When is a bluff not a bluff?

When it's the winner, of course!  Silly goose!

I'm going to cease the caveat / apology that I have no way of reconstructing the hand in a standardized way.  I'll share the hand history with you, of course, but you need to sign up for an account in order to view it.  Use my link at the side if you're able to give me a referral :-).

Now for the good times!

Some background: I have no idea what this player is doing.  He's relatively new to the table.

.05/.10 poker - moderately deep-stacked with $19.61 effective.

Folds around to me in the cutoff and I look down at 9d9h.  I open a standard 3x ($0.30).  SB 3bets to $1.20...  now, given that he's a new-ish player, I'm not going to give a 3bet automatic respect.  He's seen me play a bit, so he realizes I'm pretty aggro - so this could be a possible play at shutting me down.  He has $30.91 behind.  BB folds & I flat, opting to avoid getting it in for 200BB.  Take a flop; why not?

$2.50 in the pot - flop comes JhAsJd and he immediately leads for $0.60(????)  I call - and I'm probably in call down mode if he's giving me a cheap check/down.

$3.70 in the pot - turn is 5h putting out a 2 heart flush draw potential, but otherwise should be inconsequential.  He checks and I happily check through.

$3.70 in the pot - river is a 3d, again a blank.  He checks for the 2nd time.  By this point, he can have Ax (not real likely because he effectively shut down on the flop (6x into 25x is not a very solid bet) and checked down...  The concern is that he has an Ax that's afraid of trip Jacks, or an Ax that's afraid of a better Ax.  There's always the lingering Jx concern, but I'm giving that a very small possibility given how the hand is going down.  Finally, I think there's a lot of 88-KK in his PF 3bet range.

Perhaps I'm over-thinking it...  However, that's what I'm targeting - the 88-KK (obviously not JJ) hands.  I want a bet sizing that feels value-ish and by no means screams "fold fold fold," because I want him believing my Ax (more likely that I have an Ace from his perspective) is going for value.  I select around 1/2 - 2/3 at $2.45 and get snapped off - surely a goner!  But no, he shows Kc9c(?!?!?!?!?!)  Nice $8.17 scoop!

Again, when is a bluff not a bluff?

Hand history (must be logged in)

Create a new account at ClubsPoker with my rerfe
ral!

When deep-stacked, you need to nut the hell up!

I'd argue at normal stacks (~100BB), it's a cooler to get set over set.  However, when you're deep-stacked, you need to be super careful with non-nuts, and be sure you have the correct read before stacking off 300BB!

Sitting at a deep-stacked $0.05/0.10 table.  I have 500BB / $50.  UTG+1 limps, HJ opens to 4x with a $10 stack, and I flat my 7h7c.  BTN ($12.81) comes along, as does SB ($28.06) and BB ($28.01).  Pot size: $2.10

Flop comes pretty decent 6hJd7s -- no real scare draws other than the open enders on top and bottom.  This was a raised pot, so I'm not hugely worried about 89/T9 or 54, but I am mildly concerned about the HJ holding JJ...  He has 100BB effective; if I'm set over set, so be it...

Original raiser leads for $1.05; I flat as does the SB and BB.  Pot size: $6.30

Turn is a 2s, putting 6hJd7s2s out there, and now I need to pump money into the pot given SB & BB flatted the open - they could be drawing, and I want to charge them for their pairs if they have them.  2s turn is a very blank card, though it does put out an unlikely flush draw to a JsXs or 6sXs hand.  Again, more reason to inflate the pot.  However, SB leads out for half pot, $3.15 ($23.86 behind), folding out BB.  Original raiser flats and I raise to $14.75 in a now ballooning pot of  $12.60.  I want the money in and I don't believe either of them have me beat with my mid set.  Pretty sure SB would have 3bet PF, and original raiser would have shipped with $5.40 behind after his flat.

To my surprise... well can't say I'm entirely surprised... the SB ships $27.01 which folds out the HJ and I snap it off to see a turned set of 2d2h...  Poor choices led to worse results, as in he should have folded out on the flop instead of lingering with essentially 2 cards better than Ace high, and he ships it with one out and one card to go.

River is a Jh if it's of any consequence, and I scoop a $63.47 pot.

If you want to see the replay, sign up at ClubsPoker with my referral link (they give you a free $0.50 / day)and view the following:

https://play.clubspoker.com/d/external-table.html?tableId=756002&entryId=0&secondary=true&gameId=13631961&appMode=replay&useLobbyHands=false

Some of the time you have a horseshoe up your ass, some of the time you are the horseshoe

Today's miracle is a "fairly standard" hand ending in a straight flush.  I wish I could have a written hand history instead of the viewer.

I'm in the SB at .05/.1 on a deepstack table with $117.92.  Folds around to middle position with $23.04 who opens to $0.3 (3x) and gets called by the HJ.  BTN who previously posted, folds.  I opt to call the mighty Js9s and BB folds.

Goes 3 way to a bingo flop of 2sTsKs and I opt to check.  Without fail, original raiser leads for $0.83 (75% pot?) into the $1.1 pot.

I feel as though this is a reasonably strong bet - He's either got a naked As, AsKx, AsQx, AsJx, AsTx, etc.. or QsJx (I have the Js, don't forget).  There's a TON of combos that he has here that can withstand a check/raise, and given how deep we are, I'm going to juice the pot if I'm going to get the 230BBs into the middle.

I go for a smallish c/r to $2.55 and he snaps.  At this point, I'm almost 100% certain he has the As and some combo rather than a naked As.  I guess I'm forgetting that he can also show up with AsAx, and I guess sets of KK, TT, so there's another several combos.  Pot size: $6.20

Turn card hits him even more perfectly for his range - Qc.  Given my c/r flop, I press for $4 into the $6.20 pot, setting up a close to pot sized all in effective.  He snaps off the $4, leaving him with $16.49 and the pot with $14.20.

The river is a beautiful Qs, which gives him the nut flush and/or a boat and/or an unlikely quads (there's a bad beat on the site, so this would be really great!).  I'm worried if I lead, he'll simply call behind given the strength I've shown, PLUS I want him to commit himself with whatever hand he may have... even if he has AxJx without the As, though I'm extremely confident he's far stronger than a straight.

As planned, he leads into the 2sTsKsQcQs pot with $5.30 - lighter than I hoped, but still enough to commit.  I c/r to $17 and he snaps it off with AsJd.

Like I said, sometimes the you have the horseshoe, other times you are the horseshoe!

If you want to see the replay, sign up at ClubsPoker with my referral link (they give you a free $0.50 / day)and view the following:

https://play.clubspoker.com/d/external-table.html?tableId=756003&entryId=0&secondary=true&gameId=13989201&appMode=replay&useLobbyHands=false

Wow, this blog has gotten stale!

 Checking in for my once-every-two years post!  I don't even know if I'm writing to anyone, so if you're out there, leave a comment!

I've been playing significantly on Global Poker, but lately moving my play over to ClubsPoker, as well as some remaining play with SwC (Seals with Clubs).  Nice thing about both Clubs and SwC are the players are woefully bad -- not that Global doesn't have its share of terrible players.  However, it seems as though Clubs and SwC have true mouth breathers.

Problem with Clubs and Seals is they lack the traffic to really multi-table.  So what I've been doing is spreading my play between multiple sites to compensate for the traffic on a particular site; it's painful with Seals, but Clubs and Global are similar enough that I can size the windows and get around 8-10 tables going at a time.

I've been all but non-existent on BetOnline; I use them primarily as a sports book when my teams are in season, but my bets are sized between $1 - 10... not very much!

Summary of play: tight is right.  I can open loosely from all positions, but click fold to a 3bet or pound away when I have the hand or my opponent is 3betting wide.  Standard stuff.  It seems like the players are far looser on the sites above - playing ATC - so you need to be aware that every once in awhile, they'll surprise you with 42o when you've 3bet the pot with AK and the flop comes 44 K or 44 A.  Again, pretty standard.  I think the biggest key for all the play across those sites is, "be willing to fold any hand at any time!"

'nuf said.  I'll try to start posting more regularly.