O-Poker

Heads Up Challenge 2 (HUC2)
I played my first round opponent (TripJax) last night in the heads up challenge 2. For those of you that are not aware, TripJax is the reigning champion of the 1st HUC. We got a hold of each other last night after all our kids were put to bed. He has a 5 year old and a 6 month old and I have a 3 year old and a 1 month old. We decided to play turbo heads up SNGs. Thanks to a lot of luck (hence the horseshoe), I managed to defeat an extremely good player 2-0 (best of three).

First match – I noticed right off the bat that TripJax plays an aggressive style of heads up poker. This can be very hard to defend against in Turbo heads up SNGs. I decided that I would let him bet my hands for me until he slowed down a bit. I was down a little at first because I was letting him take control of the game and trying to wait for a hand or a pot where I knew he didn’t have a hand. I did call him down on a good sized pot with 3rd pair once for a win to let him know that he couldn’t win every pot uncontested. I, also, limped with aces, re-raised his flop bet, and showed my aces after he folded. I wanted to let him know that I sometimes don’t bet my big hands and he might be up against a monster if he tries to bluff after I check.

We were about even in chips until I flopped a Jack high straight to beat his 10 high straight. I was very surprised that TripJax didn’t lose a larger portion of his stack on that hand – a lot of players would have been all in with a straight there. I managed to catch another higher straight than him a few hands later and make a straight against his set of Jacks. He was crippled after those hands and I won the first match.

Second match – We were back and forth in the 2nd match when I made a big semi-bluff with an open-ended straight draw on a King high board. TripJax folded showing his K4 – whew. I think this was the pivotal hand of the match. I had him out chipped and put the pressure on. I definitely would have gone broke on the final hand, if I was in TripJax’s place. We got all the chips in preflop with my KK vs. his QQ – very rough hand. Game over, GG.

I think TripJax is a very skilled player and was a very tough opponent. If the luck had gone the other way, he would be advancing I would be out. His blog is very interesting and entertaining and I will continue to read it as often as possible. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s worth a look.

My next opponent – 100-2-infinity. Hopefully, I can find my horseshoe again before that match. (I think we need to wait for the first round to be complete before we start our 2nd round match)

NL Cash Games
I think I’m going to be playing a lot of short handed NL cash games this weekend. I played last night and did pretty well. There are some horrible players at pokerstars $1/$2 NL shorthanded cash games that are just looking to gamble. I won a huge pot when I made a straight on the turn (after no one bet the flop) and was cold called down by someone with 3rd pair. Did he think I was bluffing? I guess so.

Good luck at the tables,
cmitch