I’ve had maybe a week from playing, been too distracted by friends and other things, but finally I’m starting to get back into a routine of play, so I thought I’ll kick things off with two hands from my last session :
This was a fun hand for me. I find 74 off suite, a hand I would never expect to play, but get a free look from the BB. I flop TP with some backup so I lead out expecting to take it down right away. The turn adds an over card to the mix and completes a flush, normally a check-fold for me, but not today.
Part of what influenced my play here was a regular was sat on the table out of the hand, and I always like to mix my play up around any people I see frequently.
Anyways, I make a check-raise as if my Axs just came good. With a call on the turn, I judge that villain got stubborn with a T or held the flush ace, so I lead out on the river. I didn’t really want a call here, and I hoped such a bet would get a higher straight to drop, though that probably wouldn’t happen down here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2542006
Here I find QQ immediately after making a large opening raise with KK, so in typical micro stakes fashion I expect to be called here. Actually with that in mind, should I have raised more? I lead out on the flop, I thought of checking here, but opted for the straight forward approach. Scary turn card, but I lead out for maybe 2/3′s pot, does this give away too much? out of position and facing a turn call I check the river.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2542027
Not all disasters are accidents... Buy the Sole Survivors Club, by Zoe E. Whitten
April 30th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
6 comments
I’ve just found myself in an “interesting” situation, that I could do with some insight on?
I’m at the end of a short session, I’m up not much, maybe 60 or 70c, I’ve closed my other tables and this is my final hand before the blinds hit me and I leave.
I find AQ, these are the spots I hate. I make a standard raise and I’m re-raised. My first thought was to abandon the pot and leave with a little profit, final hand theory and all that. Then I kick myself and decide to play the hand out, going with the “one long session” philosophy instead.
I call the re-raise, hoping to spike an ace on the flop. I hit but with my queen. I’ve been going to the river with an unimproved TPTK in a big pot too often, so I chose a different line with the aim of finding out confidently if I’m behind. So I check-raise my opponents pot size bet. He goes all in and its back to me. It took me a while to fold this actually, but happily I managed it.
I’m certain my fold was correct, my opponent showed consistent strength to all of my aggression, and he could easily have QQ for top set, even TT for middle set, or kings or aces. What I’m not sure of though is whether or not my line was best, both to disguise my hand a little and to get a clear answer has to whether I was behind, and to do so without committing my stack.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2418461
Home Poker Tourney thread on the hand :
http://forums.homepokertourney.com/index.php/board,63.0.html
April 11th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
6 comments
I’ve had a modest target I’ve been aiming to get to for several weeks now, I’ve been here before once, but quickly dropped down a significant margin shortly afterwards. That target was $140, and finally I surpassed it yesterday.
Its taken me awhile to get back to this point, each time I’ve gotten close previously I’ve blown a buy-in here and there and had to grind it back up again. This as lead to me loosing some confidence when I hit a target, which is completely the opposite of how I should be feeling.
To counter this, I’m going to try hard to focus on playing a certain number of hands, related to that I’ve set myself a target of completing 1k hands per day. So far I’m not getting in anywhere near 1k hands, with only 210 yesterday and only 228 so far today, but I’m steadily working towards it, and it seems to help keep me focused.
Here’s a few hands from my first 2 sessions of the day :
Here I find AKs in EP facing an UTG raise. I would normally re-raise to a little more with AK, but with no limper’s in the way I felt a re-raise to 50c would isolate the initial raiser without risking too much. I got my wish and we see a flop.
He checks to me, and I lead out, he instantly shoves. I still only have AK high at this point, and I take a long time to think about this and eventually call. I called because I felt he was more bluffing, the only hand I could put him on that he would make such a play with would be TT for top set, and that was marginal. He turns over 3′s for bottom set, and I was proved wrong.
I should have backed down here, even if I suspected I had the best hand, theres better spots then this for me to stack off.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2413826
Here’s my follow up donkey play to the above. Good news coming up, I promise :p
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2413830
Standard raise with AJ. I get one caller and face a small bet, this is so often just a did your ace high hand hit type of bet that I elect to re-raise having hit 2nd pair with an ace kicker. The turn pairs the board and completes a flush, so I check behind. On the river I make aces up and he checks again, there isn’t much I’m beating here but with this 2nd check should I have made a value bet here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2413832
Another standard raise, TPTK hand. i lead strong out of position on the flop and follow up on the turn. When my opponent calls my turn bet, I elect to check the river.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2413840
Here’s the dream hand that I finished my session with. I lead out with queens and get re-raised from the BB. I’ll usually 4 bet (4 bet, not 3 bet right?) here pre-flop, but for whatever reason I elect to just call and see the flop. Its my lucky day, as I flop quads, It actually took me a minute or two to realized, I spotted the one queen straight away and was happy to have top set, then it hit me I’ve hit quads lol.
Being out of position may have worked in my favor here, as my opponent makes a c-bet. Initially I thought of simply calling here, but my usually line on the flop is to raise or re-raise, and I felt even against an unknown a call here would be suspicious. So I re-raised, hoping he’ll stay interested, he does.
The board pairs again on the turn, not helping me unfortunately, as he’s unlikely to hold a 5 here, so when he checks I give him a free card. On the river its value town all the way, I was torn between pushing all in like I had an unimproved AK and was trying a steel or making a raise I had a higher chance of getting called. I decided to make a small re-raise, and he called. Do you think a push would have been better here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2413834
So a mix of donkey plays and some good results, even after blowing the full buy-in I’m only down 9c for the day, so I’m pleased with the fortunate come back.
April 9th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
6 comments
Turns out my play with the first of the two previous hands was OK. I was likely being a bit too results orientated with that hand, so I’m over that now.
I am though, still suffering from the fall out of the 2nd hand, I’m totally disgusted with my play, I couldn’t have played it any worse if I had tried. So, I decided not to play yesterday at all, probably won’t sit in any games today and may even take another day off tomorrow.
I’ve been working hard to try and move up and I simply can’t afford to blow off a full buy-in by being a fucking idiot.
Hopefully I’ll have some real poker to speak of in a couple of days.
April 7th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
Uncategorized |
2 comments
The day started off so well, I’ve been working hard to get my bankroll back up to $140 after a shapr drop a couple of weeks back, and its been a bumpy journey. Finally though, I get to within 5c of my target. Then of course, I loose 1 1/2 buy-in’s and I’m back where I started, having blown all of my work from the day before.
How, well the short answer is that I over played TPTK in two key hands, here they are:
For the first hand, I make a standard raise with AK, get two callers and flop TPTK. I expect my hand to be ahead here, but theres two draws I’m worried about, the flush and a possible OESD with JT, so I lead out for a little over the pot, I get one caller.
The 6 doesn’t worry me, but I want to deny my opponent implied odds if he his drawing against me. I’m not used to calculating my bet sizes according to my stack in this spot, so I think for a while, and eventually bet $2 into a $1+ pot, which I hoped denied my opponent the correct implied odds to call me, though maybe not with JTs.
On the turn I actually decided to push the river, when the river came though and my opponent checked again, I realized that would be a big mistake. If my opponent was drawing he isn’t going to call a shove here, but worse still if he wasn’t drawing its highly likely I’m beat, so I check behind. Sure enough I was.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2387823
Here on another table I again find myself with TPTk after a pre-flop raise.
Oops, after reviewing the hand history, I’ve spoted a glaringly obvious mistake in my play… I’ll write out my in hand analysis first, then add what I’ve just realized.
I’m faced with a bet from an OOP calling, Its a stronger bet then I would normally expect for someone to make with an under pair or 2nd pair etc, which happens a lot at this level, so I’m aware he’s likely got something he wants to play with. My descion making is tainted by the fact that I’ve picked up every pot I’ve been involved in for the last few orbits, and I feel my opponent his simply drawing a line in the sand with a weaker ace, So I re-raise him to see where I stand. Long story short I end up with all my money in way behind.
Now heres the obvious point I missed in the hand. I’m facing an OOP bet for almost the size of the pot. I make a modest re-raise to see where I stand and my opponent makes it glaringly obvious he’s happy with what he has by coming over the top. If my head was screwed on I should have expected to see aces up or a set, but it obviously wasn’t as I move in.
I was actually going to note something I’ve just read and felt like I ignored in this case from Sklansky’s NL Hold’em Theory and Practice, but as you can see I made an even more obvious error. Anyway I may as well had my other though on the hand from Sklansky.
Essentially, if your opponents are folding to your seemingly frequent pre-flop raises and c-bets, and are not tangling with you, when they do, they are likely to have a strong hand, so don’t over value a vulnerable hand, expecting them to have lowered there standards against you, because you’ve been raising a lot recently.
Here I think the correct, line was to make a modest re-raise against the OOP better on the flop and then to fold when my opponent comes over the top, no need to get cute here. This hand especially has really bugged me tonight, either before I realized my more obvious beginner error, hopefully I wont be making such a foolish mistake again anytime soon.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2387850
April 5th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
Casino |
no comments
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I’m playing and thinking so much about poker lately, by the day’s end, I need a break, and can’t always be bothered to spend the time to blog about it… I know, I suck :p
Anyways, its been a very interesting few days. I’ve maid some fast money, and lost it all equally fast. I’ve been up and down approximately a full buy around 5 times this week, which is a pain, but I’m handling it better then I have done previously. I’m also enjoying my table time more, and feel, certainly over these last two day’s that I’ve learned a lot, and I’m keen to get stuck in each morning to put it into practice.
I’ve been playing well overall recently, and have stacked several people, aces have been good to me especially. The flip side is I’ve paid a few people off where a blind man wouldn’t, that always sucks and can be a hard thing to shake. Yesterday for example, I wasn’t concentrating, busy surfing the web, thought I was being clever and got my stack decimated because I wasn’t aware of the reverse implied odds. Same story later on where I take a predictable line with KK on an A high flop and end up paying the guy off on the river.
Overall though, I’m feeling really good. Its a wonderful feeling a lot of the things I’ve been aware of for some time, finally feel like they have begun to sink in and I’m integrating them into my game. Its about time too, I am very anxious to do well and move up.
I’ve got notes plastered all around my desk reminding me of multiple level thinking, and my monitor is covered with slogans on value and discipline. Yes its true, I’m a poker geek lol. I’m still reading NL Hold’em Theory and Practice, and I’m loving it, it has without doubt opened my eyes and taught me more then any other poker book I have read, and I can’t wait to start my second read as soon as I’ve finished it.
Focus of The Week
To be more aggressive, especially pre-flop and especially in position. I am limping AQ and not raising AJ far too often.
April 2nd, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
2 comments
