Getting some hands up here before I leave this comp. Will add analysis soon.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1471418
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1471417
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1471415
http://www.pokerhand.org/?147142
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1471427
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
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 : / .
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 : / .
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Some hands and the plan
As promised i'll post a few more of my favorite hands, these a bit more recent than the others.
2-4 HU NL: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1448393
This was probably one of the biggest calls i've ever made just in terms of relative hand strength, game flow, etc. Muppet was pretty solid and hadn't been getting out of line often, but i started imposing my will a bit and tryed to get the pace of the match to be more intense (this would be to my advantage). Nontheless, like I said he was playing me fairly tough which made this call super difficult and sick. Preflop is standard this deep and he can be 3 betting with relatively wide range. Flop is also a standard call. The turn is where it gets interesting.
In hands like these if I call turn it should not be because I still have outs, but rather because I believe I may have the best hand. I need to have logic backing up every single decision I make. This seems obvious but it's easy to get lost in the game sometimes. It's vital to go back to prior streets and work off the information gained from them to help with logical deduction/decision making. Additionally, it's obviously very important to understand game dynamic (history, current play style, his perception of you) between you and your opponent. You should be totally focused on constructing the best range for an opponent given all the factors available to you. This was a bit jumbled but the process of hand reading is one that i'm still trying to improve upon (thus writing it out should be good for me) and one that is difficult to articulate easily. But anyways, getting back to the hand and why the above concept is relevant to it, ill give some of my thoughts on the turn.
Bet sizing was a big part of why I decided to call the turn. His bet stuck out to me as one that didn't seem like an overpair; I felt at the time he would make a more defensive (smaller) bet if he had JJ+. Also, there was some definite timing tells involved as well. That being said, at this point in the hand by no means am I highly confident I have the best hand, simply because there is still a ton of hands out there he could feasibly have that are crushing me. However, I definitely thought given the circumstances there was enough reasons that I should call and see a river then evaluate it from there.
He instapushed and I wanted to throw up at first/punch myself in the head for calling turn. But, the river was actually a great card for me in a wierd way. I knew this guy wasn't good enough to value push JJ-KK here, especially instantly. So I could now rule those out. He never bets the turn with Ax (except maybe A10) like he did so aces up are out of the question. His range was now narrowed quite a bit, and combined with the information I gathered on previous streets and timing tells it seemed like a call. On top of all this I realized that the line I took was an extremely passive one. He is observant enough to realize I pretty much always have a one pair hand here (I tanked turn a bit) given the fact that I had been playing so aggressively. Everything sort of came together and I clicked call before the timer ran out. From a longterm perspective i'm not totally sure this call is +EV. Obviously he can show up with a set here very easily and maybe even two pair sometimes.
All in all I still think this probably is a great/correct call, but to me it highlighted some of my handreading defecencies. Perhaps defenencies isn't the best word, but defenitely lack of experience in tough spots like this and the fact that my mind wanders sometimes and has difficulty bringing it all together. But I love the fact that I've developed my game to the point where i'm starting to get into some deeper thinking, as most people never get past level one or two (those being first level thinking of just your own cards, and second level of putting your opponent on a hand) in their poker career's.
I'd like to write more about this particular hand and the concepts that it breeds, even if only to help in better figuring it out for myself. But i'll stop here for now and post two good follow up happens that are a great example of how a huge call like this or simply LAG play in general (I did both this match) can several tilt your opponent and increase your edge significantly.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1448894
This hand was satisfying on so many levels. Value betting nearly full pot with third pair on this board vs. a normally solid player is pretty incredible. Given the way the hand played out under normal circumstances he just CANNOT call me with worse here. However at the time he was defenitely tilted as a result of the huge call I made and the several overbet/PSB bluffs I had shown him throughout the match. It was fairly easy to determine that the likelihood he had me beat here was small. I knew he had a hand with highcard showdown value. What sets this hand apart from others is that I made a bet that should seemingly never get called (primarily due to the size of the bet) by anything that I beat. Most people take the route of a smaller bet or possibly even a check because that river could possibly hit a small part of his range and because of the aforementioned implausibility of getting called. This is why I love this type of stuff though, because I knew he was tilted and capable of calling here with Ace (and apparently even king) high or a smaller pair.
Some people may debate that from a longterm perspective this is just a bad bet no matter what and that I got lucky he called with worse. I mean theres no doubt its an extremely thin bet and a delicate thing to be attempting. But I disagree with the assertion that it's a bad play. Theres so much more 'in the now' type stuff in HU, determining whether he has it at this given time or not. This type of stuff is a great testament to the beauty of heads up play because the avenues for obtaining the necessary information are readily available to you and your opponent. The type of edges that can be pushed far exceed any other format of poker.
This last hand was a cool one and it is particularily important to me because of something I realized while the hand played out: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1449027
On the turn it seemed like an easy check. But then I intuitively realized I was giving up way too much by checking and stopped myself. I'm not quite advanced or polished enough a player to have specifically made this bet as a bluff inducer, but that was sort of subconciously included as well, which i'll elaborate more on later. Betting this turn is just great because it really looks like a king or nothing. Most players at this limit will always check behind on this turn and as a default thats absolutely correct. But, once again, given that he was tilted I knew I could value it and should because checking is letting him get off easy. What I wasn't quite prepared for was a raise- and in retrospect I realize now he will defenitely raise that turn a lot more with his speculative holdings rather than just call it, thus effectively turning my hand partially into a bluff inducer. When he doubled I sort of instacalled (something that was bad and I should work on) because it didn't seem right and also mostly because I was disconcerted by his play (great reaction, I know, lol). I was a little uneasy with the calling down like I said but it was clearly the correct call in retrospect, (he played it totally strange. he like, never has a king her cause he instadoubled. he just wouldn't play it like that.) I just do not like making decisions on a whim without being sure that what im doing is based on something sound. Impulse decisions are a huge leak. Anyways another cool follow up hand IMO.
enough for now, kind of a rant.
P.S I hate limit heads up
2-4 HU NL: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1448393
This was probably one of the biggest calls i've ever made just in terms of relative hand strength, game flow, etc. Muppet was pretty solid and hadn't been getting out of line often, but i started imposing my will a bit and tryed to get the pace of the match to be more intense (this would be to my advantage). Nontheless, like I said he was playing me fairly tough which made this call super difficult and sick. Preflop is standard this deep and he can be 3 betting with relatively wide range. Flop is also a standard call. The turn is where it gets interesting.
In hands like these if I call turn it should not be because I still have outs, but rather because I believe I may have the best hand. I need to have logic backing up every single decision I make. This seems obvious but it's easy to get lost in the game sometimes. It's vital to go back to prior streets and work off the information gained from them to help with logical deduction/decision making. Additionally, it's obviously very important to understand game dynamic (history, current play style, his perception of you) between you and your opponent. You should be totally focused on constructing the best range for an opponent given all the factors available to you. This was a bit jumbled but the process of hand reading is one that i'm still trying to improve upon (thus writing it out should be good for me) and one that is difficult to articulate easily. But anyways, getting back to the hand and why the above concept is relevant to it, ill give some of my thoughts on the turn.
Bet sizing was a big part of why I decided to call the turn. His bet stuck out to me as one that didn't seem like an overpair; I felt at the time he would make a more defensive (smaller) bet if he had JJ+. Also, there was some definite timing tells involved as well. That being said, at this point in the hand by no means am I highly confident I have the best hand, simply because there is still a ton of hands out there he could feasibly have that are crushing me. However, I definitely thought given the circumstances there was enough reasons that I should call and see a river then evaluate it from there.
He instapushed and I wanted to throw up at first/punch myself in the head for calling turn. But, the river was actually a great card for me in a wierd way. I knew this guy wasn't good enough to value push JJ-KK here, especially instantly. So I could now rule those out. He never bets the turn with Ax (except maybe A10) like he did so aces up are out of the question. His range was now narrowed quite a bit, and combined with the information I gathered on previous streets and timing tells it seemed like a call. On top of all this I realized that the line I took was an extremely passive one. He is observant enough to realize I pretty much always have a one pair hand here (I tanked turn a bit) given the fact that I had been playing so aggressively. Everything sort of came together and I clicked call before the timer ran out. From a longterm perspective i'm not totally sure this call is +EV. Obviously he can show up with a set here very easily and maybe even two pair sometimes.
All in all I still think this probably is a great/correct call, but to me it highlighted some of my handreading defecencies. Perhaps defenencies isn't the best word, but defenitely lack of experience in tough spots like this and the fact that my mind wanders sometimes and has difficulty bringing it all together. But I love the fact that I've developed my game to the point where i'm starting to get into some deeper thinking, as most people never get past level one or two (those being first level thinking of just your own cards, and second level of putting your opponent on a hand) in their poker career's.
I'd like to write more about this particular hand and the concepts that it breeds, even if only to help in better figuring it out for myself. But i'll stop here for now and post two good follow up happens that are a great example of how a huge call like this or simply LAG play in general (I did both this match) can several tilt your opponent and increase your edge significantly.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1448894
This hand was satisfying on so many levels. Value betting nearly full pot with third pair on this board vs. a normally solid player is pretty incredible. Given the way the hand played out under normal circumstances he just CANNOT call me with worse here. However at the time he was defenitely tilted as a result of the huge call I made and the several overbet/PSB bluffs I had shown him throughout the match. It was fairly easy to determine that the likelihood he had me beat here was small. I knew he had a hand with highcard showdown value. What sets this hand apart from others is that I made a bet that should seemingly never get called (primarily due to the size of the bet) by anything that I beat. Most people take the route of a smaller bet or possibly even a check because that river could possibly hit a small part of his range and because of the aforementioned implausibility of getting called. This is why I love this type of stuff though, because I knew he was tilted and capable of calling here with Ace (and apparently even king) high or a smaller pair.
Some people may debate that from a longterm perspective this is just a bad bet no matter what and that I got lucky he called with worse. I mean theres no doubt its an extremely thin bet and a delicate thing to be attempting. But I disagree with the assertion that it's a bad play. Theres so much more 'in the now' type stuff in HU, determining whether he has it at this given time or not. This type of stuff is a great testament to the beauty of heads up play because the avenues for obtaining the necessary information are readily available to you and your opponent. The type of edges that can be pushed far exceed any other format of poker.
This last hand was a cool one and it is particularily important to me because of something I realized while the hand played out: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1449027
On the turn it seemed like an easy check. But then I intuitively realized I was giving up way too much by checking and stopped myself. I'm not quite advanced or polished enough a player to have specifically made this bet as a bluff inducer, but that was sort of subconciously included as well, which i'll elaborate more on later. Betting this turn is just great because it really looks like a king or nothing. Most players at this limit will always check behind on this turn and as a default thats absolutely correct. But, once again, given that he was tilted I knew I could value it and should because checking is letting him get off easy. What I wasn't quite prepared for was a raise- and in retrospect I realize now he will defenitely raise that turn a lot more with his speculative holdings rather than just call it, thus effectively turning my hand partially into a bluff inducer. When he doubled I sort of instacalled (something that was bad and I should work on) because it didn't seem right and also mostly because I was disconcerted by his play (great reaction, I know, lol). I was a little uneasy with the calling down like I said but it was clearly the correct call in retrospect, (he played it totally strange. he like, never has a king her cause he instadoubled. he just wouldn't play it like that.) I just do not like making decisions on a whim without being sure that what im doing is based on something sound. Impulse decisions are a huge leak. Anyways another cool follow up hand IMO.
enough for now, kind of a rant.
P.S I hate limit heads up
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
First post- a fresh start.
First i'll just give a little background into my general world but more importantly a look at my poker begginings and current state.
I've been playing online for roughly 3 years. I first started playing when I was 17 years old and quickly developed a passion for the game. I though about it constantly and really strived to improve my game. I was an instant degenerate.
Anyways, I played as often as possible but always had a problem with keeping a bankroll. My money management was absolutely atrocious. As a result it was commonplace that I would be without funds online for extended periods of time. One 'good' thing that came from my bad habits was that I was constantly pushing myself and playing the best players I could(I would play outrageously high stakes with regards to my BR, thus 'allowing' me to sit in games as high as 500-1k limit).
I realize now that I was really not that great of a player. I also realize now that i'm still not a truly great player. I have the utmost confidence in my game, but I think it's an important trait to have, to always want to re-evaluate your game- to always be hungry for more.
I guess the whole purpose I have in writing this blog is that it will keep me in good perspective. All too often I find myself playing for 12 hours straight, while exaughsted, or while distracted. I constantly get wrapped up in the short term of poker, despite my immense knowledge of the fact that it is indeed a longterm game. This is what drives me to move up way too fast in limits, and lose my level headedness/rationality, which consequently leads to poor decision making in all respects and ultimately, a busted poker account. Besides that, I enjoy writing and this should be both fun and serve as a good outlet if nothing else.
To end my intro, i'll leave you with some of my favorite hands throughout the past year(didn't save most HH's/no ptracker until recently). I have several comps so i'll post the hands I have on this one and the rest later. Will also include some brief analysis on each hand. For the most part the best cash game hands I have are on other comps, so i'll start with some of the tourny ones.
$200 Hu SnG turbo on stars: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1446063
I can still remember this hand fairly well as it was a bit of an epiphany for me. Villain was standard and fairly solid so I was preparing to call turn as sort of a set up and see what he did on the river. His river bet sort of shocked me a bit and I almost insta folded as would be the default play. However, I stopped myself and thought through some of the possibilities. I was able to narrow his range quite well, and in the end his bet sizing and my intuition as to HIS perception of MY possible holdings made this a close call.
Another HU SnG: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1446080
Though this hand is significantly lower than I normally play, the absurdity of it is not lessened. this is probably the sickest call i've ever made based simply off normal gameplay standards, (I had jack high and the pot was tiny..) but coming to the conclusion itself wasn't all that difficult. There was simply nothing except possibly the flush (it was completely unlikely that he'd play it this was on both the turn and the river) that he could have here. Trips from this guy wasn't at all a possibility. To top it off, I know he sees my line as weak. This is a great example of how the breakdown of a hand can occur and why knowing opponents tendencies is so crucial in heads up play.
But why did the river have to come a split?
Lemme give a quick shout out to my buddy jared (iversonxx3 on pstars, raping midstakes NL near you) for helping me get the iniative to start a blog. You can check his blog out at youngdegen.blogspot.com.
Anyways, I'll leave it to just two those hands for now, good luck (if no one but me and my buddy reads this- then at least for us both), and i'll be posting some more shortly.
I've been playing online for roughly 3 years. I first started playing when I was 17 years old and quickly developed a passion for the game. I though about it constantly and really strived to improve my game. I was an instant degenerate.
Anyways, I played as often as possible but always had a problem with keeping a bankroll. My money management was absolutely atrocious. As a result it was commonplace that I would be without funds online for extended periods of time. One 'good' thing that came from my bad habits was that I was constantly pushing myself and playing the best players I could(I would play outrageously high stakes with regards to my BR, thus 'allowing' me to sit in games as high as 500-1k limit).
I realize now that I was really not that great of a player. I also realize now that i'm still not a truly great player. I have the utmost confidence in my game, but I think it's an important trait to have, to always want to re-evaluate your game- to always be hungry for more.
I guess the whole purpose I have in writing this blog is that it will keep me in good perspective. All too often I find myself playing for 12 hours straight, while exaughsted, or while distracted. I constantly get wrapped up in the short term of poker, despite my immense knowledge of the fact that it is indeed a longterm game. This is what drives me to move up way too fast in limits, and lose my level headedness/rationality, which consequently leads to poor decision making in all respects and ultimately, a busted poker account. Besides that, I enjoy writing and this should be both fun and serve as a good outlet if nothing else.
To end my intro, i'll leave you with some of my favorite hands throughout the past year(didn't save most HH's/no ptracker until recently). I have several comps so i'll post the hands I have on this one and the rest later. Will also include some brief analysis on each hand. For the most part the best cash game hands I have are on other comps, so i'll start with some of the tourny ones.
$200 Hu SnG turbo on stars: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1446063
I can still remember this hand fairly well as it was a bit of an epiphany for me. Villain was standard and fairly solid so I was preparing to call turn as sort of a set up and see what he did on the river. His river bet sort of shocked me a bit and I almost insta folded as would be the default play. However, I stopped myself and thought through some of the possibilities. I was able to narrow his range quite well, and in the end his bet sizing and my intuition as to HIS perception of MY possible holdings made this a close call.
Another HU SnG: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1446080
Though this hand is significantly lower than I normally play, the absurdity of it is not lessened. this is probably the sickest call i've ever made based simply off normal gameplay standards, (I had jack high and the pot was tiny..) but coming to the conclusion itself wasn't all that difficult. There was simply nothing except possibly the flush (it was completely unlikely that he'd play it this was on both the turn and the river) that he could have here. Trips from this guy wasn't at all a possibility. To top it off, I know he sees my line as weak. This is a great example of how the breakdown of a hand can occur and why knowing opponents tendencies is so crucial in heads up play.
But why did the river have to come a split?
Lemme give a quick shout out to my buddy jared (iversonxx3 on pstars, raping midstakes NL near you) for helping me get the iniative to start a blog. You can check his blog out at youngdegen.blogspot.com.
Anyways, I'll leave it to just two those hands for now, good luck (if no one but me and my buddy reads this- then at least for us both), and i'll be posting some more shortly.
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