I got inspired by Benko's hand, and since I've been suffering many losses in the 5/27, I decided to give it a try. I fired a $5 knockout and played them simultanously.
I couple of bad decisions, but at the end of the day, it went my way.
But again, I needed the river A for my AA ag QQ in the last hand, since the villain of course got his set on the flop, lol.
I'm not to pleased by calling the J top pair with 3 clubs on the table in the $13 either (hand 78), but all in all, it ended well.
I'm still not certain whether I should have called hand 19, with AKs. There was one AI already, and player 7 reraised prior to that, so I was pretty sure he would call the AI as well. At least one of them had either Ax or big pp, and a 3 player AI is not in my comfort zone, especially if at least one player has me covered. How whould you guys have played that hand?
$13/6
$5/9
Friday, August 27, 2010
$13 6-max
I thought my decision-making and bet-sizing were pretty good in this one (for a change!). Things don't really get started until Hand 66 and then it ends quickly.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Playing Sets on Suited Board
In reply to MrEMC2. I was not allowed to post it as a comment because of the length. Thus, I had to make a new post. Perhaps the software is trying to tell me something...
PS: I like the hands you added! I haven't gone through the big hh, but will get to it later. Here are my quick thoughts regarding your original question.
The situation is we are in one of the first 3 blind levels in a tourney holding a small/medium pocket pair and facing a btn minraise preflop. We call the raise, flop a middle set on a suited board. Since this is early in the tourney we probably don’t know much about the other player(s). Furthermore, the preflop raiser’s range of hands is huge at this point.
Regarding playing hands out of position, Moshman says (and I fully agree) that you should choose to be the aggressor and make a 50% pot raise yourself in any situation where you would call a normal raise from another opponent (this means drawing hands too!). Most importantly, being the aggressor gives you fold equity that you give up by checking. Remember, a scary flop for you is often a scary flop for your opponent too. Your bet is large enough that anyone chasing a flush is making a pot odds mistake by calling.This is pretty straight forward, but most people don’t do it at the lower levels. In the situation above, I would always raise against 1 opponent and usually against two in btn, sb, bb situations. Furthermore, if the villian already has the nut flush, they will often slowplay their presumed monster and simply call your bet rather than reraising. Thus, giving you the chance to stack them if you hit.
If you check hoping for a free card, your opponents may still raise putting you in a difficult situation. I would only call if the odds are correct. If you check and do get to see the turn for free, your hand is reduced to bluffing status if a 4th suited card shows up. It is also worth noting that you have 7 outs for a house, whereas the villian has 9 outs if drawing for a flush. A free card is helping the villian more than you.
Summing up the flop.Your hand is presumably the best at the moment, but very vulnerable. Try to take the pot down now with a raise, but fold to a reraise.
If your flop raise gets called by the bb and the btn, then I would check/fold any turn card not giving me a full house. With three players, the pot will be getting so big that a turn bet may be pot committing you in an uncertain situation too early in the game.
Now, the tricky situation is where your flop raise gets flat called by the btn only. It is still hard to put the villian on a range. If the turn puts a 4th suited card on the table, then I check/fold the hand. If the turn makes my full house then I fire out another bet. This time around 30% of the pot hoping to get some action. If any other card shows up, you have a difficult situation. If the blinds are low, against 1 opponent I will make another 50% pot raise here, but folding again to a reraise. You still have 10 outs to make your full house on the river.
Finally the river, the pot is probably about 350 (10/20 blinds) chips now vs 1 opponent. I’m probably firing out a defensive bet of about 100 on any missed river, even a 4th flush card. If you don’t bet, the villian probably will bet (and often pot sized) no matter what he is holding. By betting small, they will often call with any hand other than the nut flush which they will reraise. I fold to any reraise. If I catch a card and get my full house, I’ll probably bet about 250 and move all in if the villain reraises.
You have invested about 450 chips, a third of your stack, in this hand. It will be a nice pot if you win, but not too devistating a blow to your stack if you lose. I won’t get pot committed with this hand. So, if the pot at any point reaches a third of my stack, I am going to slow down and accept check/folding rather than committing to an uncertain hand.
In a high blind situation, shoving these pocket pairs preflop is probably best. However, if I do get myself involved in a situation like this then stack sizes, the blinds, and my reads become important factors. If I’m already pot committed then I’ll simply shove the flop. If I’m not pot committed, I may check/fold the flop if I believe the btn will check. At this point in the game we should have some idea how aggressive the btn is.
Finally, let’s look at the situation above when the roles are reversed. Let say that I am the btn and have limped preflop with a pocket pair early in the tourney. I’ll call a raise if my pot odds are good, or if the sb raises and the bb calls giving me nice implied odds. However, if the flop is checked to me, now I can consider taking my free card in order to keep the pot small.
Well, now you know what I do, let us see what Benko has to say. I would probably listen to his advice over mine :)
Roland GTX
PS: I like the hands you added! I haven't gone through the big hh, but will get to it later. Here are my quick thoughts regarding your original question.
The situation is we are in one of the first 3 blind levels in a tourney holding a small/medium pocket pair and facing a btn minraise preflop. We call the raise, flop a middle set on a suited board. Since this is early in the tourney we probably don’t know much about the other player(s). Furthermore, the preflop raiser’s range of hands is huge at this point.
Regarding playing hands out of position, Moshman says (and I fully agree) that you should choose to be the aggressor and make a 50% pot raise yourself in any situation where you would call a normal raise from another opponent (this means drawing hands too!). Most importantly, being the aggressor gives you fold equity that you give up by checking. Remember, a scary flop for you is often a scary flop for your opponent too. Your bet is large enough that anyone chasing a flush is making a pot odds mistake by calling.This is pretty straight forward, but most people don’t do it at the lower levels. In the situation above, I would always raise against 1 opponent and usually against two in btn, sb, bb situations. Furthermore, if the villian already has the nut flush, they will often slowplay their presumed monster and simply call your bet rather than reraising. Thus, giving you the chance to stack them if you hit.
If you check hoping for a free card, your opponents may still raise putting you in a difficult situation. I would only call if the odds are correct. If you check and do get to see the turn for free, your hand is reduced to bluffing status if a 4th suited card shows up. It is also worth noting that you have 7 outs for a house, whereas the villian has 9 outs if drawing for a flush. A free card is helping the villian more than you.
Summing up the flop.Your hand is presumably the best at the moment, but very vulnerable. Try to take the pot down now with a raise, but fold to a reraise.
If your flop raise gets called by the bb and the btn, then I would check/fold any turn card not giving me a full house. With three players, the pot will be getting so big that a turn bet may be pot committing you in an uncertain situation too early in the game.
Now, the tricky situation is where your flop raise gets flat called by the btn only. It is still hard to put the villian on a range. If the turn puts a 4th suited card on the table, then I check/fold the hand. If the turn makes my full house then I fire out another bet. This time around 30% of the pot hoping to get some action. If any other card shows up, you have a difficult situation. If the blinds are low, against 1 opponent I will make another 50% pot raise here, but folding again to a reraise. You still have 10 outs to make your full house on the river.
Finally the river, the pot is probably about 350 (10/20 blinds) chips now vs 1 opponent. I’m probably firing out a defensive bet of about 100 on any missed river, even a 4th flush card. If you don’t bet, the villian probably will bet (and often pot sized) no matter what he is holding. By betting small, they will often call with any hand other than the nut flush which they will reraise. I fold to any reraise. If I catch a card and get my full house, I’ll probably bet about 250 and move all in if the villain reraises.
You have invested about 450 chips, a third of your stack, in this hand. It will be a nice pot if you win, but not too devistating a blow to your stack if you lose. I won’t get pot committed with this hand. So, if the pot at any point reaches a third of my stack, I am going to slow down and accept check/folding rather than committing to an uncertain hand.
In a high blind situation, shoving these pocket pairs preflop is probably best. However, if I do get myself involved in a situation like this then stack sizes, the blinds, and my reads become important factors. If I’m already pot committed then I’ll simply shove the flop. If I’m not pot committed, I may check/fold the flop if I believe the btn will check. At this point in the game we should have some idea how aggressive the btn is.
Finally, let’s look at the situation above when the roles are reversed. Let say that I am the btn and have limped preflop with a pocket pair early in the tourney. I’ll call a raise if my pot odds are good, or if the sb raises and the bb calls giving me nice implied odds. However, if the flop is checked to me, now I can consider taking my free card in order to keep the pot small.
Well, now you know what I do, let us see what Benko has to say. I would probably listen to his advice over mine :)
Roland GTX
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Set ag flush or str draw on the flop
Hi guys,
I've tried to find a HH for this kind of situation, which has happened to me several times lately, but I can't find it :-(
Anyway, we had almost this sort of hand in our last private game, so here's the scenario:
I'm sitting out position, i.e. sb/bb, and do have a small pair, let's say 77 like Benko had on sunday. No limpers, but button places min raise. It's still early in the game, so I simply call.
Flop is i.e. 710K, all same suite. I've got my set, but there's a possible fl draw on the table. In general, I would check, and wait for the button to act.
Roland mentioned shoving, since you do have 25% chance for a full house? Basically, I would prefer to see the turn and river without risking too many chips, but how to act on big raises from the villain?
The same sort of scenario applies of course to str draw as well. And it certainly depends on position, stack size etc.
Anyway, this is pretty tricky, and not very easy to act correctly. What do you find in your books about that :-)
Update: Had the opposite situation yesterday
CL and BB had been playing tight indeed, and I was simply trying to steal blinds.
Of course, the villain didn't played too smart, by simply calling 2BB raise, instead of reraising, and betting only 1BB when I checked the flop.
Don't slowplay your monsters, MrS stated a while ago, didn't he? :D
Here's a summary of the same tourney as well. Take a close look at hand 12 :D
This was long time before the magic str against the set, lol.
I skipped all hands I wasn't involved into b4 we were ITM. There were many crazy hands there as well, but it tipped my way, for once ;)
PS.: There was also a potential candidate for this type of situation (#69), although I folded my 22 due, since 2 players went AI before me :-) Would have flopped a set, and lost to a flush :D
I've tried to find a HH for this kind of situation, which has happened to me several times lately, but I can't find it :-(
Anyway, we had almost this sort of hand in our last private game, so here's the scenario:
I'm sitting out position, i.e. sb/bb, and do have a small pair, let's say 77 like Benko had on sunday. No limpers, but button places min raise. It's still early in the game, so I simply call.
Flop is i.e. 710K, all same suite. I've got my set, but there's a possible fl draw on the table. In general, I would check, and wait for the button to act.
Roland mentioned shoving, since you do have 25% chance for a full house? Basically, I would prefer to see the turn and river without risking too many chips, but how to act on big raises from the villain?
The same sort of scenario applies of course to str draw as well. And it certainly depends on position, stack size etc.
Anyway, this is pretty tricky, and not very easy to act correctly. What do you find in your books about that :-)
Update: Had the opposite situation yesterday
CL and BB had been playing tight indeed, and I was simply trying to steal blinds.
Of course, the villain didn't played too smart, by simply calling 2BB raise, instead of reraising, and betting only 1BB when I checked the flop.
Don't slowplay your monsters, MrS stated a while ago, didn't he? :D
Here's a summary of the same tourney as well. Take a close look at hand 12 :D
This was long time before the magic str against the set, lol.
I skipped all hands I wasn't involved into b4 we were ITM. There were many crazy hands there as well, but it tipped my way, for once ;)
PS.: There was also a potential candidate for this type of situation (#69), although I folded my 22 due, since 2 players went AI before me :-) Would have flopped a set, and lost to a flush :D
Non-Nut Flush
Roland, you will appreciate this hand from a $13 6-max. Around the same time I busted out of two SNGs with sets when my opponents back-doored a flush so it all evens out....
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Updated Leaderboard
Congratulations MrECM2! You are officially the new tournament leader. That means we are all out to get you now. I hope you aren't too paranoid:)
MrSmith is in charge of organizing the September Private Game. The details will be posted as soon as possible.
Roland GTX
MrSmith is in charge of organizing the September Private Game. The details will be posted as soon as possible.
Roland GTX
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Private Game on Sunday!
Hi guys
This is just a friendly reminder that the August private game is scheduled for this coming Sunday. Benko has approved the date and should be making an appearance. Check the upper left hand corner of the blog for the password.
Also, I wanted to mention the set of $4.10 knockouts I played last night. I had 6 tables playing and things were going well in most of them. It looked like I was heading for a profitable evening when things went horribly wrong - LOL. I don't like to rant, but this was rather unusual.
There were 4 players remaining at one table and I had the shortest stack with about 1200 chips. UTG big stack raises and I reraise all in from the sb holding AA. Big stack calls and turns over 44 - oh yeah! The flop runs XX4 giving him a set. Now I'm in trouble. However, the turn is my miracle A giving me set over set. Then the river came and yes he landed the final 1 outer 4. His quad 4s beat my As over 4s full house! Well this roller coaster ride of a hand seemed like a random piece of bad luck. It was also the first time I recall losing a full house to quads though. This seemed like a pretty rare event. I didn't have time to fret about the bubble loss because the action on another table required my attention.
The first hand to pop up after losing to the quads was in another bubble situation. I was in the big blind with the 2nd largest stack and the loose aggressive big stack was the sb to my right. The other two stacks were very short and on the very of being blinded out. The two short stacks folded to the chipleader who minraises from the sb. I look down and see pocket 7s. My stack is so healthy that I decide to flat call and see what the flop brings. The flop was perfect for me A47 rainbow! I flopped my set and am just preying that the villian is holding an A. I lead out with a minraise hoping to entice a reraise. It works perfectly and he makes a solid 3x reraise. Now the pot is huge so I simply 3bet all in and the big stack calls. He shows A10o and I'm way ahead - nice! The turn is another A giving him trips, but giving me a full house - oh yeah! I'm already starting to envision the rest of the game with my monster stack versus 3 micro stacks. Unfortunately, the poker gods had other thoughts in mind. He nailed his 1 outer when the final A was shown. Once again my set turned full house lost to quads.
LOL, sometimes lightning does strike twice...
Seriously though, I wonder if ICM says I should have simply folded my 77 in the second hand and avoided the potential tourney threatening confrontation.
See you on Sunday!
Roland GTX
This is just a friendly reminder that the August private game is scheduled for this coming Sunday. Benko has approved the date and should be making an appearance. Check the upper left hand corner of the blog for the password.
Also, I wanted to mention the set of $4.10 knockouts I played last night. I had 6 tables playing and things were going well in most of them. It looked like I was heading for a profitable evening when things went horribly wrong - LOL. I don't like to rant, but this was rather unusual.
There were 4 players remaining at one table and I had the shortest stack with about 1200 chips. UTG big stack raises and I reraise all in from the sb holding AA. Big stack calls and turns over 44 - oh yeah! The flop runs XX4 giving him a set. Now I'm in trouble. However, the turn is my miracle A giving me set over set. Then the river came and yes he landed the final 1 outer 4. His quad 4s beat my As over 4s full house! Well this roller coaster ride of a hand seemed like a random piece of bad luck. It was also the first time I recall losing a full house to quads though. This seemed like a pretty rare event. I didn't have time to fret about the bubble loss because the action on another table required my attention.
The first hand to pop up after losing to the quads was in another bubble situation. I was in the big blind with the 2nd largest stack and the loose aggressive big stack was the sb to my right. The other two stacks were very short and on the very of being blinded out. The two short stacks folded to the chipleader who minraises from the sb. I look down and see pocket 7s. My stack is so healthy that I decide to flat call and see what the flop brings. The flop was perfect for me A47 rainbow! I flopped my set and am just preying that the villian is holding an A. I lead out with a minraise hoping to entice a reraise. It works perfectly and he makes a solid 3x reraise. Now the pot is huge so I simply 3bet all in and the big stack calls. He shows A10o and I'm way ahead - nice! The turn is another A giving him trips, but giving me a full house - oh yeah! I'm already starting to envision the rest of the game with my monster stack versus 3 micro stacks. Unfortunately, the poker gods had other thoughts in mind. He nailed his 1 outer when the final A was shown. Once again my set turned full house lost to quads.
LOL, sometimes lightning does strike twice...
Seriously though, I wonder if ICM says I should have simply folded my 77 in the second hand and avoided the potential tourney threatening confrontation.
See you on Sunday!
Roland GTX
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Back to the Action!
I hope everyone has had a nice summer. I sure did! After 5 sunny weeks in Florida, I’m recharged and ready to get back to the tables.
I started off the fall by breaking my one of my own rules (typical). Rather than sticking to the single table knockouts, I played a slew of $4/180 man sngs and $10 mtts. I had several final tables in the 180s, but no top 3 finishes. I also got deep in one mtt busting out 29th out of 10 000 players. Unfortunately, it was a freeroll and all the real money was at the final table. All in all, I donked off too much of my bankroll without any significant results, but did have a lot of fun doing it! After that misstep, I moved back to the knockouts.
I have been running a 22% ROI at the $1.40 knockouts, but dislike playing at that level. The ROI is nice, but the amount of real cash has made me impatient. To remedy this situation, I started testing the water at the next level which is $4.10 ($3 buy in + 0.75 bounty + 0.35 fee). My first few attempts went well. So, I started running sets of 4 which is much more comfortable than the sets of 12 at the $1 level. I then moved up to sets of 6 and am now testing sets of 8.
Multitabling 6-8 tourneys seems to be my current sweet spot. I can comfortably follow the action on these. Moreover, by the time I’m ITM, usually half the tables have closed. Thus, I can have 4 tables open without any overlap on my screen which allows me to get the reads necessary for the endgame play. I don’t plan on adding more tables.
My results at the $4 level are nearly identical to those from the $1 level. I have played just over 100 $4 knockouts and including bounties have a 19% ROI. More importantly, my actual profit per game has more than doubled. I have had too many 4th place and 2nd place finishes though. I’ll probably play another 100 or so of these before considering the next level which is $6.75 (5 + 1.25 + 0.50).
I have been rushing to get to the $6.75 knockouts simply because that is the first level where the Pokerstars fee is down to 10% of the buyin. As I’ve said before, the high fees at the micro levels eat up too much of your ROI. Also, there doesn’t seem to be much difference in skill levels between the lower buyin amounts.
It is worth noting that I have also played a handful of normal single table sngs at the micro levels, usually due to registering for the wrong tourney... Anyway, I have noticed that the knockout games are much more aggressive during the early stages of the game. The play resembles that of a tubo, except that the blinds are moving nice and slow. By the time the blinds get to 100/200 in a knockout, the tourney is at the bubble or already ITM. Whereas in the normal sngs there are still 6 or 7 players left at this point. I believe this difference to be important.
In the knockouts, I play ultra-tight the early levels only playing hands that I know exactly where I stand postflop. Sometimes I’ll get big hands and double up early, but typically, I get to the bubble without having played many, if any, hands. The blinds are still so low that this is not a problem. One well timed reraise against the sb who thinks he can steal from you every round and you are back in the game. In the normal sngs however, you are forced to shift gears while there are 6 or so players left which seems to make it slightly more difficult to get itm.
To sum things up: single table tourneys are building my bankroll and multi-table tourneys are depleting it. I guess I’ll stick to the sngs then for the time being :)
Good Luck at the tables!
Roland GTX
PS: We need to schedule the next private game for August. Benko asked me to suggest a date. How does Sunday 22 August at 9 PM work for everyone? Benko’s answer will take priority. So, I won’t set up the tourney until I hear from him.
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