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Well, I just had a very interesting few days of poker. I think it was my first official spot of variance. It lasted about 2,000 hands and was much more hardcore than I expected. I'm alright with people sucking out on me, sometimes I even chuckle. I lost $12 with AA thanks to the river. Both of my opponents made straights on the river in both hands. It was so bad last night I snapped a little inside, much to the dismay of the 2P2 Micro FR Regulars thread. It isn't even just getting bad cards, or no cards, it's much worse. It's bad cards compounded with getting sucked out on and rivered on top of not getting paid on any of your made hands, having no one respect your continuation bets, getting check raised and re-raised left right and center all over the place on every table... it's fucking brutal. I really didn't think it could be that bad, but boy was I mistaken. I feel lucky that it only lasted 2,000 hands, because that is by far some of the most frustrating nights of poker I've played, ever.
I do have to thank the people of the Micro FR Reg thread. I ranted huge and they were all really kind about it and I didn't get flamed like I expected. I feel bad for even posting what I did, but I really had no other outlet. Props to all them over there for helping me out. I wasn't able to post during the past two nights because I didn't end up going to bed until very late, hopefully I won't let that happen again. Anyways, on to tonights session...
Hands Played: 86Hours: 0.97Amount Won: $12.87BB/100: 149.65Tables: 2
I played a quick 2 table session tonight before dinner. I sat down at the table with a certain freshness and positiveness in my head before I started playing (i.e shook off the past few days). My second hand was AA, so I thought that was a sign. Turns out it was. I flopped the nut flush in one hand and stacked someone for a $4.25 pot, only to turn a straight on the very next hand and stack yet another someone for a $3.29 pot. I was also getting some fairly decent cards and took a few pots down with regular continuation bets and even hit a pair or two. The session I played only lasted 86 hands and less than an hour, but I made a definite solid amount in that time. My biggest losing hand was floating a regs continuation bet with 99, he fired a second barrel so I decided that was that.
A lesson can be learned from my past few days... variance is a bitch. The first day I was down $0.78, the second day I was up $12.10, but that didn't even matter. The session was atrocious and drove me insane. Last night was by far the most aggravating, running -$13.45 over 680 hands. The worst seems to be over for now, hopefully tomorrows sessions will be as profitable as earlier tonight. I leave you with one of the last hands from my short session...
BTN: $5.02SB: $3.05BB: $3.50 UTG: $9.53 UTG+1: $5.52 MP: $2.68Hero (CO): $10.08Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with 5
A
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, SB calls $0.13, BB calls $0.10Flop: ($0.45) J T 4 (3 players)SB bets $0.10, BB calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.10Turn: ($0.75) 7 (3 players)SB bets $0.35, BB raises to $3.25 all in, Hero raises to $9.83 all in, SB calls $2.45 all inRiver: ($10.05) Q (3 players - 3 are all in)Final Pot: $10.05 SB mucks 6 2 BB shows 3
K (a flush, King high) Hero shows 5 A (a flush, Ace high) Hero wins $0.85 Hero wins $8.70
Bankroll: $232.25
Hands Played: 840Hours: 3.15Amount Won: -$0.78BB/100: -0.93Tables: 5Well I just had possibly the most brutal session I've had in a long time. Even worse than the -2 BI sessions I've had. It felt like God himself decided I wouldn't be making any profit today. I had a few suck outs which is fairly standard (flop trips vs. AA with an A on the river), but almost none of my actual hands got paid off by anyone - not even the fish! It's a wonder I ended up only down 78 cents, because about 30 minutes into the session I was down $13.The tables weren't very good, but I ended up finding a few that were alright. Problem is I never actually got any hands against the fish and they just ate up my continuation bets and donked me off of just about every pot. Whenever I'd flop trips I'd bet, but instead of doing what they always do, they'd just fold. It almost felt like every fish could see my hole cards... Out of my top 15 winning hands, only 4 went to showdown. At least my red line gets a boost, I guess.There's an odd thing I've noticed that happens at these limits. In order to valuetown the fish, you need to play poker that isn't really optimal. Against any decent player I'd never stack off with TPTK or bet 3 streets, but against a fish it's standard. I find that every once in a while I hang myself, but maybe that's also standard. When we play against fish we play very differently than optimal because it gets us the most value overall for our TPTK+ hands. There's no need to worry about keeping the pot small because our opponents will call enough and play badly enough that this is profitable. However, that's not always the case and sometimes I question the road to valuetown.Both of us had $10 behind here.Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with A
Q2 folds, MP1 calls $0.05, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.25, 2 folds, BB calls $0.20, MP1 calls $0.20Flop: ($0.77) J K A (3 players)BB bets $0.15, MP1 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, BB calls $0.60At this point I'm putting him on any one of the cards on the table, but certainly not on AK or any similar hand as he would have likely 3bet preflop with such a holding. I'm not worried about QT, and a draw is also possible. Turn: ($2.27) 6 (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB calls $2So, I take the standard line vs. fish with TPTK. Bet every street, maximize value. I'm smiling as I continue to bet the pot.River: ($6.27) 2 (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $3, BB calls $3Sweet I say to myself, managed to get all 3 streets out of him. Although at this point I'm worried in the back of my head about being beaten, but I can't think of anything he can really have that beats me. I figure he has ATs or something similar.Final Pot: $12.27 BB shows J A (two pair, Aces and Jacks) Hero shows A Q (a pair of Aces) BB wins $11.72Well don't I just look stupid, eh? Against a regular player I would have checked the turn and maybe put out a small 1/2 pot bet on the river, keeping with the small hand, small pot philosophy, especially on this board. But he isn't a reg, he's a fish, so I assume my TPTK is the nuts and off I go to hang myself on the turn and the river. Bad play? Bad beat? Fish just happened to have 2 pair? Either way, I played this hand differently against this player than I would have against anyone else, is that a good thing? Overall it probably is, given the state of NL5 and it's players. In the long run 2 pair or trips is pretty unlikely and most of the time I'll take this pot down against a fish... but damned if I don't look like a bit of an idiot here. Is there a way to balance fish play and real play to optimize our value? Is this standard? Did I just play it bad? All questions for 2 Plus 2.I feel I really need to look into how I value TPTK against certain villains, because that seems to be the crux of my losing plays and a big bone of contention for me. I don't know when to overvalue it and when not to. Then again, maybe it's just a bad beat against a fish who got lucky and I'm over analyzing. Tomorrow I'm going to hit the tables with the wrath of cuddles and have my vengeance.
Bankroll: $220.73
Hands Played: 349Hours: 1.38Amount Won: $19.79BB/100: 56.70 (sustainable imo)Tables: 5Had a great session after a long afternoon nap. Tables were extremely fishy, I think 4/5 of them started with average VPIP above 40%. They cooled a bit after a while, but still plenty of money to be made. I feel like I played really, really well. I don't think I made any major mistakes and I played my premium hands well. The biggest pot I lost was only $0.85, and in that pot I got rivered for a better two pair which was slightly annoying since the villain was 92/0...This was my biggest hand, and I think I played it well in terms of bet sizing. Maybe could have gone a bit bigger on the flop. CO was very clearly drawing.Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is UTG+2 with 2 2 1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, MP1 raises to $0.20, 1 fold, CO calls $0.20, 3 folds, UTG+1 calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.10 Flop: ($0.87) 7 2 A (4 players) UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.40, MP1 folds, CO calls $0.40, UTG+1 calls $0.40 Turn: ($2.07) Q (3 players) UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $1.50, CO calls $1.50, UTG+1 calls $1.50 River: ($6.57) 4 (3 players) UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $5, CO folds, UTG+1 calls $3.82 all in Final Pot: $14.21 Hero shows 2 2 (three of a kind, Deuces) UTG+1 mucks K A Hero wins $13.56I'm not sure about UTG+1's play on this one. I don't think I call that many strong bets on every street with just TPTK. Maybe he should go read Harrington on Hold 'Em. I'll post this hand here just because it made me laugh both pre-flop and on showdown. Nothing better than getting 3bet with AA.Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is UTG with A A Hero raises to $0.25, 3 folds, BTN raises to $0.75, 2 folds, Hero raises to $5, BTN calls $4.07 all in
Final Pot: $9.71 BTN mucks T T Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Queens) Hero wins $9.26I had one problem hand that I posted on 2 Plus 2, you can find it here. TPTK is a big question mark for me most of the time. Against fish I simply bet/bet/shove and that's good enough, but with unknowns and thinking players I try to stick with the small hand, small pot philosophy and am not really comfortable betting 3 streets with TPTK. It's something I'll have to really keep an eye on and work on, because I think I'm missing a lot of value being too passive with my TPTK hands against non-fish.Bankroll: $221.51
