Stacks:
Hero ($12.27)
UTG+1 ($10)
CO ($10.15)
BTN ($10)
SB ($12.19)
BB ($14.98)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is UTG 10 3
Hero folds, 1 fold, CO raises to $0.40, BTN raises to $1.10, SB calls $1.05, BB calls $1, CO calls $0.70

Flop: 10 K A ($4.40, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, CO checks, BTN checks

Turn: 2 ($4.40, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, CO checks, BTN checks

River: 5 ($4.40, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, CO bets $1.50, BTN calls $1.50, SB folds, BB folds

Final Pot: $7.40
CO shows a pair of Queens
Q Q
BTN shows a pair of Kings
K Q

BTN wins $7.05 (net +$4.45)

CO lost $2.60
SB lost $1.10
BB lost $1.10

Most of it is shitty win one, lose one zigzagginess. None of it seems to bear any relation to whether my opponents were any good or not, even the fools who check every button won their fair share. One of them today made an awesome laydown though;

Admittedly shoving that river seems remarkably spewy since there aren’t many hands that would call, and he was also extremely passive – but that passivity was so extreme that I was convinced he really really liked his hand (I know turn bet was small, but *any* turn bet after he called was big strength from this guy). He tanked for quite a while before folding. I dunno if I would have had that strength…

That game was annoying in the end because I had him pinned down to < 500 chips for ages and he kept on clinging on, winning some flips back to equal stacks and then my 66 lost to his AK.

Here's another hand that shocked me. Different player, this time someone who raised their buttons and you'd expect more regular lines. Maybe flat calling a 3bet pre with aces is a much better move that 4betting or shoving?

Anyway, to the point of the title of this post – essentially I had two heaters this year, one at $10 games and the other at $30. The money from the $30s is blown away now, and my wins show I’m back to the point after the 4man $10s heater. It’s a pretty solid decline for the last 3 months. Those heaters raised my expectations, and it’s painful facing the reality that I’m not really winning at heads up.

I wish I knew where the holes are in my game. It was a lot more fun when I was winning…

Sooo, what can I post about? Not much I guess. Full Tilt is still proving to be the best site to play husngs – plenty of players and not much waiting for a game. Tonight I’ve been playing on Cake (under the alias ‘Rolf Lmao’ – geddit? ), but it takes too long to sit and wait for someone to join you, so I’ve been joining anyone waiting on a game $25 or less (not many $25s, although the one I played I won – whoohoo!). So far been doing ok, but not getting many games over $10.

Here’s a great hand though – I love bluffing, but when someone showed me that they folded top pair it makes it well worth the many, many times that I get called down;

There is some history on that hand – I’d played the same line of cbet, check turn, fold river about 3 times, with him making a PSB on the river each time. So I was actually waiting for a hand to have some value to take this line anyway, but I figured he’d also give the click-it-back action some credit on the river anyway, and a bluff would work just fine too (which it did lol!). However I had been putting that PSB of his as a stone cold bluff to simply buy the pot, and to see him fold away a hand with decent value really surprised me. I guess those other PSBs weren’t bluffs at all (maybe).

Oh, and here’s another one (different opponent);

Possibly a bet for value more than a bluff, but very thin really…

Obviously not a common thing, but you’d expect this to never happen! Full 2p2 thread here. Hopefully it’s a hoax, but there’s no sign of that from the thread…

What does anyone make of this?

A guy with no history shows up and goes aggro all over some poor guy;

Is this value betting? Looks like hammering til they fold type stuff to me. When he’s on a draw though (BB in this hand), he’s much more passive;

So in this next hand where he tangles with me, it’s a drawy board but he doesn’t play it passively. Should I have given the flop reraise more credit, and started thinking I could be up against an overpair or J with better kicker? I called flop since I wasn’t giving him much credit, and figured he was trying to push me off the flop – since I had top pair with good(ish) kicker I figured I was ok.

Then the turn completed the flush that I didn’t think he was on, plus I had a Q, I figured I’d call with the possibility of a decent flush. Finally on the river it was a blank, and since I’d called the turn I could hardly fold to a bet less than pot.

Aggromonkey is UTG;

He then berated me for making a really bad call (which one? Did he really think the river was a bad call?), and said ‘broke with TPBK’ which was funny since he was the one that went broke with A high.

Still, his point about a big pot with just top pair is kinda valid, but with his hands was I justified in seeing the hand through?

Edit: hmm, actually that river isn’t that blank. Maybe I was lucky on that hand…

In hindsight, was a shove a bit excessive? He called it, and I was 70% favourite at that point, so it wasn’t bad really though, was it? Hands that would call are AA, KK (would’ve expected more than a minraise preflop, but obviously you can never tell), AQ, KQ (maybe), any pair that thought I was bluffing (huge river overbets seems a popular (and stupid) move at Party Poker), the hands I’m in danger of are sets although 3′s & 4′s are unlikely, as are QQ since I had one of the queens. The most likely outcome was a fold which would have been a good pot…

Update: Actually today’s poker turned out to be very enjoyable despite that bad beat. Last couple of days Party Poker has been ultra-aggro, which is good when you get a hand against them but pretty bad when you don’t. I was doing well at putting people on hands, although still made a few mistakes. For instance, in the following hand I put the guy on a pocket pair between 88 & TT, which meant I was a bit stuck about what to do on the river. I thought he’d probably wouldn’t fold to a river bet, so I just let it go. I really wish I’d typed 88? into the chat and then raised…

The guy who won that hand was a really solid player actually, although that made him actually easier to play against (or at least it made him less ‘random’). I was playing with him on two tables, and part of today’s enjoyment was that between the two of us we drained everyone else’s stacks. At the end of the day though he did better than me since I continued to float a little too often, bluff a few too many rivers etc. (kind of obvious from the awesome redline ). Frustrating since I know without doing that (and without the bad beat), I’d have won a big pile today…

So this month started out well, but then died at the end;

And by site;
Site(hands): $$$ (rb = rakeback)
————————
FT(1216): $62.07+$8.08(rb)
PS(1050): -$12.95
UB(1172): -$22.97+$2.69(rb)
PP(882): -$27.94

I don’t really know what to make of things – there were plenty of bad beats I guess, but it’s hard to tell if that’s the real reason I lost 6 buy-ins in less than 300 hands. It devastated the money I put into PS, UB and PP – now I really need to reload them, although such a crushing has put me off playing there now. If it had happened at Full Tilt at least I would have had rakeback to console me.

ok, here are all the worst losing hands in the 6 buy-in crash. Any advice welcome…

• #1 Not sure what I was thinking here. Just dumb really
  $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($9.85)
  UTG+1 ($10)
  Hero ($22.40)
  BTN ($15.15)
  SB ($10.25)
  BB ($6.20)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is CO 8 8
  UTG calls $0.10, UTG+1 calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.30, 2 folds, BB calls $0.20, UTG calls $0.20, UTG+1 calls $0.20

  Flop: 3 6 J ($1.25, 4 players)
  BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 bets $1, Hero calls $1, BB folds, UTG folds

  Turn: 5 ($3.25, 2 players)
  UTG+1 bets $3, Hero raises to $9, UTG+1 goes all-in $5.70

  River: A ($20.95, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  Final Pot: $20.95
  Hero shows a pair of Eights
  8 8
  UTG+1 shows three of a kind, Threes
  3 3

  UTG+1 wins $19.65 (net +$9.65)

  Hero collects $0.30 (net -$10)
  BB lost $0.30
  UTG lost $0.30

• #2 I’m a calling station, obviously
  $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($8.55)
  UTG+1 ($10)
  CO ($4.80)
  Hero ($16.35)
  SB ($6.90)
  BB ($1.60)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is BTN 7 7
  UTG raises to $0.50, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.50, 2 folds

  Flop: 2 3 3 ($1.15, 2 players)
  UTG bets $1.30, Hero calls $1.30

  Turn: 2 ($3.75, 2 players)
  UTG bets $1.20, Hero calls $1.20

  River: 9 ($6.15, 2 players)
  UTG bets $4, Hero calls $4

  Final Pot: $14.15
  Hero shows
  7 7
  UTG shows a full house, Nines full of Threes
  9 9

  UTG wins $13.50 (net +$6.50)

  Hero lost $7

• #3 Bad beat – I think I played this correctly
  $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
  5 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($10.63)
  CO ($2)
  BTN ($8.75)
  Hero ($16.96)
  BB ($3.90)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 5 players) Hero is SB 3 3
  1 fold, CO checks, BTN raises to $0.45, Hero calls $0.40, BB calls $0.35, CO folds

  Flop: 3 10 A ($1.35, 3 players)
  Hero bets $1.20, BB calls $1.20, BTN raises to $3.30, Hero goes all-in $16.51, BB goes all-in $2.25, BTN goes all-in $5

  Turn: 6 ($30.81, 3 players, 3 all-in)

  River: 4 ($30.81, 3 players, 3 all-in)

  Final Pot: $30.81
  BTN shows (Flush ace high)
  9 K
  Hero shows (Flush ace high)
  3 3
  BB shows (One pair aces)
  K A

  BTN wins $20.48 (net +$11.73)

  Hero collects $8.21 (net -$8.75)
  BB lost $3.90

• #4 I think I played this ok – worth going to showdown, but he beat me
  $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($2.21)
  UTG+1 ($5.04)
  CO ($5.39)
  Hero ($17.72)
  SB ($12.62)
  BB ($8.99)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is BTN K 10
  2 folds, CO calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.30, SB raises to $1.10, 1 fold, CO folds, Hero calls $0.80

  Flop: Q 10 J ($2.40, 2 players)
  SB bets $2.40, Hero calls $2.40

  Turn: K ($7.20, 2 players)
  SB checks, Hero checks

  River: 8 ($7.20, 2 players)
  SB bets $4, Hero calls $4

  Final Pot: $15.20
  Hero shows
  K 10
  SB shows (Straight ten to ace)
  A A

  SB wins $14.44 (net +$6.94)

  Hero lost $7.50
  CO lost $0.10

• #5 HU this is fine, but 3way? I guess it’s still ok
  $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($10.77)
  UTG+1 ($11.08)
  CO ($25.67)
  BTN ($4.04)
  SB ($9.72)
  Hero ($10.15)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is BB A K
  UTG raises to $0.40, 2 folds, BTN raises to $0.80, 1 fold, Hero goes all-in $10.05, UTG goes all-in $10.37, BTN goes all-in $3.24

  Flop: 9 8 J ($25.01, 3 players, 3 all-in)

  Turn: 10 ($25.01, 3 players, 3 all-in)

  River: 3 ($25.01, 3 players, 3 all-in)

  Final Pot: $25.01
  Hero shows
  A K
  UTG shows
  A A
  BTN shows
  J K

  UTG wins $24.01 (net +$13.24)

  Hero lost $10.15
  BTN lost $4.04

• #6 Bad beat I reckon, although he was never folding here
  $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($12)
  UTG+1 ($11.78)
  CO ($12.83)
  BTN ($6.04)
  SB ($9.98)
  Hero ($10)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is BB 10 10
  2 folds, CO raises to $0.40, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.30

  Flop: 7 9 8 ($0.85, 2 players)
  Hero bets $0.60, CO calls $0.60

  Turn: J ($2.05, 2 players)
  Hero bets $1.46, CO calls $1.46

  River: 8 ($4.97, 2 players)
  Hero bets $3.54, CO raises to $7.67, Hero goes all-in $4

  Final Pot: $20.18
  Hero shows
  10 10
  CO shows
  J J

  CO wins $19.18 (net +$9.05)

  Hero lost $10

• #7 I tend to play AQs like AKo – is that wrong?
  $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($11.58)
  UTG+1 ($9.15)
  CO ($13.69)
  BTN ($11.33)
  Hero ($10)
  BB ($9.32)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is SB A Q
  UTG raises to $0.20, 2 folds, BTN raises to $0.60, Hero calls $0.55, BB raises to $2.60, UTG folds, BTN folds, Hero goes all-in $9.40, BB goes all-in $6.72

  Flop: 10 5 9 ($20.12, 2 players, 2 all-in)

  Turn: 6 ($20.12, 2 players, 2 all-in)

  River: 9 ($20.12, 2 players, 2 all-in)

  Final Pot: $20.12
  Hero shows
  A Q
  BB shows
  K K

  BB wins $18.47 (net +$9.15)

  Hero collects $0.68 (net -$9.32)
  UTG lost $0.20
  BTN lost $0.60