Turn 21

Just turned 21 today (or last night, whatever). It's cool, obviously, but theres not really much to it besides not having to be nervous when I go buy alcohol with a fake ID. Plus of course as I mentioned in a previous blog, casino poker.

Besides that i'd like to write some about poker. I've been in the midst of a pretty bad run, though I have been playing too high for my roll (standard). Yesterday however, with the only $150 I had left at the time on stars, I started running pretty good and ran it up to 1500 or so, with big stacks in both the 55 one rebuy one add on and the $100 multi that runs at 12AM central.

The 50 ended on a questionable play by me. I didn't save hand # and ptracker still isn't registered on this comp (should be sometime today) but I remember it quite well.

I'm two off button and I think we're 7 or 8 handed at the final two tables. Just won a nice pot when I called the chipleaders bluff with midpair to go up to 30k in chips. I pick up a6o and make it my standard raise of roughly 2750 (i'm pretty sure blinds were 500/1k, either way, i made it a little less than 3x the big blind). Folds around to BB who has me covered, he hesitates and calls. This is the type of information thats extremely subtle but can be useful in furthering your ability to read a hand, especially when it is a close decision. I'm just as guilty as the next guy in not utilizing that type of stuff enough in my breakdown of hands. It needs to be automatic that I think back all the way to what he did preflop, including any possible timing tells (in weaker players these can be pretty reliable) there may have been. Anyways, flop comes 10 6 5 rainbow. He checks and I bet about 3kish I think. This is where there is several topics I wanted to touch on. Sometimes in these spots (marginal situations) I get somewhat nervous and it affects my ability to think clearly. At the time I just figured i'd bet and hopefully just take it down, but this is a poor line of thinking because I should always be making decisions with some sort of plan intended. So I bet and he pauses for a bit then raises about 8k on top. At this point im just like blah. As mentioned, i've realized in situations like this, the hysteria I create in my mind truly clouds my thought process. I just start working more off impulse (emotion) rather than logic and control. This is exactly what happened here. There was some hand reading involved, which I think was sound; but it's like my brain skips over the part of his range that crushes me, and highlights the part I beat while also increasing it's likelihood unrealistically. I told myself he couldn't have 77-99 which I believe is a fair assumption for the most part. I also thought he'd play a ten differently. Something about it made me think he wanted action on his hand, not that he was protecting a ten (i.e: i think his raise size would be larger, or maybe he'd smooth call flop). Of course rather than thinking about the fact it didn't seem like a bluff and that in this situation it's almost universally true that your average tourny player will not bluff here (unless it's 78, which we don't have great equity against. what other non-air bluff hands can he have here?), I went with my impulse and improperly weighted hand range. It's foolishness and bad poker to assume an unknown $55 buy in tourny player is capable of a big air here with move. My decision to push, in total, just doesn't make sense. He called and flipped over 65c which of course has me in terrible shape.

I'd like to touch on some alternate lines real quick. I considered a check initially but was swayed by my percieved danger of it and I didn't wanna allow him the chance to bluff at it. I honestly think checking or betting here both have their merits, but vs. and unknown i'd rather bet and if necessary make a tough decision in a big pot (this is where great players thrive). I guess it's close because of stack sizes and the fact that I can protect the pot well with a check. But, in reality, betting here isn't bad- it would be results oriented to say otherwise. The issue at hand is that I just didn't give myself the opportunity to play the hand well because I wasn't thinking clearly.

The next hand was a crucial and large one in the $100. We were down to 40ish players out of 320 and I was chipleader with 65kish. We were 7 handed I believe, and a newly moved, fairly deepstacked player 3 off the button raised it to about 3x the BB (im gonna take and educated guess and say the blinds where 600/1200). I had k9c and call. This is the extent of the questioning of my play. Is this call marginal, OK, or absolutely fucking terrible? I'm still not sure. I normally call here without thinking too much (this may be a leak) because intuitively I know we are deep and feel that my hand plays fine vs. a bigger stacks range (which is probably relatively wide based off his raising position). I also believe I play well post flop and will typically play better than my opponents in these tourneys. However, I know most mtt players would probably say this call sucks. Likely because im out of position and my hand is fairly weak and sometimes dominated if I flop a king or 9. Also, this player is unknown. He could be only raising AK/AQ and JJ+ for all I know (though this is unlikely).

Back to the hand, flop came K95 two spades. I check raised his 2900 or so bet to 8800. He thought forever and smooth called. Lol. I had no idea what to put him on here. I figured maybe K10/KQ but why wouldn't he just push flop? AK/AA pushes flop right? turn comes A spades. Gross. But it's still necessary to get it in here. I pushed and he snapped it off with kings.

Like I said I still don't know how I feel about the hand. Anytime you lose a gigantic that was potentially caused by a marginal (aka BAD?) play, especially when your drawing dead on the flop, your invariably going to question yourself. I think the truth, at least for my game, lies somewhere inbetween.

My justification for calling can be easily offset by the fact i'm out of position and my hand plays somewhat poorly vs. an unknown. I think if villain is two off button, or definitely if he's in cutoff, this is an easy call or maybe even a re-raise. There is a very fine line, ESPECIALLY in tournaments, between being spewy and a good LAG. I fall onto the dark side of this line frequently. Because part of my game is playing fairly loose and aggro it can be easy to get trapped into a situation that is simply a losing/spewy play no matter how good you are at poker. Like I said this is especially true in (online) tournaments, simply because the structure does not cater to a ton of play when you get deep. This inhibits both your preflop calling range, and post-flop flexibility. Ultimately I think with all things considered it's probably best to pitch this hand in general. It truly hurts me to say it, but for as often as villain will c-bet (easily 75% of the time) and with the potentiality that we will lose a substantial amount of chips on a K and 9 high flop, it's just not worth it (these two reasons being among other things). Being on the button would be a different story, and I would definitely call, but I could see a lot of people advocating re-raise/fold.

IMO, this hand illustrates how it can be difficult to not be results oriented and/or be unsure of the best play in certain spots, even in retrospect. Consequently it's indicative of how important it is to analyze every situation to the fullest.

Once I get ptracker up I have some hands I'd like to share and also some info on where the profits went from yesterday night : / .