Mind Games

NLHE
I've playing a lot of NL 2, NL 4 and NL 5lately, trying my level best to judge villain's range rather than put him on a hand.

I've had some spectacular fails, such as this one:

I did not have :Jx::5x: or :Jx::4x: in his range at all. I figured I was pretty safe, and was "teasing" him into re-raising.
In retrospect, there is no way out either -- open-jamming the turn is never going to get a fold from trip Jacks from a player who can overlimp :Jx::5x:

On the whole, though, I'm slowly but Shirley[1] gaining ground.

I find hands like this somehow even more enjoyable than winning with monsters.
You pretty much give up when the flop comes down, but find by the river that you actually won.

Cheers,
VS;

[1]

NLHE
Today's hand comes to you courtesy of the Department of I won with What!?

I had a long struggle today losing two stacks after getting it in good.
I grinded (ground?) it back though, a few BB at a time.
It is tough playing true calling stations, because you cannot bluff -- even CBets get called almost every time.

So the only way to play them is to get the money in early and hope it holds.

I'll look for an example of this in the coming days...
VS

NLHE
I had a rough day at NL 5 zoom.
I got it in ahead 5 times, and lost every time.
Each time I ground back a bunch and then lost another.

On the other site with all the limpers, I played my usual uber-tight wait-and-pounce game, but again I dropped two stacks getting outdrawn by crap.

This is not one of those hands, but illustrates the type of player here:
C$0.04 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: C2.32 (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 22)
UTG: C2.28 (VPIP: 31.31, PFR: 14.70, 3Bet Preflop: 5.04, Hands: 2,182)
MP: C3.35 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 23)
CO: C4.22 (VPIP: 46.55, PFR: 1.82, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 58)
BTN: C3.88 (VPIP: 47.62, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 43)
Hero (SB): C5.03

Hero posts SB C0.02, BB posts BB C0.04

Pre Flop: (pot: C0.06) Hero has 8♥:5♣:

fold, fold, CO calls C0.04, BTN calls C0.04, fold, BB checks

Flop: (C0.14, 3 players) 6♥:4♥:2♣:
BB checks, CO checks, BTN checks

Turn: (C0.14, 3 players) Q♠:
BB checks, CO checks, BTN checks

River: (C0.14, 3 players) J♥:
BB checks, CO checks, BTN bets C0.07, BB calls C0.07, fold

As you can see, BTN takes a stab on the river with total air, and gets a call from a player with 3rd pair.
Who wins.

The beauty of this arrangement is that if you DO have a reasonably disguised straight OTR, you can get a stack from one of these guys.

Have a good weekend,
VS

NLHE
From the department of "Why you no bet the flop?"

This is from a freeroll.
I enter the pot because BB pretty much must toss in his last 100 and join the fray with who knows what.

OTF I'm outta there, except he doesn't bet -- must not have an A.
OTT he bets now, but I haz 2nd pair, and he might have a better K (and still might have an A -- but I doubt it).

OTR I just jam hoping to look like I'm bluffing and maybe get paid by worse K and ready for supper if I lose.

C$150/C$300 NL - Holdem - 10 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 775 (VPIP: 21.90, PFR: 2.97, 3Bet Preflop: 3.57, Hands: 106)
UTG+1: 7,251 (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG+2: 3,305 (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
MP: 8,055 (VPIP: 26.32, PFR: 2.63, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 38)
MP+1: 1,556 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
MP+2: 9,242
CO: 6,877 (VPIP: 57.14, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
Hero (BTN): 6,075
SB: 5,691 (VPIP: 36.84, PFR: 5.56, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 38)
BB: 425 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)

10 players post ante of 25, SB posts SB 150, BB posts BB 300

Pre Flop: (pot: 700) Hero has J♠:K♦:

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, MP+2 raises to 900, fold, Hero calls 900, fold, BB calls 100 and is all-in

Flop: (2,600, 3 players) 4♥:3♦:A♦:
MP+2 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (2,600, 3 players) K♣:
MP+2 bets 1,500, Hero calls 1,500

River: (5,600, 3 players) K♠:
MP+2 checks, Hero bets 3,650 and is all-in, MP+2 calls 3,650

MP+2 shows T♣:A♣: (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)

Main Pot [1,600]: (Pre 41%, Flop 58%, Turn 69%)
Side Pot#1 [11,300]: (Pre 62%, Flop 92%, Turn 89%)

Hero shows J♠:K♦: (Three of a Kind, Kings)

Main Pot [1,600]: (Pre 34%, Flop 8%, Turn 12%)
Side Pot#1 [11,300]: (Pre 38%, Flop 8%, Turn 11%)

BB shows 6♣:5♥: (One Pair, Kings)

Main Pot [1,600]: (Pre 26%, Flop 34%, Turn 19%)

Hero wins 12,900

For extra credit:
Why can't this happen in real tournaments!

All the best,
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F

For extra credit:
Why can't this happen in real tournaments!

All the best,
VS

You just answered your own question!!!!

NLHE
I generally play "small ball" poker.

I learned about "stack to pot ratio" and "big hands for big pots".
So I rarely lose much in a single hand, and although I win quite a few pots, they're typically small ones.
Consequently, I'm outta there unless I have a big hand or a draw to the biggest.

Today's hand is one of the latter.

I've often said that the best hand is useless unless someone else holds one slightly worse.

Let's hear it for the slightly worse!
VS

Curiosity killed the cat

5-Card Draw
I've been playing more PL 5-Card Draw SNGs.

Playing style is different -- for one thing, the number of pat hands -- and snows seems much higher. Because more people are snowing, the legit pat hands get called more.

I'm thinking that a lot of the post-draw calls are mere curiosity. Note that he called pre-draw and drew 5. Misclick?

As in...

Why does he call the post-draw raise here?!?
Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars Pot Limit 5 Card Draw ($1.32+$0.18) t25/t50 ante t5 - 6 players

Button: t1,755
SB: t1,100
BB: t1,310
UTG: t2,050
UTG+1: t1,360
CO: t1,425 (Hero)

Dealing Hands: (t105) 7♣:3♠:7♠:7♦:3♣: (6 players)
2 folds, Hero raises to t125, 2 folds, BB calls t75

First Draw: (t305) (2 players)
BB discards 5, Hero stands,
7♣:3♠:7♠:7♦:3♣:
BB bets t152, Hero raises to t761, BB calls t609

BB mucked 4♠:4♦:Q♥:A♥:Q♣:
Hero showed 7♣:3♠:7♠:7♦:3♣:, a full house, Sevens full of Threes
Hero won t1827

Peace,
VS

5-Card Draw
Hands like this are beginning to get on my nerves.

Beginning? Hell, I am so sick and tired of being outdrawn I'm taking a 5-Card Draw break for the remainder of the month.

beware the feral cow packs. they hunger.
PokerStars Pot Limit 5 Card Draw ($1.29+$0.21) t10/t20 - 6 players

BB: t1,500 (Hero)
UTG: t1,420
UTG+1: t1,470
CO: t1,490
Button: t1,830
SB: t1,290

Dealing Hands: (t30) 3♣:A♦:A♠:A♣:8♦: (6 players)
UTG calls t20, UTG+1 folds, CO calls t20, Button folds, SB calls t10, Hero raises to t100, UTG calls t80, 2 folds

First Draw: (t240) (2 players)
Hero discards 1, UTG discards 1,
3♣:A♦:A♠:A♣: || 2♥:
Hero checks, UTG bets t140, Hero calls t140

Hero mucked 3♣:A♦:A♠:A♣:2♥:
UTG showed 5♣:5♦:J♠:J♣:J♦:, a full house, Jacks full of Fives
UTG won t520

Micros for me!
VS

Real Life
Or rather unreal, as it turns out.

It all started Friday evening, when I went to the fridge for a cold beer.
All I had in my fridge was warm beer. Well, no, I had warm milk, warm cheese, warm everything.

bugga!

The freezer was working fine -- just not the fridge part.
So I went on line to research the problem and found that a "defrost timer" ( CAD 44.95 + tax) would fix the problem "99% of the time"

Sweet. I downloaded the diagrams and went to bed confident I could fix it in the morning.

At 08:30 I went out to the car to go get the part.
Car is dead.
Charge car 1 hour.

Car works.

Get to appliance parts store. They don't have them until Tuesday.
However, if I want to drive 40km I can pick one up at their other store.
Buy part at other store.
Arrive home with part about noon.

Mrs Vorpal then takes the car for the rest of the afternoon.
I open the access panel shown in the diagram. Huh? There is nothing in there that looks anything like this new part. Aha! I see it! It must be behind this plate -- and look! there is a plate in the diagram.
Remove plate.
No part.

I then go to youtube and look at nearly 10 videos all claiming to show how to replace the part.
None match my fridge -- even though the model #s are all the same.
One -- and only one -- mentions "sometimes it is behind the kick guard on the front".
Ah, I see -- it must be behind this plate.
Remove plate.
Replace part
Replace plate.

Then for the next 2.5 hours I try, and try and try to replace the first plate I took off by mistake.

Tilt? Thank God for poker -- had I not learned to manage tilt we would have many broken things in the kitchen.

About 17:00 I finally get it back together and plug in the fridge.
Dead silence.
<sigh>

I came back to my office to research this problem and while I'm going through troubleshooting lists, the fridge starts up.

Cool (literally).

17:40 -- phone call from Grandson's youth group leader: "Is wee Vorpal coming to the movie tonight? We're at the theatre waiting". Crap. Did I mention Mrs Vorpal has the car?
"Sorry, wee Vorpal won't be able to attend"

17:42 -- Mrs Vorpal arrives with car. Phone call to YGL, "May we change our minds?"
"No problem -- One of us will wait outside the theatre".

17:50 -- Make 3rd circuit of theatre -- no one waiting outside. I said, "Scoot inside and see if you can spot anyone". In he goes.

18:05 -- Still in there.

18:10 -- I leave the car double-parked and go in. No Vorpals at all (except me). Go back out and park the car properly. Downside is that if he DOES come out, he won't be able to find me.

18:20 -- I figure he either found them, or walked home.

20:00 -- Wee Vorpal arrives home, "Great movie!"

I hope you all had a better weekend!
VS

I do not understand the problem
1-Car is fixed
2-Fridge is fixed
3-wee one was with his friends
Cost to you---Just a little time.

Better days a-commin'

LOL -- well there is no problem now -- and it is even funny now -- it is just that it was all happening to me at once. Also, I forgot to mention that it was the hottest day of the year so far (we set a record for the hottest June 27th ever 32C).

Add to that I lost my glasses and a flashlight.

But like you say -- it is over now.

Cheers,
VS

Happy Canada Day!

Here was my Canada Day Gift from two of my opponents. I can't really call them villains, since one plays 58/7 and the other 69/20.
GTECH G2 (Boss) - C$0.04 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: C0.96 (VPIP: 23.40, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 95)
UTG: C4.00 (VPIP: 60.00, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 10)
Hero (MP): C4.21
CO: C0.07 (VPIP: 32.95, PFR: 1.71, 3Bet Preflop: 2.63, Hands: 177)
BTN: C2.69 (VPIP: 47.62, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 252)
SB: C2.91 (VPIP: 54.84, PFR: 4.84, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 62)

SB posts SB C0.02, BB posts BB C0.04

Pre Flop: (pot: C0.06) Hero has K♦:A♠:

UTG calls C0.04, Hero raises to C0.16, fold, fold, SB calls C0.14, fold, UTG calls C0.12

Flop: (C0.52, 3 players) Q♣:7♥:T♥:
SB checks, UTG bets C0.08, Hero calls C0.08, SB calls C0.08

Turn: (C0.76, 3 players) J♣:
SB checks, UTG bets C0.16, Hero raises to C0.49, SB raises to C2.67 and is all-in, UTG calls C2.51, Hero raises to C3.97 and is all-in, UTG calls C1.09 and is all-in

River: (C10.95, 3 players) 9♠:

UTG shows T♣:J♥: (Two Pair, Jacks and Tens)

Main Pot [C8.77]: (Pre 31%, Flop 54%, Turn 10%)
Side Pot#1 [C2.18]: (Pre 37%, Flop 69%, Turn 9%)

Hero shows K♦:A♠: (Straight, Ace High)

Main Pot [C8.77]: (Pre 48%, Flop 29%, Turn 90%)
Side Pot#1 [C2.18]: (Pre 63%, Flop 31%, Turn 91%)

SB shows 8♣:9♦: (Straight, Queen High)

Main Pot [C8.77]: (Pre 21%, Flop 16%, Turn 0%)

Hero wins C9.86

Peace,
VS

Just a fun hand

Poker Stars, $0.01 Buy-in (2,500/5,000 blinds, 500 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players

SB: 232,476 (46.5 bb)
BB: 173,920 (34.8 bb)
UTG+1: 84,904 (17 bb)
UTG+2: 15,525 (3.1 bb)
MP1: 59,380 (11.9 bb)
MP2: 233,441 (46.7 bb)
MP3: 28,382 (5.7 bb)
CO: 208,995 (41.8 bb)
Hero (BTN): 153,273 (30.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with A♠: K♠:
3 folds, MP2 calls 5,000, MP3 folds, CO calls 5,000, Hero raises to 15,000, SB folds, BB calls 10,000, MP2 calls 10,000, CO calls 10,000

Flop: (67,000) 2♣: 5♠: J♠: (4 players)
BB checks, MP2 bets 67,000, CO raises to 193,495 and is all-in, Hero calls 137,773 and is all-in, BB folds, MP2 calls 126,495

Turn: (591,763) 8♠: (3 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (591,763) 6♠: (3 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 591,763 pot
Final Board: 2♣: 5♠: J♠: 8♠: 6♠:
BB mucked and lost (-15,500 net)
MP2 showed 8♣: J♣: and won 111,444 (-97,551 net)
CO showed J♦: A♣: and lost (-208,995 net)
Hero showed A♠: K♠: and won 480,319 (327,046 net)

And another from the same tournament.
I just entered for practice at MTTs

Poker Stars, $0.01 Buy-in (5,000/10,000 blinds, 1,000 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 8 Players

SB: 580,869 (58.1 bb)
BB: 14,976 (1.5 bb)
UTG+2: 116,974 (11.7 bb)
Hero (MP1): 592,337 (59.2 bb)
MP2: 523,871 (52.4 bb)
MP3: 147,804 (14.8 bb)
CO: 518,011 (51.8 bb)
BTN: 1,260,316 (126 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with K♦: A♦:
UTG+2 folds, Hero raises to 25,000, MP2 calls 25,000, 4 folds, BB calls 3,976 and is all-in

Flop: (76,976) 8♣: 5♦: 3♦: (3 players, 1 is all-in)
Hero bets 38,488, MP2 calls 38,488

Turn: (153,952) 7♥: (3 players, 1 is all-in)
Hero bets 76,976, MP2 calls 76,976

River: (307,904) K♠: (3 players, 1 is all-in)
Hero bets 450,873 and is all-in, MP2 calls 382,407 and is all-in

Results: 1,072,718 pot
Final Board: 8♣: 5♦: 3♦: 7♥: K♠:
BB showed A♠: T♦: and lost (-14,976 net)
Hero showed K♦: A♦: and won 1,072,718 (548,847 net)
MP2 showed J♠: J♦: and lost (-523,871 net)

Has it really been almost a month since I posted?
Wow!

I was away for a couple of weeks, and nothing noteworthy happened.
I've been playing on a site run by the Provinces of Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia.
There is very little traffic (currently 541 players at 14:45), but there is usually enough for a few tables of NL 4. The culture is quite different in that it is quite common for 5 or even 6 players to see a flop -- often with no raises. On the flop, the action begins, and there is quite a lot of it. People will bet (or call) 2nd pair down to the river. Lots o' fun!

This week, though I'm playing NL 2 zoom on PokerStars, and $0.02 990-man SnGs in order to collect tickets for the current promo.
NL 2 Zoom is a real treat, in that people actually fold, and you can steal a ton.

I'm playing NL 2 in order to win with Pocket Jacks. I expect to see JJ once in 221 hands, but I've seen JJ 5 times in just under 600 hands (and won with them all).

For the SnG challenge I've been playing the $0.20 990-man hypers.
This is because I don't really play SnGs much, and consider myself a total fish.
I've played 32 of them so far, and cashed in 8. Much to my complete amazement, that includes this one:

My strategy is simple:
Stay out of trouble, and shove decent hands when I have less than 10 bigs.
I'm not sure about calling though. I've been calling shoves only if I cover the shover, and if he has less than 5 bigs.
I also try to avoid multi-way all-ins.

Approaching the final table, I had this hand:
Poker Stars, $0.02 Buy-in (12,500/25,000 blinds, 5,000 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 6 Players

SB: 371,143 (14.8 bb)
BB: 210,557 (8.4 bb)
UTG: 188,964 (7.6 bb)
MP: 343,168 (13.7 bb)
Hero (CO): 205,824 (8.2 bb)
BTN: 165,344 (6.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 8♠: A♣:
UTG folds, MP raises to 338,168 and is all-in, 4 folds

to be honest I have no clue whether to call or fold -- so I took the safe way out.
9th place is double 10th, but as it turns out, I luck-boxed my way to 1st.

I'll bask for a while now, and go do some laundry.

Peace,
VS

You cannot say you're a fish then I scroll down to see you bink a 990 Hyper!

That other site seems like fun! Sounds like a live game!

Congrats my friend.

Well done.

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
You cannot say you're a fish then I scroll down to see you bink a 990 Hyper!

That other site seems like fun! Sounds like a live game!

lol -- Oh yes I can!
At one point I was 79 of 79 and had a remarkable run of luck.
I also took to calling min-raises then check shoving the flop with whatever (once I had a huge chip lead). It seemed to work, but I have no idea if it is sound strategy or not, since I've never played the hypers before.

Best of luck,
VS

Originally posted by TheMarxBros3
Congrats my friend.

Well done.

Thanks!
It is hard to imagine how much fun these are.
The first part is fun just watching people spew.
In the last one I played, after I had played 3 hands fully half of the field was gone.

Once you have a decent stack, the only thing remaining to do is refrain from stupidity.
That seems to be quite a challenge.

All the best,
VS

Nice to hear from you at last.
GL in all your proceedings incl poker.

As for A8 hand it's very opp dependent, for example does he have normal bet range in this spot or he always pushes, how frequently and so on...
By default it's definitely fold.