November-$10k Month?

It's possible though might be a bit of a stretch.  Here is a review of a good session the other night.

15 min 5/10 NLHE +$885
9:08 2/5 NLHE +$1,805

Well my card dead/run bad from October is officially disengaged. Running pretty well, coolering a few people and playing well has added up to a really good stretch over my last ~5-6 sessions. Did a better job tracking some interesting hands so will have a bunch in this post.

I arrived yesterday afternoon and was immediately seated at 5/10. I only had $2k on me so I really wanted to play 2/5 as this reps only 2 bullets. anyway 1 hand was enough.

Some times the Game is Easy

This is literally like my 3rd hand at 5/10. Table was 6/7 handed with a dude that had played every pot for a raise. He is Villain in this hand. He opens to $50 with XX and I 3b in the BB with KK. He calls. My read was that he was spewy just based on the 3 hands and didn't want to give up like ever.

(Pot $305) Flop KT9 I lead $175 and he starts cutting out chips like he is going to raise but ultimately just calls. I think he has a pretty wide range still with a lot of TJ, QT, J9, AJ type hands being a big part of his range. Pair with gutters, bare gutters, etc.

(Pot $655) Turn 8 This is obv a brick. My man has like $575 left and although I can easily shove I think I can bet small and get him to commit thinking he has fold equity or just get 2 streets of value here. So i decide on $225. he calls pretty quickly.

(Pot $1105) River 8 Seems like a good card . I put him in for his remaining $340-350 and he calls saying "I can't put you on a hand". I table and obv MHIG.

Right after that I got called for 2/5. Thought about it for a minute and said fuck it, I'm gonna hit and run this game. So off to 2/5 I went when the following happens:

If your plan is to bet/fold you gotta bet/fold

I fold a few hands then on cue I get KK in MP. 2 limps in front and I go $25. only 1 of limpers calls. he appears young, good with chips, kinda talkative but never seen him in the room before.

(Pot $60) Flop QQ8 He ch and I decide to ch it back

(Pot $60) Turn 7 He ch, I bet $40 he call

(Pot $140) River 6 I decide to bet/fold targeting like 99/TT, 89, 8T, maybe 87, etc. So I bet $75 and he pretty quickly c/r to $250. His line doesn't really make much sense at all. But it's 2/5 and they don't a lot of time. I start talking to him asking him what he thinks I have. he says "I think you have a Q". When he says this I really think he is bluffing like he is trying to say he thinks I'm strong, yet he still made this play. But I went with my initial plan and folded. he showed JT for an odd bluff that worked.

Turning a meh hand into a bluff

A bad non-thinking player opens to $10 in LP over a limp or 2. I had a pretty good read on him that he bet big with big hands and smaller with smaller hands. He had earlier bet $25 pre, then bet $125 on the flop with $75 in the pot on Qxx board and showed the table QQ. Anyway I call BTN with AJ. 6 to flop.

(Pot $60) Flop QJ6 He bets $25, I call, SB calls.

(Pot $135) Turn 8 He bets $60 only I call. I think he has some weakish Q's here (QTs, etc.), maybe some hands I beat like AK or 99/TT and just doesn't know what to do so he bets kinda small. I obv pick up the NFD so I'm not folding.

(Pot $255) River 8 Not the card I was looking for. He fumbles around and bets $100 and I start thinking. I can't really call but he's a fish and I don't really like bluffing fish. Anyway I really decide to go with my read about his betting patterns. Although he has bet 3 streets, none of them have been very strong bets. So I decide to cram $375 more. He then starts thinking and quickly confirms he has a Q so I was right to raise or fold. Finally he says "You must have a full house so I fold".

Paying attention there and being engaged in the hand won me that pot for sure.

Stacking a meh LAG-set up hand tho

I open prob my fave QJ to $20 in MP. 3 callers including a LAG in SB. He was playing a lot of pots, raising every single time he straddled. He wasn't bad but wasn't a star either. Anyway 4 to flop.

(Pot $80) Flop AT8 Welp I'm not folding now, 2nd flush draw, double gutted is pretty good! Checks to me and I bet $55, only SB calls.

(Pot $190) Turn 3. he checks and I bet $125. He calls. I range him on 2 pair, sets, maybe like KQx, J9 (least likely I guess). I think he 3b AK preflop so I don't think he has AxK

(Pot $440) River 5 He checks a 3rd time and I decide to bet bigger. I bet $350 relatively quickly. He starts tanking and finally gives me the "Why so much?" speech. I try to look nervous and he finally calls with what he said was 88.

Nice pot. I wonder if I can bet even more on the end. Always hard to know.

Flopped world-just cram it

This is with the same Villain I bluffed above. He again min-raises and gets 1 caller. i decide to try and iso on him and raise KQ to $45, Folds and he calls, caller calls as well. 3 to flop.

(Pot $140) Flop K36 Villain leads $60 and other dude folds. I'm clearly raising but just not sure how much. Anything looks strong IMO. I finally settle on a jam and so I do jam effectively for his stack of $435. He thinks for a moment and then calls with KJo....lol. I hold and am off and running.

In this hand I just felt like he could find a fold if a bad card came on the turn (ie I made my flush). Once he led I put him on TP type hand so I thought my jam would look bluffier than a smallish raise. Also he probably thinks I am picking on him a bit.

I level myself into a bad call

Here is a hand that I hate the way I played. There are 2 limps and I raise to $25 with 99. 3 call and we go to the flop.

(Pot $100) Flop 457r Checks to me, I bet $65 and only young asian kid calls. I have played with before. Decent player that plays 5/T some and PLO at times.

(Pot $230) Turn 6. Now he leads $75 and I call. IDK this is probably a fold but the only hand that makes sense here is 88 and maybe 87s.

(Pot $380) River 9 He leads $115 and I puke in my mouth a little bit. I beat 77, 76, 66, etc but obv nothing with a 3 or 8 in it. I am getting in the neighborhood of 4.5-1 so I need 20-22% to call. I decide that he doesn't just have a straight and I beat all hands but the straight. So I puke call to see 88.

Blah. Don't like the way I played this hand at all.


Little over 60% of the way to a $10k month but will put in some grind over the next ~10days.

Hand History Dump

Anon posted that he wanted a few HH so here we go with 2 recent session reviews.  Been playing a lot more PLO recently so some are PLO and some are NL:

10/22/2013-MD Live

1:45 2/5 NLHE -$108
15:12 2/2 PLO -$224

My first real marathon session at MD Live ended around 6:30 am. Wife doesn't love these long sessions but the game was off the hook with at least 15k dumped into it during the time I was there. Sadly I was not the recipient of any of it. In fact, one fish runner-runnered me 3 times and I was 1 outed twice in 1k+ pots-once on the turn and once on the river. I won't dwell on the run bad but will post the most interesting hand I played which generated a ton of chatter at the table.

Not sure about my flop line, Turn make brutal fold, River gets there 

I don't really remember exact action but I believe there was a raise to $10 and I call OTB with A78T Whatever, suited A, a broadway, 3 connected and OTB seems standard at this point. 7 to the flop

(Pot ~$70) Flop 693 Well that's pretty good! A real donk fish leads for $35. His range is super wide and pretty much irrelevant. An uber-nit, fit or fold then pots to $175. Folds to me. The nit is super nutted here. Like 3578 type hand or 99xx. He has about $700 behind. I don't think getting it in can be a huge mistake as donk leader is probably never folding anything 2pr+. I end up deciding to flat. Just not sure about this. Short stack now c/r all in for $80 total and donk leader calls. 

(Main Pot $390; Side Pot ~$285) Turn 4 Donk leader had smoked 40...lol. Nit stuffs $700 and its back on me. His range is 100% 357x at this point. He just is never stuffing with a set here. So now it's math time. I have 1kish left in my stack and donk-fish covers. He is calling this for sure and calling whatever I do. Size of pot, etc, etc, etc. I can call the $700, stuff $300 if I hit and he is still calling. So if we assume his money is in:

Pot=$675+$700 (shove)+$700 (donkfish)=$2075 and costs me $700 so I need 33-34% equity to be good. I have no , not even blockers so I have only 9 clean outs. Plus if my read is right the nit has some of my outs so maybe I have only 6-7 outs?? Obv that only gives me like ~15% equity. Even if the diamonds are ok that's only 4 more outs and AT BEST I get to like 25% equity. 

After 5-7 mins I puke fold, lamenting not just stuffing flop. Fish insta calls

(Pot $2075) River 8  PUKE!  

I would have scooped.  Oh well, my reads were dead on though. 

-----------------------------------------------------

11/3/2013-MD Live

6:57 2/5 NLHE -$109

Played my first Sunday session at MD Live the other day. Basically woke up and decided to head down for the afternoon. Got there and was immediately seated at a new table that was just opening. Session was super boring as I was card dead all day and at a really stationey table that required me to play rather ABC TAG. Given that and just not a lot of value spots I was fine with a marginally losing session. 

There were a few hands of interest though.

AA is only a pair bruh 

This happened relatively early in the session...certainly within the first hour. There were a few limps and a meh-LAG raised to $25 in CO, BTN calls and I find AA in SB. I 3b to $115 with ~550 effective stacks. I went a little bigger here than normal as I had 3b out of the blinds with AK an orbit or two earlier and thought it may look bluffy. Raiser tank folds and BTN insta-calls. I feel like his range here has to be mostly 77-JJ with maybe the occasional AXs type of hand. 

(Pot ~$265) Flop 723. So basically with this dry of a flop and stacks relatively short, I'm never folding AA. I bet $150 and he thinks for a moment and calls. Now his range should still be overpairs that "put me on AK", maybe the odd flush draw, or flopped sets I guess.

(Pot ~$565) Turn 9 Not the greatest card in the world but I have A so not drawing dead. I put the remaining ~$300ish in and he snap calls. I assume 77 or 99 but no, he turns over QJand I miss river. 

I do hear the old "It's only 1 pair" over the music on my headphones and I just laugh at these retards.



Flopped Set on Mono Board

This was a bit later in the session and I am stuck like a buy-in at this point. The BTN from hand #12 (above) raises to 20 from CO, I call from BTN with 66, SB calls and we go 3 ways to the flop. I 3b here some but he was playing super sticky so I attempted to flop a big hand and win a big pot rather than simply win a smallish one.

(Pot ~$65) Flop 962 Checks to me and I bet $50. Only SB calls. SB was a baddish Asian dude. Super nitty most of the session but had just seen him call down with A8 on 8 hi flop and lose a BI to an obvious big pair. 

(Pot ~$165) Turn J He checks, I bet $110 and he c/r to $250. WTF? Did he flop it? i think about it and decide to call. If figure his range includes AJ, flopped flushes, some 2 pair combos (most likely being J9) and flopped sets. I'm not in super shape against that range.

ProPokerTools Hold'em Simulation

2,728 trials (Exhaustive)

board: 962J

Hand	Pot equity	Wins	Ties
6c6s	35.85%	978	0
AdJ, 99, 22, J9, dd	64.15%	1,750	0

(Pot $665) River offsuit A. He leads for $300. This is like the worst card for me as far as convincing myself of his range. I talk myself into him having 2 pair hands (most likely A with either a J or 9). I quickly do the math in my head and figure I need a little less than 25% equity to call. Finally I do and he shows K8 for the flopped flush. 

In hindsight, I'm not sure I can play it too much differently. Maybe fold the river when it goes c/r turn and lead river. But I think he plays AJ similarly. I think I can remove 22 from his range as I think he spazzes out on that flop with bottom set. 

Who knows? Any thoughts on this hand?



LOL Pot Odds Flops It 

At this point I am stuck like $1.2k and going to leave in the next hour or so. Table was super limpy and weak passive. I was still really card dead and had been super quiet. A few limped to me and I overlimped 78. Guy 2 to my left raised to $25, CO calls, BTN calls, BB calls, both limpers call and I give it the LOL Pot Odds call getting 7.5/1 immediate. 

(Pot ~$175) Flop 456...Hello! BB and limpers check. i lead straight out for $130 with about $500 behind. CO is a meh reg and he calls after about 20 secs. All else fold. He views me I think as a hyper LAG even though I am playing very tight today. He is probably a break even reg at best and I don't think he is really too good. His range is probably like overpairs, flush draws, maybe pairs plus straight draws. My hand prob looks like flopped sets, nut flush draws, 2 pairs, etc.

(Pot ~$435) Turn J I realize I probably could have sized a bit better once I debate my turn sizing. I finally just decide to focus on his drawing range and get as much value out of that now as I can since he will just fold river unimproved. I settle on $325 leaving $175-ish behind. He goes into the tank and am pretty sure he must be drawing. Finally he says "Ok I'm all in". I obviously call. When he does this I am pretty sure he is not drawing but must have flopped/turned a set or something so I am rooting against a paired board. 

(Pot ~$1450) I'm thinking a red 2 would be good!! River A  But he tables JJ for the turned set and I scoop a pretty good sized pot. 

Won a few more smallish pots and then packed it in down a trivial ~$110. Like I said given my relatively bad cards and the stickyness of the table, I think this was a 6.5-7 on a 10 scale session grade.