I managed a huge $67 win this week in a rather disjointed 12 hours of play!
Monday was a day off and then Tuesday and Wednesday were largely uneventful before the fireworks began on Thursday. This was fireworks in a good way to begin with as I won one large pot with AA against a very stubborn JJ, most of the money going in on a Q84 2-flush flop. What was he thinking? Was I re-raising pre-flop with rags?
Friday’s early play was a train wreck before some of the damage was repaired in a steady late session. There were two big losses and I think a better player would have avoided at least one of them, although I’m not certain which one.
First, playing 3-handed I raised on the button with K7 and was called by the big blind, who was maybe a little on the tight side. The flop came KK5 with two hearts and I bet a standard $40 when checked to. He raised me to $120 and I re-raised to $310, in theory, so that I could fold if he went all-in. After all, what could he have if not a better King than me or possibly pocket fives? Or maybe a flush draw? I pondered right down to the end of the time allowance whether to call his subsequent all-in and then a strange reflex action kicked in and I called, only to be shown 55.
Then, a bit later, when playing 10-handed I made a river bluff that I suspect would come off a high percentage of the time. I called a mid-position raise with T8 and with the big blind we saw the K75 (two hearts) flop 3-handed. After the raiser checked, which I wasn’t expecting, I decided to have a stab at the pot and fired $80 which the raiser called. The turn was an offsuit 8, and I didn’t want to bet myself out of the pot now that I had picked up a pair, so I checked behind. Also, I wasn’t worried about giving a free card to a flush-draw as this would have been a good flop for the raiser to bet at if he had flopped the flush-draw. By checking maybe it would look to the raiser as if I had a flush-draw. The river came the 9 of hearts and the raiser bet $140 into me. I raised all-in (he had about $640 behind), trying to represent the flush, thinking that I could make him lay down most hands here. In actual fact, he had a straight with the 86 and after great deliberation made the call.
The week-end was a break-even affair, and I only managed a measly 3 hours in total. I lost three biggish pots making second-best hands, but this was erased totally with a nice win when I flopped quad twos. I limp-called against a tight and very aggressive regular who I had tussled with before. The flop came 922 with two clubs and I decided to check to see how much he was going to bet. He made it $70, which I thought was on the high-side in an attempt to get as much in as possible early on, to chop the odds available for a flush-draw with overcard. At this point I decided to raise to $210, as I reckoned it would look no stronger than a flat-call to him and would have the added advantage of possibly getting all the money in on the flop. Like I said, we had tussled before. To my total joy but not total surprise he went all-in and I had the easiest call imaginable.
Overall the week was a disappointment as there were a couple of spells where I lost a bit of focus and started to try to make things happen where the opportunities were not really there. If I am honest with myself, I probably could have made $600-700 if I had played my A- game all week. Like I said, a better player would have probably folded the K7 v 55 hand and that would have saved another $200-300 in equity. On the positive side, I managed to win just short of $1000 in the smaller (non-showdown) pots. This shows that my general level of aggression is OK.
This week I need to maintain my focus at all times. Sometimes I feel as though I am due to hit a run of good situations, like I see others hit day after day. This is just a fallacy: we need to concentrate on maximising all opportunities that come our way. This often means picking up one extra small pot (say $60) every couple of hours. At the time it looks like no big deal but it’s massive in the context of a player’s results.
Monday 19 May 2008
Monday 12 May 2008
Behind all week...
By the end of the week the result was a satisfactory one: an $887 win in just over 16 hours of play. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story: not by a long way.
Monday was poor but that loss was recovered immediately on Tuesday. The Wednesday loss was a bit worse than Monday’s but took until Saturday to clear off.
There were three big pots where I lost more than I should have done, as I had position on my opponent in all three cases and should probably have folded the river on all three occasions.
First, I raised a loose early position limper from the button holding AA and we took the 955 flop heads-up. He check-called my solid $70 flop bet. The turn came another 9 and instead of shutting down I decided I would try to get some value for my AA. Again he check-called: this time $200. The river was a 7 and he immediately went all-in. For some reason I couldn’t persuade myself to fold against his obvious full-house and called all-in for $545. He showed J9.
Second, I raised from one off the button with AQ and was re-raised to $110 by a solid regular in the big blind. I decided to call and also called his flop (AJ2) bet of $150. When he checked the blank turn I decided that my hand was probably best and bet $360, which he called. The river was the King of spades which put a third spade on board and despite this scary card he bet all-in. Again, ridiculously, I couldn’t persuade myself that I was beat despite the weight of evidence. He showed AK.
Third, I raised to $70 after 5 limpers and the only caller was a fairly tight regular in first position. The flop came 235 (all spades) which was not great for my red Kings. I checked behind hoping to see a blank on the turn, which came an offsuit Jack. My plan was to make a reasonable bet if checked to and then hopefully check behind on the river. Phase one went OK and I bet $120, but he raised me to $275. I called this, thinking I may have the best hand but I got a sinking feeling when he bet all-in on the river, which was an off-suit Queen. Looking back, I couldn’t beat much that he might play like this, but still called only to be shown 64 of spades for the flopped straight-flush.
So, three big pots played poorly by me. But there were others that went OK. Its just a bit annoying that I couldn’t find a fold in a couple of these pots, as the bottom line for the week would have been so much better.
All in all, despite being behind for much of the week, I was able to hang in there and play somewhere near my best game for long periods and finally get ahead for the week. Looking at the microcosm of a single week’s results isn’t really that helpful but some sort of a review process is necessary if I am to avoid falling into bad habits. Gradually, by playing well, the results will come together and I will be able to look back at a successful year.
This blog will be one year old at the end of this month. Maybe then I will do a review of the year.
Monday was poor but that loss was recovered immediately on Tuesday. The Wednesday loss was a bit worse than Monday’s but took until Saturday to clear off.
There were three big pots where I lost more than I should have done, as I had position on my opponent in all three cases and should probably have folded the river on all three occasions.
First, I raised a loose early position limper from the button holding AA and we took the 955 flop heads-up. He check-called my solid $70 flop bet. The turn came another 9 and instead of shutting down I decided I would try to get some value for my AA. Again he check-called: this time $200. The river was a 7 and he immediately went all-in. For some reason I couldn’t persuade myself to fold against his obvious full-house and called all-in for $545. He showed J9.
Second, I raised from one off the button with AQ and was re-raised to $110 by a solid regular in the big blind. I decided to call and also called his flop (AJ2) bet of $150. When he checked the blank turn I decided that my hand was probably best and bet $360, which he called. The river was the King of spades which put a third spade on board and despite this scary card he bet all-in. Again, ridiculously, I couldn’t persuade myself that I was beat despite the weight of evidence. He showed AK.
Third, I raised to $70 after 5 limpers and the only caller was a fairly tight regular in first position. The flop came 235 (all spades) which was not great for my red Kings. I checked behind hoping to see a blank on the turn, which came an offsuit Jack. My plan was to make a reasonable bet if checked to and then hopefully check behind on the river. Phase one went OK and I bet $120, but he raised me to $275. I called this, thinking I may have the best hand but I got a sinking feeling when he bet all-in on the river, which was an off-suit Queen. Looking back, I couldn’t beat much that he might play like this, but still called only to be shown 64 of spades for the flopped straight-flush.
So, three big pots played poorly by me. But there were others that went OK. Its just a bit annoying that I couldn’t find a fold in a couple of these pots, as the bottom line for the week would have been so much better.
All in all, despite being behind for much of the week, I was able to hang in there and play somewhere near my best game for long periods and finally get ahead for the week. Looking at the microcosm of a single week’s results isn’t really that helpful but some sort of a review process is necessary if I am to avoid falling into bad habits. Gradually, by playing well, the results will come together and I will be able to look back at a successful year.
This blog will be one year old at the end of this month. Maybe then I will do a review of the year.
Wednesday 7 May 2008
Back home
Last week was the first time since the re-focus on $5-$10 that I managed to play well all week and the results were great.
I played just under 11 hours and won $2,740. About a half of this was won in 90 minutes on Monday and after that I had a fairly steady run. On Sunday I took the day off.
The surprising thing about the win was the fact that in the big pots I only managed to break even. This shows that I must have won a lot of small and medium-sized pots without going to showdown: actually a rather unusual occurrence as I have been playing much tighter than I had previously. (In hands contested by 7 or more players my VPIP is down to 15%). Maybe I have been better at picking spots to steal the pot by playing fewer hands out of position: something I had been conscious of doing in the last week or so. (Even in the cut-off seat I was down to 12% VPIP, compared with 19% and 23% respectively in the cut-off and buttons seats).
As usual the biggest winning and losing pots happened when either me or my opponent, or both of us, flopped a set. I just about broke even in these situations, on one hand flopping set over set, but on another hitting top two pair against bottom set.
The only other big loser for me during the week was when I got $684 in pre-flop with AQ against AK. This sounds bad but is partially justified as it was heads-up against a very aggressive player.
Another development for me is my newfound ability to multi-table! If I start out at a short-handed table I am happy to play just that one table, but I have started to play a second table if they are both full. This lead to me playing an average of 1.59 tables during the week and I don’t feel as though my play suffered.
I feel reasonably comfortable back at the $5-$10 level now and am confident that in future weeks I can continue on an upward curve. After 3-4 months moving around it now feels like I am back at my ‘home game.’ Let’s hope my future results prove this correct.
I played just under 11 hours and won $2,740. About a half of this was won in 90 minutes on Monday and after that I had a fairly steady run. On Sunday I took the day off.
The surprising thing about the win was the fact that in the big pots I only managed to break even. This shows that I must have won a lot of small and medium-sized pots without going to showdown: actually a rather unusual occurrence as I have been playing much tighter than I had previously. (In hands contested by 7 or more players my VPIP is down to 15%). Maybe I have been better at picking spots to steal the pot by playing fewer hands out of position: something I had been conscious of doing in the last week or so. (Even in the cut-off seat I was down to 12% VPIP, compared with 19% and 23% respectively in the cut-off and buttons seats).
As usual the biggest winning and losing pots happened when either me or my opponent, or both of us, flopped a set. I just about broke even in these situations, on one hand flopping set over set, but on another hitting top two pair against bottom set.
The only other big loser for me during the week was when I got $684 in pre-flop with AQ against AK. This sounds bad but is partially justified as it was heads-up against a very aggressive player.
Another development for me is my newfound ability to multi-table! If I start out at a short-handed table I am happy to play just that one table, but I have started to play a second table if they are both full. This lead to me playing an average of 1.59 tables during the week and I don’t feel as though my play suffered.
I feel reasonably comfortable back at the $5-$10 level now and am confident that in future weeks I can continue on an upward curve. After 3-4 months moving around it now feels like I am back at my ‘home game.’ Let’s hope my future results prove this correct.
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