Thursday, January 11, 2007


Grinding it out


Well, the odds still seem stacked against me. I made a great read on a 2-4 table, and still lost my stack when my opponent hit his 2-outer on the turn. Just goes to show, a great read isn't guaranteed to get you the money unless it's a read made at the river. Here was the hand:

Hand #37040033-90501 at Coquitlam (No Limit Hold'em)
Started at 10/Jan/07 13:34:32

bibil23 is at seat 0 with $528.70.
zehnq is at seat 1 with $422.90.
canpeteman is at seat 2 with $391.
Sub__Zero is at seat 3 with $385.90.
lederer23 is at seat 4 with $1145.80.
Djersen is at seat 5 with $94.
The button is at seat 5.

bibil23 posts the small blind of $2.
zehnq posts the big blind of $4.
bibil23: -- --
zehnq: -- --
canpeteman: -- --
Sub__Zero: Ah Ac
lederer23: -- --
Djersen: -- --
Pre-flop:

canpeteman folds. Sub__Zero raises to $14.
lederer23 calls. Djersen folds. bibil23 folds.
zehnq calls.
Flop (board: 4s 2d 2c):

zehnq checks. Sub__Zero checks. lederer23 bets $44.
zehnq raises to $88. Sub__Zero calls. lederer23
calls.
Turn (board: 4s 2d 2c 8d):

zehnq bets $185. Sub__Zero goes all-in for $283.90.
lederer23 folds. zehnq calls.
River (board: 4s 2d 2c 8d 7d):

(no action in this round)
Showdown:

Sub__Zero shows Ah Ac.
Sub__Zero has Ah Ac 2d 2c 8d: two pair, aces and deuces.
zehnq shows 8c 8s.
zehnq has 8c 8s 2d 2c 8d: full house, eights full of deuces.
Hand #37040033-90501 Summary:

$3 is raked from a pot of $875.80.
zehnq wins $872.80 with full house, eights full of deuces.



So the flop and the number of callers I quite like. Didn't think anyone was foolish enough to be playing with a 2, but decided the only likely person would be the BB. I reasoned that I was either miles ahead or horribly behind, so wanted to use the flop betting to tell me where I stood. The BB checked, and I checked behind. The button bets out, what I expected and hoped for. As he's betting pot, he doesn't have a monster like 44 (or and unlikely A2s), and is looking to take the pot down with his probable AQ unimproved. The BB min raises, and I know instantly he's got an overpair. Anything in the region of 55-JJ given the pre-flop action, though possibly a hidden KK or QQ. I know I'm 90% favourite now, so I call the reraise happily, and the button also calls (with decent odds in the now massive pot) hoping to catch an A or Q on the turn. At this point there's about $300 in the pot, and I only have $280 remaining, so I know I'm allin regardless. The turn is an 8, and the BB fires $185, as he would with any overpair. Knowing he was drawing at 2 outs, I reraise allin hoping he won't have hit by the river. He calls, and I find out he got lucky on the turn. Perfect play = stacked.

This seems to be the way of it at the moment, but my consolation lies in the fact that I played so well for an hour afterwards that I managed to eke a tiny profit for the session.

Comments?

Wednesday, January 10, 2007


Cooling my heels....


Well it's been a while since my last entry, and now I'm making it I'm not sure what I have to add. My play since has been mostly hit-and-miss, but I feel that I am making progress overall. I continue to sustain losses from what I feel are too frequent bad beats, and occasionally making a bad call or read. That said, my aggression is much more controlled and informative; I am respecting re-raises and strong bets far more than I have been of late, and I am no longer trying to bully the tables. I think I'm still losing too much with TPTK against the overpair on re-raised preflop pots, but am slowly working out how best to minimise losses in such situations.
My plan is still to keep my game small and focussed until my bankroll has been restored to 10k and then try playing 2-4 seriously again. If that proves successful (as it once was) that may lead to a very gradual build-up to the 3-6 tables again (but this time I'll wait until I get to 20k when I can better afford the vicious swings I've experienced first hand). Wanted to post an example of a hand where fortune was against me, but was lucky enough to get it checked down (and thus not lose any more money than I had already invested). Very very rarely does the under full-house collapse, but when it does it sure does suck; would have loved to stack 2 players in one hand!

Table Name Hand ID Game Stakes
Fantastic Four 10475498-97573 Holdem No Limit $2/$4
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : Hand Start.
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : Seat 1 : fighting5th has $39.25
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : Seat 2 : Sub_Zero has $466.50
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : Seat 3 : ice025 has $123.25
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : Seat 4 : shettapants has $83.50
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : Seat 5 : thebunster1 has $421.97
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : Seat 6 : pdr507 has $140.93
[Jan 6 15:44:26] : fighting5th is the dealer.
[Jan 6 15:44:29] : Sub_Zero posted small blind.
[Jan 6 15:44:29] : ice025 posted big blind.
[Jan 6 15:44:29] : Game [97573] started with 6 players.
[Jan 6 15:44:29] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Jan 6 15:44:29] : Seat 2 : Sub_Zero has 2h 2s
[Jan 6 15:44:31] : shettapants folded.
[Jan 6 15:44:32] : thebunster1 folded.
[Jan 6 15:44:34] : pdr507 folded.
[Jan 6 15:44:38] : fighting5th called $4 and raised $8
[Jan 6 15:44:52] : It's your turn.
[Jan 6 15:44:52] : Sub_Zero has 10 seconds to respond.
[Jan 6 15:44:58] : Sub_Zero called $10
[Jan 6 15:44:59] : ice025 called $8
[Jan 6 15:44:59] : Dealing flop.
[Jan 6 15:44:59] : Board cards [2d 4s 4h]
[Jan 6 15:45:06] : Sub_Zero checked.
[Jan 6 15:45:08] : ice025 bet $8
[Jan 6 15:45:11] : fighting5th called $8 and raised $19.25 and is All-in
[Jan 6 15:45:16] : Sub_Zero called $27.25
[Jan 6 15:45:18] : ice025 called $19.25
[Jan 6 15:45:18] : Dealing turn.
[Jan 6 15:45:18] : Board cards [2d 4s 4h 4c]
[Jan 6 15:45:24] : Sub_Zero checked.
[Jan 6 15:45:26] : ice025 checked.
[Jan 6 15:45:27] : Dealing river.
[Jan 6 15:45:27] : Board cards [2d 4s 4h 4c 5c]
[Jan 6 15:45:29] : Sub_Zero checked.
[Jan 6 15:45:32] : ice025 checked.
[Jan 6 15:45:34] : Showdown!
[Jan 6 15:45:35] : Seat 2 : Sub_Zero has 2h 2s
[Jan 6 15:45:35] : Sub_Zero has Full House : 4s full of 2s
[Jan 6 15:45:35] : Seat 3 : ice025 has Td Tc
[Jan 6 15:45:35] : ice025 has Full House : 4s full of 10s
[Jan 6 15:45:35] : ice025 wins $114.75 with Full House : 4s full of 10s (10 kicker)
[Jan 6 15:45:45] : Hand is over.