Sometimes you gotta love being a newbie and playing like an absolute moron. So I was 2 tabling .02/.05 6max and seeing how I do. I'm feeling good cause I'm up about 2 bucks overall and I get this hand.


Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BTN): $5.52
SB: $4.43
BB: $1.46
UTG: $5.20
MP: $4.39
CO: $2.00

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with J J
UTG raises to $0.08, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.08, 1 fold, BB calls $0.06

Flop: ($0.25) J Q T (3 players)
BB bets $0.08, UTG calls $0.08, Hero calls $0.08

Turn: ($0.49) A (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $5.04 all in, Hero calls $5.04, BB folds

River: ($10.57) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)



Soon as I flopped the set I instantly thought I had the nuts. My mistake at this point was ignoring the rest of the cards and focusing on trying to soft bet my opponents and planning on getting more cash out of them in the end.

My villian was a multi tabler who was playing 10 vpip and 10pfr so I pretty much had all the info I needed right there in front of me to get the hell out but walked right into it.

/sigh

So lesson learned. Just cause you think you have the nuts, doesnt mean you do, pay attention to those cards or someone might just hold onto your money for you.

Today is going a bit better, was a little discouraged after last night. I know I made a stupid mistake in the heat of the moment, but its kind of hard to trust yourself not to do that again when you are just starting out. Can I trust my judgement?

Well I hopped on Bodog today cause the games are usually a bit easier over there, although there are a few maniacs who will Cbet just about any two cards... and I happened to score this.


Bodog $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $4.88
Hero (BB): $3.72
UTG: $2.93
UTG+1: $6.76
MP: $2.55
CO: $3.68
BTN: $6.09

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with T T
UTG raises to $0.17, 1 fold, MP calls $0.17, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.17, SB raises to $0.30, Hero calls $0.25, UTG raises to $1.37, 1 fold, BTN calls $1.20, 1 fold, Hero raises to $3.72 all in, UTG calls $1.56 all in, 1 fold

Flop: ($7.70) 4 3 9

Turn: ($7.70) 4

River: ($7.70) T



TT is probably a semi questionable call, but the Villian was new to the table, and pretty much everyone else was going nuts with anything. I had passed on a few all in situations simply cause I didnt trust my judgement and here I pretty much just said screw it and shoved.

Thankfully the river appears to like me today.

I dont have many table game hands yet, but here's what Im looking like for the moment. As I have just started giving table games another go, I'm hoping to kick this up to maybe 2 to 5k hands over the weekend.

Spent the weekend playing .10 cent 360 turbo MTT's with my brother on stars. We both put in about 110 tournaments but I'm just not sure those are my game.

It's rather hard to lose tourney after tourney, some even in rapid succession only to finally make a good placement and wipe out your loses...only to go back to losing again. Mentally its just being rather hard on my confidence levels.

I went back to table games last night for a bit of a change of pace. I'd been chasing a fish with an 80% vpip over 100 hands but kept getting horrible cards. He got cleaned out over the course of an hour and finally ended up leaving.

The big blind was heading back my way and I decided I'd sit out before it hit me and call it a night. On my last hand before the BB I got pocket 6's figured what the hell lets take a stab at it.


Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: $2.00
SB: $0.85
BB: $2.33
Hero (UTG): $5.65
UTG+1: $0.97
UTG+2: $6.58
MP1: $3.38
MP2: $3.60
CO: $1.99

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG with 6 6
Hero raises to $0.04, 2 folds, MP1 calls $0.04, 4 folds, BB calls $0.02

I started out with a small raise simply cause everyone was playing so tight I didn't want to scare folks off. Last 4 times I did my standard 3x BB raise folks just folded to me.

Flop: ($0.13) 3 K 7 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.02, MP1 raises to $0.12, BB folds, Hero calls $0.10

The flop really didn't help me, but at the same time the Villain wasn't betting big. I knew he didn't have a set, and had him pegged either for A7, Q7 or AK, Qk or something in that range. Smart move here was probably to fold...but I really wanted to see that next card.

Turn: ($0.37) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $0.34, Hero raises to $0.68, MP1 raises to $3.22 all in, Hero calls $2.54

I got my set here, and knew he was going to bet me up. Figure if I show strength he would soften up, but if I looked weak he'd bet into me. Sure enough he did. I was fairly confident I had the nuts here.

After playing with the guy for about 100 hands I was pretty sure he didn't have pocket kings with the original passive bet size.

River: ($6.81) K (2 players - 1 is all in)



Did I play this hand well?

I figure smart play would have had me fold at the flop, but once I got my set I played it fairly well.

I'll be sticking with table games for the week and see how I do.

My opinion...Ok first off no more min betting, by min raising your allowing players to come into the pot cheap and out draw you, make them pay if they want to play garbage hands. Secondly by betting 3X-4X the Big blind you have a decent pot started if you hit your set, the more money in the pot, the harder it is for some players to let go of the pot, and better chance you will stack them.

As for on the flop you want to bet 1/2 pot to full pot if you are representing a king, betting 2 cents is bad for 2 reasons, first it looks weak as hell, because it is, secondly you are giving your opponent like 7.5 -1 odds to call, allowing him to call and possible hit a card, say he has AJ, hit's one of those on the turn and now you are behind in the hand. One of the objects of poker is to make as few mistakes as possible and force your opponent to make them instead, by betting 2c, you made the mistake, and your opponent can call there correctly with any hand, because he can hit a card or bluff you on the turn because you bet so weak. When you get raised on that flop you have to fold, you are playing small pairs to hit sets, you missed and now facing a raise of 10c more you are getting like 2.5-1 to call, you are only gonna hit your set on the turn about 5% of the time, that's 19-1 odds, you need 19 -1 pot odds or better. (not including implied odds in this assessment)

On the turn you hit your card and the money goes in as it should.

You mentioned that you really wanted to see that turn card when you got raised, you have to let it go, you have to suppress that urge, it will cost you a great amount of money, just remember that by folding when you need to, you are saving money, increasing your winrate, good players can be bluffed, donkeys cannot, and that's why they lose their money. Think of every play as what the proper decision is, do not allow urges to dictate your play, analysis of the hand should dictate your move. It's early in your progression so it's gonna take a while to catch on to concepts, hand reading etc...Just keep at it and learning and you will achieve your goals.