Just got done playing 2nd session, same place. Great success! Ran very hot, up $730 in 6 hours. Still having fun at the tables, I like people, people like me (hah, I would hope I'm not getting bored on the 2nd day!).
Funny hand: I have AQo on the button, EVERYONE limps (lol), this guy shoves 300 BB from the CO. I obviously fold and he shows AA. He said just really, really would rather have the ~$18 rather than risk having to play Aces multiway. I showed him my hand and said it probably would have gotten HU between us if he did a standard raise, and he responds with "I regret nothing". Yea yea don't tap the glass etc., but I'm not too worried here.
Hand 1: I had a questionable turn bet against this guy where I had As7s in position on an AQTss board. I bet flop, bet blank turn, call his min-checkraise. I fold blank river when he leads. I was wondering turn should be a check behind since I don't want to fold out weaker flushes and don't think I get value out of worse hands, though it would suck to lose to like J9 on the river.
I suppose I will make a list of questions that I do not know the answers to and I encourage the readers to take a shot at, but I will also try to answer them myself after some days of thinking. Q1: Check behind As7s on AQTx two spades on turn or bet?
Hand 2: I had another hand against him where I flatted his preflop raise with 77 in position, flop is J73 with two spades, he cbets $16 into $34 pot and 2 people, I flat, other guy folds. turn is Q, he bets $15 into $66, I raise to $75 and he calls. River blank, he checks and I bet $150 into $200 and he folds. I really had a lot of trouble deciding river bet sizing throughout the session, I felt like maybe he would have called if I bet $100 instead. Another example below:
Hand 3: Versus an average reg passive and somewhat tight guy, I raise AK (flop probably like 3 or 4 players, can't remember), board is mega dry. K835Tr or something like that. I bet about 75%, 75%, then 50% on flop/turn/river respectively and he called every street, I won the hand.
Q2: Bet sizing! What can be improved?
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Anyway, most of my profit was from this one 50-ish guy who was 2 seats to my left and probably the next best player at the table, which TBH isn't saying much. I guess he's probably a small winner at this room. However I felt he definitely went out of his way to play hands with me as much as possible, can't really say why- my best guess is that he viewed me as a maniac young kid who was going to go broke soon, but it's also possible he just wanted to have fun and didn't care about money. Anyway I don't think he was particularly good at all, but he was less bad then everyone else so I actually disliked him in my pots as he almost always had position on me too.
He really shouldn't have viewed me as a maniac considering my profits were like 100% blue line, but hey, I'll take it. I only made 2 multi-street bluffs the entire session and both failed. First one was against him (details below), second one was...
Hand 4: Against some really nitty guy, I triple barrel shoved in position with As3s after flatting his preflop raise on a QsJs6cJc5c. My flop bet was 1/2 pot into 4 players, he was only caller. Turn and river were both like 80% pot size bets. He had quads
I was so sure he couldn't have something strong or he would have raised the wet flop when I bet only 1/2 pot, and thought he might fear the backdoor flush on the river as lots of guys here tend to do. As of right now, I think it was an OK bluff, but river should have been cheaper, or maybe there aren't enough hands in his turn calling + river folding range to make it work. Anyway this is a hand I would definitely like to review later.
Q3: this whole hand.
OK, on to this villain-guy that I built some history with:
Hand 5: First big hand I play against villain. Only read I have on him at this point is he raised A9o UTG, so he's at least somewhat aggressive/loose which is super rare at this poker room. I don't remember details as well as I should, but we're about 300BB deep. In fact I'm really frustrated/surprised that I can't even remember who had position in this hand (is this normal or really weird to not remember this stuff?). I THINK it was him, haha so I'll go with that. I raise AA, think it gets to flop like 3 ways with $45 in pot. I cbet $35 on an AK8 board with 2 clubs, he calls. HU on turn, Jc completing flush draw. I bet $75 into $115, he calls. River is another J, awesome, a boat. I bet $150 into $260, he raises to $250, I shove, he folds. My best guess is he had a flush. I have been showing almost all my hands (PokerPro electronic tables make this very standard since it asks you "show or muck" haha) at this point which have been a pretty standard mix of goods/bluffs such as cbets with AK into A83, and QJ into K52. I believed showing was definitely not -EV at this table, though I can't know for sure. Anyway, this is the first hand I don't show and maybe he thinks I bluffed him or something. Don't really know.
Hand 6: Next big hand I'm in against villain, I get AK on an 884J2 board, bet flop and turn OOP, check river and he shoves for pot. I fold (didn't show) so maybe here he's also thinking I'm a maniac. I double barreled here because I think he's calling preflop/flop with a crappy pair but folding on turn. How to play these situations are kind of important, but I think it can go either way between give up on turn, or second barrel.
Hand 7: Next big hand I have AA (again!), board runs out 94494. I bet flop, check/called him on both the turn and the river shove. He tabled 55. I'm still not sure whether he thought it was a value bet or a bluff, lol. Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit, and he was simply thinking "hmm I think I have the best hand, I bet!" I will never know. Anyway I'm not sure about how I played this hand, while one reason I checked was because I felt like villain was definitely capable of bluffing if he sensed weakness, I think I was also influenced by not wanting to get stacked by a 9.
Q4: review this hand!
Hand 8: Next big hand I have KTo, I bet flop and check/call both turn/river again on a KQ794 board. He has JT for the straight. Same read as last time that he's betting if checked to, but it wasn't super-strong or anything so I'm kind of unsure on how I played these hands (passively), and maybe river should have been a fold. Unsure.
Q5: Review this hand!
Hand 9: Last big hand vs this villain I called a preflop raise by nit-guy-who-snapped-me-with-quads, villain calls behind me, I flop top set on T23, cool. Original raiser cbets, I call, villain calls. Turn is like a 7 or something, original raiser gives up, I check too, villain bets $40ish into $75 and I call. River is a 3 (T2373), I check, villain bets ~$100 into ~$150, I raise to $250, villain 3 bets on the river to $400! I shove and he insta-folds. He claims to have air! I believe him. Anyway I'm not too worried about how I played this hand as it is obviously non-standard, but for a hopefully not-terrible reason.
So, this villain gave me a good exercise on slowplaying which is something that seems to be very rarely right at these tables. Also, like $500 or something =)
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Few other notes:
-The same villain in the "AK top pair fold to single flop raise" from last session was at the table, even more sure now that he has a set like every time he raises there.
-I was 3 bet a total of 4 times, 3 times by the big-villain-guy in this post and I folded every time (best hand I folded was AJs), and 1 time by a 50 BB stack and I shoved QQ. He snapped with 99.
-I don't think I 3 bet anyone else the entire session, had zero chances to do it for value. Had a couple decent chances to squeeze bluff with total air but chickened out.
-PokerPro tables tracked my flops seen at 25%.
Anyway I think I write too much about what are probably really standard hands, haha. Thanks for reading guys! Any suggestions/comments very much appreciated.