Sunday, 5 October 2008

Finally a heater session

I've been on a 8 buyin downswing at 25NL to start the month off nicely including -4 buyins this morning. This evening was finally a different story than me making second best hands and getting set>set every session.

A little more than +6 buyins for this evening's session. I really need to figure out how to stop myself from forcing hands and spewing when I run card dead for 5k hands. It really is cheaper just to fold because what I've already put in the pot is gone. My game has become high variance lately due to the card dead-ness going on.

I always am trying to tweak my game to squeeze out a little more in the winrate department, but I usually end up going to far, saying screw it, go back to my somewhat nitty TAGish game and profit. I need to stay in that mode to beat 25NL, however that mode does not seem to do very well when I try to move up so I am still going to try to figure some stuff out, but not go overboard with it.

I don't know if I've posted this already, but my goal is going to be to be able to play 50NL as my regular game by the end of November with a decent, positive winrate. I just have to keep working at it. Some days I feel like giving up and staying at 25NL forever, but then I think back to how I thought the same thing about moving up to 25NL.

This current moving up process has been a lot tougher on me than the last, both financially and psychologically. I don't think my psychological bankroll is nearly as large as my actual bankroll. I'm not sure what the key BR number will be for me to not play scared at 50NL, but I haven't found it yet.

A couple interesting hands from this evening's session. I won't post anything from the rest of the month because it would just be me whining ;)

Hand #1 is against an 88/25/3 with a 3bet of 20% who likes to try to shove people around any time he catches a whiff of weakness. PF plan was to stack off post flop on a non-A/K high flop. I found this hand interesting because I think the flop minraise was really my only option here to get all the money in against weaker hands. A larger raise would usually fold out most of his non-KK+ range (he was not your regular 88/25 donk, he seemed to be thinking at least a little bit and actually had a W$SD of 49%) but the minraise gives him just enough room to bluff-shove with worse.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP1: $37.00
MP2: $21.60
CO: $25.40
BTN: $34.15
SB: $5.65
BB: $27.40
UTG: $4.25
Hero (UTG+1): $24.00

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is UTG+1 with J J
1 fold, Hero raises to $1, MP1 raises to $3, 5 folds, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6.35) 4 Q 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $4, Hero raises to $8, MP1 raises to $21, Hero calls $13 all in

Turn: ($48.35) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($48.35) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $48.35
MP1 mucks A K
Hero shows J J (a pair of Jacks)
Hero wins $45.95
(Rake: $2.40)

Hand #2 was a gift. 2 hands prior to this I sucked out on a guy with trash when he gave me more than enough pot odds on the turn for my OESD+FD and I shoved the nuts when I caught the river vs his flopped 2 pair. The hand prior to this I got caught bluffing by the BB in the hand posted below and I'm running fairly LAGgy on this table. Reasoning behind the call of BB's reraise on the flop was that I was positive he had top pair or better now and BTN definately has a top pair hand - he was running 10/8/2.5 so I never put him on the flush draw since the Ad is out unless he has exactly KdQd and he doesn't have AA, plus he could hit and still lose if he happens to have the FD.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $26.00
BB: $10.15
UTG: $47.25
UTG+1: $25.95
UTG+2: $32.15
Hero (MP1): $35.95
MP2: $47.35
CO: $25.05
BTN: $10.30

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP1 with 7 7
3 folds, Hero raises to $1, 2 folds, BTN calls $1, 1 fold, BB calls $0.75

Flop: ($3.10) A 3 7 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BTN calls $2, BB raises to $5, Hero calls $3, BTN calls $3

Turn: ($18.10) 6 (3 players)
BB bets $4.15 all in, Hero raises to $8.55, BTN calls $4.30 all in

River: ($30.85) K (3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $30.85
BB mucks 3 3
Hero shows 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens)
BTN mucks Q A
Hero wins $0.25
Hero wins $29.10
(Rake: $1.50)

uFR HU4LOLZ Tourney: Round 1

Well I got a pretty tough draw for the uFR HU4LOLZ tourney. I ended up playing Berge for the first round, and if I would have managed to get past him, then possibly another 2-3 players that play 2-3 levels above me. We're all full ring players and not used to heads-up, but I think they still have the mental edge. It was a great learning experience. I can't imagine trying to make it through 5 2p2ers though.

It was best 2/3 and I made a huge mistake in our first match to knock myself out of that one:

Poker Stars $5.50+$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t5/t10 Blinds - 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: t2135
Hero (BTN/SB): t1865

Pre Flop: (t15) Hero is BTN/SB with A Q
BB says "bet sizes feel so weird", Hero raises to t30, BB calls t20

Flop: (t60) 4 7 Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t40, BB raises to t160, Hero raises to t400, BB calls t240

Turn: (t860) T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t860) 5 (2 players)
BB bets t550, Hero raises to t1435 all in, BB calls t885

Final Pot: t3730
BB shows 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens)
Hero shows A Q (a pair of Queens)
BB wins t3730

Should have just called. Berge said he obviously isn't calling my reraise with weaker. The turn kind of confused me, but I suppose he was expecting me to fire again after 3betting the flop. I was thinking he had a weaker Qx, but in retrospect I think he would have folded less than AQ to the flop 3bet. Match 1 was over in a matter of 20 minutes or so I believe.

Match 2 lasted MUCH longer. I think we were at about 2 or 2.5 hours for that one, we also fired up a 3rd table just in case we needed it. I hovered around the 1200-1500 chip mark in match 2 for nearly the whole 2 hours, and I managed to take a good lead in match 3 and sat at 3000 vs his 1000 for a good deal of that match until he snapped off a bluff that I didn't think he could call.

This is the only real hand that I managed to squeeze a good amount of chips out of him, but even this was a coinflip:

Poker Stars $5.50+$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t5/t10 Blinds - 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: t3135
Hero (BTN/SB): t865

Pre Flop: (t15) Hero is BTN/SB with K K
Hero raises to t30, BB says "you better win. i've got you going deep", BB raises to t110, Hero calls t80

Flop: (t220) T Q 4 (2 players)
BB says "until Trebek takes you out", BB bets t170, Hero raises to t755 all in, Hero says "gg?", BB says "gl", BB calls t585

Turn: (t1730) 4 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t1730) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t1730
BB shows Q 2 (two pair, Queens and Fours)
Hero shows K K (two pair, Kings and Fours)
Hero wins t1730

And the hand to end the extra match 3:

Poker Stars $5.50+$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t5/t10 Blinds - 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: t2300
Hero (BB): t1700

Pre Flop: (t15) Hero is BB with A A
BTN/SB raises to t30, Hero raises to t90, BTN/SB calls t60

Flop: (t180) J 8 T (2 players)
Hero bets t130, BTN/SB raises to t420, Hero raises to t1610 all in, BTN/SB calls t1190, Hero says "noooo"

Turn: (t3400) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River:
(t3400) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t3400
BTN/SB shows J T (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
BTN/SB wins t3400

Match 2 ended after match 3. The hand to end it all:

Poker Stars $5.50+$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t5/t10 Blinds - 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: t3285
Hero (BTN/SB): t715

Pre Flop: (t15) Hero is BTN/SB with K 5
Hero raises to t40, BB calls t30

Flop: (t80) J 7 K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t60, BB raises to t220, Hero raises to t675 all in, BB calls t455, Hero says "gambooool", (BB flips KJ) Hero says "or not"

Turn: (t1430) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t1430) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t1430
BB shows J K (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
Hero shows K 5 (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
BB wins t1430

I made a lot of stupid calls in this match. Funny thing is in the AA hand I put him on exactly JJ, TT or JT and was hoping he had a flush or combo draw yet I raise all in anyways, lol. Very fun and educational. gg Berge.