April 12, 2011
instant gratification
It's a hard thing to come by in this ridiculous game. So often we do the right thing only to be rewarded with a cooler or a suck out. The minor success I had today I will attribute to waking up on time, getting in the tournaments I wanted to get into, and playing fairly aware because I got a decent night of sleep for once. Of course if I were to actually do a statistical regression analysis of hours of sleep vs daily winnings I'm pretty sure there would be no statistically significant correlation. I have been known to fill my idle time with worthless activities like that before. For about two months I tracked my all-in luck which was an utter waste of time and was basically just me looking for rock-hard evidence to back up my belief that I really am the world's unluckiest player, a belief which about 90% of the poker playing population believes to be true about themselves.
Two hands today, same theme. I personally think I only messed the first one up, but maybe not. Both hands I flop huge and the rivered flush gets me. My thinking on the first was if he has Ax hearts he's putting infinity chips in on the flop, which of course turned out to be untrue. Even the KJ, KT, or JT hearts might want to get it all in on the flop, and if he doesn't have any of those then he isn't likely to have the flush.
Poker Stars $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10/t20 Blinds + t4 - 9 players - View hand 1274692
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): t2763 M = 41.86
BB: t2419 M = 36.65
UTG: t2893 M = 43.83
UTG+1: t2774 M = 42.03
UTG+2: t2916 M = 44.18
MP1: t3037 M = 46.02
MP2: t3379 M = 51.20
CO: t2833 M = 42.92
BTN: t2888 M = 43.76
Pre Flop: (t66) Hero is SB with 9
9
3 folds, MP1 raises to t60, 3 folds, Hero calls t50, 1 fold
Flop: (t176) 9
Q A(2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets t116, Hero raises to t320, MP1 calls t204
Turn: (t816) T(2 players)
Hero bets t520, MP1 calls t520
River: (t1856) 5(2 players)
Hero bets t700, MP1 raises to t2133 all in, Hero calls t1159 all in
Final Pot: t5574
Hero shows 9 9 (three of a kind, Nines)
MP1 shows K A (a flush, Ace high)
MP1 wins t5574
In my mind I can't fold as played, but if I did more of a blocker type bet on the river of like 400 then I could have gotten away. I only have to beat him 20% as played, 26% if I made it 400. Check call is obviously also an option but there's no way I can fold and it's just letting him set the price, and since I left about a pot sized bet an all in wouldn't be too suspicious looking. So maybe like 400/fold here. It's very villain dependent. I dunno. My dumb ass might be calling no matter what. Maybe I am just better off checking to keep the bluffs in his range.
This one I obviously could have checked through but I just felt that there were way more aces than flush draws in his range and it's not like he was folding an ace.
Full Tilt Poker $11 + $1 Rush On Demand No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t30/t60 Blinds - 9 players - View hand 1274707
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): t1940 32.33 BBs
SB: t1340 22.33 BBs
BB: t3625 60.42 BBs
UTG: t2770 46.17 BBs
UTG+1: t1650 27.50 BBs
UTG+2: t1405 23.42 BBs
MP1: t825 13.75 BBs
MP2: t2000 33.33 BBs
CO: t2050 34.17 BBs
Pre Flop: (t90) Hero is BTN with Q A
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t120, 4 folds, Hero calls t120, 1 fold, BB calls t60
Flop: (t390) 3 A Q(3 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 bets t120, Hero raises to t320, BB folds, UTG+1 calls t200
Turn: (t1030) 3
(2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t600, UTG+1 calls t600
River: (t2230) 6(2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t900 all in, UTG+1 calls t610 all in
Final Pot: t3450
Hero shows Q A (two pair, Aces and Queens)
UTG+1 shows 8 K (a flush, King high)
UTG+1 wins t3450
A flush draw should be folding this turn, or at least jamming it. But I forgot about the stupid factor. My bad.
4 Comments:
Schweig posted on April 12, 2011 at 05:52 AM
Second one seems fairly standard, most people will call with Ax here.
First one; the problem with betting smaller and then folding is that even though you give yourself worse odds, you induce more stuff, and you also make betting less worth it because you gain less the times you do get value.
I almost prefer betting 900 then folding to a small shove just because I think it's something he close to never shoves over, while he will certainly call all two pairs and even sometimes AK, which are all a big part of his range.
zegota posted on April 12, 2011 at 08:12 AM
Thanks for the input. I really like that 900/fold line in theory because it would take either a completely unaware or a completely fearless person to try to bluff there. I don't think this particular person was either of those. The only question is whether I have the self-restraint to actually fold facing that shove in game.
Gaspar posted on April 13, 2011 at 21:25 PM
We all know your all about self restraint...
On the second hand, given his remaining chips I think you can get more value out of a larger bet on the turn.
zegota posted on April 14, 2011 at 05:39 AM
i probably could have charged a little more on the turn. i think i priced it about perfect for flush draws to not be getting the odds to call while still making it cheap enough that they might wanna try to hit anyways, but a random ace would have probably called more. i think lotsa bad players kinda have a mental block about committing more than half their chips when they're weak. so i charge em just under half.
and as for my self-restraint... this is poker we're talking about, not drinking or karaoke. at times, i've shown marvelous self-restraint. i just do it locked in my room in front of my computer where no one is around to witness it.
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