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peterbirksWell, a fascinating day's poker for one where I finished up $12 after seven hours and did not have a rebuy.
I am learning all the time how to play this particular game, and in one case in particular I applied a dictum that I discussed last night with Greg Hawes, one which I would never use online but which was almost certainly right in this case.
1) As8h in the big blind and I get in for nothing. Six players. Flop comes Ac 8s Jc. I lead out for $7. Get two callers. Turn is 8d, giving me a full house. I bet $10. Get one caller. River is the beautiful Kc, putting a possible flush on the board. I bet $15 in a way which I hope will make it look like a blocking bet that is scared of a flush. Opponent dutifully raises to $30 and, at this point, I decide to push it to $60. Opponent calls and I win the pot. And, yes, he had the flush. A good example of why not to chase a flush when there is already a pair on the board.
2) Qd Td in the Big Blind. Got in cheaply, possibly a mini-raise. Flop is Qc Th 4c. I bet $7, get called. Turn is 8d. I bet $11, get called. River is, again, Kc. I bet $18, and opponent raises to $40. I think for a minute, decide that I can only beat a bluff, decide that opponent is not bluffing, and fold. A week ago I think that I would have made a crying call here, given the size of the call and the size of the pot.
3) Ad Jh in late. Put in raise and get called by button and by someone in the big blind who couldn't play the game. Flop is Ac Jd Tc. I think that BB has checked and so fire out $16. I'm happy to win this right now TBH. Suddenly it appears that BB hasn't checked. He puts out $5. Well, that makes a lot of sense, as my $16 bet would stand if he checks, so why bet? But it helps me, because button now folds. Big Blind calls.
Turn is a brick, say, 3h. He checks and I ponder. I have precisely $66 left in front of me. I can shove here, but I really want to extract maximum value, and I think I can get a call for most of my money and then get a call from him with a weaker hand on the river. So I bet $40. He calls.
River is (and, yes, you may be ahead of me here), the King of clubs.... AGAIN. That's just about the worst river I could see. Opponent now shoves in all his chips (about $90) in such a fashion that I am not even sure that he has seen that I have only $26 left.
Now (and this is the interesting part and is related to the discussion I had with Greg the evening before), according to ordinary poker theory I should call here, because opponent has probably made his mistake by calling on the turn (he might have been drawing to a flush, but I think that he has AQ and has fallen in love with top straight), which dictates that in the long run I make money by always calling. BUT, in this situation, for this particular hand, I cannot see my hand being a winner. And $26 is still $26. So, I pass.
Opponent then rakes in pot, asks dealer where he can cash his chips, and vanishes. An odd state of affairs.
It now gets even more interesting. One of my rules is that I do not rebuy until I go broke, and I play my chips as if they are a short stack in a tournament. There is solid logic behind this. If you are at a table with large stacks, a small stack is at quite an advantage. Many players hate playing, say 13BB in a cash game. They are convinced that it is giving up potential profit. But if playing a short stack buy-in is a valid strategy, then, as you can see, continuing to play with below the minimum buy-in is an even better strategy.
And, for once, this worked out. I got KK on the button shortly after and raised all-in, doubling through with a bit on top.
4) I drifted back down again over the next half hour to $37, and then picked up Ad Jd in early. I limped and a player two to my left raised to $8. Four people called behind him and I now shove. Original raiser reshoves for $300, and another player behind him calls for $200. Final two players fold, and I am slightly less optimistic than I was.
Thankfully the board decided to include three diamonds and I scooped. Up to $155, $35 up, and no rebuy!
The additional plus (for me) from not rebuying when I went down to $26, is that if I had rebought and built up to be $35 up via some other route, I would have had $275 in front of me against two tricky big stack players. I am far happier being $35 up with $155 in front of me against these players than being $35 up with $275 in front of me.
As it happened the game now fizzled a bit until I decided to leave. I drifted down to $132, and people were going away to dinner. I had more than seven hours in and was getting a bit tired, so I decided to call it an early night.
That gave me an opportunity to pop into Boulder Station. Photos are on Facebook. There was a surprisingly active poker room, with only one table of $1-$2 NL, but with THREE tables of $4-$8 limit Omaha with a half-kill. (also a couple of tables of $2-$4 limit and one table of $2-$6 spread limit).
The bad beats and the jackpots here are interesting. They have a single table bad beat, but it looks to me to benefit the limit tables at the expense of the no limit tables. Didn't see what the rake was. If it was $4 max it would be worth playing.
I popped into a 7-11 on the corner of Boulder and Lamb, just by the casino. I needed some bread and some more Mountain Dew (it's yummy!). But from the look of the people hanging around, this wasn't a place I fancied pulling out my cash. Took some fancy fingerwork to extract only small bills. The guy before me and the guy behind me were paying for their purchases in quarters. There were also a couple of African-American soul brothers of the heavily tattooed genre hanging around. Certainly a place where caution rules (I'm cautious everywhere, but the EV of being cautious here looked to be greater than normal).
Freeroll Friday morning in Flamingo. I now have 60 hours in at Harrah's, so for my next 20 hours there I am effectively getting $11 an hour rakeback. This is because of the way that they have structured their Main Event Freeroll.
I am learning all the time how to play this particular game, and in one case in particular I applied a dictum that I discussed last night with Greg Hawes, one which I would never use online but which was almost certainly right in this case.
1) As8h in the big blind and I get in for nothing. Six players. Flop comes Ac 8s Jc. I lead out for $7. Get two callers. Turn is 8d, giving me a full house. I bet $10. Get one caller. River is the beautiful Kc, putting a possible flush on the board. I bet $15 in a way which I hope will make it look like a blocking bet that is scared of a flush. Opponent dutifully raises to $30 and, at this point, I decide to push it to $60. Opponent calls and I win the pot. And, yes, he had the flush. A good example of why not to chase a flush when there is already a pair on the board.
2) Qd Td in the Big Blind. Got in cheaply, possibly a mini-raise. Flop is Qc Th 4c. I bet $7, get called. Turn is 8d. I bet $11, get called. River is, again, Kc. I bet $18, and opponent raises to $40. I think for a minute, decide that I can only beat a bluff, decide that opponent is not bluffing, and fold. A week ago I think that I would have made a crying call here, given the size of the call and the size of the pot.
3) Ad Jh in late. Put in raise and get called by button and by someone in the big blind who couldn't play the game. Flop is Ac Jd Tc. I think that BB has checked and so fire out $16. I'm happy to win this right now TBH. Suddenly it appears that BB hasn't checked. He puts out $5. Well, that makes a lot of sense, as my $16 bet would stand if he checks, so why bet? But it helps me, because button now folds. Big Blind calls.
Turn is a brick, say, 3h. He checks and I ponder. I have precisely $66 left in front of me. I can shove here, but I really want to extract maximum value, and I think I can get a call for most of my money and then get a call from him with a weaker hand on the river. So I bet $40. He calls.
River is (and, yes, you may be ahead of me here), the King of clubs.... AGAIN. That's just about the worst river I could see. Opponent now shoves in all his chips (about $90) in such a fashion that I am not even sure that he has seen that I have only $26 left.
Now (and this is the interesting part and is related to the discussion I had with Greg the evening before), according to ordinary poker theory I should call here, because opponent has probably made his mistake by calling on the turn (he might have been drawing to a flush, but I think that he has AQ and has fallen in love with top straight), which dictates that in the long run I make money by always calling. BUT, in this situation, for this particular hand, I cannot see my hand being a winner. And $26 is still $26. So, I pass.
Opponent then rakes in pot, asks dealer where he can cash his chips, and vanishes. An odd state of affairs.
It now gets even more interesting. One of my rules is that I do not rebuy until I go broke, and I play my chips as if they are a short stack in a tournament. There is solid logic behind this. If you are at a table with large stacks, a small stack is at quite an advantage. Many players hate playing, say 13BB in a cash game. They are convinced that it is giving up potential profit. But if playing a short stack buy-in is a valid strategy, then, as you can see, continuing to play with below the minimum buy-in is an even better strategy.
And, for once, this worked out. I got KK on the button shortly after and raised all-in, doubling through with a bit on top.
4) I drifted back down again over the next half hour to $37, and then picked up Ad Jd in early. I limped and a player two to my left raised to $8. Four people called behind him and I now shove. Original raiser reshoves for $300, and another player behind him calls for $200. Final two players fold, and I am slightly less optimistic than I was.
Thankfully the board decided to include three diamonds and I scooped. Up to $155, $35 up, and no rebuy!
The additional plus (for me) from not rebuying when I went down to $26, is that if I had rebought and built up to be $35 up via some other route, I would have had $275 in front of me against two tricky big stack players. I am far happier being $35 up with $155 in front of me against these players than being $35 up with $275 in front of me.
As it happened the game now fizzled a bit until I decided to leave. I drifted down to $132, and people were going away to dinner. I had more than seven hours in and was getting a bit tired, so I decided to call it an early night.
That gave me an opportunity to pop into Boulder Station. Photos are on Facebook. There was a surprisingly active poker room, with only one table of $1-$2 NL, but with THREE tables of $4-$8 limit Omaha with a half-kill. (also a couple of tables of $2-$4 limit and one table of $2-$6 spread limit).
The bad beats and the jackpots here are interesting. They have a single table bad beat, but it looks to me to benefit the limit tables at the expense of the no limit tables. Didn't see what the rake was. If it was $4 max it would be worth playing.
I popped into a 7-11 on the corner of Boulder and Lamb, just by the casino. I needed some bread and some more Mountain Dew (it's yummy!). But from the look of the people hanging around, this wasn't a place I fancied pulling out my cash. Took some fancy fingerwork to extract only small bills. The guy before me and the guy behind me were paying for their purchases in quarters. There were also a couple of African-American soul brothers of the heavily tattooed genre hanging around. Certainly a place where caution rules (I'm cautious everywhere, but the EV of being cautious here looked to be greater than normal).
Freeroll Friday morning in Flamingo. I now have 60 hours in at Harrah's, so for my next 20 hours there I am effectively getting $11 an hour rakeback. This is because of the way that they have structured their Main Event Freeroll.
hand discussion and your rule about rebuying/shortstacking
Date: 2015-07-12 05:06 pm (UTC)QdTd: why are you betting the river? Can you share your thought process? Fold is good.
AdJh: a little contradictory thought process as you are happy to take it down on the flop but on the turn, you suddenly want to extract max value when the turn hasn't changed anything. You do want to play for stack as it looks like you were starting with 50bb? Not sure what the action was on the flop, did you raise his $5 to $16 or just call? Make it slightly larger and def shove turn. Leaving $26 behind is really awkward on the river.
KK as shortstack: Sorry, but I just cannot see how this has solid logic? The advantage of being a shortstack is that you can push AI with all sorts of hand, punishing loose opens. You hate to see KK as a shortstack because it will have likely yielded a higher profit full stacked. The major reason to shortstack are bankroll considerations (which readers of your blog know is not a problem for you) and that you play with people that are equal or better than you, negating their edge. Shortstacking also introduces alot of variance as you are pushing smaller edges preflop. Wether you top up or not shouldn't be a hard rule, it should be part of overall gameflow considerations. Let's say you are at a 1-3 game with very loose/aggro players and you fall down to 50bb and your image is terrible, it's perfectly fine to not top up to 100bb if the other players are also equal or better in skill because it makes playing deep harder. OTOH, if you are in a game where everyone around is is worse (i.e. every table in Vegas at the 1/2 level) then you want to top up if you only fall 12bb below full stack as otherwise, 1-2 becomes almost unbeatable with rake considerations etc.
AdJd EP: I really don't like this play at all, you are essentially turning your hand into a bluff, AT is now mostly folding, you are flipping in the best case scenario and are a dog almost certainly with that preflop action. If your are deep and am not comfortable playing deep and there are tricky bigstacks (to your left?) then just table change unless there is a huge fish on the table who is raising blind preflop to $50 every hand.