The Poker Meister #45

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP1: $12.75
MP2: $76.10
CO: $11.25
BTN: $12.70
Hero (SB): $64.30
BB: $50.00
UTG: $59.50
UTG+1: $21.35

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with 9s Js
4 folds, CO raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.25, 1 fold
CO was stealing a ton. I flat in the SB. If I 3bet, it's going to be for stacks against a short stacker, so I opt to flat & take a flop.

Flop: ($3.50) Th 9h Ks (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $9.75 all in, Hero calls $9.75
Pretty ugly flop. All of these cards hit a ton of his stealing range. However, I have a backdoor flush draw (~1 out) + 2 pair / trips (5 outs) and a gutshot straight draw (4 outs). 10 outs, if I'm not already ahead with my bottom pair. I make the call for the remainder of his effective stack, which is an overbet because I likely have, at worst, ~40% equity in the hand. Moreover, I want him to know that it's not cool to steal from me; short stack or not short stack. Gotta make a stand sometime.

Turn: ($23.00) Jc (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($23.00) 7d (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $23.00
CO shows Ac As (a pair of Aces) - I chose a bad time to make a stand and defend my blind. Even still, though, I didn't get it in with all that bad odds.
Hero shows 9s Js (two pair, Jacks and Nines) - Don't mess with J9s. I was behind on the flop, but I mop up and suckout for the win!
Hero wins $21.85
(Rake: $1.15)

What would you do? #48 - Top pair, no kicker facing river shove

59/4 / 2.1 Aggression factor @ 51 hands:

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP1: $47.30
MP2: $51.25
CO: $50.00
BTN: $15.20
SB: $9.65
Hero (BB): $50.05
UTG: $55.75
UTG+1: $26.30

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with 3s Qs
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.50, 4 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($1.25) Qd 2c 9s (2 players)
Hero bets $1, MP1 calls $1 - Limped pot, I want to try and build it up a little with TPTK. I want to get value against a guy limping a wide range of hands.

Turn: ($3.25) 2h (2 players)
Hero bets $1.50, MP1 calls $1.50 - Barrel the turn, no reason to slow down...

River: ($6.25) 2s (2 players)
Hero bets $6.25, MP1 raises to $44.30 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero ??? - Now I screwed up on my bet sizing for the river, because I should have bet about half pot and continued my story. However, he overshoves for his full amount. What do I do here?


Click to see results

Hero folds - As it turns out, this player is a frequent bluffer. Someone would later call him down with the nuts to his river shove. I expect that either he caught his duece on the end. However, the reality is that this is a limped pot, where I have no idea where I am in the hand. I can put him on a pretty wide range. Is calling worth risking my stack, particularly when I feel like there will be better spots against this player? Therefore, I fold.

Final Pot: $18.75
MP1 wins $17.85
(Rake: $0.90)

What would you do? #47 - Live hand PP AA vs. river shove

Blinds are $1/$2 - this is at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma. This hand probably goes back about 2 years, since that was last time I visited Dallas, TX (work trip :-) ). I've had this in my notebook for awhile... clearly I am a different player now than then, but this was a good hand.

The setup: villain is a loose aggressive. Since he's sat down at the table, he has shoved once & lost, also doubled up once in the last 45 hands. He raises every hand he enters. He is capable of any two cards.

Villain / UTG (sitting on about $325) is sitting to my immediate right (I have about $350).

He raises $2.
I am dealt AsAc and I had been asking all night if he "really wants to do that; you know I have Aces under here" and then proceed to fold to his raise. This time, I really do have Aces and 3 bet him (first time I 3bet at this table) to $11. 5 folds around back to the villain UTG who flats the $11 raise.

$11 + $11 + $2 + $1 = $25 pot.

Flop: 2h 6d 8d

Villain checks, I lead for $20 into $25. Villain calls the $20.

$25 + $20 + $20 = $65 pot.

Turn: [2h 6d 8d] Qs

Villain checks, I lead for $40 (If he has a set, so be it, but I'm not going to BS around with AA. If he has a draw to diamonds or a straight, then I want value). Villain calls the $40.

$65 + $40 + $40 = $145 pot.

River: [2h 6d 8d Qs] 2s

Villain all in shoves for the remaining $250 he was playing behind. Is this an easy call? It is possible that he played deuces to the river and got lucky, no? $250 is a big overbet, and he's no less leading into me, when I have shown to be the aggressor the whole way.

Click to see results

I make the call with the thought that the paired 2's on the river helped me: if he had a lucky flop of 8 6 for 2 pair or some random 2 pairs, then the paired river just counterfeited his 2 pair. After I made the call, I waited for him to show... He claimed he had trip deuces but wouldn't show his hand. Finally, I laid my AA out on the table and waited... he mucked. I grabbed my stack and immediately left as it was getting late on a work night and I didn't want to be sitting at the table with a fresh stack of $700+ when I was tired. As an aside, what an ass; he's waiting for me to muck my hand by claiming that he rivered trips? I despise angle shooters.

Interesting situation - TT vs. short stacker shove vs. LAG flat

Interesting situation where the pot becomes very bloated, pre-flop, due to a short stacker:

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/457384
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $55.60
Hero (MP): $61.90
CO: $9.65
BTN: $9.75 - Short stacker with typical 10/8 range
SB: $10.25
BB: $75.25 - 41/28 over 100+ hands
UTG: $8.25

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP with Ts Td - I'm going to break up the pre flop action so that it is easier to read:
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, 1 fold, BTN raises to $9.75 all in,
Am I ever folding TT vs. a short stack shover? Probably not. I'm good enough times here that I will show a profit over the long term to call a short stack shover.
1 fold, BB calls $9.25,
At this point, what can the BB be flatting for 20BBs? He is a LAG, so I'm thinking about his range in this spot: AK, AQ, [maybe] AJ (I tend to think that AK is going to re-raise though, because LAGs / donks are taught that AK is the nuts), and pocket pairs.

Hero raises to $20, BB calls $10.25
Here's my mistake though: With ~$20 in the pot, I raise another $10, offering him 3:1 for him to make his call. The question is: What should I be raising to? Should I be shoving here? I don't really want to shove because he's calling AK and [maybe] AQ, in which case we're 50/50 with the overlay of the short stacker's 20BBs.

I am reasonably sure that I can get away from the pot with 1/3 of my stack lost if I see an A or K hit the flop.

Flop: ($50.00) 7s 2d 6c (3 players - 1 is all in)
BB checks, Hero bets $20, BB folds
I want to shut down over card draws by making a "significant" cbet here. I think the size of the bet, not necessarily in relationship to the pot size, is the shocking / significant factor here. (I don't think your standard donks are thinking about bet sizing in relationship to pot size.) As a side note, I don't have a problem with this play: dry flop, a little less than half pot bet. Clearly, it's a committing bet where if he shoves, I am going to re-evaluate / call.

Turn: ($50.00) 6h (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($50.00) Ad (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $50.00
Hero shows Ts Td (two pair, Tens and Sixes)
BTN shows 9h 9c (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
Hero wins $19.45
Hero wins $28.05
(Rake: $2.50)
In the end, I think I got pretty decent value out of a middle pair. I just haven't been in this situation too often, where a short stacker over shoves for (in ratio to the pot) an odd amount (20BBs when the raise was 3.5BBs), thus bloating the pot and screwing things up for stack-pot ratios.

A little home game live poker!

Nothing much to report, other than the fact that I got 2 outted on the river once and 4 outted on the flop (my flopped straight against a flopped 2 pair), all in on the flop. Running terribly live just stinks. The game was really easy, and they moved up to $.5/$1 blinds with a $50 buy in. It was a very easy game. For the night, with all the suckouts and the bad run, I wound up profiting $18.50. I'll take a session win any time I run bad!

2009 Poker year in review

I wanted to put together a quick post for the 2009 year. First, thank you, everyone who reads this blog. Thank you for your participation in the comments. Thank you for taking time to digest, what my wife sees as, my nonsense. It is very cool that I started out writing because I needed an outlet to vent my frustrations and second-guesses in poker; it turns out that people actually seem to like my stream of thoughts.

I'm not going to make any resolutions for the 2010. Nor am I going to predict what will happen in 2010. The only goal I have for this year is a very tangible one, which is to use Hold'em Manager and migrate away from Poker Tracker. However, I will break down my 2009 half year career. Since meeting up with Josh in June, I learned how to properly play Texas Hold'em as a tight aggressive. I learned about hand ranges, positions, equity, and bankroll management. Only a half year ago, my learning curve was exponential, like Google's stock chart. Although my learning has slowed as of late, I am constantly in the mode of looking to increase my knowledge base. I am picking up subtle things, like when to overbet a pot on the river, as an "either you got a hand or you don't, but I'm not betting pot to get a call, I'm shoving and either you're calling or not" type situation, or folding small pocket pairs, OOP, against a short stacker, because there isn't enough reward to benefit me in the long term. I'd say my learning curve right now, to use the stock market analogy, is more like Walmart, where it's more matured, slower and steadily increasing. I want to continue to stay one step ahead of the donks, and move up in stakes, but looking back, I've jumped 2 levels in 6 months ($10NL to $25NL to $50NL). I hope this pattern continues.

The year ended on a low note, with my earnings showing a marked decrease within the last 3 months. I attribute that downswing to running $-850 in all in expected value. There isn't much I can do about that; how many times can I get myself in a position to be playing for stacks as a >60% favorite and lose? I look at these loses as pent-up good karma; I should have a nice run for 2010 because karma owes me :-).

Looking to 2010, as I talked about in my December wrap-up, I have the Iron Man bonus of $400. I also have a $69 Iron Man token to convert to cash, amounting to $470 in January bonuses on Full Tilt. Additionally, PokerStars is offering a reload bonus of 25% up to $150 (if you reload $600) which I may or may take advantage of. I *WILL* take advantage of the VIP Stellar Rewards program that they are running, though. The short of it is that they are offering $10 for each 750 VPPs earned up to the first 4 sets of 750 VPPs (i.e. 3000 VPPs = $40). Not a great payout, but good enough if I want to increase my bankroll there. I'd imagine they are moving towards a quasi-rakeback system, but the payouts at each level diminish the higher you go in VPPs. Not very well thought out, but a bonus nevertheless.

Now to the summary:

	Full Tilt	Poker Stars	Rakeback	Bonus	Live	Total
July '09	$ 709.00		$ 70.97	$ 100.00		$ 879.97
August '09	$ 530.00		$ 93.81			$ 623.81
September '09	$ 935.03		$ 158.75		$ 39.00	$1,132.78
October '09	$ 27.16		$ 319.46	$ 50.00		$ 396.62
November '09	$ 59.72	$ 84.65	$ 301.08	$ 100.00	$ 70.00	$ 615.45
December '09	$ 147.82	$ (10.35)	$ 161.95			$ 299.42
Sum Total	$2,408.73	$ 74.30	$1,106.02	$ 250.00	$ 109.00	$3,948.05

I can't complain about ~$4K for 6 month's work. I'm very happy with the outcome. The greatest thing about it is that the $4K includes all stakes ($10-$50NL). In theory, assuming I continue to show profit at the higher levels, I should be able to earn larger returns this year.

What would you do? #46 - steal -> called 3bet OOP

Interesting hand vs. a 20/16:

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Hold'em - 8 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/454752
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $5.05 - Reckless, loose.
MP1: $63.95 - Reckless, loose.
MP2: $50.75
Hero (CO): $50.85
BTN: $60.55 - A frustrated player; 20/16 @ 412 hands. He has been 3 betting me a ton due to the fact (in my perception) that I keep stealing blinds and buttons from him. I am out of position against him, and have had to fold 3 out of my last 5 steal attempts.
SB: $50.60
BB: $19.10
UTG: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with Qd Td
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.75, BTN raises to $7, 4 folds, Hero calls $4.25 - I raise to steal the blinds + limpers. I had been doing this quite a bit, but lately I have been met with resistance from the BTN. Additionally, I believe he is 3 betting me light at this point because he realizes I am stealing a ton. Therefore, he re-steals against me in position, with the intent of picking up the dead money (limpers) + my steal money.

Had the BTN been successful, it would have been a nice pot: $4.50. Wrong as it may be, this is the highest quality hand I've had vs. this player in a steal situation. Therefore, I make the awkward call, out of position.

Flop: ($15.75) Ad 6c 5d (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $9.50, Hero calls $9.50 - I don't believe he 3bet with AA and flopped a set. He could very well have AK, AQ, AJ, even AT. I also put air and randoms in his range for 3betting in this spot. However, I make the call with the expectation that he won't slow down any streets upcoming if I hit my diamond draw. I think he could easily try to represent the flush, given the passive line that I take on the flop.

Turn: ($34.75) 6d (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $34.75, Hero ??? - I have now check /called and checked again. 65 is certainly in his light 3bet range, as is 55. It doesn't make sense to me that he leads for pot on the turn... if he has the boat, isn't he betting for value? What is your read here?


Click to see results

Hero calls $34.35 all in

River: ($103.45) Jd (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $103.45
Hero shows Qd Td (a flush, Ace high) - Probably an easier call than usual. It was unusual to see this player take a bluff this far... so far as to lose a stack over a re-steal attempt. I think he has to shut it down on the turn instead of shoving the turn.
BTN shows 8s 7d (a flush, Ace high) - He was on a draw and did leave himself with "outs" though he was drawing completely dead on the turn.
Hero wins $100.45
(Rake: $3.00)

Sick bad beat... quads over quads!?!?!?!?

Omgitsjoshua spent a lot of money last night, in order to get a PokerTableRatings.com tattoo. Here is a picture of the tattoo he got:

I don't know why he wanted to pay so much for the tattoo; he doesn't have any tattoos in real life... So why pay $53.90 for an online tattoo? Really, it's meaningless, right? Who pays attention to such things?

Anyway, I say all of the above in jest: Josh flopped the nuts with QUADS! And how do you get your money in the middle when you're behind with QUADS?!?!?!? When the villain turns QUADS himself!

I will never speak of a bad beat again in my life, after having seen the disaster below.*

*I retract that last statement. I still reserve the right to complain - just not as loudly as I normally would.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $53.90
SB: $129.65
BB: $54.95
UTG: $25.10
MP: $90.30
CO: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with Jc Js
UTG raises to $1.50, MP calls $1.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50, SB calls $1.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($6.50) Qd Jh Jd (4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, MP checks, Hero checks
Crafty Josh plans to let the villain "get there" so that he can get his stack in the middle... DO I REALLY NEED COMMENTARY ON THIS?

Turn: ($6.50) Qs (4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, MP checks, Hero bets $3, SB folds, UTG folds, MP calls $3

River: ($12.50) 8s (2 players)
MP bets $5, Hero raises to $49.40 all in, MP calls $44.40

Final Pot: $111.30
Hero shows Jc Js (four of a kind, Jacks)
MP shows Qc Qh (four of a kind, Queens)
MP wins $108.30
(Rake: $3.00)
For those of you who can't read, that would be 4 of a kind over 4 of a kind. This is a bad beat by definition. Maximum suckage - I propose a moment of silence in reverence to Josh... please everyone bow their heads when they read this, and give the man your best wishes of luck in the future.*

*Selfish me says thank God it wasn't me on the end of the beat-down stick.

PokerStars freebie!!!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 233050

Iron Man Bonus follow-up

This weekend, with the help of my co-conspirator omgitsjoshua, we conducted a little experiment to try to convert Iron Man medals into real coin. It was an absolute success. I googled the optimal strategy of converting Iron Man medals and came up with the following:

After further research, it appears that the $75 tokens are the way to go with the Iron Man medals. If you can find someone with a $75 token as well, you can set up a private HU game and either chop or transfer after the game is over. The rake will be $6 / person, so you're essentially getting $69 ($69 + $6 tourney from a $75 token) in return, but the cost is 400 medals: $0.1725 / medal. This is in opposition to the $600 bonus, costing 3000 medals, which after rakeback "paid back" & re-earned, amounts to a real total bonus of $438: $0.146 / medal (remember that the $600 bonus money costs earnings in rakeback). As an added bonus, the $75 token route includes no additional "work"; i.e. you don't need to earn your bonus like you would if you chose the $600 bonus.

Omgitsjoshua & I decided to play out the actual tournament, and split the winnings afterward, for bragging rights. Omgitsjoshua set up a 3000 chip, deep stacked match. The match included a lot of trash talking by both parties, and after about 100 hands, it was settled. I am 1-0 in our Iron Man Medal token series. I suspect I did get better cards, though. I hit a set once (33) and was dealt QQ, AK & 55. It will be 2 months to recoup the medals and play again.

To set up a private tournament, simply send an e-mail to privatetournaments@fulltiltpoker.com with all of the following information regarding the tournament you want set up:

Tournament Name:

Tournament Date:

Tournament Time:

Game to be Played:

Buy-In and Entry Fee:

Password:

Expected Turnout:

That's everything, but here are a few other things to be sure to watch for:

The tournament's name can not exceed 25 characters.

The time you choose is clear (If you want a tournament at 4 PM, don't just write 4:00, write 16:00 SERVER TIME). All unlabeled time zones are interpreted as SERVER TIME, which is US ET.

The entry fee must be at least 10% of the buy-in.

The password must be all lower case letters without spaces.

If you want a tournament with something other than a nine player minimum, make that clear in your e-mail.

Missed value? Straight vs. turned 3 flush

50/21 @ 14 hands. Did I miss value here? Is anyone raising the river bet? I went into call down mode when I hit the gross Td on the turn. Any other T and I'm good, but he's not slowing down. What do you think?

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/452900
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $90.15
UTG+1: $50.00
MP: $62.35
Hero (CO): $52.25
BTN: $8.50
SB: $59.95
BB: $12.30

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with Jc Ad
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2.25, 3 folds, UTG calls $1.75

Flop: ($5.25) Qd Kc 8d (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $3, UTG calls $3
Wary of the flush draw. Standard cbet.

Turn: ($11.25) Td (2 players)
UTG bets $5, Hero calls $5
He donk bets into me on the turn. Is anyone raising here? I have the Ad to backdoor, but if he has the 3 flush, I doubt he's folding it at any point. Is there a point to raising?

River: ($21.25) 4c (2 players)
UTG bets $9.90, Hero calls $9.90
Is anyone raising the river here? I'm scared because he continues to lead. Clearly, at a minimum, I'm making the call, getting 3:1.

Final Pot: $41.05
UTG shows Kh 9c (a pair of Kings)
Hero shows Jc Ad (a straight, Ace high)
Hero wins $39.00
(Rake: $2.05)
I'm happy with the value, but did I miss out on more value? Clearly, this is a fairly reckless player at 51/21.

When to fold AKs?

In reflecting back on the "old" me, I think I'd be all in pre flop and consider this hand a cooler. However, the more recent, "thinking me," is finally able to pick up on the action before it actually happens. I make a "are you the real deal?" raise pre-flop, in position, only to be shut down.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Hold'em - 9 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/455194
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $44.00 - 15/6
UTG+1: $56.20
UTG+2: $24.50
MP1: $46.00
MP2: $84.20
CO: $18.05
Hero (BTN): $50.00
SB: $33.70
BB: $42.70

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with Ad Kd
UTG raises to $1.75, 5 folds, Hero raises to $5.50, 1 fold, BB calls $5, UTG raises to $14.50, 1 fold, BB calls $9
- A 15/6 doesn't have a HUGE pre-flop range, particularly from UTG, but he certainly can be raising with TT-QQ, AK. In addition, I'm not happy about the BB's flat. The BB is loose, but not dumb (not smart either, but definitely not dumb). I want to isolate and / or take this sucker down pre-flop. Therefore, I make a 3bet with the expectation that I am, at WORST, 50/50. However, when I get 3x 4bet, I'm positive I'm the sucker here. I think I have to fold all but AA, KK to a 4 bettor who raises 6% of the pre flops, from UTG no less, AND does not have a markedly high 3bet / 4bet percentage (omitted because I don't have the actual number).

I'm still not understanding the BB's flat of a FOUR BET!

Flop: ($34.75) Kh 4c Js (2 players)
BB bets $17.35, UTG raises to $29.50 all in, BB calls $10.85 all in - I could have predicted this from a mile away: AA vs. KK or JJ. UTG has the AA, and he was fairly committed, pre-flop, playing for a 88BB effective stack (BB had $42 to start), with $28.20 behind.

Turn: ($91.15) 8d (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($91.15) 7s (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $91.15
UTG shows As Ac (a pair of Aces) - I don't blame UTG for the play here. I don't think he's getting away from a 50BB raise / push. Perhaps he should be flatting the flop, but the money is going all in either way, with $11 behind after the initial lead.
BB shows 4h 4s (three of a kind, Fours) - Wow. Note taken on this idiot. Who is calling a 4 BET, OUT OF POSITION, for 25+% of his stack, PRE FLOP?!?!??!?! So much for my assessment of this player pre flop...
BB wins $88.15
(Rake: $3.00)