Poker Log Day 74
Day 74, May 5th: I woke up on the early side and had my first kempo lesson in the morning. I've got a small amount of traditional boxing training under my belt and I really enjoyed the work out of learning a self defense art, and while I have no interest in ever being in a fight for the rest of my life I figure it can't hurt to know how to carry yourself if it's absolutely necessary. My instructors name is David Williams; I managed to keep from cracking any toe sucking or diamond toothpick jokes through the duration of our time together despite the heavy temptation. Not like he would have got it anyway.
In the afternoon I went into the strip to pick up a suit that the tailoring was finished on, more Wii controllers (turns out they were the one thing we forgot, epic fail) and run some game. I approached this girl right in front of a jewelry store and the guy working there watched it happen. After it was over he came right up to me and was like "Whoa hold on a sec dude...my names Jessie, I mean I'm not as handsome..."
"That's okay, so Jessie...you busy later then?"
"Hahahaha! I can't believe you did that!"
"Practice makes perfect dude."
When guys first get into cold approach they often think that if anyone overhears or witnesses they'll come over and punk them or be like "What the fuck dude?" but any time I've done that in front of someone they're just flat out awe struck instead. Of course there was the one guy who accidentally approached a girl right in front of a girl he had approached 20 minutes ago five blocks away, and she punked him pretty fucking hard. Live and learn though.
After the strip I stopped off at Whole Foods to grab some groceries and lunch. I ran into another online player named Zack, who had recently busted the $1000 SCOOP event in 16th place. The time was about 3pm, and he told me he'd finished only a few hours ago. The tournament had started in the previous evening, and I think it's a good demonstration of when a structure gets too good. I relaly appreciate the quality and quantity of tournaments provided by PokerStars and how much they incorporate the suggestions of their player base, but I think some of the SCOOP structures go too far. Playing 16 straight hours and having your sleep schedule ruined for barely any money would be just so devastating, so I hope they tone those things down a little come next year.
I played an evening session of tournaments. Mid way through our internet cut out and would not come back on. I had to call Shaun Deeb and ask him to cover for me on Stars and UB while I tried to work it out. Unfortunately, Tilt does not allow you to have a friend cover in the event of a disconnection, so I had to just let my stacks drain there. I wound up driving all the way to Deeb's so I could continue playing on his laptop. I played very spewy from that point on and wound up running deep in a few places but not turning them into any serious results. There were a number of interesting hands from yesterday's session that I saved which I have posted on 2+2 as follows:
Hand 1:
Stars $100r 6 max. Villain is a reg I have tons of history with. He probably considers me TAGish and thinking, and in this current tournament we have no particularly relevant back and forth history. I def 3 bet/call JJ pre, but I think with no antes and no 3 bet history I'm not sure I can profitably 3 bet/call him here, but perhaps considering it's 6 max I should and we'll plug that leak immediately.
I'm very confused when we get to the turn. I feel like most of the time he has a better hand than me he bets on the flop given the texture, so I sort of feel like my hand should be ahead on the turn, but I also can't figure how many worse hands would be raising me. Even many of his combo draws have showdown value so I think he'd just call, so I'm mostly just confused. Thoughts?
Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t75/t150 Blinds - 6 players
BTN: t6435 M = 28.60
SB: t5425 M = 24.11
Hero (BB): t10345 M = 45.98
UTG: t7640 M = 33.96
MP: t6465 M = 28.73
CO: t7670 M = 34.09
Pre Flop: (t225) Hero is BB with T
T
1 fold, MP raises to t355, 3 folds, Hero calls t205
Flop: (t785) 5 6
8
(2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks
Turn: (t785) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets t575, MP raises to t1600, Hero...
Hand 2:
Tilt $20r 6 max. I have done zero 3 betting preflop thus far. The villain who shoved on me is a guy I've played with quite a bit recently. I don't have a super good read on him, but he seems sensible and we were talking about how I was hanging with one of his friends at a club this weekend who is a pro, so I'd guess he's probably a thinking player if that's the case.
I feel like he shoves AK pre every time, folds AJ everytime, and might flat AQ but would generally shove or fold it as most thinking players do these days. I guess he could have TT or AA, but obv AA is unlikely and I think on this texture a set probably check calls the flop pretty often. I think he could have big hearts, which we're ahead of but he has plenty of equity. I guess the question is, does he have enough drawing hands in his range to make this a call with the good odds despite the times that we're behind we're totally crushed?
Full Tilt Poker $14,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t80/t160 Blinds - 6 players
SB: t8062 M = 33.59
BB: t20240 M = 84.33
UTG: t12915 M = 53.81
Hero (MP): t13530 M = 56.38
CO: t15625 M = 65.10
BTN: t4408 M = 18.37
Pre Flop: (t240) Hero is MP with A 3
UTG raises to t320, Hero raises to t920, 2 folds, SB calls t840, 1 fold, UTG requests TIME, UTG calls t600
Flop: (t2920) T 6 A (3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets t1770, SB raises to t7142 all in, UTG folds, Hero...
Hand 3:
UB $120 20k. Pretty common type of spot, but I realized it might be one I misplay regularly. Randoms on UB tend to be worse than on the other sites, so they're a bit more passive about semi bluffing but also over play top pair type hands a bit more too.
On the turn I'm not sure whether I should bet/call cause he could semi bluff, bet/fold cause he's never shoving any worse hands for value, or check/eval because the previous two options are both a little awkward. I'm not sure I get three streets here from the times he's just a medium king, but maybe I'm over estimating my opponents as I think it's clear I too often do.
My stack: 7,345
Button: 4,608
Blinds 50/100
I hold Kh Ad UTG
Preflop: I raise to 300, folds to the button, button calls, both blinds fold.
Flop: Kc 4h Ts
I bet 450, button calls.
Turn: Tc
I...
Hand 4:
Stars $11 single RA. Hey guys, playing a crap ton of donkaments lately including some smaller stuff and wanted to see if my logic still holds up there. This guy had been moderately active and I had not 3 bet him at all, and I don't think I'd been doing much 3 betting at all.
I felt like if he had a real big pair on the flop he'd basically never lead it, so I could raise flop with the plan to jam the turn and he'd just have to give me credit for one of the biggest pairs and fold whatever he had. I feel like his bet is half value half information with something like TT or JJ and just begging me to blow it up, but I might be completely wrong and guys at these stakes are leading good hands cause they don't realize that by checking they get an extra bet from my 3 bet bluffing range. Thoughts?
Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t300/t600 Blinds + t50 - 9 players
BTN: t61625 M = 45.65
SB: t34249 M = 25.37
BB: t31100 M = 23.04
UTG: t29010 M = 21.49
UTG+1: t49705 M = 36.82
UTG+2: t14011 M = 10.38
MP1: t6970 M = 5.16
Hero (MP2): t43541 M = 32.25
CO: t7421 M = 5.50
Pre Flop: (t1350) Hero is MP2 with T A
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t1800, 2 folds, Hero raises to t5225, 4 folds, UTG+1 calls t3425
Flop: (t11800) 4 6 4 (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t4200, [color=red]Hero raises to t12200...