Good one hour tonight, one very dumb hand

The dumb hand first.

Get AKo in LP. EP limps. MP raises to $1. I call. EP raises to $3.00. MP folds. I call again! Why? I guess I didn't believe the AA or KK he was repping. Stupid mistake #1.

Flop comes AKx. Great flop for me, but DING DING DING alarm bells should have been going off here! He was repping AA or KK preflop, now he checks on the flop. An obvious slowplay of a set if I think about it. But I didn't think about it. I just thought about how fast I could go all-in and try to get him to think I was on a steal and call me with a worse hand -- maybe even QQ. No, of course he had KK and called and beat me. Sigh.

So, I was down one buy-in on that table. Other tables weren't terrible, I was down about $13 overall at that point. Kept working, and kept finding idiots to feed me their cash. Finished up $22.30 in 1 hour. Nice finish. I think I was basically playing smart. It's a lot easier to do on 4 tables, I find it easier to fold Axs type hands and suited connectors out of position and so on. Jeffm on bet-the-pot.com got me playing more tables & it has definitely helped my hand selection, patience, and results. Thanks, Jeff.

What other hands were there? I had A5o in the BB, check in with everybody else, probably 6 to the flop. Flop is 55x. I check, LP bets about 2/3 of pot size, I call, everybody else folds. Turn is an A. I check again, LP is all-in -- short stacked, but still, wow, OK fine I'll take your money. He was on A4o if you can believe it. Sheesh.

Another short-stack insisted on calling my PF $1.00 bet with QJ. He then bet out on the flop hitting his Q. I raised, he re-raised all-in, and of course I was happy to take his money with my AA. But come on, dude, even if I only had AQ or KQ you're behind! You don't even have TPTK and you're willing to re-raise my raise? Thanks, man!

Toward the end of the hour, I did a really nice job playing two hands against a decent opponent. I was seated directly behind him so I was in position on both hands. First hand, I get AKo, raise, get a few calls. Flop is like JTx, it's checked to me, I bet about 2/3 of the pot, everybody folds, he thinks and thinks and calls. Turn is a blank, he checks, I check. River pairs the board, he checks, I check still with nothing. He wins with QJ or something. OK fine, he wins a small pot when he hit on the flop and I didn't.

But then just a few hands later I get KK. Raise about the same amount, he's the only caller. Flop is again undercards, something like QT6, I bet out, he thinks and calls. Turn is a 5, he checks, I bet, he calls. Turn is a 4, he checks, I bet, he calls. I did a nice job measuring my bets, I think -- about .5 to .6 of the pot each time on the turn & river. I knew he would call because he thought I might be on AKo again. And he did, and I wasn't, and I took a much bigger pot than the first one. Nice conclusion there. I didn't get greedy and make him fold. On the other hand, maybe he would have called a bigger bet. I'm not sure. If he hadn't called, I wouldn't have had to show him my KK and he might be kicking himself still wondering if he should have called. But I was reaching the end of my playing time anyway, so I wouldn't have been able to take much advantage of that.

Playing smart, mostly. Taking notes & remembering which opponents know what about me, and what I know about them. Basically happy with myself. Week so far is +$75 in less than 2.5 hours, for more than $30 / hour. Crazy stuff. Gotta love it.

Big hand last night

Big hand of last night:

I get 66 in the BB or UTG, not sure which. 6-way flop, unraised. Flop is A62 with 2 hearts. 1st player in bets half pot ($.60), I am next to act and raise to $2. Next player calls, and then it's raised again to $6. A couple of folds, the initial better calls. I push all-in, next guy folds, and 2 callers of the all-in (actually they have deeper stacks than I do and they are all-in against each other also).

The re-raiser behind me has 22, the other has the flush draw K-high.

Turn is a heart completing the flush (NO!), river is an A completing the full houses (YES!). I take the main pot for 62 bucks, re-raiser takes a pretty sizable side pot.

+$43 or so in one pot is a terrific result. Ended up the night up another 10 bucks or so yay. A good start to the new week.

Still can't get anything going in the freerolls. But I want to keep trying.

Silly blogger

Haven't been able to post the last couple of days, some problem with blogger.com or else my software, not sure which.

Last night was a little annoying. I was down 8 bucks. Here's a hand I learned something from.

I limp in with KTs with 3-4 others. Flop comes KT9. Top two pair! Yes! But I instantly worry about QJ. A bet and a raise before it gets to me. I know that I should re-raise here to find out where I am. But at the same time I want to disguise my hand so I just flat call. Turn is a blank, check, bet of maybe 2/3 pot, about 5 bucks at this point with 3 of us in. OK, now what do I do? I don't know because I didn't re-raise the flop! I end up calling, because I'm afraid I'm way behind to the straight, but I can't fold. Other guy calls also, so the pot is now very big. River is also a blank, no help, and the guy bets another 5 dollars on the river. Compared to the size of the pot it's not much so I can feel in my bones it's a value bet from the flopped straight. But I have to call, and I do, and of course that's what it is.

I called 5 bucks on the turn and 5 on the river when I was beat. Half a buy-in. Not good.

If I had raised 3 bucks on the flop, I save myself a bunch. If he re-raises obviously I drop it. If he flat calls then I still officially have the momentum, so if he then bets out I know to fold. If he checks it to me on the turn I can check behind or bet small -- and save a bunch either way (let it go if check-raised obviously).

Make the right play!

Lesson: DO NOT THINK YOU ARE TRAPPING SOMEONE WHEN THERE IS AN OBVIOUS BETTER HAND THAN YOURS OUT THERE! YOU ARE ONLY TRAPPING YOURSELF. Sheesh.

Ended up the night down 8 bucks. I had been up before all my good hands started getting busted.

One hand pissed me off at the time. I had AK, raise to $1 preflop from EP or a blind, get 2 calls. $3+ in the pot. Both callers are big stacks who have played well in the past. Flop is Jxx, and I bet out $2.50 or so. One folds, the other re-raises me to 8 bucks. Wow. Well, I pretend to think for a few seconds but I know I'm going to fold. And I do. He shows ATo!!

I had seen this guy make a play like that before and show his cards that time too. I think he's less smart than he thinks he is.

I'm up for the week!!!

Yes!!

The week started out so horrible (see the terrible plays under "when I go on tilt.") (Following Bet-the-Pot conventions, my weeks are Monday through Sunday.)

Today I started out good. Posted a nice $10 win in the first hour. Switch tables, take a deep breath, plunge back in.

Big hand #1. I limp in with QTs. 5 players see the flop of QJT. Two pair is very good. First player in overbets the pot slightly. What is up with that? Not sure. Call to me, I re-raise, and get 3 calls. Wow pot is big now. Turn is a blank. Original better bets again. This is where I should have laid it down, but the bet wasn't that big and the pot was huge. Call, call, call. Pot is 30 bucks or so. River is also a blank. Better is all-in but he only has 3 bucks left, a call to me, I have to call although I know I'm beat and I am: first better had K9 for the straight and takes it down.

Big hand #2. I raise preflop with AK to $1.00. 2 callers. Flop is T96. I bet about $1.50. 1 caller. Uh-oh. $5 in the pot, turn is a beautiful A. Bet $5, get re-raised all-in. Now I have notes on this guy. He has been playing very strangely, making bets of the wrong size at the wrong time. Doesn't seem to have much of a clue. I call. He has 88! Yes!!! River is an 8! No!!!!!!!!! He drags a $31 pot on a 6-outer.

At this point I have reloaded a total of 37 bucks -- almost two full buy-ins. I keep focused, though, which is wonderful. I don't start playing dumb cards or anything. One table I get up to $35. The big stack is a pretty good but very aggressive player who I've seen before. I have seen him raise to 6x the BB with AJo, KQo, even A4o. I'm in the BB with KK. He comes in with his standard $1.20 raise. I re-raise him to $4. He calls, everybody else folds. Pot is $8.50 or so. Flop is Qxx all hearts -- I have the K of hearts. I have seen enough posts on the Bet the Pot forum about this type of situation. I overbet the pot -- about $10 -- as I likely have the best hand and I have outs in any case. He re-raises all in! It's another $21 to me. I call, he has QJ for top pair decent kicker -- and NO hearts!! Obviously a bluff on his part, or guessing that I was bluffing at that 3-flush board. Not sure which. But he's way behind. A heart comes on the river to wrap it up. Yay!!!

I stick around for a few more hands, get some cards & take some small pots. But I'm too nervous with that much $$ at the table, so I quit.

From down $35 to up $19 in that session. Session was about 90 minutes, which is a pretty long session for me. With the $10 session earlier, I'm now up for the week (barely). Big smile.

Tonight...

Well, I'm turning things around. I threw away some $$ that I didn't have to, but they were fairly tough hands to get away from.

Hand #1: Dealt JJ. Raise to $1.00. Only callers are in the blinds. Flop is 222. Bet $2.00 into the $3.00 pot. One caller. Uh-oh. No way he has a 2. Higher pair? Bet $5 on turn, he flat calls again. WTF. Bet more on river, he raises, I can't give him credit, but yup, he was playing K2o. I lost most of my stack.

Three hands later, same board. I get QQ and lose all-in to AA.

Down like 30-32 bucks in a few minutes on that table. Luckily I was up about $15 on the other table. But still, I was seriously ticked off at this point. Had to get up from my tables, walk around, talk to myself a little.

But I kept my focus! I need to put in more hours, so I got back to work. And I worked and worked and I got to a point where I was UP for the night! Yes!!

Then the very, very last hand of the night. I'm just playing until the blinds come around, then I'm done. It's almost 1:30 in the morning after all. What the heck, maybe I'll get a free premium hand. Yup, here it is. AK utg. I raise to $1.00. I get an all-in re-raise from a short stack. These short stacks can re-raise all in with anything or nothing, so I'm not worried and call. Everybody else folds. Sure enough, he has A3s. He catches a fricking 2, 4, and 5 and beats me with the straight. Unbelievable. So that's 5 bucks down the tubes.

Night's totals: 90 minutes, +$7.50. Not a great win rate, to say the least, but it IS a winrate despite a couple of tough breaks & bad playing hands. Without that river 4 to complete his straight, I am up about 17-18 bucks instead. Crap! But oh well, I'll take it.

Mostly calling stations giving me their money tonight. Always love to see those!

Somehow I remember my losing hands way better than my winners tonight.

Gnight. Way way past bedtime.

When I go on tilt, BABY do I go on tilt. Crap!!!

OK, so I start playing Monday night. I am quickly up about 12 bucks when my TT busts a guy playing A9 who catches his 9. He check-raises, bets all streets, all-in. Sheesh. The idiots who play on this site, I'm thinking to myself.

But then I start to get cocky, or stupid, or both. I don't know wtf I was thinking, but the next thing I know I'm making a big flop raise and then calling an all-in re-raise when I have only TPTK. And of course he has the set and I'm now down 7 bucks for the night.

"It's OK, I'll get it back. These guys suck." Kent, listen to me here: you will NOT make money with that attitude. Seriously. Play slightly scared the whole time, that's the only good place to play from. Overconfidence will destroy you.

So here's the hand that loses me another buy-in. I'm already on tilt as the hand starts and I can feel it in my bones. My brain is telling me that I NEED to bust somebody NOW. Probably the other worst emotion possible to have.

I am dealt the 8 and 5 of diamonds on the cutoff. A guy from EP comes in with a raise to $1.80 (20c is the big blind, so this is a big raise). I am putting him on a pretty darn good hand, but I call just to see if I can flop something big and bust him.

Flop: T85 with two hearts. Sweet!!!! I check, he bets $2.40, I call. I want him to put in more money. How stupid is that? I mean, I have to bet here don't I?

Turn: another heart. Uh-oh. Now I could be in trouble. But I doubt he has the flush. He bets another $2.40. I just flat call again. WTF is up with that? You have to raise big here!!!

River: another heart. Now he bets 10 bucks. He has about 3 bucks left, so do I. What do I do? I am SO ANGRY THAT I BLEW THIS HAND that I go all-in. Unbelievable. He calls of course with the Ace of hearts for the nut hand and I am toast. He was playing AQo, so any decent raise I made he would have folded on previous streets. At the very least I could have put him all-in on the turn, so he's drawing to just a few outs. Maybe he wins anyway but at least I'm not a moron in that case.

Is it POSSIBLE to play any worse than that? I don't think it is! Wow.

So I quit for the night down 30 bucks. Unbelievable how stupid I can be when I'm feeling unbeatable and angry at the same time. Wow wow wow wow wow. Wow!

At least I have the sense to quit when I'm getting killed.

God what a moronic play. I'm embarrassed to post it.

So I didn't play at all yesterday. Still angry at myself. Plus it was Warcraft night with my friends. We won a bunch of games. Felt good. But no cash comes with it. Strange, that....

Back at it tonight. Properly chastened, and much smarter, I hope.

Tonight's play

Wow. Up more than 90 dollars in about 3 hours at the $20 NL tables. Sweet.

Early in the evening, I had a misclick that cost me about 15 dollars. I meant to bet about $2.00 and bet $17.60 on the turn. Unfortunately all I had was a pair of aces and somebody else had just hit a straight. Craptacular. I quit immediately and took some time off. I had already been up so much that I still booked an $8.00 profit for that part of the evening though. So I felt ok.

The rest of the evening just kept being positive. Lots of crazy bad players. Like one guy who insisted on calling my pre-flop reraise, then re-raising me on the flop when a Q hit: he had Q5 and I had AQ! And A hit on the turn, I went all-in, and he called!! Crazy stuff. Another guy called a preflop raise with QT, I had QQ. Rags on the flop, I bet out, he flat calls with nothing. T on the turn, I bet again, he raises me all-in! Unreal. Makes it easy to win money wow.

A bunch of people playing things like K6 and K3 and hitting their K and thinking they were good. One guy had $50 at the table, he re-raised on the flop and it turned out he was playing K2o from out of position but at least he had hit two pair before he reraised. I guess he counted as a "good" player.

The biggest hand of the night went like this. I had KQ of spades in BB. One guy raises, we all call. About $3.00 and 5 of us to the flop. The turn has JTx with one spade: open-ended top straight draw and backdoor 2nd nut flush draw for me. Not bad. I check it, somebody bets about $2.00, 4 people call! (I'm the last to call, so I'm definitely getting the odds.) Turn is a spade, so I have the flush draw still. I check, someone bets, small stack is all-in, call, call, bigger stack is all-in, call, call. 4 of us in the pot. A 9 hits on the river for my straight and I win. From $15 to $46 in one hand. Sweetness.

Anyway, a great night. Decent play, terrible opponents. I didn't try to make any plays almost all night long. I took down one pot without cards that I remember, that's all. Not sure if I tried to take down any more. My cards were either terrific or terrible, so I was playing for real or folding. Good stuff.

One probable bad play made me money. I limped in and then called a raise from a small stack with QTo. Everybody else folds & we're heads-up. I didn't think the small stack necessarily had much. Anyway, the flop came QTx, he went all-in, I called and won. He had AA so I was very very lucky that time.

Last night's results

Up 30 bucks in 45 minutes. Very nice. I need to play more hours, but Thursdays are busy for me.

I did get an AA, but it lost for me. Raise to $1.00, get only one caller, a short-stack. Flop comes all one suit, of which I have zero. I bet about another $1.00 and he goes all-in for $2.00 more. He had A6o but had the A of the suit in question and caught the 4th flush card on the turn to beat me. No biggie, just a few bucks, and he was very lucky to have any chance at all with A6o against AA. He was still an underdog when we were all-in too, I wonder if he knew that.

I played much tighter and better overall. Had a nice time getting fishies hooked & reeling them in.

But again the last hand of the night I threw some money back. Just a couple of bucks but it was dumb and unnecessary. I played 76s from ep (first mistake) and then I called a bet on the flop with it when I had only hit a 7 for 2nd pair (2nd mistake).

There really is a difference in feeling, inside of me, when I'm playing a hand I should not be playing. It's not an unpleasant feeling, exactly, more of a "gambling" feeling, a feeling of "I might get lucky, I should stick around and see what happens next." When I get that feeling, I should definitely resist it! Just play the good hands and you'll make a bunch and cut your variance way down!! Yes you can catch lucky, but even when you do you may not make enough back to make it worthwhile.

I folded 98o from ep yesterday then watched the flop comes T7x and the turn with a 6 after it was checked around. I would have had the straight! Ohh, I need to play 98o! Wait, no, stop, stop stop. Would I have made much money on the hand? Nope, nobody else had hit much of anything and they weren't betting at it. And if somebody HAD hit something good, they might have bet strong on the flop. So in order to catch my straight AND make serious money with it, I probably would have had to make another call for which I wasn't getting the odds. Just keep folding 98o unless you're in position on a passive table with calling stations.

A learning hand from last night

2 lessons learned on one hand. 10c/20c NL on GC as usual.

I get AK in LP after several limpers, raise to $1.00. I get one caller.

Flop comes Kxx. The guy bets out, I raise, he calls.

Turn is another x. He bets out, I raise, he calls.

River is another x. Board hasn't paired, all smallish cards, no likely straights, no flushes.

He bets out again, about 1/5 of the pot. I think about raising again, but I can't imagine what the guy could be betting with again after being raised twice. He may have two pair or something. If I raise and he re-raises big, I feel like I would have to fold, and I don't want to take that chance. So I just call.

He was playing KQ and was dominated the whole way.

Two lessons learned.

#1: DO NOT PLAY KQ AGAINST A RAISE. You could be dominated easily, and you feel like you have a good hand but you're basically dead. Everybody knows that except the fish. Glad this guy didn't know it. And now that I have seen this hand, I know it at a much deeper place in myself than I did before.

#2: Blocking bets really can work. I don't know if that's what this guy intended, but his smallish bet on the river sure worked as a blocking bet. It put a little scare into me, and with just a decent, not a great hand, I had to just call. If he had checked to me I would have bet more than that to him, and it would have cost him more to see the river. Anyway, what I'm thinking is this: A BLOCKING BET CAN WORK IF YOU PUT THE OTHER GUY ON A DECENT BUT NOT GREAT HAND.

Tonight's play

Up $10.05 in just over 2 hours on the $20 NL tables at Gaming Club. Not terrible, not great. I was patient. I didn't try steals or crazy plays. Both of those things are definite improvements over how I had been playing previously. I had QQ three times, and raised it big preflop all three times. Twice the flop came with overcards, I bet anyway & got re-raised big & dropped it. The third time I won a small pot when undercards came.

I also caught TPTK with AJ and bet out, kept betting out against two callers, and had to drop it when the board went to 4-straight and a guy went all-in.

So my good hands aren't doing that much, no great luck, but I'm still up for the night. I need to feel good about that. I can't even remember the last time I had AA. I'm playing OK with not so great cards, which is good.

I identified a few more crazy calling stations who called me down with who-knows-what and lost to my top pair type hands. That was nice. That was mostly very early in the evening -- I was actually up about 15 bucks in the first twenty minutes.

The only biggish hand of the evening that I remember: I had T8o, hopefully in a blind. (I'm pretty sure it was a blind because I tightened up a bunch tonight -- probably all the way from LAG to sLAG.) Hit my T as top pair on the flop (T74), bet out most of the pot, get a caller. Check down the turn, which brings the 3rd flush card. Get my 8 on the river and bet another $1.00. I'm raised to $5.00. Oh crap do I call? Think & think. Finally call. He had 84o -- had hit bottom pair on the flop, and then bet big with his own two pair on the river. This guy had over 40 bucks at the table despite the fact that he was playing hands like that -- I saw him show down a similarly dreadful hand earlier.

I tend to only bet about 2/3 of the pot most of the time when I hit. I'm not sure why. If I raised it to full pot I wonder if my results would be better. I need to make myself try that, at least for a few sessions, sometime soon.

I think part of the reason I bet 2/3 pot is that I like to try to make steals of pots that I think might be unwanted. Sometimes I make very dumb steal attempts, though. But when I do that, I much prefer to bet say 75 cents into a $1.25 pot. That way I only have to win the pot say 40% of the time to break even. On the other hand, maybe I get called more often when my bets aren't quite pot-sized. Also, I definitely should work harder to tighten up my steal attempts.

The last hand of the night cost me a few dollars. It was the last hand because it was so dumb I couldn't believe I had done it. Sigh. I got K5s in the SB, tried a steal raise and got re-raised right back. Did I drop it? No! Did I call his minbets on the flop & turn hitting nothing, and then try a stupid almost pot-sized bet on the river that was called? Yes, I did. I admit it. He had JJ and all the cards were T or lower so there was no way he was folding. Sheesh. I should have dropped it preflop.

EXERCISE FOR THE EVENING. Meditate on this, Kent: when a player has yet to act at all in a hand, IT IS TOO EARLY TO PUT THEM ON A HAND. Just because he's in the BB doesn't mean he HAS to have crap. IF YOU ARE RE-RAISED ON A STEAL ATTEMPT, DROP IT. It looks weak, but it's sometimes good to have a weak image. Next time I try a steal attempt and HAVE a hand and somebody plays back at me thinking I'm weak, I'll be a happy man.

So the last hand lost me about 4 bucks. How stupid is that? Glad I quit when I did. Should have quit 1 hand earlier. :-)

Why not?

Tetsuo had a good idea today. A poker journal should really be in the form of a blog. Room for comments and everything else. I'll get this up and running now, and try to get comments later.