this week

i played a little 200nl earlier in the week but only for about an hour 4 tabling. i recorded the session and marked down some hands for review but unfortunately im having a hard time getting the video to play on my laptop so i haven't got to watch it.

i did review some hands that were pretty interesting. here's one:

Villain is 21/19/34, cbet 72.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

CO: $214
BTN: $40
SB: $400.15
Hero (BB): $219
UTG: $580.70
MP: $67

Pre-Flop:
dealt to Hero
(BB)
UTG raises to $7, 4 folds, Hero calls $5

Flop: ($15) (2 Players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: ($15) (2 Players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $10, Hero calls $10

River: ($35) (2 Players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $23, Hero raises to $88

i think pre-flop is fine, im ahead of his range but an adjustment i've been making is not letting regs play perfectly against me pre-flop. what that means is that if i 3-bet here pre-flop villain will know that im not often bluffing (sb 3-b to utg open = strength) and will fold most hands i dominate (99, TT, AJ) and 4-bet all hands that crush me. (QQ-AA) so basically the only time i get action im in trouble. (not counting the times he just calls w/ AK or something)

anyways, i think his flop check is a pretty good indicator of his hand, he does not have a huge hand here and i think it's probably AJ and less. so on the turn i naturally check/call since the 8 does not change anything on the flop. i think his range for value betting the turn is something like 99-KK, AT, AJ and possibly a 8xs hand but not as likely. i do think though he still has air enough here that i can't just c/f the turn.

the rvr is interesting because i think i am most likely being value bet, but value bet from a hand that is most likely a 1 pair hand. a call is a spew imo and folding is definitly the default but i chose to raise. the pros to a raise is that it looks extremely strong and most tags will simply look at their AT here and figure there is no way they are good and muck, after all who c/c's the turn and c/r the river?

a con to this play that a friend brought up when we went over it together is that it's very hard for me to be repping anything. villain can probably rule out AA or 88 since it's highly unlikely combo wise (assuming he has an ace, ), i prob don't call w/ 55 on the turn so he can rule most of those combo's out leaving only 22 as a viable option. i guess i could also have something like AK which now that i think about it would be a pretty good way to play it.

anyways, villain ended up shoving so i had to fold but im positive he had to have a had a big hand to make the play. if he shoved on me with AT, then all the power to him.

------

after that session the next night i added some sick table mods which really helped freshen up the grind. i decided to sit and play 100nl just to try and get back into winning ways, boost the confidence... i played very well i thought and was pretty dialed in most of the time. im not sure of the financial results but i ran at like 28/23 over 600 hands and felt like i was at a much higher level than the rest of the table. of course it doesn't hurt when you only run into 3-4 regulars when you're 4 tabling. after that session i did about a 3 hour sweat/discussion with a study partner i've hooked up with through a poker forum. we both played about a 45 minute session with the other critiquing play and then reviewed a bunch of hands. i think we both helped each other, and i've picked up some different lines that should help me get action on some of my bigger hands.

wednesday night i also played 100nl again and got 1k hands in 4 tabling with a little break in between. it went well and i think i continued to play pretty focused and reviewed a bunch of hands from that session as well.

last night i was kinda tired and out of it so i chose not to play and just hit the sack early so i'll be ready to grind tonight and tommorrow. i'll move back to 200nl tonight and attempt to crush some regs in attempt to get back to the holy grail of 400nl.

im also thinking of doing some experimental 9 tabling but if i do it will be a lower limit.

tg.

live pokers

i managed not to play anymore internet poker for the rest of the weekend but did get out saturday for about 5.5hrs of live 1/2 pokers. it was really fun as always and was exactly what i needed. the game has a $100 cap buyin and thats what i was in for. the majority of the players do buy-in for the full amount and a lot of them are just really bad degen regulars so often the stacks can get pretty deep.

so early on im sitting the opposite end of the table from my buddy and when the opportunity comes up i switch seats to his left since we both usually dick around and shoot the shit when we play. i also like to have position on him so i can own his soul. so when i make the move a bunch of guys at the table warn me that it's a bad luck seat and i jokingly thank them for warning me once i had already moved. sure enough, about 5 hands in to my new seat, i open J9s from mp, middle aged loud guy that is the table captain and rule enforcer calls in lp and a young guy with about $800 behind calls. (im only a $100 deep) flop comes KQ5ss so i flop the gutty + fd and lead out, middle aged table captain calls, young guy raises, i shove, middle aged table captain tanks and folds and the young guy makes the trivial call w/ KQo. he fades my outs as table captain tells me he had K9 and was waiting for the turn to shove on me because he knew i didn't have a K and that he put me on a Jack hi flush draw. loooolz

so i reload, play a couple more hands, flop a big draw but don't get there and reload another $50 to get my stack up to $100 again. then in the sb we see a 7 way flop in a limped pot and i have 54o, flop comes K54 with a fd, i lead out, bb immediately raises, the rest of the table folds and i really thought i might be in trouble but shoved because it's live poker. dude had KJ and was like, i gotta raise cause i have the King and then spiked a King on the river.

i rebuy again then just starting rolling. i flopped a couple big hands and got flop action and slowly built my stack up. once i got over $200 in my stack i started playing a lot more in position and outplaying people post flop. then i get dealt AA and open the pot up from ep and table captain pipes up that i've been pretty quiet for a while and i tell them it's true and that i must have aces. a couple people call and he goes on to tell me he knows im always lying about what hand i have an how great his reads are blah blah blah. flop comes 542r which is as good as any for me, i lead out and KJ guy from before calls, rest fold. at this point i think he's got something like 65 or 66-TT and sometimes a set. turn is an 9 which isn't great but not bad either, i bet out again (i think i opened to 7 pf and had 4 callers making the pot 30ish, bet 20 on the flop making the pot 70ish on the turn and bet 36) and he sighs and says, do you really have Aces? and i say nothing and he calls. the river was a 10 and i really thought he wanted to fold his marginal hand so i only bet 41 and he tanked and called. i showed the aces and looked over at the table captain to see what his reaction was and it was pretty priceless. KJ dude insta mucked and i asked him if he had like 88 or 66 and he just shook his head so i think he was looking me up pretty light.

after that hand and few others i had close to a $450 stack and a couple of pints in me and started to get more aggressive 3-betting the big stack young guy and raising limpers a lot. i was bluffing people out of pots left right and centre and showing them my air after they folded and they just wouldn't adjust to it all. one young guy thats a regular sat down during this time and started trying to talk me out of raising pre-flop with stuff like "careful" and "i wouldn't do that if i were you" and i basically told him, 3-bet me pre-flop and i'll fold like a little girl, no questions asked. instead he cold called my isolation raise pre-flop oop and c/f to a delayed cbet on the turn of a rag board. he says, we've got the same hand but im going to fold, i asked really? what do you think i have, and he says AK. i flipped the ol QTo and after that he shutup for a bit.

the hand of the night came near the end of the session when i was fairly buzzed, big stack young guy raises, i 3-bet w/ AcKh from mp, this weird guy that was acting real tough and seemingly thought he was some kind of poker professional cold calls from the sb, short stack bb donk shoves allin but its only like $10 on top of my 3-bet, the big stack folds i call and smug guy calls. flop is QTX with 3 clubs giving me the gutty plus nut flush draw so i ship it in and smug guy snap calls and states "i wish i had more money" with a shit eatin grin on his face as he tables QQ. all i said was "no you don't" and proceeded to spike the 3c on the turn and brick the river. i gave him a little jab after the hand telling him he should wait till the hands over before he starts counting his money.

that was about it, i doubled a drunk reg up when he set mined with 40bb's and got there and i ended up cashing out like a $110 profit which wasn't bad considering i was buried from the start.

it was a nice little night that made me realize that im not the worst poker player in the world and that although the last few months have been pretty shitty online, i may still be better than i give myself credit for sometimes.

im going to hook up my new mouse tonight and give it a go. i think im going to record my session as well for review later on.

tg