Palm the Joker

Played a 4-tabling match at 2/4 HU vs. some taggy guy earlier tonight. It had a pretty interesting preflop dynamic. Villain was 3betting with a pretty ridiculous frequency so I adapted by minraising preflop and he adapted to that by 3betting even more!

Here’s a hand I played well:

Full Tilt Poker $2/$4 No Limit Hold’em – 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $1520.50
Hero (BB): $1017.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BB with J J
BTN/SB raises to $12, Hero raises to $41, BTN/SB raises to $111, Hero calls $70

Flop: ($222.00) 3 Q 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $140, Hero calls $140

Turn: ($502.00) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB requests TIME, BTN/SB checks

River: ($502.00) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

Final Pot: $502.00
BTN/SB shows 9 6 (a pair of Threes)
Hero shows J J (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
Hero wins $501.50
(Rake: $0.50)

Playing deepstacks OOP obviously blows, and I was shitting my pants on this turn and river combo. Fortunately he only fires the one barrel and I take down the pot.

Here’s a hand I played badly:

Full Tilt Poker $2/$4 No Limit Hold’em – 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $635.00
BTN/SB: $567.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BB with 9 8
BTN/SB raises to $12, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($24.00) T 6 Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $20, Hero raises to $66, BTN/SB calls $46

Turn: ($156.00) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $144, BTN/SB calls $144

River: ($444.00) 4 (2 players)
Hero requests TIME, Hero bets $413 all in, BTN/SB calls $345 all in

Final Pot: $1134.00
Hero shows 9 8 (a straight, Ten high)
BTN/SB shows K K (a flush, King high)
BTN/SB wins $1133.50
(Rake: $0.50)

At the time I managed to convince myself there was some thin value in a river shove, but looking back on it I think I just really didn’t want to check/fold, which is pretty clearly the correct play. Villain hadn’t really shown a tendency to make any hero calls, and my image was a little spewy but not enough to justify this.

Overall I think I wasn’t playing that well. There were a lot of spots where I had the weaktight “I’ll just wait for a hand” mentality, especially vs. his preflop 3bets. I should have started setting up a balanced 4bet range early on, instead I ended up 4betting pretty much nothing. I’m probably being a little results oriented though, as I ended down 4-5 buyins to this guy. He was running pretty hot and hitting some nasty coolers on me. Meh, what can you do.

Five days to Vegas!