Mind Games

I continue to do well in the freerolls.

Another top 10% finish today, out of 25000 runners.

I've been trying to be more active when I have chips, especially around the bubble.

I posted a hand here:
KTS UTG very close to the bubble

I have no clue if my play makes sense.

I continue to bust out stupidly.
I don't think there is a single bust-out hand that I didn't walk into some stupid trap -- and usually by bluffing someone w/ the stone cold nuts.

I'll have to quit that.

Peace,
--VS

You seem to be doing well in these, I'm trying to find time to play a few as well. I love either walking into limped aces or shoving AK from the sb and getting called by something pretty and...
I took a shot it your hand, I need to get more involved in that side of it and so what if I'm wrong.

I was born at a very early age, in the City of Vancouver, so I could be close to my Mother who was in hospital there at the time.

I spent the next 18 years in a tiny mining town about 60km N of Vancouver.

The mine was operational from 1904 until 1974.
I had the privilege of working underground on the track crew in '72. Great fun for a 19yr old!

The town is situated in a picturesque bay about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler, so the rich have "discovered" it, and are building their monster homes all over what was my playground -- "the bush". I spent all my available time hiking around in the forest on the mountain.

The mine buildings are all part of a museum, and the town itself is a national historic site. In its heyday, the mine was the largest copper producer in the British Commonwealth.

To commemorate the 110th anniversary of the opening of the mine, the museum held a "homecoming". I did not officially attend, but went their and spent the day visiting old friends. One of the residents had an informal drop-in barbecue, and I spent several hours on her patio reminiscing with the former residents who dropped by.

Great fun!.

This is the view from her patio:

But a homecoming it was not.
I have not lived there since I was 18, and once the mine closed, and all the machinery fell silent, it seemed that the heart and soul was gone, and only the body remained.

As I said to one old acquaintance, "It all so familiar, yet all so strange".

Take a moment to look around you. Where is your home?

Peace,
--VS

I played another freeroll today, and placed again.
I'm trying to be less timid about open-shoving, which seems like a weird move to a cash-game player.

From the CO with a just less than 15 BB stack I shoved 99 vs a limper in MP who showed up w/ AK and hit A on the river.
Had I done ANYTHING else, the result would have likely been the same.

Calling? Somebody behind me will be shoving for sure.
Raising? AK would 4Bet, and I'm still all-in.

Still seems weird though.

So ended up 81st out of 1273 runners -- top 6 %.
I have broken the top 10% 21 times in 120 MTTs (various games) since May 1st.
But I've broken the top 1 % only twice.
I've been in the top 15% 34 times, which in a standard tournament would be in the money.

Most are freerolls, paying a few cents, but a few of them had real money buy-ins, and my total amount won is 16.37, and the total of all buy-ins is 6.00

I have no clue on whether this is any good or not.

I was planning to play a couple of tournaments this coming Sunday, but I have a friend coming over so that is out.

Oh well...

--VS

That is excellent my friend.
Your ROI is through the roof.
Keep up the good work.

Apparently, with <15bb but >10bb

22+,A2s+,K7s+,Q9s+,JTs,T9s,98s,ATo+,KTo+,QTo+,JTo

is a decent CO pushing range so 99 would be easy. We don't call with 15bb or less and we ignore limpers and shove anyway.

Apparently.

Yeah, I checked that afterwards.
As it turns out, I had closer to 20BB, so maybe raise/call shove flop would have been better.

I tend to second-guess myself when busting out.
You can't fold that hand -- if you start folding those, there aren't enough hands to play.

The problem is more of perception than of poker.
Here is the actual hand:

Can I raise/fold this preflop?

With 20BB that might have been the better play.

Enough of that.
On to the next one...

Cheers,
--VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Yeah, I checked that afterwards.
As it turns out, I had closer to 20BB, so maybe raise/call shove flop would have been better.

I tend to second-guess myself when busting out.
You can't fold that hand -- if you start folding those, there aren't enough hands to play.

The problem is more of perception than of poker.
Here is the actual hand:

Spoiler

IPoker, 800/1,600 blinds, 160 ante No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players

SB: 27,220 (17 bb)
BB: 4,202 (2.6 bb)
UTG+1: 21,810 (13.6 bb)
UTG+2: 10,986 (6.9 bb)
MP1: 3,295 (2.1 bb)
MP2: 42,948 (26.8 bb)
Hero (MP3): 30,588 (19.1 bb)
CO: 11,977 (7.5 bb)
BTN: 66,876 (41.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 9:s 9:c
3 folds, MP2 calls 1,600, Hero raises to 30,428 and is all-in, 4 folds, MP2 calls 28,828

Flop: (64,696) Q:d 8:c 2:d (2 players, 1 is all-in)
Turn: (64,696) 3:d (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: (64,696) A:h (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results: 64,696 pot
Final Board: Q:d 8:c 2:d 3:d A:h
MP2 showed K:s A:d and won 64,696 (34,108 net)
Hero mucked 9:s 9:c and lost (-30,588 net)

Can I raise/fold this preflop?

With 20BB that might have been the better play.

Enough of that.
On to the next one...

Cheers,
--VS

What about calling ans playing post? Lets say you would be IP and noone after you calls. Would he barrel you off in here? If line goes from him: Bet flop check turn, you may easily bluffbet turn IP nd he would have no choice to fold. And your bluffsizing shouldnt be quite big in here. as for shoving in here you are a bit too deep just to shove pockets imo.

Maybe you could go for the minraise/fold but you'd be calling it off v anyone but the BU if you did that anyway I suspect.

Originally posted by AlvisR
What about calling ans playing post? Lets say you would be IP and noone after you calls. Would he barrel you off in here? If line goes from him: Bet flop check turn, you may easily bluffbet turn IP nd he would have no choice to fold. And your bluffsizing shouldnt be quite big in here. as for shoving in here you are a bit too deep just to shove pockets imo.

Yes, you convinced me -- when I played the hand, I thought I had just less then 15.
Even shoving at 15BB is new to me. I always played "standard" until down to 10 or so.
10-15 I would 3Bet shove, but still open raise (this is from Harrington on Hold'em which I suppose is out of date now).

Both players in the pot cover all other players, which reduces the action after us to stronger hands.

minraise/fold -- or even overlimp -- pre & play it may be the way to go.
This leaves two doors open that shoving closes:
♦  Take it down on the flop or turn
♦  Fold to some signs of strength with a slightly smaller stack.

I think my stack was a little less than half average here.

I've not tried the minraise line that I can recall, and I rarely overlimp unless I WANT the players after me in, or I have a speculative hand that can flop well.

I'll not have much chance to play any more MTTs for a week or so.

Tonight I'll post a wrap-up of the month...
--VS

Wow -- it hit 32C here at Vorpal Manor.
Not really hot, but hottest so far this year.

By August it will feel normal.
By December we will look back on 32C with longing.

June.

I would like to forget June, if I may.
I had a winning month in BB/100 (0.60)
But lost $35.00 due to a high stakes misadventure.

Enough about that.

On to July.
--VS

NLHE

I played a v long single-table fast-fold session tonight on a room I used to play on before Black Friday.

I wanted to see if the players were much different than the ones on iPoker.
The main thing I was looking at was how they play the blinds.

Tough to tell from one session but once again, they fold their blinds WAY too much.
I had a steal Pct of 46, with a success rate of 41% -- I've done better, but that is pretty good.

I actually played well in other areas as well, but thanks to 4 very good but 2nd-best hands, I ended up down 1.5 BI. I was down 3.5 BI at one point, so yay me.

It could have been worse.

I managed to fold AA in this hand.

On review, I can see that I made a colossal mistake. Can you spot it?

Just in case you missed it, I make it again in this hand:

As played, I think the river folds were both correct.
I felt good about them, anyway.

What do you think?
--VS

My 2c worth of pilchard brain thinks:

#1
Preflop:
Us and MP are deep, I make it 24c from bb. I'm ignoring CO, he can do what he wants, he'll be all in soon anyway. ♠_evil:

Flop:
I'd be tempted to not cbet at all against some players and especially if CO came along and we were three-handed, but we can get rid of some stubborn pocket pairs I suppose. 1/2 pot is plenty.

Turn:
I really can't see how chk/c turn works on that disaster card without Ac at least. Apart from a blank or a thin chance of a split with a gutshot - which villain may hold anyway in a 3bet pot, what was hero hoping to see on the river? Horrid board.

chk/f turn.

#2
Again, I raise more preflop (10c even 12c). A fishy guy is probably not folding anything he likes.
I play 80% flop/80% turn.

Disaster card, chk/fold river.

Your biggest mistake seems to be picking up monsters in the blinds. ♦

Playing from the blinds sucks.

I think you nailed the mistake early on...

I played the hands tentatively.

Playing big hands OOP means you need to play them with enough authority to show you mean business.

I left enough room for draws to get decent odds, so they took them.
Hit or not, the boards are sufficiently evil that they can then bet large enough that an overpair is not a profitable call.

If instead, I bet larger, they then have to think twice about calling.
I then get MORE money when they miss, and since I am (now, finally after 3 yrs of poker) able to fold overpairs, I can deny them their implieds when they hit.

For today's, lesson, kiddies, we have a real treat of a hand from today's Sunday Storm.
The player marked as "Hero" is not me -- I doctored the Hand History by adding in his hole cards. I won't tell you who it is, but he is a well respected NL200 cash game player.

On Sundays, I find players I know and rail them while playing 5-Card Draw on the side.
[side question for grammar pedants: Is it OK t use "whilst" in the above? It is never used in Canada, so I have no clue when it would -- or should -- be used]

Here is the hand:
What do you think?

May grace and peace be ever upon thee,
--VS

For today's, lesson, kiddies, we have a real treat of a hand from today's Sunday Storm.
The player marked as "Hero" is not me -- I doctored the Hand History by adding in his hole cards. I won't tell you who it is, but he is a well respected NL200 cash game player.

LOL this well respected cash game player would never play that hand that way in a real money game. Semi-bluffing all in on the flop with only an inside straight for an out if called is not good poker. Sure it worked out this time but are we suppose to be results orientated? I think not. What a bonehead!!!!!!!

Originally posted by TheMarxBros3

For today's, lesson, kiddies, we have a real treat of a hand from today's Sunday Storm.
The player marked as "Hero" is not me -- I doctored the Hand History by adding in his hole cards. I won't tell you who it is, but he is a well respected NL200 cash game player.

LOL this well respected cash game player would never play that hand that way in a real money game. Semi-bluffing all in on the flop with only an inside straight for an out if called is not good poker. Sure it worked out this time but are we suppose to be results orientated? I think not. What a bonehead!!!!!!!

No, it is not a cash game tactic -- or at least not at the stakes I play.
He may have thought that he had some fold equity, but I think more that he was looking at the fact that he had only 10 bigs left.

This was the first hand I saw played at that table -- what went before may have had a bearing on the play too.

Peace,
--VS

Again I'm not entirely confident of this, but isn't that known as a 'Stop and Go'? Calls a raise with the intention of shipping any flop with even mediocre equity, or is that SnGs?
Perhaps I'm just giving hero biased credit because I'm told he's, '.. a well respected 200nl player.'

As for while and whilst; well, given I learned to read/write etcetera at an advanced age and from a library, you can imagine how old some of the stuff was I was reading!
So anyway, whilst and while are interchangeable. I prefer the former but I'm a bit archaic and can get a bit 'flowery' as well.

Originally posted by gadget51
Again I'm not entirely confident of this, but isn't that known as a 'Stop and Go'? Calls a raise with the intention of shipping any flop with even mediocre equity, or is that SnGs?
Perhaps I'm just giving hero biased credit because I'm told he's, '.. a well respected 200nl player.

I'm pretty sure that it is indeed a stop and go.
It is essentially a delayed action shove where you think that the open shove won't get much respect. He may have had reads, too.

Best of luck,
--VS

Over the last several days, I've been totally decimated at showdown.

I've been getting decent hands -- they've been getting decenter ones.

I'm hoping I'm getting the runbad out of my system for the micromillions.

So after this afternoon's NLHE disaster, I decided to play some 5-Card Draw to relax.
I got fried there too.

I have to take Wednesday and Thursday off poker, so I might just drop tomorrow as well.

Best of luck to you all...
--VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Over the last several days, I've been totally decimated at showdown.

I've been getting decent hands -- they've been getting decenter ones.

I'm hoping I'm getting the runbad out of my system for the micromillions.

So after this afternoon's NLHE disaster, I decided to play some 5-Card Draw to relax.
I got fried there too.

I have to take Wednesday and Thursday off poker, so I might just drop tomorrow as well.

Best of luck to you all...
--VS

I found that when I was getting decimated at showdown, (outside of being rivered with the best of it), part of the problem was that I was playing looser without realizing it and building a lot of 2nd best hands.
If you go over your hand histories I'm sure you will come to the same conclusion.
We want to play so bad as folding is boring, we inadvertently open up our starting range without thinking about position and our opponents ranges.
When this happens I try to NIT-IT-UP until this stops. See if this approach cures what ails you.