There were tons of comments on the most recent “What’s Your Play?” post, which is awesome. I’m going to go ahead and post the results, but especially after seeing the comments I think it’s very close and I don’t mean to hold my play up as the best possible … Read full post
Hero and Villain are heads up on four tables at Villain’s request. Villain bought in short at all four but promised not to quit no matter how big his stack got, and he’s been true to his word. He’s not a professional but has proven surprisingly capable. He is playing … Read full post
One of the cooler hands from my time splashing around in the small stakes:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (SB) ($100.50)
BB ($51)
Preflop: Hero is SB with K♦, Q♠
Hero bets $2, BB calls $1
Flop: ($4) … Read full post
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10 BB (2 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
Hero ($1000)
BB ($3855.15)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 8s, Ts.
Hero raises to $30, BB calls $20.
Flop: ($60) 8c, 5d, Qd (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $44.6, BB calls $44.60.
Turn: ($149.20) … Read full post
I’ve posted a lot lately about overbetting, so here’s a spot where overbetting with (functionally) the nuts would be a bad idea:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $6 BB (8 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
SB ($696)
BB ($645)
UTG ($785.70)
UTG+1 ($493)
MP1 ($368.50)
MP2 ($201)
CO ($109.30)
Hero … Read full post
I folded the second nuts to a raise like this a few days ago, because there was no chance he didn’t have it, and got me thinking how cool it would be to do that as a bluff. Based on sizing, it’s unlikely Villain has the nuts here, so it … Read full post
First introduced in Harrington on Hold ‘Em, this play is an oldie but a goodie:
Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
BB (t3000)
UTG (t840)
Hero (t3359)
CO (t5965)
Button (t2950)
SB (t3205)
Preflop: Hero is MP … Read full post
Despite flopping a straight, I think checking is clearly correct on all streets.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (9 handed) – Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
CO (t12678)
Button (t11345)
SB (t19510)
Hero (BB) (t7756)
UTG (t15153)
UTG+1 (t24828)
MP1 (t17322)
MP2 (t11167)
MP3 (t5135)… Read full post
Might as well. I mean, I had blockers.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button ($1546.80)
SB ($3819.10)
BB ($1477.80)
Hero (UTG) ($1844.50)
MP ($1745.95)
CO ($2134.80)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with 8
, 8
Hero bets $24, 2 folds, … Read full post
I recently asked for reader opinions regarding a hand where I had top pair until the river, which brought an Ace but also missed a possible flush draw. Here I’m posting the results and my thoughts. If you haven’t already offered your own thoughts, please follow the link above … Read full post
I witnessed this hand in weekly $1K on Stars. BTN underbets the river, SB tanks for a while and then check-raises about 75% of his stack, BTN snap-shoves, and SB folds. Now in all likelihood SB was bluffing, but I feel like he could fold some pretty strong hands like … Read full post
Following hot on the heels of last week’s “What’s Your Play?”, here’s another hand where there’s a full house on the board and I beat it. This time I did go for the overbet just because in this case my range looks a lot stronger and my opponent … Read full post
This hand generated some really interesting comments and discussion both at Thinking Poker and at Cardplayer. Thanks to everyone who participated. Some of you have seen the results already, but for those who haven’t, here’s what happened:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool … Read full post
Thanks to all the commenters who have contributed to some very good discussion this week. Let’s keep it going!
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button ($518.20)
SB ($490.30)
BB ($276.80)
Hero (UTG) ($773.50)
UTG+1 ($1109.10)
MP1 ($154.10)
MP2 ($1936.65)
MP3 ($943.80)… Read full post
An overbet seemed like a good idea at the time…
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG ($471.10)
MP ($497.25)
CO ($380.70)
Hero (Button) ($445.15)
SB ($1167.20)
BB ($400)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, K
2 folds, CO bets … Read full post
I thought it was me.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (MP2) ($1886.10)
MP3 ($505.70)
CO ($1569.40)
Button ($400)
SB ($145.90)
BB ($188)
UTG ($1787.10)
UTG+1 ($400)
MP1 ($562.60)
Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 8
, 8
UTG bets $14… Read full post
I’ve posted a few hands recently where I floated AK and ended up bluffing the river to get an opponent off of a pocket pair. Here’s another:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP2 ($587.50)
MP3 ($867.20)
CO ($182.90)
Button ($316)
SB … Read full post
I expect Villain’s flop raise to be his only barrel if he is bluffing. That is, he’s usually going to check down his air and bet only if the river improves his hand to one that beats mine.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (4 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from … Read full post
The second installment of my trip report from the main event of the 2010 World Series of Poker, covering Days 3 and 4, has just been published in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:
… Read full postI came into Day 4 with a monster stack relative to the field.
The problem: I’ve usually got the best hand, but I don’t think a bet is getting called by worse.
The solution: Bet small and call the check-raise.
The catch: They always have it. 🙁
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com… Read full post
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($2234.75)
CO ($350)
Button ($1000)
SB ($2029)
BB ($3622.05)
Hero (UTG) ($1183)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, J
Hero bets $40, 2 folds, Button calls $40, 2 folds
Flop: … 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
I get a lot of questions/comments about my underbetting, which is understandable since it’s one of the more non-standard plays in my arsenal. I think this hand illustrates one of the many advantages of such a play, which is inducing spazziness from hands that otherwise wouldn’t give you action.
Villain … Read full post
I like PLO8 and know a bit about it, but I’m far from an expert. I also played the $100, in which I was surely a favorite, but the 1K had a surprisingly competent field (or maybe not so surprising- I mean it was a 1K). Not that there wasn’t … 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
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
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
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
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
A good player is never check-calling this river. Weaker players will, though, and they rarely check better. This guy was new to me but seemed decent and had an aggression factor of 7 over a small sample. Good reason, in other words, to think he’s not a check-caller.
PokerStars No-Limit … Read full post
My range for 3-betting an UTG raiser from UTG+1 isn’t going to be all that wide, and by the river, AK is probably closer to the bottom of it than the top:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
CO ($4925)
Button ($6246)
SB … Read full post
Versus a Scandi, no less!
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (7 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB ($1507.85)
Hero (BB) ($1405.25)
UTG ($1047)
MP1 ($1395)
MP2 ($1000)
CO ($808)
Button ($1741.25)
Preflop: Hero is BB with J, 5
5 folds, SB bets $30, … 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
The more I think about it, the more I feel like this is one of the worst calls I’ve made in a long time:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB ($4423.50)
BB ($2026)
UTG ($2477)
MP ($2168.50)
Hero (Button) ($2000)
Preflop… Read full post
Feels like a good spot to me because it’s plausible that I’m giving up with some trash that I 3-bet, most of the hands that I could stack with a bet-bet-bet line will value bet for me anyway, and there’s a very plausible way for lesser hands to make something … Read full post
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG ($1027)
MP ($980)
CO ($1442.40)
Hero (Button) ($1471.25)
SB ($1000)
BB ($1336)
Preflop: Hero is Button with J
, J
UTG bets $35, MP calls $35, CO calls $35, Hero raises to $165… Read full post
One of my students asked me about this hand today, and I thought it was pretty interesting. My first instinct was that the check-raise was thin but good. Q8 is pretty much the top of Hero’s range here, and this looks like such a weird line that I doubt Villain … Read full post
Villain is Matt “Mattg1983” Graham. He’s got a bracelet from the 2008 WSOP PLO $10K, but I don’t know how his PLO8 game is.
PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB (t5430)
BB (t4450)
UTG (t2960)
UTG+1 (t2520)
MP1 (t5635)
Hero … 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
There were 61 players remaining in a Poker Stars $650 satellite, and 51 seats to be won. We were already at the point where we’d be getting our buyins back. I was in like 49th or so place with 25K chips at 1250/2500 and had a nice spot for stealing. … Read full post
Standard tournament garbage. Congratulations, though, to my long-time reader and former student Diego, who made the final table! Diego, why oh why did you back out of our staking deal?!!?
Obviously I’m planning a check-raise here, but given his bet sizing, I actually think I might be better off just … Read full post
Dani Stern, my fellow Poker Savvy Plus pro perhaps better known as Ansky, is one of the players whose game I respect the most. I love watching his videos, and I hate playing at his tables. Thus, I am more than a little upset that he’s been “slumming it” in … Read full post
Edit: Fixed title. This is SCOOP, not FTOPS. Was tired and tilted last night when posting this.
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 … Read full post
From yesterday’s Sunday Million:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 600/1200 Blinds 100 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (BB) (t30683)
UTG (t23180)
UTG+1 (t69583)
MP1 (t45234)
MP2 (t42249)
MP3 (t22891)
CO (t38571)
Button (t32005)
SB (t14539)
Hero’s M: 11.36
Preflop: Hero is BB with … Read full post
From yesterday’s Sunday Million:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 600/1200 Blinds 100 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (BB) (t30683)
UTG (t23180)
UTG+1 (t69583)
MP1 (t45234)
MP2 (t42249)
MP3 (t22891)
CO (t38571)
Button (t32005)
SB (t14539)
Hero’s M: 11.36
Preflop: Hero is BB with … Read full post
This guy was decent in some ways but pretty insanely loose and aggressive. I don’t think he ever folded to a 3-bet pre-flop (I probably should have made my raise size bigger), and there was a lot of 4-betting going on. For the most part, I just hung back, made … Read full post
This is a pretty specific situation nearly 400 BB’s deep against a phenomenal player (CardRunner’s instructor/FTP red pro Eric “P3achy_Keen” Liu
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($1945)
UTG ($1015)
UTG+1 ($4483)
MP1 ($991.45)
MP2 ($3100)
MP3 ($1609.25)
Hero (CO) ($3782.50)… Read full post
It never ceases to amuse me when my mistakes make me money. Here I meant to bet $99 on the river and accidentally bet $9. The result was inducing a huge check-raise bluff from a hand that almost certainly would have folded to my intended bet:
Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 … 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
Gah how does this not value bet the river?!?!
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
BB: $3,800
Hero (UTG): $4,340
MP: $4,151
CO: $2,000
BTN: $4,026
SB: $3,853
Pre-Flop: A
8 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $70, 2 … Read full post
Last night was my biggest to date playing exclusively cash games, topped only by the WSOP (obviously- not sure that even counts since it took two weeks) and my win in the UB 200K last November. Funny thing is while I wasn’t playing badly I don’t think I was playing … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
BB: $1,154
Hero (UTG): $2,707
BTN: $1,072
SB: $5,637.50
Pre-Flop: 2
2 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $35, BTN folds, SB calls $30, BB folds
Flop: ($80) 5 8
Q
(2 Players)… Read full post
In light of my recent article on Creative Bet Sizing, here are two river check-raise overbets I made against the same player. The situations are similar: I have an unlikely monster hand and my opponent has a well-defined strong-but-not-too-strong hand. By “well-defined”, I mean that he probably realizes that … Read full post
Sorry for the lack of updates, I was at a BDL tournament on Friday then a wedding reception in New York yesterday. The good news I’m staying in New York with a friend from the old Harvard Law School game I used to play in, so we got in some … Read full post
This one was against a not-very-good player:
Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (UTG): $1,454.70
MP: $1,323.15
CO: $546.65
BTN: $318
SB: $621.75
BB: $590.95
Pre-Flop: A T dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $21, 4 folds, BB … Read full post
I am just not very good at FLHE. The generic advice I’ve gotten about this game is to make tons of thin value bets and calls, which I try to do, but I think I’m choosing bad spots. My opponents yesterday did not even seem particularly good, but they were … Read full post
I played my first online session in weeks tonight, and it went great. Mostly just running well, though I do think I chose my spots well. I also may not have gotten paid off on the river here if I hadn’t gotten tricksy:
Poker Stars, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
BTN: $1,249.10
SB: $600
BB: $1,385.25
Hero (UTG): $1,542.65
Pre-Flop: Q J dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $21, BTN calls $21, SB folds, BB calls $15
Flop: ($66) 9 3 K (3 … Read full post