Traditionally, Tuesday has not been a good winning day for your favorite hero. I looked back in my Poker Tracker stats and I lose more money here than on any other day. This wasn't the case this past one. I had another Ace Ten hand come up and played it better than I did in my previous post and wanted to share it here. I'm in the cut off (CO) seat and raise it up 3.5 times the Big Blind and get three callers, so the pot stands at $2.50 after the rake. The flop is my best friend and comes up 6d Tc Ts. Now it's time to extract some of those lovely chips from my villains! Its checked to me and I do the same, hoping that the guy behind me bets, thinking we are both weak. He bets the pot, The Big Blind folds and I call. The turn shows a Queen and now the villain checks to me. My hand is still huge, as the only cards that beat me are exactly 66 and QQ so I check behind in hopes that the Queen may have helped him and he'll call a river bet. The river card doesn't help here ( it's a 7) and I bet out $4.00 and get a call. He shows me QJ offsuit for two pair. Not too bad. I played this hand as good as can be expected, I think, unless a turn bet from me may have brought a raise from my opponent?
I did have an interesting hand on anther table. I'm dealt pocket Queens in the Big Blind and my foe this time is on the button. His Poker Tracker stats are 28/14/3.5 after 80 hands. Not bad stats, really. He's kind of aggressive so you can't believe all of his raises are strong hands but you still have to respect him somewhat. Instead of just calling I decide to 3 bet him here and he calls. That usually means his hand isn't very strong. Most people that have huge hands will shove all their chips in once you re raise them pre flop so I like my chances here. I have a very good starting hand but I'm out of position the rest of the way. I must also note that this villain has been pushing everyone around the table and hasn't shown down a hand. The flop comes up Ks Kc 6s. I check, call his flop and turn bets, which are $3 and $5 respectively. The reason I'm just check calling is because again, he's a bully and probably doesn't have much here. I'm either way ahead or way behind. The board is pretty scary, showing K K 6 4 4. Now the fun part. He shoves all his chips in. My decision just got extremely difficult. Would he really play a super strong hand this way? If he was that strong wouldn't he try to induce a bluff from me? I didn't think so and called. Can you guess what he had?
Good luck on the felt............
March 30, 2007
March 29, 2007
A Manic Monday
The past few days have been busy for me and I didn't get in much playing time. Monday was a little rough and I had to dig out of a hole I created. I lost almost my whole stack against a maniac player in an over pair vs. over pair situation. I raise in late position (3.5 BB) and get a call. I have a pocket pair of Tens. The flop is somewhat coordinated with 5s 9s 8h showing. I lead out for 3/4 of the pot and the villain insta raises the minimum. I call. Normally on Full Tilt, players who do this on the flop are holding monster hands. The players here seem to play a lot tighter than other sites, and when they play their hands they play them aggressively. Seeing that I have an over pair there is no way I'm folding to this bet. My pot odds are very good if I hit my set. But here is where I made the mistake. The 7h hits and I lead out again on the turn. I should check here. My opponent has told me - with his minraise- that he likes his hand and is willing to put a lot of money in to get to showdown. That's great. If I hit my set I'm taking his whole stack. But I didn't hit my set of Tens. I should check/fold here in most cases unless I have a read that says he's full of it. I didn't because it was early in this this session on this table. As a result I lost 76 BBs here. It's okay though. It will happen in this game. Nobody is perfect and what matters most is how you play afterwards. If you find yourself hot under the collar you should sit out for a while, cool off, and collect your thoughts. The one thing I try to remember is a quote from Lou Holtz. He said, "You will never get ahead of anyone if you're trying to get even with him." Over the next 19 hands I managed to get back half of my stack, but most of it was from the other players. I played for 76 hands on this particular table and left when people dropped out.
My other table was a little better, although after my big mistake it took me a bit to get over it. I felt myself playing poorly. I did pick off a bluff from a very aggressive player that was kind of nice, but doesn't happen all the time. He was playing 51% of his hands and raised every single time pre flop. I have 55 on the button and raise it up 4 times the Big Blind. He calls from the small blind. Flop is Queen high and he leads for almost the whole pot. I raise him and he calls. This told me that his hand wasn't very strong and I could steal from him later if another scare card falls. The turn is a King and he checks. Now I'm pretty certain that he is weak. I check behind to induce a bluff from him on the river. That's what he does, and leads into me for 17 BBs. I call his ace high hand.
Over all this past Monday was a roller coaster, but I actually come out ahead. I played a total of 175 hands, cleared some bonus and came out winner for the session. I'll get to Tuesday's session later. Until then, good luck on the felt.
My other table was a little better, although after my big mistake it took me a bit to get over it. I felt myself playing poorly. I did pick off a bluff from a very aggressive player that was kind of nice, but doesn't happen all the time. He was playing 51% of his hands and raised every single time pre flop. I have 55 on the button and raise it up 4 times the Big Blind. He calls from the small blind. Flop is Queen high and he leads for almost the whole pot. I raise him and he calls. This told me that his hand wasn't very strong and I could steal from him later if another scare card falls. The turn is a King and he checks. Now I'm pretty certain that he is weak. I check behind to induce a bluff from him on the river. That's what he does, and leads into me for 17 BBs. I call his ace high hand.
Over all this past Monday was a roller coaster, but I actually come out ahead. I played a total of 175 hands, cleared some bonus and came out winner for the session. I'll get to Tuesday's session later. Until then, good luck on the felt.
March 25, 2007
A Quick Little Mini Session
I played very little last night. I got in one hour of play and only played one table, but mined a lot of hands through Poker Tracker. I managed to get in 72 hands in that hour and made $6.85. Not much to talk about with this session, but I do believe I missed some value out of one particular hand.
My opponent has played 70 hands with me. His stats are 20/2.5/3, so pretty tight and passive pre flop, and when he hits a hand he will usually fire off a bullet. We both have 100 BB in our stacks. He is in the small blind. I am under the gun and hold Ace, Ten of clubs and make my standard raise of 3.5 times the Big Blind. Villain calls my raise and the flop is As Ah Jh. He bets the minimum ($.25) and I think for a few seconds and make a pot sized raise. He immediately folds. Seeing that my raise tells him I obviously have trip aces, I think the better line would 've been to simply call his bet and see what he does on the turn. My hand would only become vulnerable if he held exactly JJ, or if he had two high hearts, giving him a flush draw. My innitial read was that it was very likely that he had a small pocket pair. I just felt that I let him keep some of his money by raising so big on that flop. I need to find the fine line between trapping and slowplaying big hands to extract value. So many things to perfect.... That's why I love this game!!!
My opponent has played 70 hands with me. His stats are 20/2.5/3, so pretty tight and passive pre flop, and when he hits a hand he will usually fire off a bullet. We both have 100 BB in our stacks. He is in the small blind. I am under the gun and hold Ace, Ten of clubs and make my standard raise of 3.5 times the Big Blind. Villain calls my raise and the flop is As Ah Jh. He bets the minimum ($.25) and I think for a few seconds and make a pot sized raise. He immediately folds. Seeing that my raise tells him I obviously have trip aces, I think the better line would 've been to simply call his bet and see what he does on the turn. My hand would only become vulnerable if he held exactly JJ, or if he had two high hearts, giving him a flush draw. My innitial read was that it was very likely that he had a small pocket pair. I just felt that I let him keep some of his money by raising so big on that flop. I need to find the fine line between trapping and slowplaying big hands to extract value. So many things to perfect.... That's why I love this game!!!
March 23, 2007
Freerolls
Just finished an Omaha freeroll and finished 53rd out of 2700. No cash, but a lot of fun. I think this game will help me with hand reading and I'll probably play all of these I can.
March 22, 2007
Mixed Results in 6 max
OK, this session was a short one. I played on two tables, and nothing much happened until I played like a donkey in one hand. I had AsJs on the button and made my standard raise. I get one caller from the big blind and the flop comes Jack, Six, deuce, all different suits. Great. I have top pair, top kicker and bet the pot after the BB checks. I don't think I played badly up to this point. The turn is a blank. BB check calls my pot bet again. I should have known I was beat right here, but instead of thinking my way through the hand I got bull-headed and decided, once the flop hit, I was getting all my money in. That's exactly what I did and was promptly shown a set of 6's.
Top pair hands are not the hand to put my whole stack in. EVER!!!!!!! I actually look for people at the tables who do this, because they are gold mines to play against, and here I go doing the same thing. I fully see why it is so important to pay attention during every hand at the table. I was on auto pilot and never once thought about what my opponent 's range of cards could be, so I deserved to lose that money. Stupid mistake and a big leak that will be plugged. I did manage to get half of the money back from the other table so if I can get rid of what I think are very basic leaks I will be on my way to the next level in no time. Wish me luck.
Top pair hands are not the hand to put my whole stack in. EVER!!!!!!! I actually look for people at the tables who do this, because they are gold mines to play against, and here I go doing the same thing. I fully see why it is so important to pay attention during every hand at the table. I was on auto pilot and never once thought about what my opponent 's range of cards could be, so I deserved to lose that money. Stupid mistake and a big leak that will be plugged. I did manage to get half of the money back from the other table so if I can get rid of what I think are very basic leaks I will be on my way to the next level in no time. Wish me luck.
March 21, 2007
Last night was pool league so I didn't get in any poker, but after my match I saw an interesting game about to start. The pool hall I frequent has some serious gambling going on sometimes and I have personally watched Cliff Joyner play some one pocket before heading to Louisville for the Derby City Classic, and watched Corey Deuel one evening as well. If you enjoy pool and ever get a chance to watch a real pro in action, do yourself a favor and take it. You will be impressed.
So, back to the matchup at hand. My friend, who we'll call J, is a skill level 6 and plays very sound pool. The other player, who we'll call B, is some guy who stumbled in and wants to gamble, but doesn't really know how good J is. They agree to play some 8 ball, APA rules, but J has to give up some weight to make it fair. J gives B the option of taking two of his balls off the table after the break, provided that the table isn't still open. This sounds like a set up for disaster for J, but in reality makes the game easier for him, because when B removes his balls it makes the run out easier, as now there is less traffic for him to navigate. Well, it turns out that B is worse than anyone thought and J ended up giving him 4 balls to remove and he still came out winner. I wish I could get that action........
So, back to the matchup at hand. My friend, who we'll call J, is a skill level 6 and plays very sound pool. The other player, who we'll call B, is some guy who stumbled in and wants to gamble, but doesn't really know how good J is. They agree to play some 8 ball, APA rules, but J has to give up some weight to make it fair. J gives B the option of taking two of his balls off the table after the break, provided that the table isn't still open. This sounds like a set up for disaster for J, but in reality makes the game easier for him, because when B removes his balls it makes the run out easier, as now there is less traffic for him to navigate. Well, it turns out that B is worse than anyone thought and J ended up giving him 4 balls to remove and he still came out winner. I wish I could get that action........
March 19, 2007
6 Max session
Let me start by saying I have tried to play 6 max a few times and didn't really like playing that short, as the variance seems to be higher than I am comfortable with. But, having rakeback and a bonus to clear, it makes sense to get in a lot of hands as quickly as possible. My bonus will expire in about a week and a half. So, that being said I will learn as I go and hopefully won't put too much of a dent in my bankroll. I'm playing $25 NL.
My first session lasted for 1-1/2 hours. I played 260 hands on two tables and I ended up winning a buy in. On the surface that is a good result but I won the money by getting some out draws to go my way. I was dead in the second hand I was dealt by not playing correctly before the flop and it should've cost me. I know better than to min. raise in the BB with a big hand and hopefully this blog will keep me focused on playing the right way and fix the leaks in my game.
The villain in the hand had 2 low pair vs. my pocket over pair. I had a ton of hands data mined on him and he is a pretty wild player who plays a wide range of hands. Thankfully I hit my set on the river.
Interstingly, I found myself playing different styles on each table and had different results as well. On one table my stats were 16/11 and found that I didn't get action on my raises, and didn't win anything either. The other table my stats were 26/22 and found myself pretty much running over my opponents. It could've been really good table selection with the one table. Thanks to MO at pokerdyansty.net for the advice on that. It seems to have helped.
My first session lasted for 1-1/2 hours. I played 260 hands on two tables and I ended up winning a buy in. On the surface that is a good result but I won the money by getting some out draws to go my way. I was dead in the second hand I was dealt by not playing correctly before the flop and it should've cost me. I know better than to min. raise in the BB with a big hand and hopefully this blog will keep me focused on playing the right way and fix the leaks in my game.
The villain in the hand had 2 low pair vs. my pocket over pair. I had a ton of hands data mined on him and he is a pretty wild player who plays a wide range of hands. Thankfully I hit my set on the river.
Interstingly, I found myself playing different styles on each table and had different results as well. On one table my stats were 16/11 and found that I didn't get action on my raises, and didn't win anything either. The other table my stats were 26/22 and found myself pretty much running over my opponents. It could've been really good table selection with the one table. Thanks to MO at pokerdyansty.net for the advice on that. It seems to have helped.
March 17, 2007
In the Beginning.......
Every destination begins with a first step and here is mine. I'm not sure what to expect from this experiment, as I've never done any writing before, but feel it will be rewarding in the long run. I plan on blogging about my online poker playing and I hope some find a small nugget of info in here that may help them. If any of you can offer some good advice it will be appreciated as well. My next post will give a very brief history of how my playing started and how it is going far. Until then Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. Erin go Bragh and Slainte !!!!
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