100NL has been interesting, so far, if nothing else. I feel like I'm playing timid, but it may just be that everyone else is just playing more aggressive than I was used to at 25 and 50NL. I'm playing 18/14/4.3, which is reasonably close to my usual stats. Until the end of last night, my decisions have been pretty good, I think, if perhaps a little conservative/weak-tight (which I don't mind that much if it's just during familiarization).
My last two sessions seemed to have been a lot of uninteresting small pots -- some good, some bad -- punctuated by a few big hands. On Sunday, those hands went my way. The biggest was when CO raised 3x, button (who I thought was fishy, but I think he thought I was a donk) called, and I decided to cool call from the SB with pocket fives. I hit a set on a K65 suited flop. I decided to check to the preflop raiser. Unfortunately, he also checked, but button bet $10 into a $10 pot. I called, hoping that the preflop raiser had AK and was going for the checkraise, but he folded. On the turn, another king hit. I bet $20, button pushed, and I called. He had KT, and my turned full house held up, thanks very much. In the chat, he said he put me on K9 :).
Yesterday, the hands didn't go my way, although the biggest one was a somewhat retarded 3 street bluff. It was retarded mostly for the fact that I was, for the first time in a while, probably somewhat tilty. It was only somewhat, though, because I was acting on a read (it may not have been a good read, but my point is that I went with my read), the board was OK for it, and my image should have been spectacular for it if he was paying attention.
The tilt was from another table where I lost a little over a buy-in over back-to-back hands. I didn't feel angry actually, but was a little bemused, and not really focused 100% yet on the hand I was trying to bluff. One hand on the other table was when I raised AK from the button against a guy with a little more than half a stack. He called, checkraised a K96 suited flop, and checked a blank turn. I had intended to get it in, but thought he would fold if I pushed the flop. I maybe should have checked the turn behind, but I bet less than pot to put him in. He called with AA, and I had no outs. The very next hand in a blind battle from SB, my 2nd nut flush lost to a flopped full house...villain called my preflop raise with J6s, and the flop was JJ6. I was lucky he didn't take more off me than he did.
OK, back to the bluff in hand. I gave the context above because I was thinking about how I was going to get my money back from the guy who called with J6s, rather than just letting the hand go and focusing on the current hand. I usually just let the good hands and the bad hands drop. On the bluff hand, villain is 31/28/2.9. I had seen him lead an underpair all 3 streets into a preflop raiser on a 2-broadway flop. He was called down. I only have 54 hands on him. He goes to showdown a fair amount (26%, but over a short sample he'd also folded to river bets 71% of the time). I was running pretty well on the table, selectively playing back against a LAG to my immediate right but pretty tightly, and showing down good hands.
Full Tilt Poker, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter
UTG: $197.80
Hero (BTN): $127.70
SB: $78.05
BB: $87.70
Pre-Flop: Qc 9s dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $3, SB folds, BB calls $2
Flop: ($6.50) Ac Td Ah (2 Players)
BB bets $4, Hero calls $4
Turn: ($14.50) 8d (2 Players)
BB bets $8.75, Hero calls $8.75
River: ($32) 7s (2 Players)
BB bets $23, Hero raises to $111.95 and is All-In, BB calls $48.95 and is All-In
My thinking is that first of all, he likely does not have a big ace or a big pair. If I did have a big ace, I would probably play the flop like I did, and perhaps the turn as well. On the river, his hand has turned into a bluff catcher, and I thought that a lot of his range folds....any pocket pair, and even some weak aces. Given that I'm anything but a wild bluffer in general, I think looking back on it this morning that it's probably not that great, but not horrible. I'm more upset that I just did it without being fully focused on the hand than the way the bluff went down in general.
I may post this one up on the forums, but if anything I need to find a few more spots to bluff, not a few less, and it's not something I do frequently in any event. Usually when I float it's with a marginal made hand, and when I bluff it's a semibluff.
Anyway, on the last 5 minutes of my session, I lost 2 buy-ins. It was late and I was thinking about stopping anyway, and this sealed the deal. Overall, I'm up a little more than a BI over 2700 hands at 100NL, and feeling a little more comfortable each session, despite the bad ending last night.
I feel like writing
7 years ago
4 comments:
Sounds like your being really challanged at 100nl which is a good thing. But i think when your playing on not with 100% focus its time to take a break. I dunno what your playing habits are but i find short 200 hand sessions better than long ones. I take a 10min break in between and then hit other tables.
You should try out absoulte poker i imagine the 100nl tables on ftp are the hardest around.
I dont like anything about your bluff but you had your reasons and iam sure it all made sense when you were doing it.
Best of luck
Hey Marc… some (what turned out to be kind of critical) observations on the hands u posted…
On the 55 hand, is the flop 2-suited? If so I’d absolutely lead it. You want to build a pot with a strong hand, and if either of the other players have a good King you’ll likely get re-raised. The board has draws too, so you need to protect. Leading is my standard line flopping a set 3-way on a drawy board for sure. Hoping the pre-flop raiser has AK the 2nd time u check is extremely optimistic, it only makes up a tiny portion of his open raising range from the CO.
On the Q9o hand, I don’t understand why you’re bluffing at someone who’s showed strength the whole hand. I’d ditch it on the turn for sure. Then he fires again on the river, you just have to give him respect here. In this spot I just think he’s hardly ever going to fold to your shove. Bluffing on the river to a non-scare card against someone who’s fired all streets at $100NL is massive spew.
Barry
My session length is usually dictated by having to fit them in around work and family (and cutting off about midnight usually because I'm tired enough to lose focus, and because I need to wake up @ 6:30 the next morning). The few times I have played more than 2 hours in one stretch, I have noticed a drop-off in focus. I suspect it's more to do with lack of practice with long sessions than not being able to handle it at all, but I don't really know. But yeah, I'm usually pretty good about sitting out/shutting down when my focus is not there. I was in that session too, just got one last opportunity to spew :(.
As far as the bluff, neither of you guys like it at all, and I see why. After all, I used it to show how I tilted ;). I don't hate it as much as you guys, but I was also at the table and knew how the flow was going. To answer the specific question of why I tried it when he showed strength on all streets, it was because he'd shown strength on all streets with a pretty marginal hand before (and in fact was doing it again), and I would have played a big ace the same way I played the bluff, so I felt like I represented a plausible hand pretty well. A lot of that depends on his ability to understand and believe it. Given the opportunity to go back to the hand, I would likely just give it up on the turn, which is what I usually do, and is the conventional play I believe.
Thanks for the comments, and critical is definitely cool.
I think your line definately represented a good Ace. On the river his line represented JJ/KT/QJ/Arag/etc, which made your push good because you're analysing his hand range and your projected hand range well... however most 100NL players won't be doing the same... and won't be able to toss their weak ace or 2nd pair in that spot I don't think. :)
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