Isn't that clover?

So not really sure if I'll keep this up, but the idea of this blog is to talk about the live poker I play in New Orleans.  Games here sound like they different than elsewhere (specifically, the games are generally looser on big streets and more aggressive postflop than what I hear described as 'typical' live play).  I often play both a short stack and a deep stack in the games (maybe I'll elaborate more on this in another post).

Here's a hand from short stack play.  I have about $320 in a 2/5 game.  I'm relatively new to the table, the villain in the hand just made a fold to a turn check/raise the previous hand that he considered to be a 'big' fold (taking his time to muck).  He raises to $25 in the HJ, CO calls, I have AKo in the SB and I elect to flat.  This is one of those weird spots that you get into playing a short stack preflop ... I think shoving will obviously be profitable and one can certainly raise a smaller amount as well, but I think calling is okay here because it allows for a SPR of 3-4.  It's a spot where I am happy to keep weak hands in preflop, because weak Ax and Kx hands can often be induced to stack off with good betting decisions on my part.  Anyway, I think there are good arguments for reraising here, but I also think calling has a fair amount of merit and this spot is a lot closer than most people realize.  As played, the BB calls as well.  The flop comes A83r, it checks to the CO who bets $45, folds to me and I check/raise to $110 total.  CO again tanked for about a minute, then open folded A9s.

Not sure how I feel about my play given that he didn't at least peel a card with A9.  I don't see many players like CO in the games here ... had we played at the table together longer (he left after a few minutes because the game was a must move), obviously he is someone I'd be constantly looking for good spots to bluff him.  And working on not value cutting myself too thin.

Didn't really have any particularly interesting deep hands, but I did 'just' complete AJo and KQo in the SB while playing ~200 BB deep.  As much as I think I understand the importance of position when playing deep stacked, I seem to appreciate it more and more each time I play deep.  I think both hands play better in small pots than in bigger ones, where you can induce a lot more mistakes and you don't put yourself in tough stack commitment situations.  I don't think raising them is terrible in the games I play in, because there is a lot of value in them when some of the looser players are calling any suited cards, dominated broadway hands, unsuited connectors, and weak aces.  When I am playing short, it would be criminal not to make a nice 5-6 BB raise to build a pot, planning to stack off with TPGK; perhaps if I were better playing deep, particularly playing the turn and river, I'd be better off raising them as well.  But I think completing them is optimal for my current playing abilities.  It does make my raising range from the blinds pretty heavily unbalanced toward very strong value hands, but that's fine since I still get action anyway (lol live poker); I could, in theory, add in some raises with some more speculative hands, but since I get a lot of value as is and it's quite expensive (and nowhere near 100% successful) to try to bluff people off marginal hands in my games, I don't see much reason to do so at this point.