Live Poker
Haven't been playing online much lately but I played a live session tonight with some people from college. $.25/$.25 blinds. I bought in for $30, most others bought in for the same except Brett (from here) who actually bought in for $100. Basically nothing happened for me the whole night, was pretty card dead. I didn't make any big bluffs, but one interesting hand did come up against Brett.
I'm sitting with about $27 at this point, he covers (obv.)
I think we're about an hour, maybe 90 minutes in and I've played maybe 5 hands, raising none. We're 7 handed, there's one limp and I pump it up to $1.50 with K
K
. Folded to Brett in the BB, he calls. Limper folds.
I made a little bigger raise than normal, but I kinda wanted to play a big pot with this hand. The limper had $20, I figured he'd call (kinda loose/passive, but as I learned later capable of folding decent hands) and I'd get it all in with him if he flopped something. When Brett called my plan for the hand changed.
Now I know he'll call liberally from the BB, so my range for him was any pair (well up to maybe 99, probably reraise at least AA-JJ), any suited connector, most suited one gappers, and perhaps higher offsuit connectors perhaps JTo or 98o. It's a pretty wide range, and I'm probably off, but that's why I like to play flops, so I can narrow it down.
Pot is $3.50. Flop comes T 3
2. He checks, I bet $2, he calls.
Standard c-bet for me. I thought I might pick it up, but he called, indicating he had something. My range for him now was spades, maybe a T, 54, or perhaps he was slowplaying a set.
Pot now $7.50. Turn comes 8. He checks, I decide to keep the pot small and check behind.
Alright, so I'm giving a free card here, but a few reasons why I'm doing this. First, I'm disguising my hand quite a bit. It looks like I have AK/AQ now and I can get some value on the river. Second, I can protect my stack here (though I'd almost certainly fold to a c/r against him).
Pot still $7.50. River comes 6. He checks, I bet $4, he thinks/acts for a bit and checkraises $12 on top. (I could be a little off on the suits here and the size of his raise at the end, but what's important is that there was a spade draw on the flop, two seemingly innocent cards came on the turn and river, and I got c/r'd.)
Yikes. When he checked the river I was almost certain that I was safe. I figured he'd have to do his own bidding if he had flopped a set. So I value bet my kings, figuring he'd put me on whiffed overs and snap call with his T or whatever. The interesting thing is this hand is far too similar to my checkraise bluff hand in the UMPC. He criticized my check/call (with a 2 flush on board) check, check/raise line and that's the same damn line he takes against me. To be fair, the hand was a little different, but it still involves a 2-flush on the flop.
So now I had to figure out what the hell was going on. I tried to go through his mind and see what he put me on. My line just looks so damn much like AK/AQ. He might also put me on garbage, as I'm capable of raising a trash hand if I get bored and can't get dealt anything. I was able to refrain from doing that tonight however. What I realized though is my hand is as good as AK/AQ. It's a bluff catcher. He's not value betting anything that my one pair beats. I beat busted spades and that's it.
I ended up folding my kings face up and told him he played it really well if he was bluffing. I decided that while he did put me on AK/AQ, he wasn't bluffing here. He probably figured I couldn't call on the river, but that I would bet as a bluff. Of course, I wouldn't be able to call a raise, but maybe he'd get lucky and I'd have a hand like I did, or maybe make a crazy call with a T. He mucked face down and wouldn't tell me later what he had. I thought he would've been too tempted to show a bluff though. If you play well, big bluffs don't come often, and when they do, it's too damn tempting to not want to show it off (even if you don't have a big poker ego), especially when you're among friends and there's some metagame stuff going on.
Ultimately though, I didn't think he was capable of making a big bluff, which was why I folded. A big factor in making your decisions is to think about what your opponent is capable of and not capable of. Even if the story doesn't quite add up, you'd tend to go with your overall read of the player. Just look at the hands that are analyzed online. The poster will include a read almost always. Villain is 18/14/.000001. "OMG fold he's such a nit!" Not, "Well, there's no way in hell he would check a set twice".
So he could've had a set there, maybe even called with 88 and hit it on the turn. That or 54, which also got there on the river. I thought I played the hand well though, a lot of players go broke there.
Ended up $9 in the hole for the night. I don't think I actually went to showdown once, though I won some decent sized pots. When we got to 4 handed I won some of my money back. Had KK, in a reraised pot, potted the flop against two opponents and took it down. Another hand I was in a blind in a limped pot with J6, checkraised all-in on the flop after a player overbet the pot for $6 and took it down when he couldn't even call for $9 more.
I thought the play was overall decent though. Not once did two players get it all-in on the flop or turn. Actually, there was only one hand total where two players were all-in on the river, straight vs. flush where the player w/ the straight was committed (not to a mental hospital, but to the pot).
I'm sitting with about $27 at this point, he covers (obv.)
I think we're about an hour, maybe 90 minutes in and I've played maybe 5 hands, raising none. We're 7 handed, there's one limp and I pump it up to $1.50 with K
K. Folded to Brett in the BB, he calls. Limper folds.I made a little bigger raise than normal, but I kinda wanted to play a big pot with this hand. The limper had $20, I figured he'd call (kinda loose/passive, but as I learned later capable of folding decent hands) and I'd get it all in with him if he flopped something. When Brett called my plan for the hand changed.
Now I know he'll call liberally from the BB, so my range for him was any pair (well up to maybe 99, probably reraise at least AA-JJ), any suited connector, most suited one gappers, and perhaps higher offsuit connectors perhaps JTo or 98o. It's a pretty wide range, and I'm probably off, but that's why I like to play flops, so I can narrow it down.
Pot is $3.50. Flop comes T
3 2. He checks, I bet $2, he calls.Standard c-bet for me. I thought I might pick it up, but he called, indicating he had something. My range for him now was spades, maybe a T, 54, or perhaps he was slowplaying a set.
Pot now $7.50. Turn comes 8
. He checks, I decide to keep the pot small and check behind.Alright, so I'm giving a free card here, but a few reasons why I'm doing this. First, I'm disguising my hand quite a bit. It looks like I have AK/AQ now and I can get some value on the river. Second, I can protect my stack here (though I'd almost certainly fold to a c/r against him).
Pot still $7.50. River comes 6
. He checks, I bet $4, he thinks/acts for a bit and checkraises $12 on top. (I could be a little off on the suits here and the size of his raise at the end, but what's important is that there was a spade draw on the flop, two seemingly innocent cards came on the turn and river, and I got c/r'd.)Yikes. When he checked the river I was almost certain that I was safe. I figured he'd have to do his own bidding if he had flopped a set. So I value bet my kings, figuring he'd put me on whiffed overs and snap call with his T or whatever. The interesting thing is this hand is far too similar to my checkraise bluff hand in the UMPC. He criticized my check/call (with a 2 flush on board) check, check/raise line and that's the same damn line he takes against me. To be fair, the hand was a little different, but it still involves a 2-flush on the flop.
So now I had to figure out what the hell was going on. I tried to go through his mind and see what he put me on. My line just looks so damn much like AK/AQ. He might also put me on garbage, as I'm capable of raising a trash hand if I get bored and can't get dealt anything. I was able to refrain from doing that tonight however. What I realized though is my hand is as good as AK/AQ. It's a bluff catcher. He's not value betting anything that my one pair beats. I beat busted spades and that's it.
I ended up folding my kings face up and told him he played it really well if he was bluffing. I decided that while he did put me on AK/AQ, he wasn't bluffing here. He probably figured I couldn't call on the river, but that I would bet as a bluff. Of course, I wouldn't be able to call a raise, but maybe he'd get lucky and I'd have a hand like I did, or maybe make a crazy call with a T. He mucked face down and wouldn't tell me later what he had. I thought he would've been too tempted to show a bluff though. If you play well, big bluffs don't come often, and when they do, it's too damn tempting to not want to show it off (even if you don't have a big poker ego), especially when you're among friends and there's some metagame stuff going on.
Ultimately though, I didn't think he was capable of making a big bluff, which was why I folded. A big factor in making your decisions is to think about what your opponent is capable of and not capable of. Even if the story doesn't quite add up, you'd tend to go with your overall read of the player. Just look at the hands that are analyzed online. The poster will include a read almost always. Villain is 18/14/.000001. "OMG fold he's such a nit!" Not, "Well, there's no way in hell he would check a set twice".
So he could've had a set there, maybe even called with 88 and hit it on the turn. That or 54, which also got there on the river. I thought I played the hand well though, a lot of players go broke there.
Ended up $9 in the hole for the night. I don't think I actually went to showdown once, though I won some decent sized pots. When we got to 4 handed I won some of my money back. Had KK, in a reraised pot, potted the flop against two opponents and took it down. Another hand I was in a blind in a limped pot with J6, checkraised all-in on the flop after a player overbet the pot for $6 and took it down when he couldn't even call for $9 more.
I thought the play was overall decent though. Not once did two players get it all-in on the flop or turn. Actually, there was only one hand total where two players were all-in on the river, straight vs. flush where the player w/ the straight was committed (not to a mental hospital, but to the pot).
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