Daveo’s poker blog

Hey everyone!  Just dropping in to say hi cos FMB PM’d me asking where I’ve been. I guess this blog has followed the standard blog curve!  There’s been a lot of stuff going on for me the last few months – we sold our house early in the year, but our purchase fell through and so we’re currently staying with family waiting for a new buy to go through.  Mean time, I have really bad IT – just a computer in the lounge on a crappy connection and not enough wireless range to use the laptop anywhere that’s conducive to playing poker.    I’ve also been studying for a new qualification for my job, so that takes up a lot of my spare time.  At the same time, I joined a pay training site, so I’ve been spending more time over there.  This is still my only poker blog though, which I’ll come back to if and when I get back to playing regularly enough to make hand reviews worthwhile.  Finally, apart from the odd superdonkament to keep my mind busy whilst watching TV, I haven’t played a hand of NLHE in months.  I’m playing almost exclusively limit O8 and PLO cash now.  So whilst I’m still reading the pokertrikz forums, there’s not too many people here who’re talking about my game.  Anyway, I just thought I should say hi since FMB was kind enough to ask after me.  We’re due to be settled in our new house by the end of November, fully a year since we sold the last one!

I’m still not playing a whole lot of poker, just the odd few minutes every couple of weeks.  Can’t say why.. I haven’t lost interest in the game, but I have lost interest in being at my computer when I’m not at work.  I’m very fickle and my interests tend to be cyclical, it’ll come back.

Anyway, I just had a quick go at Rush poker on Full Tilt… Well.. I guess it’s going to take a lot of the traditional ‘reading your man’ skills out of the game, but duuuuude is it a buzz   Shame the game is a bit big for me even at its smallest and accelerated about ten-fold… and it seems to be well understood that aggression is key, so pots seem to be even bigger than a normal game… It’s a very nice idea though for when you just want to dip in for ten minutes to wake up before work or whatever, but it’d bust me in no time flat!

Hey all, I wrote a long post on my other computer that I may post next time I’m on there, but the gist of it is:  This year I’m gonna learn to play all the games by focussing on one game every few weeks, until I feel comfortable to play HORSE and the 8 game mix etc.  I’m also going to try to play a little more often, but who knows if that’ll be possible – we’re moving house soon and I’m starting a new job in a couple of months so it’s all going to be hectic for the early part of 2010!

Happy new year everyone and good luck at the tables!

Just a quick note to say hi!  FMB poked me and I realised how long it’s been since I posted.  I’ve just got so much to do these days and so little time.  I’m still playing poker a few hours a week, but I haven’t had any time to do write ups (or anything much else).  Ok, ok, I got Saints Row 2 and Half Life 2 OB for the XBox from the bargain bin and I’ve wasted a lot of time lately with those   I have a PLO session to write up from a week or so ago, dunno when I’ll get round to it though.  I’m still playing a losing game at PLO overall , I feel like I’ve done enough reading and video watching for a while, need to get heaps more experience under my belt now.  I signed up for a bonus from FTP, so you’d have thought those things in combination would make me play more, but today we’re househunting and tomorrow we’re having a party so that’s another weekend that’ll fly by!

GL at the tables everyone!

D

Hey guys!
Something a little different today.  The other day I played a short session, and it struck me as a great opportunity to review a whole session, hand for hand.  So.. here’s 25 consecutive hands of 6max PLO at FTP.

(To start, players clockwise from me are: numbers (sat out), boss, tra, hag, gomp)

1W +0.5BB) Posn: BB    Hero: Jd 4c Ts Qh
Nice to get a walk when you pay your first big blind!

2W +1BB) Posn:  SB    Hero:  Ac Qd Td 7s
I’ve already noticed that ‘boss’ in the big blind seems a bit weak.  I figure it’s worth a raise to hopefully take it either now or with a cbet.  He folds.

3L -1BB)  Posn:   BTN     Hero: Ks Js 9c 7s        Board: 3c 2s 6c 3s 4c
Hag limps UTG; Gomp folds, I limp on the button with a very speculative hand, Boss completes and Tra checks his option.  Flop comes 632 with two clubs.  It’s checked round to me, and I decide not to get cute with 4 players still in.  Turn’s a 3, pairing the board and making it two-tone.  Boss bets small, Tra raises pot, Hag and I fold, Boss re-raises effectively all in (he was shortstacked), Tra caps it off.  Both guys had hit FHs on the turn, Boss had the best of it.  I don’t suppose Tra with the underfull could have avoided getting it in given how short Boss was.  I note that Boss seems trappy when he has a hand

4W +1.5BB)  Posn:   CO/MP     Hero: Qs Qd 8h 7d       Board: Ts Ac 5h
I’m in MP with single suited Queens.  Gomp folds, I limp, Boss and Tra fold and I’m heads-up in position against Hag in the BB.  Flop comes AT5r, Hag checks, I bet and he obliges me with a fold.  I planned to bet-fold if I remember correctly – if he decides to hang in there, he’s likely got at least an Ace.

5 –)  Posn:   UTG     Hero: As Kd Kh 4c        Board: Jd 4h Jh 6s 7h
I fold raggy Kings UTG.  In later position I’d have played it, if it was suited I’d have limped in, but I don’t think there’s any harm sitting this one out.  Boss limps, Tra and Hag fold, Gomp checks his option.  Flop comes JJ4 with two hearts, they check it.  They check a 6 on the turn too.  Boss gives it up when Gomp bets at a third heart on the river.  I don’t feel like I learned much about the players here – Boss confirms he’s pretty passive and straightforward; Gomp either is a bit passive himself (for not betting the flop or turn) or else he knows Boss likes to trap, in which case he’s perhaps just a little too conservative.

6W +1.5BB)    Posn:   BB     Hero: Kd 8c 5s 5d        Board: 6s 3d Ac 7d
I have a suited King with a pair of 5s in the BB and I wind up heads-up out of position against Boss in an unraised pot.    A63 rainbow on the flop, I check it.  I can’t remember whether I intended to fold or float if he bets – both are good options IMO.  Anyway, he checks and I take it down with a bet on the turn.

7L -0.5BB)  Posn:   SB     Hero: Ad 7d 6c 2s
Tra’s raising about 15%, but I don’t feel like a suited ace with 1 or 2 weak holdem hands to go with it is really enough to contest the pot out of position.  Chances are high he has Aces, so I guess I could call knowing that I could be pretty happy with knowing whether I’m ahead or not on the flop, with a blocker against his set… but I’m more likely to miss than not, so a fold is def a solid play.  Everyone else folds too.

8L -15BB) Posn:  BTN      Hero: As Jh Td 4h        Board: Ac 4d Qh 5h 9d
I open-limp from the button with AJT4 suited to the Jack.  I’m not ashamed of limping hands like this, but I probably should raise a little more often than I do.  Flop comes AQ4r and Boss bets pot.  Tra folds, correctly – Boss almost certainly has a piece.  I have two pair and a decent draw, so I’m not going anywhere.  A 5 of hearts on the turn and he bets small.  I should have remembered his earlier minbet-checkraise and just flatted it, but I don’t like letting guys dictate the price to see the next card.  The small bet smells weak, he’s still got enough chips to fold, so I raise, planning to fold if he reraises, and hoping to get him to fold or at least throw him a curve.  He calls.  River’s a 9 and he checks.  I gladly check behind.  Pleased with myself for both negotiating a free showdown and for not getting ahead of my hand on the end, I cheerfully capitulate to his better two pair.   I feel this hand was going one of two ways after the flop – either I call his minbet on the turn and call another bet on the river, or I raise him on the turn planning to get away if he shows any strength.  Both ways cost about the same, and in the option I chose there’s some fold-equity on my side.  I’m happy with that.

9 –) Posn:   CO/MP     Hero: Th 6d 3d 2s
I open fold a trash hand, and Hag gets a walk.

10 –) Posn:  UTG      Hero: Th Td 8d 2c        Board: Kd 9h 3d 7h 3h
I fold.  Boss folds.  Tra raises on the button, Hag folds and Gomp calls from the BB.  Flop comes K93 two diamonds and Gomp leads out pot size.  Tra calls.  A second heart on the turn and they check it.  They check through the river when a third heart falls too, and Gomp shows he had two pair on the flop.  Ok, analysis of how they played – Tra’s raise preflop is predictable but fine.  Gomp’s donk bet is a fine idea – the flop’s almost certainly missed Tra and two pair almost certainly is ahead right now.  In Tra’s shoes, having called, I would probably bet the turn when Gomp seems to give it up.  Looking at Tra’s hand (AA52 with diamonds), my guess is he’s realized his Aces have probably fallen behind and so he’s happy to peel one and draw at the diamond flush.  When the other flush hits, he misses another opportunity to bluff after Gomp checks again.  IMO, Gomp should bet the turn, and as played Tra should at least bet the river (and probably fold to a respectable raise).
Info gained:  Tra confirms that at least some of his raises are Aces; a pretty loose blind defence from Gomp (9663 single-suited) .  Tra shows he’s pretty passive in position without a big hand.

11L -1BB) Posn:  BB      Hero: Ts 6c 6d 5d        Board: 2h Ah 8d 9h
I check by BB with a single-suited pair of 6s.  Boss and Hag join me and the flop comes A82r.  Nothing much for me to get excited about.  It gets checked around and the turn comes a 9, completing a possible flush.  I check again, Boss bets and Hag and I fold.  It’s reasonably likely one of these guys has at least a weak flush.

12L -0.5BB) Posn:  SB      Hero: Th 7h 3s 2c        Board: Qd 9d 6c Ks Qs
I fold some genuine crap on the small blind.  Boss, Hag and Gomp see the flop unraised.  Boss bets just under pot and the other two call.  Turn comes a king, Boss checks, which I’d read as a failed stab, a pair of queens or a flush draw.  Hag and Gomp fail to bet and then fold to a healthy bet by Boss on the river.  I doubt I’d call it, could be a busted draw, but I put a queen in his range on the tur.

13W +88BB) Posn: BTN       Hero: Ad Jh 8s 6h        Board: 6s 8h 6d 4c 7c
I limp on the button, Boss calls, Tra raises, I call and Boss folds.  I don’t have a great hand, but 2:1 pot odds is almost close enough for almost any Omaha hand, and I again have a blocker to his likely aces.  Excuses excuses… Bottom line, I made a loose call.  Happily for me the flop couldn’t come much better for me.  I think it’s extremely unlikely he has a pair of 8s in his hand, so my task is to figure out how to get his whole stack.  Beautifully he bets out pot.  I raise pot and he calls.  On the turn, he checks, I bet under half-pot, inviting him to make a call that would leave him with only half the pot left in his stack.  I put him all in on the end and he calls.  He shows pocket aces.  I make a note that he seems to be easy money.

14 –)  Posn: CO       Hero: 8d 4s 4c 3h        Board: Ks Td Th Kh Ah
I fold, Boss limps from the button, Tra folds, Hag checks.  They check it right down to the showdown.  You can probably guess that I’m going to say Boss should have bet to take it down.

15 –) Posn: UTG       Hero: Kd Qh 4d 4s        Board: 7s 6d Ac 9s Qd
I fold a middling hand UTG.  It’s a pretty passive game, but Tra on the button is capable of raising so I don’t mind folding.  Tra and Gomp contest the hand.  Again it gets checked down, and again I point my finger at the guy in position (who had a pocket pair of Jacks) for being too weak to take a stab.

16L -1BB) Posn: BB       Hero: Ah Jh Th 3c        Board: 6c Kd 8h
Boss limps UTG, Hag limps on the BTN and I check my big blind.  I’m working on not giving away money from the blinds, so I plan to give this one away if I don’t hit the flop, and I do so.  Hag takes it down.

17L -0.5BB) Posn: SB       Hero: Kd Qd 8d 6h        Board: Ah 7d 6d 7s
We have a new player in the seat to my left (name ‘Nat’), so we’re 6-handed now.  Gomp limps from the button and Nat checks his blind.  They check the flop and Gomp takes it down with a bet after a second check from the out of position player.

18W +12BB) Posn: BTN      Hero: 9h 8h 8d 3h        Board: As 5s Th 2s 8c
I open-raise from the button with a suited 9 and pair of 8s.  Boss in the big blind calls.  I bet just over half pot at the flop, and Boss calls.  I check behind at a third spade on the turn.  Perhaps a bit weak, but I know Boss is capable of slowplaying with a good hand.  I hit a set on the end, he checks again and so I make a value bet and he calls with two pair.

19 –)  Posn: CO       Hero: Jd Tc 7h 3s        Board: As 5s Td 2s 8c
I fold and Tra takes it down preflop with a raise from the BB against Boss’s limp from the SB.

20 –) Posn: MP   Hero: Td 3d 3s 2s        Board: Ad 8d 4c 5h 7s
Gomp limps UTG.  I fold from middle position with junk.  Nat calls, Boss folds, Tra raises small, Hag folds, Gomp and Nat call.  Flop comes A84 two diamonds, Nat bets in position, Tra folds and Gomp calls.  Nat seems to give up at this point, and they check it down.  Gomp had a diamond draw but doesn’t get to see that Nat’s weak until after his action on the turn is complete and so the draw is already busted.  He could have led out on the river but by then he had only a pair of Queens and it’s likely that Nat will call one bet with a pair of Aces.  Nat actually had two pair on the flop, so it seems like he might be easily spooked by coordinated boards.

21 –) Posn: UTG       Hero: Kd Qh 4h 4c        Board: Js 4d 6h 3h As
I fold UTG.  Nat raises from MP and only Gomp in the BB calls.  Again, Nat bets the flop but then gives up, and again his opponent seems only too happy to check it to the showdown with a weak hand.

22L -1BB) Posn: BB       Hero: Jc 7c 6h 4d        Board: Ac 5s 5h Ah
I’m not interested in getting involved with this hand.  I see the flop for free vs Boss and Hag, and after the flop gets checked round, I allow Boss to take it down.  I could take a stab at his probably bluff, but I don’t have a lot invested and so folding is also fine.

23L -0.5BB) Posn: SB       Hero: Qh Jc 8c 4s        Board: 7d Kc 5c
I fold the Small Blind, and Gomp limp-calls a BB raise by Nat.  Nat folds to a bet on the flop.  The perils of getting out of hand, out of position!

24W +6.5BB) Posn: BTN       Hero: Ts 9d 7s 6s       Board: 7d 5c 3h 8s
I raise my button unopened and only Nat in the SB calls.  I check behind on the flop, not wanting the pot to get too big with a small top pair.  He leads out after I hit my straight on the turn, but unfortunately he folds to a raise.

25W +13.5BB) Posn: CO       Hero: Kd Ks 5d 7d        Board: Td 4c 2s Jc 2c
I limp from the cutoff and Nat (BTN), Boss (SB) and Tra (BB) see the flop unraised.  I call a bet from Boss, feeling that he’s unlikely to be too far ahead of my Kings and we see the turn heads up.  On the turn we reverse roles as he calls my bet.  I think at this point it’s fairly likely I’m behind pocket aces (unlikely), two pair or a set.  I check behind on the river, not realizing that there’s a good chance the board pairing counterfeited his two pair.  Surely he’d bet a FH here, so the only hand he check-calls on the river that beats me is pocket Aces which I’ve already mostly discounted.  If he check-raises I’m dead meat and can happily fold.  I suppose the chances that he’s hoping to check raise are increased slightly because I bet the turn.  Looking back, I could probably get some thin value here, but I was happy enough to take it down.

That’s it.. short but sweet!  I’m hoping to catch enough time to play a couple of sessions next week, my schedule has been a nightmare lately

Hey guys,

It’s been a while again!  I’ve been writing up a nice short session of PLO for you, but it’s taken over a week so far… I have so little spare time these days.  Played 3 mini tourneys last night in a homegame and won two of them.  The structure was really shallow (starting with 25 BBs and levelling quickly) so it’s pretty much a crapshoot, but I think being aware of that and the effect it has on how you should play (any time you’re in a hand you should be willing to commit your whole stack, limping and calling the flop just to fold the turn is not an option, and against players who haven’t figured that out, aggression is king) gave me enough of an edge to be a favourite.  I also got pretty frickin’ lucky – one hand I was on the big stack and pretty much had to call an all-in and an all-in call with KJ of diamonds due to the pot odds – I was crushed both ways, one guy had AKo and the other had AJo.. 15% winning chance for me..And my diamonds came   Sometimes you just gotta luckbox it

Anyway, just thought I’d say hi   I’ll finish that session write up this weekend hopefully

cya, happy haloween!

Hey everyone!

Encouraged by getting a comment on my last entry, here I am with Part 2 of my September PLO review…

10L -52BB)  Hero: Qd 3d Jh 4c        Board: 6d 2d 6c 2h Js

I limp with a suited queen and two separate connecting couplets (34 and JQ) on the button, kind of a ‘two holdem hands’ situation, but I’m confident I can see the flop for the minimum.  Flop comes paired with two of my flush suit, 662.  It’s checked to me, which is what I’m looking for in position, so I pot it.  Unfortunately I get two callers.  Another 2 on the turn, and I’m thinking if they check again they surely can’t be strong enough to call another bet.  SB  checks, BB bets at tiny 3xBB.  I can’t see that as anything but a weak stab so I raise pot.  SB folds, but the bettor calls.  He checks again on the end and, having hit top pair with a Jack river, I barrell again, half pot.  He calls and shows bare trip 6s.  I can’t fault my play on this one too much – I played strong, aggressive poker in a good situation, and he called me down because he’s a huge fishstation.  What can you do but take a note and carry on?  I suppose I could have guessed my river bet wasn’t going to fold him out if he’s already check-called twice, so I could have saved that one.

11L -48BB)  Hero: Ks Js 9c 8d        Board: Jc 5d 7h 3h

I have 89JK double-gapper with a suited King on the button and call a raise from the CO.  Flop comes J75r giving me top pair and a double gutter.  CO bets pot and I call.  Turn’s a brick – the 3 of hearts.  He checks, and I think – standard float situation, I’ll take a stab see if he’ll give up.  I bet pot, he check-raises all in and I fold.  Fine, but I could probably have achieved the same thing with a less-than-pot-sized bet.  Also I have to put him on 46, so I have 8 outs to probably win the hand, I could have checked behind and re-evaluated on the river.

12L -44BB)  Hero: Ac Jc 8s 7s        Board: 3h Qd 9c Kd 6d

I have AJs87s UTG 5 handed.  I limp and so does everyone else.  Flop comes 3Q9 rainbow giving me a backdoor nut flush draw and a non-nut inside straight draw.  The player to my left bets pot and I call.  In hindsight I don’t think this is a good spot to float – I actually think it’d be better to float a flop like this if he’d raised preflop.  In this case, he’s opening into 3 other players and so I have to assume he has something along the lines of at least a Queen, TJ, 99, JK – he’s connected with the flop somehow for sure.  Anyway, I called and the turn came a King, killing my flush hopes but making my draw to a (non-diamond) ten a draw to the nuts.  I bet out pot size.  If he hasn’t got the TJ or some set-plus-diamond-draw, I think he’ll often fold.  He calls.  River’s a 6, missing me completely and completing the diamond flush.  I bet half pot and fold to a small raise.  I don’t like my river bluff here very much.  It was one of those ‘my only chance to win the hand’ situtations, but sometimes you’ve just got to let it go.  I don’t think folding to his raise was an error even getting 11.5:1 odds – he’s not raising with less than I have.  Ok.  One of those hands where I didn’t really need to get involved, ends up costing me a lot of money.  Having got involved, I don’t suppose I totally hate my semi-bluff on the turn.  The bluff on the river didn’t tell a consistent story and was probably a waste of money.

13L -42BB [5])  Hero: Qs 9h 9c 7d        Board: 2d Ah 8d 5s Ks

I limp on the button with 789Q badugi.  SB raises pot and I call heads up in position.  I don’t know if I had a read that he was raising wildly, or if I was a bit frustrated or what.  But on the other hand, it’s not a terrible call, my hand is reasonable and can hit a lot of flops.  Flop comes A28 with two diamonds, giving me middle pair and not much else.   As I type this, I’m wondering how I ended up losing big on this one!  I lead out potsize – questionable, but at least not a weak move!    Turn completes the straight with the 5 of spades… but what do I think I’m doing betting again, given that the pot is already bigger than what he has left?!  Now that I think about it, I think my thought process was ‘he raised preflop, so he’s probably got high cards, so he’s probably scared I have the straight’.  Well, the problem is the most likely hand he has is pocket aces, one of which will probably be a diamond.  And I obviously didn’t notice he was short-stacked.  He actually had even my represented hand crushed with the made straight and a four-flush to go with it.  Stupid hand, stupid play, I should be ashamed!

14L -40BB) Hero: Ac Kc 8h 5s        Board: 6s Ad 7s Jd Kd

I’m on the BTN with AKs 85o, and I limp vs the blinds.  A raise would definitely not have been a mistake here.  BB raises and I call.  We see the flop heads up, which comes 6s 7s Ad.  He bets, and I call.  Just like in the last hand, his stats are tight so I guess I can put him on high cards with Aces being a bit part.  My top pair may well be behind, but my straight draw is probably in play.  Turn comes a Jack and he bets pot again, and I call again.  I’m not getting the odds any more – I have 6 – 8 outs, and getting 33% pot odds, it doesn’t add up.  River completes a backdoor flush and puts up all kinds of nastiness, so folding when he shoves is fine.  My mistake in this was calling on the turn.

15L -36BB) Hero: Ah 9h 9d 4h        Board: 4c 5h Kc Th 2d

I’m on the BB with a suited ace and a pair of 9s (with 3 hearts).  CO bets, BTN calls and I call out of position, getting decent pot odds (I was thinking) to draw at a monster on the flop.  Flop comes 45K with two clubs, missing me almost completely.  I should fold here, right?!  The bets when they come to me are small – 20% of the pot, so I call again, ready to fold if I don’t hit the turn!  Of course – you see this coming – the turn gives me a little something-something so I call again, this time without the benefit of a third player to boost the price.  I check-fold a brick on the river.  I have no idea.. maybe my fold button was broken or something!!!

16L -36BB)  Hero: Ac Js Th 9h        Board: 3d Ah Qd 2s 3s

On the SB, I have 9TJA single suited to the ten.  We’re 4 handed and UTG/CO raises.  BTN folds, I call, BB folds.  Flop comes 3AQ with two diamonds.  It seems very unlikely that flop hit him harder than it hit me – if my pair isn’t winning then I’m drawing to 8 (perhaps 6) outs.  I decide to check to the raiser, I imagine I was planning to check-raise.  He checks behind and the turn comes a 2.  I check, he bets pot and I call, probably aware that there’s now a straight out there, but sensing that my 8 outs are still good.  The board pairs on the end and I lead out, hoping to push him off a weak holding, even potentially off a straight if he’s tight.  He calls, having hit a big wheelhouse wrap on the flop, and turned the nuts.  For me, check-folding on the river would have been more sensible.

17L -33BB) Hero: 9h 8d 4h 6s        Board: 5d 7d 9s 5h Th

I have an extremely mediocre 9846 single suited to the 9 on the BB, but I’m able to see the flop for free.  The flop hits me like a bomb – 579, though it’s duotonal.  I bet, hoping to get the opportunity to get it all in right here and now.  Unfortunately, I just get two callers.  The turn brings a second 5, and I guess I must have felt it was likely to have helped one of my opponents, because I bet just half pot.  One opponent obliges with a call, but I can’t really love this situation.  River is a ten, but it doesn’t help if he has a boat.  My move I think is perfectly fine – I don’t want to check and give him the chance to bluff, I’d rather bet enough so that he’ll call when I’m ahead and raise when I’m behind, which is what I do – I bet half pot, he raises pot, and I fold.  I think I did fine here.  I don’t think I can check the river because it’s so obvious what I have and what I’m afraid of.  I guess I’m a little open to being bluffed with my turn and river half-pots, but TBH I doubt there’s many players at this limit who’d catch me out on that one.  As it stands, I can count his raise for a FH, and he helpfully shows his hand to confirm that.

18L -31BB) Hero: 8s 6h 5d 6c        Board: 7c 4d Js 5s 9c

I limp-call a small BTN raise from UTG with 8665r.  This hand is def foldable, but lets see what the flop brings.  Flop comes 74Jr and we’re four handed.  Couldn’t really have been better for me apart from maybe 622!  I just check-call a tiny bet, when really I probably should have check-raised as much as possible.  I don’t have a made hand, but I have 12 outs to the nuts (I think!), and there can’t be too many people out there who beat me in equity right now.  Anyway, for some reason I allow my three opponents to see the turn for next to nothing.  I hit gin on the turn, making the nut straight… and so I check it?!  I guess I was hoping to trap someone, or something, but this is getting ridiculous.  The turn brings a 9, the only card that could make my straight second-best, and so I deservingly lose a pot size bet to the guy I allowed to get there.  At least I didn’t raise the river.

19L -30BB [25])  Hero: Th 9h 8d 7c        Board: Js Qh 9c Ad Ac

On the button, I have T987 single-suited to the Ten.  There’s a whole lot of preflop action.  I play feebly, but still all three of my opponents end up all in and I’m reasonably happy with that situation with this hand.  I’d prefer to see myself raising, trying to knock out one or two of them, but in the end we’re pretty much gambling.  I’m actually marginally behind a couple of pocket-pair type hands at this point according to HEM, but even if I’d known that it would have been mathematically correct to call each of the individual raises as it went round the table.  Flop comes JQ9r and the strength of my hand shows its true colours, at this point I have 64% of the equity.  It doesn’t come to anything though, as the bad-luck demons rain a couple of aces down on me!

That’s all I’ll do for now.  I have to rush so I haven’t proof-read the above, so please excuse any mistakes!

The big losing hands don’t tell the whole story.  I’ve been playing very timid, hardly any aggression, and some hands I won big where I didn’t really deserve to – I’ll try to do more analysis later looking for leaks in the small game and analysing winning hands.

Hey guys,

Well, good news first – I completed the FTP “Take 2″ challenge, achieving >1FTP per day at two tables of PLO for 25 days of September.

The bad news is I’m pretty much a fish at PLO still.  I lost about $18 (including RB but not including the bonus) this month, that’s ~900 big blinds at my level   I played some really bad sessions at the beginning of the month, and the multitabling was messing with me a little bit – I’m still not good enough to really follow the action at >1 table.  I also feel like I was getting involved in too many pots on some days because I didn’t really want to be playing, and so I just wanted to soak up the rake ASAP and get out of there.. not a great approach to winning poker!  That’s all over now, and I have some space to reflect, try to properly sharpen up.

Back to the positive – that still means I earned about $30 from the promotion (1500BBs, plus I gathered 300FTP).  I feel like my game started to tighten up towards the end of the month – having been in the same situation repeatedly, you eventually start to learn what’s a good situation and what’s not.

I plan to watch a lot of videos, re-read the books, and study the hand histories I’ve built up from this month of play.  I’m going to continue to play PLO at least until I lose the bonus I just earned.  If I keep on losing and fall back down to the BR I had at the beginning of September then I’ll consider reconsidering my switch to PLO.  But I can feel it coming, and I don’t think it’s going to go that way.  The ‘free’ cash I have to play with is enough to play a few thousand more hands, even if I keep making mistakes.  At some point, I’m gonna turn the corner!

On to the hand review.  These are the biggest losing hands throughout the whole month.  All two tables (rarely 3 or 4) of 6-max $2 PLO on FTP.  A couple of days have gone missing due to switching over to Windows 7, but still it’s a nice set of 1.6k hands to analyse.  I’m afraid, throughout this hand review I will have little recollection of how the villains were playing because some of these hands were 4 weeks ago.  I’ll do my best to assign ranges based on their stats.

The new ‘[x]‘ value in the heading is Holdem Manager’s “EV $ Diff” assessment (given in big blinds), which may be useful in some cases – you add it to the amount won or lost to get a better feeling for your expected value in that situation (only applies to all-in hands).  e.g. in hand 5 (“5L -95BB [92]“) the ev diff value shows that although I lost a stack, I was only very slightly behind in EV when the money went in.

1L -127BB)  Hero: Td Ts 7h 3h        Board: Ks Jd Kh 4d Ts
I check my BB and 5 of us see the flop which comes KKJr, giving me not much to be happy about.  I call a min bet from the guy to my left, getting 7:1 from the pot.  Same routine on the turn, this time getting 10:1.  I’m still drawing to one of the two remaining tens.  When I hit my boat on the river I bet out potsize and the min-bettor folds.  My villain (having just called so far) raises and here’s where I make my mistake.  I think a call here with tens full of Kings is ok – he could be bluffing and he could have 4s full or even a set of Kings.  But 3-betting and fist-pump getting it all in is a mistake with two better possible FHs.  I discounted the idea that he could have KJ because there’s relatively little slowplaying in PLO, but in his position even I might consider letting someone catch up.  This was one of the hands from the early part of the month and I remember quite clearly how shocked I was when he turned his cards over.  Lesson learned.  It was fine to bet with my big hand in a seemingly abandoned pot, but if it’s not the nuts and he raises, I need to flat call or even fold.  Stacking off is too spewy.

2L -116BB [45])  Hero: Kc Tc Ks 9s        Board: 3d 2c 9d Qs 2s
I call an UTG raise from the button with KKT9 double suited.  You’ll notice throughout the month I was extremely weak-tight and reactive, which will have made coming back from beats more difficult as I’m not earning well enough with my big hands.  I know I need to work on my aggression, but I lack the confidence so far at this game.  I think a lot of aggressive NLHE players will be too aggressive at PLO at first, but I seem to have gone completely the other way.  Anyway, the flop comes 932 two diamonds, 3 handed, giving my pair of kings a pretty useless second pair, not great but my kings have some shot at being good.  The preflop raiser bets and I raise him – thinking it’s going to be pretty rare that someone with a hand good enough to raise preflop can have really loved that flop.  I don’t think that reasoning is terrible, worth a shot.  I only have 7 hands on him and he’s 100/43 so maybe it doesn’t hold water.  This folds out player 3, but the villain hangs on.  Turn brings a Queen, making me three non-diamond Jack outs to the nut straight.  He checks, I fire a second barrel, he raises for a little more and I call.  I seem to remember that I was thinking – no draws have completed here, so there’s a chance my overpair is good, and if he’s sane he might not continue drawing at a handful of outs.  I probably failed to notice he only had one bet left in his stack.   I was wrong, because he had the ever-so-slightly-better-than-mine hand of KK32 for Kings with two fairly useless pairs.  Except that he also had the flush draw.  Anyway, when the money goes in I’m a 20% shot, and he hits the river.  With the fold equity of the big bet on the turn, and the chance that he’s drawing to the straight I think it’s just about ok.

3L -100BB)  Hero: As 8s Ad 7c        Board: Kc 7s Td Qs 8c
I limp-call from MP with a reasonably decent pocket aces hand AA78 single-suited.  We see the flop heads up, which comes K7Tr.  Same as in hand 2 – the problem with pairing a side card is that it’s pretty useless.  Still, if a 9 or second spade comes on the turn I’ll be pretty happy.  I call a potsize pet which is probably a bit optimistic.  Turn is the Queen of spades, giving me the nut flush draw, though I don’t quite have the odds to draw we’re deep and I figure it’s worth peeling one.  The poker gods tease me by pairing my last card on the river.  I call as he puts me all in, getting 3.3:1 from the pot.  I’m very unlikely to be good, but is he bluffing 1/4 of the time?  I doubt it.  He’d flopped a set of sevens.  I don’t have much to say about his range because he could be just cbetting the flop (so difficult to learn anything from that), the turn I correctly figured I was behind but decided to draw.  The river was probably a bad call.

4L -98BB [32])  Hero: Ad Jd 9s 6d        Board: Ac 2d 7d Kc Kd
I don’t have much more than a flush-mining hand, and I don’t love third diamond, but I complete my small blind anyway.  We see the flop 5 handed, and it brings me a pair of aces and the (slightly enfeebled due to the extra diamond in my hand) nut flush draw.  I check, there’s a bet and a raise, I call, bettor re-raises, middle player calls all in, I call and there’s only 12BBs left to play.  I probably should have shoved it all in there and then.  Anyway, I call his last few cents on the turn and we turn over our hands.  The aggressor is way ahead with a set of 7s and an inside nut straight draw to a Jack.  The shortstacker has the queen-high flush draw and the straight draw to the Ten.  Just to tease me, the King that makes his boat is a diamond.  Pretty hectic stuff but I don’t suppose it was going to go any different – I wasn’t folding to a shortstacker with top pair + NFD and there’s a chance the other guy was just trying to push me out.  I guess on the flop, with the bet and raise I should either have folded or shoved.  As played, calling the 3-bet was slightly mathematically incorrect, which probably makes it ok because of the chance that he’s just trying to dance with the shortstack.

5L -95BB [92])  Hero: Ah Kd Qc 7c        Board: 4s Jc Ts 3h 2d
I limp-call from MP with AQK7 (suited Queen).  3 of us see the flop, which comes TJ4 with two spades, giving me the nut straight draw, with a little flushiness to worry about.  I guess I’d rather draw to a safe turn (adding a little deceptiveness), but after I check there’s a bet and a raise and I decide to flip that plan on its head and get it all in.  I have at least 9 outs.  The re-raiser is a shortstack so my guess is he’s probably willing to gamble that whichever (or both) of us won’t make our draws.  That turns out to be the case as he has two pair.  I’m not sure how I fare against the range I gave above, probably not better than 50%.  I maybe should have thought for a little longer, but perhaps I had a read (or perhaps I was tilting .. this may have been one of the days when I was getting pushed around a lot and just decided to draw a line in the sand).  Anyway, it went in and his two pair won the day.

6L -68BB)  Hero: Ah 4h Ts 3d        Board: 6c 7c 9d 2h Qd
I’m becoming a real sucker for potential-nut-flush type hands.  In the SB, I call a raise from the BTN with A34T with the suited Ace.  It’s a pretty crap hand and I had no reason to call OOP.  The BTN is raising fairly wide (61/32 over 59 hands), perhaps I thought ‘at least with this hand it’ll be pretty easy to know whether I’m ahead or not’.  Ok, we get heads up and the flop comes 679 with two clubs (wrong suit for me).  I lead out potsize.  I guess I might as well find out whether that flop scared him or not, though check-folding is definitely an option.  He calls and I bet again, pot size at a 2 on the turn.  A bare-naked bluff.  He calls and we check down.  If I had an instinct, I guess I must have been right because he had nothing but the flush draw until he paired on the river.  I guess it’s possible that a third bet would have taken it down, but I bottled it.  Weird hand and I suppose it goes to show that semi-bluffs work better in PLO than outright bluffs.  If I’d paired my Ace, perhaps I would have had the confidence to bet that he’d missed his flush.  I’ve noticed that even though I’m limping in all the time with suited Aces, I very rarely actually flop the draw I’m looking for.  I should probably stick to the multi-way nut flush hands, use the flush to add equity to other possitilities rather than have it be my only chance.

7L -66BB [1])  Hero: Ac 7d 7h 3s        Board: 2h 7s 8d 2d 6s
I check my option in the BB with A773 badugi, and see the 872r flop heads-up with the small blind.  Hitting middle set seems pretty decent heads up, so when he bets, I call.   The turn brings a 2, giving me a full house.  There’s only two possible better hands than mine, so when he offers me the chance to get it all in, I snap his hand off at the elbow (he bets 1/2 pot, I raise pot, he 3-bets and I shove).  This is similar to hand one – should I start hearing alarm bells when the dude seems delighted that I raised and I don’t have the nuts?  I feel like I got unlucky, but OTOH what can he possibly re-raise with that doesn’t beat me?  He has quad 2s, 8s full or a total bluff, very rarely I suppose he might have something like 9TJQ with two diamonds (which obviously I crush).  If I let myself be coyed by his raise and just call it down do I lose value from bad players with worse hands?  It’s likely that it’d have gone in on the river anyway.  I don’t know.  I’m not exactly beating myself up over this one.

8L -66BB)  Hero: Qh 5h 5c 4d        Board: 6d Ac 5d Tc 6c
We’re three handed and I’m in the big blind with a pair of fives, suited queen and a 4.  BTN limps and I check.  Flop comes A65 with two diamonds.  I lead out pot, he calls.  At this point I can’t put him on anything other than to say that I guess he’s got at least an Ace or straightening cards, maybe a high flush draw.  He’d probably have raised preflop with Aces, or he’d have raised me on the flop.  All I need is for the board to pair and I’m laughing.  As long as he doesn’t have a pair of 6s or something   Turn’s a Ten, and following Hwang’s advice to keep betting until the guy gives you a reason to stop, I lead out potsize again.  He calls.  A backdoor flush completes along with my 5s full of 6s on the river and I’m delighted.  I bet, he raises all in, I call  and he shows down A6 for a better FH.  What can I learn from this?  I had 78% equity on the flop, 90% on the turn, so those bets were fine.  I’m not *not* betting when I hit my out on the river.  I’m not folding getting 3.1:1 out of the pot with one of the top 5 or so possible hands when he may be spewing, may have the flush, may have a set of 6s.  I’m happy with how I played this one.  HEM gives me 0% equity of course because I had already lost when the money went in, but I think this is a positive EV situation overall.

9L -61BB)  Hero: As Ks Ac 9h    Board: Qh 8s Js 5c Qs
I limp (?) from MP with pocket aces, single suited to a King and a 9 dangler.  I’m seriously going to beat the crap out of myself if I keep limping these hands.  The correct thing to do would be to raise so that when the flop comes dry or my way I can shove it in.  But no, I limp.  To be fair, I was fairly deep and so was one of the other guys in the hand.  4 of us see the flop, which hits me very nicely – QJ8 with two of my flush suit, giving me the nut straight draw (4 outs) and the nut flush draw (another 8).  I bet and get a call from a shortstack.  I put him squarely on the straight draw.  Turn’s a brick, I bet again, he calls again.  River completes my flush but pairs the board.  If I check, he’s betting and I’m calling, so I may as well bet and hope to fold out the occasional nit with a weak FH (though it’s not happening – if he’s called me all this way with a set, he’s calling this but what the heck, when in doubt, bet).  QJ is a pretty common holding, and would probably have carried on against me.  Anyway, he calls all in and shows Queens full of 8s.  Just like hand 8, I don’t see this going any other way.  In this case, I’m just annoyed with myself for not having all the money in the middle *before* the queen fell.

I’m cutting it short there for now, part two to follow later!

Hi all,

Sorry I haven’t written for a while, I’ve bumped into a few issues:

- I went on holiday

- I reinstalled my OS and forgot my AIM password(!)

- I’ve been playing PLO every day for the FTP bonus, and it’s taking up all my available poker time

- I’ve started playing some GuildWars, so those bored hours when I didn’t want to play poker and used to write are now taken up with that.

- I wrote a blog about my first few days of PLO, but before I had chance to post it, that post got overtaken by events – I lost several buyins and so a post about a couple of slightly winning sessions seemed a bit irrelevant.

Anyway, I’m still around and reading the forums, and playing, but my blog might get fewer updates for a while.

Chat soon!

Daverer