A concept in two parts

Here's a fairly typical hand in an 11/27 that illustrates a couple of concepts that you grasp with experience (or one concept with two parts, I guess).

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NL Holdem $30(BB) Poker Stars Game#46704987178

nETP_XPYMOB ($1,420)
Shpuon ($1,460)
glavgrin ($1,460)
wheel_me62 ($2,440)
ae0066 ($1,200)
FR Vessant ($1,610)
ZJ=myhomeboy ($1,460)
JKoenig99 ($1,025)
rickdahick ($1,425)

nETP_XPYMOB posts (SB) $15
Shpuon posts (BB) $30

Dealt to FR Vessant As Ks

I have AKs. A strong but not made hand.

fold,
wheel_me62 calls $30
ae0066 calls $30

Two fishes have limped and many players are tempted just to limp behind. The fish don't fold they say. Then you miss the flop and you've wasted your raise.

FR Vessant raises to $150
fold,
JKoenig99 calls $150
fold, fold, fold,
wheel_me62 calls $120
ae0066 calls $120

And yes, not only do the limpers call, but another fish does too.


FLOP ($645) 5d 7c 3c

And I whiff the flop and will check/fold.

wheel_me62 checks
ae0066 checks
FR Vessant checks
JKoenig99 bets $330

This bet will very likely take it down. It doesn't really matter what bettor has although he can actually have a pretty wide range.

wheel_me62 folds
ae0066 folds
FR Vessant folds
JKoenig99 wins $645

So that sucked, right?

Well, here's the thing. Look at the pot size on the flop. It's pretty decent and that means that the times I hit, I'm going to find it very easy to get it in. Had I limped, the pot would have been much smaller and I'd possibly need all three streets, giving villain three opportunities to decide his shitty hand was not worth pursuing. Now I can commit villains on the flop and get them in on the turn, and often all the money will just go in on the flop.

And here's the second concept. Often the money will go in whether I hit or not. The other guys will now often be inclined to stack off, where if it had been a limped pot, they could keep it smaller. This is probably more of a benefit in 9mans but it's still useful.

Tilting again

Luck takes many forms in poker. A lot of people focus on allin EV and think they are unlucky if they run behind par in that, and they are somewhat, but you can be unlucky in lots of other ways. Here's a hand where I got my money in really bad, but I can count myself very very unlucky imo.

I hadn't been at this particular table long, maybe 20 hands.

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NL Holdem $1,000(BB) Full Tilt Game#18921016590

Tally Hooo ($55,426)
Albert Chuns ($63,214)
Dingle Tard ($43,760)
JMAVIS25 ($28,606)
mdfgreat1 ($10,027)
capro22 ($48,277)
basatagirl ($46,448)
pouppyshark ($36,077)

Tally Hooo posts (SB) $500
Albert Chuns posts (BB) $1,000
basatagirl antes $125
pouppyshark antes $125
Tally Hooo antes $125
Albert Chuns antes $125
Dingle Tard antes $125
JMAVIS25 antes $125
mdfgreat1 antes $125
capro22 antes $125

Dealt to basatagirl Qc Qs
fold,
JMAVIS25 calls $1,000
fold,
capro22 calls $1,000
basatagirl raises to $6,500

So I raise two limpers pot. I'm happy to play a big pot with this hand, obv.

pouppyshark calls $6,500

He's newly come to the table, so I haven't seen a single hand from him, but obv. I'm not happy to be called by a player with position.

Tally Hooo raises to $55,301 (AI)

This guy has 3bet on two of the four opportunities he has had, has raised several times and in chat, half the table is calling him a donkey. So I figure he is very often going for the squeeze here and it's impossible for me to lay down queens.

Except that they are queens, so obviously I am not going to win the hand. I don't know why I don't just fold them preflop. I've lost seven of the past 10 times when I've got them all in preflop, 13 of the past 20.

Still, this guy is a LAG, so he'll have all sorts in his range. This time, surely, we've run into JJ and we make it huge, right?

fold, fold, fold,
basatagirl calls $39,823 (AI)

Tally Hooo shows Ac As

Wrong.

Sighing all the way to the river

This is why I gave up playing on Tilt. I mean, wtf. The hand before, I raised QQ pot and flopped an A. Obviously villain's play is awful but as usual, he hits his hand. This happens to me routinely on Tilt. It really doesn't matter what cards I have or what cards they have. When the money goes in, I lose, simple as that.

I don't believe in doomswitches, and when you play low volume, losses feel a lot worse than if you play a lot, but I run so much worse on Tilt than I ever have on Stars. I'm at least 30BI below EV. And yes, I know I wasn't miles ahead on the flop. It's just the overall sickness. This is a deep tourney, 5K stacks, 12-minute blinds. You should play it fairly conservatively because you get plenty of spots to win chips. I have only 4K, so the implied odds aren't there for A9s -- if they ever are! I clearly have a very strong hand, so he has to get lucky. I know, you want the fish to call your raises when you're strong. I do. But I don't want the cunts to beat me every fucking time.

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NL Holdem $100(BB) Full Tilt Game#18888465027

LON64 ($8,861)
lurker31 ($6,110)
grumbles323 ($3,657)
1980pablo ($10,335)
alex0985 ($11,192)
Thunderstruck_5 ($19,490)
marrora ($13,195)
xander77 ($8,125)
basatagirl ($3,915)

LON64 posts (SB) $50
lurker31 posts (BB) $100

Dealt to basatagirl Kd Kh
grumbles323 calls $100
1980pablo calls $100
fold,
Thunderstruck_5 calls $100
fold, fold,
basatagirl raises to $650
fold, fold, fold, fold,
Thunderstruck_5 calls $550
FLOP ($1,650) Ts Tc 7s
Thunderstruck_5 checks
basatagirl bets $1,000
Thunderstruck_5 raises to $4,650
basatagirl calls $2,265 (AI)
TURN ($8,180) Ts Tc 7s Js
RIVER ($8,180) Ts Tc 7s Js Ad
Thunderstruck_5 shows As 9s
(Pre 33%, Flop 41.7%, Turn 90.9%)

basatagirl shows Kd Kh
(Pre 67%, Flop 58.3%, Turn 9.1%)

Thunderstruck_5 wins $8,180

Fuck Tilt

No really. Fuck Full Tilt. I quit playing there because I ran 40BI below EV in about 200 tourneys and it was getting ridiculous. I'd shove AA, get called by 54s and routinely they'd flop the straight.

So tonight I put some money on Tilt and nine times got 10BB+ in. Six times I was ahead, three behind. Of the six, three 70/30s and three 60/40s, of the three behind, two 60/40s and a coinflip I had the worst of. I didn't win a single one.

Now I know you can lose nine allins straight. And I'm not at all superstitious. But wtf. It's 3/10,000 that I should have that run. I doubled twice in ordinary play, so I did get in more than 10BB and win, but we're talking just preflop shoves.

I don't play high stakes, so this is only like 130 bucks or whatever. But it does feel like I just can't win on Tilt. The play is lol bad, so it's not that I'm not good enough. I mean, if people limpcall with QJ for their 10BB stack, you're not out of your depth. But if they hit the J vs your AQ every time, it doesn't really matter how good you are. SNGs are all about push/fold, and so ultimately are MTTs. You run super card dead for 30-40 hands, then shove when you get something decent, and if you never win one, you go busto.

You called with what?

This pretty much says it all. This is a 40-man $11 game.

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NL Holdem $300(BB) Poker Stars Game#39767157607

Funkytus ($6,178)
FR Vessant ($2,555)
RoLLeR7788 ($3,287)
dhdn1980 ($5,665)
neil_rick ($8,525)
llenti13 ($10,270)
WM80 ($9,043)
canaans ($4,040)
Anarchy-X ($10,437)

neil_rick antes $25
llenti13 antes $25
WM80 antes $25
canaans antes $25
Anarchy-X antes $25
Funkytus antes $25
FR Vessant antes $25
RoLLeR7788 antes $25
dhdn1980 antes $25
Funkytus posts (SB) $150
FR Vessant posts (BB) $300

Dealt to FR Vessant 5s 6h
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold,
fold, fold,
Funkytus raises to $600

Has openraised every time the opportunity has presented. He clearly doesn't have a good hand because his raise sizes have mostly matched his hand strength. I can't shove though because I saw him call off 5K of a 7K stack with J9o when someone openshoved at t200.

FR Vessant calls $300
FLOP ($1,425) 3c Td Tc
Funkytus bets $300

Has nothing, obv.

FR Vessant raises to $1,930 (AI)

Good spot for it.

Funkytus calls $1,630

Check his hand.

TURN ($5,285) 3c Td Tc 5c
RIVER ($5,285) 3c Td Tc 5c 9d
Funkytus shows Qh 5h

What. The. Fuck. Not only does this complete fucking clown call off the rest of my stack with Q5s, no pair, no draw, he has me fucking dominated. I was running well earlier this month, but the last week has been a bloodbath for my bankroll. Sigh.

Fishfood

This was a bit frustrating.


PokerStars Game #38087149596: Tournament #262010133, $30+$3 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2010/01/13 3:51:26 ET
Table '262010133 10' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: 555DAN (6135 in chips)
Seat 2: FR Vessant (3485 in chips)
Seat 3: unclepaullly (4922 in chips)
Seat 4: cobratatus4 (4195 in chips)
Seat 5: NjLiOnS (17988 in chips)
Seat 6: pAtcAsh83 (2890 in chips)
Seat 7: rsend73 (6475 in chips)
Seat 8: 23121969 (9005 in chips)
Seat 9: kouvidg (7302 in chips)
rsend73: posts small blind 50
23121969: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [8d 8c]
kouvidg: calls 100
555DAN: folds
FR Vessant: calls 100

This is a loose limp, but the table has been very passive and I figure often to see a flop for free. I consider raising the limper to try to get heads up, but I'm liable to get called in more than one spot.

unclepaullly: folds
cobratatus4: raises 350 to 450

That's annoying.

NjLiOnS: folds
pAtcAsh83: folds
rsend73: folds
23121969: calls 350

This guy's a terrible fish. He is playing 69/8 and I've seen him call a raise with K5s. I played one hand against him. I had AK and raised his limp. He called. The flop was 987r, he checked, i checked behind. Turn was a K, I bet and he called. River a T, he bet and I paid off the gutshot that he had hit. My call is a bit marginal because he probably does have at least two pair too often, but whatever.

kouvidg: calls 350
FR Vessant: calls 350

I call with the two fish in because if I flop the set I should have a decent chance to make some chips.

*** FLOP *** [4h Ts Ks]

That's a terrible flop obviously.

23121969: checks
kouvidg: checks
FR Vessant: checks
cobratatus4: checks

So raiser most likely has AQ, possibly a middle pair. The other two can have wide ranges, but you'd expect them to donk Kx.

*** TURN *** [4h Ts Ks] [Kd]
23121969: checks
kouvidg: bets 300

This is a very weak bet for a king and the board has enough draws that he is probably just taking a cheap shot.

FR Vessant: raises 2735 to 3035 and is all-in

So I shove what I expect to be best hand often, with plenty of fold equity if villain happens to have Tx.

cobratatus4: folds
23121969: calls 3035

Unfuckingbelievably, this guy actually had a K. You wouldn't credit it. This is a guy who has bet everything he's hit hard and got paid. This one time he decides to slowplay. Of course it's contrary. This is an awful board to slowplay on, so ofc the fish chooses to do it.

kouvidg: folds
*** RIVER *** [4h Ts Ks Kd] [Td]
FR Vessant said, "ugh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
23121969: shows [Kh Qs] (a full house, Kings full of Tens)
FR Vessant: shows [8d 8c] (two pair, Kings and Tens)

Oh well. No regrets. My MTT record is very poor, but I do think I play okay. Usually, the fish has 77 in this spot and rivers another 7. It makes a pleasant change actually to be behind! Pity I didn't bink the 8 to punish him.

LOL donkaments

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