Week 1 2008

One week into the new year, and i've managed to put in nearly 10k hands in cash games, and played well. This week:

+$1,230.80 playing hold 'em on stars
+$28.68 playing hold 'em on party

-$46.45 PLO on stars
-$477.50 MTTs/SnGs/staking

$276 of that last number is me buying 3% of Rupert's action at PCA. Sadly he bustoed late in the first day. Boooo. Also, STT/MTT variance is real sick, I'm going to stop myself playing so many of them in future. I rarely play my A game in them too, and they're time consuming etc etc etc.

Here's my Stars graph for this week:

Tonight was pokersoc, and I was kicking ass in the tourny, but as usual the blinds started crapshooting and my play soon degenerated (in proportion to the tourny :P). Couple of interesting hands came up. First, blinds 25/50, Mitesh raised to 175 from MP, I'm in small blind with A8 and call. Normally this is a hand i'd advocated dumping when out of position postflop, especially against a decent player like Mitesh, but I figured I was ahead of his range, and was feeling so sick good/overly confident about my own play at that point in the night, that i could own anyone postflop when 100BB deep.

Flop came A66 and i checked. Mitesh bet about 250 i'd guess, I called. I can't see any value in check raising here, and donking would be horrible. Turn came a 5, Again I check called, this time I think it was about 375. Against some opponents I'd fold here, but against Mitesh, my hand is underrepped, he prob doesn't put me on an ace, and he's definitely capable of following through with another bet on the turn with most of his range as a bluff. Again, i don't see any value in raising.

River came a delightful K. I bet about 500. This bet was designed to freeze him out of raising if he has an ace. Apart from AK/A6, he can't profitably raise this river bet for value with any ace, because i'm folding anything worse and he'd be chopping with any ace. This seemed better for me than checking and facing a bet of about 1k. Also, he still doesn't necessarily put me on an ace, so i think i might be able to get value from hands like 77-QQ/KJ/KQ/KT, hands that would almost certainly check behind if i check.

However, what happened was that he raised 1.2k more! Right, now what? I can't put him on 55 or KK or A6 or some funky 6x hand, as knowing minty, he'd probably get tricky somewhere, or with KK play for pot control, so i'd expect him to check the turn. Also, I don't think he can raise here without AK/KK/55/A6/6x, so IMO he's representing exactly AK. I decide that because there's only really one legitimate hand that beats me, and my hand looks a lot like 77-99, that his range here is heavily weighted towards bluffs so I call, and he mucks. I assume he had air. It definitely helped that I was chopping any other ace in case he had gone crazy.

Second interesting hand, blinds now 75/150, and i've developed a bit of a reputation, playing a lot of hands and talking a LOT. Phil raises UTG+1 to 450, I call on the HJ with 97s. Not something i'd necessarily do usually with ~40BB stacks, but again I was feeling cocky and invincible. Flop comes a delightful 775. Phil checks. I think this probably means he has Ax/Kx and has whiffed completely, but I think he's prob capable of checking AA/KK type hands here too. I bet 600 and try to make it look as stabby as possible, I don't want him folding those AK type hands! He calls. Turn is a 9, Phil checks, and now I have the deck crushed. I check behind to make it look like i've given up on the bluff. I think the river was a 5, putting two pair on the board. Sweet! I might even get a call from ace high now! Phil checks, and i quickly bet 2k, making it look as bluffy as possible, and get called by ace high. Awesome.

After this i go card dead/myplay deteriorates for a while. Next hand i remember, blinds 300/600. Folds to me on the button, Ian is in the big blind with about 6k I think, and i have about 13k at this point. I have 44. I think if i raise here on the button, Ian will shove on me quite wide, forcing me to call half my stack with 44 and If he doesn't, Dave Lu in the small blind will prob own me. So i limp on the button, as this is something i v.v.v. rarely do, and so I hope Dave Lu will pick up on it and think it could easily be a tarp, which i hoped would freeze him out the pot and leave me heads up with Ian. Dave folds, Ian checks. Pot is 1.5k at this point. Flop comes out 6x3d2d and Ian bets nearly 2.5k. Hmmmmmmm. Sick life. I like my hand a lot here, but he's just bet half his remaining stack, so although I'd love to shove, I can't see me having much fold equity. Also, i haven't played much with Ian, but i've never seen him get out of line. I figure him having a scared 6T type of hand, sigh, and fold.

Moved tables and blinds went to 500/1000. I decide to get a bit more aggressive to try and get chips for final table. I have like 13.5k, and open UTG to 2.5k with 98 SOOOTED. SB calls. Flop comes J42, SB checks, I c-bet 3.5k, SB crai. I read his soul and say "hmm, guess you trap called preflop with aces or something." I fold, claiming pocket tens, while SB looks a bit shocked and sheepishly shows me the aces. I might've lost half my stack, but at least i soul read good.

Few hands later shove AQ, no good vs AT. Good game.

Feeling a bit frustrated, but fairly level headed (much more so than usual when i get knocked out of a tourny) I decided to sit 3 handed with mitesh and some other guy in a cash game with 25p/50p blinds. I buy in for £50. finished -£40, having never been able to get anything going, and making a big mistake in one hand.

The hand in question, I made the mistake of misreading what level mitesh would be thinking at. With about £45 eff. stacks, Mitesh raised button to £2, I reraised to £7 with AcKc. Mitesh called. I'd 3-bet a couple of times so far, but in general been pretty solid, so i don't think mitesh thinks i'm just making a move.

Flop comes J62r. Perfect, I'm out of position against a good, thinking player in a 3-bet pot and have whiffed completely.

IMO, here are the levels of thinking:

level 1: I have AK, but have missed the flop completely, I check/fold
level 2: I have AK, but was the preflop aggressor,this is an excellent flop to c-bet and will make villain fold 77-TT a lot.
level 3: 3-handed, Mitesh knows I could be reraising quite wide, and this flop is unlikely to have helped me, so if i c-bet it's a good spot for mitesh to make a move at me, so i'll just check, hope for a free card, and maybe call one bet
level 4: I have only reraise mitesh once or twice so far, so he has to give me credit for some kind of hand. I haven't played any big pots or got out of line, and he knows that I know this would be an excellent flop for him to make a play at, so in order to c-bet it, i HAVE to have a big hand. So i c-bet, expecting a fold, and thinking that would be my best chance to win the pot.

I was thinking at level 4. Sadly, I should've been playing minty at level 3, as I bet £11 into £14, and he shoved on me. I tanked for ages, KNOWING he was making a move on me, and deciding he had to have 77/88/99 as opposed to Ax type hands enough here to make a call on my part unprofitable. Later he claimed 77, and i tried to save face by claiming a pair. Sigh. I much prefer a call on this flop with mitesh's entire range. Esp. with 77. If he has me beat, I have 6 outs, If not, he has two and he's definitely getting called. Is he really shoving two pair/sets here? He'd have to to balance his range out a bit, but I can't see him ever shoving JJ on a J62r flop, for example. He seemed surprised when I said i'd call there as light as 99. I dunno.

Another hand that bothered me a bit, 4 handed now I raise CO with 99, Mitesh reraises. I'm certainly not folding a hand that strong 4 handed, so I call. Flop comes JTx. Bad flop for me, I check, Mitesh checks. Turn a 7. This is worse! 77 now beats me, and any hand I beat (AK/AQ/88/KQ) will almost certainly semi-bluff if i try to bet! So i check again, mitesh checks. River K. Check fold. Mitesh claimed AQ later for the nuts. My line feels pretty passive but i don't know any other way to play it here.

Other biggest pot I lost, can't remember exact details, but after a button limp, i called in SB and check called flop and turn with top pair weak kicker on a very drawy board. Turn put 3 spades on the board, and villain checked his cards. This tells me a) He doesn't have a flush already, and b) he doesn't have the ace of spades. So when the river comes a 4th spade, I think it's pretty mandatory for me to turn my hand into a bluff, especially when he doesn't have the nuts. So I bet near pot, and get called by the 9s. He claimed he would've called a shove too. Sigh. Lost like £15 there.

Only other hands of note, I 4bet mitesh pre with AQo. And in Omaha, i raise button with 4 cards (as i am liable to do in omaha). blinds call. Flop 332. check check. I bet, continuing to represent aces, and mitesh min check raises. This sucks, but i think he had to have it, because this would be a horrible spot to bluff.

Shame i finished -£40, as i felt i was +EV in that game. From what i'd heard/what I knew about mitesh, i expected him to have good hand analysis, but fairly weak fundamentals, as he openly admits to making all his money live, and being a loser online. However, although he definitely did make one or two mistakes, he impressed me more than i expected, and was actually fundamentally sound for the most part, and I'm sure given discipline (I suspect this may be his problem) he could be a winner online.

Wow, long blog entry. Must be avoiding bed like the plague. Please comment guys, let me know SOMEONE'S reading this.