$5/10NL: Go with the flow
After taking a huge chunk of 2009 completely off poker, I've been pressing hard these past few weeks to get hands in. I notice every single time I take more than a week off poker, things have changed when I come back. Online poker is a young business sector, and there is always something new or different that requires attention, assuming you want to stay on top of things and press all your edges. The last time I took 2 weeks off, I came back and did my usual sitting at 2 heads-up tables... except instead of 3 other regs waiting for action, there were about 25! My site had uncapped the number of heads-up tables, and only now, months later, can I see just how much money I lost by NOT immediately scouting out new sites and tables to play. I estimate I get about 20% of the soft action I used to get there 9 months ago. I can blame the site, and even Email their support in protest, but the most important thing I should have done was to take that opportunity to do some research, and possibly find a new fish pond. Well...better late than never!
I now regular four sites in search of good tables at the $5/10 level and up. For you guys that play micros and small stakes, this extreme table selection isn't quite as important as site (high rakeback/bonuses) selection, but remember the goal in business.. and we should all treat this poker stuff like business... is to keep that rate of income moving upwards. Use every tool and method to achieve this. I'll leave the rant there for now, but I'd like to explore some more unconventional methods of increasing your winrate another time. I'm always up for questions and comments as well. I'll finish this post with some HH's from recent sessions:
Against a loose-aggressive regular, against whom my main note reads "Loves to **** around on rivers, especially check-raise bluffs":
$5/$10 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by
weaktight.com
Stacks:
UTG (
$3,754.26)
CO ($1,102)
Hero (BTN) ($1,551)
SB (
$908)
BB (
$1,359)
Pre-Flop: (
$15, 5 players)
Hero is BTN Q
J
1 fold,
CO raises to $30,
Hero raises to $105,
2 folds, CO calls $75
Flop: J
4
3
(
$225, 2 players)
CO checks,
Hero bets $136, CO calls $136
Turn: 3
(
$497, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks
River: 9
(
$497, 2 players)
CO checks,
Hero bets $100,
CO goes all-in $861, Hero calls $761
Final Pot: $2,219
CO shows
9
9
Hero shows
Q
J
CO wins $2,215 (net +$1,113)
Hero lost $1,102
I am convinced CO will make this same river move with TT, 88, 77, possibly 66-55 if he takes those to a flop, and possibly AK/AQ if he peels a flop with those. I feel my only mistake here was betting just $100 on the river. I wanted to induce a check-raise bluff on the end, but I think the $100 into $497 bet was a little TOO obvious. I should have sized my bet to appear like a credible bluff like $300 or $275. I DO in fact throw out small bluffs like that, but almost always against fish who don't think past their own two cards.
Here's a series of hands from today. They centre around one player, and I want to illustrate how far you can go in exploiting a player's mistakes. I literally closed my other tables after viewing hand #1 here, because I wanted to watch and learn as much about this fish as possible in order to trap him with the right hand:
#1
Grabbed by
Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $10(BB) Replayer
SB ($227)
BB ($340)
UTG ($1,144)
Hero ($1,000)
CO ($964)
BTN ($1,000)
Dealt to Hero 4
8
UTG calls $10, fold, fold, fold,
SB raises to $80, fold,
UTG calls $70
FLOP ($170) 7
Q
6
SB bets $147 (AI), UTG calls $147
TURN ($464) 7
Q
6
2
RIVER ($464) 7
Q
6
2
T
SB shows K
A
(Pre 68%, Flop 22.5%, Turn 13.6%)
UTG shows J
6
(Pre 32%, Flop 77.5%, Turn 86.4%)
UTG wins $461
#2
Grabbed by
Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $10(BB) Replayer
SB ($1,000)
BB ($412)
UTG ($377)
UTG+1 ($918)
Hero ($1,338)
BTN ($1,192)
Dealt to Hero J
2
UTG raises to $20,
UTG+1 calls $20, fold, fold, fold,
BB raises to $412 (AI), fold,
UTG+1 calls $392
FLOP ($849) 5
7
8
TURN ($849) 5
7
8
6
RIVER ($849) 5
7
8
6
A
BB shows J
A
(Pre 64%, Flop 79.2%, Turn 22.7%)
UTG+1 shows 9
K
(Pre 36%, Flop 20.8%, Turn 77.3%)
UTG+1 wins $846
#3
Grabbed by
Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $10(BB) Replayer
SB ($1,250)
Hero ($1,248)
UTG ($1,299)
UTG+1 ($1,074)
CO ($200)
BTN ($1,977)
Dealt to Hero 5
Q
UTG raises to $35, fold,
CO raises to $200 (AI), fold,
SB calls $195, fold, fold
FLOP ($445) 5
6
T
TURN ($445) 5
6
T
K
RIVER ($445) 5
6
T
K
K
CO shows A
A
(Pre 90%, Flop 97.1%, Turn 88.6%)
SB shows K
2
(Pre 10%, Flop 2.9%, Turn 11.4%)
SB wins $442
The payoff:
Grabbed by
Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $10(BB) Replayer
SB ($2,713)
Hero ($1,228)
UTG ($1,000)
UTG+1 ($1,054)
CO ($387)
BTN ($1,962)
Dealt to Hero A
A
fold, fold, fold, fold,
SB calls $5, Hero raises to $246, SB calls $236
FLOP ($492) 9
2
4
SB checks, Hero bets $289, SB calls $289
TURN ($1,070) 9
2
4
8
SB bets $2,178 (AI), Hero calls $693 (AI)
RIVER ($2,456) 9
2
4
8
J
SB shows 7
7
(Pre 19%, Flop 7.6%, Turn 4.5%)
Hero shows A
A
(Pre 81%, Flop 92.4%, Turn 95.5%)
Hero wins $2,453