O-Poker

I played a 1/2 HU cash session vs. Brian Townsend on Friday (see Thursday's post for details).

I can now tell everyone that, lifetime, I run at 19ptbb/100 vs. aba20. :)

Link to Download video
http://files.filefront.com/12huvsBT.wmv/;8411706;/fileinfo.html
(I think that the picture will be a lot crisper if you click the download now instead of watching it on their site. It is a 40MB windows media player file.)

I couldn't get the sound to go any louder, so you may have to turn up the volume pretty loud to hear it.

After watching the video, I think that I played pretty weak-tight and my commentary was lacking. The commentary mainly consisted of me stating the obvious. I should have gone into my thought process more.

There were a lot of flops that I should have lead out or check/raised him on - with or without a hand. He obviously wasn't hitting every flop. I was trying to play small pot poker.

I think that several things effected the way that I was playing (and shouldn't have):

1. Not wanting to look like an idiot on the video. :)
2. Playing against one of the best.
3. A little strange video taping - I folded a few hands preflop that I shouldn't have because I was distracted.
4. I had just watched a heads up cash video by Taylor. He was dominating the other player and didn't make a whole lot of moves without hands because his opponent was bluffing him a ton. He could pick his spots against that player. Brian wasn't playing this way and I gave up way too many pots that I should have taken stabs at.

JJ Hand in video
I felt like I had to be ahead of his range. My initial gut reaction was to shove all-in. He could have been re-raising me with any Queen, a lot of pocket pairs (Q62 flop), or a flush draw. I went with my gut and shoved and got lucky.

QJ 4 bet preflop
I was aware that I had been playing pretty weak the entire match and I hadn't 4 bet preflop. I 4 bet thinking that I am taking that pot down right there most times. He pretty much has to either shove or fold to my 4 bet and my hand has to look huge to him. There isn't much he can play there.

Please give me feedback/tell me I'm weak-tight.

Pokertracker stats from session

I have been a member of Cardrunners for a while. I think I joined the site a about 1 1/2 years ago. There is no doubt in my mind that the site dramatically improved my game and continues to help me in improving my game.

I don't have any ads on this blog other than a referral text link to cardrunners. CR has a points based referral system. You can use the points for things like Itunes gift cards, membership extensions, Cardplayer subscription, Best Buy Gift Cards, Ipods, etc.

I have been saving the points for one thing - "Taped HU session with a pro and we will send you the video and/or post it for others to critique (if you want)."

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that I finally had enough referral points for the HU taped session with a pro. I emailed them and included a list of the pros that I would like to play in order of preference. I put Brian Townsend at the top of the list. I didn't think there was any way that I would wind up playing the match against him. I assumed I would get one of the other pros - which would have been fine, also.

I got an email from Brian a couple of days later to schedule a time for the match. After a few back and forth emails and getting our schedules lined up, we are going to play 1/2nl hu tomorrow (Friday) at 4:30 EST on pokerstars. I didn't have any cash on stars, so I moved a few buy-ins over there from FTP.

I plan on recording the session. I'll post a link to the video after I upload it.

HU cash games are probably the weakest part of my game. I am looking forward to the match and Brian's video/comments on how poorly I am playing against him. I hope to learn a lot about my game from a great player's POV. I am crossing my fingers that the lesson isn't too expensive.


***EDIT: My stars sn is sportingimag