Very Strange Things
Last night I decided to take a shot at a few $200 NL tables. This turned out to be a big mistake, as I ended up dumping over $300 in a few hours. Contrary to my intuition, the competition actually appeared to be a lot tougher than at $50 NL, though it could be that I was just intimidated by the higher stakes. The main disaster came with QQ in early position. I made a standard 3.5x bb raise and got called in three spots. The flop came T 6 6 r and I led out with $20 into the $30 pot. One dude folds, the next dude raises to $40, and the third guy folds. Now I'm thinking what could this guy have? I can see he's a loose aggressive aggressive (maniac), so I feel that with JJ, KK, or AA in position he would have reraised me preflop. I couldn't imagine he had a 6. More likely was something like AT. But to be safe I just smooth called and decided to see what the turn brought. It was a 9 and I checked. He fired $50 into the pot and that's where I lost my mind. There's a saying in NL. Big hand, big pot. Small hand, small pot. Yeah, seems pretty obvious, but sometimes I forget. I knew if I called this bet I would be pretty much committed to getting the rest of my chips in on the river. I wasn't going to let this punk push me around so I went all in for my last $150 and knew I was fucked because he called instantly. The river was another T and he showed me Q6. I couldn't stop thinking "how the hell could you cold call a $7 raise with Q6?!!" I never typed it in since his response would be too painful: "because I knew if I flopped a big hand I could take your entire stack."
Then a few very odd hands went down. In the first hand I should have won a lot more than I did. In the second hand I should have lost a lot more. I'll never know what these people were thinking.
***** Hand History for Game 3112490382 *****
0/0 Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Mon Nov 28 22:18:41 EST 2005
Table Table 69181 (Real Money) -- Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: zonker8 ( $392.94)
Seat 2: prflash ( $212.80)
Seat 3: BonitoKing ( $271.80)
Seat 4: oakridgevol ( $254.75)
Seat 5: JaimiHois ( $128.35)
Seat 6: tHaPuNiShEr ( $264.65)
Seat 7: Smith93 ( $79.55)
Seat 8: shortmarket ( $410)
Seat 9: gfk91 ( $197.60)
Seat 10: Korop ( $198.50)
Smith93 posts small blind (1)
shortmarket posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ Qc, Qd ]
gfk91 calls (2)
Korop raises (8) to 8
zonker8 folds.
prflash folds.
BonitoKing raises (14) to 14
oakridgevol folds.
JaimiHois folds.
tHaPuNiShEr folds.
Smith93 folds.
shortmarket folds.
gfk91 folds.
Korop calls (6)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 5c, Qh, 4d ]
Korop checks.
BonitoKing bets (5)
Korop calls (5)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ac ]
Korop checks.
BonitoKing bets (10)
Korop calls (10)
** Dealing River ** : [ Ad ]
Korop checks.
BonitoKing bets (15)
Korop calls (15)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $90 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 5c Qh 4d Ac Ad ]
zonker8 balance $392.94, didn't bet (folded)
prflash balance $212.80, didn't bet (folded)
BonitoKing balance $317.80, bet $44, collected $90, net +$46 [ Qc Qd ] [ a full house, Queens full of aces -- Ac,Ad,Qc,Qd,Qh ]
oakridgevol balance $254.75, didn't bet (folded)
JaimiHois balance $128.35, didn't bet (folded)
tHaPuNiShEr balance $264.65, didn't bet (folded)
Smith93 balance $78.55, lost $1 (folded)
shortmarket balance $408, lost $2 (folded)
gfk91 balance $195.60, lost $2 (folded)
Korop balance $154.50, lost $44 [ Kc Ah ] [ three of a kind, aces -- Ah,Ac,Ad,Kc,Qh ]
Here's what I was thinking during the hand: he just called me preflop after I reraised him so that basically ruled out AA or KK from his range of possible holdings. Since this guy was tight aggressive that left AK, JJ, and maybe AQs or TT. Of course, if that's the range I put him on when he made his initial raise then perhaps I shouldn't have reraised him in the first place, but oh well. Since I figured he was likely to be drawing stone cold muthafuggin' dead after the flop I decided to slowplay it, but I didn't want it took look like I was slowplaying it so I fired a fake bluff into the pot. I think Doyle calls this a "post oak bluff." He says it's a gutless bet and never does it, but he abuses people who do. Well in this case I wanted the guy to think he was abusing me by check raise bluffing the hell out of my pseudo post oak bluff. No luck, he just called. Fine, the turn was an A. Great card for me. Now if he's got AK or AQ, he's gonna put some money in. But he checked. OK, so I fire in another small bet and hope he check raises me. Again he just calls. WTF? The river brings another A. In some ways, this is great, but I no longer have the nuts. I decide that if he goes all in I'm calling. If he as AQ, then nice suck out, bud. If he has AK then I make a ton of money. But he just checked to me yet again. What the hell did he think I had? Did he really put me on QQ or was he just being a big wuss? Now here I made a big mistake. I should have realized that this guy did not have an ounce of aggression in him, at least not after I repopped him preflop. But if he had a big ace he was going to have a very hard time laying it down. An all in was called for. I decided to get cute and made another small bet, again hoping to get check raised all in. No dice. So I guess the guy really must have thought I had QQ. I don't know how he could play it that why without thinking so. On the river he had a kick ass hand, and QQ was the only plausible holding that could beat him. What sucks is that I was pretty much dead on with my read yet failed to get much money out of him.
And the 2nd hand:
***** Hand History for Game 3112836483 *****
0/0 Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Mon Nov 28 23:11:03 EST 2005
Table Table 68966 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: DeeepAnglur ( $220.75)
Seat 2: honkyboy ( $129)
Seat 3: Teletran1 ( $221.50)
Seat 4: Korop ( $312.20)
Seat 5: Rackemup ( $159.80)
Seat 6: BonitoKing ( $193)
Seat 7: DanVeaudry ( $210.65)
Seat 8: carlls2 ( $149.70)
Seat 9: jockokelly ( $728.80)
Seat 10: firebreath ( $131.90)
Teletran1 posts small blind (1)
Korop posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ 6c, 6h ]
Rackemup folds.
Javancho calls (2)
carlls2 folds.
jockokelly folds.
firebreath folds.
DeeepAnglur folds.
honkyboy raises (4) to 4
Teletran1 folds.
Korop folds.
Javancho calls (2)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 4h, 6d, 9c ]
BonitoKing checks.
honkyboy bets (5)
BonitoKing calls (5)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 5s ]
BonitoKing bets (2)
honkyboy calls (2)
** Dealing River ** : [ Kh ]
BonitoKing bets (5)
honkyboy raises (15) to 15
BonitoKing raises (25) to 30
honkyboy calls (15)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $82 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 4h 6d 9c 5s Kh ]
DeeepAnglur balance $220.75, didn't bet (folded)
honkyboy balance $170, bet $41, collected $82, net +$41 [ Ks Kd ] [ three of a kind, kings -- Ks,Kd,Kh,9c,6d ]
Teletran1 balance $220.50, lost $1 (folded)
Korop balance $310.20, lost $2 (folded)
Rackemup balance $159.80, didn't bet (folded)
BonitoKing balance $152, lost $41 [ 6c 6h ] [ three of a kind, sixes -- Kh,9c,6c,6h,6d ]
DanVeaudry balance $210.65, sits out
carlls2 balance $149.70, didn't bet (folded)
jockokelly balance $728.80, didn't bet (folded)
firebreath balance $131.90, didn't bet (folded)
First of all, I was not at all pleased with this hand. I didn't care about the money so much, but I played it pretty badly. Perhaps I'm just thinking about it from too much of a results-oriented perspective, with "the result" in this case being that the dude had pocket kings. Had I any clue that the dude was so strong then clearly the correct move on the flop would have been to lead into him and hope to get raised. But his preflop raise was so wimpy that I figured he was just trying to eliminate the blinds and get the pot heads up with me at minimal risk. If I were in his shoes with KK I would have raised quite a bit more, but clearly it was my mistake to assume he would play like me. So again, after the flop I figured he had something like AT and was drawing dead. I check called hoping to see an A or a K on the turn. Nope, just a 5. Though I had absolutely no clue at the time, this card must have saved me from losing my entire stack. I fake bluffed $2 here, hoping he would sense weakness and raise me. He probably found this to be a very strange little bet after calling his $5 bet on the flop, and he must have been suspicious that I just turned a str8 with 87 in the hole. And then the river, that fateful king. I thought it was a great card. There was no doubt that I had the best hand, and now there was a least a chance that I was going to get paid. Again I made a small bet, again hoping to get raised. And boom, he took the bait!! At that point I put him on KQ or KJ. So I had to figure out how much I could get him to call on a reraise. His stats indicated that he was fairly tight, so I just doubled the bet. When he called me and I saw his hand I couldn't believe it. I was fairly shocked that he hit his two outer on the river. I was also pretty shocked that he had played KK like that preflop. But by far the most shocking thing was that he didn't put me all in after I reraised him. I would have called him instantly. What a wuss. He really thought there was a good chance I had 87. I'm going to have to pay more attention to the texture of the board when dealing with observant opponents, and start focusing more on the third level of poker thought: what does he think I have? Haven't had to worry too much about that at $50 NL but perhaps $200 NL is different. We shall see.
Then a few very odd hands went down. In the first hand I should have won a lot more than I did. In the second hand I should have lost a lot more. I'll never know what these people were thinking.
***** Hand History for Game 3112490382 *****
0/0 Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Mon Nov 28 22:18:41 EST 2005
Table Table 69181 (Real Money) -- Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: zonker8 ( $392.94)
Seat 2: prflash ( $212.80)
Seat 3: BonitoKing ( $271.80)
Seat 4: oakridgevol ( $254.75)
Seat 5: JaimiHois ( $128.35)
Seat 6: tHaPuNiShEr ( $264.65)
Seat 7: Smith93 ( $79.55)
Seat 8: shortmarket ( $410)
Seat 9: gfk91 ( $197.60)
Seat 10: Korop ( $198.50)
Smith93 posts small blind (1)
shortmarket posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ Qc, Qd ]
gfk91 calls (2)
Korop raises (8) to 8
zonker8 folds.
prflash folds.
BonitoKing raises (14) to 14
oakridgevol folds.
JaimiHois folds.
tHaPuNiShEr folds.
Smith93 folds.
shortmarket folds.
gfk91 folds.
Korop calls (6)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 5c, Qh, 4d ]
Korop checks.
BonitoKing bets (5)
Korop calls (5)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ac ]
Korop checks.
BonitoKing bets (10)
Korop calls (10)
** Dealing River ** : [ Ad ]
Korop checks.
BonitoKing bets (15)
Korop calls (15)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $90 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 5c Qh 4d Ac Ad ]
zonker8 balance $392.94, didn't bet (folded)
prflash balance $212.80, didn't bet (folded)
BonitoKing balance $317.80, bet $44, collected $90, net +$46 [ Qc Qd ] [ a full house, Queens full of aces -- Ac,Ad,Qc,Qd,Qh ]
oakridgevol balance $254.75, didn't bet (folded)
JaimiHois balance $128.35, didn't bet (folded)
tHaPuNiShEr balance $264.65, didn't bet (folded)
Smith93 balance $78.55, lost $1 (folded)
shortmarket balance $408, lost $2 (folded)
gfk91 balance $195.60, lost $2 (folded)
Korop balance $154.50, lost $44 [ Kc Ah ] [ three of a kind, aces -- Ah,Ac,Ad,Kc,Qh ]
Here's what I was thinking during the hand: he just called me preflop after I reraised him so that basically ruled out AA or KK from his range of possible holdings. Since this guy was tight aggressive that left AK, JJ, and maybe AQs or TT. Of course, if that's the range I put him on when he made his initial raise then perhaps I shouldn't have reraised him in the first place, but oh well. Since I figured he was likely to be drawing stone cold muthafuggin' dead after the flop I decided to slowplay it, but I didn't want it took look like I was slowplaying it so I fired a fake bluff into the pot. I think Doyle calls this a "post oak bluff." He says it's a gutless bet and never does it, but he abuses people who do. Well in this case I wanted the guy to think he was abusing me by check raise bluffing the hell out of my pseudo post oak bluff. No luck, he just called. Fine, the turn was an A. Great card for me. Now if he's got AK or AQ, he's gonna put some money in. But he checked. OK, so I fire in another small bet and hope he check raises me. Again he just calls. WTF? The river brings another A. In some ways, this is great, but I no longer have the nuts. I decide that if he goes all in I'm calling. If he as AQ, then nice suck out, bud. If he has AK then I make a ton of money. But he just checked to me yet again. What the hell did he think I had? Did he really put me on QQ or was he just being a big wuss? Now here I made a big mistake. I should have realized that this guy did not have an ounce of aggression in him, at least not after I repopped him preflop. But if he had a big ace he was going to have a very hard time laying it down. An all in was called for. I decided to get cute and made another small bet, again hoping to get check raised all in. No dice. So I guess the guy really must have thought I had QQ. I don't know how he could play it that why without thinking so. On the river he had a kick ass hand, and QQ was the only plausible holding that could beat him. What sucks is that I was pretty much dead on with my read yet failed to get much money out of him.
And the 2nd hand:
***** Hand History for Game 3112836483 *****
0/0 Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Mon Nov 28 23:11:03 EST 2005
Table Table 68966 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: DeeepAnglur ( $220.75)
Seat 2: honkyboy ( $129)
Seat 3: Teletran1 ( $221.50)
Seat 4: Korop ( $312.20)
Seat 5: Rackemup ( $159.80)
Seat 6: BonitoKing ( $193)
Seat 7: DanVeaudry ( $210.65)
Seat 8: carlls2 ( $149.70)
Seat 9: jockokelly ( $728.80)
Seat 10: firebreath ( $131.90)
Teletran1 posts small blind (1)
Korop posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ 6c, 6h ]
Rackemup folds.
Javancho calls (2)
carlls2 folds.
jockokelly folds.
firebreath folds.
DeeepAnglur folds.
honkyboy raises (4) to 4
Teletran1 folds.
Korop folds.
Javancho calls (2)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 4h, 6d, 9c ]
BonitoKing checks.
honkyboy bets (5)
BonitoKing calls (5)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 5s ]
BonitoKing bets (2)
honkyboy calls (2)
** Dealing River ** : [ Kh ]
BonitoKing bets (5)
honkyboy raises (15) to 15
BonitoKing raises (25) to 30
honkyboy calls (15)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $82 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 4h 6d 9c 5s Kh ]
DeeepAnglur balance $220.75, didn't bet (folded)
honkyboy balance $170, bet $41, collected $82, net +$41 [ Ks Kd ] [ three of a kind, kings -- Ks,Kd,Kh,9c,6d ]
Teletran1 balance $220.50, lost $1 (folded)
Korop balance $310.20, lost $2 (folded)
Rackemup balance $159.80, didn't bet (folded)
BonitoKing balance $152, lost $41 [ 6c 6h ] [ three of a kind, sixes -- Kh,9c,6c,6h,6d ]
DanVeaudry balance $210.65, sits out
carlls2 balance $149.70, didn't bet (folded)
jockokelly balance $728.80, didn't bet (folded)
firebreath balance $131.90, didn't bet (folded)
First of all, I was not at all pleased with this hand. I didn't care about the money so much, but I played it pretty badly. Perhaps I'm just thinking about it from too much of a results-oriented perspective, with "the result" in this case being that the dude had pocket kings. Had I any clue that the dude was so strong then clearly the correct move on the flop would have been to lead into him and hope to get raised. But his preflop raise was so wimpy that I figured he was just trying to eliminate the blinds and get the pot heads up with me at minimal risk. If I were in his shoes with KK I would have raised quite a bit more, but clearly it was my mistake to assume he would play like me. So again, after the flop I figured he had something like AT and was drawing dead. I check called hoping to see an A or a K on the turn. Nope, just a 5. Though I had absolutely no clue at the time, this card must have saved me from losing my entire stack. I fake bluffed $2 here, hoping he would sense weakness and raise me. He probably found this to be a very strange little bet after calling his $5 bet on the flop, and he must have been suspicious that I just turned a str8 with 87 in the hole. And then the river, that fateful king. I thought it was a great card. There was no doubt that I had the best hand, and now there was a least a chance that I was going to get paid. Again I made a small bet, again hoping to get raised. And boom, he took the bait!! At that point I put him on KQ or KJ. So I had to figure out how much I could get him to call on a reraise. His stats indicated that he was fairly tight, so I just doubled the bet. When he called me and I saw his hand I couldn't believe it. I was fairly shocked that he hit his two outer on the river. I was also pretty shocked that he had played KK like that preflop. But by far the most shocking thing was that he didn't put me all in after I reraised him. I would have called him instantly. What a wuss. He really thought there was a good chance I had 87. I'm going to have to pay more attention to the texture of the board when dealing with observant opponents, and start focusing more on the third level of poker thought: what does he think I have? Haven't had to worry too much about that at $50 NL but perhaps $200 NL is different. We shall see.
posted by Fishboy77 | 10:23 AM
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