s been around for a while- I played with him in person at the 2007 WSOP, and recognized his screenname from before that. Sadly, I got into a tough spot against him and didn’t play it brilliantly.

It just goes to show you how much it sucks to be out of position against a good player, when you can flop top pair top kicker and your first thought is “Shit, what am I going to do?” It’s not that I was worried about getting beat, but just that I didn’t know what line to take to get paid off without getting bluff out or paying off to much to the occasional better hand myself. I ultimately went for three streets of value, which in a cash game would be fine but is probably too optimistic in a tournament, even against a guy who does play MSNL and HSNL:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $500+$30 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 40 Ante (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (UTG) (t19208)
MP (t26465)
CO (t23634)
Button (t9160)
SB (t5430)
BB (t11357)

Hero’s M: 27.84

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, A
Hero bets t777, 1 fold, CO calls t777, 3 folds

Flop: (t2244) 10, 4, K (2 players)
Hero bets t1111, CO calls t1111

Turn: (t4466) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t2888, CO calls t2888

River: (t10242) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t6666, CO calls t6666

Total pot: t23574

Results:
Hero had K, A (one pair, Kings).
CO had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: CO won t23574

Of course, I was destined to lose a big pot here. But check-folding the river might actually have been better. The most obvious draw got there, and although I’m sure he’s capable, he doesn’t have much reason to turn a pair into a bluff here.

Then I fought around for a while and eventually got sort of coolered in a blind battle, though based on how passive this guy had been on his big blind, I maybe could have just called flop. Even if I do, though, I don’t see how we don’t get it on this turn:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $500+$30 Tournament, 250/500 Blinds 60 Ante (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t13506)
BB (t19033)
UTG (t40954)
MP (t8136)
CO (t5030)
Button (t8595)

Hero’s M: 12.17

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, J
4 folds, Hero calls t250, BB checks

Flop: (t1360) 7, 10, 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t897, Hero raises to t2444, BB raises to t18473 (All-In), Hero calls t10502 (All-In)

Turn: (t27252) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t27252) K (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t27252

Results:
Hero had 9, J (one pair, nines).
BB had 9, 10 (two pair, tens and nines).
Outcome: BB won t27252

I was really looking forward to this event, as I’ve been working on my heads up game of late. I played both the $1500 and the $150 and had reasonable tough first round opponents in both. On the $150, I just a lot of small- and medium-pots to “mild cooler” spots where I had like the slightly worse hand or bluffed into the top of the guy’s range and what not. I ultimately lost the match, don’t even remember how.

Match 1

The $1500 was a really hard-fought match. I got off to an early lead, then lost a few big pots, the biggest with top pair vs a set and flopped top pair vs rivered higher pair. Villain was grinding me down pre-flop, raising, c-betting, and 3-betting well. Eventually I 4-bet shoved AJ on him pre-flop. He had AK, but I sucked out, and we were back to even.

We battled back and forth for a while, and eventually I made a big call to get into the lead. First, I’ll give you a prior hand that made me suspicious:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $1500+$75 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t4600)
SB (t5400)

Hero’s M: 61.33

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, K
Hero bets t150, SB calls t100

Flop: (t300) 5, 8, J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t175, SB calls t175

Turn: (t650) 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (t650) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t425, SB raises to t1450, Hero folds

Total pot: t1500

Results:
SB didn’t show
Outcome: SB won t1500

In this spot, my hand is almost always either a bluff or a thin value bet, so it’s a good spot for a check-raise bluff. There are two problems with that: 1) It’s also a good spot to check-raise for value; and 2) many players just don’t check-raise bluff rivers very often, particularly not in tournaments where play tends toward the conservative. I folded, but I made a mental note, and eventually I made this call:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $1500+$75 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t3770)
SB (t6230)

Hero’s M: 41.89

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 9
Hero bets t155, SB calls t95

Flop: (t310) 6, 6, 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t177, SB calls t177

Turn: (t664) 10 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (t664) Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t388, SB raises to t1425, Hero calls t1037

Total pot: t3514

Results:
Hero had 10, 9 (two pair, tens and sixes).
SB had 5, 5 (two pair, sixes and fives).
Outcome: Hero won t3514

He fought back up to about even, then we got it in with TT vs. AK. My TT held, and that was the match!

Match 2

This opponent was easier than my first but still somewhat competent. It helped that he seemed to be catching a lot of cards. He did make one or two questionable calls against me, but then he made up for it by slowplaying what I’m pretty sure was a flush and getting me to go for three streets of value with top pair only to get check-raised on the river. This one also ended in a coin flip in my favor.

Match 3

This guy was one of the worst heads up players I’ve ever seen. I have no idea how he won his first two matches, nor what he was doing in this tournament at all for that matter. He was just ridiculously tight and passive, letting me steal oodles of pots with min-bets and min-raises and never playing back at me. He did bluff occasionally, but always in obvious spots and never for more than one barrel. He used his position so poorly that I was calling a lot of raises out of position, which is obviously a bad plan in most any heads up match. There was never any doubt in mind that I would win this one, and after grinding him down to just 20% of his starting stack, I won a coin flip to eliminate him.

Match 4

I was lucky enough to draw another very weak opponent. He tried to make some moves, but tended to do so in a very predictable way, making it easy to catch him. Prior to this hand, for instance, he’d re-raise me pre-flop several times. Since he didn’t play back at me pre-flop, I was pretty sure he’d be itching to do so on such a dry flop:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $1500+$75 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t6423)
SB (t3577)

Hero’s M: 85.64

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, 5
Hero bets t100, SB calls t50

Flop: (t200) 4, 2, 2 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets t123, SB raises to t350, Hero calls t227

Turn: (t900) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t333, 1 fold

Total pot: t900

Results:
Hero didn’t show 9, 5 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t900

Unfortunately, before I could turn this guy’s aggression against him, he managed to cooler me twice, once with a set vs. my two pair to get himself back in the match, then with bottom two vs. my top pair and gut shot. In the latter case, I actually had nearly 50% equity, but I suppose I was due to lose a coin flip.

I played the $300 and the $3000 two-days, but they ended up being one-day tournaments for me. The $3000 got nearly 1000 players, and my table was about what I was expecting: a lot of solid players, no one phenomenally good, and a soft spot or two. Unfortunately, the soft spot became a problem for me. Here, my attempt to isolate him got me into to trouble:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $3000+$150 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t10875)
Button (t11839)
Hero (SB) (t8611)
BB (t10850)
UTG (t9775)
UTG+1 (t9900)
MP1 (t8075)
MP2 (t10075)

Hero’s M: 114.81

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, 9
3 folds, MP2 calls t50, 2 folds, Hero bets t250, BB calls t200, MP2 calls t200

Flop: (t750) 6, K, 5 (3 players)
Hero bets t567, BB calls t567, MP2 calls t567

Turn: (t2451) 5 (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t1450, 1 fold, Hero calls t1450

River: (t5351) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t8583 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: t5351

Results:
BB didn’t show
Outcome: BB won t5351

The BB was possibly my most skilled opponent- unfortunate to have him on my left. The turn is a good spot for him to bluff with a draw, but the problem with calling is that it sets him up to shove the river. I guess I could call that, too, but I dunno. I guess folding turn is probably correct. You could argue for checking flop as well, but I was still looking at as an isolation play, hoping to get BB out, and if fishy calls, I’m comfortable playing out of position against him. Too bad it backfired.

The same fish took me out a bit later:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $3000+$150 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 10 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t10245)
Button (t11004)
Hero (SB) (t3982)
BB (t11770)
UTG (t8571)
UTG+1 (t10015)
MP1 (t4040)
MP2 (t8516)
MP3 (t21223)

Hero’s M: 16.59

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
2 folds, MP1 bets t300, 1 fold, MP3 calls t300, 2 folds, Hero raises to t1111, 2 folds, MP3 calls t811

Flop: (t2712) 5, 4, 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t2861 (All-In), MP3 calls t2861

Turn: (t8434) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t8434) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t8434

Results:
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and fours).
MP3 had A, 7 (straight, seven high).
Outcome: MP3 won t8434

I lasted a while longer in the $300, but eventually bluffed off my stack:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $300+$20 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 (t26848)
MP3 (t24581)
CO (t3799)
Hero (Button) (t16360)
SB (t17599)
BB (t8725)
UTG (t24137)
UTG+1 (t4450)
MP1 (t16052)

Hero’s M: 15.58

Preflop: Hero is Button with J, K
4 folds, MP3 bets t1000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t2666, 2 folds, MP3 calls t1666

Flop: (t6382) 5, 2, 9 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets t2444, MP3 calls t2444

Turn: (t11270) 10 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets t11200 (All-In), MP3 calls t11200

River: (t33670) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t33670

Results:
Hero had J, K (high card, King).
MP3 had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: MP3 won t33670

Villain raised a fair bit from late position. This was the first time I’d 3-bet him, but I was fairly confident that even if he flatted a 3-bet with a big pair pre-flop, he wouldn’t continue to slowplay the flop, especially not when I bet so small. I do think he’ll fold some better (ie Ax) hands and also sometimes peel kinda light, making the turn shove more profitable. I wasn’t going to shove just any turn, but I wanted to give myself the option. When I picked up the gutshot, it felt like a good spot.

He had the kind of hand I wanted him to have, he just happened to “suck out” on the turn. I’m inclined to say he would have folded unimproved on the turn, but then again you know tournament players and their overpairs! (Insert snarky comment about cash game LAGdonks and their crazy bluffs.)

The structure was great and the opposition terrible, so with a lot of patience I was able to grind my way through my first table with no real difficulty. I roll my eyes whenever Daniel Negreanu mentions “small ball”, but against a weak field it really is an awesome strategy. No one was playing back at me ever, so I just stole like a demon pre- and post-flop without ever putting much at risk until I had a huge hand. The few times I did, I lost one big flip with AQ vs. 66 against a guy who limp-shoved on me from the SB (that one I think was mandatory) and when I reshoved 99 into KK (and probably I should have just folded pre-flop, even four-handed to a CO raise, given stacks, reads, etc.).

A very similar strategy worked well for me at the second table

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $15.00+$1.50 Tournament, 1250/2500 Blinds 300 Ante (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t39651)
SB (t131070)
Hero (BB) (t196924)
UTG (t41296)
MP (t91059)

Hero’s M: 37.51

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, A
UTG bets t7500, MP raises to t90759 (All-In), 4 folds

Total pot: t20250

Towards the end of the second table, there were two hands where I got away from small ball and swung for the fences. They were the end of me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $15.00+$1.50 Tournament, 1250/2500 Blinds 300 Ante (3 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t203211)
Hero (Button) (t193874)
SB (t102915)

Hero’s M: 41.69

Preflop: Hero is Button with J, J
Hero bets t5555, SB raises to t17500, 1 fold, Hero raises to t193574 (All-In), SB calls t85115 (All-In)

Flop: (t208630) K, 2, 9 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t208630) K (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t208630) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t208630

Results:
Hero had J, J (two pair, Kings and Jacks).
SB had Q, Q (two pair, Kings and Queens).
Outcome: SB won t208630

Although it sounds absurd since I was raising 60-70% of my hands on the button, I think I should have folded this pre-flop. This was the first time this player had re-raised me all tournament, and I was picking up chips so easily that there wasn’t a need to felt him here. Obviously not folding JJ pre-flop with 30BB effective stacks and an insane image isn’t going to be a huge leak, but I do think folding would have been correct here. And then a few hands later, there was the one that did me in:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $15.00+$1.50 Tournament, 1250/2500 Blinds 300 Ante (3 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t118106)
Hero (SB) (t94614)
BB (t287280)

Hero’s M: 20.35

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
1 fold, Hero bets t7500, BB calls t5000

Flop: (t15900) 10, 8, 2 (2 players)
Hero bets t8888, BB calls t8888

Turn: (t33676) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets t22222, BB raises to t270592 (All-In), Hero calls t55704 (All-In)

River: (t189528) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t189528

Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
BB had 6, 8 (two pair, eights and sixes).
Outcome: BB won t189528

I’m definitely going to lose some money here, but I think it’s a too optimistic to go for his stack. I’d rather check turn and then either bet-fold river (if he checks back the turn) or check-call turn and bet-fold or check-fold river depending on the card and his turn bet size.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $150+$12 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds 15 Ante (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t6871)
UTG (t3790)
UTG+1 (t3670)
MP1 (t7084)
MP2 (t3912)
CO (t4635)
Button (t11283)
SB (t3755)

Hero’s M: 22.90

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, J
2 folds, MP1 bets t300, 4 folds, Hero raises to t900, MP1 calls t600

Flop: (t1980) 7, 9, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 checks

Turn: (t1980) Q (2 players)
Hero bets t1111, MP1 calls t1111

River: (t4202) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t2845, MP1 calls t2845

Total pot: t9892

Results:
Hero had J, J (one pair, Jacks).
MP1 had K, Q (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: MP1 won t9892

This is another one of those “good in a cash game but too fancy for a tournament” plays that I just can’t help making. It’s worth pointing out that I’d been 3-betting a lot (always with hands, but they never got shown down), and in a high stakes cash game people will steal very aggressively when you check flops like this to them. I’m just giving up so often when I check here. It’s actually probably better to do this with QQ or KK than with JJ, since JJ actually has better equity against Villain’s shoving range if I bet the flop.

The other thing that threw me off was that in the FTOPS, the Second Chance event gave every player a free rebuy that expired if you didn’t use it during the rebuy period. I foolishly assumed Stars would work the same way and was actively trying to get my chips in during the last few minutes of the rebuy period, only to find that I was charged $15 when I did rebuy. Thankfully that was just on the smaller table, though I did end up rebuying on the $150 as well.

All in all, though, it was a good session. I made solid money on the cash games while wasting very little time or money on the tournaments.

The 5-card draw Event 3 would have been fun, but today was laundry day.

On top of the fact that the two I did play had good structures, they were rebuys, meaning getting eliminated in the first hour wasn’t in action. I was in for the “minimum” and even managed to double up in the $50 thanks to making trips two hands in a row against a loose player. Nevertheless, I dusted off my stack in both within two and half hours.

Worse, I feel like I was probably at least somewhat wrong to lose my stack in both cases. Here’s my bustout hand from the $50:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50+$5 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t3213)
Button (t18316)
Hero (SB) (t11211)
BB (t5965)
UTG (t13562)
MP (t11473)

Hero’s M: 93.42

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, A
3 folds, Button bets t240, Hero raises to t777, 1 fold, Button calls t537

Flop: (t1634) 6, 8, 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t1111, Button calls t1111

Turn: (t3856) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t1895, Hero raises to t9323 (All-In), Button calls t7428

River: (t22502) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t22502

Results:
Button had 7, 8 (full house, sevens over eights).
Hero had Q, A (one pair, sevens).
Outcome: Button won t22502

I doubt he’s betting less than two pair when I check to him on the turn, especially for this amount. As much as it sucks, check-folding might be correct here.

And in the $500:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $500+$30 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t7271)
UTG (t8125)
MP (t19938)
CO (t10487)
Button (t11836)
SB (t8343)

Hero’s M: 80.79

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q
1 fold, MP bets t180, 2 folds, SB raises to t600, Hero raises to t1555, 1 fold, SB raises to t8343 (All-In), Hero calls t5716 (All-In)

Flop: (t14722) J, J, 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t14722) 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t14722) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t14722

Results:
SB had A, A (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks).
Outcome: SB won t14722

Note to self: six-max tournaments are not six-mas cash games. In my defense, this guy did seem a little loose pre-flop. He called one of my 3-bets out of position with A5s. That might justify calling his 5-bet shove, but I think flatting the 3-bet is probably best. I hate doing that against very good players because it defines your hand for them for free, but I doubt this guy was good enough to take advantage of that.

In general, though, there did seem to be a strong field in this tournament. My table at least was solid, with one player I’ve seen before at $25/$50.

To make matters worse, I misread the SCOOP schedule and ended up missing the PLO8 events, which my longtime readers will know I really enjoy. I thought they were tomorrow, but they were actually an event starting later in the afternoon today. Oh well, at least the cash games I was playing on the side well, netting me a handsome profit for the session despite the hefty tournament buyins.

This one occurred with 25 players left. With fewer players left, or a slightly weaker hand (JJ, even), I think it would be very close. Even here, I wasn’t happy with Queens:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $2000+$100 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 30 Ante (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t7802)
Hero (UTG+1) (t6339)
MP1 (t5140)
MP2 (t7681)
CO (t4490)
Button (t9135)
SB (t2515)
BB (t6864)

Hero’s M: 10.31

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with Q, Q
1 fold, Hero bets t666, 3 folds, Button raises to t2000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t6309 (All-In), Button calls t4309

Flop: (t13233) 3, 8, 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t13233) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t13233) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t13233

Results:
Button had K, A (one pair, tens).
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Queens and tens).
Outcome: Hero won t13233

On this next one, I’m pretty happy with the flat call. I think TT is too strong to fold, but not strong enough to get in pre-flop. This stage of the tournament is going to force Villain to play pretty straightforwardly, and combined with my position, I think I’ll be able to realize my showdown value post-flop and avoid losing too much to better hands.

I’m actually unsure about this river bet, though. I have the best hand pretty much always, but I think I get called almost never. I’m wondering if something smaller, like 5500, wouldn’t be better rather than force Villain to risk his tournament life?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $2000+$100 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 40 Ante (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t11648)
Hero (Button) (t12058)
SB (t7025)
BB (t6051)
UTG (t6180)
MP (t7004)

Hero’s M: 17.48

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 10
2 folds, CO bets t900, Hero calls t900, 2 folds

Flop: (t2490) 7, 10, K (2 players)
CO bets t1200, Hero calls t1200

Turn: (t4890) J (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t2345, CO calls t2345

River: (t9580) 6 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t7573 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t9580

Results:
Hero didn’t show 10, 10 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t9580

There were 12 left for this last one, and I was like 5th or 6th. Villain’s raise size made me nervous, since it seemed larger than necessary, but he also may have been trying to make clear to the Button that he was calling a shove (though that should have been clear anyway).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $2000+$100 Tournament, 350/700 Blinds 85 Ante (7 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t2982)
Hero (SB) (t12949)
BB (t17050)
UTG (t9051)
MP1 (t11756)
MP2 (t13217)
CO (t19973)

Hero’s M: 7.87

Preflop: Hero is SB with J, A
3 folds, CO bets t2100, 1 fold, Hero raises to t12864 (All-In), 2 folds

Total pot: t5495

Results:
Hero didn’t show J, A (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t5495

Thing is, big stacks are not that much bigger than small stacks, given the blinds, and if you don’t occasionally take risks like this, you can easily end up having to take far bigger risks should you find yourself short. I’ve cost myself a few seats in the past by getting too tight prematurely and underestimating just how long the bubble would take.