HAPPY NEW YEAR

I put in an all-nighter at the tables while most were out partying like it was 1999… er, I mean 2007. I did have one eye on the TV as the ball dropped. I was a very long night. As seen on my 12/31 quickie post, I was down $75 right out the gate and had to take a break in the early evening. Well when I got back on after my cooldown session I decided to move down and play on the $25 tables. I got 5 of those going and started grinding. I recouped my losses and ended the day’s overall session up $6. I was happy with that. I will post a year’s review soon.

Now to go through my big hands of the night. I forgot to grab one hand. I played that one horridly. I have a half-ass excuse, but I am pissed at my oversight. I was in another big hand and the tables kept popping back and forth on me. I was trying to concentrate on both but didn’t notice the suits on the board, just the overall figures. I don’t even remember what I had just that the river brought the 4-flush on the board, I went allin, and I didn’t have a card of that suit. It cost me a buyin. It would have put me on tilt likely if it would have been higher stakes.

For those that don’t like to go through hands, go ahead and start skipping the hands by not reading the numbered items from now on. I have decided to start going through these hands again to see what I can learn from my big or key hands. These are the hands that will make or break your sessions. You can grind all night all with small pots slowly, methodically inching forward and in one fell swoop drop everything you have spent all night long earning. I feel that this is one of my leaks and I will start to reflect on these key pots to see if I can improve in any way or if mostly the losses or under-paid pots are due to variance. I’m guessing I have a lot to learn and gain here. We will see.

1 – QQ. Raise $1.35 in front. I reraise to $3.75. It is then reraised to 6.35. I call. J66 – flop. He bets $3 and I call. 2 – turn. He bets $3 again and I just call. River – K. He bets $5 and I call. He turns over AKo and takes down a nice pot.

Looking back I played this hand like a chump. My problem here was that I thought he had AA or KK when I called the PF reraise. The problem with this is that I passively called down this pot and was out-drawn. I had absolutely no info as to what he had. If I was willing to keep putting small amounts of money in I should have raised to see where I was at in the hand. The $3 raise was very weak. The pot at that point had $13 or so into it. $3 is pretty much a ¼ pot bet and is very weak. I need to put him to the decision right then and there. AA or KK would likely bet pot he to protect the hand and to get extra value. Maybe JJ bets this way instead of checking because a check would be fishy. But ¼ pot bet is pretty damn fishy. Maybe AA or KK hoping for me to raise so he could push. I just plain played this hand bad. I usually fold PF in this situation. Meaning if it is raised PF and I then reraise only to get reraised right back that usually means AA or KK. But here I called $3 to see $10 pot hoping to hit my set. The problem was his weird bet. I am totally unhappy here with my play. Enough incoherent rambling; on to the next hand.

2 – KQo. Limp-limp-limp-limp-SB, I call-check. QK7 rainbow. We all check – me hoping for a check-raise here. K – turn. Checks till button, who makes it $1.50. I bump to $3. Him allin with last $4. I obviously call, wishing that he had more money. He has AK. A on the River.

Nothing thing to learn here; I just whining. He hit a 4 outer. Almost 12 to 1 odds.

3 – AA vs KK allin PF. A 4-flush hits the board and I drop another buyin.

I’m whining again. But this was a big key hand, which hurt my bottom-line for the night, so I added it in.

4 – 6d5d. $.75 to me and I call. J43. $.75 to me and I call. 7 boom. $3 and I call. A on River. $3 and I raise it to $6. He calls. He has K7o.

??? Real weird hand all around. Normally I don’t play suited-connectors below 98s. I pulled this one out of the Greb book of tricks. He threw out the BS PF raise hoping to buy the pot and then followed with a ½ pot CB. Raised with his gay 7. But I don’t really see ever calling that river-raise of mine. Especially with 2 overs and an Ace on the river. Way too many people hold on to those A-rag hands to call that raise.

5 – JcTc. Limp, limp, I limp and the BB min-raises. I call the other $.25. Flop – AAQ. Checky-check around. K on Turn. BB min-bets. Call-call. I raise to $1.75, BB calls, and the other 2 drop. 4 – river. Check, Me - $4.80, allin for $20, and I call. AQ and I drop another buyin.

At first when I looked at this hand I just figured bad luck on my part with 2 big hands butting heads, but now I feel otherwise. At first I thought that you pretty much have to value-bet this river, thinking that in the long-run you make more money. I should have checked this river. I actually set myself up for the river check by being the aggressor. There are way more hands that beat be here than I cared to think about. AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, and 44. That’s a lot of hands. This is one of my leaks that I need to work on: Not fully looking at the board and seeing what his me beat. I just knew that I had the nut straight. I knew it wasn’t the overall nuts, but figured I was good here. Another aspect of the hand that I totally missed and didn’t take into account – He min-raised PF. What hands would BB min-raise with PF, with 3 limpers left to act, and have me beat with this board? AA, KK, QQ, AK – no I don’t think so usually. You have to figure that all 3 limpers would call the extra quarter and that is too many people in the hand to get cute with your premium hands. So that leaves AQ and 44, hell I even throw AK back in the mix also because so many people play it weak. Yes many people min-raise with all these 3 hands in this situation. I totally missed this raise. Also some people limp with these same hands – the AQ and 44 the most often. I should have checked this river and tried to win a small pot than risk losing a big one. I paid for it this time. Hopefully I don’t try to value bet here again opening myself up to the big reraise where I don’t hold the nuts.

6 – ThTd. I limp from MP. Cutoff min-raises. BB and I both call. JcTs7d – rainbow flop. BB and I check. Cutoff opens for $1.60. I raise to $4.50. BB fold and bettor calls. As on Turn. Me - $8.50 and he calls. Qs river. I push for $13.25. He calls and shows down Js9s for all my money.

In retrospect I played this one with my gut instead of my head. You just shouldn’t lose with a spiked set, right? Well tonight you should. First off most of you more aggressive players would say that the PF raise would likely solve the whole problem. That just isn’t how I play right now. I don’t raise with AQ or TT PF that often – occasionally in LP. I’ll keep my eye on how these type hands work out any who knows maybe I will in the future. Now for a play that I probably should have done here – I could have reraised his PF min-raise. Min-raise could be any junk hand and possibly a few good ones. So I really should have bumped him $.50 raise up to around $2.50 or $3. This would have likely taken the hands PF or if he called, my CB would maybe take it on the flop if he was smart – TPSK (Top Pair Shit Kicker) doesn’t mean much in a reraised PF pot. OK, next up. He could have flopped a straight. I thought about that but decided to try to make some money here. So there is a small straight draw, nut straight draw, and an already possible straight right on the flop. So another mistake that I made was not betting out here. Better to win a small pot than lose a big one, I’ve heard tell. But like I said I figured I’d try the check-raise. I did and he really should have folded here to it, so I can’t fix stupid luck. He really can’t think his J9s is good here. Ace of spades hits the Turn. I fire again to a deaf ear - $8.50. So now he has TPSK and a straight draw. He once again he has to think he is behind here. He should think that he needs the flush to win here but lets give him the benefit of the doubt and say he knows exactly where he is at. He needs 3.4 to 1 to call with 14 outs and he is only getting 2.3 to 1. So that makes his call bad here, but hey, for all I know I might need the boat to beat a straight at this point also. River Qs. I am pretty much dead in the water here. That Q of spades just put tons more hands above mine here. A King kills me here, as does all the other hands that have me crushed, so my push here is really a hope and a prayer, and overall a horrible move. I guess I was hoping he didn’t have the nuts and maybe would fold. But seeing as how he called he all the way through the hand I should have been seeing monsters.

So what do I gain here. 6 hands were huge where at least $20 of my money went in. 1 was a small whine hand where I wanted to show their 4-outer. 1 was the 4-flush hand that I didn’t watch the board. So 6 huge hands that decide how your session is going to go. I lost 5 of them. 1 of those is the AA vs KK bad beat so that is just variance. The other 4, as you have read, I could have saved a lot of money in these hands. I’m not saying that I always should win or drop when I’m beat; I’m just saying that I should minimize the amount that I lose in some hands. All in all, I think conservatively that I save $40 in these hands if I play them better. And that equates to an $80 swing to my bottom-line. Early in the night I lost 2 huge hands and was down $75. This post is about when I got back and dropped down stakes and played the $25 tables. I won $6 total for the day, so that means that I won $81 in this later session. In a great world without my missteps you add in the other possible $80. That’s $161 for the night at the $25NL tables! Now we are talkin’ some money. I will get better by finding and filling these leaks. If you agree, disagree, or have something to add, I would be grateful to hear your thoughts. The more we think, discuss, and talk about poker the better we will all become. Plus a different perspective always adds more insight.