Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button ($3902.35)
SB ($1434)
BB ($911.25)
Hero (UTG) ($2747)
MP ($1000)
CO ($1242.25)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with A
, J
Hero bets $40, 2 folds, Button calls $40, 2 folds
Flop: … Read full post
I’ve been taking a beating in heads up games recently. There were one or two cases of bad game selection, but for the most part I don’t think I’ve playing or running all that badly. I’m losing to people against whom I’m pretty confident I have an edge, not because … Read full post
This time I’m on the receiving end. Villain is ordinarily a pretty big nit, but he doesn’t like me much and seems to enjoy putting moves on me. I was calling any river, though obviously this one makes it a lot easier.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – … Read full post
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($1000)
Hero (SB) ($1807.80)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, 6
Hero bets $12, BB calls $8
Flop: ($25.60) 3, 5
, 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $19, … Read full post
What a run. In the last two days I’ve 20x’ed my chips without ever seeing TT, QQ, KK, or AA. I did have AK quite a few times today, though, and I connected with a few flops when it counted.
I stole more than my share of pots for a … Read full post
Today was everything that Wednesday was not, namely fun and profitable. I had a very enjoyable table and showed a handsome profit to boot.
Early on I doubled up with Q’s vs. 9’s on a 4h 4s 3h 2h board. We both had a heart, so he was in real … Read full post
Villain and I had been heads up for a while, and based on how he’d been playing, I was pretty confident he had either a flush or a bluff on the turn but not a full house. My intention was to shove over a river bet and rep the full … Read full post
This is another example of making a move with one of the best possible bluffs. The flop float is a little more questionable.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG ($1771.35)
MP ($1505.40)
Button ($1541.80)
Hero (SB) ($1718.80)
BB ($516)
Preflop: … Read full post
I usually overbet in situations where my opponent’s range consists primarily of hands that are strong but not too strong. Particularly if this is obvious to both of you, the overbet turns even the stronger part of his range into a bluff-catcher by representing either an extremely strong hand or … Read full post
I should probably just fold pre-flop. I ran my time bank down all the way before finally deciding I’d pretty much never have a hand stronger than this and so needed to call here. When I saw his hand, I felt totally owned:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (4 handed) … Read full post
Since we’ve got a lot of new visitors at Thinking Poker, and probably a lot of people who haven’t read my more monolithic trip reports (understandable), I’m going to start reprinting select stories that are buried in much longer narratives but that I consider among my best. This article is … Read full post
I ended up doing quite well in this one, finishing 5th out of more than 1400 runners. On the whole it was a lot of fun to play so short-handed and I felt I played well, but a monumental error in my final hand left a bad taste in my … Read full post
This guy sat down across from me at one of my HU tables with an 80BB stack and lost it on the second hand of the match. In retrospect my shove might not be great. I thought he would have raised all his strong hands on the flop, but I’m … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker hosted a Tournament of Champions today for everyone who won an FTOPS event in any of the last four series. The only prize was a $10,000 WSOP seat (no details whatsoever on how/whether it can be cashed out) to the winner, and guess who that was?
To … Read full post
I played the SCOOP Large Ante $150 and $1500 events yesterday, not even realizing what they were until the tournament started. What a lot of fun! I think formats like this are awesome because they separate the people who understand poker from those who have a robotic, if successful, strategy. … Read full post
Don’t Try to Bluff a Guy Named Psycho
This one’s a little embarrassing. I shoved turn here hoping to get him off a mid-pair, but here’s what happened instead:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 6000/12000 Blinds 1500 Ante (8 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (CO) (t497480)
Button … Read full post
We played for 10 hours, so obviously there were a lot of hands, but here are two that stick out in my head:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 250/500 Blinds 50 Ante (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG (t55790)
UTG+1 (t36186)
MP1 (t27509)
MP2 (t15323)
MP3 (t15790)… Read full post
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (SB) ($2014.50)
BB ($1000)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 7, 4
Hero bets $20, BB calls $10
Flop: ($40) 6, 5, 10 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $28… Read full post
I finished 12th in this, out of 1024, meaning I made it to the Sweet 16. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about hands here because I’ll probably make a video of this for Poker Savvy Plus. But here’s the quick rundown:
Round 1- Guy was … Read full post
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB ($2000)
Hero (BB) ($2108)
UTG ($2060)
MP ($3164)
Button ($2916)
Preflop: Hero is BB with A, 5
2 folds, Button bets $60, 1 fold, Hero raises to $210, Button … Read full post
From the same HU match:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com
Hero (BB) ($1875)
SB ($2356.50)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 3
, 6
SB bets $20, Hero calls $10
Flop: ($40) 2
, 5
, 9 (2 players)… Read full post
Not that it affected the outcome of this hand, but I think Villain’s river check is pretty interesting, given that he’s got a monster hand and only a pot-sized bet left in his stack:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com
UTG+1 ($5000)
MP1 … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, How to Spot a Level 3 Thinker, has just been published in the April issue of 2+2 Magazine. The introduction describes the genesis of the article:
… Read full postOne of my first articles for Two Plus Two Magazine, Level-Headed Thinking, was a brief introduction
Hopefully these new suit characters will solve the problem of people not being able to see suits at work (pun):
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($1799.75)
Hero (SB) ($2339)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 2♦, 4♦
Hero bets $30… Read full post
It’s not really fair to call the Villain in this hand a nit, but he’s one of the tightest winning 5/10 regulars anyway. That’s part of the reason I bet the turn against him, rather than just check-calling the turn as I might against a more aggressive player.
PokerStars No-Limit … Read full post
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (BB) ($400)
UTG ($400)
MP ($300)
Button ($414)
SB ($425)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, A
2 folds, Button bets $12, 1 fold, Hero calls $8
Flop: ($26) 6… Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, now appearing in the March 2010 issue of Two Plus Two Magazine, explores the many nuances of continuation betting against tough opponents. Here’s an excerpt from Continuation Betting for Advanced Players:
… Read full postPoker is also a math game and the best way to resolve
My
starting table had not a lot of chips but a couple of notable players, including Owen “ocrowe” Crowe, Andrew Chen, Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo, and Lauren Kling. We broke after less than an hour, but I still managed to play a few interesting pots. Also, a very friendly reader … Read full post
75/150 I limp UTG with Ac Qc. Folds to the SB, who completes, and BB checks.
Flop Js Td 9s. Checks to me, I bet 300, SB calls. I think he can have any pair and even a few draws that I’m beating.
Turn 2d. He checks, I bet 900 … Read full post
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($1961)
Hero (UTG) ($2651.50)
UTG+1 ($2040)
MP1 ($2474)
MP2 ($3105)
MP3 ($1027.50)
CO ($2000)
Button ($1857)
SB ($2904)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with J
, A
Hero bets $80, 3 folds, MP3 calls … Read full post
Villain’s flop bet, representing 75% of the pot and about 15% of the effective stacks, puts me in an awkward spot with my whole range (and is therefore a good one). Actually, I can play good draws pretty easily by making a pot-committing raise, but with say one marginal pair … Read full post
I played this guy bawaa heads up on a couple of tables the other day. He played well and it was a wild match, with me taking an early lead, then getting stuck 6-7 buy-ins, then clawing my way back to even. After more than 1000 hands, I was up … Read full post
I’m a little late in mentioning this, but my latest poker strategy article, “Thinking Ahead”, is now appearing in the February issue of 2+2 Magazine. I’m a little frustrated that I couldn’t find a way to express myself quite as clearly as I would have liked, but I … Read full post
I posted the other day about a sexy river check-raise that resulted in my opponent abruptly quitting on me, up about a buyin and a half. He found me Sunday and we played two tables of heads up for 4-5 hours. Initially, I was owning him. He was opening 100% … Read full post
Truthfully, I don’t think I played this very well, but the results are pretty cool!
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG ($1209)
MP ($1027)
Hero (CO) ($1302)
Button ($1490.75)
SB ($2925)
BB ($1748)
Preflop: Hero is CO with 6
, … Read full post
Here’s a few miscellaneous hands I made notes to post about. These first two were from my first night here, at $5/$10 NLHE, and the last one was from today in a pretty nitty $10/$25 game with a couple tough players.
River Check-Raise
Two limpers, I complete J6s in the … Read full post
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (3 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($500)
Button ($2080)
Hero (SB) ($2060)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 3, 5
1 fold, Hero bets $40, BB raises to $100, Hero calls $60
Flop: ($200) 6, … Read full post
I played a pretty long session at 40/80 over the weekend, definitely one of the longest I’ve played at such high stakes. It was a surprisingly tight game, with one guy who was not a fish but was noticeably weaker than the rest of us. But there really wasn’t a … Read full post
Small Stakes No-Limit Hold ’em
by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn
Professional No Limit Hold ‘Em, Volume 1 (PNLHE) is one of my all-time favorite poker books and the one that I recommend to anyone looking to get started to the game. I eagerly awaited the … Read full post
The last two months have been pretty brutal. Certainly part of that was due to whiffing the WSOP and a few failed shots at 40/80, but even my regular games have not been going well. Unlike in past downswings, I don’t feel that I’ve experienced extraordinarily brutal luck. There were … Read full post
Full Tilt
BB ($9000.50)
UTG ($16025)
MP ($5309)
Hero (CO) ($10269)
Button ($10000)
SB ($10391)
Preflop: Hero is CO with A
, J
2 folds, Hero bets $175, 1 fold, SB calls $150, 1
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt
I was not playing very well on Saturday, and it showed through in my results. I think I’m pretty good at letting bad beats and unlucky cards roll off my back, but I have a lot more trouble getting over a session where I played badly. Obviously a few mistakes … Read full post
I always look forward to the PLO8 events, but I couldn’t get anything going. The opposition was beyond awful:
Full Tilt Poker Game #12159019788: FTOPS Event #11 (84242375), Table 41 – 20/40 – Pot Limit Omaha H/L – 14:20:39 ET – 2009/05/11
Seat 1: babbelz (1,028)
Seat 2: Sensor (8,220)… Read full post
I was about halfway through last night’s session, and a lot of the 6-max games I was in were kinda bad. I was at the end of a few long waiting lists, but mostly there just weren’t many good games going at the time.
I’d been sitting alone, waiting for … Read full post
I had some fierce competition in this one, but I guess that’s to be expected in a 5K. There was dpeters17, Timex, psyduck, and Poker Savvy’s very own Christian “charder30” Harder, but the player who ended up giving me the most trouble was a Pocket Fivers guy named Wretchy. I … Read full post
I made a decent run in the $500 6-max on Wednesday, and though I didn’t do as well in the $5K, there were interesting hands from both, so I’m going to do two different posts.
I lost about half my stack early on in the $500, but managed to recover. … Read full post
I was going to play the HORSE event, but the buyins just didn’t line up right for me. The 10K was out of the question, even the 1K was a touch high, and the $100 was too small for me to add two hours onto what was already a potentially … Read full post
For the second time this year, I’ve dug myself out of a big old hole. Let’s hope it’s the last (that I need to). Here’s the hand that did it:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button ($9411)
SB ($5550)
BB ($20776)
UTG … Read full post
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB ($1836.25)
Hero (Button) ($2411.75)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 8, A
Hero bets $30, SB calls $20
Flop: ($60) A
, 10, 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $44… Read full post
OK, this has sparked a lot of interest among commenters, so I think I will offer a few of my own thoughts on the hand after all. In terms of what durrrr may have been thinking and why he was successful, I don’t have a lot to add to the … Read full post
On my recent post, “Defining His Range Into Oblivion“, tce left a comment that I felt warranted a new post:
… Read full postThis is a tantalizing post with some really interesting ideas that need more meat. Can you say more? In my experience, trying to blow someone off an Ax
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): $2,434.50
BB: $3,954.50
Pre-Flop: T
K dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to $30, BB raises to $100, Hero raises to $255, BB calls $155
Flop: ($510) 3 A
2… Read full post
My latest poker article, Calling for Information, is now appearing in the February issue of 2+2 Magazine. It’s a relatively low-level strategy article, compared to some of the stuff I’ve published, but even more advanced players may find parts of it useful.
… Read full postMy central argument is that if
I like this line a lot in this spot, but not against the table fish:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($2000)
CO ($1850)
Button ($1329)
SB ($8366)
Hero (BB) ($2197)
UTG ($2274)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, … Read full post
I’ll get you off of it eventually…
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB ($4886.05)
BB ($300)
UTG ($600)
Hero (MP) ($1311.80)
CO ($1318.60)
Button ($1711.10)
Preflop: Hero is MP with 10, A
1 fold, Hero raises to $21… Read full post
Not my best double barrel ever, but the A is a good bluff card on the river. That makes it a good time for him to call down light, which makes it a good time for me to value bet light, which makes it a better bluff card in the … Read full post
Since I just posted a bunch of whines, here’s a brag. The SB was the table fish, the BB is a very tough and aggressive opponent. I could just 4-bet pre-flop but I think he’d find a way to own me. I decided I was just going to play my … Read full post
These are all from tonight. Fair warning: this is pretty much a whine post, but I’m trying to include at least some insight into how precisely running bad can lead to playing bad (aside from the obvious straight-up frustration/tilt). This is the worst one of the night, one of two … Read full post
Both of these hands are against a real 3-betting fiend. He’s ridiculously loose and aggressive pre-flop, especially when he has position. Even though I think he’s taken it to the point of exploitability, it’s still a tough and high-variance playstyle to combat. There are a lot of adjustments you need … Read full post
As of today, I am in the red for the year. Obviously not a big deal just two weeks in, but it’s annoying. It has a lot to do with my pocket Aces never winning the damn pot. In fact, I am in the red for the year with … Read full post
Of course I couldn’t actually see my opponent’s hold cards, but it sure looks like I could when you see the results:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG ($3706.55)
MP ($1875)
Hero (CO) ($3852)
Button ($4474)
SB ($1325)
BB ($2872.95)
Preflop… Read full post
Until recently, I didn’t play HSNL very often on Poker Stars and consequently did not remember anything about this player. However, I had a note on him indicating that I had previously observed him fail to make a thin value bet. Thus, I felt comfortable calling him down here:
PokerStars … Read full post
Absolutely murdered this guy at 10/20 heads up this afternoon. He was decent but overly loose and aggressive and did not adapt well to playing super-deep. As you’ll see, we had a very aggressive pre-flop dynamic going on, but it occurred almost exclusively on my button. The deeper we got, … Read full post
I guess this is fairly standard and notable mostly for the sum of money involved:
Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
CO: $12,483
BTN: $16,645
Hero (SB): $10,000
BB: $17,688
UTG: $5,000
MP: $9,875
Pre-Flop: 9 8 dealt to Hero (SB)… Read full post