CARDRUNNERS

I barely played yesterday. I played for like 45 minutes before Dinner. I won about 1.5 buyins in that time, which I am happy with. I didn't feel like playing after dinner, so I didn't.

I'm going to start including some HH's from time to time when I play an interesting hand. I don't run huge bluffs very often, but I did yesteday. Here is the hand http://www.pokerhand.org/?416699.

My thought process was this. Sparx was playing loose and I hadn't reraised at all at that table yet. I decided this was a good time to put in a reraise w/ a suited connector and position. Unfortunately, I got a call from a short stack. Sparx also called. With the added pot odds due to the shortstack, I decided that Sparx range was even wider than normal. The flop comes and I catch bottom pair. Not really what I was looking for. The short stack checked and sparx checked quickly behind. Due to Sparx's quick check, I didn't put him on much of a hand at this point. I decided that betting out was a good option. The short stack isn't going to call unless he hit the flop (which he probably didn't) and Sparx has to give me more credit for a hand since I am betting into a short stack. I also figured if the shortstack did have a hand, I still likely have 5 outs to win. Also, I thought that if I showed down 45s here it would help my table image in a way that I would get more action. The shortstack folded and Sparx called. I didn't expect that, but whatever. Like I said, he's gotta think I have a hand since I reraised pre and then bet into the shortstack. I'm putting him on a pair, maybe a hand like JJ or AQ/KQ. He checked the turn and I think he was hoping I would check behind so that he could show down his hand for cheap. I decided that I would continue repping a big hand and push allin. It's almost impossible for him to call without a monster and I'm quite sure he doesn't have one. I basically repped AA, because that's exactly how I would play AA sometimes (sometimes I'd bet smaller on turn, but I like pushing big pairs on the turn too). Luckily the play worked. I got my adrenaline rush for the day and got to win a decent pot.

I finished up working at UOP yesterday (that was the project i was on). The next week and a half I am back working at our main office. It's nice to only have a 30-40 minute drive each way, opposed to 1.5 hours. I also can have a little more free time while working.

I played a long 6 or 7 hour session today. It paid off. I won about 9 buyins which brings me back into the race. Here are some hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?443276
I was raising a lot and felt the table was getting pretty fed up with it. I thought Tizerd's reraising range was pretty wide for that reason. I basically crossed my fingers and pushed. When he used up all his bank and called, I thought 1010 or JJ was a real possibility. Luckily that wasn't the case.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?443279
Interesting hand. I had a strong feeling he had a flush on the river when he overbet. I think I should have folded.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?443340
Another interesting hand. I value bet the river w/ the worst hand. I put him on a big ace at that point. I don't think I fold to a push if I check. I'm not sure I should play it any different.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?443440
By far the most interesting hand of the session. After talking to some people and thinking about it, I think that this is a must call on the river. I had to call 2k more though and at the time I wasn't sure hed do that w/ two pair or a set. I think if he has K10, I just have to pay him off.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?443469
Hand vs EmpireMaker. Bad luck. I thought id include this since he's a guest pro.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?443740
I made a loose call preflop but my hand was suited and there were good pot odds. The bet on the flop wasn't very big so I decided to see a turn. I didn't like being OOP, but whatever. Once the turn hits, I'm definitely not folding the turn. I'm still OOP and he could have a set or straight. I don't think it's likely, but I want to see a river before committng more chips. River is the perfect card. I figure at this point he's probalby make the flush or has 3 kings. I figure that he will bet if I check so I go for the c/r. He made the flush and paid me off. Nice. He has to fold that hand on the river though. He really made a bad call.

Today: +18358.42
Overall: +10481.40

6018.60 behind pace

I played for like an hour this morning. I got bored towards the end and wasn't paying attention, so I quit. I ran well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?444762
Interesting hand. I was worried about a set on that board. After he called the flop I thought a hand like 1010, JJ or QQ seemed very likely. Obv the J turn isn't very good for those holdings. It may slow down 1010 and it puts me way behind JJ. There's also the chance that the guy has 88 or 99. Since QQ and maybe 1010 were what I needed him to have, I slwoed down a bit. Once he checks the river I'm pretty sure he has one of those hadns so I put out a nice value bet. He had 1010.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?444789
Can I fold the turn here? I've played enough poker to know what a set looks like and that sure as hell looks like a set w/ how he played it. Oh well, I took the standard line and paid him off.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?444793
Always fun when top pair gets action, even on a scary board like that. Ty for holding.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?444803
I made a great call here. I don't want to analyze this hand though since I play w/ him a lot.

This session: +4645.68
Overall: +15127.08

4122.92 behind pace

I pretty much wasted all day today playing mtts and some sngs. I lost about $1500. MTTs really frustrate me because most of the time you are just wasting several hours and getting nothing in return. Also, if you misplay one hand you are done. I find it very hard to not misplay a hand for several hours.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?474755
Strange hand. I'm not entirely sure why I min raised the turn.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?474792
This was a pretty interesting tournament hand. I knew the button had a wide range so I decided to squeeze with a reasonable hand. To my surprise the limper called me. However, I had played some hands with him and knew he was a calling station so I wasn't entirely surprised. I made a standard bet on the flop hoping to just take it down there. He called. Now I really have no idea what he might have. The only hand I can see him having that beats me is either 88 or 99 or maybe AQ. It def seems like he would have raised any of those hands though since he ws in late position. With the turn card of a 9 I can pretty much rule out 99. It also gives me some outs if I'm up against 88. However, I want to see how he acts before I make any decisions. I checked and he bet 1/2 the pot. I found it interesting that he left 1k behind him. I decided that he was bluffing (with god knows what) and that he left the 1k incase he gets caught. I made a value push with the KQ and actually just took it down right there.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?474951
This was how I got busted out of a $500 sng. Sure looks like something that would happen in a $5 sng.

Today: -1574.50
Overall: +73018.08

1518.08 AHEAD of pace

Well the announcement of Brian happened and I think it went well. This had been in the works for a long time and I'm really glad that we were finally able to go public with it. I have high expectations for the future of Cardrunners and I know that Brian will be a great addition to the site.

I've been playing some 5/10 and 10/25 the last few days. I went on a nice run and was up 10k but I gave most of it back. I guess that's just how it goes. Sooner or later I'm gonna have a huge rush. I know it'll happen, I just don't know when.

I had an interesting hand play out with my friend, David. http://www.pokerhand.org/?814665. Basically I feel like he knows my game very well so I wanted to play this hand in a strange manner to throw him off. I knew it could lead to some tough decisions, but I was ok with that. I made a standard raise preflop. I opted to check the flop to disguise my hand. I figured I could work to win a medium sized pot. I bet the turn. He's gotta figure I would have bet most pair hands on the flop so the turn shouldnt have helped me at all. He can also try to rep the 4 and get me to fold a real hand. I'm not completely confident that I am in good shape here, but the reason I checked the flop was to create some action that otherwise may not have happened. There is no way I'm folding at this point. I called and decided to see how the river played out. The river is an interesting card because it makes it so you only need a 6 to complete a straight. David bet the river pretty quickly. This got me wondering because I would consider that river a scare card. He knows that a hand like 67 or 66 could definitely be in my range here. Of course there's the chance that he has the 6 but he also probabyl would have thought the river through more. I really got the feeling that he was betting the river no matter what and he knew what he was going to bet. To me this meant he was either making a value bet with a big hand or that he had complete air. I was leaning towards him making a play. I tanked it and eventually called. I played the hand like I did to try to setup a situation where he would bluff into me. I know that I also allowed a chance for him to outdraw me, but his timing kept making me think he didn't have a monster. In the end, he had JJ. I never expected for him to have JJ there. He told me later that it was a very thin value bet. It's definitely not a good value bet because I'm usually not calling with a hand worse than JJ there.

I just played an hour or so long session of 5/10. I played 4 tables of 6 man and 2 tables of full ring. I was up about 2k for awhile, but I ran into some bad situations right before I quit. One of the hands I got all in pre with QQ vs KK. Not much I could do. I think I lost about $500. Oh well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?890790
I misplayed this hand pretty bad. I think my preflop call is pretty questionable because of my postion and the fact that he is UTG. Once the flop comes I like my raise to try to isolate vs the initial raiser. When jcamby calls, I know he has a huge hand. I'm thinking two pair is the most likely. On the turn I knew the Q would kill the action so I decided to check to disguise my hadn. I should have just bet it there. When the river comes I should check with the idea of likely calling a bet. When I bet, I thought maybe a hand like A10 would call, but A10 isn't one of his most likely holdings. I just didn't really think it though. Also, if I bet there, I pretty much have to fold to a raise by him, because he's not going to bluff there. These types of hands are where my rust shows. Not putting in any significant hands for awhile can hurt you when you try to think through a hand fast.

I've had a pretty crazy week as far as going out. I went out Tues, Wed and Thurs. I'm sure I'll go out tonight. I think this has been one of the most fun weeks I've had in awhile. On wednesday night my friend decided he was going to bring $400 cash to the bar and spend it all. $400 might not be a lot of money to spend at a bar in a big city, but that is a HUGE amount to spend here. They had $1 jager bombs that night and that's all he bought. He probably bought about 350 jager bombs. I'd say there were 15 of us or so that were regularly drinking them. We got hammered. At the end I was telling him to stop because no one really wanted their 17th jagerbomb, but he wouldn't. I should note that the shots around here aren't real shots (maybe a little more than half a real shot), so we didn't really drink 20 drinks. Good times.

I've been thinking a ton about how the end is coming very soon. It's crazy that I'm about to graduate college. I've had amazing times here and I know I'm gonna miss it a lot. It has been fun though thinking back on all the great times and laughing about the stupid shit we've done over the years. It's interesting to think about how much I've changed in 4 years. Can't stop change though. It's just part of life. Gotta roll with the punches.

I honestly feel very good about how I'm playing NLHE right now. I'm making some mistakes here and there, but I think my decision making has been pretty damn good lately for the most part. I just put in a session where I played only nlhe and I did quite well. I won about 3 buyins and I lost a monster pot w/ a setup hand. Me and a guy were having a great HU match. He had 3k he got up on me early but then I just grinded back. I then lost a huge pot and he had a 5k stack to my 1k. When he ended up quitting me he was down to about 1500. Below are two hands I saved from the session.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?970629
He was 3 betting a lot and we were somewhat deep. I also knew that i could take some pots away as I had been doing it a bit. I didn't want to overdo it though and I hadn't done it in awhile when this hand came up. I bet the flop b/c I figured he'd fold a lot of his range there. When he called I wasn't too worried b/c he had called some flop bets pretty light earlier. I decided to make another stab on the turn. When he called there I was pretty much done unless the flush hit. I figured I might bluff the flush if the right card came. The 3h was perfect. I didn't think he had an ace from the way the hand played out so it made it very difficult to call b/c the straight and the flush are out there now. Luckily, he folded.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?970642
Nasty setup hand. If I can win after losing hands like this, I'm a very happy guy. I was honestly a bit worried about 810, but there is just no way I can get away from my hand there.

Ok here it is. This is the return of the poker blog. I have blogged about a hand or too at times over the past 6 months, but I haven't really gotten into poker strategy. Part of that was because I felt pretty shitty about the state of my game. I feel like my game is pretty good right now (at least for 2/4nl) so I'm gonna post a bunch of hands from my session on a regular basis. Please feel free to post your comments on the hands.

I played a 2 hour session last night before I got into a Wii marathon w/ Excitetruck. I only won about $200, but I was stuck over $1k at one point, so I was happy.

This hand happened early on in my session. The villian was an awful player so there was no way I was folding my hand here. I just wasn't sure if I should go with it on the flop or wait for the turn. I opted to see what came on the turn and therefore also give the guy a chance to hang himself with a bluff. The turn was pretty much a perfect card.

Weird hand here. The guys line was so strange. The thing was it could have easily been a monster. However, the way it played out combined with his timing really made it look strange. It was mostly his timing on the flop combined with the push that made me think he didn't hit the flop. I was thinking he might have a hand like AK or AQ or maybe even total air. I was lucky that it was air and that my hand held.

AA hand here. It's always tempting to try to get it all in preflop with AA. I def considered it here, but I think more times that not you are better waiting to see the action on the flop. That way you can at least get a c-bet if the guy has a garbage hand like he did here. Also, you can sometimes get a flop where the person will hang themselves with a weak holding. That also happened here. I feel like people don't bet out enough. The good thing here is that by betting out I got him to commit himself (any raise would with his hand). It may have not played out as well if I went for a c/r.

Omaha hand here. Honestly, the swings of PLO tend to get to me lately. The thing is that I know the game is so profitable that I should def be playing it. It's hands like this that remind me that.

I'm going to my friends house to watch the Champions League game today. I don't really care for AC Milan or Liverpool. I just want to see a good game. I guess I'll be rooting for AC over Liverpool. Kaka is pretty sick.

One quick note before I start. The CR League went very well last week and was a lot of fun. We had over 500 people participate. Unfortunately, I was in the airport when it went on and missed the first level and then ran AK into KJ a level or so after I began playing. I would have liked to last longer, but that's the nature of mtts. I will be playing again tonight and hopefully I have a better run. In case you missed the link above, more information.

Vegas is a great time, but it's killer on my body. I still don't feel very good and I have been home for a few days. It's just a mix of no sleep (biggest factor IMO), poor eating, no excercise, and too much drinking. Anyway, it's good to be home and getting back into the grind. It's nice to have the holidays approaching, but it also sucks that it won't be until the early new year that I can really get back into a good routine. Oh well.

Let me hit on the vegas trip a bit more. I played a lot of blackjack in vegas. Ever since I learned proper strategy, I really enjoy playing. It's a great way to kill time, get free drinks and meet people. I met some great people during my time at the tables. You get to bullshit with people you probably would have never crossed paths with. Unfortunately, after a hot start, I ran pretty horrible at the tables. It was still fun though.

I went to two of my favorite clubs while I was there. We went to tryst on Thursday. We met some guys from fatbet.com and pokerinside.com. They hooked us up with a great table. There were a bunch of their friends a decent amount of our friends there. People from the CR side included AceCR9, Princessdonk, Townsend, Ezra, Zimba, LatestLines, and myself (probably forgetting some people too). I had actually never been to Tryst, but I will definitely go back. It's a really great place. We also went to Jet on Friday. It was a smaller group, but still fun. The two times I've been to Jet, they've played great music. It's a simple club, but one of the best IMO.

I've been putting in some sessions here and there at 2/4nl. I've mostly been playing for like an hour at night before I go to bed. I've been very happy with my results. I haven't lost in my past 5 or so sessions and I've put together some nice wins to put me up about 3k in that span.

Here is one gem: I just called the flop because I didn't want to kill the hand right there. Sooted and I have some history. I've bluffed my fair share of hands against him. To him, the ace seemed like a card I might bluff. Also, if he made aces up he'd jam anyway. I made a smallish raise to give him fold equity and to make it look more like I was bluffing. It worked well and my hand held.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: SoootedMagic ($411) -
Seat 2: Yawning Boy ($513.95) -
Seat 3: thesheriff4 ($367.60)
Seat 4: YachtDropR ($396) Sitting Out
Seat 5: sw2325 ($232.05)
Seat 6: liveandletdie22 ($456.10) -


PRE-FLOP:

SoootedMagic posts small blind $2
Yawning Boy posts BIG blind $4
Dealt To: Yawning Boy


FOLD thesheriff4
FOLD sw2325
FOLD liveandletdie22
RAISE SoootedMagic ($16)
CALL Yawning Boy ($12)


FLOP:

Pot: $32
   

BET SoootedMagic ($20)
CALL Yawning Boy ($20)


TURN:

Pot: $72
     

BET SoootedMagic ($52)
RAISE Yawning Boy ($124)
RAISE SoootedMagic ($375)
CALL Yawning Boy ($251)


RIVER:

Pot: $822
      



SHOWDOWN:
SoootedMagic:

Yawning Boy:


Yawning Boy collected $819 from main pot with three of a kind, Fours

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $822 Rake: $3

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: SoootedMagic small blind showed [5c 8c] and lost with Ace Queen high - Net Gain/Loss: ($-411)
  
Seat 2: Yawning Boy big blind showed [4s 4d] and won 819 with three of a kind, Fours - Net Gain/Loss: ($408)
Seat 3: thesheriff4 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: YachtDropR is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: sw2325 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: liveandletdie22 button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

4s are wild. 44 treated me well this session. Pretty standard hand. I potted the turn because I wanted to rep a draw of sometime. It seems like quickly jamming a big bet will come off that way. He seemed to think I was weak and shoved his hand.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: BassStretcher ($512.80) -
Seat 2: Yawning Boy ($552.80) -
Seat 3: YachtDropR ($459.20)
Seat 4: Jhardain ($724.50)
Seat 5: Unkle_Rukus ($627.40)
Seat 6: m_reed05 ($350) -


PRE-FLOP:

BassStretcher posts small blind $2
Yawning Boy posts BIG blind $4
Dealt To: Yawning Boy


RAISE YachtDropR ($14)
FOLD Jhardain
FOLD Unkle_Rukus
CALL m_reed05 ($14)
FOLD BassStretcher
CALL Yawning Boy ($10)


FLOP:

Pot: $44
   

BET Yawning Boy ($32)
FOLD YachtDropR
CALL m_reed05 ($32)


TURN:

Pot: $108
     

BET Yawning Boy ($108)
RAISE m_reed05 ($304)
CALL Yawning Boy ($196)


RIVER:

Pot: $716
      



SHOWDOWN:
m_reed05:

Yawning Boy:


Yawning Boy collected $713 from main pot with a full house, Fours full of Sixes

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $716 Rake: $3

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: BassStretcher small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2)
Seat 2: Yawning Boy big blind showed [4c 4h] and won 713 with a full house, Fours full of Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($363)
Seat 3: YachtDropR folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-14)
Seat 4: Jhardain didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: Unkle_Rukus didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: m_reed05 button showed [5d 5h] and lost with two pair, Sixes and Fives - Net Gain/Loss: ($-350)
  


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

This converter is definitely a bit hard to read. Look for some improvements on it soon. Also, our replayer is in its final stages of beta testing. I've been using it a lot lately and I'm really pleased with how it came out.