Good First Session
Played a little over 200 hands tonight and won about a buy-in and a half. Very first hand I'm in the BB and pick up two kings. I'm thinking how great of a start this is, but everyone folds to me. Blah. Then I'm trying to get Poker Tracker and Gametime+ set up so I get a little distracted and am mostly folding and ended up having to dump a few hands after the flop and before I knew it was down $5. I had to download this program called UltimateHistory so I could actually save the hand histories to my hard drive so they could be processed and I could get the players stats to show up on Gametime+.
Finally get that done, but like I said I'm down about $5 and I didn't get a chance to reload. I pick up AA in the SB. CO brings it in for pot ($.85) I reraise pot ($2.80) and he calls. Flop comes down T94r and I bet $4.50 into $5.60. He immediately goes all-in for my last $16.83. I don't really like getting it all-in with one pair, but I don't have a choice here. His most likely hand I thought was an overpair like JJ. So I call, and the turn and river come T 2. I beat his QJo. I miss FT already where the cards are turned up when there's an all-in and you know what you need to dodge to win.
But this is basically why I hate reraising out of position. I had the aces there so I had to do it, but one hand in the BB I had A
K and just flat called a $1 button raise (and ended up check/folding flop). What good does reraising do there? Nobody ever folds to a reraise anymore (except me because I happen to play well). Say I reraise to $4, he calls, pot is about $8. Now the flop comes down 3 babies. I bet $6, he calls. Turn, another blank. I've bet over 1/3 of my stack with no pair and now I can either give up or bluff the rest of my money at it. So screw it, get in for $.75, make some money if my hand hits, lose the minimum if it doesn't.
Anyway, I'm settled after that AA hand, and I open up another table. Have to deal with a short stack, which sucks but not as much action at UB vs. FT and Stars so you just have to be happy if 3 out of the 5 opponents have $25 stacks. I get 53o in the BB and I'm delighted to check after a few people limp in. Flop comes 764 to give me the straight. Shorty SB bets $1, I decide not to screw around and raise to $4. The two people behind me fold, and SB calls with $1.80 left. Turn is a 9, he puts it in, I of course call, and the river is a 2. He has 73o for top pair no kicker. LOL.
Of course it isn't always so fun. Another hand I get 88 two off the button and raise to $1. A shorty calls, leaving himself $.25, and the BB with a decent stack also calls. Flop comes 4-3-3, BB checks, I bet $2.25, shorty puts his last $.25 in and the BB folds. Turn and river come running kings, and he turns over K7o. Beautiful. I wasn't really upset about it, I only lost $1.25 on the hand, but I wanted to get rid of the damn short stack. I wish these sites would have deep stack games, I really do. 100BB minimum, 200BB or even unrestricted maximum. That's how no limit is supposed to be played.
My other big pot came when I held A
4 in the BB. UTG minraised, SB called, I of course threw in the $.25 to see the flop. Flop came down A
4 3 and the SB minbets. I raise to $1.25, not wanting to screw around with two pair on this board. UTG folds, SB takes a little time and calls. I plan on shutting down on the turn, but it comes the A
to boat me up. He checks, I bet $3, and now he raises to $13. I put him all-in for $10 more, he calls. River is a meaningless offsuit 5, and my aces full beat his J9.
I thought it was an interesting hand. When he took some time to call my flop raise, I figured he might have just a high diamond and was going to chase. I figured his minbet was so he could try and get a cheap chance to draw out. However, when he checkraised the turn I then figured him for an underboat, maybe 33 or 44. He may have been worried about the flush and that's why he just called the flop raise, and then of course was delighted to see the board pair. I really didn't think he would have a flush. He must've thought I only had trip aces I guess. I'm glad it worked out anyway.
My initial thoughts on UB is that it's very beatable. Continuation bets work most of the time, which is good. Also players seem to be on the bad side, so I should be okay as far as winning goes. Downside is that the tables aren't resizable, except for a miniview option that makes the action hard to follow. I could play two tables at once even though it overlapped a little, any more than that is impossible until I get a bigger monitor. Also, there's little game selection. Not as much 25NL 6-max tables as Full Tilt, so really tough to find a good game where everyone has ~100BBs. So even if I could play 4 tables I would have a tough time finding 4 games at once.
Finally get that done, but like I said I'm down about $5 and I didn't get a chance to reload. I pick up AA in the SB. CO brings it in for pot ($.85) I reraise pot ($2.80) and he calls. Flop comes down T94r and I bet $4.50 into $5.60. He immediately goes all-in for my last $16.83. I don't really like getting it all-in with one pair, but I don't have a choice here. His most likely hand I thought was an overpair like JJ. So I call, and the turn and river come T 2. I beat his QJo. I miss FT already where the cards are turned up when there's an all-in and you know what you need to dodge to win.
But this is basically why I hate reraising out of position. I had the aces there so I had to do it, but one hand in the BB I had A
K and just flat called a $1 button raise (and ended up check/folding flop). What good does reraising do there? Nobody ever folds to a reraise anymore (except me because I happen to play well). Say I reraise to $4, he calls, pot is about $8. Now the flop comes down 3 babies. I bet $6, he calls. Turn, another blank. I've bet over 1/3 of my stack with no pair and now I can either give up or bluff the rest of my money at it. So screw it, get in for $.75, make some money if my hand hits, lose the minimum if it doesn't.Anyway, I'm settled after that AA hand, and I open up another table. Have to deal with a short stack, which sucks but not as much action at UB vs. FT and Stars so you just have to be happy if 3 out of the 5 opponents have $25 stacks. I get 53o in the BB and I'm delighted to check after a few people limp in. Flop comes 764 to give me the straight. Shorty SB bets $1, I decide not to screw around and raise to $4. The two people behind me fold, and SB calls with $1.80 left. Turn is a 9, he puts it in, I of course call, and the river is a 2. He has 73o for top pair no kicker. LOL.
Of course it isn't always so fun. Another hand I get 88 two off the button and raise to $1. A shorty calls, leaving himself $.25, and the BB with a decent stack also calls. Flop comes 4-3-3, BB checks, I bet $2.25, shorty puts his last $.25 in and the BB folds. Turn and river come running kings, and he turns over K7o. Beautiful. I wasn't really upset about it, I only lost $1.25 on the hand, but I wanted to get rid of the damn short stack. I wish these sites would have deep stack games, I really do. 100BB minimum, 200BB or even unrestricted maximum. That's how no limit is supposed to be played.
My other big pot came when I held A
4 in the BB. UTG minraised, SB called, I of course threw in the $.25 to see the flop. Flop came down A 4 3 and the SB minbets. I raise to $1.25, not wanting to screw around with two pair on this board. UTG folds, SB takes a little time and calls. I plan on shutting down on the turn, but it comes the A to boat me up. He checks, I bet $3, and now he raises to $13. I put him all-in for $10 more, he calls. River is a meaningless offsuit 5, and my aces full beat his J9.I thought it was an interesting hand. When he took some time to call my flop raise, I figured he might have just a high diamond and was going to chase. I figured his minbet was so he could try and get a cheap chance to draw out. However, when he checkraised the turn I then figured him for an underboat, maybe 33 or 44. He may have been worried about the flush and that's why he just called the flop raise, and then of course was delighted to see the board pair. I really didn't think he would have a flush. He must've thought I only had trip aces I guess. I'm glad it worked out anyway.
My initial thoughts on UB is that it's very beatable. Continuation bets work most of the time, which is good. Also players seem to be on the bad side, so I should be okay as far as winning goes. Downside is that the tables aren't resizable, except for a miniview option that makes the action hard to follow. I could play two tables at once even though it overlapped a little, any more than that is impossible until I get a bigger monitor. Also, there's little game selection. Not as much 25NL 6-max tables as Full Tilt, so really tough to find a good game where everyone has ~100BBs. So even if I could play 4 tables I would have a tough time finding 4 games at once.
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