Poker Blogs - Texas Holdem Poker

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Variance is fun

Posted 11:56 am in Categories: Poker

I continue streaming towards the end of my first 20K hands of heads up play and I've certainly had my good moments and my bad. Some days every third pocket pair makes a set and my opponents cannot wait to get top pair no kicker in on the flop. Other days, betting pot and turn with top two pair loses to runner runner straights. Overall I've been learning a good amount about the game, making some decent money and having fun while doing it. I'm running at about 8 PTBB/100, still winning more than the rake which is something like 5 PTBB/100.

Some hand analysis for the day:

Seat 1: TheSalche ($79.30)Seat 2: sixgun38 ($43.70)
sixgun38 posts the small blind of $0.25
TheSalche posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #2
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to TheSalche King of Diamonds Jack of Spades
sixgun38 raises to $1.50
TheSalche calls $1
* FLOP * Ten of Diamonds Three of Clubs Nine of Clubs
TheSalche checks
sixgun38 bets $3
TheSalche raises to $12
sixgun38 raises to $42.20, and is all in
TheSalche calls $30.20
sixgun38 shows King of Spades Nine of Spades
TheSalche shows King of Diamonds Jack of Spades
* TURN * Seven of Clubs
* RIVER * Ten of Diamonds Three of Clubs Nine of Clubs Six of Hearts

sixgun38 shows a pair of Nines
TheSalche shows King Jack high
sixgun38 wins the pot ($86.90) with a pair of Nines

This match was pretty aggressive, villain was pretty meh, and had a tendency to call me down with not much. On the surface this looks like a terrible call, but it may have been closer a "bad" call or could even be a good call depending on what range we assign the villain. A few things to note:

My pot odds are 56.9/30.2 or 1.88:1
Twodimes.net gives the odds here at 70:30 against, or 2.33:1.

However, given the match flow, his more likely hand is a pair of tens or 9s that doesn't block one of our pair cards, which gives us 61.5:38.5 or 1.60:1. His range also includes flush draws, in which case we are flipping with non ace high draws, but 78:22 against the ace high ones. Obviously his range may include some monsters, but I'm not crediting those as much because people slowplay in bad spots in heads up.

Looking back on it after some analysis this might not have been the best call I've ever made, but I have certainly made worse. The point here is to illustrate that I'm not in as bad shape as it appears and that one concept that is important in heads up is fold equity. If you can get an opponent to fold anything above 15% when you have an OESD or a flush draw + an over, you are making a +EV play to shove.

Neat PT stats ...
- Best three hands are QQ, JJ and AA with an average win% of 91 and each have netted me over $500
- Worst three hands are KJo, 86o and KQo

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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

My Leaky Boat Sails Well

Posted 8:15 pm in Categories: Poker

My heads up venture has gone amazingly well in the past few days. I purchased a few videos from CR and they opened my eyes up tremendously especially on how to beat down some of the loose passive players. One of the better tips I got was to not respect donk bets unless given a reason otherwise ... here's a good example:

FullTiltPoker Game #6143067443: Table Prince (heads up) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:14:17 ET - 2008/04/23
Seat 1: ftapros ($35.45)
Seat 2: TheSalche ($57)
TheSalche posts the small blind of $0.25
ftapros posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #2
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to TheSalche King of Diamonds Six of Clubs
TheSalche raises to $1.50
ftapros calls $1
* FLOP * Queen of Diamonds Nine of Diamonds Four of Hearts
ftapros bets $3
TheSalche raises to $11
ftapros calls $8
* TURN * Three of Clubs
ftapros checks
TheSalche bets $25
ftapros folds
Uncalled bet of $25 returned to TheSalche
TheSalche mucks
TheSalche wins the pot ($24.50)

His donk bet range here is huge and is weighted more towards draws, weak 9s, 4s and other assorted ace high crap. Of course by raising the flop I had to be willing to bet the turn and put pressure on my opponent which worked.

I've bumped my roll up to just under 1K, which is the most I've had in poker since I cashed out my 2K or so about 2 years ago. Of course this finally puts me at 20 BI, so I'm just barely rolled for 50NL even though I've played 5000 hands since my $300 redeposit.

There are still plenty of leaks in my game, which I plan on fixing in the near future.

1. Bad River Bluffs
I am making way too many aggressive river bluffs against loose/passive players when I lose my patience against them. When I'm bluffing the river it rarely makes any sense as my line is raise PF, cbet flop, check behind turn, bluff river. That line is rarely something unless a draw comes on the river, and even then its relatively cheap for an opponent to call.

2. Weak at playing 3bet pots w/o strong post flop hands
I rarely double barrel when I 3bet with AQo and the flop is king high and my opponent calls. Obviously it's not ideal to double barrel every turn OOP, but I think I need to mix in some check/folds to make my cbets in 3bet pots more believable. This also comes from being a 6max player, where I would play <20% of my hands OOP, and now I'm playing closer to 30 or 40% depending on my opponent.

3. Not playing my draws aggressively enough
Due to my low bankroll I haven't been willing to get it all in on the flop with OESDs, NFD + over type hands that have lots of fold equity. Thus I'm playing my draws very passively, specifically when I'm OOP. Fortunately most opponents don't capitalize on this, but it is still a leak.

4. Playing hands too straight forward vs. decent players
Of course I'm not trying to play against regulars and usually quitting someone if they show that they have a fundamental grasp of the game. Sometimes I play against decentish players who actually ask themselves "what does thesalche have?" Against these players I'm double barreling a lot of my strong but vulnerable hands like TPTK and I'm not extracting max value out of weaker hands like mid pair or PPs that miss. I don't double barrel my draws & bluffs enough to have that show up in my range, so my hand becomes readable to thinking players.

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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Hand Analysis

Posted 5:44 pm in Categories: Poker

I'm going to start posting hands here, trying to analyze them and think through my mistakes so I don't make them again.

Villain in the hand is 24/14/2.45 over 1600 hands. Mostly datamined, earlier him and I had a hand where I checked top pair behind on the turn after cbetting the flop, and he rivered a gutshot. He made a PSB on the river with it. Other than that neither of us have been playing in big pots.

Seat 3: Vovanwch ($28.65)
Seat 6: TheSalche ($25.45)

TheSalche posts the small blind of $0.10
justindejong posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #5
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to TheSalche Jack of Spades King of Diamonds
apskies18 folds
Vovanwch has 15 seconds left to act
Vovanwch raises to $1
imtav folds
BS20 folds
TheSalche calls $0.90
justindejong folds
* FLOP * Six of Diamonds Queen of Clubs Ten of Spades
TheSalche checks
Vovanwch bets $2
TheSalche raises to $10
Vovanwch raises to $27.65, and is all in
TheSalche calls $14.45, and is all in

The preflop call is questionable, raise or fold would have been better. I called planning on c/ring dry flops because he had a cbet % of nearly 100. However 3betting bloats the pot when I'm OOP and there's not much reason to suggest he'll fold a better hand.

My flop check/raise may have been too large, but I was attempting to maximize my FE. I was willing to get it all-in here, which was my downfall in the hand.

There is a big difference between this straight draw, and other hands where shoving with a big draw is a good move. The problem here is that his calling / shoving range is probably 66, TT, QQ -AA, AQ and AK. Against the sets I have 8 outs, but he has a full house redraw. KK and AA are bad because they eliminate the king or jack being outs, as well as take away straight draw outs (for AA). AQ and AK are the hands I have the best chance against. With AK my FE goes up because it is tough for him to make a call with no pair, weak draw with no read on me. AQ is bad news, but I still have 10 outs, although again he has redraws. JJ is similar to AQ.

So what appears to be an 11 out draw, I really have closer to 7 or 8 outs against his range and this means I'm relying heavily on FE. The pot is also small, and I shouldn't go nuts over 20 BBs. Better line would have been c/c the flop, b/f turn or c/f turn, fire at river. Fold preflop better than those.

In the end he somehow called with AK and I blanked. I suppose if I had known his cards were AK I played the flop spectacular and he made a pretty bad play.

This one the villain was 33/23/3.2 over 200. Him and I haven't tangled but I'd say I have an aggressive image here.

Seat 3: Mungo36 ($43.75)
Seat 4: TheSalche ($35.10)

legalizenow posts the small blind of $0.10
Mungo36 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #1
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to TheSalche King of Spades Ace of Diamonds
TheSalche raises to $1
Mungo36 calls $0.75
* FLOP * Ace of Spades Queen of Spades Four of Spades
Mungo36 checks
TheSalche bets $1.75
Mungo36 raises to $7.75
TheSalche raises to $22
Mungo36 raises to $42.75, and is all in
TheSalche calls $12.10, and is all in

Preflop is standard, obv.

I was pretty excited about this flop, and maybe I wasn't thinking much. It looks like a great flop for me, and I should be willing to get it all-in. The only hands that are any trouble are AA/QQ/44. Aces are unlikely, as are queens because he didn't 3bet preflop and he has a high aggression factor. AQ and A4 I've got plenty of outs against, and he could be doing this with AJs or ATs. Maybe JJ with the jack of spades. I certainly don't think folding the flop is an option, but since we were deeper I could've called his check raise and seen the turn.

Maybe I'm results oriented on this one, but I was upset when he showed QQ, turned a boat and then I rivered my nut flush. I'm not trying to find a fold here by any means, but was this the best way to get the money in?

Finally an AA hand. At this point I have an aggressive image, but I have been showing down a lot of TPTK hands, and I was able to build my stack by winning with a OESD flush draw vs. a made straight and bottom set. Villain is 26/8 over 60 hands.

Seat 1: Beatrice61 ($46.35)
Seat 4: TheSalche ($84.45)
whGoldenOne posts the small blind of $0.10
Beatrice61 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #5
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to TheSalche Ace of Clubs Ace of Hearts

TheSalche raises to $0.85
Beatrice61 calls $0.60
* FLOP * Seven of Diamonds Two of Hearts Nine of Clubs
Beatrice61 checks
TheSalche bets $1.75
Beatrice61 raises to $3.50
TheSalche calls $1.75
* TURN * Queen of Hearts
Beatrice61 bets $5
TheSalche calls $5
* RIVER * Six of Hearts
Beatrice61 bets $12
TheSalche calls $12

I think I played the hand fine till the river. On the flop the min-raise can mean a lot of things, plenty of overpairs out there. The turn didn't change much except that QQ is now beating mean. However the river bet is significantly larger than previous streets, and this players stats aren't maniacal so I should've expected her to show up with two pair or better. I made snap decisions on the turn and river without thinking through the hand and what she could possibly have. As expected by the tone of the post, she showed up with 99.

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Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Broke

Posted 1:50 am in Categories: Poker

After cashing out $400 from FTP I had ~$200 left over so I had been messing around with HU play for the past week or so. However Friday night I stupidly got cleaned out and left with $17 in my account. So for the first time in a while I reloaded $300 back in there.

I've been playing some 10NL again and grinding it out, working my way back to 25NL. We'll see how long this lasts.

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Monday, February 4th, 2008

Giants Win!

Posted 1:00 am in Categories: Poker

Woo! Happy to see Brady go down in flames, getting pounded on by the Giants linemen all night.

This has been a long poker weekend, and I've put in over 2000 hands, coming out slightly behind after having a really bad Friday night, okay Saturday and great Sunday. I'm slowly building stamina for longer poker sessions, and right now I'm doing 1.5 to 2 hour sessions before I start to go a bit nuts.

Full Tilt is giving me a nice little $75 bonus that I should be able to clear at least $50 of.

As for my luck recently its been having some weird ups and downs. I've gotten myself into a few bad all-in situations where I got bailed out, but my last 3 OESD+FD hands have missed, including one where I was 200 BB deep against an aggressive opponent who would've paid me off for sure.

Table selection is great for my game ... that's all I've got to say.

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