Play poker, think poker, write poker

Now this ought to be more interesting, than the winning ones

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298341 - I tend to play good trips with high kickers and an ace, very fast. I am like 40% against a boat and I am 57% against other trips, so usually it is a flip and once the pot is raised, we both have no choice. However, he is a bit optimistic with his 3bet.
2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298372 - The short stacker goes all in and this guy minraises with 4 people to act behind him. Does he minraise the nuts here and give odds to every set and flush draw to chase? Does he minraise naked 74 unsure what he would do if raised? Does he minraise set? After these thoughts went through my mind and I pushed hopind that he has the hand he had and that he would fold. Unfortunatelly even though he is like 25% against a bare 74 and even less against 74 with blockers he called. Maybe my reasoning is wrong. I should try to play straight forwardly for a while.
3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298380 - Terrible push by me. The guy was a maniac and has been betting and raising every possible trash recently. However in this spot every king has me crushed. I should find the fold button once.
4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298694 - Another bad play. After the small check-raise I put him on a top two or set. I figure I have 6 clear outs and I can bluff flush cards. However now I see that 6 outs are too few. Anyways the turn opens more outs for me but I make another mistake and push. I see no point in this push, since he is already commited and never folding.
5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298698 - My hand is the best one I can get against aces. In the worst case I am 40% if both my flush draws are covered. All I need is a bit of support from the flop, which I don’t get but still have close odds to try to outdraw aces. Pushing flop gives me some minor chance he could fold and I am calling anyways.
6. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298707 - Now this was an interesting spot. Paired boards are usually good for aces in 3bet pots. However a T,9,8 and J are the most probable cards in two hands that know are drawing against aces. I would say 50% of the time one of them has a T and I am hoping to have 6 clear outs. Against a random hand with T I am around 17% and I need a bit more than 20. Against good draws I am even a favorite, so I in total I fugure this to be an OK push.
7. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298716 - Serious leak noted. I need to play more carefully with weak trips. Here half of the range he raises with, beats me well and 99 is one of the few hands I am not such a huge dog against. I am not sure if I could fold the turn. He seems to have a boat and against most of boats which I have 3 outs. But then once I call the flop maybe I am commited. I am not really sure.
8. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298725 - I go for check/raise on flop, because there are a lot of cards that hurt me on turn and I would like to solve the hand on the flop. One of them comes, I am upset I gave a free card and lead. Someone clearly shows me he has T8 against which I am 23% and I call !?!?!?! I am pushing every paired river also
9. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298741 - It seems that I keep putting myself with the worst of it. Here I figure to have good equity against a flopped str8 (almost the same against set with str8 draw) and since it is even money anyway I push. However It is a bit of a losing play and I figure to lose like 10$ every time I make this play.
10. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298754 - Kinda failed 3bet and then I am not folding top two when I only need 0.33 ev
11. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298759 - Episode 1438743874 of me overvaluing the equity of overpair with weak draw. Even against naked two pair I have only 30%
12. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298773 - Check turn, reevaluate river, eazy game
13. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3298983 - I am completelly lost in this hand. Bottom set in limped drawy pot sucks. He might have good draw but generally he will have higher set often enough to make me want to play small pot. On the turn I decide to cut his bluffs and to price all the draws, he calls with position. I get a safe card that only changes the value of top two, but I don’t expect him to float turn with naked top two. I check to represent 54, he does not push but bets small. I am not sure I can fold here, but how often is he bluffing here. I am lost!!!!
14. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299000 - I get good hand on the turn and I chicken out not to get pushed off my hand from a KT. At the river the only draw hits and I still call ?!!?!? Disgusting
15. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299016 - Nice call, man.
16. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299022 - OK, some of these hands are like… WTF was I thinking? I guess I was tilted…Value town me, pls.
17. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299034 - His bet size on the turn, brought him another street of value. Honestly, who bets 12 here with str8. I guess it makes sence if he intends to fold it to raise and to charge draws, but still…but then I should be raising the turn for value.
18. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299052 - The calling station is back. Didn’t want to raise the turn, since he looked like set or str8, I didn’t have the guts to push the naked ace bluff on the river. I should have folded the turn.
19. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299076 - Both against aces and against his hand I have like 39% chance to win, which is approximatelly as 31$ to win 77.
20. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299086 - It seems that I seem to keep getting involved in postflop situation in which I am behind but have the odds to call an all in. Maybe my preflop style is too loose. Maybe I need to give up more hands on flop
21. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299119 - Such a miss of a second barrel should be punishable.
22. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3299135 - Jennifer Tilly was on my table, she just knew I had the kings

I am disgusted by some of the plays on this page. But now I think I know where did some of my money go I am going to do similar pair of reviews in a week. If you took the time to read through all of those hands and you have comments, it will be a loss for both of us if you don’t share them…

Popularity: 56% [?]

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294114 - Villain is very agressive and playing 50/30. I figure it to be a good reraising spot. However he 4bets me, which until proven otherwise is always aces. I have a pair in my hand, which always reduces the number of flops I could hit, but otherwise my hand is as best as it gets and he is commited. It turns out I am 40/60 against aces preflop and on the flop he is commited and I have position.
2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294120 - I 3bet position again and get called. I flop top two+gutshot+backdoor FD, but there are many turn cards I don’t want to see. I lead small to represent scared aces and to give him the impression that he has fold equity. I don’t really have balanced range for this move as I am not going to do it with AA or KK. Only the nuts, sets or good semidrawing hands. If the board is suited I might do it with aces also since I will repping a nut flush draw. Once he raises me if he has 76, I am around 33%, which is not ideal, but I bet small to induce bluffs, so now I have to go with it.
3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294130 - I am always leading this flop. I think it makes my hand transparent, but the effective stacks leave less than PSB left so it doesn’t matter. When he just calls, I put him on a drawing hand or top pair + coordinated kickers, like QJT7. The king is a pretty bad card since most of the peeling hands with Q also have a K in them, but with less than PSB I have no choice.
4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294138 - A terrible push by me. Against two pairs I have around 30% and against set ~16%. None of these is good enough to put 140$ to win 350$.
5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294156 - Preflop, I can reraise since my hand plays better in hu pots. His 1/2 pot raise is rarelly AA and with a pot-size re-raise I can make the hand easier to play post flop and give him less implied odds. As played, I am mostly set minning. I hit the set and go for check-raise, he obliges and that’s that.
6. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294171 - Here he is generally either with a set or we are splitting and he might be freerolling me, or sometimes he has air. I expect him to bluff with air and the freerolls and to check the sets. Maybe bet on the turn is better and I am trying to be too tricky.
7. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294177 - The initial raiser was tight and he rarelly has 64 in the hand and leading into a shortstack gives credibility to my hand since I am getting called in this spot often. However I figure to have enough equity against a possible shortstack calling hand. ~22% against sets and str8s and ~40% against two pair. Given the fold equity seems like a good move. If I am to be raised by the PFR I will have to fold.
8. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294193 - Similar to the previous hand. I use the short stack protection also with the fact that the PFR does not have a hand often enough and that there are no flush draws down.
9. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294196 - I hate my flop c/r here, but the turn is basically a dream card on which I go on to represent my top two.
10. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294199 - On the flop, if he leads I might give up, since he was loose enough to 3bet T9 and probably he is going to lead them here. Once he shows me he missed the flop I go for double barrel as I set up the things with small bet on turn to look as if I feel unbeatable with T9. He calls, he might have flush draw, top pair, or simply AA that does not believe my small stab. Then the river comes and A, now he knows his hand looks like AA alot, So if I lead full pot into an A river, it seems as if I decided he cannot fold his AA now and lets get payed off. It is a risky play sicne some people just cannot fold a set, but I had some respect for him.
11. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294210 - Preflop I should probably raise. On the flop, unknown leads for full pot into 3 other people. Now he might be leading a good draw he is ready to stack, a T9 not very probable, a TT is very probable and maybe 22, but not many people play 22 even from SB. So if I raise his calling range is either a flip against me or crushing me. I choose to see the turn and reevaluate. The turn is one of the few bricks and he leads small. Now he should never do this with TT on a board like this in 4 way pot OOP, so I am sure I am bets now and go ahead to protect my hand.
12. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294222 - My raising range from SB mostly misses a lot this flop. Hence I check here with all my range against an agressive player in the BB. He doesn’t disappoint me and leads. Now I can raise here, but If I am 3bet I will have to fold or if he happens to call I will have tough spot on most turns, so as most of my OOP pots I go for the passive line. He of course leads te turn into me again. His range here is many bluffs, pair+draw, sometimes sets and str8s. I am in the situation where I either have the best hand or the best draw and against almost every hand I have at least 30% equity.
13. http://www.pokerhand.org/?3294230 - I raise preflop from the SB, so I cbet to represent AAJ. On the turn, I expect him to have mostly better sets, J9 or AJ and I since he doesn’t have even a PSB left, I am not sure how much I like my turn bet. Most of these hands he is not folding, maybe except for J9.

Stay tuned for some “losing” hands review soon…

Popularity: 55% [?]

Yesterday I played a session of NL, followed by a short PLO session.

Here I want to discuss some of the hands from the session.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2939265 This guy sat on the table like 5hands ago, played every hand and did the same 3bet minraise IP already once. So I decided to see the flop. He bets pot which he might be doing with bluffs and also with strong hand, so I continue with the hand, turn is a safe card and he bets very,very small. At this point I am either way behind or slightly ahead. On the river he pushed and even though I don’t beat any of his value pushing range I was seriously considering calling. At the end I decided to muck since I am trying to get rid of this habit of mine whenever I don’t have reads to call down lightly. However, later in the session, this hand happened http://www.pokerhand.org/?2939275

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2939278 I have been experimenting with donkleading recently and it seems to work, against very aggro players and against weak players. It also seems to slow down reasonably aggressive players who otherwise would be double barreling often. My current approach is to use it with various range dependent on the opponent.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2939261 The opponent in this hand is very aggressive and tries steals a lot. However, he likes to call 3bets IP. Given the last part maybe a call preflop here is also ok. On the flop I was seriously puzzled what my line should be, I tried to figure out my range and how would I play this with high aces and also with KK,QQ. However while I was considering my time expired and the stupid policy of party is to fold your hand if you run out of time.Sucks! However I am pretty sure I will bet here with aces going for flop and river value,maybe also with KK. I think my line with TT should be the same. There are very few hands ahead of me and he might fold JJ to a river bet.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2939266 I messed up this hand completely. Opponent is loose and has floated me light previously, so I figure he will float this flop often and then bet turn if checked to. However I didn’t have the discipline to raise his turn bet. Also on the river when he insta bet this fishy value size I should have just folded. Bad play, me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2939268 This guy was playing very loose. The minraise on a monotone board will be a bluff more often than not. However I want to keep in his drawing hands with high spade and that is why I 4bet small. Here I am very unsure how I feel about his play. Mainly because I will play my flushes and high aces with high spade hands exectly the same way. I will also play bluffs like this, that his play is folding. I will also probably fold good showdown hands like AJ without a spade and KQ with a spade, but with those I am more apt to call his minraise. In general I believe he is usually crushed by my min4betting range.

And to finish with my biggest PLO hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2939282 Villain is probably a good player since I saw he was also playing some of the 400PLO tables. I have a monster on the flop and I am willing to stack against every raise. On the turn I still have my outs however, he keeps calling. The river bricks, he checkss to me and I have a tought decision. He doesn’t have a set, since he would raise me earlier. He doesn’t have two pair since he would check/raise me on the turn.So either he has a strong combo draw that is not strong enought to raise the flop or he had some mixed hand that picked up a draw on the turn.If he had 78, he would probably push the river, expecting me to call him with a set, I cannot see a hand with 32 or 37 often after flop and turn call, so I was left with the idea that he must have a combo draw. One of AKTx,KKTxKJTx,KQTx,KT9x,T98x probably with a club draw. Some of those have one pair, that currently beats me but cannot call a push for half pot, since I am representing minimum QJ, so I bet and he folds.

Popularity: 66% [?]

Played a small session today, I cannot belive som of the players out there.

I will post here the biggest and most interesting pots:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2898091 - First hand on this table, I flop the nuts for my hand and bet it twice, on the turn he coul have 87, but on the river I am sure he is weak. He called me down for 50bb with middle pair and some backdoor weak redraws. WTF?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2898110 - The villain from the previous hand left after the hand. I open a new table and he sits agaist me again. We play 3-4 small pots and then this comes up. Again brilliant top pair +backdoor flush draw +backdoor str8 draw for stacks.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2898123 - Villain in this hand lost two stacks for 10 minutes with some crazy maniakish plays. On the turn I honestly didin’t see the QJ str8 and figured he cannot have J7 and any str8 he should reraise with the two flush draws. The bet on river didin;t make much sense but i trusted my read and was wrong.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2898136 - Bluff raise gone wrong. This opponent was playing maniakishly, so he cbets his entire range. Hence I decide I can get him off good portion of it and I have soem backdoor redwaws if I am behind. He had a very strong draw but i hold

Popularity: 29% [?]

Today I played my monthly tournament session and once again I reminded myself why I moved away from tournaments.

4 tournaments:

-pushed KQ from CO for 10bb,got called by AT that is good;

-pushed ATs from MP+1 with 11bb,got called by QQ and AK;

-A9 beat my AJ on A63 flop,when we had half pot bet left on the 9 turn;

- and in my PLO tourny, I pushed with the nut str8 on flop with like 15bb and got called by same hand+redraw

And I actually played well!!!!

On the positive note, while the last touney was going I pulled some plo tables and made the tourney buyins from a bluffy player, but still…

Popularity: 5% [?]