I got some study material from my coach last night about how to take notes on opponents and looking for certain weaknesses in their play and how best to exploit them. It was nothing too revolutionary but was very interesting and so thought I’d try and build it into my game in tonight’s session.
I only fired up 2 tables so I could have the time to properly observe my opponents.
Lo and behold, after about an hours play, I used one of these reads on one particular player and won a big pot. The read was simple – The player played Ax (ie Ace with any kicker) from any position and played it like the nuts if an Ace came on the board. Obviously the best way to exploit this is to bet your strong Aces (or better) on every street all the way to showdown without worrying too much about pot control. Well that’s what I did, and he did indeed stack off with his A7o vs my AQo 
Here’s the hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922315
Some more hands from the session:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922225
Again, my play here was based on what I had noticed about the table dynamics. UTG was a donk and had just lost a big pot so I was definitely way ahead of his range. Genie had seen this too and obviously had some sort of a hand, but I think I was still ahead of him because, like me, he knew UTG was raising with any two cards. I had to raise this to prevent anyone else behind me getting priced in so just decided to push preflop as the pot was already pretty big.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922325
This hand just played itself obviously. The only tough decision was how much to make it on the river to get maximum value. I think I missed a bit of value here actually in hindsight. I should have thought about villain’s likely range a bit more first, and then bet about $15. Oh well, nice pot all the same.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1922371
Ok this is a small pot and nothing very exciting, but this is probably the hand I’m most pleased about of the session because I am playing the situation and not my cards. This is a play I am trying to introduce to my game. 3-betting light preflop. Basically, the conditions were perfect for making this play:
-An aggressive villain to my right open raises in late position.
-I have a tightish image at the table.
-I have a hand that flops well if I get called and anyway, I’ll have position on villain on the flop and for the remainder of the hand.
GL at the tables 
2 responses so far ↓
joseffreedom // January 11, 2008 at 1:30 am |
Good job today, nice win.
First hand, good job getting the read but I’d slow down on that turn a little bit, Maybe bet like half to pot commit him but the big bet might scare off some players. If you had a lot of drawing hands in his range then it makes more sense.
Hand 2:
I think a smaller raise here accomplishes the same goals, as you saw you fold out a lot of the hands you want to keep in, like JJ, while getting called by AA KK, and maybe AK, so I’d make a smaller raise, maybe in the $8-10 range. I think you can win a lot more from Genie in this hand.
Hand 3: Well played, good job leading with the set, a lot of players slowplay here and it is a huge mistake. You might have missed some value but there is no way I thought he was as strong as he was, I mean how does he not re-raise on that flop or turn? What if your pre-flop raising percentage, because it’s almost like he knew you had Ak, AA, or KK there. Can’t believe set over set doesn’t get all-in here.
Good steal, yeah look for loose aggressive players pre-flop who tighten up post-flop without a strong hand and rob them making plays like this with hands that aren’t easily dominated.
GL to you,
T
doublemeup // January 11, 2008 at 5:35 pm |
Thanks for your comments. I like your analysis.
Yeah, hand 2 I should have repopped to about $12 to get genie all-in. I think I’m overprotecting my hands a bit still – maybe a bit too worried about getting sucked out on.
Hand 3 yeah, I couldn’t believe he played his set like that on that board. I’d have repopped the flop if I was him or at least put me all-in on the river. My pfr is currently running at about 9-10% so my range is much wider than just KK-AA here.
Cheers