Break-even session

Break-even session

Pretty meh session, in terms of results, but a break-even session at least means that I’ve got my discipline back. I can’t really complain about the cards, but I wasn’t getting much action on my premium hands. I think that was mainly due to my tight image at the table – I’ve tightened up a notch since my losing/tilt session the other evening. This is just while I regain my confidence a bit.

I have however been concentrating on punishing limpers from late position. Taking down the blinds plus a couple of limp bets every once in a while is a great way to stay ahead of the blinds and not bad for your table image either.

Here are a few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1427995  

Revenge on the shortstackers!! What is great playing vs shortstackers is that you know once they have called your preflop raise, they will be going all-in on any flop because they are already pot-committed. Sorry villain, A2 sooted is no good there

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1428019

Awful flop for my Jacks here. I was convinced villain had me crushed, with him 3-betting me preflop. I he’d have c-betted the flop, I doubt I would have called.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1428033  

This was marginal preflop. If there had been any action ahead of me, I probably would have folded my A8o from mp. Standard c-bet on the flop. When he called, I decided to just shutdown, but then the second ten came on the turn and I decided to represent AT as I was sure he didn’t have top pair…

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1428050

Villains stats were 26/4/0.8 over 60 hands

Yuck. Awful flop, but I felt I had to bet it to find out where I was early in the hand. My decision was simple. Do I believe he has an Ace or not ? If not, I push, if so, I fold. No point in calling and then folding on a later street. On the other hand, maybe it was a bad idea to c-bet this flop. If he didn’t have an Ace, there’s no way he’s going to believe I have one by betting this flop. Tricky spot :( In hindsight, I think I should have checked this flop. As played, I couldn’t possibly call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1428086

Villains stats were 35/8/0.7 over 48 hands

I just couldn’t see what I beat here !! Probably only QJ. The board paired twice and all I had was top pair with an average kicker. Certainly no way I could call his river bet anyway.

Session stats:

Number of hands: 395
Net profit/loss: +$0.30
Winrate: + 0.32 ptBB/100

Bankroll: $356.60

Back in the saddle

Well I had a bit of a break. I went to my gf’s flat for dinner and to chill out a bit. She’s going away for 3 weeks to see her family on Saturday and so I want to spend plenty of time with her this week. We’re going out for dinner tomorrow evening and Friday too. Anyway, I got back and decided I’d play a few hands just to get my confidence back after last night’s nightmare session.

Well I played 66 hands and had a winning session, thanks to this hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1420380

Pair of Jacks – I lost so much money with this hand last night that I almost broke out into a cold sweat when I got dealt it this evening. This time though, I got the perfect flop vs the perfect villain who overvalues top pair. When he bet out, I knew he had hit the flop and was going to see my raise as a bluff. This was perfect for getting me my confidence back and I decided to call it a night straight away cos I was exhausted today anyway and I have a lot of work tomorrow

Session stats:

Number of hands: 66

Net profit/loss: +$8.45

Winrate: +64.02 ptBB/100

Bankroll: $356.30

In sickness and in health

Awful session, but that’s no reason for not posting. On the contrary,  getting this down helps me review my play and hopefully learn from it.Just had probably my worst session for ages. I found some really fishy tables and took a pretty bad beat early on to a total donkey and kind of went on tilt and went on to lose about 4 buy-ins….

Here are a few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418679  

Villains stats were 53/4/0.52 lol

I mean WTF ?!! Calling my x7 BB preflop raise with Q7s was bad enough, but then calling a pot-sized all-in bet with just a flush draw and one card to come…. lol I am usually really good about not going on tilt, but not this time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418689  

Villains stats were 36/6.94/0.54

This was the very next hand. I didn’t even have time to reload (luckily). I was on serious tilt after this!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418707  

I hate shortstacks !! I mean seriously, either get a proper bankroll or quit playing!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418711

I rest my case ! Seriously, if you can only buy in for $2, go and play $2NL ffs

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418720

JJ again. This time, I hit, but missed value. WTF was I doing. I really should have bet this river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418726

Villains stats were 38/3/0.4

I should have folded this on the turn, but his min bets on flop and turn were just so donkish! Awful call on the turn by me. I shouldn’t be stacking off with TPGK in spots like this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418744

Again, I shouldn’t be stacking off here I don’t think. But I really couldn’t put him on a full-house. All the other possible full-houses, he would have played differently either preflop or on the flop. I actually put him on a weaker flush

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1418756  

I couldn’t play this any worse if I tried. I should have raised to .50 preflop and made a pot-sized bet on the flop. Awful play by me.

Session stats:

Number of hands: 895

Net profit/loss: -$37.95

Winrate: -21.20 ptBB/100

Bankroll: $347.90

I’m gonna take a couple of days break, then study a bit and come back and grind.

Down and up

Since my last post, I have played 2 longish (by my standards) sessions. The first, I played really bad and lost about a buy-in and a half. I seemed to be a bit impatient and was trying to get a bit fancy against the donkeys, which is never a good idea. I was stacking off very light and then went on a bit of tilt…

The second session (this evening), I played much better, and managed to win it all back and a bit extra, so I am very happy about that.

Here are a few hands from the first (losing session):

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1413406  

xTJaxx’s stats were 27/18/1.10 and had been playing very loose so I figured I was way ahead of his preflop range. I wasn’t too worried about the other villain’s all-in since he was the shortstack – I was more interested in winning a side-pot from the other villain. My read was right, but of course villain calls, when he flops his set A bad all-in by me really. I am way too deep and I should have just called to see what the action was behind me..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1409746  

I actually quite like my play here. My all-in on the flop is slightly +EV as I am a 51.5% favourite with 15 outs to the best hand. This would be even higher +EV if the villains at this level were actually able to lay down TPGK.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1413463  

I hate my line here. I should have just called the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1413476  

Standard. My Kings hold up vs QQ..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1413489  

I was very lucky here. I kinda knew villain had JQ here but I just couldn’t lay it down… My reason for limping preflop UTG was that there was another villain behind me who had been raising every hand. Oh well, I’ll take it…

Some hands from the 2nd session (winning session):

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1413503  

This villain was pretty weird. Quite tight preflop, but very loose / calling station post-flop. I knew he’s pay me off on the river

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1413514  

Flopped a set of Queens. No idea what viallin had here…lol

Number of hands: 714

Net profit/loss: +$0.85

Winrate: +0.60 ptBB/100

Bankroll: $385.85

Decent session

I was very pleased with how I played tonight. Just another small session, (128 hands) but I didn’t play as weak/tight post-flop as I have been doing on occasions recently and I think it showed in my results. That’s not to say, I was bluffing a lot – Bluffing is a waste of time vs most villains at these levels, but more “selective aggression” and not just simply folding to donk bets.

A few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1403471

Villain here was total tit and usually very passive. He obviously like his hand and I had little chances of improving mine or of pushing him off the pot. Easy fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1403485  

Villain was typical loose passive. When he called the flop, I put him on bottom pair or maybe a small pocket pair. The 8 on the turn was a good opportunity for a bluff here….

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1403502  

I was really pleased with how this hand played out. Villain’s stats were something like 15/6/1.2 over 200 hands so quite nitty. His limp UTG set alarm bells going, but I put him on a smallish pocket pair or maybe even AQ / AK, so I decided to just call in the BB and see a flop. When it came all low cards, I decided I had to bet out to find out where I was. His raise worried me slightly, but not enough to fold. I was only worried about a set at this point, and I figured by just flat calling, he was going to be just as worried as I was particularly with me having called preflop from the blinds, I could easily have had a 7 to make the straight. I knew if he had had JJ/QQ/KK/AA, he would have raised preflop, so I just wanted to keep the pot small and see a cheap showdown….

Number of hands: 128

Net profit/loss: +$3.05

Winrate: +11.91 ptBB/100

Pokerstars Bankroll: $385

Winning session, but missing value ?

Another grindPlayed a few hands today. Finished up, but I’m not sure if I’m missing value on some hands. I got dealt some great hands in this session and feel I should have won more, meh.A few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1395626

No reads on villain.

I know I should be reraising in the blinds with AQs and I have been doing that a lot recently so I thought I would just call and try and disguise my hand a bit. I was therefore prepared to let this go if I didn’t hit the flop. When the perfect flop came, I thought there was no way I was getting away from this. I put him on AK when he reraised me….. Can I ever get away from this ?! Even preflop, I would have had trouble folding this if I had reraised him and he had come over the top.. Comments please

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1395652

I don’t double-barrel enough, and I felt this was a good situation with just 1 overcard on an otherwise dryish board.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1395662

I don’t think I played this very well. By 4-betting, from ep, it was obvious I had Aces. Villain folded and told me he had QQ. I didn’t tell him what I had, which I think put him on tilt for this next hand…….

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1395674

Fancy play syndrome by villain. I would have folded this preflop or on the flop if villain had been a bit more aggressive. He was definitely on tilt after that!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1395686

Villain was 24.3/4.8/0.85 over 41 hands

I have been giving too much respect to villains recently with my big hands, especially shortstacks, so when he reraised me on the flop, I couldn’t get all-in quickly enough

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1395717

Same villain about 20 hands later, and I have KK again and make the same pf raise to .50. This time, villain reraises me. He knows I had KK last time I made this raise and so he thinks I think he has AA. I certainly think he has better than his AJ last time. I put him on QQ, KK, AA or AK and decide to take a flop. When the flop comes, I can only beat QQ and decide to check behind. His turn bet seemed pretty weak, but I think he just wasn’t very good at sizing his bets and was trying to slowplay. I should have just folded this on the turn IMO. As played, his river bet just seemed to be for pure value, and I couldn’t see what I could beat, particularly in the context of the previous hand vs villain. Comments ?

Session stats (stars):

Number of hands: 188

Net profit / loss: +$3.60

Winrate: +9.57 ptbb/100

Pokerstars bankroll: $381.90

lol donkaments

Played a small cash session on Pokerstars this evening and finished up about $1

Couple of hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1391985

I was on the phone with my gf while playing this hand, and I think it shows lol! I called on the turn, thinking I had a flush draw… Oh dear. Note to self, when gf rings, sit out! 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1392001

Weird hand. Villain was a fish so I called his min-raise on the flop and knew I had him beat when the 2nd Q came on the turn. Got pretty good value on the river and couldn’t believe he called with a pair of 2’s wtf ?!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1392019

Same villain, nice turn. I love passive tables…..

Session stats (pokerstars):

Hands: 100

Net profit/loss: +0.60

Winrate: 3ptBB/100

Pokerstars bankroll: 378.40

After this small session, I decided to play a pokerstars SNG satellite tournament to their Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed tournament. It was a 10-man SNG with just one ticket going to the winner. Buy-in was just 70 FPP, so I thought I’d give it a go…

When I started playing poker 3 years ago, I used to play hundreds of SNG’s and was a winning player at them but haven’t played one in absolutely ages, so I was interested to see if I had still had the skillz lol…

Well it turns out I have because I took it down and won myself a seat

lol donkaments  

Running good

Played a small session tonight and ran pretty well, getting some good cards and some good flops, which was a relief because I’ve had a few disappointing break-even sessions recently.

Here are a few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1387915
Awful flop for my aces here I hate situations like this. If my Aces are good, I know I need to bet this flop hard to stop draws getting the odds, but I could already be drawing dead to trip Queens, trip Kings or even QK, so I never know what to do

My bet on the turn was therefore supposed to be kind of a blocking bet (I think lol) for pot control, which was a bit stupid because villain was already pot-committed at this point and I should have just put him all-in straight away. Oh well, I was a 3-1 favourite when the money went in….

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1387957
Same villain towards the end of the session. I put him on TT-QQ here, when he raised me on the flop. Looks like I was right
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1387973
This was a really tough lay down. I put villain on exactly the same hand as me (AK), so at best, we were chopping, and he only needed to have one heart to have me beat. Horrible board

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1387990

No way I wanted to play AQo out of position, hence my raise preflop, when he came over the top, I decided to play for stacks. I probably should have folded this at this point, but I didn’t feel he was that strong as it had folded around to him. It was a coinflip and I deserve to win a few of them

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1388004
I called preflop because 1) Villain was a bigstack 2)Villain was a TAG. So I knew he had a hand and I knew he would pay me off if I hit so I was getting the implied odds. Luckily he flopped a flush draw and couldn’t lay it down…..
Session stats (Pokerstars):

Number of hands: 136
Net profit/loss: $14.45
Winrate:  53.12 ptBB/100

Pokerstars bankroll: $377.70

Bad beats and good calls!

Bad beats and good calls!

Strange session – I thought I played pretty solidly, but I finished exactly break-even.  I took 2 pretty bad beats early on and then made some great calls and got some good hands to recover:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1381921

His flop bet was weak. If he had a strong made hand he would have bet more to try and protect his hand, plus if he had AQ, he would have raised it pre-flop. His reraise all-in didn’t bother me as it was from a shortstack so I insta-called, and of course he hits his 3 outer on the river….
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1381948

Another suckout lol. I got my money in when I was way ahead, and none in when I realised I could be behind, so at least I lost the minimum….

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1381963

As you can see, I don’t mess around preflop with my premium pairs. I rarely slow play them and this was no exception. This was an awful flop for me and I didn’t fancy c-betting this into 2 loose villains. When everyone checked behind, I was pretty sure they didn’t have an Ace, but his call on the turn worried me. I really should have value bet the river, and when he bet over half the pot, I really took my time and very nearly folded.  lol at his hand ! This call was great for my image after that and I knew no-one would be trying to bluff
me…
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1381979

I was quite happy to call this down. Medium hand, medium pot was fine with me, plus villain wasn’t a very good player (despite his large stack) and so if I had raised him, he was quite capable of re-raising me which would have been difficult to call.
Session stats (Pokerstars):

Number of hands: 374
Net profit/loss: $0
Winrate: 0 ptBB/100

Pokerstars Bankroll: $363.38

Quick update

I’ve played a few sessions since the last post.

Up and down sessions really, but finished up.

Couple of hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378171

I hate shortstacks   Enough said

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378182

Wtf is villain doing calling preflop with J8o ?!! I had 52% equity on the flop so raised it up and of course he calls with 8 high ffs lol.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378208

Here villain is 75/24/1.5 over 50 hands, ie total maniac calling station and so I was way ahead of his range on all streets. I would have bet on the river even without the King.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378225 

Same villain here, lol. I had been observing him and whenever it folded around to him, he raised it preflop and the higher the raise, the worse his hand lol. So this one I reraised hard from the blinds and got a perfect flop. Check out his hand LMFAO……

Average session stats:

Number hands:  870

Net profit / loss:  +$9

Winrate: 5ptBB/100

Stars bankroll:  $363.48 

I also played a few hands on my other account, which I decided is my “testing” account, ie nothing too serious, take a few shots, try some moves etc! I had a shot at $25NL and had some meh results, nothing to do with the standard of play though, lol.

Average session stats:

Number hands:  100

Net profit / loss:  -$6.85

Winrate: -8.74 ptBB/100

“other site” bankroll:  $228.65