jjd323's blog

Today I played two sessions. In the first session I two-tabled in the second session I three-tabled, which is rare for me. I played around 550 hands in total. I managed to remember to get my glass of water before each session, so that’s a good thing; I prepared well. I had a bunch of interesting spots come up, but I just marked them for future analysis at the time, rather than try and work out if my play was good right then. I feel that overall I kept my focus well throughout each session.

One thing I am definitely trying to work on, that I really had to focus on doing when three-tabling, was looking to see who was in the blinds when making my preflop decisions. This is no small thing, and is at least as important as the players who have entered the pot ahead of you. If you do elect to cold-call with position it is really important to know what the blinds are likely to do in response: some have a static strategy and won’t cause you any more trouble than they ought to; sometimes a really loose fish will play any two, which is sometimes fine and sometimes isn’t, depending on the hand you hold and the way you see the hand playing out; sometimes you just know if you enter the pot after that 60/5 fish you are very likely going to get squeezed by the small blind, and this can lead to some interesting adjustments:

UTG: $20.40
MP: $40.00
Hero (CO): $169.85
BTN: $106.60
SB: $126.40
BB: $95.15

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with 8 T
1 fold, MP calls $1, Hero calls $1, 1 fold, SB raises to $6, 1 fold, MP calls $5, Hero raises to $22.50, 2 folds

I made two other interesting preflop decisions today as well:

Here the UTG player is so tight that I don’t think I can profitably squeeze, and AQ is going to suck in a multiway pot OOP:

BB: $114.90
UTG: $100.00
MP: $46.15
CO: $172.90
BTN: $100.05
Hero (SB): $139.15

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with Q A
UTG raises to $3, MP calls $3, CO calls $3,
BTN folds,
Hero folds!!

And here I choose to check my option in the BB with QQ because I have a pretty solid read that the UTG limper has a range of mostly AK, AA, maybe KK and some % of junk that he will fold to a raise; I can discount lower PPs as I saw him raise 22 from UTG earlier. In the event he holds junk or has a smaller pair, I can use my hand-reading skills to collect my value later in the hand, if appropriate. I am not committed preflop, and feel that I would have to fold to a limp-reraise all-in (note that he is short-stacked):

MP: $20.00
CO: $190.50
BTN: $188.00
SB: $114.15
Hero (BB): $126.70
UTG: $38.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with Q Q
UTG calls $1, 4 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($2.50) 9 J 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: ($2.50) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $2, Hero calls $2

River: ($6.50) A (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $6.50, Hero folds

I feel I played well today and although I made some unconventional decisions preflop, I am pretty happy with my reasons for them and the overall performance I put out.

My goal tomorrow is to consciously note the people in the blinds every single hand I play, before making my preflop decision (even if I have junk I am folding), and to make better informed decision because of it.

j