First session report from yesterday (Sunday)!
Like I mentioned earlier I am planning to move soon. However, right now I can drive a little over an hour to reach a poker room with 1/2 blinds and the PokerPro electronic tables, I kind of hate them for multiple reasons- the main one being it makes it super easy for fish to betsize (pretty much everyone at least knows the "hey go somewhere between 1/2 pot and pot"), the second main reason being I find it harder to pay attention to hands because the screen is monotonous compared to someone physically tossing out chips. Buy in is max of 400 but most people only buy in for like 150 which makes me rage, but ah well.
First off, this session was ****ING FUN. If I wasn't actually technically a poker pro now, I would have not regretted this day at all if I lost 2 buy-ins. Room was pretty laid back with the floor hanging out at the tables and lots of banter. I understand that it may not always be this exciting on weekdays and such, but fortunately I like poker. Now, on to the actual poker:
We had guys calling with midpairs and all sorts of **** that made me go "what", so I played tight. A nice thing about the PokerPro tables is they track your "Flops Seen" and "Hands Raised" (funnily enough, there's no VPIP, and flops seen is tremendously inflated from my big blind thanks to all the limping). I think I was around 14% for both.
QUESTION FOR READERS (QFR) 1: I would like to ask you guys that I'm unsure of: let's say there are 3 limpers and I'm on the button with something like AQo, and IN THEORY I can raise $13 and get 2 callers with the usual stuff or I can raise $15 and everyone will fold. Is a big hand postflop more than the +$9 EV of everyone folding?
Anyway, here's a few hands:
HAND 1: I raise with KK, some old guy who had been under my radar (inactive) flats preflop and near min-raises me IP on T74 board with a PSB behind if I call. I considered folding/calling/shoving all the be possibilities, but I opted to call here because I might have the best hand, and it was cheap. Turn is an A, check, check. River 7 (T74A7), I check he shoves, easy fold here I think- old nit guy always has a boat since I doubt he double barrels. Anyway, the interesting thing about this hand IMO is it made me realize something I never did in the past- the A actually helps me rule out Tx since he'd be scared of it and I highly doubt it helps him improve, whereas me from 2 years ago would probably have been like "gross, an A when I have KK, that sucks so much". So I guess I consider this a "cool Aesah, you are thinking more about poker now!"
HAND 2: I ran into a similar situation where I raised to 7x after a few limpers in the BB, then got near min-raised (different old guy) on a 26A board with AK, except I folded the flop. I find this scenario interesting in the sense of a "look how exploitable live players are" because I can happily fold the 2nd best hand in my entire range (behind AA).
HAND 3: My biggest hand of the day although it's not super-interesting was raising KK, getting called by a short stack, getting 3 bet by QQ from the blinds by an average young reg (understands position but probably loses money), flatting the 3 bet, short stack shoves because he'll have like a 1/3 pot size bet on the flop anyway, QQ calls, I shove over for 100 BB effective (and like 30BB from shorty), QQ calls again and I hold. Some guy commented that he was SHOCKED i didn't have AA, and I responded "close enough right?" And he was like ehhhhhhhhhhhhh... but man, I really can't imagine myself folding KK preflop. I suppose it will happen one day.
I played for about 4 hours before dinner break and was up about +$400 at the time and was feeling great.
When I got back there was this guy throwing out money, he lost like 5 100BB buyins in less than an hour calling river bets with middle pair- not even trying to hero, he was genuinely surprised every time someone had a better hand. Unfortunately this guy coolered (?) me twice and lost all of it to other players =( One was obvious cooler, the questionable cooler is posted below:
HAND 4: 47Jr board. I checked my big blind and led 10$ into 12$ with QJo, and 3 out of 5 of the other players called. Turn was a 6, and I'm thinking it's more likely someone picked up a combo draw with a 56 or something than the straight with a 58, so I bet 40$ into ~50$. 2 callers, river is a Q, I shove for $110 effective more or so into $170 (I have a big stack but no one else does). The crazy fish guy has 58. Dammit.
QFR 2: River shove I'm fine with once I bink 2 pair, but what about preflop, flop, and turn play? Too aggressive for only TPGK?
HAND 5: Oh, another hand I lost to fish-guy. board J85ss, I have KJ (I think I raised preflop, can't remember), he check/calls flop, leads tiny into blank turn and I near min-raise (this is horrible I know
), and he leads for 70$ into 140$ on a spade river and I fold. I earlier folded against him on the river so I think that might have influenced it, afterwards though he said he had nothing and I was a bit tilted. It's hard for me to personally judge if this is results oriented thinking but damn that should have been a call against this guy I think. So actually even just writing this post made me realize that clearly I'm not remembering hands into the later hours of play as well as I remember hands at the start of my session, so I guess I was actually tired although I honestly felt totally fine at the tables.
QFR 2: Is this a call or a fold versus some guy who I've seen lose several $200 pots with middle pair, or can it not be determined thanks to my failure to get better reads on his tendencies?
HAND 6: I left the table right after this hand ended. Bunch of limpers to me, I raise in the BB with AKo, two callers. Flop is 235, I make my standard ~75% cbet, 1 caller to the turn (some 30-ish guy that sat down fairly recently) with almost exactly a PSB behind. Turn is a J, I think about shoving really hard but end up checking because I think he'll call with like 88 and also, I don't know what else really. I think I was just playing bad. Anyway river was an 4, I'm like cool, except this guy has A6 and I lose my stack.
QFR 4: Although I should have bet very slightly more on flop in retrospect, should I shove turn now?
QFR 5: Anything standing out about my poker play that needs major work? I feel like writing this made me realize I need to pay more attention to tendencies- for example I'm unsure if crazy fish guy was betting out with middle pair or if he was check/calling.
I ended up +$102 in about 10 hours of play (6 hours and -$300 after dinner break), which I am slightly unhappy about but not bad at all! Still have high spirits and actually really appreciate the encouraging words posted here, they really do help! By the way I am 23 years old. Also if there's anything that was boring/should not be written about, or anything that I should write more about ALL FEEDBACK is appreciated, thanks for reading!
Last edited by Aesah; 03-19-2012 at 03:42 PM.