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Great thread, interesting hands.

I prob fold both hands pre in the blinds or EP. First hand,

I prob just call flop reraise. It's a pretty wet nutted board, but luckily CO's raise reduced the field for us. Heads up--and possibly 3 way even--it's hard for us not to have decent get it in equity, but it's not a fist pump GII spot, and since we are likely drawing and there's probably zero fold equity, I would want to increase the size of the dead money. We would have to be up against higher set (or top two) AND higher FD to be in bad shape, so under a lot of normal scenarios, I think it makes sense to keep the initial bettor in. Along the same line of reasoning, if you're willing to check shove here, I think it might be better to lead.

Second hand, muck pre, fold flop, prob raise turn, call river. I might float flop, but only in position and very deep against multiple callers. Having the Kh reduces floating value (and pre, too) by a lot. I would prob raise turn given action and bet sizing unless I have some good reads. GL!

^^^ Thanks, bus. Appreciate your insite. Looks like it'll be awhile before I start playing 10/10 .

Here is a hand from one of the most frustrating 2/5 sessions in recent memory (Monday). I'll post more hands from the session later.


Villain is a fairly clueless station/aggro reg. (Never folds suited cards pre, never folds a pair, and raises all top pairs regardless of board or textures.)


Straddle for 10. 3 callers to my CO. I make it 55 with A Q. Everyone folds except HJ, who flats. $800 effective.

Flop Q T 7

He checks I bet 95. He flats.

Turn 6

Again he checks, I bet $135 he flats.

(Not very worried about him having a str8, as he would CRAI here near 100%. T7, Qx, any pair, and a FD are all in his range.

Less likely on T7 as he rarely slowplays big hands. Also Qx less likely as he will usually shove or overbet flop with it.)

River is a 6

Again he checks. I'm hoping to get value here, but $145 on river. He then sighs and asks how much I have left. He then minraises.

I call. He flips 6 3

I then get stacked on each of the two subsequent hands, which I'll write up later.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading your thread. When I stumbled across one of your 2-5 stack photos...I realized you play at c-Town (my venue of choice as I reside in NOVA). Then I read this hand history...thought it was interesting until I read the Batman comment--AND IT CLICKED. I literally watched this entire hand go down. If i recall you were in the 9 seat and villain was in the 1 or 2 seat? I recall thinking while you were tanking on the turn that if you had AA or KK that you should fold as villain looked to have a strong hand. He also seemed super relaxed when you asked about Batman hahaha that was hilarious! I was the tall white kid who was leaning against one of the pillars watching and waiting for my seat.

Would love to grab a beer sometime and chit chat about your playing style. Your obv a much more developed player than I am, but I love the way you play. Ill say hi next time I see ya. GL at the tables

^^^Think I may know who you are. Feel free to say hi next time. I'm there far too much.

I'll hold off a bit on the "frustrating day" hands. Really they were nothing more than coolers/standard beats, but the fact they came in 3 straight hands was just aggravating. Nothing overly interesting about the situations, I suppose the hands in essence played themselves. I'll only bother posting them if for some reason players really want them.

Had a few interesting situations develop today. This one is fairly player-dependent, so will give some history:

Villain in this hand is a stationy player who has a penchant for calling flops (I assume with a piece) then shoving or overbetting turns. Here is our history so far:

I have already folded 2 hands to him on bad turns turns

1) AJ on J24Q board) (5 limpers to my button I raised 30 pf. He called in EP. I bet flop 65 he called then shoved for 300+ On Q turn).

2) Later he opened 15 in ep, gets 2 callers so I made it 55 with TT on button. Flop comes J93 he checks I bet 75 he flats. K on turn he shoves for 400. I then tell him that that is the last time I'm folding to him next time I call! (This of course means absolutely jack ****.)

3) A bit later pot 6-way limped to my SB I complete with A 8.

Flop A T 3 Checked around.

Turn 7
I lead 25 he calls in MP everyone else folds.

River 6

I check he bets $35, I call. He has A:heart 9:diamond. I flip my hand face up for reasons.

---

And back to the hand. I have all players covered. UTG (villain) has around $500.

In HJ I am dealt A 7

Villain raises 20. MP Calls. I call in HJ. Button calls BB calls.

Flop 9 T 4

Checked to button, who bets $35(?!). 3 callers, including V and me.

Turn 6


V bets 100. MP Fold. I call. Button folds.

River A

V checks. I think my busted flush turned top pair has some extra value attached to it, so I bet 165, assuming he calls with most pairs in case I have a busted flush draw (which technically I do). V calls. I win. V mucks in frustration.

Table needles me a bit asking if I was worried about my kicker. I shrug, say obviously not, and move on.

Villain leaves table in frustration, but comes back an hour or so later and sits on my immediate right, where he will give me about $450 over the next few hours.

This hand also helped set up a few other situations as the day evolved.

Another hand I found somewhat interesting:

I'm dealt Q Q in HJ.

UTG raises to 15. MP Call. I raise to 55. Button calls. SB (a tight player and near nut-peddler I have a ton of history with) makes it 165. I call, but don't love it. Button shoves for last 225 (total). Call, call.

Flop 5 5 8

Villain shoves for $350 effective. I can tell from his demeanor he isn't
100% certain he is best, but I thinks he thinks he likely is. When I don't snap call, he relaxes his posture a bit. This leads me to believe he has either KK or JJ. I tank fold after he gives a small speech.

Board runs out J 2

Villain flips KK. Button scoops with A Q

Started today a quick $1k in the red. Changed seats and yatta yatta yatta...

no yellow teeth fail

The hand that started my rebound:


I won't classify villain in this hand too much because he may read this blog. I have a lot of history with him. He is seen by most to be loose aggro (borderline insane), and he just took a bad beat to get stacked.

At this point in the day I just changed seats after suffering two beat/coolers of my own. Don't think I've played a hand in the past 30 minutes or so.

I am UTG+1. UTG limps. I raise 25 with 5 6 MP calls. CO calls Button calls.

SB, the villain mentioned above, makes in 95. (300 behind). I opt to flat here (650 behind) because 1)my hand does well against his range IP and 2) I expect a waterfall effect to occur, as no one will be giving him much credit.

Button (aggro station) is the only one who calls ($1k). (Not what I was hoping for)

Flop A Q 6

SB shoves. I overshove. Button tank calls (and I pray he isn't on a flush draw).

Turn 9

River T

I scoop. EZ game.

Also came somewhat close to hitting te BBJ today (in relative terms).

2 limpers to to me. I make it 35 with QQ in HJ. CO calls, Button Calls, BB Calls
UTG calls.

Board 9 8 2

Checked to me I bet 70. CO and button both call.

Turn Q

I check. CO Checks. Button bets 75. I am 98% positive I am beat at this point, but I also assume if I boat up I bust him. I call, CO calls.

River 4

I check. CO shoves for $325 more. Button tanks a minute then shoves for maybe $50 more. I fold.

CO flips A 5
Button shows T J

Glad I missed my boat. Did a quick survey of table and no one else had a Queen PF, so I guess technically we had ~5% chance at a ~$150k BBJ (over $70k to me). Woulda been nice.

Another key reason I called the raise here had to do with my dynamics with the table. The last 3 times I had open raised I either had to fold to pressure preflop or on the flop. In all cases I was prob beat (AJs, AQ folded pre to large raises, TT released on Q high board.)

I sometimes like to point out that I am just your "weak tight bitch" or that I'm easy to get to fold. I let players run over me sometimes in low equity spots to set up for later hands.

The villain here I believe is more than aware I have been releasing hands easily. I'm much more apt to make a stab with 56s than I am with AJs or AQ, or even mid pocket pairs OOP.

IMO, there is enough thinking in poker as it is, and no reason for me to be guessing OOP where I'm at if I don't have to. With 65s, in generally have a pretty good idea where I stand pre and post flop.

AJ, on the other hand, I don't think I have ever once played this hand correctly OOP. Outside of flopping near nut hands, it usually becomes a guessing game and small game of chicken. I'd rather give up my slight equity and move on to a more favorable situation down the road.

Of corse ideally the SB would have had a larger effective stack, but I was counting on additional callers to make up a but for that inequity.

Plus, I really love being able to table 65 after open raising pf then being first to call a decent sized 3-bet. Those are the types of "spew" plays that get me paid on later hands.

The call there for me isn't standard, but no one at the table needs to know that. #MindOfAFish

1 out (the last queen) with one card to come isn't 5%.

It's 2.27%.

There were 24 known cards (actually 25 as dealer exposed a 3 burn card, but you had no way of knowing that), so technically it was around 4%. But I'm cool with my ~5% figure.

It doesn't work like that. But whatever makes you happy.

Woulda been happier if a Q fell, cause that would have made it 100%.


And I stand behind my gorilla math. I (barely) passed Calc BC in high school back in the 90s. I know what I'm talking about.

You calculate the odds at the time of the hand (on the turn, before the river) with the unknown hands.

That's a pure 1 outer and it's 2.27%.

And I'm officially done with the topic.

Btw I like your thread.

let's split the difference and say it's 3.50%.

moving along...

About* 3.50%

subbed gl

I tend to talk a lot when I play, particularly if I don't know you. I do it for a variety if reasons (self amusement/entertainment is one), but the primary reason I like to talk is to get baseline reads on players when they are relaxed.

While we are talking about your favorite watch or restaurant or movie I'm also trying to look for body language clues. Posture, breathing, eye movement...whatever. I try to do the same during times of stress...like when a player is in a hand, as he makes a difficult fold/call decision, etc.

The "batman" question isn't just me being silly. Often, if you can completely surprise an opponent with a question they just never see coming, you can get an honest reaction. Usually takes their brain a second or so to catch up with the body's betrayal. Batman, and Ben Affleck's casting in it, has probably made/saved me quite a few dollars this year. It's a fun, lighthearted way to get some real information. People sometimes falsely assume I'm just wasting time/saving face when I talk before a call/fold, but when I'm in a hand, banter becomes a strong weapon for me.

In this case I knew he was strong, but just didn't know how strong. His reaction told me to get the **** outta dodge. (He later said he had a set of nines, which did surprise me a bit. I was giving him a set of 5s as a high end. Didn't matter too much, except that instead of 4 outs I only had 2.)

Any sort of out-of-leftfield question or observation works. But obviously you can't overuse it... the element of surprise is the key.

There is just so much information available in a live game, seems a shame not to capitalize in it when you can. (And of course give tells the proper weight they deserve. With some players they can be damn near 100% reliable; with others maybe they can be used to tip a marginal decision slightly one way or another.)

So what's the best thing for a villain to do. Just sit still?

If you are an amatuer or not used to playing live, then yeah, pretty much. Just bury your head, sit back, and shut up (which mixes classic tells nicely).

Not talking to me at all is prob the smartest thing (and if I've already player with you, too late!) or at least be cautious when doing so. And FFS don't show me your hands when you don't have to. #HowToBeatAFish

One thing I do recommend to students is to read the classic "Caro's book of tells." Even tho it's old and the pictures are laughably out of date, the information in it is solid and still applicable today.

While classic tales are really only good if you have no read on a player and can be faked, it's still good to know what they are in case you find yourself in a difficult jam. Plus you can then tweak and refine your own "tells" to better suit the outcome you want. But remember, everyone is different, and in some cases strong really does mean strong.

I also recommend students take it a step further and read genuine forensic books on body language. I am fortunate enough to be friends with a "human lie detector" that works for a 3-letter agency, and he has given me a few tips and tricks to look for at a table. If you have one of those guys at your disposal, I highly advise taking advantage of it.

Ironically enough, he is a ****ty poker player. (Despite also having an IQ that I assume is off the charts... He scary smrt.) So that should also serve as a cautionary tale that there is much more to live poker (obv) than tells and soul reading. It's just one part if the package that helps make someone a completely player (which I am not yet.)

subd

I might turn down a notch or two on the whole talking thing. For one, I think fundamentals are way more important. Second, it doesn't really work in bigger games. Third, I think sometimes you risk stepping on the wrong side of the ethical line; obtaining information is valuable but angling should be avoided IMO. There's already so much deception and obfuscation built into the game that you don't need to further complicate it with verbal fishing for information, ESP vs weaker opponents who don't stand a chance in the long run anyway. Just my two cents... Keep up the good work!