Online stats

Last night I finally stumbled across the program Poker Tracker which I have been meaning to look in to for years. I have always played Bodog and it didn't support the site but now that I'm on Full Tilt I can use it. Basically Poker Tracker keeps track of everything that goes on at the table and then conveniently keeps a huge database of every hand you've seen or played in. It starts to categorize players based on certain statistics that they show including money voluntarily put into the pot, pre flop raise %, agression ((% raise + % bet)/ %call). Theres a plethora of categories but ultimately you end up with a pretty good picture of what kind of player you are against. I even downloaded a helper program that puts icons on the players I'm playing with to show (such as a rock, eagle (for tight agressive), fish, etc). The program lays all the stats and a players tendencies right on the actual table.

All of this probably sounds technical but it is really not. Poker is like many other things in life where you can side with the statistics or you can go with your instinct. The more I played with Poker Tracker the more I found myself not paying attention to people at the tables because the program was doing it for me. After a couple rounds of blinds (or previous sessions with the same players), my screen was filled up with rocks, eagles and other icons telling me the tendencies of every player at the table. This is so helpful that I have already seen an increase in my results but I feel like part of the game is lost. What are your thoughts on this? Have you heard about these programs? Part of me feels like the game is about people but the other part thinks that taking any advantage possible (aside from cheating) is the survival of the fittest.

Am I beat?

I believe I've already gone over these hands with Noonan, so Joe, I'd like to hear what you think about the following situations:

(all hands Villian and I have around $350 - $500 respectively, unless stated)

1. I am in the BB with A-Q with 4 other limpers. Flop comes Q-8-4 all hearts, and I have the A of hearts. SB checks and I lead out for $20 into ~$25 pot. Middle position calls and everyone else gets out of the way. Turn comes another 8 (Q-8-4-8). I lead out for $45 and Villian raises to $100 after thinking for a short while.

2. Again, I have A-Q in the SB with 3 other limpers. Flop comes down A-10-5 with two spades. I check, BB checks, middle position checks and cutoff throws in $25 very quickly. Seeing this, it is obvious that he is weak, so in order to maxmize value, I min raise to $50. Everyone else folds, and button calls quickly without thinking. Turn comes an offsuit J. I make it $70 to go and button thinks for a while and makes it $170 to go.

3. I am on the button! A solid player two to my right makes it $25 to go preflop. I look down at A-K and with position, I make it $75 to go. The BB, a very solid opponent, who smooth calls just about everything, smooth calls yet again (about $230 behind him) and the original raiser thinks and calls. Flop comes down K-8-6 with two hearts. Goes check-check to me and I make it $75 to go (I have about $250 left). The BB thinks and thinks, then calls again! Original raiser thinks and groans before throwing away. Turn comes a Q of hearts (3 hearts on board) and opponent max bets $150 (has around $80 behind him). I have the A of hearts....

top two vs set

I was going to first post this hand without showing the results to see how you guys would have played it differently but to get the best feedback I decided to just tell you how the hand played out. This was at a Full Tilt 1/2 table 9 handed. I had been playing fast and agressive taking down many small pots until this hand came up:

I was on the cutoff with A Ks, it had folded around to me so I made it $7 to go. Button called and so did BB. Flop came out A K 6 rainbow. BB checked and I led out for $12 (pot $22). Button quickly called and BB folded. Turn came a 2, so once again I led out for $24 (pot $46). Button once again quickly called. River came a J which made a board with no flush draws. I led out again once more for $64 (pot $104). Villian quickly min raised to $128 without thinking at all. Now, I wanted to raise here because he rasied so quickly his bet really looked like 2 pair to me. AJ seemed most likely, I couldn't really put villian on Q 10, so the only other possible hands he could have were 22 or 66. I couldn't fold here, I had pot committed myself by taking the lead in the hand. Anyway, I decided to just call because there are more hands here that beat me than hands that I have him beat (both of us had about $100 more after the call). Villian flipped over 6 6 for a flopped set. Now, here is my question: What could I have done differently here? How would you have played this hand (assuming that whatever you did villian was going to smooth call you, or at least play to trap)? I feel like I lost the minimum here based on my style and how I play but still cannot think of any other situation where I could have not lost money here.

The Min-Raise

I used to hate min-raising. I still rarely do it but I think it can be used to deceive and trap opponents. The reason I hated the min raise was because when someone did it to me I didn't know what to make of it. I thought that worse players would use the play when they thought they had the best hand. I mean nobody would ever bluff min-raise right? Well I was playing with Scott about 3 or 4 weeks ago in a live game where he was showing me his cards. Multiple times he would min raise on his draws or stone cold bluffs and always he would get respect for his raise and usually take the hand down. I don't know if he knew the power of his play or if he was just doing what he thought was right but it was working against his opponents.

I want to get into the psychology (?) of the min-raise. It is a raise, which is a sign of strength, but its also the minimum amount possible which is a sign of weakness (or feigned weakness). The play sends a wide variety of messages but I think the one that most players pick up on is "call me I'm strong but I won't make it too expensive". Now you would think that at higher level games this play wouldn't work, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. If you don't believe me sit down at a table and start min-raising your strong hands and see what happens. Each table reacts differently, but once you get a feel for how they are taking this play you can use it to open up your game. I found the best place to use the min raise was on draws. I had been min raising my draws for about an hour at a 1/2 table online until one of the players started catching on. I hit a flush after min raising and got paid off but I knew the next time I did this play I was going to get played back into. Well luckily I hit a set in a raised pot with a flush draw out there about 2 rounds later. Villian bet the flop with his top pair and I quickly minraised him. He almost immediately moved all in trying to force me off the draw. Long story short I won a big pot that was set up by min raising. Try it out or at least have this play in your arsenal I'm sure there will be an opportunity to trap a good opponent who won't know what hit him.

Some thoughts about losing

I'm sitting here after a 4-hour losing session (-$130) at the casino and would just like to throw out some thoughts on losing sessions. Losing sessions aren't bad. In fact, I think they are essential towards making you a better player. Now, I know there are times when you play everything perfect yet still lose, but when you deserve to lose a session because of your play, I think some good comes from it. Tonight, I realised that every table is different. Plays that worked on my table 4 days ago, were absolutely horrific at my table tonight. A good player is able to adjust and play well at any table. I did not adjust tonight (and along with losing focus) and was humbled by it. In order to play well at a table, you must be in control of the action, yet also be "inside the game". Sometimes being in control of the action means simply waiting there and only betting your good hands. Being in control does not always mean you're raising and re-raising every pot. That's where I messed up tonight. I tried to bully around every pot I came into, popping and re-popping almost every time. Never once did my opponent(s) fold, so I probably bluffed off somewhere in the neighborhood of $800. Also, "being inside the game", in my opinion, means knowing at all times the flow of the game, the way people are playing, and how you should play hands against each player. But this is just my opinion...

Tonight, with the exception of the first 30 minutes, I was totally out of sync with the rest of the table. When you realize this, you must channel all your energy into focusing intently on the action, thereby getting you back on the right track, or take a walk/switch tables. Unless your just playing to have fun, poker demands an insane amount of attention when at the table.

Before we move on

Before we go on to any new posts, I want to finish discussion concerning the A-Q hand and the 7-5 hand Joe posted...What is the correct play for these two situations and why? I've posted my thoughts and have given reasons to them, so I would like to see what you two think....

Hypothetical Situation

I just had a question if a certain situation were to arise. Lets say for example that you buy in for $200 at a 1/2 game and there are relatively no short stacks...

you have JJ in the BB and its a ten handed table, someone from second position leads out $15 and lets say 7 people call him simply because after the previous person called, the pot odds were getting better so everyone wanted to get in the pot. Now the action comes back to you and there's roughly $100 in the pot already...

Do you think moving all-in here is a good play?

An intesresting hand

Once again bodog 1/2:

This is one of my first hands at the table. I'm in the BB with AQs. Everyone but 1 person limps in to villian who is on the button. Villian raises to $13, I call and so does first position. Right here I'm putting villian on a hand like 1010 through AA but more likely his range is 10 10 or JJ trying to protect his overpair from all the limpers. As for first position, I most likely put him on a pair from 99-22 just trying to hit a set against a strong raise hoping to win a monster pot. Anyway, the flop comes down Q 8 2 rainbow. Me and first position check and vililan bets $25 into a pot of about $50.

I have two questions for you. 1) What do you put villian on right here? 2)If villian does indeed have a hand that I beat such as 10 10 or JJ what should I do to extract the maximum out of this situation?

Fold?

Bodog 1/2:

Villian was at about $350 and got down to $150 after getting rivered by a flush draw. He began raising to $50 preflop and reraising other pre flop raisers. He had gotten his stack up to about $200 when I tangled with him.

I had A10s on the cutoff, I raised to $6 and villian in the SB raises to $25, I call. Flop comes K 10 2 rainbow. Villian thinks then checks to me. I bet $22 and villian immediately moves all in for about $155 more. Should I call?

Bottom Two

Heres a fitting hand that took place last night at the casino:

I am on the button with around $650 with the 5-3 offsuit. I have been betting and raising more than my fair share of hands as well up to this point. The villian in this hand is someone who is new to the game, but has been playing long enough so that he thinks he knows what he is doing. For example, earlier he check-raised a guy on the flop with top pair, no kicker, and still called the guy's reraise all-in, thinking his top pair was good. Of course, the other person had AA, but the villian found a river card that was nice to him, and made two pair. Anyways, everyone limps and since I have the button, I limp as well.

The FLOP comes K-5-3, all clubs. The cutoff +2 bets $15 (weak bet) and the villian directly behind him calls. It folds to me on the button, and I make it $65 to go with my bottom two. Everyone folds back to the villian, who thinks for about 45 seconds and calls (it looked like he thought about reraising too). The turn comes a wonderful offsuit 8, and he checks. I make it $150 to go (max bet) and he immediately reraises his last $85. I immediately am pissed becuase I feel like he slow-played a flush, but he flashes me the A of clubs, along with a look that he is drawing. The river comes an ugly K (K-5-3-8-K) and he shows A-4 offsuit, for A-high. I win with Kings and Fives!

Afterwards, I was thinking - if he would have reraised me on the flop when it got back around to him, would I have been able to call? I talked about this with the others at my table and they seemed to agree in that situation (he reraises the flop) that I have an easy decision to call/reraise him. In my opinion, it doesn't seem that straight forward. To me, it looks like he flopped the nutz...What do you guys think - easy call or fold? Honestly, I was 70/30 in favor of folding if he would have reraised....

A new style...

Over the years of trying to develop a solid game online I found myself playing ultra tight but also ultra agressive which paid off big. This style I found to have a few problems: It sometimes was very slow, the cards dictated the action, and when depending on the cards for action some bad beats could crush a bankroll. Having the luxury of final table-ing in a few tournaments in the past month, I finally had a bankroll to try a strategy I've always wanted to try at tables where the players were good enough for it to work on. The strategy is very loose and agressive but also the priority is pot control. Bets are way smaller than any other strategy but they are frequent and thought out. Any two cards can be played in late position and the standard raise is 3x the BB. Flop play is very instinctive but the bet is usually about half the pot if checked to. Basically my goal was to control every pot I play, and to play as many hands as possible. Controlling the pot does not mean betting into it every time but more controlling the size through bets and controlling what the other players do. Bets should be small enough to call but large enough to where if an opponent raises you, he is committing a big amount of chips to be wrong.

What I found is that the swings of using this are very big. Most of the time I sit down at a table I'll lose $100-$200 (between 3 tables) total before finally getting up. When I do get up though I usually can leave the table with 3+ buy ins because of all the action I get on my big hands and all the mid sized pots I'm stealing that let me gamble when other players finally decide to raise. I get raised some, but not as often as you think. I mostly get raised when I first sit down and people notice I've been raising to $6 every hand. Also I'll bet a few flops and get raised off of those. I win more pots than I lose though and because of that when I do get raised out of a hand after firing at a flop it is more than covered for the other times I get folded to. Then of course there is the turn and river play where my bets usually stay within the 50-85% of the pot range. This is to allow me to bluff at a lot more pots and get paid off almost every time I do have a hand. I even noticed getting raised a lot more on the river by people with marginal holdings or complete bluffs. People at the table sometimes get mad and will call me a donk but its been so successful that I think its actually a decent strategy. Of course a lot of my play is based on instincts and reading what the other guy has so I can act accordingly. I mix up my play to not try to be too predictable (I start to see a lot of people limping in early positions with big hands trying to get me to build a pot for them to steal). Anyway I wanted to share this with you because of how successful its been and wanted you guys to maybe try it. Thoughts and comments too? Short term losses can be bigger than usual but over a long session you'll almost always end up.

Mid-Range Connectors

I was watching Bodog's $10/$20 NLHE table this evening and an interesting hand came up. Four people including the UTG player limped for $20. The guy in the cutoff makes it $150 to go and only the UTG player calls. The FLOP comes A-10-4 all spades. UTG checks and cutoff makes it $240 to play. Cutoff calls. TURN is an 7 of hearts (A-10-4-7). UTG checks again, and the cutoff goes all-in for ~$1400 and UTG thinks about it for awhile and calls. UTG shows AK, without a spade, while the cutoff shows 8-6 of spades for a flopped flush.

I noticed and interesting trend recently with HUGE pots being won by the guy usually on the button or in the cutoff, raising with mid-range connecting hands like 8-7 or 7-6s. The other day, a guy at the casino won two large pots with 8-7 while I was sitting there, both times busting someone. The first time, some guy in early position made it $20 to go (3/5 blinds), got 2 callers, and the HERO on the button made it $50 to go and all 3 call. He ends up making a straight and busting the original raiser and later, makes a similar play with 8-7 again, and busts another person.

I really like this play bc by reraising in this position, you're given credit for a big hand, such as A-Q/A-K or even a big pair. This works for your benefit in two ways:

1. If the FLOP comes A (or K)-x-x, you can go ahead and steal without concern, since the opponenet will need a set/two-pair to continue since you probably have top pair with a good kicker. Also, with two-pair/set, he will raise you, thinking that you will be unable to get away from your big hand.

2. When the flop actually comes cards that match your hand, say FLOP is 8-7-3 rainbow and you've got 8-7, they put you on A-K and assume their 55 (or whatever) is good and will give you action. They may even try to blow you off the hand with a naked raise, in hopes that you fold your "A-K".

So in my opinion, raising or even reraising slightly IN POSITION with mid-range hands works to your advantage in two ways...

Poker Etiquette

I just had a quick question about proper "poker etiquette".

I called a guy's all in for a pot that was about 600$ and when the river came he says your good..but he won't muck his hand...He is basically waiting for me to show so he can muck....

Is it wrong for me to ask to see his hand after i know i have already won the pot?

P.S.
I like the new format by the way....the quote is also very suitable.

Maximizing value

This hand just happened on Bodog 1/2 and left me wondering if I played it wrong.

My stack is ~500 and villian is around ~250. Anyway I'm middle position with 5 7 off so of course I raise to $6 and get 4 callers. Villian is directly to my left so he acts after me on each hand. I have position on the other two callers (the blinds). Flop comes 7 5 2 rainbow. Blinds check to me and I make my standard continuation bet of about half the pot or $12 in this case. Villian smooth calls and blinds fold. Turn comes a 7 giving me the nuts. I bet $19 into the $48 pot and villian raises me to $45. Whats my next move?

And I apologize for the sloppy writing, it's late and hard for me to think straight.

Online Poker....

I was playing at a 2/4 table last night and brought in 230$...anyways i got down to about 160$ish before this hand took place...

I was on the big blind 9 handed and it folded all the way to the small blind who just limped and i checked with 86 offsuit.

The flop brings 95J with two spades...he bets 4$...i call( by the way he has about 130$).

The turn brings a 7 spades and he bets 15$ i raise him 25$ he pushes all-in for about 110$....What would you do here?

Frank The Tank

Well this hand really pertains to Joe becuase he has played with Frank as much as i have...Anyways this is the only hand really worth metioning about my session last night...You guys should be happy to know that i finally didn't bluff of my stack...Anyways Max feel free to comment as well......

So i have AK unsuited 3rd postion and i make it 16$ to go Frank is the lone caller and he is on the cut off...Max you should know that Frank's style of play involves betting/raising his draws, and just smooth calling his big hands....This is essentially how he always plays....

So the flop comes 552, with two hearts...i dont have a heart...

I lead out 17$ and Frank raises me 40$ more...

Now i am pretty sure i have the best hand from Franks style of play but nevertheless i only have A high with no draws....What would you guys do here?

First Hand

This was a situation I faced on Sunday afternoon at the casino

I just got to the table (9-handed), sat down in the cutoff and was dealt 88

It folds to me and I make it $20 to go...button folds, SB($300) and BB($450) both call...

FLOP: A-K-7 (rainbow)

It goes check-check to me, so I continuation bet $45 as I have both an A and a K on board to help me out...SB folds, and BB thinks for about 35 seconds before calling...

TURN: 3 (two clubs on board)

BB checks to me...what do you generally do here? I dont know anything about the players except that BB is a woman...

Baffled

Not too much going on live lately...been getting coolered quite often and nobody likes a bad beat story so I'll post a hand I had on Bodog $1/2 today.

Villian had just sat down with $189.50. I found this odd because it told me two things: 1) He was probably playing with his entire bankroll 2) Against pressure he would be forced to lay down marginal hands for fear of losing the rest of his stack (and probably his bankroll).

Anyway I'm in the cutoff with ~$200 and get delt K 9 of hearts. I raise to $7 and villian calls in the small blind. Flop comes out Qs 8h 7h and villian quickly checks to me so I make my standard continuation bet of $9 (pot is $16). Villian thinks then calls. Turn comes the 10c making my draw even stronger and allowing me to fire a second bullet into the pot if checked to. Villian once again checks and I bet $25 (pot is $34). Villian once again thinks then calls. River is another Q so I missed completely. Villian quickly checks again and my instinct tells me that another bet into the pot will win it. I fire out $50 (pot is $84) and villian quickly calls, shows down AK to take down a $184 with ace high...

My question for this hand is this... Is this guy a complete donkey or did I misplay the hand? I would have played the hand similarily with a lot of hands like A 10, 99, JJ, etc.

Ace-Jack

Joe, just so you know, the casino game that I play in is $3/$5 blinds $5-$150 spread (there are laws in AZ that don't allow for NL, so this is the best way around the laws), $350 Max buy-in...

I have around $525 and the villian has $425 when the hand begins

9-handed...average stack is about $350

Villian limps UTG, and some donk calls too, I have AJo in the cutoff and make it $25 to go...I have been raising a lot of pots in position and I think people are starting to get pissed (as they start calling me more)...anyways, the button calls, blinds fold, UTG calls, and donk calls

4-players to the flop

FLOP: J-10-4 (rainbow)

Villian checks, donk checks, and with around $100 in the pot already I make it $75 to go....button folds, Villian immediately raises $150 more (the max raise)...donk folds and its back to me....

What would you do here?

From what I know about this guy is that he is semi-solid...he has been making this same check-raise move throughout the night...the first time he made it, the other player folded and he didn't show...the next time he check-raised $150, the other player laid down top-pair and Villian showed nut-flush draw...the 3rd time, Villian made move and showed KK on 10-6-5 board (limped preflop with KK)...so needless to say, he seems to make this move quite a bit....

Pocket 4's

Well the night started off looking great. I immediately took controll of the table and turned my initial 200$ buy in into 300$ in about 30 minutes. I tightened up a bit and stayed around that amount for the next hour or so..

Then i pick up 98 of spades in first position..I lead out for 12$ using the first position to help strengthen my hand..Well that didn't work because 7 people called my raise putting the pot at about 85$...Flop comes A hearts 6 spades J hearts...Small blind leads out for 6$ i raise him 25$ guy behind me (Who is very tight and relatively new to the game) just calls. It comes back to the small blind who folds. The turn is a 6 clubs...I lead out for 65$. The guy has about 165 left and thinks about it for about 30 seconds and calls. The river brings the K of hearts which would make any draw plus i was basically representing AK. I push all in and the guy is about to fold but he says you know im ready to leave and throws in the remaining hundred and turns over AJ....

So after i bluffed off about 200 of my stack, a few rounds later i pick up 44 in the big blind. Everyone limps and the button guy ,who is terrible, raises 10 dollars, which he pretty much did every time. 5 people call so the pots at 50$ and the flop brings rainbow 8 6 5. It checks to the button guy who throws out 20$. I have 120$ in front of me and everything inside me knew he had high cards and completely missed the flop. I push all-in with my 44 and it folds to him. He says "You must be drawing" then calls and turns over AK..i turn over my 44 and the turn and river bring rags so i doubled up to put me at about 250$ish. He then looks at me and says i was crazy for pushing in with 44...

I guess he really thought his AK was good.....as he continue to laugh an mumble to himself...he went all-in with fours...

Bottom line of the night: I need to stop being a dumbass by trying to bluff the tightest player at the table in the one hand he plays.

So i bought in for 200$ and left with 220$...my streak of winning sessions under 50$ continues to 3 nights in a row...I guess its better than loosing though.................damit.

Joe

Joe,

What's your e-mail so that I can invite you to be an author on this blog...I think you have to be an author in order to be able to start a thread...I invited Noonan (rvn68@mail.utexas.edu) so I think he'll be able to post now...

Noonan,

Can U post now?

Post?

Are you guys able to post a new thread to the blog without creating another blog altogether?

I simply signed in, and clicked "New Post" in order to get a new thread going....

Jacks OOP

$2/$5 NLHE 9-handed

I have $350 (Small Blind)
Button has about same amount

2-3 limpers, button makes it $25 to go...
From the SB with JJ, I put $65 on top
Button thinks for awhile and eventually calls...

FLOP: Q-3-4 (rainbow)

I lead out for $100
Button thinks forever and finally raises me all-in
I fold and show my jacks, he shows KK

My mistake here was reraising with such a weak hand OOP. Jacks are NOT that strong of a hand as they are extremely vulnerable. My best option would have been to just call the raise out of position and simply release on the flop. By taking this route, I only lose my inital $25 investment, instead of throwing away 1/2 my stack. I don't mind my bet on the flop, only to see where I was. Either way, he played his Kings tricky (well). Has he reraised pre-flop, I would have been able to get away.

Button claims that I could have had AA, KK (unlikely), or QQ and I would have been beating or tied with him. He obviously didn't believe himself since his donk-ass moved my in...oh well...

Ultimately, I think jacks are to be played very softly, as they are not that strong. They should be viewed in the same league as 88 or 77 - hands that you would prefer to flop a set with to get involved in a large pot.