Ten

I'm not kidding when I say I can't win:

PokerStars Game #27650393244: Tournament #159834614, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2009/04/30 1:48:00 ET
Table '159834614 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: FR Vessant (1000 in chips)
Seat 4: AcsUpMySleve (3070 in chips)
Seat 6: Chipxmonk (1690 in chips)
Seat 7: BoardStr8 (3350 in chips)
Seat 8: uglytiger09 (4390 in chips)
AcsUpMySleve: posts small blind 50
Chipxmonk: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Jc Jd]
BoardStr8: folds
uglytiger09: raises 100 to 200

He hasn't raised much but I am obviously not folding JJ with 10BB.
FR Vessant: raises 800 to 1000 and is all-in
AcsUpMySleve: folds
Chipxmonk: folds
uglytiger09: calls 800

He has 99.

*** FLOP *** [Kd 9h 5s]

So that's nice.

Keep reminding yourself: it's a 9/1 shot, it's a 9/1 shot. It is not even money. Really!


PokerStars Game #27650620520: Tournament #159835348, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/04/30 2:01:53 ET
Table '159835348 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: FR Vessant (6210 in chips)
Seat 6: tiburonbig (7290 in chips)
tiburonbig: posts small blind 75
FR Vessant: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ts Tc]
tiburonbig: raises 300 to 450
FR Vessant: calls 300

Staying cagey because we're very deep. I would nearly always repop this, but this guy has given a lot of action throughout the tourney with hands that don't merit it, so I figure on the right flop, I can hope to stack him.

Like I say, I'm not playing well at the moment, because repopping him seems in retrospect much better. I don't mind if he 4-bet shoves. His range will be wide enough that I have as many hands that I crush as crush me, and I have the better of a race, if it comes to that. I think at the time I was wary of his flatting it, and having a tough spot if overcards came. See, this is what happens when you lose a few key hands: you start to become gunshy, thinking of the worst, afraid to take spots that favour you strongly.

*** FLOP *** [9h 7d 8s]

That's a pretty good flop though, so my plan worked out.

FR Vessant: bets 600

I'm not sure why I donked it. Possibly because it looks a bit scary to him, and he's liable to check behind. Dunno, maybe I figured I would protect my overpair against hands like KJ/AQ. Actually, with KJ, he's very likely to call that bet, which would be okay.

tiburonbig: raises 6240 to 6840 and is all-in

I wanted action and got it. I expect to be behind some of the time, but he can easily have a single pair: A7-A9, K7-K9, 66, or less likely, something like J9 or T9.

I do forget though that bad players will make huge overshoves with the nuts because they think that if you bet out you will never be able to fold.

I dunno. I suppose I could have folded, but if I had played the hand more correctly, I would have CRAI anyway, so the end result was the same. I suppose I had resolved to get it in, whatever, so I was mentally set to call.

I know this is bad, but as I say, I'm playing badly. My game is really fucked at the moment, and trying to play through it has not helped.

FR Vessant: calls 5160 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1080) returned to tiburonbig

He has 77. Another two-outer. Still, I have some outs, so we're okay, right?

*** TURN *** [9h 7d 8s] [8c]

Nope.

*** RIVER *** [9h 7d 8s 8c] [Js]

And I hit my straight, just to rub it in.

I don't like his shove, btw. My range is not strong for betting out on that flop and I'm folding nearly everything to a shove. The only things I'm calling with are sets, made straights, the hand I actually had and probably other overpairs, although I don't usually play them slow before the flop against a guy like this.

I suppose you could consider that he is protecting his set against straight draws, but it's better to make value from them. It's true that a raise is going to look like it potcommits him, so no one's going to be fooled, but most opponents will pay a raise with T9 (and might even shove over).

PokerStars Game #27650770008: Tournament #159835246, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2009/04/30 2:10:10 ET
Table '159835246 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: FR Vessant (2220 in chips)
Seat 6: Xenon9545 (4340 in chips)
Seat 9: bazul23 (6940 in chips)
bazul23: posts small blind 100
FR Vessant: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Jd Kd]
Xenon9545: folds
bazul23: raises 400 to 600

Is probably raising wide, so I am going to take him on.

FR Vessant: raises 1620 to 2220 and is all-in
bazul23: calls 1620

Yup. Picked my spot well. He has KT.

*** FLOP *** [3s 4s 3h]

No four, no four.

*** TURN *** [3s 4s 3h] [4d]

Fuck.

*** RIVER *** [3s 4s 3h 4d] [6s]

He went on to bust me, of course. His king high hit the flop; my ace high didn't.


PokerStars Game #27650676979: Tournament #159835510, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/04/30 2:05:03 ET
Table '159835510 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Blade428 (2675 in chips)
Seat 2: FR Vessant (1705 in chips)
Seat 4: Gold Treat (2625 in chips)
Seat 5: Noodleuno (1490 in chips)
Seat 7: skogan900 (2700 in chips)
Seat 9: trevdog76 (2305 in chips)
Blade428: posts small blind 75
FR Vessant: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Th Tc]
Gold Treat: folds
Noodleuno: raises 150 to 300
skogan900: folds
trevdog76: folds
Blade428: folds
FR Vessant: raises 1405 to 1705 and is all-in
Noodleuno: calls 1190 and is all-in

He has A3s. WTF.

He minraise/called A3s for his whole stack.

Well, okay, we know they're not good, and we are delighted to get our money in as a huge favourite, right?


Uncalled bet (215) returned to FR Vessant
*** FLOP *** [Qd 2h 6s]

Hold.

*** TURN *** [Qd 2h 6s] [9s]

Hold.

*** RIVER *** [Qd 2h 6s 9s] [Ac]

"Daddy, why are you banging your head against that wall?

So I've been card dead and the bigstack keeps shoveblocking me:

PokerStars Game #27650738357: Tournament #159835358, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2009/04/30 2:08:25 ET
Table '159835358 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: Cujokhan (3445 in chips)
Seat 3: vigel (5600 in chips)
Seat 4: elsamisam (1490 in chips)
Seat 5: MondoJ11 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: FR Vessant (1465 in chips)
elsamisam: posts small blind 100
MondoJ11: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [7c 7h]
FR Vessant: raises 1265 to 1465 and is all-in

No hesitation whacking that in.

Cujokhan: folds
vigel: calls 1465

He has AQ. Can I win a race? Are you silly?

elsamisam: folds
MondoJ11: folds
*** FLOP *** [8h 3d Jd]

Hold.

*** TURN *** [8h 3d Jd] [Jh]

Hold.


*** RIVER *** [8h 3d Jd Jh] [Ah]

"Daddy, why are you crying?"


This guy sucks at poker. We've been laughing hard at his 4x raises at t200.

Just a note about why it's bad to raise too big heads up. There are two reasons. First, your tight opponent will never call with a worse hand. So you get no value when you have AT and he has A9 because he will simply fold it. Yeah, you pick up the blinds, but when you're 20BB deep, the shorter stack is looking to pick a spot, and will gladly surrender a couple of blinds. Second, when he does reshove, you are out 4BBs if you fold, and often way behind if you call, which is what this clown did. Raising big and often means that your tighter opponent gives up blinds more readily, true, but it means he wins more from you when he reshoves and he can reshove a lot lighter against you than if you had raised less, because he knows you don't have to have a great hand. Well, he got a pretty good run, because I couldn't pick up anything that had any showdown value, but I caught it all back up when he called a reshove with K8 or something. That's the thing though. Raising every button is a fine idea. Against someone like me, you're going to make chips by doing it because I won't defend my blind particularly light. But when I do reshove, you have to fold the bottom of your range. Yes, I might have T9s, but you are mostly crushed.

Anyway, he doubled me up and now we're at t400.

PokerStars Game #27651063476: Tournament #159835430, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2009/04/30 2:27:03 ET
Table '159835430 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Deathfart42 (5760 in chips)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (7740 in chips)
Deathfart42: posts the ante 25
FR Vessant: posts the ante 25
FR Vessant: posts small blind 200
Deathfart42: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Kc Qd]

I don't have my Nash chart to hand but I'm shoving this all day long with 14BBs effective.

FR Vessant: raises 7315 to 7715 and is all-in
Deathfart42: calls 5335 and is all-in

He has 44. This guy really sucks, so I wasn't surprised he called that wide, but most players would probably have folded it against someone who had played as tight as me.

Uncalled bet (1980) returned to FR Vessant
*** FLOP *** [Kd 9c 3c]

I'm winning!

*** TURN *** [Kd 9c 3c] [4s]

Oh no.

I went on to win though. He shoved the next hand and I called with J high. Beat his T high. After that, I got reasonable hands and beat him easily enough because he was willing to call with just about anything when I shoved. So I left off the bottom end and that worked.

Meanwhile, back at the races...


PokerStars Game #27650711915: Tournament #159835440, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/04/30 2:06:59 ET
Table '159835440 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: knightsfan17 (2415 in chips)
Seat 2: magnolium (1135 in chips)
Seat 3: welshdog (2720 in chips)
Seat 5: ozz100 (905 in chips)
Seat 6: Michelley03 (3255 in chips)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (1520 in chips)
Seat 8: MondoJ11 (1550 in chips)
knightsfan17: posts small blind 75
magnolium: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Qc Ah]
welshdog: folds
ozz100: folds
Michelley03: raises 175 to 325
FR Vessant: raises 1195 to 1520 and is all-in

She hasn't raised particularly much, but folding AQ with 10BB is not a habit I'm going to get into any time soon.

MondoJ11: folds
knightsfan17: folds
magnolium: folds
Michelley03: calls 1195

She has JJ. Well, it could be better but at least it's not AA. I am for once the overcards. The other races that I've been losing today have coincidentally had me as the pair.

So I should win this one, right?

*** FLOP *** [6s 7c 3c]
*** TURN *** [6s 7c 3c] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [6s 7c 3c 7h] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Michelley03: shows [Js Jd] (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
FR Vessant: shows [Qc Ah] (a pair of Sevens)

Oh dear.

That's one set of ten. Astonishingly, I actually made money from it. Not as much as I would have done if I could ever have a hand hold up when ahead or win a race, obv. (I'm exaggerating. I did win one race, AK over 66 or something, but it was for a third of my stack, so I wasn't all in).