Yeah, it is so clear in hindsight. I wish I could make cooler decisions in the heat of the moment, and get away from these hands. And normally I can more often. It was just a bad read against a maniac. This is definitely my biggest leak.

I meant I had edited, and thought you hadn't seen it. As a moderator, you should be able to see that the post had been changed. Non-ninja power of deductive reasoning.

Were there any limpers? If so, raise more preflop. What was the maniac's position?

On the flop did you consider over-betting the pot? For some reason we all like to under-bet, and that seems to have become "standard", but I think over-betting against a maniac might be a good play, especially with deeper stacks, because now later streets become easier. It's a somewhat wet board.

The turn is a rough spot, but thinking of my own local bluff-happy maniac, I still probably suck it up and shove, even this deep. And again, why not lead out for more? If you had bet more on the flop, it's even easier to get it all in on the turn. Two pair is the least likely hand, much more likely to be top pair or pair/draw. On the other hand, "Don't go broke with one pair." The river is gross.

Good suggestions on bet sizing. I do tend to try to rope people in by offering spots for them to make marginally bad calls. Dudes like this I should be putting more pressure on.

I rarely over-bet the pot myself, so I'm going to try to remember to do it tonight. I remember reading PNLHv1 where they'd talk about 1.3x PSBs, and thinking, "Wha-huh? Who would ever do that? Nobody's going to call that! It's crazy-talk!" I'll try it against our resident maniacs and calling stations if we get in deeper stacked situations.

But yeah, there's one guy I'm happy to take to town regardless of pot size, with top pair or an overpair, or with AJ+ or 99+ preflop. He'll call with a very wide range, even 22, since in his mind we're probably flipping, right? The sooner I can get the chips in the middle, the better. Tho' we're usually not playing quite as deep as you were on that hand. Queens is a rough hand. That's really the problem with 99-QQ... when you don't flop overs, you flop two pairs or straight draws for your opponents.

I also never over-bet the pot, and considering some of the guys I play against, I probably should start doing it.

I fall into the same mindset as eneely, thinking that I'll lose value by folding out all the hands I beat and only getting called when I'm behind. But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised - I bet I get a few calls just because "that big bet MUST be a bluff, he's trying to make me fold!"

We are talking ourselves into joining the LAG-tards. Or maybe we'd by TAG-tards. And rightly so, the more I think about it. It's probably good to play these games like a ticking time bomb. They will never know when we'll go off, but when we do, it will be a big blast. And the beautiful thing is, it will look just like them when they do it.

I'm not talking about opening up my range, just betting bigger when I'm in a hand. It was easier to do when I had more outside sources of income, that's the truth. The value in big bet poker is playing for stacks. When I'm ahead, I want my stack in the middle as quickly as possible.

In mathematics of poker, they discuss "betting the geometric progression of the pot". In other words, size your bets so that you are threatening an all-in on the river if your opponent just calls you down. With deeper stacks, that means >pot bets. Such a bet sends a loud-and-clear "I like my hand". Smaller bets might be saying "my hand is pretty good, but I don't want to play for stacks".

I'm not sure I think that's always a good idea, but something to think about.

Also, a lot of opponents hardly pay attention to your betsizing at all. You can exploit the hell out of them by betting big with your big hands, and small with your bluffs.

"TAG-tards." I like it.

This is basically the way I play at my regular cash game. I've heard guys moan when I enter a hand behind them. They know that I'm not in a lot of pots, but the ones I'm in will usually be big.

IMO this is a fundamental difference between a cash game TAG and LAG. The LAG wants to play a lot of small pots and few big ones. A good TAG plays fewer pots, but a larger percentage of those pots will be big.

Have you heard of the "greater douchebag theory"? Any tactic your opponents use that you hate, you should consider incorporating into your own strategy.

I overbet a couple of times tonight. But with the craziness at this game, didn't have to do much. $40 < $230. Booyah! It's fun to run good. Made most of it in the first hour, then got drunk and sat on it.

it's funny how my homegames i attend trend in the same ways yours seem to be.
the game i played in the other night was way loose way "over calling" to "see a flop"
and a .25/.25 game quickly began to play like a 3/6NLH which was fine for me to pick my spots and wait for hands. I opened light a few times, and was able to take down a few big hands by hitting two pair with 67s etc. but the hand that made me feel the best about my reading abilities was this one.

i pick up AQc UTG and put in what had become the table's standard raise (8x) i get 3 callers. the flop comes KJK, the SB bets small, i simply call, and the others fold. turn is another K. he bets 1/2 the pot. and at this point, i'm reading the SB as playing an ace. b/c of hand history and time i've played against him, he'd do this kind of semi bluff to push me off a pocket pair, or maybe a J. so i call. and the river is a 4. he bets 2/3 the pot now. (i have about twice the bet behind) and i tank for longer than i normally do. would he do this with a K? or a J? no. he'd normally ship with that. the only hands he doesn't ship to get all my chips is something i comfortably have beat... so, in case my read isn't as good as i think it is... i call. he turns over AT. i turn over AQ, and he says "chop it up"... um. no... my kicker plays. trip kings w/ AQ.

then later he needles me about "calling that big bet with just an ace on the turn..."

to which i got to reply, satisfyingly, "that wasn't about what I had, it was about what you DIDN'T have..."

I tried overbetting the pot several times last night, but it not work out well at all. Every time I tried someone would say, "You ****ing idiot, it's pot limit!"

I played my first tourney in several weeks last night. I drew a bad seat and ended up at the table with all the mega-loose calling stations. "Bad seat, wha?" Well, it's great when you catch a hand occasionally, but it's a rotten spot to be in when you're card dead. At this table I won a couple of small pots, but mostly bled slowly in spite of my constant folding.

One hand was a bit wacky. I opened from the cutoff with QT (yeah, yeah) and got a call from the button - a loose, erratic (but not necessarily bad) player. Flop J-high rainbow, I c-bet and he calls. Turn rag, he feels weak so I decide to two-barrel, but again he calls. At this point I'm sure he has a pair that he's not folding, and I give up on the river King. He checks behind and doesn't say anything for a few seconds. I say, "um...Queen high?" and he shows a Queen. I table my hand and he shows Q6o - wtf? No pair, no draw, he called through the turn and then checked behind on the river when I had obviously given up? I had to move my jaw off the table to scoop the pot.

I hit the final table with 4k (10BB at this point), catch a few hands and work it up to a respectable 13k, but was still in push/fold mode thanks to the huge blinds. I folded a little longer, then put in 11k (5.5BB) from the button with KQ. BB hems and haws, says he thinks I'm bluffing but looks really uncomfortable, then finally calls with 88. The board runs low and I'm down to little more than 1BB.

I fold junk junk junk until the BB gets around to me. I shove blind with one EP limper and the SB, and I don't even look until the board runs out. Amazingly, I catch a pair of 8s, but SB also has an 8. Our kickers don't play and we chop up the EP limper. Next hand I fold 42o in the SB, and I'm right back to where I started.

Finally, I'm on the BTN with AT, CO raises (folding out the blinds and one limper - THANK YOU!), and I'm all-in with a chance to quadruple up. He shows 77 and the board runs T8465. Ow, that stings.

All in all I think I made the most of a bad early seat and mediocre cards. If I had managed to win one or two flips, I might have had a chance.

I played a tourney last night, as well. Really bad cards and fairly mediocre play on my part knocked me out third. With about 8 BB left, a monster pot developed where I had KQ against three opponents. The flop was QT9 with 2 hearts. I was not certain my hand was best, for sure, but what else could I do with my now even shorter stack? I went all-in, which was about half the pot, and after 2 of the 3 folded, the final villain called with a set of T's. Ouch. Oh well, if I had checked and he went all-in, I would have had to call anyway.

BwaaaDUM-BUMP!!!

"Thank you, thank you- I'll be here all week!"

<crickets>

fyp

Last night was refershing change of pace for the game as both the maniac (who as I reported in earlier posts is currently "angry" with the group and not attending) and the biggest calling station (on vacation in Amsterdam) were not at the table. Finally you don't get to play every pot vs. the same guys

Early in the game I pick up some good cards and build up my stack. I them limp in with 65s from EP and it gets raised behind with a couple of cold calls afterwards. So I decide to take advatage of my nit image to capitalize on the dead money in the pot and reraise. I figure everyone will put me on AA (maaaaaaaaaaaybe KK) and fold. Plan would have worked to perfection but for one thing - a new guy someone brought sitting directly to my left. Since we were short a guy from the group recruited a friend from work and he was unknown. So after overlimping he just flats my big reraise and we both see a flop with me OOP!!! (yuck).

Flop comes J76 rainbow. With bottom pair I decide to give up and just check. He checks behind. Turn is a 5 and I think REDEMPTION! and bet half pot with my turned 2-pair. He just calls. River is a 7, by 2-pair is counterfeited and I check planning to insta muck and he just checks behind. I show my hand (to the huge surprise of all the regulars) and expect to be shown a Jack. Guy turns over QQ!!!!! While outside I'm all quiet inside I'm like WTF DUDE!!! He overlimped-flatted with QQ and then never bet once with an overpair. Later I noticed he didn't raise Preflop once all evening. So if he doesn't raise QQ I guess his raising hands are AA and KK? Or maybe KK is too risky?

I had another hand after that where I lost another big chunk. I had AQ and got donked into on a Q high rainbow board. I knew the guy donking into me had a weak range which was either MP, some PP, or at best TP with a crappy kicker. In the past he had folded to big raises on the flop. Since I actually had something I decided to call and let him keep firing. Turn he fires again and I just call planning to bet the river when he checks as he always does with weak made hands. River puts a 4-straight on the board and he fires again. This raises alarm bells in my head. But he bets only like 1/5 the pot so I call and he shows a rivered 2-pair with Q7o. I curse myslef for not popping him on the turn and rebuy to replnish my small stack of 20bb.

Later on I manage to keep afloat and just when I think I will be ending the evening down I pick up.......AA! Again, EP and I elect to Limp-Reraise again and bank on the play I did earlier to maybe pick up a customer or two who will think I'm FOS. So I carry it out and again the new guy to my left just limp-flats again. This time his flatting bring a cascade of callers behind (late in the evening, before wrapping up, people play looser) and I end up seeing a 5-way flop(!) in a 3-bet pot. Flop come J74-rainbow which aside from an Ace is about as good as I can hope for checked to me and I just shove my remaining stack which is only about 1/4 of the pot anyway. New guy and LAG behind him fold and Q7 guy from before raises and folds everyone else out. I show my AA and he says he's drawing dead?! (AK?). Board runds out and I pick up the pot to put me back to even + a few. Ended the evening up a modest 50bb and never felt better!

On the way out someone else commented how it was nice to play a game where you don't play pots against the same 2 guys all evening.

It does make for a nice change when the LAG doesn't show. I like the excitement, but I also like quiet Sunday afternoons on the deck. Our LAG has been playing the raked games and doing all right. The uber-LAGs in those games have forced him to play tighter and be more patient. It leaves me with my under-betting regulars, drawing away at the hands they won't believe they lost to, yet again.

My friend reported that Dead Money lost over $1k on Tuesday. In fact, he was down $700 in the first hour. Early my friend was dealt KQ, and the flop was JT9. DM fired away on every street and he just called. That was a quick $200 double-up to start the night. Shoulda been me.

Another solid game last night. The home game is solid again. After being closed from May 2009 'til almost a year later, then dark again this summer, we've got a solid crew these past couple of months. I was worried for a bit, because we were shutting down early, and sometimes only had one table, but we've been two tables strong for over a month now, going 'til quitting time at 2am, with people coming and going all evening long. Lots of new regulars, good peeps. Sadly for my bottom line, people aren't drinking nearly as much as they used to.

The music mix is a hit, too, probably the most popular in a long time. Listen to those samples, seek out the stuff that's new to you!

played a 10¢/25¢ NLHE home game yesterday at a friend's house. The host spammed the local meetup groups to get a few extra players. 4 strangers showed up. British Guy and Asian Guy were generally nice, funny, and social guys. i didnt like Big White Guy because he talked way too much strategy. I think the host likes him because they work in the same career field so they had alot to chat about.

The 4th stranger, the Shady Indian Guy, was... well... shady. He walked in and said he'll sit and watch for a little bit before joining. after an orbit and a half, he stood up, and said that it was nice meeting all of us and he'll play next time. 5 sec after he left, the host said "did we just get scouted?" We laughed and agreed that while that was a realistic possibility, the more likely reason for his early departure was that he wasn't comfortable with our loose-agressive style.

I lost over 4 buyins (online poker unit: 1BI = 100bb) because I was screwing around the majority of the night. Also, I was playing alot of fixed limit the past week and couldnt get out of the limit mindset (if you have it, bet it; if you don't have it, call to suck out). After I lost 3BI I told myself "ok time to take this seriously and breakeven."

I picked up 72o (a monster btw) in a straddled pot and made a raise to $2 in MP. 3 players called. flop came K32r and i cbet $5 into a pot of a little shy of $9. the guy to my immediately left (lets call him Chris) raised to $15 and the other two players fold. When it was my turn to act Chris started telling me to fold and that he got it. If history is any indication, Chris always has a made hand when he makes this speech. Therefore, I decided to call praying for a 5 outter. The pot is ≈$39 going to the turn and I had less than $30 behind. turn is a 2 for a board of K322. I checked with the intention to call an all-in shove. If Chris did not shove I'll shove any non-K-or-3 river. Chris checks behind. River is a Q for a board of K322Q no flush possibility and I shoved my trip deuces board kicker. Chris insta-called and said boat. I said "how?!?!" because the only boat I put Chris on was 33 (there's no way he has KK because he flatted my preflop raise and he won't make that play with QQ). He flips over 32cc.

oh yeah I played 72o because we were playing seven deuce bounty in the form of a quarter per person.

in b4

OMFG that's an awesome picture. Sadly I have a feeling that was a 'shop or otherwise intentionally labeled. My redline scanner can't register it to see.

i found it while back in some random BBV thread. i did a quick google search and found a larger image where the barcode is somewhat legible.



search results seem to indicate it was shopped.

Definitely a 'shop (two styles of text) but I still LOL'd.