Tough Session

Played a 4 hour session today, some on FTP and some on Absolute. The FTP games in the afternoon are just terrible. Everyone at the table is running at 20/15. Basically just a bunch of nits. Unfortunately for me I didn't really realize this fully until I dropped 2 buyins. I decided to high tail it out of there and check out Absolute. This site has never failed me. No matter what time of day I've played there, it's always the same. Super weak tables full of limp/callers/folders who let you run them over, don't bet their big hands, and just overall play terrible poker.

I ended up breaking even at Absolute due to a few hands where I couldn't really get away. Oh well, it happens. I was extremely pleased with my play today and have really been focusing lately on keeping my emotions in check and just worrying about making the best possible play available to me at the time.

I wanted to share two hands that I thought were interesting, one of which I thought I played very well and one of which I think I should have gotten away.

The first one is on FTP and goes like this:

A decent player raises UTG to $14. I am right behind him and make it $45 with two red queens. We both have a full buyin with him covering slightly (2/4 NL so $400). It folds back to him and he pretty quickly makes it $140 or so. Well now...with my image at the table being pretty active, I decided that I could very well be ahead here, but if I shove him back then Im really kind of forcing him to have KK or AA to call. I decided to call and see a flop before getting my money in. The flop comes J rag rag all clubs. He insta shoves into me. Sigh...now I have half my stack in, an OP and am getting about 2:1 on my money to call. My first reaction to this was to fold, but I decided at the last minute that he could easily be doing this with a couple combos of AK where he has the K or A of clubs, which would mean that this was an easy call against that hand. Thinking back though, the prf 4 bet from a nit and then an insta shove really narrows down his range here. First off, Im pretty sure his prf 4 betting range from UTG is going to be TT+ and AK. When he auto shoves the flop, TT is basically out (altho there is a small chance of course), JJ is now ahead, KK and AA crush me and Im racing against the A or K of clubs and two overs. I also have no club in my hand for backup in case he does have something like two red kings and just wants the action over with. I think that taking this all into consideration, this was probably a fold even though I was getting decent odds and had pretty good equity. Oh well. It definitely wasn't a terrible play per se, but I think that I should be getting away in spots like that.

The second hand I wanted to share was on Absolute and I thought my play here was awesome.

STAGE #718221580: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $4 - 2007-07-26 16:59:57 (ET)
Table: FRIENDSHIP LN (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 4 - I_PLAY_GOOD ($830.40 in chips)
Seat 5 - CUBBIEBLUE10 ($998 in chips)
Seat 1 - THEPLAYA13 ($626 in chips)
Seat 2 - EBISCO05 ($341.80 in chips)
Seat 3 - DOMA911 ($184.30 in chips)
CUBBIEBLUE10 - Posts small blind $2 THEPLAYA13 - Posts big blind $4

*** POCKET CARDS ***Dealt to I_PLAY_GOOD [Kc 8c]
EBISCO05 - Calls $4
DOMA911 - Folds
I_PLAY_GOOD - Raises $16 to $16
CUBBIEBLUE10 - Folds
THEPLAYA13 - Folds
EBISCO05 - Calls $12

*** FLOP *** [8d 6d 6c]

EBISCO05 - Bets $32
I_PLAY_GOOD - Raises $95 to $95
EBISCO05 - Raises $158 to $190
I_PLAY_GOOD - Calls $95

*** TURN *** [8d 6d 6c] [5h]

EBISCO05 - All-In $135.80
I_PLAY_GOOD - Calls $135.80

*** RIVER *** [8d 6d 6c 5h] [6s]

*** SHOW DOWN ***EBISCO05 - Shows [5d 5s] (Full house, sixes full of fives) I_PLAY_GOOD - Shows [Kc 8c] (Full house, sixes full of eights)
I_PLAY_GOOD Collects $686.10 from main pot

Now, this hand may look a bit nuts at first, but let me explain my train of thought here. First off, I am a limper raising fool. I just love doing it. It's so +EV long run and creates this insane image where people never give you credit for anything. I had raised this guy at least 10 times already and he had been folding every single time. He had just doubled up (was short stacking) and the last 3 times or so, he had called my prf raise and led out on the flop, evidently sick of my raising. I had just folded to this the first two times, but now I hit what I thought to be the best hand. A lot of times I may elect to call here, because it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility for him to be sitting on a 6 here. But in this situation, I was really convinced that I had the best hand and that he may make a move on me if I raise him. I also didn't want something like an A, K, Q or J to fall to kill the action. When he comes back over the top of my raise, I was really putting him on a range of like top pair weaker kicker, 77 or 55 with the small possibility of a junk hand like 68, 65, or a FD. I was pretty sure from watching him play that he would never limp call 99+ so I pretty much dismissed those from my mind. On the flop, I decide to call here after thinking for my whole timebank. My thought here was that if I shove, I think I would fold out something like 55 or 77, but I didn't think I would fold out an 8 and I certainly didn't think I would fold out a 6 or a FD. Based on this, I decided that the highest +EV play was to call here and let him shove the turn into a huge pot, or if the turn bricked, let him check, I shove and then have him try to make a hero call for the rest of his smallish stack into a gigantic pot. (let me make it clear that I was not planning on folding no matter the turn, but I mentioned the turn bricking from his standpoint) I think that this play maximizes my win long term much moreso than shoving the flop. He actually sucked out on the turn and had pretty much exactly the sort of hand I thought he had, but fortunately I ran good on the river and hit a higher FH.

So that pretty much sums up my session for the most part. Started off my session getting coolered a bit with the QQ and then I turned a FH on Absolute which gave my opponent a higher FH. I actually had the discipline in that one to just call on the river because he played it so obviously. I'm telling you guys, if you aren't playing on Absolute you really are making a mistake IMO. It's like the new age Party Poker. Overall, I actually think Im playing the best poker of my life right now and am very excited about what's to come this year. I plan on huge things by the time December is here.