The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Another Week At The 100NL Tables
The Good
The first hand to look at is a purely pre-flop hand but I believe it illustrates an important concept with regards to deep stack play. In this hand me and the villain were both 300BB deep, he was a fairly standard TAG player who I hadn't played any big pots with yet, however at this point I was running over the table, up 2 buy-ins in approximately 30 minutes, and as such my table image was definitely good. The only time previous to this I had re-raised out of the blinds at this table was with KK which had gone to showdown; not sure if the villain was aware of this.
** Game ID 632788160 starting - 2006-12-01 13:56:12
** Greenville [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money
- xxxx sitting in seat 1 with $69.65 [Dealer]
- hero sitting in seat 2 with $309.12
- xxxx sitting in seat 3 with $96.50
- xxxx sitting in seat 4 with $192.51
- villain sitting in seat 5 with $333.88
- xxxx sitting in seat 6 with $199.32
hero posted the small blind - $0.50
xxxx posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to hero: 4 of Clubs, 4 of Spades
xxxx folded
villain raised - $3.50
villain makes a standard PFR. This guy is a 10/22 and not a particularly strong player.
xxxx folded
xxxx folded
hero raised - $15.50
I re-raised to 4.5x his raise. This has only one real purpose. If I hit a 4 I want to be able to take all 309BBs I can from him before he can get away from his hand. Consider the future rounds of betting.
Option 1 - Flat Call
If I flat call his PFR and the Big Blind tags along then the pot is $10.50. A Standard C-Bet of $9 will get the pot up to $28.50, turn bet of $25 builds the pot to $78.50 and we both still have approx 265BBs in our stacks. How can I convince him to part with another 265BBs on the river? I probably can't unless he has me beat.
Option 2 - Re-raise
This has several advantages, other than giving me the opportunity to win the pot right away and net $5, it also makes the Big Blind fold all but premium hands and gets me heads up with the villain for future rounds of betting. So, consider that he calls my re-raise, the pot is $33 before the flop. A Standard C-Bet of $30 builds the pot to $93 for the turn, turn bet of $85 builds the pot nicely to $263, leaving us stacked approximately 170BB deep for the river. A 170BB bet into a 263BB pot is a lot easier to call than in option 1 where we need our 265BB bet into a 78BB pot to be called in order to stack our opponent.
This hand illustrates one of the differences between deep stacked play and shorter stacked play. I wouldn't re-raise the 44 if we were both only 100BB deep; it's only a profitable play if we are both deep stacked. Also, if he decides to call with his most likely holdings, i.e. AJ/KQ etc and doesn't pair on the flop then he can't call my $30 c-bet with air and I win $16 from him; 66% (I think) of the time, the flop won't help him and he will have to fold to my c-bet. I think re-raising in this particular scenario is clearly more profitable than flat calling.
xxxx folded
villain folded
hero mucks:
hero wins $20.00 from the main pot
As things happened, he considered for a few seconds before folding, netting me $5.
End of game 632788160
The Bad
In this hand a scenario any regular low limit player will instantly recognize, "Hello, I'm a fish with aces". Here I somehow manage to pay him off despite clear warnings. Keep this in mind next time you're in my shoes and either lose less or fold!
** Game ID 636536913 starting - 2006-12-06 18:01:00
** Gracefield [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money
- hero sitting in seat 1 with $115.55
- xxxx sitting in seat 2 with $100.00 [Sitting out]
- xxxx sitting in seat 3 with $99.50
- villain sitting in seat 4 with $83.24 [Dealer]
- xxxx sitting in seat 5 with $106.85
xxxx posted the small blind - $0.50
hero posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to hero: King of Clubs, Queen of Spades
xxxx folded
villain called - $1.00
xxxx called - $1.00
hero bet - $6.00
We are 4 handed and I think this is a reasonable hand to raise out the BB in such circumstances. I will usually raise slightly more than usual from the blinds to compensate for lack of position.
villain raised - $11.00
Ding Ding Dingggggggggg Donkey with Aces Alarm One has rung. The limp-insta-min-re-raise ninja move. At this point I honestly remember hearing the above mentioned alarm and thinking 'proceed with extreme caution', but the fact I was running bad evidently affected my decision making capabilities.
xxxx folded
hero called - $11.00
It is correct to call the min re-raise here, as it's $5 into an $18 pot; you should just be aware that you really need to flop big. I also usually take an optimistic view of the min-re-raise from a weak player, since they're basically telling you if you hit big you're gonna get paid, it's like a lottery scratch card.
** Dealing the flop: 4 of Spades, Queen of Clubs, 6 of Spades
hero bet - $16.00
Woohoo top pair with a good kicker! Best hand I've had in weeks! Let's rock. Wait...this guy did the insta-min-re-raise pre-flop fish special. Nevermind, let's bet out a nice amount just to make sure he really has those aces, despite the fact you've seen the exact same thing from the fishes hundreds of times and they've NEVER been bluffing.
villain raised - $32.00
Hi. I have Aces. Could I possible make it any clearer to you?
hero called - $32.00
Does he really have aces? C'mon poker site, give me a break, I'm running bad and my TP-almost-TK gotta be good for once, right?
** Dealing the turn: 5 of Clubs
hero checked
^^^^ Folding may have been a better move you tool.
villain went all-in - $40.24
No really, I have aces. Look. I went all in. Consider all my previous actions and there is only ONE possible hand I can have right now.
hero called - $40.24
Hmmmm. I think he has aces. But wait, I have TP-almost-TK. Psh this fool ain't gonna bluff me.
** Dealing the river: Jack of Clubs
villain shows: Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades
Hi. I have Aces.
hero mucks: King of Clubs, Queen of Spades
I hate poker.
xxxx wins $165.48 from the main pot
End of game 636536913
The Ugly
The Ugly this week isn't a hand, it's my PT stats:
Hands - 12,150
VPIP - 24.72
WTSD - 26.57
W$SD - 44.42
PFR - 16.61
Amount Won - (1,018.76)
BB/100 - (4.19)
A number of factors contributed to my making a loss, however it is mostly myself to blame. I tilted probably $250-$300 on sheer stupidity; I didn't fold when it was blatantly obvious I was beat, I played too scared (so many times I would see someone flip over a hand that I would have got them off easily if I had bet the river), JJ (-$380), KK (-$258), AKs (-$103) etc. But the main factor, in my opinion, is pretty simple and straightforward - I wasn't concentrating or enjoying playing. I spent most of my time at the tables singing along to the Stone Roses and drifting on autopilot. I think that when you play LAG it really emphasizes your post-flop playing ability, where I would consider myself usually very strong, this week I wasn't really paying attention; so many sloppy inattentive plays. I haven't had one single losing week since I purchased Poker Tracker in September. I've had more single losing sessions this week than I have in the entire run of Sep-Nov. A friend I made through Cardrunners hits the nail on the head here:
[21:31] kenny: i need help getting out my rut
[21:31] kenny: any ideas?
[21:31] Jam: erm tighten up?
[21:31] Jam: or watch some more CR vids
[21:31] Jam: and become enthusiastic again? ?----Bingo
Jamie I'll buy you a Pot Noodle (any flavour you want, I'll maybe even stretch to a King Size one) when we're crushing the 2000NL on Ladbrokes for that piece of advice.
So I decided to play some poker I am enthusiastic about, I played one single table of 100NL and really concentrated on it, it was the most action table I could find, and I played how I enjoy playing, raising 63s UTG etc. I ran the table over and won $150 in 25mins, only going to showdown once. Then I went and played my first MTT in ages, a $3rebuy and got 3rd / 150ish. (evidently listening to ActionJeff munching Ceaser Salad has paid off).
So, this week it's gonna be back to being enthusiastic, concentrating and crushing the game as a consequence.
I'd be interested to hear if you (whoever's reading this) have had a losing session/week/month lately, why they think that is, and what they're gonna do to turn it around. I really think it's good to share the good and the bad, start a blog or something, anything that keeps a record. That way when you're running bad you can look back at when you were running well and see:
30 November 2006:
"Have been destroying the 100NL, had a sick 4 hour 4 table session where i ran at over 50 BB/100 and $1500 in 4 hrs. 100NL Stats
11,814 Hands / 15.19BB/100 +$3588.89"
Let the Good Times Roll.
P.S. Hand of The Week
** Game ID 638543573 starting - 2006-12-09 14:36:24
** Wentworth [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money
- xxxx sitting in seat 1 with $76.23
- xxxx sitting in seat 2 with $196.40
- xxxx sitting in seat 3 with $73.00
- monkeytilter sitting in seat 4 with $100.00
- xxxx sitting in seat 5 with $45.59 [Dealer]
- hero sitting in seat 6 with $148.63
hero posted the small blind - $0.50
xxxx posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to hero: Ace of Hearts, Queen of Spades
xxxx folded
xxxx folded
monkeytilter raised - $55.00
xxxx folded
hero went all-in - $148.63
xxxx folded
monkeytilter folded
hero mucks:
hero wins $205.13 from the main pot
End of game 638543573
P.P.S - More HH analysis next week short on time right now.
The Good
The first hand to look at is a purely pre-flop hand but I believe it illustrates an important concept with regards to deep stack play. In this hand me and the villain were both 300BB deep, he was a fairly standard TAG player who I hadn't played any big pots with yet, however at this point I was running over the table, up 2 buy-ins in approximately 30 minutes, and as such my table image was definitely good. The only time previous to this I had re-raised out of the blinds at this table was with KK which had gone to showdown; not sure if the villain was aware of this.
** Game ID 632788160 starting - 2006-12-01 13:56:12
** Greenville [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money
- xxxx sitting in seat 1 with $69.65 [Dealer]
- hero sitting in seat 2 with $309.12
- xxxx sitting in seat 3 with $96.50
- xxxx sitting in seat 4 with $192.51
- villain sitting in seat 5 with $333.88
- xxxx sitting in seat 6 with $199.32
hero posted the small blind - $0.50
xxxx posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to hero: 4 of Clubs, 4 of Spades
xxxx folded
villain raised - $3.50
villain makes a standard PFR. This guy is a 10/22 and not a particularly strong player.
xxxx folded
xxxx folded
hero raised - $15.50
I re-raised to 4.5x his raise. This has only one real purpose. If I hit a 4 I want to be able to take all 309BBs I can from him before he can get away from his hand. Consider the future rounds of betting.
Option 1 - Flat Call
If I flat call his PFR and the Big Blind tags along then the pot is $10.50. A Standard C-Bet of $9 will get the pot up to $28.50, turn bet of $25 builds the pot to $78.50 and we both still have approx 265BBs in our stacks. How can I convince him to part with another 265BBs on the river? I probably can't unless he has me beat.
Option 2 - Re-raise
This has several advantages, other than giving me the opportunity to win the pot right away and net $5, it also makes the Big Blind fold all but premium hands and gets me heads up with the villain for future rounds of betting. So, consider that he calls my re-raise, the pot is $33 before the flop. A Standard C-Bet of $30 builds the pot to $93 for the turn, turn bet of $85 builds the pot nicely to $263, leaving us stacked approximately 170BB deep for the river. A 170BB bet into a 263BB pot is a lot easier to call than in option 1 where we need our 265BB bet into a 78BB pot to be called in order to stack our opponent.
This hand illustrates one of the differences between deep stacked play and shorter stacked play. I wouldn't re-raise the 44 if we were both only 100BB deep; it's only a profitable play if we are both deep stacked. Also, if he decides to call with his most likely holdings, i.e. AJ/KQ etc and doesn't pair on the flop then he can't call my $30 c-bet with air and I win $16 from him; 66% (I think) of the time, the flop won't help him and he will have to fold to my c-bet. I think re-raising in this particular scenario is clearly more profitable than flat calling.
xxxx folded
villain folded
hero mucks:
hero wins $20.00 from the main pot
As things happened, he considered for a few seconds before folding, netting me $5.
End of game 632788160
The Bad
In this hand a scenario any regular low limit player will instantly recognize, "Hello, I'm a fish with aces". Here I somehow manage to pay him off despite clear warnings. Keep this in mind next time you're in my shoes and either lose less or fold!
** Game ID 636536913 starting - 2006-12-06 18:01:00
** Gracefield [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money
- hero sitting in seat 1 with $115.55
- xxxx sitting in seat 2 with $100.00 [Sitting out]
- xxxx sitting in seat 3 with $99.50
- villain sitting in seat 4 with $83.24 [Dealer]
- xxxx sitting in seat 5 with $106.85
xxxx posted the small blind - $0.50
hero posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to hero: King of Clubs, Queen of Spades
xxxx folded
villain called - $1.00
xxxx called - $1.00
hero bet - $6.00
We are 4 handed and I think this is a reasonable hand to raise out the BB in such circumstances. I will usually raise slightly more than usual from the blinds to compensate for lack of position.
villain raised - $11.00
Ding Ding Dingggggggggg Donkey with Aces Alarm One has rung. The limp-insta-min-re-raise ninja move. At this point I honestly remember hearing the above mentioned alarm and thinking 'proceed with extreme caution', but the fact I was running bad evidently affected my decision making capabilities.
xxxx folded
hero called - $11.00
It is correct to call the min re-raise here, as it's $5 into an $18 pot; you should just be aware that you really need to flop big. I also usually take an optimistic view of the min-re-raise from a weak player, since they're basically telling you if you hit big you're gonna get paid, it's like a lottery scratch card.
** Dealing the flop: 4 of Spades, Queen of Clubs, 6 of Spades
hero bet - $16.00
Woohoo top pair with a good kicker! Best hand I've had in weeks! Let's rock. Wait...this guy did the insta-min-re-raise pre-flop fish special. Nevermind, let's bet out a nice amount just to make sure he really has those aces, despite the fact you've seen the exact same thing from the fishes hundreds of times and they've NEVER been bluffing.
villain raised - $32.00
Hi. I have Aces. Could I possible make it any clearer to you?
hero called - $32.00
Does he really have aces? C'mon poker site, give me a break, I'm running bad and my TP-almost-TK gotta be good for once, right?
** Dealing the turn: 5 of Clubs
hero checked
^^^^ Folding may have been a better move you tool.
villain went all-in - $40.24
No really, I have aces. Look. I went all in. Consider all my previous actions and there is only ONE possible hand I can have right now.
hero called - $40.24
Hmmmm. I think he has aces. But wait, I have TP-almost-TK. Psh this fool ain't gonna bluff me.
** Dealing the river: Jack of Clubs
villain shows: Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades
Hi. I have Aces.
hero mucks: King of Clubs, Queen of Spades
I hate poker.
xxxx wins $165.48 from the main pot
End of game 636536913
The Ugly
The Ugly this week isn't a hand, it's my PT stats:
Hands - 12,150
VPIP - 24.72
WTSD - 26.57
W$SD - 44.42
PFR - 16.61
Amount Won - (1,018.76)
BB/100 - (4.19)
A number of factors contributed to my making a loss, however it is mostly myself to blame. I tilted probably $250-$300 on sheer stupidity; I didn't fold when it was blatantly obvious I was beat, I played too scared (so many times I would see someone flip over a hand that I would have got them off easily if I had bet the river), JJ (-$380), KK (-$258), AKs (-$103) etc. But the main factor, in my opinion, is pretty simple and straightforward - I wasn't concentrating or enjoying playing. I spent most of my time at the tables singing along to the Stone Roses and drifting on autopilot. I think that when you play LAG it really emphasizes your post-flop playing ability, where I would consider myself usually very strong, this week I wasn't really paying attention; so many sloppy inattentive plays. I haven't had one single losing week since I purchased Poker Tracker in September. I've had more single losing sessions this week than I have in the entire run of Sep-Nov. A friend I made through Cardrunners hits the nail on the head here:
[21:31] kenny: i need help getting out my rut
[21:31] kenny: any ideas?
[21:31] Jam: erm tighten up?
[21:31] Jam: or watch some more CR vids
[21:31] Jam: and become enthusiastic again? ?----Bingo
Jamie I'll buy you a Pot Noodle (any flavour you want, I'll maybe even stretch to a King Size one) when we're crushing the 2000NL on Ladbrokes for that piece of advice.
So I decided to play some poker I am enthusiastic about, I played one single table of 100NL and really concentrated on it, it was the most action table I could find, and I played how I enjoy playing, raising 63s UTG etc. I ran the table over and won $150 in 25mins, only going to showdown once. Then I went and played my first MTT in ages, a $3rebuy and got 3rd / 150ish. (evidently listening to ActionJeff munching Ceaser Salad has paid off).
So, this week it's gonna be back to being enthusiastic, concentrating and crushing the game as a consequence.
I'd be interested to hear if you (whoever's reading this) have had a losing session/week/month lately, why they think that is, and what they're gonna do to turn it around. I really think it's good to share the good and the bad, start a blog or something, anything that keeps a record. That way when you're running bad you can look back at when you were running well and see:
30 November 2006:
"Have been destroying the 100NL, had a sick 4 hour 4 table session where i ran at over 50 BB/100 and $1500 in 4 hrs. 100NL Stats
11,814 Hands / 15.19BB/100 +$3588.89"
Let the Good Times Roll.
P.S. Hand of The Week
** Game ID 638543573 starting - 2006-12-09 14:36:24
** Wentworth [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money
- xxxx sitting in seat 1 with $76.23
- xxxx sitting in seat 2 with $196.40
- xxxx sitting in seat 3 with $73.00
- monkeytilter sitting in seat 4 with $100.00
- xxxx sitting in seat 5 with $45.59 [Dealer]
- hero sitting in seat 6 with $148.63
hero posted the small blind - $0.50
xxxx posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to hero: Ace of Hearts, Queen of Spades
xxxx folded
xxxx folded
monkeytilter raised - $55.00
xxxx folded
hero went all-in - $148.63
xxxx folded
monkeytilter folded
hero mucks:
hero wins $205.13 from the main pot
End of game 638543573
P.P.S - More HH analysis next week short on time right now.
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