Stringing together some winning sessions
In my last few sessions I've been really focused on analyzing my play and making correct decisions. There's a good quote out there saying something like 'all poker is, is making correct decisions.' You make enough correct decisions and at the end of the day you will be a winner. A little easier said then done but like I said thats been my main focus as of late. I had a friend of mine, we'll call him Eskal(privacy issues) come over to play a few sessions at my condo so we could help each other out and get a different perspective on hands. There's not many people out there that I know who I feel are capable of being a winning poker player but he is one of them. Although he has some flaws in bankroll management and tilting, we're working on it so he can be a consistent winner. We both actually have pretty different playing styles which really helps when analyzing hands. There are sometimes when he's in a hand and I think the play is to fold and he calls with the winning hand, it lets me see the hand from a different angle. Over the couple days I both ran really well and made some pretty good profit.
Here's my stats over my last 3 sessions:
As you can see I ran pretty sick during this time. Didn't really take any bad beats and most of the time I put my money in good it held up.
Here's a few interesting hands I found from my poker tracker, as always feel free to comment on any of the hands even if you think I played the hand like a complete donkey.
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941779 - Now this was a really interesting hand. I usually don't like to call an early position raise with K,Q, I usually 3 bet or fold. But this player was really active so I opened up my range and I did have the button. The flop was pretty scary so I decided to just call and re-evaluate the turn. When he checks on the turn and I bet, in the back of my mind I had a strong feeling he was going to check-raise bluff me here. I was convinced he was raising me on a draw here and told myself I was going with the hand if there wasn't a scary card on the river. But on the river he makes another big bet about 3/4 of the pot and I really had to go into the tank. It doesn't show on the page but I thought about this hand for at least a minute into my time bank and finally decided I was going with my read and called. He showed A,J and missed his draw on the turn. Phew...
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941806 - I usually don't mind mucking pre flop in this spot but the 2 other players were sitting kinda deep so I called. Pretty standard stuff here spiking a set and stacking the guy.
LOSS: www.pokerhand.org/?1941814 - Now this is the VERY next hand against the same guy I grabbed with the set of sixes. I know he's steaming from the hand before and calling me with a wide range pre flop so I figured a lot of times I'm good on that flop possibly going against a draw or just top pair. Unfortunately the guy flopped trips on me and I gave him back all his chips. Sour.
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941824 - Although this hand looks alright on paper, I really made a mess of it. I honestly had no idea where I was on the turn. To me the guy played it like a set and I thought I was beat. I made a stubborn call on the river and luckily had the best hand but I truly had no idea if I was winning or losing when I called. I think I was talking to Eskal during this hand and I almost mucked on the river. I think I was side tracked when I was playing this hand with the internet or TV or something and I was angry at myself after the hand even though I won it. I gotta FOCUS!
LOSS: www.pokerhand.org/?1941839 - Unlucky me
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941840 - HHHHOOOOOOLLLLDDDDDD
The other night I watched a movie called 'Searching for Bobby Fischer', I've seen it years ago but didn't really remember is so i watched it again with Julie. Its basically about a young boy who is incredible at chess. Its a really good movie and it got me extremely motivated to learn the game of poker and not just play to earn a few bucks. There's was a couple interesting quotes that got me thinking:
Teacher: Do you know what it means to have "contempt" for your opponent?
Student: No
Teacher: It means to hate them. You have to hate them, they hate you.
I think in poker you need a bit of this quality when playing, especially when moving up limits. When moving up limits its easy to play a little timid and scared. Having a bit of that cocky hatred quality and wanting to crush your opponent and take every one of their chips isn't necessarily a bad quality to have. I have actually ran into a couple situations like this a few times in my poker career. Playing against men who couldn't afford the game and using the money he feeds his kids with to play. And I have to sit across from him and take all his chips. Its like seeing an addictive gambler sitting at a casino pissing away the money to pay his bills in a slot machine. Its truly a sad sight but unfortunately poker can be a cut throat game and if I'm not going to win this dead beat's money, somebody else is.
The movie is based on a true story and the kid grew up to be a Chess Master and a Martial Arts champion. If you're ever bored watch this movie, its a good one.
Alright its time to watch some Iron Chef America and hit the sack....
Here's my stats over my last 3 sessions:
As you can see I ran pretty sick during this time. Didn't really take any bad beats and most of the time I put my money in good it held up.
Here's a few interesting hands I found from my poker tracker, as always feel free to comment on any of the hands even if you think I played the hand like a complete donkey.
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941779 - Now this was a really interesting hand. I usually don't like to call an early position raise with K,Q, I usually 3 bet or fold. But this player was really active so I opened up my range and I did have the button. The flop was pretty scary so I decided to just call and re-evaluate the turn. When he checks on the turn and I bet, in the back of my mind I had a strong feeling he was going to check-raise bluff me here. I was convinced he was raising me on a draw here and told myself I was going with the hand if there wasn't a scary card on the river. But on the river he makes another big bet about 3/4 of the pot and I really had to go into the tank. It doesn't show on the page but I thought about this hand for at least a minute into my time bank and finally decided I was going with my read and called. He showed A,J and missed his draw on the turn. Phew...
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941806 - I usually don't mind mucking pre flop in this spot but the 2 other players were sitting kinda deep so I called. Pretty standard stuff here spiking a set and stacking the guy.
LOSS: www.pokerhand.org/?1941814 - Now this is the VERY next hand against the same guy I grabbed with the set of sixes. I know he's steaming from the hand before and calling me with a wide range pre flop so I figured a lot of times I'm good on that flop possibly going against a draw or just top pair. Unfortunately the guy flopped trips on me and I gave him back all his chips. Sour.
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941824 - Although this hand looks alright on paper, I really made a mess of it. I honestly had no idea where I was on the turn. To me the guy played it like a set and I thought I was beat. I made a stubborn call on the river and luckily had the best hand but I truly had no idea if I was winning or losing when I called. I think I was talking to Eskal during this hand and I almost mucked on the river. I think I was side tracked when I was playing this hand with the internet or TV or something and I was angry at myself after the hand even though I won it. I gotta FOCUS!
LOSS: www.pokerhand.org/?1941839 - Unlucky me
WIN: www.pokerhand.org/?1941840 - HHHHOOOOOOLLLLDDDDDD
The other night I watched a movie called 'Searching for Bobby Fischer', I've seen it years ago but didn't really remember is so i watched it again with Julie. Its basically about a young boy who is incredible at chess. Its a really good movie and it got me extremely motivated to learn the game of poker and not just play to earn a few bucks. There's was a couple interesting quotes that got me thinking:
Teacher: Do you know what it means to have "contempt" for your opponent?
Student: No
Teacher: It means to hate them. You have to hate them, they hate you.
I think in poker you need a bit of this quality when playing, especially when moving up limits. When moving up limits its easy to play a little timid and scared. Having a bit of that cocky hatred quality and wanting to crush your opponent and take every one of their chips isn't necessarily a bad quality to have. I have actually ran into a couple situations like this a few times in my poker career. Playing against men who couldn't afford the game and using the money he feeds his kids with to play. And I have to sit across from him and take all his chips. Its like seeing an addictive gambler sitting at a casino pissing away the money to pay his bills in a slot machine. Its truly a sad sight but unfortunately poker can be a cut throat game and if I'm not going to win this dead beat's money, somebody else is.
The movie is based on a true story and the kid grew up to be a Chess Master and a Martial Arts champion. If you're ever bored watch this movie, its a good one.
Alright its time to watch some Iron Chef America and hit the sack....
On the TT vs. A8 hand, do you always shove the flop like that? Is it bc he was steaming from the hand before?
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It was a bit of a sick spot because even if the guy showed a hand like K,Q of clubs I'm virtually a coin flip. Usually after grabbing a guy the very next hand if he's spinning a bit and will do anything to try and get his chips back and stack off pretty light. So I don't usually like to shove with the 10,10 in that spot, but considering the player and situation I don't mind the play.
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On 1941824 (Qh 10h vs. 10d 9h). I obviously don't have the context of playing against whebber, nor do have a lot of poker skills, but, how did you put him on a set?
He raised pre-flop, that says he has "something" - whatever that is.
After the flop, he check-called. Isn't this just as consistent of an action with an overpair and a trap? That may or may not be a great play with an overpair, but how did you discount an overpair? How did you discount Ad Qd giving a nut flush draw. Another hand that might warrant a check-call from a less aggressive player.
After the turn, you bet about 60% of the pot. He raised. Again consistent with a guy trapping with AA, KK, QQ or JJ. He gave you a chance to steal the pot and then whacked you with a big raise. This might also be consistent with Ad Qd if he thought you were trying to bluff at the pot and thought he was still in the lead with his hand (and a possible flush draw to bail him out if he wasn't).
After the river, he bets into you for $60. The only hands that beat you at that point (other than a set of tens with a better kicker) are 6 7 or 10 8. It would have terrible for him to take 6 7 to the river for that much money. 10 8 was a real possibility (2 pair after the flop) and might have been a slow play opportunity as well.
So, you're left with the very improbable chance that he played A 10 or K 10 (as hands that could beat you).
So, I wonder why your spidey-sense was going off that he had a set of 10s and maybe had you beat.
There were so many other hands that his play may have been consistent with. Maybe from your read of the guy, he didn't have the game to slow play an overpair?
Interested to know what else lead you to your conclusion.
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Steve.. everything that you wrote makes complete sense, but you missed a big part and I think you misread the hand history. Whebber just cold called from the Small Blind.. he wasn't the raiser in the hand. That makes a huge difference when analyzing the hand. A lot of guy's will just call pre flop with a pocket pair to spike a set, so pocket 4's and pocket 8's were definitely in this guy's range of hands. When he check called me on the flop this usually can mean a variety of things.. Flush draw, Set or possibly a hand like A,10, K,10 or just complete Air. Now when he check raises me on the turn I took any draw out of his range of hands. I was playing this guy for about an hour and didn't think he was capable of check-raising with me with just a draw on the turn. Now if the guy did slow play a hand like AA,KK,QQ,JJ pre flop there is no way he can check raise on turn with any of those hands because there's a good possibility that I have trip tens. So if he did have a big pocket pair he mostly like would of just called me down. Now by process of elimination quite of few hands he could have in this spot has me beat (4,4..8,8..A,10, K,10)
Now if he was the original raiser like you thought he was in your comment, I completely agree with you and would of had no problems stacking off with my hand. If he was the original raiser I would of even raised him all-in on the river because you're right that a lot of guys will check that flop with AA,KK,QQ or JJ looking to trap. And when you wrote about raising pre flop means he has to have 'something'.. having a pocket pair could be in his range if he's a good player. In a 6-max table raising with any pocket pair from any position is a good strong play.
Hope that makes it a little more clear.
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That makes much more sense. I did misread the hand history. Gotta read a little more careful in the future
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