Cold-decked and keeping things in perspective

Check out this hand for a cold deck:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2952616

OUCH, I got totally owned by the deck there, deepstacked too   lol

 

I haven’t been plaing much poker at all recently due to some real-life things going on. 

 

I’m not a big fan of relating my personal life on the interweb, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. – Basically my girlfriend and I split up a couple of weeks ago. It was me that broke it off – We got on fine, she was great looking, but there was just no spark there and  there never really was from the start if I am really honest.

What made me really realise this was me recently meeting someone else with whom I get on really with, that I am totally attracted to.  And no, before you ask, I didn’t cheat on my now ex gf to be with this person! Meeting this new person simply made me realise what was missing from my relationship with my now ex and therefore helped speed up my decision to break up with her.

So I am now slowly getting things together with this new person…. and life is good… really good

This brings me on to the title of this post – Poker is good, it’s fun, it’s a challenge, it can also be very profitable for winning players who put the work and hours in. BUT, poker is just a game and a very time-consuming one at that, whereas life is short, very short. Life is NOT a dress rehearsal, we only get one go at it. You can’t run it twice like you can the flop in some casinos !  It’s all about balance, I guess. I love poker, I’m not giving it up, but life is good too and I only want poker to take up a small part of it…..

GL at the tables… and in life

Played ok, but down 2 buy-ins

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2835465

 

This has to be one of the worst plays I’ve seen in ages by a villain. A few hands before this I had playing very aggro (because I had been catching some cards) which may possibly explain me getting action here. But, come on, I am 4 betting him here…. lol  Oh well, I’m obviously delighted he made the call, just a shame to lose my stack so deep

 

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2835491

 

Ok, I am really pleased with how I played this hand on all streets except the river. I kinda misread the board I think and hadn’t noticed the river paired the board. I was basically calling on the flop and turn, pretty sure he had a set and hoping to hit my flush, because no way he was going to fold. I was so focused on the spade on the river that I didn’t really think about it properly. Bad play by me.

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2835522

 

 

Wow, I can’t believe how tight some villains’ 3 betting ranges are at these levels. No way I was folding AK to a min-raise, and then when I hit my flop, no way I could fold it, otherwise why call preflop …..

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2835533

 

Hmm, not sure I could get away from this vs shorty.

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2835538

 

Standard, but pretty amazed he called me on the river.

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2835542

 

 

Serves villain right for slowplaying his AK lol.

 

 

Overall, I felt I played ok in this session. I overplayed 1 hand and suffered a bad beat for a huge pot, which unfortunately means I lost 2 buyins this session. It’s pretty frustrating, as I’m working really hard at my game atm, but my bankroll just seems to be treading water….

 

Anyway, GL at the tables

Small session

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2830899

 

Hmm. My preflop call in position is fine here, and I am looking to flop  a big hand like a straight draw or 2 pair, ie not necessarily for Top pair value (with a hand which is easily dominated) I really should have given up on the turn here.

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2830920

 

Standard play here. I like making my preflop raise a bit bigger than usual here so I can try and get shorty to commit on any flop.

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2830938

 

I love how this hand played out and it just shows the importance of position.  My preflop raise was to isolate with a hand that can flop well if called. Villain was a rock, but a passive one, so I knew he had a hand here. When he called my flop bet and the Jack came on the turn, I was pretty sure my pair of Jacks wasn’t good enough, so took the free card. Villain really tanked before calling my river bet, so I don’t think I could have bet any more and got called.

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2830960

 

JJ in the blinds with 2 limpers ahead of me, including 1 shorty. I like raising strongly to make them pay more than usual to have the privilege of playing the hand in position. Obviously great flop and when I saw it I just decided to check raise all-in any bet from villain.

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2830980

 

Villain was really passive, so I had to do the betting for him otherwise he would have just checked behind or minbet it.  I think I got close to maximum value here
GL at the tables

 

A decent session

I’ve just finished an average-length (by my low volume standards) session and finished slightly up.  Apart from one iffy hand, I feel I played optimally.

 

I lost a buy-in early on vs a donkey which was more of a cooler really. In hindsight, I think I would play the hand the same. I was particularly pleased with how I handled it mentally. Like I said, it happened early in the session, but I just knuckled down and carried on playing according to my gameplan, which ended me finishing the session slightly up

 
Here are some key hands in order of play:

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2824970

 

Here the villain had been very aggro preflop and so I chose to 3 bet this hard to regain the initiative in the hand and help me take it down with a c-bet (repping a premium pair)

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2825019

 

This was the early hand I lost a buy-in in.  For info villain was a maniac and running at 43/43/4, and would happily bet out any hand if checked to, so I’m putting this down as a cooler. Vs this kind of villain, I think this standard in such a big pot. Thoughts ?

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2825039

 

lol at villain’s min-raise 3bet preflop. Obviously no way I am folding vs a shorty. I could have just put him all-in preflop, but didn’t want to give him an opportunity to fold. This was a perfect opportunity to 4bet minraise him back and leave me a single pot-sized bet (on any flop) to put him all in.  Nice suckout fish, but not to worry, I got my own back a bit later…….

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2825060

 

lol, I told you he was bad. When the second 8 came on the turn, and he pushed, I got flashbacks to the second hand above, but pushing here made no sense if he had an 8, so this was an instant call.

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2825073

 

I was amazed to get paid off here in an unraised pot and OOP. I had to bet out on the flop with all the draws out there. When the second K came on the turn and he raised me, I just knew he had a K and he wasn’t going to fold, but again had to reraise to leave me a pot-sized bet on the river to get his stack in the middle

 
GL at the tables !

 

 

 

 

Back to basics

Well following on from my previous post and previous few sessions, I have now made an extra effort to stop getting too fancy with the fish and also to stop thinking the fish are always making moves. – Unless there is a specific read that a villain is a bluffing lagtard, a raise usually means the villain has hit a hand and he isn’t gonna fold, so it’s absolutely pointless (and -VE) to try and take the pot off him without a hand with excellent showdown value.

 

Well, I just finished a session, putting this into practice and it all worked out pretty well. In fact, this is how I used to play all the time last year when I was crushing $25NL for over 10ptBB/100 ( http://doublemeup.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/ ) before I hit some variance / tilted.  In fact I just reread that post from my blog and wow, I was crushing $25NL by just being patient and picking my spots and folding when I was obviously beat. That’s how I played in today’s session, and it’s how I’m gonna carry on playing

 
Here are a few hands:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2808941

 

Villain was very loose passive. I had a note on him that he called down light, but a raise meant he had the goods, so this was an easy fold with 99 IMO.

 

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2808996

 

On the flop, it was obvious 1 villain had a K, and the other one had the Jack, so I called hoping to hit my flush, in the knowledge that they wouldn’t be able to fold trips, ie my implied odds were huge if I hit.  When the K came on the turn (giving both players a FH), I just instafolded, and sat back and watched the fireworks lol.  It always amuses me how players are unable to fold a full-house even when it is obvious they are beat lol !
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2809019

 

 

Decided not to mess around on this flop. I was calling an all-in from maledai, no hesitation.

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2809032

 

This was borderline. A raise UTG is usually very strong and I’m OOP in the SB with QQ. I’m either way ahead or way behind, and 3betting is usually just going to fold out weaker hands and bloat the pot / commit me vs hands that crush me. That was why I decided to check / call this to showdown. Thoughts ?

 

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2809051

 

This hands requires a bit of context / background information -  In the 2 previous hands, peter-poncho got his money in good vs julee619 and got rivered on both occasions. That was why he was shortstacked at the beginning of the hand, and he must have been tilting quite a bit because of it. I rubbed a bit of salt in the wound by typing in “nh” in the chat window, to which julee619 replied “ty” !!  So I knew he was pretty pissed off. When the flop came, it was so dry, I tried to tip him over the edge by making a weakish c-bet that he could come over the top of easily. As soon as I bet, I had my mouse waiting over the call button, as no way he had me beat here lol !

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2809087

 

 

Standard vs shorstacking parasites

 

GL at the tables

Stop the FPS FFS !!

 

FPS = “fancy play syndrome” and it’s losing me money at the microstakes.  For my last 2 sessions I have played one hand in a big pot way too fanciful / advanced for the fish to understand.  This would be fine at higher levels where the fish are paying more attention and would understand what hand I’m repping, but at $25 NL, it’s just pissing in the wind.

 

At least in both my last sessions, I have realised I’m doing this after unecessarily losing a big pot, and have gone back to solid ABC poker and won a load back. If I could just improve my patience / discipline one more notch and stop myself doing it in the first place, my winrate would be through the roof where it should be.

 

In tonight’s session, I just overplayed one fooking hand but that was enough to stack off lightly where I should have just tightened up. I then went on to win it all back and finish the session slightly up, but FFS, I could have finished up a full buy-in.

 
Here’s the hand:

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2801316

 

Yuck, let me at least explain my thought process. Villain was very aggro preflop and was raising a lot of hands. I had a hand that flopped well, ie I either hit the flop hard or I don’t, so 3-betting light is not awful here, but I should have just given up on this hand post flop. Normally I like to have 3 criteria for 3 betting light preflop: 1) Villain = aggro (true), 2) Hold a hand that flops well (true), 3)Have a tight table image (true) and 4) Villain raises in late position – well this one was false – Villain open raised in early position and so I should have given him way more credit than I did.  I did however make a note that villain is prepared to stack off with just TPTK…..

 
Luckily I won a load back with these hands:

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2801360

 

I love playing suited connectors in position in a raised multiway pot   My equity was so high vs villains range postflop that I was dying to get it all in as soon as I could.

 

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2801368

 

Ship it.  Look at the hand from villain’s perspective. He really could have got away from this if he had thought a bit about 1) What hand I could be holding and 2) What he thought I thought HE was holding. ie done some level 3 thinking.  It was pretty obvious I had a small pocket pair and that I knew he had overcards…..
Gl at the tables

 

 

Rollercoaster session

Just had quite a swongy session on some high variance tables. I was really opening my game up and using my position to quite good effect.

 

In terms of decision-making and standard of play, I was really pleased with how I played, apart from one hand where I got a bit fancy with a player who was consistently 3-betting me.

 

I decided to take a stand and 4-bet him lightly with A6 and pushed on a QQx flop. This would have been a good play usually because I had already folded several times to his 3 -betting and he knew I was tight. Problem was this time, he was holding KK and unfortunately we were both really deep. Ouch, bad play by me I suppose, and if it hadn’t been for that hand, the session would have been break-even.

 

Here are some key hands:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739289

 

This hand was fairly early in the session vs a deepstack, who was trying to outplay everyone at the table. I had been watching him and his min raise on the flop was just an attempt to take the pot away from me I think, hence my flat call. I decided to check on the turn and reraise all-in when he bet. lol at villain insta-folding for just $4.25 more in a $47 pot ….

 

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739314

 

Weird hand this one. The board got so drawy postflop, that I just decided to check-call it down. THese 2 villains were playing any two cards and so I was proceeding with caution.

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739332

 

On really dry flops like this, I like checking to get value from medium pocket pairs. I think c-betting this flop will only fold out worse hands and better hands will call (22, 77)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739340

 

I am delighted by how I played this hand. I knew villain couldn’t have been that strong otherwise he would have got the money in preflop. I put him on AK, TT+ so I was way ahead of his range. When I saw the flop, I decided I was going to commit vs this aggro villain.  Note, from the villain’s perspective, he must know I have an overpair to the board from the preflop action, so his raise and call of my all-in was so bad….

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739369

 

This is the hand I mentioned above. Obviously I was representing AA here. After the hand, villain said that’s what he put me on. So when I asked why did he call, he didn’t really have an answer, lol !  Just goes to show, you should never try and bluff a calling station. Actually bad play by me – really spewy - this is not +EV play at $25NL vs fish.

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739381

 

But hey, the previous hand made sure I got plenty of action on this hand on same table ! I had so many outs to the best hand here, with 2 cards to come, I just wanted to get the money in as quickly as possible.

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739397

 

I wasn’t too bothered about zolander as he was shortstacked, but I wanted to build a pot vs E MAFIA  who was probably the worst player at the table. Guess I was right lol.  Not to worry though, I stacked him twice after this (see next two hands)

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739424

Me stacking E MAFIA part one – tyvm

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2739433
Me stacking E MAFIA part two – Thanks for the free card on the turn.

 

Good luck at the tables

 

 

 

Picking off bluffs and sucking out

Title says it all really. Just played a short session and there was a real Lag tard (64/10/0.35 lol) at my table playing all sorts of trash OOP and making moves all over the place.  I had made a note that he would try and bluff on the river if checked to him and people had shown weakness.

Anyway, I kept picking off his bluffs and taking down lots of small pots against him, a bit like here:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2733636

This must have been about the third time someone at the table had outplayed him and then straight after this hand, he open raises with a huge raise UTG. I definitely thought he was tilting. I had JJ in late position and popped it up to $6 and insta-called when he pushed, confident he had a weaker hand. I hit a set of Jacks on the turn and he flipped KK at showdown !!  Ouch lucky escape for me, but I’d still probably play it the same – Although his actual hand crushed me, His open raise range in that situation was very wide cos he was really Laggy and starting to tilt.  I’ll take it – I’ve had more than my fair share of suckouts in the past anyway

Here was the hand btw :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2733680

 

My bankroll is now up to $762, so halfway house between $25NL and $50NL where I am hoping to get back to…..

 

GL at the tables

 

Revenge vs the shortstackers !

Just finished a short session which ended me getting it all in vs a donkey shortstacker and me sucking out on him   Which was nice.

 
Here are some key hands:

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2706766

 

delamotta76 was limping nearly every hand and maiku23 was very weak passive too, hence my healthy raise preflop. My strong c-bet was for value and to build a pot – I had 4 outs to the nut straight and nine outs to the nut flush. I was happy to take the free card on the turn and there was little point in betting the river.

 

I think the above hand put the villain on tilt because from this point on I felt he was playing back at people more and becoming generally more aggro. 

 

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2706846

 

This hand vs same villain came up a while later and I’d like some opinions please. – Good laydown ? Or do you think I folded the best hand ? For info villain was very loose passive (37/3.5/0.3) I think I was only beating a bluff on the end.

 

 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2706897

 

This was the hand vs the shortstacker scum !! In fact I was getting 2.2 – 1 pot odds to call here so I only needed > 31% equity to make this call profitable, so I think the call is ok.  But even if it isn’t, you know what ? I really don’t care because they’re shortstacking parasites who don’t know how to play poker

 
GL at the tables !

 

 

Some life changes

Apologies for the lack of updates. I have been pretty busy in my offline life (lol !) and haven’t had time to update this blog as much as I would have liked.

 
The major change in my life is my change of job.  My previous job was quite a senior position as a computer programmer. It was well paid, for a big company, plenty of perks, but……… I absolutely hated it !! I was having to work crazy hours and the job itelf was very stressful and I just wasn’t passionate enough about the work for me to put up with it.

So, I bit the bullet, and resigned, without even having another job lined up. (That’s how much I hate the job !)

 

I have now taken a technical support job for an ISP (internet service provider)  I have taken a big cut in my salary, but more importantly I am enjoying the work, my new colleagues and boss are all great and my working hours are a strict 35 hour week, no more, no less.

 

Result is that I am no longer feeling stressed out, I actually enjoy going into work in the morning, can completely “switch off” in the evenings and at weekends and I have more free time for things I enjoy (like poker !!)  I guess it just goes to show that money really isn’t everything

 
So I now have a bit more time (and energy) for poker and over the last week or 2 have been hitting the tables, grinding it out slowly or surely. Feeling so much less stressed about work and life really seems to be helping my poker play too
I am up a few buy-ins from last time and my bankroll now stands at $738

 

My goals are to keep playing solid poker, making good decisions and hopefully the money will take care of itself

 

GL at the tables !