O-Poker

Thanks for the comments on the hand that I posted in my last post. I wasn't 100% sure what to do on the river, because the guy seemed pretty tight. I think that I let his final stats at the table shape my thinking of the hand. He wound up with stats something like 6/5.


1. Once the river hits, what is the best way to maximize value/minimize loss?

A. Lead into the pot again. If so, for how much? What do you do if he shoves over your raise?
B. Check/Call to give him the opputurnity to bet his missed draws or worse one pair hand.
C. Check/Raise. Why?
D. Something else that I haven't thought of.

I opted for option A and bet $65 on the river. The guy timed down and I started thinking that there were only 2 hands that he would call with - KQ and possibly AJ. He eventually called with KQ and I won the pot. Based on how tight his final stats were, I think that I probably got maximum value based on his hand. If I checked behind, he was prob bettinng less than $65. I was just wondering if I was losing value from missed draws bluffing, but again he didn't seem like the type of player that would make a big bluff with a missed draw on the river - the check/call would probably be more profitable against a very aggressive player that has a high river aggression or I have noted as bluffing missed draws on the river.


2. Is there ever a reason to check this turn against a really tight player that called an UTG open and then called the flop bet?

Gnome said, "As for question No. 2, why would you ever check the turn when you have the best hand?"

LOL. I agree. I really don't know why I even posted this question other than he had such tight final stats (6/5). If I bet the turn and he made a big raise, I could always fold against this type of player.



Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $184.55
SB: $200.00
BB: $43.00
Hero (UTG): $208.00
UTG+1: $339.30
UTG+2: $482.80
MP1: $41.75
MP2: $258.90
CO: $43.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG with Ac Qd

Hero raises to $7
1 fold
UTG+2 calls $7
6 folds

Flop: ($17.00) Qs Js 8d (2 players)

Hero bets $12
UTG+2 calls $12

Turn: ($41.00) 6h (2 players)
Hero bets $30
UTG+2 calls $30

River: ($101.00) 2d (2 players)

Don't be shocked, but I am putting up a post with some actual poker content.

I don't have much history with UTG+2. I think I probably had around 30-40 hands on him. He had played very tight (something like 10/8/fairly high agg factor - but doesn't mean much with the sample) and we had only been involved in one pot a couple of orbits earlier where I was the button and he was the BB. He raised my flop c-bet and I folded. Without any more reads and based on how tight he seemed to be playing over a small sample, I would assume he plays fairly straight forward until I have reason to believe otherwise.

My thought process on the flop. I make a standard c-bet. I would expect him to raise a set, an over pair or two pair since the flop is pretty scary. My guess for his range with something like AJ, AQ, AK, KQ, AT, AsXs, TT, 99.

1. Once the river hits, what is the best way to maximize value/minimize loss?

A. Lead into the pot again. If so, for how much? What do you do if he shoves over your raise?
B. Check/Call to give him the opputurnity to bet his missed draws or worse one pair hand.
C. Check/Raise. Why?
D. Something else that I haven't thought of.

2. Is there ever a reason to check this turn against a really tight player that called an UTG open and then called the flop bet?


Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $184.55
SB: $200.00
BB: $43.00
Hero (UTG): $208.00
UTG+1: $339.30
UTG+2: $482.80
MP1: $41.75
MP2: $258.90
CO: $43.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG with Ac Qd

Hero raises to $7
1 fold
UTG+2 calls $7
6 folds

Flop: ($17.00) Qs Js 8d (2 players)

Hero bets $12
UTG+2 calls $12

Turn: ($41.00) 6h (2 players)
Hero bets $30
UTG+2 calls $30

River: ($101.00) 2d (2 players)

Since I haven't been up for posting much poker content lately, I thought I would share a video that had me LMFAO.

Party Hard. Life is short. You never know when your ticket will be punched.

I haven't played too many MTTs lately and was wondering if the MP's shove over my short stack raise is a +EV shove. I'm curious (not because I lost the hand) because I have been in the same situation several times before in both MTTs and SNGs and am not sure where the cutoff line for hands would be.

Tourney - FTP $50/$50k - 12 players left
Me - 6 BBs after losing a decent size pot about 6 hands earlier (not to MP); I have been active, but not overly active. I don't think that I have shoved from SB to MP's BB or raised his BB very often since we hadn't been at the same table for very long.

MP - 15 BBs remaining. If he shoves and loses to me it leaves him with around 8.5 BBs.

CO - Has been playing fairly LAGgy with the big stack and has called some shoves with a fairly wide range of hands. I would say he is calling MP's shove with any pair/ATo+/AXs.

SB/BB - would both have a very tight range for calling his shove.

So, the question is - Is MP's shove a +EV shove considering he is probably sitting around 6th or 7th with 12 players remaining? (payouts for 10-12 is $720; 9th - $923; 1st - $11k; 2nd $7k; 3rd - $4.8k; etc)

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 5,000/10,000 Blinds, 1,000 Ante, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


MP: 149,371
CO: 453,614
BTN: 24,813
SB: 343,550
BB: 155,638
Hero (UTG): 60,306

Pre-Flop: (21,000) A 6 dealt to Hero (UTG)

Hero raises to 59,306 and is All-In, MP raises to 148,371 and is All-In, 4 folds

Flop: (139,612) 4 5 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (139,612) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (139,612) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 139,612 Pot

MP showed T K (a flush, King high) and WON 139,612 (+79,306 NET)
Hero showed A 6 (a pair of Sixes) and LOST (-60,306 NET)

GO GATORS!!

I got a little nervous, but book another National Championship for the GATORS!!!!!!!

Sometimes I go on auto-pilot (multi-tabling while watching TV, etc) amd I forget one of the most basic things in poker that I should be asking myself every time I play:

What am I hoping to accomplish with my bet/call/fold in this particular hand? What do I think will be the results of my action? What is my plan if the results are different than I expect?

Sounds simple enough, but it seems that I sometimes forget to ask myself those basic questions before I act. I could go into further detail, but it varies so much depending on the situation. The important thing is to have a plan for each hand with a detailed reasoning that makes sense.

I was going to do a long post about poker goals for the New Year, but decided to keep it simple and to the point.

Online
1. Blog more (with poker content and analysis)
2. Always play my best poker ("A" game) no matter what game I'm playing.
3. Spend more time reviewing my sessions.
4. Watch more training videos (and really pay attention while I'm watching)
5. Read hand histories/strategy posts on forums and post difficult decisions.
6. Play more blogger tourneys. They are always fun.
7. Make Supernova on Pokerstars by the end of April

Live
1. Try to make it out to the WSOP this year (either for ME or prelims). This might be a little difficult finding the time with the new business, but I'm going to try to make it happen.
2. I'll have to figure out more live goals as the year goes on and I see how busy I will be with work.

Not too comprehensive right now, but I'm not sure how much work will get in the way. I'll probably set some more specific mini-goals in the near future.