Just had a game I was proud to have won, even though villain was a drooler he hit so often, and so big, that I really had to cling on in there;

Started out ok with a flopped 2pair OOP which fortunately he did all the betting for me (in hindsight I was passive, but it was early on and he bet pot on flop & turn, so caution was prob best anyway).

Next hand I had QQ IP, he massively 3bet me to 200 so it was an easy shove. He called with 93s!!! Maybe it’s his lucky hand or something, but since the board went 99A43 for a FH maybe there’s something in that.

He then continued to amaze me by chasing a gutshot down – unfortunately when he hit it also gave me a weaker straight;

• Absurdly chased draw
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  Pokerstars
  2 Players

  $10.00+$0.50

  Stacks:
  SB (1,720)
  Hero (1,280)

  Blinds: 10/20

  Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB 7 10
  SB calls 10, Hero checks

  Flop: 10 6 9 (40, 2 players)
  Hero bets 40, SB calls 40

  Turn: 4 (120, 2 players)
  Hero bets 80, SB calls 80

  River: 8 (280, 2 players)
  Hero bets 200, SB raises to 400, Hero calls 200

  Final Pot: 1,080
  Hero shows
  7 10
  SB shows a straight, Seven to Jack
  J 7

  SB wins 1,080 (net +540)

  Hero lost 540

Next hand was my fault though

• should have respected his raises
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  PokerStars
  2 Players

  $10.00+$0.50

  Stacks:
  SB (2,120)
  Hero (880)

  Blinds: 10/20

  Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB 10 8
  SB calls 10, Hero checks

  Flop: 2 8 2 (40, 2 players)
  Hero bets 40, SB calls 40

  Turn: A (120, 2 players)
  Hero bets 100, SB raises to 200, Hero calls 100

  River: 3 (520, 2 players)
  Hero checks, SB bets 300, Hero calls 300

  Final Pot: 1,120
  Hero shows
  10 8
  SB shows two pair, Aces and Deuces
  A Q

  SB wins 1,120 (net +560)

  Hero lost 560

. Trouble was it left me with only 300 chips, and this is where I’m pleased with myself for not giving up;

• 1st double up
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  PokerStars
  2 Players

  $10.00+$0.50

  Stacks:
  SB (2,625)
  Hero (375)

  Blinds: 15/30

  Pre-Flop: (45, 2 players) Hero is BB J A
  SB calls 15, Hero goes all-in 375, SB calls 345

  Flop: 4 8 A (750, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  Turn: J (750, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  River: 7 (750, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  Final Pot: 750
  Hero shows two pair, Aces and Jacks
  J A
  SB shows high card Ace
  K Q

  Hero wins 750 (net +375)

  SB lost 375

• 2nd double up
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  PokerStars
  2 Players

  $10.00+$0.50

  Stacks:
  SB (2,220)
  Hero (780)

  Blinds: 15/30

  Pre-Flop: (45, 2 players) Hero is BB 5 6
  SB calls 15, Hero checks

  Flop: 2 7 8 (60, 2 players)
  Hero checks, SB checks

  Turn: 4 (60, 2 players)
  Hero bets 60, SB raises to 300, Hero goes all-in 750, SB calls 450

  River: 2 (1,560, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  Final Pot: 1,560
  Hero shows a straight, Four to Eight
  5 6
  SB shows two pair, Nines and Deuces
  9 9

  Hero wins 1,560 (net +780)

  SB lost 780

And then the final hand – he shoved when I had KQo. TBH I hate calling shoves with this hand – I ought to stove it, but it never seems to hold up that well. Hmm, so maybe looking back I shouldn’t be so proud of this game since it ends on a flip when really I could have beat him by playing solidly. He was 100/100 and clearly chased down crap, so there was no need to flip – I think I was irrationally seeing him as a ‘lucky’ player, and if you’re going to pitch yourself against random bingo hands you might as well do it in a single preflop shove. Oh well, maybe not so great, but I won, and that’s what counts

• final hand
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  PokerStars
  2 Players

  $10.00+$0.50

  Stacks:
  Hero (1,560)
  BB (1,440)

  Blinds: 15/30

  Pre-Flop: (45, 2 players) Hero is SB Q K
  Hero raises to 90, BB goes all-in 1,440, Hero calls 1,350

  Flop: 7 Q J (2,880, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  Turn: 3 (2,880, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  River: 10 (2,880, 2 players, 1 all-in)

  Final Pot: 2,880
  Hero shows a pair of Queens
  Q K
  BB shows a pair of Threes
  3 A

  Hero wins 2,880 (net +1,440)

  BB lost 1,440

Update: Yep, stoved KQ for all-in pre’s and it doesn’t look great – 40% against a 10% range. It’s not until the opponent’s calling range has opened up to 20% does it get to 50-50. Filtering my hands on HEM shows the same thing, 40% winrate (not massive sample though). Conclusion – shoving over a 3bet is probably ok (because of FE) although flatting the 3bet is ok too (I guess), but calling a shove is iffy unless you know opponent is a moron or stacks really short.

Update II: lol, I’m going to ignore my HEM stats, sample size is just way too small – I was checking win rates of other hands and all non-A broadways do < 40% while all A+broadway is > 40% with the exception of AKs, which is a horrendous 16%. If it can be that far out then it’s obvious I need loads and loads more hands before anything relevant can be made of things (obvious really I suppose).

Ok, so my last post was whingy and negative. Really though I’m feeling way more positive about my game, albeit only at the $5 stakes

So since I feel I can beat the $5s, I might as well play 4mans+ and start to rebuild the roll a bit. So far, so good;

They’re regular speed, which is why there’s not many of them. Plus quite a few of the games have taken over 40 minutes to play (that’s a total of 6 hours playing time there) which is really slow.

Anyway, 105% ROI is good enough I think

I might switch up to $10 4mans tomorrow – not rolled for it really, but I can’t be arsed to follow strict BRM when I’m practically busto anyway. Either I re-emerge anew, or I redeposit…

I woke up early this morning for some reason, so obv fired up the laptop for some pokerage. A few days a go I had one of those perfect sessions where I won a couple of 4man $20s and a couple of $30s for a nice profit of $180. Only 4 matches, yet since the hourly was five times my day job rate it gave me happy daydreams of being the baller poker pro. The next couple of days however reminded me how meaningless a winning streak of 4 games is as I failed to win anything at all. It’s lucky two of those winning games were 4mans as I’m still showing a profit from that.

Anyway, the point of that partial brag is that I’m deluding myself with low volume. So today’s intention is to keep hammering away and see how it goes, even if it’s a losing streak (unless I get really tilted obv).

I also didn’t intend to blog this early in the morning either, but the first match was interesting. Here’s the match for anyone who has nothing better to do;

My opponent played 2p2 ABC poker all the way – 3bb raises, roughly 70% hands on button, 30% OOP, 3bet reasonably, folded to most 3bets but not all etc. He didn’t seem to tilt, just kept going. In other words he didn’t seem to do anything wrong at all, apart from perhaps being unimaginative.

The game however went my way. In fact I was on the winning side throughout – a couple of times we went back to equal stacks but I never had to come back from behind. Was that because I had an edge? No idea, it’s doubtful…

I sharkscoped him and it turned out he’d been grinding mostly $5s and $10 with some stabs at $20+. After some success initially ($450+) he’s now a losing player (-$150).

I don’t get it – playing a solid game doesn’t mean you’ll win? Have I just been lucky and could easily become this guy (my game count is still less than his initial success stage)?

btw, in before NMIHU,ES… (that means you Yegor )

Update: Hammering away seems to work

ok, still only 14 games but that’s better than 4! Plus my BR is over $1k at last! Guess I have to try some $50s now and go back to scared money