Stairway to RailHeaven

OK guys, I hope at least some of you still follow my blog, I´d be happy if you leave me some life signs, feedback / information on what you want to get cleared, discussed deeper.

I mentioned last time, that - with ~$70 in winnings (14 buy-ins on NL5) - we decided to take a strictly controlled shot at NL10. We agreed to set a stop loss of 4 buy-ins. That means, we virtually put $40 from our roll aside and played with that $40 at NL10. If she won, she´d be able to take further shots / leave NL5 behind, if she lost, well than it´s time to rebuild on NL5.

So she did - and lost the 4 buy-ins at the same evening. :)

The bad thing is that she took some bad beats at the beginning of the sessions, which - combined with some real badly played hands - put her on tilt and made her playing her C-game for the rest of the session, included leaving behind most of what we learned / agreed upon so far.

The good thing though (hey, she´s still my little girl!!) was that she stuck to our agreement and insta-leaved when she hit the $40-loss-mark.

That threw her bankroll back to $330 and it was time to sit back and grind on NL5 again.

Anyway, here are some key hands that caught my attention after analyzing the session:

Hand 1

Villain in this hand is a very bad, very loose player (64/12).

CO: $9.40
Hero (BTN): $10.00
SB: $3.29
BB: $9.45
UTG: $5.12
MP: $4.45

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with A K
UTG raises to $0.20, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.70, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.55) T 6 J(2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $1.40, UTG calls $1.40

Turn: ($4.35) 8(2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $3.10, UTG calls $3.02 all in

River: ($10.39) J(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $10.39
Hero shows A K (a pair of Jacks)
UTG shows 9 T (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
UTG wins $9.70
(Rake: $0.69)

What went wrong? The turnbet is the mistake. We have position and we either have the best hand (unlikely, but possible) or we have 10 outs. If we´re behind it´s unlikely (up to impossible against this guy) that we get him to fold. So, why betting? The loyal readers already know what´s coming - the ever part #2 of the framework:

THINK ABOUT WHY YOU´RE DOING WHAT YOU´RE DOING.

Hand 2

SB in this hand was another giant fish (65/12, my sweetie has an amazing table-selection :)), BB was a nitty 12/8 (playing ABC postflop).

UTG: $7.39
CO: $10.00
Hero (BTN): $14.87
SB: $17.19
BB: $12.68

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with A K
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, SB calls $0.35, BB calls $0.30

Flop: ($1.20) A J 3(3 players)
SB bets $0.10, BB raises to $0.70, Hero raises to $14.47 all in, SB calls $14.37, BB calls $11.58 all in

Turn: ($42.42) J(3 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($42.42) 4(3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $42.42
Hero shows A K (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
SB shows 5 A (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
BB shows 3 3 (a full house, Threes full of Jacks)
Hero wins $4.38
BB wins $36.04
(Rake: $2.00)

Again, what went wrong? Correct, the flop is a fold! Yes, we can easily release TPTK in this spot, because the nitty BB generously put his hand / range pretty much face up. What else than a set should he raise an A-high super-dry board with when the super-fish donks into two players (probably with Ax) and pfr is still active?

Hand 3

Villain in this hand was another ABC-playing TAG, playing 17/12. The rest are the regular way-to-loose fish.

Hero (MP): $11.45
CO: $10.60
BTN: $14.12
SB: $10.86
BB: $46.53
UTG: $7.70

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with A Q
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.30, CO calls $0.30, 1 fold, SB calls $0.25, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($1.20) 3 5 Q(4 players)
SB bets $0.80, BB folds, Hero raises to $4.20, CO raises to $10.30 all in, SB folds, Hero calls $6.10

Turn: ($22.60) T(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($22.60) 2(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $22.60
Hero shows A Q (a pair of Queens)
CO shows 5 5 (three of a kind, Fives)
CO wins $21.10
(Rake: $1.50)

Another spot where we overplay TPK. Raising the fish´s donkbet is fine - though the raise-size is atrocious. But, once we got cold-3bet by the ABC-tag it´s definitely time to say "good bye". Never, and I mean actually never this is a naked flush draw. We´re drawing dead against sets and we´re at most very slightly ahead of any combo draw. The problem that we´re almost committed solely derives from the bad betsize, so it´s no excuse. :)

Hand 4

Villain is an aggro guy (66/23), taking almost every opportunity to bluff.

Hero (BTN): $43.22
SB: $23.39
BB: $19.56
CO: $10.45

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with A 7
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, BB calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.85) 6 5 7(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.60, BB raises to $1.20, Hero raises to $2.60, BB calls $1.40

Turn: ($6.05) 9(2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($6.05) 6(2 players)
BB bets $4.35, Hero calls $4.35

Final Pot: $14.75
Hero shows A 7 (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
BB shows Q 3 (a pair of Sixes)
Hero wins $13.77
(Rake: $0.98)

My girlfriend (correctly in my book) had expected Villain to raise way bigger with a flush - and as well with any made hand he´s trying to protect. That leaves his range being overly bluff-heavy.

We 3bet to charge him with hands that contain a single diamond (and maximize value this way).

So, Villain doesn´t come over the top but calls and checks the turn. That makes flushes unlikely, leaving his range ultrawide with loads of air (probably with a single diamond). Even though 8x is possible, it´s not overly likely, which gives us good enough reason to bet again (I still expect him to call with a naked diamond, so I kind of dislike the check behind).

As played, the river is an "easy" bluffcatcher, though.

Well played. :)

Hand 5

Hero (CO): $20.83
BTN: $16.41
SB: $28.01
BB: $21.01
UTG: $14.36

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is CO with Q Q
UTG raises to $0.40, Hero raises to $1.30, 1 fold, SB calls $1.25, BB raises to $3, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.70, SB calls $1.70

Another hand where we can learn an important lesson from: pay attention to any single information we´re having at hand - not only the most obvious one!

UTG raises and we reraise with QQ from the CO. BTN folds, SB calls - and now the BB 3bets.

My sweetie glanced at his stats, recognized him being a 55/15 and called, because she felt she was too deep to shove. So far anything looks fine.

The essential thing though was the plan for the flop. Certainly she planned to stack off on any non-A/K-flop. But that had been a giant mistake!

At the second glance on Villain´s stats (and if she had played 3-4 tables, instead of 8 - lol) she could´ve seen that Villain never ever 3bet once before (over a decent sample size)! Given that fact, combined with the small - sucky - 3bet-size, almost only one single hand comes to question. And QQ does not do well against that hand.

Eventually things ran out good, we flopped the Q and stacked the dreaded Aces. Easy game. :)

So, we made another thorough analysis together and again corrected some flaws / lacks in her thought process. One thing we were (and still are) consistently working on was her ability to fold. :D

She made a good job though and within the next ~5k hands on NL5 she managed to recover all of the losses from NL10. Add some rakeback and her bankroll was back at $410 - so she could take another shot at NL10. And this time it worked - so she hopefully never has to look back again:

Bankroll actually stands at $456.

=> Next post (as promised) will be dedicated to bet-folding. :) Stay tuned (and as mentioned, please leave some information on what you think / what you´re interested in.