More FT News

I played three doublestack 90 man $1.25 tourneys on Friday night. In two of the three tourneys I made it to the low 20s, and probably could have coasted to the money, but pressed my good hands and got busted.

I played another on Saturday, I think I played really well. I didn’t get outstanding cards, but I trusted my reads. I did take a chance on a preflop race (my 88 vs. a super-lag’s AQ), where the call wasn’t really necessary, but I figured I was the chipleader at the time, if I caught, I’d win the tourney. Well, he caught a straight on the river and put me pretty low in chips. However, I managed to stick around for a bit with some solid play. This was the last hand of the tourney for me.

Full Tilt Poker Game #231274xxxx: $1 + $0.25 Sit & Go (1743xxxx), Table 6 – 2500/5000 Ante 600 – No Limit Hold’em – 2:29:36 ET – 2007/04/29
Seat 2: me (188,680)
Seat 6: solid but changed gears (81,320)
me antes 600
solid but changed gears antes 600
solid but changed gears posts the small blind of 2,500
me posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me[5h 5s]
solid but changed gears calls 2,500
me raises to 188,080, and is all in
solid but changed gears calls 75,720, and is all in
me shows [5h 5s]
solid but changed gears shows [2h 8c]
Uncalled bet of 107,360 returned to me
*** FLOP *** [2d Kc 6c]
*** TURN *** [2d Kc 6c] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [2d Kc 6c Ah] [7c]
me shows a pair of Fives
solid but changed gears shows a pair of Twos
me wins the pot (162,640) with a pair of Fives
solid but changed gears stands up
me stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 162,640 | Rake 0
Board: [2d Kc 6c Ah 7c]
Seat 2: me (big blind) showed [5h 5s] and won (162,640) with a pair of Fives
Seat 6: solid but changed gears(small blind) showed [2h 8c] and lost with a pair of Twos

Yay – a victory! The guy got tired. He started playing really dumb hands at the end, and even said ‘I’m sick of playing’. He had shown a push with 24o previously, so a push with 55 was an easy decision heads up. He could have folded and waited for something better to call with than 8 high to CALL with, but he just wanted to go to bed I guess.

I’m not sure how many of these I’m going to play. While I like the doublestacks and the amount of play (I think it gives better players a chance to win), I just can’t sit down for 4.5 hours to win one very often.

BR – FT 30.00
– PS 72.71

Great start on FT

After running my JJ into KK for most of my stack in my first tourney on Full Tilt, I had this hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2303xxxx: $1 + $0.25 Sit & Go (1737xxxx), Table 8 – 20/40 – No Limit Hold’em – 22:45:16 ET – 2007/04/27
Seat 1: mouthy (3,515)
Seat 2: guy(3,935)
Seat 3: original(2,010)
Seat 4: villain (6,480)
Seat 5: guy(1,085)
Seat 6: another guy(2,770)
Seat 7: me(890)
Seat 9: loose(2,550)
meposts the small blind of 20
looseposts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me[7c 7d]
mouthy: im gonna fold again
mouthy has 15 seconds left to act
mouthy: waiting
mouthy folds
guyfolds
originalfolds
villain calls 40
guyfolds
mouthy: you guys blow big ones.
another guyhas 15 seconds left to act
another guycalls 40
mouthy: horriblr play.
mecalls 20
loosechecks
*** FLOP *** [3d 7h 3s]
mouthy: bad call
mebets 40
mouthy: youre all going to lose
loosefolds
mouthy: stop
villain raises to 6,440, and is all in
mouthy: fold
another guyfolds
mouthy: fold
mecalls 810, and is all in
villain shows [Ah As]
meshows [7c 7d]
Uncalled bet of 5,590 returned to villain
*** TURN *** [3d 7h 3s] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [3d 7h 3s Ad] [3h]
villain shows a full house, Aces full of Threes
meshows a full house, Sevens full of Threes
villain wins the pot (1,860) with a full house, Aces full of Threes
mestands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,860 | Rake 0
Board: [3d 7h 3s Ad 3h]
Seat 1: mouthy didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 2: guydidn’t bet (folded)
Seat 3: originaldidn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: villain showed [Ah As] and won (1,860) with a full house, Aces full of Threes
Seat 5: guydidn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: another guy(button) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: me(small blind) showed [7c 7d] and lost with a full house, Sevens full of Threes
Seat 9: loose(big blind) folded on the Flop

Go me.

Update

Had a couple solid sessions at .o1/.02 on Stars. Got paid off on a couple hands. Also had a couple of second best hands with trips where I paid off, but I’m up over the past few days. I may post some hand histories when I get a chance.

Looking forward to trying out FT this weekend…

BR – Stars – 69.00, FT 12.50 = 81.50. My .01/.02 PTBB/100 is still around 17.8.

You Are Absolutely Nuts!

The table is a generic .01/.02 NL table, lots of calling and raises, not many people who want to fold, although I hadn’t been at the table very long and I had just won a $1+ pot.

PokerStars Game #9544731232: Hold’em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) – 2007/04/2x – 00:00:00 (ET)Table ‘ATM II’ 9-max
Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: dude11 ($3.28 in chips)
Seat 3: anotherguy ($3.14 in chips)
Seat 5: guy ($2.63 in chips)
Seat 6: someone ($1.86 in chips)
Seat 7: me ($6 in chips)
Seat 8: tight ($3.37 in chips)
Seat 9: justsatdown ($4.97 in chips)
tight: posts small blind $0.01
justsatdown208 joins the table at seat #4
justsatdown: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me [Jd Td]
dude11: folds
anotherguy: raises $0.04 to $0.06
guy: calls $0.06
someone: folds
someone leaves the table
me: calls $0.06 (Loose-ish call by me. Not my normal play to call a raise with JTs, because suited connectors usually take time to develop a hand, and don’t stand up so well in heads up pots with raises. I like to play suited connectors for a minimum call. However, everytime I read Sklansky’s No Limit Hold’Em Theory and Practice, he and Ed Miller stress position, and that almost any hand can be profitable on the button, so I’m trying to play more hands on the button, and JTs does have possibilities.)
tight: folds
justsatdown: folds
*** FLOP ***
[Qd 8d 9d]
anotherguy: bets $0.02
guy: raises $0.06 to $0.08
me: calls $0.08 (I wanted to keep everyone in the hand, so no raise. I figured the original bettor for weakness since he raised preflop, yet only bet minimum on the flop, but I was hoping maybe he would play on, but he folded. I’m happy about the original caller raising, though. I hope he’s got an A high flush, or a set, but my guess is he’s bluffing.)
anotherguy: folds
*** TURN ***
[Qd 8d 9d] [7d]
guy: bets $0.10me: calls $0.10 (I think this was a mistake. I think I should have minraised here, although I think he probably would have folded. If he had the Ad or 5d6d, he’s trying to get money in, if he has anything else, he’s probably going to let it go, unless he’s got a set and thinks he’s behind but has 10 outs. At the time, I was just thinking about keeping him in the hand and hoping he fires one more on the river. Looking back, I think it’s a mistake.)
*** RIVER ***
[Qd 8d 9d 7d] [Ah]
guy: bets $0.12
me: raises $0.43 to $0.55 (It’s a big raise compared to his bet, but it’s not more that the size of the pot. I’m hoping he hit his hand and has to at least call. I’m not going to minraise for another .12, because I think he folds to any raise, unless he has at least a straight (unlikely), at which point he should reraise me a large amount, and then I can come back at him.)
guy: folds (booooo)
guy leaves the table (boooooo)
me collected $0.83 from pot
me: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $0.83 Rake $0
Board [Qd 8d 9d 7d Ah]
Seat 1: dude11 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: anotherguy folded on the Flop
Seat 5: guy folded on the River
Seat 6: someone folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: me (button) collected ($0.83)
Seat 8: tight (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: justsatdown (big blind) folded before Flop

An area of NLHE that I think about a lot is ‘how to extract the most money out of a hand’. I think it’s a weakness of mine. You would think this would be an easy question, but it isn’t. In this hand history, I flopped the absolute nuts – a straight flush where I held broadway cards. Sometimes you’ll flop ‘the nuts’ – an A high flush, or a straight, and your hand can still be outdrawn when the board pairs, or someone catches 2 cards to make a higher straight, but in this case, no matter what happens, I can’t be outdrawn. What is good and bad about a board like this is that people can make straights and flushes, but 3 cards of one suit on the flop usually slows everyone down. A 4th of the suit really slows everyone down unless one person has the A, and another has the K. With deepish stacks (130BB effective stacks), I think I’m destined to not get it all in there with a scary board, unless someone’s got the Ad, but I wonder if I could have gotten a little more had I played it a little more aggressively.

With the absolute nuts, how could I have played this better to get more money into the pot?

Up And Down

Good cards at .01/.02, bad cards at .02/.05. I’m kinda spinning my wheels. I’ll make some money at .01/.02, but then get stacked with a second best hand at .02/.05.

I was disappointed last night because I was at a table at .02/.05 two nights in a row with some real knuckleheads playing over 50% of their hands and making large 5x to 7x preflop raises with garbage, and huge 2x to 4x pot raises on the flop. I had position on them, yet I couldn’t play many hands with them because I was having a run of bad cards. Knowing they rarely folded, I wasn’t going to get in to many confrontations with them without cards.

Had a great run of cards at .01/.02 (of course), flopping a lot of sets, a 4 of a kind, straights, and flushes. my PTBB/100 for .01/02 is at 17.81 right now (.71 per 100 hands). I’m at nearly 35000 hands for that level, it’s kinda crazy. My PTBB/100 at .02/.05, on the other hand, is like 2.x, over 8000 hands, which is completely frustrating.

BR – PS – 65.51
BR – FT – 12.50 (haven’t touched it yet)

An MTT Cash And Other News

Update -

I played a couple of tourneys recently – a 5.50 NL and a 4.40 Limit – this weekend They’re kind of high for my BR at this point, but I had the time to play. I cashed in the Limit tourney:

PokerStars Tournament #47726xxx, Limit Hold’emBuy-In: $4.00/$0.40
405 playersTotal Prize Pool: $1620.00
Tournament started – 2007/04/xx – xx:00:00 (ET)

Dear Me,

You finished the tournament in 36th place. A $8.10 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

I’m a little disappointed in the outcome though. I was in the top 10 for a large portion of the tournament. The blinds moved up quickly, and I played a couple of hands that were questionable at a new table, so with about 10k and blinds of 600/1200, I felt the pressure to play some hands. 99 in MP for a raise, and 85o in the SB for a call with 2 others in the pot. I will grab the hand histories later and go over what I felt I did wrong.

In the NL tourney, I was in contention for a while, and then ran into a set vs. set situation that didn’t knock me out, but I never recovered. (I may post the set vs. set confrontation when I get a chance. While I don’t know if I could have gotten away from it or not, because I had the button, looking back, I wonder if I could have saved myself some chips.) I tried to be patient and did double up a couple times (one was a suckout where I was dominated 3-1), but in the end, I pushed all in with AQo vs a raise, a guy called, and the original raiser called. One had AKo, the other AJo, the guy with the J won the hand, and it did me in.

In other news, after swinging a deal with my poker pal Justin from grindingforpennies.blogspot.com, I’ve got $12.50 on Full Tilt. Justin highly recommends the SnG’s on FT, so I’m going to try them out and see if I can get something started there. I’ve got enough for like ten $1 MTT SnG’s. Wish me luck…

BR ~ I think it’s in the mid $70s between the 2 sites, but I haven’t tallied it in a few days.

Checking A Good Hand To Induce A Bluff, Part II

Here’s another couple of examples. The tables met the usual requirements, having a player who is very loose and willing to take a stab at a pot.

PokerStars Game #947xxxxxx: Hold’em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) – 2007/04/17 – 20:44:19 (ET)Table ‘xxxxx’ 9-max
Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: calling station ($3.40 in chips)
Seat 3: me ($5.16 in chips)
Seat 4: aggressive/maniac ($2.52 in chips)
Seat 5: weak tight ($2.96 in chips)
Seat 6: unkown ($0.93 in chips)
Seat 7: TAG? ($3.47 in chips)
Seat 8: unknown ($2.73 in chips)
Seat 9: maniac#2 ($1.32 in chips)
calling station: posts small blind $0.01
Labattt50: is sitting out me: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me [Ah Ac]
Labattt50 leaves the table
aggressive/maniac: raises $0.02 to $0.04 (big surprise)
weak tight: folds
unkown: folds
TAG?: folds
unknown: folds
maniac#2: folds
calling station: calls $0.03 (big surprise)
me: raises $0.06 to $0.10 (I have AA, trying to get value, thin the field)
aggressive/maniac: calls $0.06 (no surprise)
calling station: folds (this is a surprise, but it gives me one less whacky draw to worry about)
*** FLOP *** [Ts 9h 3d]
me: bets $0.24 (Just under a pot sized bet – standard on this board with my AA)aggressive/maniac: calls $0.24 (no surprise, he’s going to try to take it away. If he has a set, I’m doomed, if he has 2 pair, I have outs, but I think I’m ahead. I can fold AA to an obvious flush or straight against a solid player, but I’m paying off a maniac.)
*** TURN *** [Ts 9h 3d] [Ad]
me: checks (Yay, my card came, I’m going to let this guy think I’m afraid of the A. Maybe I had 88, JJ, QQ, or KQ or something, but surely I don’t like this A.)
aggressive/maniac: bets $2.18 and is all-in (Of course he thinks he can steal it. Allin is representative of a steal, not of strength. He’s not trying to get more money in. Doesn’t matter, I have the nuts at this point. Technically, there are gutshot straight draws, or backdoor flushes that could beat me, or 1 out draws to 4 of a kind, but this is exactly what I wanted, him to push against my great hand.)
me: calls $2.18 (I have the nuts at this point in the hand. )
*** RIVER *** [Ts 9h 3d Ad] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
me: shows [Ah Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
aggressive/maniac: mucks hand
me collected $4.83 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $5.08 Rake $0.25
Board [Ts 9h 3d Ad Qs]
Seat 1: calling station (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: me (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and won ($4.83) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 4: aggressive/maniac mucked [Kd Qd] (He had a gutshot and overcards on the flop, and backed into a flush draw on the turn, he’s about a 3-1 dog on the turn. That’s a good tournament move depending on stacks, but I don’t like it as a cash game move with deep stacks, you give up too much. Pot sized bet to take it down is fine, especially after I check that A. If you get called, you have a lot of outs, and you still have your chance to get paid off on the river. It wasn’t the worst play, but it’s not something I would recommend doing.)
Seat 5: weak tight folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: unkown folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: TAG? folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: unknown folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: maniac#2 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Another example:
PokerStars Game #xxxxxxxx: Hold’em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) – 2007/04/17 – 20:43:33 (ET)Table ‘xxxxxxx’ 9-max
Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: unknown ($4.36 in chips)
Seat 2: ringaling ($1.51 in chips)
Seat 3: me ($4.84 in chips)
Seat 4: unknown ($3.90 in chips)
Seat 5: weak loose ($2.46 in chips)
Seat 6: tight ($3.42 in chips)
Seat 7: LAG? ($2.52 in chips)
Seat 8: maniac ($4.76 in chips)
unknown: posts small blind $0.01
ringaling: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me [9c 8c]
me: raises $0.02 to $0.04 (Switching up my play with a minraise from UTG with decent suited connectors. Hoping to flop a draw. Most people would play AK or a medium pocket pair this way. What’s nice about this is your hand is usually well concealed.)
unknown: folds
weak loose: folds
tight: folds
LAG?: calls $0.04 (expected)
maniac: calls $0.04 (expected, kinda expected a raise, but this is perfect)
unknown: folds
ringaling: calls $0.02 (calling station)
*** FLOP ***
[Kc 9d 2c]
ringaling: checks
me: bets $0.12 (representing AK, but really I have a great draw with a flush draw and a pair. I can expect to make 2 pair or better over 50% of the time. That’s not saying I’m 50% to win the hand, but this is exactly what I was looking for. A well disguised draw. They should think I have AK or KQ. If I take it down now, that’s fine.)

LAG?: folds (smart enough to know he missed and with this board it could get ugly)
maniac: calls $0.12 (of course – he had been playing 80% of his hands, and had been aggressive. I can’t put him on anything, but I think if he had a K he would have raised. A9 maybe?)
ringaling: calls $0.12 (check calls everything, who knows)
*** TURN ***
[Kc 9d 2c] [Jh]
ringaling: checks me:
bets $0.40 (Once again, I only have a pair, but I still have my draw. At this point, I’m really trying to take the hand down. This was not a good card. It makes a straight, so my pair/trip outs are gone, but I think my flush outs may still be good)
maniac: calls $0.40 (Not surprising, but not what I wanted. I wanted that bet to take the hand down. He could have anything. Pair, straight draw, flush draw, made straight. I’m probably going to have to let the hand go on the river.)
ringaling: calls $0.40 (not surprising, but not what I wanted. I wanted that bet to take the hand down. Always check-calling)
*** RIVER *** [Kc 9d 2c Jh] [Qc]
ringaling: checks me: checks (A great card for me. I would have rather seen the Ac to know it’s not out there, but I get my flush. Not sure how I’m gonna play it, but I’m gonna check it. I’m representing that I’m giving up on the hand with AK. Based on the action I may call or raise. I can’t really put anyone on the nut flush draw based on their previous actions, but it is out there. I have a tendency assume that maniacs don’t have the big hand. Whether or not that is good, I don’t know.)
maniac: bets $0.20 (This is a really weird small bet. It gives me like 8-1 to call. My warning lights go on because it’s half the size of my turn bet. There’s a ton in the pot already, A normal bet size would have been at least half pot if he had a real hand. Betting into someone that has shown strength, he’s got to know he can get a call. My check made it look like I gave up with AK, so maybe he’s got a good hand and just wants me to call a small bet, but really, I think it’s just a weak steal.)
ringaling: calls $0.20 (just calling everything still)
me: raises $1.80 to $2 (I decide he has to have something like 2 pair or maybe T9, had a pair, and caught the straight. T9 is unlikely, because I have a 9, but it sure seems like he wants to get some value if he has the best hand, but he doesn’t like the flush on the board. I might be running into the A high flush draw, but I just think he would have raised preflop with an A. I hope he has a straight or a baby flush, even though I think he made a weak steal attempt. I’m going to get value from my hand. Against a solid player, I would just call here.)
maniac: calls $1.80 (No all in? No A high flush. I have the best hand.)
ringaling: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
me: shows [9c 8c] (a flush, King high)
maniac: mucks hand
me collected $5.68 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $5.93 Rake $0.25
Board [Kc 9d 2c Jh Qc]
Seat 1: unknown (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: ringaling (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 3: me showed [9c 8c] and won ($5.68) with a flush, King high
Seat 4: unknown folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: weak loose folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: tight folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: LAG? folded on the Flop
Seat 8: maniac (button) mucked [8d Td] (He had a straight. I don’t understand his flop call, though, unless he thinks he can take it away.)

=================================

I took a bit of a risk on that second hand. There were a lot of hands out there that could beat me – Axs, Jxs or Txs, but I felt based on my read of him as a maniac, I needed to get some value out of the hand. Again, against a solid player, I check call that, or may a small value blocking bet, but against someone that plays 80% of their cards, and plays them very aggressively, I have to assume that my hand is good.

I was fortunate that in both hands, the guys had something worth playing.

Great night for me. Basically I kept getting paid of by bad players and 2nd best hands. I had one hand where there was a big pot and I had to make a laydown, I’ll post that later.

BR-78.16 (up about 13 for the night)

Trash

A quick post. I read a a recent blog entry from Ed Miller (notedpokerauthority.com), and wanted to post a portion of it really quick. This is blatantly quoted from his site. I’ll offer some comments afterwards:
===========================
Don’t Play Trash
Fold your trash hands. Most hands are trash. It’s easier to define what’s not trash, so I’ll do that. The “Not Trash” list:
All Pocket Pairs
Two suited cards Jack or Higher (e.g., K J )
AK, AQ, AJ, and KQ offsuit
Ok, it’s not quite that simple. I have another list, the “Sometimes Trash” list:
Suited Connectors (e.g., 8 7 or J 9 )
AT and KJ offsuit
Suited Aces (particularly the big ones like A T )
============================

This should be totally obvious to experienced players, but to beginners, you may not realize it. Yes, any 2 cards can win, but more often than not, you need solid cards to play.

For those of you playing too tightly – AA, KK, QQ, JJ and AK only, you’re forgetting your implied odds on smaller pairs and suited connectors. You become too easy to read, and people will fold to your preflop raises, and you’ll never get any value out of your hands.

Everything depends on the situation, but it’s hard to go wrong using this as a guideline if you don’t know where you’re at, if you’re unfamiliar with your opponents, or you’re on a short bankroll.

Play hands that offer the opportunity for high implied odds situations – pocket pairs that make sets, big cards that flop top pair or better, suited aces that make nut flushes, and suited connectors that make straights and flushes.

There’s not much reason to play more hands than that in an internet cash game where you don’t see your opponents enough for them to pidgeonhole you. If you have an unusual situation that calls for it, like a multiday tournament where you need to make adjustments, fine, but at microstakes NL, you can stick to the basics and you’ll win.

Looking Back

I first really started getting in to poker about 5 years ago. A friend of mine and I started discussing it at work a lot, and we started playing a lot of heads up matches for lunch in a quiet conference room. We used a pad and pen to keep track of points instead of using chips, because chips might be scrutinized at work.

Anyway, as time went on, and we read books and studied the game, we started to write about what we thought we knew. The idea was to make a nice concise document of notes that we could use to improve our game. My friend recently asked me if I still had a copy of the document, and if so, would I send it to him, because he was curious about it. He and I have both played 100,000 hands or more since then, online, in home games, and casinos, and he wanted to know if he could measure his growth as a player against the document. After looking at the document, I’m positive he can. We were wrong about so much.

While I think we worked on the document for over a year, I only found several copies of the document edited over a 4 month period, the last being April 16, 2004. That would be yesterday. So, in honor of the 3 year anniversary of the last edit to the document, I thought I would post some snippets of them here, and then critique them, because after looking at the document, while some of our ideas were spot on, many of our notions were incorrect. This article will focus on one idea in the document which I feel was spot on. Here we go:

1. “Don’t educate the players. You will see lots of them do stupid things like clap when they pair up their low hole card. Let them. Let them fold out of turn without checking. Don’t tell them they need to call because the pot odds dictate it. You’re there to take their money, not educate them. ”

This is probably the smartest thing we said in the whole document. While I’m breaking that rule by educating you now, I’m not doing it at the table. At the table, you should only be focused on winning and learning, not educating. It was based on something that we were seeing a lot, and I still see online a lot. My friend and I actually sat at a table at the Sahara in Las Vegas, where a woman would buy in for $20 at a 1/2 limit hold’em table. (10BB). She was playing like it was blackjack. She’d put $20 down, and get her stack. There would be action in front of her – bets and raises. She’d only call. The flop would hit, and then she would look at her cards. If the flop hit her hand, she would start clapping excitedly, like she caught blackjack. If it didn’t hit, she’d complain. At that point there would be betting and raising. She would always call or check, regardless of her hand and the action. At the end of the hand, she would turn over her cards. The dealer would then explain to her what her final hand was. If you could beat it (which you would know anyway), you would show your hand and take the pot. She would then buy in for another $20 dollars. If everyone had missed and she was excited, it would get checked around, because she wouldn’t bet. You would wait for her to show her hand, and then fold if you couldn’t beat it. She was literally the worst hold’em player ever. What is the point of this story? She did this over and over, and no one told her to buyin for more than the minimum, bet when she had a hand, fold when she didn’t, to not show glee when making a hand, and disappointment when she didn’t. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to stay at that table for too long, because we had dinner plans with others, but had we been able to, we would have stayed at that table all night, or at least until she left, and we would have never said a word.

When you sit at a table in a casino or online, and you have someone saying things like ‘You’re an idiot, why did you call 2 pot sized bets when you only had bottom pair?!’ they are teaching people how to play better. Educating players only makes them play stronger poker against you, making it more difficult to win their money. It may bum you out that someone sucked out with bottom pair, but really, you want that person to call with the worst of it every time. Over the long run, that is going to make you a lot of money. Why stop someone from making that call? Anyone that critiques play or explains play at the table is either doing it to feed their own ego or is very frustrated, but either way, you can rest assured that they are not an advanced player. Anyone who has thought about the game long enough will know that teaching a table full of players to beat you is not in your best interest. Don’t do it yourself, and do your best to request others not do it as well. A simple ‘nice hand’ ,’well played’ , or ‘one player to a hand’ to keep the table happy does a lot more for your long term profits than ‘who calls an all in with no pair and no draw?!!’

In poker, the person who makes the least mistakes over the long run wins the money. If everyone plays perfect poker, and no one makes mistakes, you can’t win any money. Don’t teach people to not make mistakes against you while at the table. Writing in a blog to educate your mom is another story.

BR ~65.00

A Tournament Hand

I had an opportunity to play a few tournaments recently. Here’s a hand from a $4.40 – 180 man tourney. I ended up later losing in a preflop pair against pair battle, and missed the money.

You may wonder why I posted this particular hand. I think it’s a good example of how to analyze draws and pot odds in NL tournaments. Here we go:

PokerStars Game #9410171111: Tournament #47711111, $4.00+$0.40 Hold’em No Limit – Level II (15/30) – 2007/04/13 – 23:47:21 (ET)Table ‘47781097 16′ 9-max
Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: bob (1105 in chips)
Seat 2: me (1580 in chips)
Seat 3: hax0ra (5645 in chips)
Seat 4: maniac (4510 in chips)
Seat 5: someone2gdl (1575 in chips)
Seat 6: duder (2665 in chips)
Seat 7: atsac2 (1330 in chips)
Seat 8: bum82 (3435 in chips)
me: posts small blind 15
hax0ra: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me [Ah 4h]
maniac: calls 30
someone2gdl: raises 60 to 90
duder: folds
atsac2: folds
bum82: calls 90
bob: folds
me: calls 75 (loose call in the SB. I call because they’re suited, and I’ve been very tight – I haven’t played a hand other than in the blinds. I can fold if I flop a pair, but hanging around if I flop a good draw. It’s been raised, but there’s one guy who already called the raise, another who called initially, and should call the raise, and the BB who will probably call as well, so I think the pot may be somewhat protected postflop. Also, because I haven’t played much, I might be able to take this one away on the end. I probably throw this hand away more often than I call with it, but I felt the situation is right, and I know how to get away from a bad A if I’m beat.)
hax0ra: folds
maniac: calls 60
*** FLOP ***
[5h Qh 3d]
me: checks (Great draw, I plan on check calling or check raising depending on the action. Realistically, I want to keep maniac in the hand so I can make more on my draw, so calling makes more sense to me. I hope that either maniac or the preflop raiser will make a nice 1/2 pot open. If both stay in the hand, I’ll probably check call the turn if I don’t make my hand. If it gets heads up on the turn, may go for the push myself if I miss. It will be hard for the guy to call at that point.)
maniac: checks
someone2gdl: bets 1485 and is all-in (This bet seemed ridiculous. It has to be a small pair or a complete whiff with a draw, or something like AK, and the guy is stealing. There is no reason to bet 3x the pot. If anyone is calling you, they’re calling whether you bet 1x the pot, or 3x the pot)
bum82: folds
me: raises 5 to 1490 and is all-in (I had to think for a bit before I did it. It was early, but there were too many reasons to put in the rest of my chips. A) The guy raised preflop. The board really doesn’t match with a preflop raise. B) The all in bet looks like a complete bluff, he has nothing or maybe a pair, or AK. C) I have a ton of outs with 2 cards to come. I have the nut flush draw (9), a gutshot (4 twos make me a straight), and I have an overcard (may or may not help me if the guy has a pair and an A, or a bigger A). At minimum, I have 13 outs. I could have as many as 16 if he has something like JJ or KK. I can’t imagine he’d have a set or something. If he did, he’d make a suck bet to try to get more money in. Early in tournaments, I’m not usually shooting for coinflip situations, but based on the action, I felt I was better than a coinflip.)
maniac: folds
*** TURN ***
[5h Qh 3d] [7s]
*** RIVER ***
[5h Qh 3d 7s] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
me: shows [Ah 4h] (a flush, Ace high)
someone2gdl: shows [Qs Ad] (a pair of Queens)me collected 3360 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3360 Rake 0
Board [5h Qh 3d 7s Jh]
Seat 1: bob (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: me (small blind) showed [Ah 4h] and won (3360) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: hax0ra (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: maniac folded on the Flop
Seat 5: someone2gdl showed [Qs Ad] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 6: duder folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: atsac2 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: bum82 folded on the Flop

So I had 13 true outs when I made the call, because he had a pair, and an A, so those extra overcard outs were all gone. However, using the rule of 4 with 2 outs to come, I’m right around ~50% to make my hand without the overcard (13 outs *4 = 52). Yes, I’m more or less busted and out if I miss, but I’m comfortable at 3350 chips if I win. With pot odds of 1.2 to 1, it’s still a profitable call. It may have been a bit early in the tourney to make a 50/50 call for my chips, but I think it was still a good play. Later in the tourney, if I have the other guy easily covered, I’ll always make this call, unless we’re near the bubble. The fact that the 7 comes on the turn and gives me another 4 outs doesn’t really come in to play, because I had already made the call on the flop, but that was not a bad card to turn. My odds on the turn were now 17 outs * 2 = ~34% on the river.

While this hand may remind you of the Frenchy hand, it’s a bit different. A) it’s a tournament – no rake, so the odds are better, and chip position is important, B) the pot has a nice overlay – there’s already 300 in there, C) the stacks are a little shorter, D) the bettor opened on the flop with an unwarranted all in, showing weakness, whereas Frenchy called someone who had shown strength with a raise and an all-in reraise. E) my flush draw is to the nuts, and F) I have an overcard, so I might actually be ahead if he has some suited connector hearts or worse. So, I’m getting about 1.2 to 1 (calling 1485 in a pot with 360+1485) on my money, and I’m about even 50/50 in the worst case scenario of having 13 outs. With the pot offering an extra 20%, it looks like a call makes sense. Granted, if I miss, I’m out, but long term, calls like this will make money. In addition, having a chip count of about 2 times the average, an early double up can put me in a position to win the tournament. Showing people you’re willing to make a tough call also has the benefit of slowing them down against you.

On the flop side, I don’t really understand his reasoning for the unwarranted all-in. He should have made a pot sized bet for a continuation bet. He would have been called or raised (no bet can really get me off my hand at this point – sound familiar?), but it lets him know where he is at. A pot sized bet makes it incorrect for anyone to call him with anything less than a huge draw. He basically forced all hands to play correctly against him. Call if you’re ahead, fold if you’re behind.

If he wants to double up early or go home, then that’s ok, but really, a couple smaller, pot sized bets could take the pot away without risking all his chips. If he gets resistance, he can slow down and still get away from the hand. In a cash game, I’m not sure I like his play, either. Had he bet, been raised, then reraised or folded, I’m ok with it, but basically he laid out his money and had no idea where he stood, out of position, and against a guy who has shown complete tightness (me), who would have folded to a much smaller bet without a hand. Top pair top kicker just isn’t good enough for that kind of allin move. I guess I’d be ok with it if he bet a pot sized bet all 3 streets, but on the flop it just smells too fishy.
If your goal is to win a tourney, and not back into the money, you occasionally have to make calls like this.

I guess what’s most interesting about the hand is that even though I picked up 4 more outs on the river and was about 34% to win at that point, had he made a pot sized bet on the flop (300), and I had called (300), you’ve got 900 in the pot. He can push with his remaining 1200 on the turn, and I’m getting 2100 to 1200 for pot odds (7-4) and I’ve got 2-1 odds to make my hand. I can’t call profitably. I’d need 2400 in the pot to make the call, and it’s not there. Granted, he can’t know that, or know my holding, but he could wait and see if the turn card looks like it helps a draw or not and then make his bet.

BR 64.36