Pretty Sick Pic

So we got a little preview of what are wedding pictures are going to look like because each of the photographers posted a few pictures on their blogs. Here are the links

http://www.carrietabbblog.com/

If you stop by Carrie's blog, please leave a comment because there could be some extra goodies for us if we get enough comments.

http://blog.davidshirkphotography.com/

As for poker, I finally hit the green for the month. It was a very rough start, especially the week following the honeymoon. Full Tilt just wasn't giving me any breaks and that definitely started to wear on me as I found myself playing a decent amount of my B and C game rather than my A game.

One thing I know that seems to help me when I'm running bad, is to not feel like I need to grind all my losses back as quickly as possible. That's when I get myself in trouble, sitting playing 5,000 hand sessions trying to eek out every ounce of value I can. What I will do is after I've been running bad for a bit I will have a few days where I just try to "book a win". Everyone has heard of a "stop-loss" but I like to impart a "stop-win" so that I quit playing once I've won X amount of money. For me I tend to stop after winning 2-3 buy ins. During a majority of my sessions there will be a time when I am up that amount, so whenever I reach that number I just quit, I don't care if I win a stack on each of the first 3 hands I played that day, I'm done. It helps me build up some confidence and after a few days I seem to have a lot of my confidence back and I'm ready to really start grinding again.

Things started to turn around last Wednesday and since then I've been on quite the heater, winning 12 buy-ins at 2/4 and 16 buy-ins at 3/6. Here are a few of the more interesting hands since last Wednesday.

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (UTG) ($839.25)

MP ($1418.90)

Button ($420.75)

SB ($803.50)

BB ($929.85)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q♥, Q♣

Hero bets $16, 3 folds, BB raises $56, Hero calls $44

Flop: ($122) 4♦, 8♠, 10♥ (2 players)

BB bets $88, Hero calls $88

Turn: ($298) J♠ (2 players)

BB bets $196, Hero calls $196

River: ($690) 3♥ (2 players)

BB bets $585.10, Hero calls $494.50

Total pot: $1679

Results:

BB had K♠, A♠ (high card, Ace).

Hero had Q♥, Q♣ (one pair, Queens).

Outcome: Hero won $1679.75

Alright, the villain in this hand is a pretty good 2/4-3/6 regular that I tangle with quite often. Preflop is obviously pretty standard, no reason for me to 4 bet here bc I'm not too happy to get in QQ from UTG vs a BB 3 bet 200bbs deep. So we see a flop, pretty good flop for me and he makes a cbet. I call and I get what I would say is a pretty decent turn card for me.

First off that card hits my range much harder than it hits his range. If I had to give villain a range for preflop, it would be AA-QQ, AK, and AQs for value and then a decent amount of suited connectors and whatnot. So as far as his range is concerned, he shouldn't be all that excited about the board texture, especially bc I have every set in my range, as well as some 2 pair combos, and pair+draws that aren't going to give up too easily.

So when that turn hits and he bets, my first thought is I'm winning this pot unless he hit something screwy like J8s, or a straight with 97s. I felt like this villain would probably bet the turn with AA/KK the majority of the time, and then he would c/f them on the river on enough cards for me to be able to turn my QQ into a bluff. I also didn't think this villain would be going for 3 streets of value with AA/KK because like I said he's pretty good/thinking and he's probably not expecting to be ahead of my river calling range with those hands so it doesn't make any sense to shove them.

The river comes a complete brick and now he shoves. Ok, I hit the time button and go back through my thought process. Would he value bet AA/KK here?... not with these positions and this board texture. Does he 3 bet 88-JJ in this spot pf?... not in my experience. The J is a pretty good card on the turn for him to continue with AK/AQ, or maybe a hand like 67s, 56s, 89s. So I get down to, his value range is razor thin, maybe J8s and 97s. I don't think this villain 3 bets JTs, or pocket 4s or something. I'm not even sure he would jam T8s if he did have it. So I make the call and he has AKs, for the turned FD + gutterball that bricked.

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (2 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($800)

BB ($934.25)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A♣, A♠

Hero bets $8, BB calls $6

Flop: ($20) 4♥, J♠, Q♠ (2 players)

BB bets $16, Hero raises $42, BB calls $26

Turn: ($104) 6♣ (2 players)

BB bets $76, Hero raises $205, BB calls $129

River: ($514) J♦ (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $542.25, BB calls $542.25

Total pot: $1598.50

Results:

Hero had A♣, A♠ (two pair, Aces and Jacks).

BB didn't show

Outcome: Hero won $1599.50

Here is a fairly interesting HU hand. I'm starting a table with this villain, I haven't played a ton with him but I've seen him a round a bit. A few hands before this he donk/called KxJd on a J 8 9 dd flop 200bb's deep against me. So I knew he's capable of donking marginal hands and then not really wanting to fold them too much.

So here I raise AA, he flats and donks the flop. I decide to raise, if I get 3 bet here I'm not going to be loving life, but with the As I'm going to be calling and seeing what he does on the turn. Luckily for me he doesn't raise, and rather he just flats. So I put him on some sort of Qx hand.

The turn is a brick, and to my surprise the villain donks into me again. Now this is pretty weird, but I have the feeling that he has a very weak hand that he is not really looking to fold. He probably would have bet/3 bet 2 pair or better on the flop, so again I go for a value raise. I think I was raise/folding the turn because I didn't ever expect him to bet/3bet me on the turn as a bluff or semibluff, so if he did bet/3bet I would pretty comfortably give him JJ, 44, QJ and tell him well played as I fold. Again however he just calls.

The river is a J. Fine card for me as I would say that this villain absolutely never ever ever has a J considering how he has played the hand up to this point. We have about a pot sized bet left, so I just elect to jam. Villain times down for a bit and much to my surprise calls me down with 86s. His play is very strange, and definitely something that I took note of.

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($400)

UTG ($998.20)

MP ($809.75)

Hero (CO) ($977.95)

Button ($1143.25)

SB ($400)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 9♣, 9♦

UTG bets $8, 1 fold, Hero calls $8, Button calls $8, SB calls $6, 1 fold

Flop: ($36) 7♦, 9♠, 4♦ (4 players)

SB checks, UTG bets $12, Hero calls $12, Button raises $84, SB calls $84, 1 fold, Hero raises $223, Button raises $1050.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $734.20

Turn: ($2070.40) K♠ (2 players)

River: ($2070.40) 2♠ (2 players)

Total pot: $2070.40

Results:

Button had 7♣, 7♥ (three of a kind, sevens).

Hero had 9♣, 9♦ (three of a kind, nines).

Outcome: Hero won $2070.90

Here is the last hand that I'm going to post and the only thing to really talk about here is bet sizing. So I flop top set on a very dry board 4 handed with really bad relative position, which means that I act right after the pf aggressor and still have 2 other players to act behind me. I decide to flat the pfr's continuation bet, hoping that someone behind me would squeeze us with some sort of hand. I get even more than I hoped with the player directly behind me raising, and the last player to act flatting that raise! The pfr folds and its back to me. Now obviously flatting here is a pretty big mistake, because I will be out of position on the turn and there are a bajillion turn cards that I do not want to see. So now the question is how much to make it.

Well I'm super deep with the initial raiser. Starting the hand around 250bbs deep with him, however the player that flat called the raise only started the hand with 100bbs and has $307 left after calling the flop raise. So now we have another predicament, I don't want to raise to an amount where if the 3rd players goes all in it doesn't re-open the betting. Like if I make it $320 here, lets say the raiser calls, and then the 3rd player goes all in for $60 more or something. That would be a disaster for me because the raiser is going to be IP against me in a huge pot and is probably going to play just about perfectly against me. So I need to avoid that situation.

I decide to make it $235, or $151 more. That way if the player directly behind me calls, I don't think the 3rd player is ever going to flat, so when he shoves the betting is re-opened and I can trap the deep player in the middle.

However the way the hand played out, the player behind me ended up just shoving himself, the 3rd player somehow folded which I wasn't expecting at all, I get a ton of money in as a huge favorite, and fade the 1 outer for a big pot. Just something to think about when you are contemplating raise sizes.

*sorry holdem manager's HH's mess up the betsizing a little bit. Just to clarify the pfr bet $12. The raiser made it $84, and then I made it $235.

Well that's all I got for now poker wise. On the golf front, I'm really starting to make some progress and can't wait to get out and actually play some golf in the coming weeks. Yesterday I swung by the PGA Superstore and picked up some golf necessities to transform the extra bedroom in our condo into the "golf room". Here's a picture.

No more rainy days for me! Until next time. Run good everyone.