Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Long grind today, and something that irritates me

Just got done with a pretty long day of pokering, all in all I played around 4800 hands and finished up about $800. Pretty happy with how I played except for a few miscues during the middle stretch of my day, in which I went from +$1500 to -$2k. I stayed composed and focused though and grinded my way back into the green for the day, which is always nice.

Not too many interesting hands have come up recently to talk about so I will talk about something that irritates me a lot when I'm playing. It is when someone makes a very terrible play but I have a cooler hand that no matter how badly they butcher the hand they are going to get my entire stack anyway. Here is an example of what I am talking about.

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($400)
UTG ($391.10)
Hero (MP) ($610.60)
Button ($756.50)
SB ($400)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, A
1 fold, Hero bets $12, 1 fold, SB raises $42, 1 fold, Hero calls $32

Flop: ($92) A, Q, 4 (2 players)
SB bets $56, Hero calls $56

Turn: ($204) 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $75, SB raises $300 (All-In), Hero calls $225

River: ($804) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $804

Results:
SB had A, A (three of a kind, Aces).
Hero had Q, A (two pair, Aces and Queens).
Outcome: SB won $801


Its just like why can't I have like KT, JT, KJ or even AJ/AT rather than having a cooler hand where this retarded c/shove on the turn gets rewarded. I mean, what is going though the villain's head(a regular in these games as far as I know) when he c/shoves the turn. He has the deck annihilated, and he even has the Ah so no need to worry about me having Axhh. The overwhelming majority of the time on the turn i have 0-20% equity yet this villain is check/shoving and cutting off any hope of me possibly bluffing the river with who knows what. Arg.

Here is another perfect example of what I am talking about from last month.

No-Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (2 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($1333.60)
Hero (SB) ($1294)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 3, 3
Hero bets $12, BB raises $54, Hero calls $45

Flop: ($120) 5, A, 3 (2 players)
BB bets $70, Hero raises $165, BB raises $215, Hero calls $120

Turn: ($690) 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $225, BB raises $988.60 (All-In), Hero calls $724 (All-In)

River: ($2588) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $2588

Results:
Hero had 3, 3 (three of a kind, threes).
BB had A, A (three of a kind, Aces).
Outcome: BB won $2627.10

I mean, lets think about this for a second. Why in the world would he ever want to c/shove the turn. Actually lets pause this discussion for a second and go back to the flop. ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? This is one of the worst boards in the world(apart from maybe A 2 2 r) to bet/3bet top set in a 3 bet pot. What in the world is he expecting me to call him with? He has all the Aces, so he must be expecting me to float him a large % of the time(?) Which seems very optimistic at best. Ok so lets just assume he is expecting me to float him a ton, so then he checks the turn to me expecting me to bet all of my floats, but then he somehow c/shoves the turn? Going back to his expectation of me floating a lot of flops(????) that would make my turn range consist of a lot of floats, and very very few value hands, just about all of which I am going to bet the river with if he c/c's the turn. So the only thing c/r'ing the turn accomplishes is again shutting me out from possibly bluffing the river and isolating himself against the range that he has coolered and was going to win money from anyway. Doesn't make much sense does it?

Anyway, that was just something that I find frustrating and then it turned into a pretty long post. But it is definitely something that you should look at in your game, and really hits on a very fundamental aspect of poker which is to always have a reason for making a certain play. Obviously the villains in the previous 2 hands had no real reasons for c/shoving the turn, they just have a very very very strong hand and want to get the money in as fast as possible not taking into account what hands that I could possibly have and trying to maximize value from them. Luckily enough for them I have a cooler hand each time and their play is rewarded but so is life. When you are analyzing and reviewing your plays, or you are at the table playing, always ask yourself "why am I doing this?" "is this the most profitable way for me to play this hand, this street?". Asking yourself these questions and being able to provide solid reasoning behind all of the plays you make will be a huge help in improving yourself as a player.

Well thats all for now, I'm off to bed. Later. Gl grinding.


1 comment:

  1. Without giving out too many of my reads, flop in our hand was played very well by me. Turn I 100% agree, c/rai is sort of clicking buttons, though I still think it is better than betting as a whole

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