I was playing a little bit of $400nl tonight at Stars. I had rebought for about $120 and was right at $400 when the following hand occured. I had been raising a lot preflop, and mostly getting no action. I had been playing passively postflop, but trying to get more aggressive. The other players seemed to be decent, but too tight. I raised (again) UTG to $16, the guy to my left made it ~$45 (I had only been reraised preflop twice so far, but both times had been semi-recently), the button and the small blind both called?!? What the hell was going on here? I guess I really only had to worry about AA from the guy to my left, but probably no one thought they needed to be THAT strong to take me on, given my image. This would become apparent quickly.

I pushed the rest of my $400. The guy to my left thought for a moment (I was pretty sure, given his longish pause, that he didn't have AA) and then pushed. The SB called with little thought. The guy to my left had AQ and the SB had AJ, both offsuit?!? Flop had an Ace...and a King, and moments later $1277 was being pushed in my direction. Sweet!

I've been making an effort to get back into poker, but it hadn't been going to well. Every time I wanted to play, I would sit down, and be unhappy within the first 20 minutes. The middle/high NL cash games at party have been awful lately. It's the same players at every table and it's very tight, and very aggressive. Very bad for business. Also, it's hard wanting to come home from a day at work in front of the computer, and sit in front of the computer some more. But, perhaps it was the excitement of following this year's World Series of Poker, and having a long layover in Vegas on Day 1C of the main event, but I've started playing tournaments, and with some...bubbly results.

I'm going to first discuss a pseudo revelation I've had as of late, and then will go over a few specific hands. The revelation: I hve unknowingly stopped trying to double up late in tournaments. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure that I often reraised all in or made all in calls knowing that I would have to win a race. My logic was that I was playing for first place, and needed the chips. However, this last week, I have been miraculously avoiding these types of situations.

In one of my Party tournaments (and perhaps I'll look at the hand history to verify this), but I must have been all-in 20 times, but I was rarely called, and often had much better than coinflips the times when I did need to win the hand. Open raising all in with a hand like AQ and getting called by 88 is totally different than reraising all in with AQ, because late in the tournament, you usually won't have enough chips for your opponent to fold. And if you DO have enough chips, you often don't want to get crazy with anything other than AA or KK if you have to fear any other players getting involved in the put.

To win the tournaments, you need to still be alive, and you can't win every coinflip. My standards changed dramatically when someone else was already in the pot, preferring to make a move with lesser hands when I could be the first one in. It seemed to be working well as I (essentially) made down to the last two tables in 4 of ~12 tournaments this week, in addition to busting right on the bubble in 1 or two others. When I made the money I went deep.

Let's talk about some key hands for a moment. The first was at a Party tournament. We were down to 11. I picked up KK on the button and everyone folded to me. I had aroun 9 times the size of the big blind, so my standard play with a hand I like would be to move all in. However, I was probably 9th out of 11 at that point, and felt that buying the blinds wasn't good enough, I needed a double up. I made the minimum raise, and only the small blind called. The flop QT9 with two diamonds, wasn't too much to my liking, and the small blind pushed. I called instantly and he turned over QJ with two diamonds. I'm too lazy to run the numbers, but I'd guess he's a 55% favorite at this point, and hit his straight on the turn. Tournament over.

One of the more crushing hands in recent memory was a $100 Party Poker tournament with 420 entrants. First place was just over $10,000, and I consider a 5 figure win to be the next thing on my list of hopeful poker accomplishments. We hit the money around 60, and down around 40 I starting getting clobbered with the deck (despite what you might think, this means that I'd been getting great hands. I think I actually had two back to back sets, and an AA or two. Down to 20 people, I knocked out number 20, with an AA. Then, I picked up my key hand as of late, KK. (They've been particularly memorably and pivotal lately, especially a recent tournament where on the very first hand, someone in EP raised to 4x, I made a huge overbet all in with KK. He called with KK. I picked up a flush draw on the turn, but we ended up chopping.)

Somone in early position made the minimum raise, 4000. The guy to my right who was second in chips at the table, raised to 26,000. I had around 98,000, and put it all in. I was third in chips at the time. The original raiser folded, and the guy to my right thought. And thought. And thought. Any worries I had vanished quickly, because he would have called instantly with AA. Now, I'm thinking he's got QQ, maybe even KK? He calls. It's a 200,000 pot. The largest of the tournament. The winner with be a large chipleader (somone else has ~150,000, but very few others are over 100,000. The Q on the flop hits his pocket queens, and I leave the tournament in 19th place. Ugh.

It's funny, I don't remember the hands I played "well" so much. I pretty much remember the hands that knocked my out, or ones I could have played better. Here is an example. Stars rebuy tournament. People are crazy in rebuy tournies. During the rebuy period, the guy to my left called about 75% of his stack on a reraise (after two other callers) with Q7o. Then pushed into his long opponent when the flop was Q high. He lost to QJs?!? Wow.

There was a late hand in that tournament where the button open limped, crazy guy (who had settled down a little after the rebuy period ended) completed the small blind, and I checked A7o. I could have raised, but crazy guy would have probably called anything non insane raise. The flop was A high. We both check and the button makes a snall bet. Crazy guy calls and I call. I don't think the button has an Ace because he is the type that probably would have raised the blinds. I lead out when the turn paired the board and both called. The river paired the board again (I think), and anyway, I basically had a pair of aces and my kicker wouldn't even play. Crazy guy bet out a smallish amount and I folded. The button called and crazy guy won with A3. Him and I would have chopped. The thing was, my stack was not that big, and I was just about positive I had the best hand all the way to the river.

I think I have started to become too passive when out of position. Especially late in tournaments, I should just get my money in and hope to end it right there, and it this case, I probably would have either taken it down, or been called by a worse hand.

I played too passively on this hand as well. UTG, who had been raising a bit, min-raised UTG. I was the lone caller in my Big Blind with ATs. The flop was QJx with two of my suit. I checked and he min bet. I called. The turn was a J and I checked. He min bet again, I called. The river was a J. I checked and he bet twice the minimum. It was just two wierd. He had been pushing his weight around, and I guess I was scared he would try to move me off a better hand if I had raised somewhere along the way. But in the end I was getting like 7:1 on my call, and so I called with A high, and he had to much his 22. Now, although he was technically ahead till the river, my hand was much stronger than his, and I played it so passively that I opened the door for him to make a move on me. Too bad for him he didn't bet enough, because I would have folded. Hoever, I should have made him fold much earlier in the hand.

One last quick one. Down to 25 in a Poker Stars tourney with over 500 people. I have QQ. There is a min-raise from early position, and then a bigger stack makes a raise that covers just about everyone in the tourney. Here I figure, I have around 15-20x and I need to double up to have a healthy stack. He could easily have AK but that's okay because I just need chips. He has KK and I am out. QQ is strong, but two people were already in action. Even with just one person in already, I had enough chips that I could have been more patient. I had already sunk to 6k (4x at the time) in this tournament, and worked it back up to 20k. I should have waited for a better situation.

Anyway, time to go get dinner, the to the Dashboard Confessional concert tonight. I expect to be sung to death by a bunch of forlorn teenage girls.

Cliff notes: play tournaments to survive, not just decide that "I need to double up". Look for situations to increase my stack. If I make a move and get called, so be it. But do not knowingly put myself into coinflip situations. Also, don't play too pasively when out of position. Get your chips in when you know you have the best hand. Milking that extra few chips is not worth the chance of going busted. (I did this also with KQ and the flop was Q high, just me and one other guy. He hit is 4 on the river, for his Q4 to beat me.)

I got so far in so many tournaments. I only hope that I didn't squander my chances to make big money, which is almost entirely in those top 5 spots. Hopefully even more better news to come...

Since I had nothing better to do on this dreary, dreary Sunday (as I expect them all to be until, say, May), I took a psuedo plunge and bought into a $300nl tournament at Pokerroom this afternoon. Thanks to my friend Wesley, I am getting back into Pokerroom after a long long hiatus. Pokerroom was the first place I played, years ago. Then I lost all my money, and switch to Party Poker, not sure why. Anyway, I like their software, and you start with more chips in their tournies. Today started you off with 2500 in chips...which I proceeded to lose almost half on of the very first hand.

I was UTG with AJ, and raised to 4 times the size of the big blind. I got called by the button only.

The flop was 992 with two hearts, and I led out for the size of the pot. The button called. The turn was a J. I checked, and called the half sized pot bet on the turn. I checked and called a 1/3 size bet on the river, after not improving. First of all, I am not raising with AJ UTG at a full table anymore. I knew it was questionable when I did it. Really, few worse hands will call your raise. So if you do get action, it will almost always be from a better hand. So the thing is that if he called my bet on the flop, he either had me beat, or was drawing to a flush. Since he bet when checked to on the turn, that probably meant he didn't have a flush draw, or else he would have taken the free card. So, basically, I probably should have folded the turn, even though it helped my hand. Lately I have been having problems folding hands when people make small bets into growing pots. I need to consider that I will have to call a bigger bet on the river to showdown, and need to take the "warning" buzzers going off in my head, as was the case here.

So dejectedly, I pressed on. My big break came when I doubled up against QQ when a K came on the flop to pair the AK I held in my hand. The weird thing about this tournament was that I didn't have too many all-in coin flip situations, if any, besides the QQ vs AK. Most of the other situations, the money went in with me in great shape. So I was plugging along, and then finally started to get ahold of some chips when AQ took out my QQ with an Ace on the river. I was still alive, but not happy.

I had QQ and KK 3 times each, and I think they all won, except for the aforementioned QQ. I put in a 3rd raise with KK and was called by 77, and won a huge pot. I later raised to 9000k with TT (the big blinds was 3000). The button made it 22k. I thought for a while, and called. He could have easily been making a a move on me, because I had been raising a bit preflop, but I was pretty sure he had a good hand, just hopefully not a bigger pair. I would have been LESS scared of a bigger raise, but somehow, it seemed like he wanted a call. So I called, and the flop came with 3 cards below my tens. Oh-oh. This is trouble. I checked, and he went all in for the size of the pot, like 45k. It was slightly more than I had left. I thought. And thought. And thought. His bet was pretty large, and it seemed like he wanted to take down the pot right there. I figured with AA or KK, he would be looking to get a bet or two from me.

So I called.

He had AK, and did not improve. I became chipleader at the table. (Actually, I had been the leader before, but only by a small amount, now I was dominating.)

I started raising the blinds once or twice per orbit, more if I had good cards. I raised again, and the BB folded, informing me that I had raised his blind 6 times in a row. I had no idea. :) So I told him that I wouldn't raise him next time. Unless I had a good hand. He laughed, and as I put up my big blind, he told me that he would steal my blind, and we would be even. He raised to 10k. I looked down at pocket Aces! How perfect, he knows I know he's making a move on me, so if I reraise, I'll just look like a bully and he won't believe me.

Although he was second in chips with 70k, he ended up getting his whole stack in against me preflop with A7o?!? and I took a huge chiplead. As we narrowed down to the final table (from an original 223 players), I had 200k in chips. Another guy had 100k, and everyone else had less than 50k! I was in a great position.

I slowed down a bit, not raising much, then picking up the blinds a few times. I had a few short stacks all in against me in coinflip situations, but lost them all. My stack dwindled a bit. I was reraised twice preflop by the same guy, each time when I was holding an Ace with a low card. I did NOT want to call a reraise with a hand that might easily be dominated (being up against another Ace with a bigger kicker). In retrospect, I maybe should have called him the second time. Both times I was getting ~2:1 on my money, but felt that I would have a healthy stack if I just gave it up. The problem was that everyone else was doubling up and knocking out players. We were down to 5, and all of the sudden, I had the short stack. The blinds went up, and I was in all in or fold mode.

I have no idea how I became desperate so fast. I ended up going all in with Q5o from the SB with about 60k left (the blinds were at 5k-10k). The BB thought for a long time, and then called with AT. I was out. I'm fairly certain he would have layed down a lot of hands there because he was risking over half of his stack. Just unlucky that he happened to have a hand he could call with.

Very disappointing to not win despite such a huge lead. I think I should have called the second time I was reraised preflop (I had A5s I believe). Who knows though? Actually, thinking back, I do not think I won a hand at showdown at the final table. Tough to win if you can't do that. So I got paid $3300, my second best payday ever, but I really REALLY wanted the $16k for first place.

I'll be back.

I'll get right down to business. Last night, at the $200 dollar table. After maybe 20 or so hands, I had seen the guy to my left go all in a few times preflop, each time a massive overbet. One of them, I had raised with A8s, and he went all in. I folded. He claimed to have 33. A few hands later, I limped UTG with AA, he raised it to 3.5x. EVERYONE CALLED?!? Except me, I raised it to 20x, he went all in for 100x. Everyone folded. I called of course.

When the board came something like KQ87T with 4 diamonds, I knew I was beat. He had JJ, with the J of diamonds, for the runner runner flush. I tried not to throw up in my mouth, and kept on going. I won a few pots off that guy, and built up my stack to around 150x, when the following hand came up. I had TT in the CO, and limped after one other limper (hoping my friend to the left would raise). He limped as well. And 4 of us saw a flop of: AT3, with two spades. We all check to my buddy, who bets 4x. Everyone folds, but I raise to...

Okay, I'm sick of using X. So I'll use $$. He bets $9, I raise it to $24, and he calls. The turn is the K of spades. With like $60 in the pot, I bet $20, hoping he doesn't have the flush. He raises to $40, the minimum. I'm pretty sure he has the flush. But with 10 outs to a boat or better, I call. The river is an Ace, giving me the full house. Since I'm pretty sure he has the flush, I go all in, betting more than the pot, and he calls instantly with 94 of spades, a low flush. The pot ended up being something like $650. Not bad.

A few hands later, I raise with AK and get two callers. The flop is JT2, they both check, and I check hoping to hit my gutshot straight. The turn is the Q of clubs, putting two clubs on the board. They both check, I bet $15. The SB calls. The BB raises to $80 (he has over $600 in chips like I do). I think for a while and raise to $220 (I have the stone cold nuts right now). He reraises all in, and I practically jump out of my seat to call. The river is a terrifying A of clubs, meaning a flush is now possible, and I split the $1350!?! pot with anyone with a King. He has AK also. We split the pot and I win like $8. A whole lotta excitement for nothing.

Some memorable bad plays from me...
I limp in with T9s. The BB raises 2x. I call. I check and call on the flop of QTx. The turn is a heart, putting two hearts on the board. I check raise him about the size of the pot. The river is a King and I bet 3/4 of the pot. He calls with KQ. WTF am I thinking? I think the only reason I got involved is because I felt like he was raising and betting as a SB/BB war because I had limped in. I was being stubborn I guess? Why was I trying to bet him off what looked like top pair? Even if he had turned a flush draw (which he did actually) without a pair, I still didn't need to bet the river since I would have the best hand. I think my mistake was that I didn't even bother trying to figure out what he had, instead just figured "his hand isn't THAT good" and tried to play it accordingly. Still, I would have had to make a bigger river bet to win with a bluff.

Argh.

So on to tonight. I've been on this weird streak lately where I seem to win or lose like $600 in a sitting. It goes back and forth, but has evened out over the last week or so. The theme has been that I am getting too tricky with my 1 pair hands, and instead of betting them like I have the best hand, I've been trying to maximize the amount the other person puts in the pot, which is a good idea in theory, but people keep making their draws against me, and instead of me winning a smaller pot, I lose a bigger one. The worst part is that my brain seems to know the best thing to do most of the time, but my right hand seems to betray it. I'll "know" for example that I should raise my Ace high on the river with a guy who has just bet $5 on all 3 streets. Then I talk myself out of it, figuring that there is a good chance my A high is good, and I'm getting 8:1 on my call. I call and he has 44. If I had raised, I would have won the pot. Lots of little things like that, but I can't seem to stop them from happening. Then when I finally get the balls to start raising my draws, after my raise, and a reraise from the BB, I have AQs and the flop comes down with two spades. I am up against AA who calls my all in, and I lose my stack. I quit.

Tonight, I get gome from work, start playing three $200 tables. 7 hands later on one of my tables, I have knocked out 3 players, crippled another, and doubled my stack. I think the hands were 44 with a flop of QJ4 against AJ. T9 with a flop of 876. AA against a shortstacked all in. And another I can't remember. So, staying true to my recent steak of win or lose a quick few hundred dollars, I'm up a few hundred after an hour or two of play.

I go to dinner, waiting for a friend of mine from LA to call me, as he's near Boston, and we're supposed to hang out. He still hasn't called, so I play some more poker. I try to get onto a $200 table, but there don't seem to be any good ones, so I end up at 3?!? $400 tables. I'm vaguely paying attention to one of them, but happen to notice that a big pot has developed, and a pretty weak hand ends up taking it down. Then I post the BB. AQo. Nice. All 5 people limp to me, I raise it to $20 (there is $24 in the pot), and 3 of them call.

The flop: QJ6 with two spades. I bet $50 into an $85 pot, hoping to take it down right there. UTG calls. MP calls. The CO pushes all in for $400! What the hell is going on here? With so many people seeing the flop, I should be worried that someone has a better hand than me. My brain says to call, but should I listen. I didn't have time to reason it all out then, but I'll give it a shot right now.

I know nothing about any of these players, other than I suspect they like action (this table had a very high average pot size, and is the reason I'm sitting at it). The hands that beat me are QQ, JJ, 66, AA, KK, QJ, Q6, J6. So, while that is 7 hands, we can probably eliminate AA-JJ because no one raised preflop, and even if they were trying to trap, I gave them the opportunity to limp and then reraise my raise, and no one chose to do so. J6 and Q6 are pretty unlikely hands to call a raise with, so all that is left and reasonable is QJ and 66.

The CO's raise to $400 seems desperate don't you think? Like he's drawing to a flush or something. I highly doubt QJ or 66 would be played like that. Everyone has acted, and he knows he's got the best hand, he would raise less, and could expect us all to call. Like if he raised $100 more, we would probably all call beacause there would be so much money in the pot. Then he would make an extra $300, and could go all in on the turn. And for the other two callers? Maybe KQ is possible? AJ? QT? I'm not quite sure, but if one of them had QJ or 66, I think THEY would be VERY likely to raise because they would not want spades, KT, T9 to draw cheaply. Neither of them raised. Odd. It was a pretty twisted play on my part, but I called the rest of my stack with 1 pair. UTG called! MP...thought for quite a while, and then called! The turn was an King, which was pretty scary. The two remaining players both checked. The river was an Ace, giving me two pair, but anyone who had a T now had a straight. MP turned over A7s, top pair, and the flush draw, which missed. Then, the pot got pushed towards me...$1450! UTG had low spades, and the CO had J9, 1 pair! My AQ was best on the flop, turn, and river!

I could only play for another 15 minutes, before I left the table...I just couldn't concentrate anymore. I was too excited, relieved, and pots were seeming pretty small after that one. Wow. The guy with A7 was defending himself saying he had the correct odds to call (which he did), and said:
"I'm surprised you called with AQ"
"Me too!" I responded. Because I genuinely was.

I also got all in with JJ against A9, that hit an ace on the flop.
Then an even better situation when my 99 was all-in preflop against 77 and held until the 7 on the river gave him 3 of a kind.

Then a bizarre scenario occurred. I had The blinds were 2000/4000 and I had 12,000 left. I was in the BB with 76o, and a medium stack raised to 9800 (which was a smallish raise). It was folded to me. Here's the math...
After posting, I had 8,000 left. If I were to go all in here, the raiser would certainly call, because it is only another 2,200 to call. After going all in for my last 8k, I stood to win, 4000 (the BB) + 2000 (the SB) + 12,000 from the raiser (his 9800 raise, plus the remaining 2200). So I'd be risking 8k to win 18k which is 2.25:1...so basically, unless he has a pocket pair higher than my cards, I should go all-in.

Or...I could call, and then go all in for my remaining 2200 on the flop. That way, if he had something like QJ, and the flop didn't pair him, he might fold his hand...and he wouldn't get to see the turn or river.

So I called! The old Ryan would never do that.

And don't think I was being results oriented when I say that the flop was A62, and he reluctantly called with 44 when I went all in. So instead of folding and leaving myself with 8k in chips, I now had tripled up to 24k. Folding would have left me with 8k, 1/4 of which would have to be posted in the SB on the next hand. So if I had folded both hands, I would have 8 more hands to chose which I wanted to go all in on, at which time I would go from 6k to 15k (if I was lucky)...if someone called...and I won. My chip desperation paid off.

These last few tournaments, I have also been paying attention to everything that is going on, and NOT playing other tables to distract me. In this case, there was a player with a healthy stack, who, when faced with a decision to put 3000 more from the BB into a pot of 8000 against a player who was all in, folded. In that scenario, I would have called with any two cards because, well the pot odds say that I must. I picked up on that, and twice when I was desperate for chips raised all-in on his BB from early/middle position with Q7. Both times he folded.

We were condensed into the two final tables, and I was dealt A9o on my very first hand. A big stack min-raised from early position, and I reraised him all-in. He called with QJ, and I doubled up. A few hands later, the big stack in the tournament, had been raising to 9000 (BB was 4000) just about every time he could. So on my BB, he raised to 9k, got called by a player in late position, called by the SB, and I pushed my 34k stack with KK. He called, late position folded, the SB reraised all in for $10k more...and the big stack called again, with 88. The flop came 987, and he busted out me and the SB...who held AA!

Basically there was no way I could get away from the hand, and was doomed to be up against AA.

So, 20th place wasn't bad out of 1000 people...but dammit, I wanted that final table so bad...I felt like I deserved it after coming back from the dead so many times.

Until next time.

I'm adding this in out of order, in an effort to at least semi-catch up. Hopefully I can stay current, and then go back and add in my other two WCOOP event logs. It's noon but I haven't been up for too long because I was up late last night working on two multi table tournaments. I entered a $40 that had almost 1,0000 players, and then 30 minutes later, joined a $150 multi with about 400 players.

I took a big hit early in the $40, when I limped with T9s. The flop came T94 and the small blind bet out 40 into a 70 chip pot. I raised it to 160, and he called. The turn was a 4, he checked, I bet, he raised the minimum. I reluctantly called. He made a moderate bet on the river when a 6 came, and I called again. He had J4 or something like that, for 3 of a kind.

So what did I do wrong? Well, I open limped in early position with a suited connector. Probably not the best idea. I have been trying hard to gather chips early in these tournaments, but still, a drawing hand out of position when you don't know how many people will be invoved in the pot can get you into trouble. The flop was great for me, but I should have folded to the checkraise. I have a very hard time getting away when people min raise me, and I should have suspected 3 4's...if that was his hand, I only had 4 outs...the remaining 9's and 10's in the deck. Also, if I had been so bold as to raise preflop, he would have folded, and I would have won the blinds instead of losing half of my stack.

Back to the $150 tourney. Nothing much was happening, and I was down to about 700 chips with the blinds at 50/100. I picked up AA as the second to act, and did something I never do with AA. I limped. My logic was that a raise from me here was too strong of a play...with the size of my stack, I should really be pushing all in, but I wanted action. I didn't just want the blinds, my stack was such that I would really need to double up to feel comfortable. If I raise the minimum, or to 3x, I'm committing nearly half of my stack, which is an even stronger play than going all-in, because wise players will realize that no one is going to fold once they have committed half of their stack.

Everyone folded! Except the small blind, who completed. The big blind checked.
The flop: Ac9h3c! I flopped the nuts.

Check, check, and I bet half of the pot. The small blind calls...and the big blind calls! A superb result.

The turn: 2h, putting two flush draws on the boards (hearts and clubs).

Check, check, I go all in (which is about half of the pot). The small blind calls and the big blind folds (my bet put him all-in also). And you'll never guess what the small blind has...5h4h, the nut straight, and a flush draw. Before I realize how terrible this is, the river comes 3, pairing the board...and I win the hand by rivering a fullhouse! A bizarre turn of events, but I took a shot at the doubling up, and almost got bounced from the tournament.

About halfway through the tournament, I get dealt AA with blinds at 25/50. After 1 limper, I raise to 250 and get called by 1, 2, 3 other players, and the original limper...waaay more than I bargained for. The flop is T85. It's checked to me and I go all in for my last 500 chips. The player behind me calls, and the original limper reraises all-in. Now I know I'm in trouble. The other guy calls (the other two folded) and turns over JJ...but the limp-reraiser has 55, for a set...and I'm out of the tournament. What can you do when the poker gods conspire against you? Attempt to spite them in your other tournament.

Back to the $40 tournament (where, thanks to nearly 1,000 entrants, first place is a whopping $9,000).

This is a roller coaster of a tournament if there ever was one. With a dwindling stack, I called with KcQc after UTG limped...and proceded to flop the nut flush. He had AK, flopping top pair himself, and doubled me up when I runner, runnered a royal flush! I'm not sure, but it may have been my first ever.

I lost a huge hand that I can't recall right now, and was down to 490 chips, with a big blind of 400 fast approaching. I pushed with KdTd and was called by only the big blind, who had QQ. I hit two running diamonds to hit the flush and stay alive.

After miraculously working my stack up to something respectable, my AcJc hit an A on the flop, while my lone opponent hit a set of 9's. We both checked the flop (I was hoping to trap). I led out for 1/3 of the pot on the turn, and he min raised me. I called and he went all in on the river, but again the bet was only about 1/3 of the pot. Ugh. I really think I should have folded to the min raise, but I had bet so small that his raise could have been a test to see what I had. Maybe? It was a very tricky situation...if I had bet more, his reraise would have been so small that I would HAVE to call...really the only way to avoid this was if I had folded the AJ preflop...which is certainly a reasonable play in a 10 handed game where you would have to commit your whole stack when an Ace hits.

So I drop down to having 1 BB again. Again, after a few small miracles, I build up my chips again.

I made a few pretty good plays this tournament, playing "the new Ryan" style of poker. For example, a player with 9x, raised the minimum in middle position, and everyone folded to me in the BB with A5. The old me would fold, or maybe call to look at a flop. The new me decided that his minimum raise could only mean two things: he had a monster, or he was trying to buy the blinds. With 9x, he really needs to back any reasonable raise with his entire stack (if he raised 3x the blinds, he would be committed to calling any reraise), BUT, a minimum raise is the only raise he could get away from if someone reraised him all in. That someone was me (I had 25% more chips than he)...he thought for a while, and the folded.

We made it into the money, and people started dropping like flies. I started picking up some good hands and winning some pots, but still fluctuated way more than I would have liked thanks to hands like these:

I short stack goes all in in front of me, and I go over the top all in with my AK. He has 66.
The flop comes KQJ (I have top pair), turn T (I have the nut straight), river A (we both have A high straights and split the pot).

A short stack raises all in UTG (he has 1.5x the big blind), it is folded to me in MP and I have A6o. Normally I would fold this, but it was a great situation for me. A short stacked player had raised all-in, and the BB was also short stacked. UTG is desperate and could have any two cards (he will be blinded off next hand) and although the BB has only 2x, he probably won't call without a strong hand. Everyone else folded and my A6 was looking good against his 87 suited. A 6 on the flop, and an 8 on the river, and instead of having twice as many chips as I do now...he had MORE than I. Ugh.

More to come...

I'm going to get caught up on these, I swear. I just moved to a new apartment, so I haven't been able to play much at all...but things are finally settling down. I had some not so stellar cash game performances recently, which I will recount a few hands from in a later entry. Suffice to say, I have generally been making correct reads on people, but often too scared to follow through and trust them completely. For example:

Everyone folds to button who raises 3x. I call with 88.

Flop: 755

I check, he bets 3/4 of the pot, I raise the size of the pot. He calls. At this point, I'm fairly sure he has an overpair, and I intend to give it up.

Turn: 7. Now instead of giving it up, I decide that this would be a great card for me to bluff at, because I easily could have check raised him with a 7, or a 5...and I would now have a full house. I bet the size of the pot. He lets the timer run down to 2 seconds left, and then calls. Now I'm SURE he has just an overpair.

The river: J. I check, he checks. He shows TT and wins the pot. Had I moved all in here, he would have had to fold. The only thing I really had to fear was him having JJ, OR being too stubborn to laydown his overpair, even though it seemed clear I had him beat. I really need to start trusting my reads.

Poker Stars started their annual World Cup of Online Poker tournament last sunday. I had planned to play in their $200 buy-in 6 person Pot Limit hold 'em event on wednesday, because 6 person tables are my main strength, and thought I could do well in the tourney. My roommate Jeff convinced me to play in the sunday event, a $500 buy-in NL tourney. All I would have to do is beat out 3100 or so players to take home a first prize of $300k. Easy right? Um...

That particular day was the day of big calls. The old me would be the guy who could make big laydowns in tournaments because I was diciplined and didn't want to me knocked out. The new me just can't stand the idea that I might be missing out on opportunities to build my stack. This isn't to say that I'm always looking to get my money in, but when the situation is right, I'll take even a slight edge at the chance to double up my stack. I want that stack so that I can play coinflips in the future, without the fear of being eliminated.

A few key hands from my day...

I ended up with AJ or A9 against a flop with an Ace, a face card, and two diamonds. I bet and a loose-ish aggressive player called me from the small blind. I checked behind him on the turn, hoping to induce a bluff on the river. The river came out and he bet the size of the pot...more than I was hoping. The flush did not come, but the board was highly coordinated, and we were about to go on break. I thought for a long, long time...dipping into my time bank, and eventually made the call. He turned over 6 high, with two diamonds, missing his flush. I went into the break with a nice pot being pushed my way.

I had the biggest stack at the table for much of the day, which was an unfamiliar position for me and my usual brand of survival poker. I had about twice as much as most of the other players at the table, except for 1 guy, whose stack was similar to mine. I raised in early position with QQ, 1 player called, and he reraised all-in. Now this was a big overbet. Sometimes it means they have nothing, but some players will do this with AA or KK because they don't want to see a flop and risk being outdrawn. Also, AK was a definate possibility, one that I really wouldn't love to see. However, this guy had made a similar play about 20 hands ago, so I had to give his reraise less respect. This would be my chance to get a huge stack, and start really dominating the table. So I called, and he had TT. My queens held up, and I now had 3-4 times as many chips as most of the other players.

I started pushing my weight around, and even making some "daring" calls. A shortstacked player went all in, and an aggressive player to my right reraised all in. I had AQ. The original player could have a wide range of hands, and the reraiser could too...he was likely to try and push everyone out and go against the all-in with a less than stellar hand himself, knowing that the short stack could have anything. I called. The short stack had 88 and the reraiser had A8s. The river came a queen and I knocked them both out. Even if the river was not a queen, I would have lost the smaller main pot, and won the bigger side pot against the A8, knocking him out anyway.

I knocked another guy when he reraised my AQ all-in with 99. He hit a 9 on the turn but the river gave me a flush, and he was gone. He stayed at the table for about 15 minutes, berrating me and telling me what an idiot I was for overplaying AQ and how I sucked out on him. Boo hoo.

A few hands later I raised UTG with KK and I guy reraised all in with Q9c. The board came running clubs and his flush beat my kings. Ugh. Then I raised with KTo and got reraised by AJ. I had to call because he was all in and there was too much in the pot. After he turned up his hand, I wasn't in too bad of shape (I think around 45% to win the hand). The flop had a K, and then he runner runnered a straight. So instead of having 80,000 chips after these two hands, I had only 30,000. Ugh.

My demise came in the following pot. The blinds were 1000/2000 and I had about 38,000...which was large enought that I was in no serious danger. However, as I'm learning, late in a tournament, no stack size seems safe. A player in MP raised the minimum, the guy to his left called, and I called in the BB with A9o.

I told myself: "Only continue if you flop two pair or better." The flop: AK9. I lead out for 9,000. The raiser folded, and the caller went all in. He had twice as much as I did, and I decided he could have a 1 pair Ace hand, like AQ, or two diamonds (giving him a flush draw). I called. He turned over AK, for two higher pair. I was out.

It was an odd sequence of events, because I called a min raise with a weak hand, flopped the 5th best possible hand (only AA, KK, 99, and AK could beat me), and was beat. To me, 99 seemed like the most likely hand to call a min raise with (figuring AA, KK and AK would surely raise, not wanting to invite other callers), but 99 is pretty unlikely because I have the 4th 9. So a bit unlucky, though I wish I had just folded it. But after commiting 1/4 of my stack, and going against someone who I could very easily have beat (like I said, he probably would play AQ, AJ, and any two diamonds the same way), I had to call.

Doh.

I beat out over 2900 players, which was enough for 125th place, and around $1,000 profit. Unfortunately in tournament poker, you're rarely estatic unless you get first...and $1,000 is much closer to 0 than it is to $300,000. Still, I can't complain about the money, but more than that, I was proud to have gone deep into the money (300 some players got paid) in such an enormous field. This was larger than the field for the 2004 World Series, which broke all sorts of records for number of entrants in a tournament.

If I can do it once, I can do it again. Right?

I don't have enough time to go over hands right now, because I'm getting up for work in 6 hours, and then leaving after lunch to come home and move to my new apartment...so I'll give a quick wrap up. I played tonight for about an hour, and won somewhere in the range of 140x. Not bad. Not bad at all. For about 20 minutes, I was actually playing 3 $200nl tables at once, and doing equally well at each.

So the challenge is over, and not surprisingly....drumroll please....

I surpassed my goal of 10BB/100 hands.

6,341 hands
39.5 hours
12.04BB/100!

Yay! Now experts will say that 6300 hands is not enough, and it is not till you surpass 10,000 hands that you can be sure the short term luck has evened out. Nonetheless, I am extremely excited that I was able to beat 10BB/100...as many people on the message boards were saying that it just wasn't possible. Nuts to them. I am also very encouraged about the future, and this month has been extremely good for my development as a poker player (thanks to all of the analysis), and for my, er, wallet!

In addition to the above hands, I also played about half as many at $100nl and $50nl (while playing the $200's) and won an additional 20% on top of my $200nl winnings. They averaged out around 13BB/100 hands, although 3200 hands is a smallish sample size.

Also, and maybe I'll make a post about this in the future...last week I placed 6th in a shootout tournament of 188 players, earning a prize just barely in the 4 figure range. It was a really exciting tournament, especially since I got to be the bully for once!

So thanks for reading, and stick around because I plan to continue this on into the future. I'll come up with another formal challenge soon, but for now, it will probably be similar to the August challenge, just because I want to be extra sure that my results weren't due to some incredible luck (which I don't believe is the case). So for now, I'm thinking 10BB/100 at the 200's again, but this time, if I do 3 or 4 tables, the extra tables will be either 100's or 200's. oooo000000oooo.

Let September begin (although I won't have internet till the 2nd, at which point I'll have to, how shall I say, make up for lost time?!?)....

PS - remind me to tell you about what may have been my first ever bluff raise on the river

So, I'll finally skip my journals forward to the present, because I'm sick of being behind. Plus, I didn't get nearly as much time in during the last two weeks of this month, so I'm going to hit my 40 hours just about on the button...or be just a few minutes behind (on Wednesday, I have to pack up my life and move 4 blocks down the street). Anyhoo, so the challenge is still going well, and although below my previous figure, I'm still above 10BB/100, which is fan-tastic. Usually I don't post hands from my $100 tables, but there was 1 very interesting one that came up.

I had 44, and limped in UTG. MP raised to 3x, and everyone called.

Flop: JcTc5s

Everyone checks.

Turn: Ts

Everyone checks.

River: 4c, giving me a fullhouse, and putting a flush on the board. The SB leads out for less than 1/5 of the pot. I raise to slightly more than the size of the pot, everyone else folds, and he immediately moves in for almost 3 times the size of the pot.

I got what I wanted. I was overbetting, hoping that he had the flush, and he reraised me all-in. So I call. Or do I? For some reason I caught myself, and thought back to all of those overbets I used to call on the river, that always ended up being losers. Was this happening again? I wanted him to have the flush...but the way he reraised, shouldn't he be scared of the flush? Or a fullhouse?

Is it possible that he had something like TT or JT and decided to slowplay the flop, but then the turn made his hand even better so he couldn't bet it?

He could be bluffing, but...who bets less than 1/5 the pot on a bluff? And for that matter, would he really bet that small if he really did have a hand? Or is he trying to induce a raise from a hand he thinks is worse?

I wanted to call. I really did, but I'm trying to go with my instincts, and this would have been expensive to call just to try them out. It would cost me 60x to try and win a pot of 80x, so I would have to be right something like every 3 out of 7 times to show a profit in the longrun. Something didn't seem right...

Then I folded.

He immediately typed "yes" into the chatbox, which did not seem like a good sign. Sometimes people lie about their hand, but the instant I folded, he typed it in, as though happy he had bluffed me out. And for some reason, I believed him.

Not sure what went wrong with me on this hand, though I still can't be sure that I laid down the winner. Jeff pointed out that the villian in this hand could have just been playing back at me, because it looked like I was making an unusual play at the pot. This is something I hadn't considered in the "eternity" (20 seconds) that they give you to make a decision. Frankly, I wish I had had more time to think about it. Anyone else have any thoughts?

After my KK doubled up against AA, things were quiet for a while, until a true maniac sat down. My stats as of late, have been hovering around being involved in 30% of all pots, and raising before the flop half of those times (30/15). That classifies me as a semi-loose aggressive player. This guy was involved in over 60% of all pots, and raised before the flop almost 35% of the time...now THAT is crazy. And of course I was able to take advantage...

Maniac is in MP and raises 7.5x, a large raise by normal standards, but nothing unusual for him. In the cutoff, I pick up JJ. I reraise to 22.5x because although jacks are strong, I don't want anyone else involved in this pot. Especially because against maniacs, some players will play weird hands, and slowplay them, figuring to get paid off when they hit. I do not want to fall into someone else trapping the maniac. A full 25% of the deck will scare me on the flop (any Q, K, or A).

He calls.

Flop: 8d7c2c. He checks. I go all in, betting almost twice the size of the pot. My logic is this: Since he could have a wide range of hands, the longer this one goes on, the less sure I will be that I have the best hand. I am VERY confident that I have him beat at this point, and it's going to be hard to let this hand go if he starts betting heavily later, should he pull ahead. Plus, he could call with a worse hand, like 99, TT, or maybe even something like A8.

He calls instantly. This worries me.

The turn is a terrifying A, and the river is a 2.

He turns over Kc9c, no pair, calling my huge bet with a K high flush draw. I win a gi-normous pot.

I just went through and did the math on this, and believe it or not, the pot odds justified a call by him. If he knew that I had exactly JJ, then any of the remaining 9 clubs, or 3 kings would win him the pot, giving him 12 outs. With two chances to hit, he has a 45% chance of winning the hand...and with a pot of 108x, can call a bet of up to 88x. My all-in bet was 72x. However, if I had AA, and a King would not help him, the call is no longer correct because he will win only 35% of the time. Interesting. What I thought was a crazy call by him wasn't so crazy after all.

One more interesting hand before I discuss the biggie. This hand is a good example of why it is hard to play out of position (when you have to act before your opponent), and it also serves as a case study for when to bet on the river. I had QQ in the SB. 3 people limped, so I raised to 5x. Two called.

The flop: K74 rainbow. Not enjoying the prospect of betting into two players behind me (who were either way ahead of me with a K, or way behind, with some lesser paired or unpaired hand) I checked, UTG checked, and MP bet 2/3 of the pot. I reluctantly called, fearing the K. However in the short time I had been at the table, MP just didn't seem like the greatest player. He had been involved in more than half of the hands. UTG folded.

The turn: J, putting two hearts on the board. I check. He checks behind.

The river: 8.

I check, he bets 1/2 the pot. Now what? He could very well have had a King, although in retrospect, if he had called a bet from me on the flop, then I might suspect a King moreso than if he had bet the flop himself, which was the case. There were no reasonable draws on the flop, so although the board was starting to become coordinated, there weren't any logical drawing hands that had hit. So, getting 3:1 pot odds offered to me I called, knowing that I only had to be correct 25% of the time or more for the call to be profitable.

He turned over T5, no pair.

Bizarre. Being out of position (OOP) the whole way was very disorienting because I was never sure where I stood. MP sensed weakness (because I had checked to him on all 3 streets) and tried to take advantage. Now, when he checked after me on the turn, I sensed weakness, but purposefully did not lead out on the river. Here is why.

If he is weak, then he will fold when I bet, earning me nothing. If I am wrong about his weakness, then he has me beat, and will call any reasonable bet because I will have checked it to him twice, and then made a sudden bet when a harmless card came. So clearly, after being checked to twice, he will call with a pair of kings or better. In this scenario, I will be betting into someone with a better hand.

If he has a K with a low kicker, and is a weak player, it is even possible that he will check behind me, if I check, letting me see a free showdown even though he has the best hand. But this weak player would still probably call if I bet, costing me money.

If he has nothing on the other hand, he might bluff at the pot when I check to him, which was the case. So even though my hand was decent (1 high pair), I had absolutely nothing to gain by betting (worse hands fold, better hands call, or raise), and everything to gain if I check (he could check a better hand and I see a free showdown, or he could bluff at the pot).

Phew. And now to the other table...

4 players limp in, and from the BB, I get a free look at the flop with my KJ.

Flop: KJJ.

Now normally, I don't slowplay good hands. I operate under the idea that I want to bet my good hands, hoping to catch someone else with a really good second best hand, and take their entire stack. Here however, my hand is a monster. There is very little chance that I will be outdrawn, and there are a lot of second best hands to be made. We all check to MP who bets the pot. I call and everyone else folds.

Turn: 3. I check, he bets the pot. Now, I need to start getting more money into the pot now, if he happens to have a hand like QT, I won't make anything when he misses his straight draw on the river. Also, if he has a J, which I'm thinking he has, then it'll be easier to get all of his money do over the course of the turn and river, rather than just the river. And there is now a flush draw out there. I should make him pay.

I reraise the minimum, which I rarely do because when good players do it, very often it screams "I have a big hand!". He reraises, putting himself all-in, and I call. He has JT. I double up.

15 hands later, I get a shot at the other big stack. A guy who's numbers are 62/40 (maniac city) over the last 40 hands. He min raises (meaning he was dealt two cards). Everyone calls, including me with Kc8c in the SB.

The flop: Ac2h5c, giving me the nut flush draw. Which I bet the size of the pot with. Everyone folds except the villan, who min-raises. Min raising when you have position on someone is very different than check min-raising. It's not nearly as strong of a hand, and sometimes people will do it with draws to try and get a free card, or when they have 1 pair, and want to get to the river without having to face increasingly large bets from their lone opponent (who might sense weakness when you only call instead of raising). Anyway, since this guy is a maniac, I have no idea what his min-raise means, but I don't care because I am getting 3:1 to call and hit my nut flush, which I will do by the river almost 38% of the time.

Turn: Tc. Bingo. I have the nuts. Now, since check raising is such a strong play, I wanted to avoid using it here. Plus if I bet and he raises, it will be easier to get all of our money in when I reraise, because he will have committed a much larger portion of his stack. I bet somewhere in the range of 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the pot, and he thinks for almost 20 seconds, and the raises me back, slightly more than the minimum. I raise him slightly more than the minimum. He does the same! Now, if I did not have the absolute nuts at this point, I'd be sure I was beat. If my flush was only Q high, I'd be nearly positive I was losing. But apparently I gave him too much credit. I reraise all in and he calls.

River: 6c. Putting 4 clubs on the board, and my K high flush is still the nuts. He turns over....
4s3s. He flopped the nuts, and then backed it with 165x after I hit my flush.

The lessons here are:

1. Know when you have the nuts, and get as much money into the pot as possible.
   
2. Do not be afraid of betting your good hands. Rather than being afraid that your opponent will fold when you have a good hand, be afraid of not extracting as much money as you possibly can on your great hands. Imagine if I had not reraised him on the turn and instead tried to win the rest on the river. A 4th club came, and I doubt he would have put in much more money when all I needed to beat him was any club.
   
3. The villan learned: be wary of coordinated boards. Don't always fear the flush or full house, but when an opponent bets, raises, and reraises as I did, clearly they are telling you something. In fact, the way I played the hand is pretty consistent with a flush draw, and even a reasonably skilled opponent would have layed down the wheel in this scenario.
   

For some reason I thought I couldn't be running any better than I have been lately, but um...as you'll see...apparently not.

At one table, a few hands in. I am dealt KK in the BB. Everyone folds to the SB who raises 2.5x, which is an odd raise for the SB. I think, huh, wouldn't it be funny if he had AA and I had KK. I was going to raise anyway, so I figure, in the unlikely event that he does have AA, I will find out when I raise. I raise to 7.5x. He reraises the minimum, to 15x.

At this point, I am sure that he has AA. Yet I call anyway. (Doing the math later, I would discover that, believe it or not, this was not a bad call). The flop is King high, he checks to me on every street, and I slowly bet out my entire stack...doubling up when he turns over AA on the river. Lucky? Yes. Wrong? No. And now the math...

We both started with 100x. After his reraise preflop, it cost me 7.5x to call, and there was already 22.5x in the pot. If I knew that I would be able to take his entire stack if a K came on the flop, I could expect to win the 30x plus the remaining 85x in his stack. So I am risking 7.5x to win 115x which is about 14:1 and the odds of flopping a set are around 8:1.

That, in a nutshell is implied odds...where you calculate not only how much is in the pot, but how much you could win if you make a big hand. It doesn't always work out because if your opponent folds, you can't win all of that extra money, but when you know that they have AA, you can reasonably expect to take it all, because it's just so hard to lay down AA (especially in this case with the innocuous flop of K43).

I just took a break to play poker, and now, 6 hours later, I have to go to bed. To be continued...

In what was perhaps my quickest, biggest win of all time, the following big hands happened over the course of 300 hands last night (just under two hours).

I pick up AA in the small blind. UTG min-raises to 2x, MP calls, I raise to 7.5x. BB calls, UTG folds, and MP calls.

The flop is T54 with two spades. I bet 15x into a 20x pot, and only UTG calls.
The turn is another T.

I check because there is a good chance that he either called because he had a T, and now moved into the lead, or, he had me beat already with a set. I check, he checks.

The river the 4 of spades, making the board TT445. I check, he bets 25x. Now I think for a while, and decide that he could be bluffing, so I call. He has 55 for a flopped set, and a fullhouse.

In retrospect, I'm not sure I should have called. I eventually did because he was betting less than half of the pot, so it wasn't really a big bet at all. But, what could he have possibly called me with on the flop? A ten, a set, or spades looking for a flush. The 2nd ten came, and the flush came...so even if he had something like QQ, he probably would not bet less than half of the pot on the river...because no worse hand would call. It's just so hard to fold AA....

Anyhoo, most of my winnings came at one table, so I will describe what happened there...hold on to your hats.

I've lost about 25x at this table over 40 or 50 hands, and rebought, so I actually have 110x when the following hand comes up.

Everyone folds to me in the cut-off, and I raise 3.5x with AA. Only the BB calls. He is also the big stack at the table with almost 180x.

The flop is a Q46 rainbow (all different suits). He checks, I bet the size of the pot. He calls.

The turn is a 5. He checks, I bet 2/3 of the pot. He calls.

The river is a harmless 9, no flushes possible. He checks, I bet 2/3 of the pot, and he instantly min-raises me. Crap. I don't even bother to think about what he could possibly have, and it certainly looked like he had been trapping all along with a better hand. I make a "crying" call although it's only 25x into a pot of over 110x.

He has AJ, no pair.

WTF?!?

Now, I didn't think I had been playing like a maniac at this table, but apparently Mr. Bigstack thought I had been, because he check called me all the way down with A high, and then made the smallest possible raise on the river. Why didn't he make a real raise, that I actually might fold to? He must have thought that I really had nothing.

So, clearly he has a perception of me that I should be able to take advantage of. But how....?

Two hands later, I find my answer.

I limp UTG with 55, Mr Ex-Bigstack calls on the button, the SB calls, and the BB checks.

The flop: QT5 with two hearts. Check. Check. I bet 3/4 of the pot. Mr Ex-Bigstack, raises the size of the pot. Now, I know he must have something good here, and in retrospect, I think I could have deduced his exact hand at the time. If he were on a draw, he probably would have raised a bit bigger (trying to win the pot) or a bit smaller (trying to buy a free card on the turn), or maybe he wouldn't even raise on a draw...hoping to get my money when he hits it. TT and QQ are unlikely because he didn't raise preflop.

The blinds fold, and it's back to me. If he thinks I'm a fish, then I might as well act like one. I push. A HUGE overbet. 110x into a pot of 16x. He calls, instantly.

He has one of two hands. Ax of hearts (and is on tilt, calling a huge bet with a draw), or he has QT, top two pair. The turn is the 2 of hearts, completing the flush, and the river is another two, giving me a fullhouse. He turns over QT and I win a pot of 245x! My huge overbet worked because I was able to take advantage of his perception of me, based off of what went down two hands ago with my AA. Holla!

A mere 5 hands later, I raise 3.5x with AQ. The BB calls. The flop is AKQ! He checks and I bet the pot with my top two pair. He calls. At this point, I only really have to worry about JT.

Sadly for my opponent, the turn is a T. Killing his action, because he does, in fact, have the dreaded JT, flopping the nuts. He, again sadly, checks to me, and I check behind because any J will now beat me.

The river, is a Q. Giving me aces full. He bets the size of the pot, and I raise him all in, more than the size of the pot. He thinks for a while, and then calls. He mutters something about screwing himself over, and leaves the table broke. Nice.

So clearly, I got lucky on this hand, but most of the money went in after I had outdrawn him. He made the mistake of checking the mortal nuts to me twice, allowed me to catch up cheaply, and then called off most of his money when he was behind.

Ahhhh, the joys of no limit.

So, I'm waaay behind on my entries, but I'll try and catch up quick. My session on the 13th, was utterly uneventful (I just about broke even) except for the following 3 hands.

I'll preface this as one of many recent hands where I know that my opponent has AA. When you strongly suspect your opponent has AA, you can absolutely wreak havok upon him or her. For example:

I have 100x, the button has 65x.

I raise 3x in MP with 8d5d. The button reraises the minimum. For many players, this is a huge tell that they have AA. Why reraise the minimum? Because they want to get heads up with the raiser, but don't want the raiser to fold...and they aren't scared of your hand. I call.

The flop: Q85, with two spades.

I check. He bets the size of the pot (which I'm learning is another tell that a good player has an overpair...usually people bet around 2/3 to 3/4 of the pot, but in a raised pot, overpairs tend to bet the size of the pot...so as to eliminate potential drawing hands).

Best move?

Check raise all-in. He calls instantly with AA. I win a huge pot. Easy, right? I know this guy thinks I'm a bit too loose, and there is no way he is folding when I make an unusually large check-raise. From his point of view, if my hand was really that great, I'd play it more carefully, trying to extract everything he had. That being said, perhaps I would have been able to take all his money on later streets even if I just called the flop. But, if another spade falls, it will possibly kill my action.

Knowing what your opponent has is great, isn't it? Well, it happened again.

I have AJo in the BB with 90x behind. MP (60x behind) raises 3x. SB calls. I call.

The flop: 8 J J

We all check to MP, who bets the minimum, a VERY suspicious bet. SB calls, I raise to 4x total. MP reraises the minimum. SB folds. Now, at this point, I know he has another jack and is just baiting me in with small bets. Unless he has J8, I have him crushed. My play. Reraise all-in.

Sure enough, MP has KJ, and spikes a King on the turn...winning a huge pot. What else can I do besides get all the money in as a huge favorite? Nothing. So I can only be happy about the way I played it.

The other big hand I was dealt 77, and lead out on a flop of AT7. I got called in one spot, by a guy had been calling and raising a lot against me recently. So, I thought I'd mix up my play and check raise all-in on the turn, which worked beautifully because he ended up having AT, top two pair.

I'm starting to learn more and more, that no limit hold em is just a ton of small pots where you try and break even, followed by one or two hands where you hit it big, and use your image to get paid off.

Tonight, I had a performance at one table that very well might have been the most I've ever won in 1 sitting. The deck was practically hitting me over the head. The hand that got things started was as follows:

I had Ts9s in the SB. MP limped, everyone else folded. I limped. The BB raised to 3.5x. MP and I both called.

The flop was: 9d 8s 5s

I had flopped top pair with a flush draw. I checked, the original raiser bet the pot, MP called.
I raised the size of the pot, the initial raiser went all in, MP called (he had only a few chips left).

So back to me. There is 162x in the pot, and it costs me 50 to call. Easy call given the over 3:1 odds on my money.

However, they turn up the worst possible cards for the situation (which, perhaps I should have suspected). The original raiser has KK, and MP has Qs7s, giving him a higher flush draw. So, I am in second place in this hand, where any spade will kill me. Basically I need one of the remaining two nines, or three tens.

Turn: 9
River: 10

My fullhouse wins a 212x pot! Yes I did get lucky here, and I should probably think about whether my play on the flop was correct, since I did suspect the raiser to have an overpair. On the flop, I was probably 50/50 with an overpair, but I should have known the other guy was on a flush draw, which would change things drastically. If I had not checkraised on the flop, I probably could have waited for the turn, and gotten most of my money in after I had hit my 9 and took the lead.

With my huge stack, my good cards were taking people down left and right. I flopped a set of 8's, when the preflop raiser flopped a set of 7's, and took all his money. I stacked a guy when my overpair of JJ held up against his busted flush draw (he called his last 15x on the river with just King high though!). I took down KK with A8 when the flop came A8x, I checkraised, and then my opponent reraised me all in on the turn. With kings?!? It seemed pretty clear that I had him beat. Maybe he was gunning for me? Too stubborn to lay down KK? or maybe just a big fish?

It turned out to be the latter. This guy was making questionable plays all over the place, and everyone was gunning for him. I picked up AA and he raised me on a flop of JJ9. I called his turn bet, but on the river he bet 5 times the size of the pot...which of course was either a huge bluff, or more likely, a really good hand. So I had to fold my one, albeit big, pair. I later got him back when he made a pot sized bet into a board of 283 2 2 and I called him with my pocket 9s.

He did start to become a pain at the table though, as he would min-reraise me preflop nearly every time I raised. Then he would bet out the whole hand with junk, or possibly good hands, you never knew. Altough, he really didn't have too many good ones. I'll have to think about what the best strategy is for dealing with someone like this who has position on you. I started calling him down most of the time, but when I do that am I missing bets? Or am I gaining bets because he is betting hands that he would fold if I raised him? I'm pretty unclear about this.

Like this hand:
I had AA, raised to 4x. He called.
Flop 7K7
I bet 5.5x, he calls.
Turn Q
I check, he bets 5x. I call.
River blank
I check, he checks with J2s, having picked up the flush draw on the turn. Bizarre. He called my preflop raise with J2s, then called a 2/3 pot sized bet on the turn with a backdoor flush draw? Could I have made more money on this hand? Perhaps in retrospect, I could have checkraised the turn because he was on a draw...but it's easy to be scared of a paired board like that because he could have anything in his hand, like a third 7. But maybe I needed to concentrate on him more to help decide how he would have played that if he did have a 7. Would he have raised the flop? Would he bet bigger on the turn when checked to? I'm fairly certain I could have made at least 10x from him on the turn after he picked up the draw. Next time hopefully I will be able to make that decision on the fly.

I bought in for 100x, and at one point I had run it up to 535x! Increasing my stack by over 500% is about as well as I have ever done at one table. Although I left with slightly less than that, it was a fabulous session.

With that win, my average, since the challenge started, is currently 9.83 BB/100 over 3600 hands! To be honest with you, I'm surprised. I half expected this not to be possible. (And at the same time, in half as many hands at $50nl, I'm at a ridiculous 25.69 BB/100).

Tonight didn't go over too well. It was weird though because there were only a few hands that went wrong, other than that, I was just being slowly chipped away at. It seemed like people were playing back at me alot tonight, even though I had toned down my voluntarily entered the pot and preflop raise percentages to 26/13. Still, I seemed to be reraised preflop, or checkraised on the flop. I don't know if I was just running into big hands or what. Finally, it seemed like the timing was right for a certain decent player at my table to make a move on me. I raised with A9o, and he called. The flop was 9 high. He checked, I bet 2/3 of the pot, and he raised the size of the pot. I immedidately reraised the size of the pot and he just called. The turn was a T and we both checked. He bet less than (1/3) of the pot on the river when a blank came, and I called. He had QQ. Boo. Not sure if I misplayed that, or what, but I suppose I could have gotten away from it if I hadn't felt like he was looking to make a play on me.

I guess 9's was the hand of the night, because another pot where I had 9h8h was 3 way for a raise before the flop. The flop came 9 high with two diamonds, the BB bet out small (1/3 of the pot) and I raised the size of the pot, hoping to take it down right there. A guy behind me cold called, and the raiser called. The Turn was a K, and I strongly felt that both of my opponents were on draws. I bet almost 3/4 of the pot after the BB checked. The guy behind me called, but the BB folded. The river was an Ace, and I checked, as did he. Showing A4 of diamonds...missing the flush, but pairing his A on the river. VERY frustrating. Especially since I played the hand super aggressively just "knowing" that I was ahead. And I was until the river. Unfortunately the 62x pot was pushed his way. Arg.

It probably would have been a better idea tonight to quit my 50nl games, and focus on the 200's, because I seemed to be faced with a lot more difficult decisions than usual. Probably it was because the players themselves seemed pretty solid, and I should have been looking to switch tables. Lesson learned. I hope. Actually, the lesson will be: Don't sit down at those "other" two tables (my 50's) until you are sitting in two "good" 200 games. Because once the action gets going on 4 tables, it's hard to keep track of everything and take notice when you should be looking for easier opponents.

The one heart pounding hand from this evening's session was as follows. UTG raised to 4x, the cuttoff called, I called on the button with 6d5d. The SB folded, and the BB raised it to 10x. UTG called, CO called. With the action back to me, there was 33.5x in the pot, and it cost 7 more to call. So I was getting almost 5:1 on my money (which is actually better odds than I was getting in my initial call of the 4x, at which point I was calling 4x into a pot of 9.5x). So, being a sucker for suited connectors in position (I had the button remember), I called. The flop was Qh8d7d, giving me an open-ended straight flush draw, which, gives me a 55% chance of making a straight or better!

Everyone checked to me. Now what? I had a suspicion that someone might be slowplaying. Could the BB have QQ and flopped top set? Was there a chance everyone would fold if I bet? I wouldn't have minded if everyone folded, due to the strength of my hand (which is unfortunately just 6 high at this point), but nonetheless I was willing to back it with my remaining stack. I bet about 4/5 of the pot. The BB immediately reraised all in (confirming my suspicions) and everyone else folded. I had to call only 41x into a pot of 146x....an easy call given that I was a favorite over even AA.

Was I glad to be heads up against the preflop raiser? Not necessarily.
Was I glad to be getting action on this hand? Meh.

Since I was 54% to make the straight or better, it didn't matter too much what happened, since half of the time I'll win, and half I'll lose, but then again, if I'm going to be against 1 opponent, I'll need to make my straight or flush...in which case, I'd like more callers. But, because of the BB's play, everyone else was shut out of the pot.

In retrospect, the flop may have been the right time to get my money in, because the board had two connecting cards, and two of the same suit -- a lot of different cards on the turn might have killed my action. If any of the the 3 queens, 3 eights, 3 sevens, 4 nines, 3 sixes, or the 7 remaining diamonds not accounted for came...the raiser might shut down if I played it strongly. (Maybe that's a bit of an exageration, but depending on the player, there are potentially 23 cards that could scare him, especially if he let it get checked around). I'm thinking I do want to push hands like this that have a slight expected value, because I could win by taking down the pot, or get called, hit my hand and win. Plus, if I were to double up in a hand like this, it would be a great advantage to have such a large amount of chips. Remember, since the max buy-in is 100x for the table, you'd like to grow your stack as large as you can, so that if you end up in a situation where a guy with 200x or 300x gets involved with you in a big pot, you can take all of his money, and not just the 100x that you started with.

Anyhoo, I'm drawing out this story because, the turn is the 4d, giving me the straight flush. The river is the Qd, making me wonder if he did have QQ and his quads lost to my straight flush. Nope. He turned over AA and left the table broke. I used to feel bad for people when that happened, but I'm over it now. Just happy because that pot of ~187x made a big difference at the end of the night, leaving me down 68...instead of the possible 255! Yikes.

So in the end, I would have been better off working late in the office all night...even though I wouldn't be paid for it!

Just testing out the converter, which I've figured out how to work. I'm too lazy to remove $$ amounts right now, but this is for $50nl anyway.

I thought this guy was sick of my raising preflop, and felt like he was going to slowplay me the next time he could. So...

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (6 max, 5 handed) converter


UTG ($50)
MP ($124.72)
Hero ($51.30)
SB ($62.85)
BB ($72.60)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ts, Th. SB posts a blind of $0.25.

2 folds, Hero raises to $3, 1 fold, BB calls $2.50.

Flop: ($6.25) Tc, 9d, Qh (2 players)
BB checks, Hero calls $48.30 (All-In), BB calls $48.30.
Turn: ($102.85) 2s (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($102.85) Td (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $102.85



Results below:
BB has Ah As (two pair, aces and tens).
Hero has Ts Th (four of a kind, tens).
Outcome: Hero wins $102.85.

I closed out the week in style, going on a tear after the friday night debacle. Remember how I talked about getting action, but not giving it? Well, I won 383x in 667 hands today, just under 5 hours of playing. I was up more than that actually, but lost 60x or so in my last session. I just looked back at my hands and the most I lost on any 1 hand was 17x! Very impressive considering I managed to lose 125x on 1 KK hand on friday. I've been staying out of trouble, and abandoning decent hands when I meet a lot of resistance. Actually, the 17x hand was as follows: I raised 4x on the button and the small blind went all in for 13x more. I called and he had AT, a great situation for me. I'll win this over 2/3 of the time, but the board came with not one, but two! aces in it. Yipes.

I also lost 15.5x on a K5o hand (I was in the BB). The flop was KK7. I bet and got called. The turn was a 9, I bet out again, and he raised me a smallish amount and I called. I checked on the river T and he went all in, a huge overbet. I folded and he showed K9...the case King, that had made a fullhouse. Thankfully I got away from it. In retrospect, it seems like a pretty easy fold, now that I've finally figured out not to call those huge overbets on the river.

Overbets before the river though, are another story alltogether. Take the following hand:


MP limps, the button raises 2.5x.
I call from the SB with AK. BB and MP call

The flop is:
A Th5h

We all check to the button who bets 3x (less than 1/3 of the pot).
I raise to 9x.
MP and button call.

The turn is:
A
I bet 2/3 of the pot, and MP goes all in raising almost the size of the pot.

His call of my checkraise on the flop meant 1 of two things. Either he was on a flush draw, or he flopped a set. Two pair is an unlikely holding for him, because he would now have a full house, and probably wouldn't play it so strongly. So I think for a while, remembering that I am not going to pay of huge raises, but then again, I beat pretty much any other Ace. I psuedo-reluctantly call, and the river is a harmless, non-heart...He had Ah2h, 3 aces and the nut flush draw on the turn. Thankfully the heart did not come, and I won a HUGE pot.

Another amazing hand was when I was dealt 76h in MP. UTG limped in, I limped in, the SB limped, and the BB raised 2.5x. We all called. Calling with 76 suited here is perfectly acceptable because I will have huge implied odds if I flop a big hand. I could expect the player behind me to call, so it would cost 2.5x to get into a 4 way pot with 14x in it. Definately worth it. Especially when the flop comes out:

8h5h4c

I flopped the nut straight! and an open ended straight flush draw?!? Any heart would give me a flush, but the 9 or 4 would give me a straight flush. Of course, I would rather the flush not come because my hand is currently unbeatable, and if the turn or river was a high heart, someone could make a higher flush. Anyhoo, the BB bets out 25x into a 14x pot...and I try not to drool all over my mouse.

I raised him the minimum (to 50x) and he immediately reraises all in for an additional 35x. I of course call, and hope for harmless cards. The turn is the 8 of clubs, which worries me because some bizarre full house is now possible. The river is a T, and I win another enormous pot.

Herein lies the power of implied odds in no-limit hold em. I called the 2.5x raise preflop and ended up making a profit of 83x on the hand. So basically, if I make that same call the next 33 times I get 76 suited...and don't hit a good flop on any of them, I will still be ahead from this call.

I made a similar call after limping with 55, and then calling a small reraise where the flop came down AJ5 against a known aggressive player. I check raised him on the flop, and he immediately reraised all in (I swear I couldn't click "call" fast enough). He ended up having AQ for top pair, second best kicker. And I won another huge pot.

KK redeemed itself, by going 5 for 5 on the day (although 3 times everyone folded preflop).

Also, I had a crazy hand at 50nl, where I called a raise preflop with 99 and the flop came 988, giving me a fullhouse! There were 4 players still in. The first went all in for his last few dollars, I called, as did one other player. The turn was the worst card possible, a third 8. It's possible I could have been up against four of a kind, but unlikely...even so, it would probably kill my action because no one would keep playing unless they had a high pocket pair (which was unlikely given the betting). The river was the 4th 9! So with a board of 98889, I had quad nines! This is a perfect jackpot hand for playing in a casino. If another player had an 8 with a T or higher, we'd win thousands when his four of a kind, lost to mine. But alas, the other guy didn't have anything (and didn't call my huge all-in on the river).

For my next few entries, I promise to describe some smaller more thought intensive pots, rather than the big monsters I seem to be winning!

My tally for the end of the week: after 2700 hands, 7.16BB/100, just shy of my 10BB/100 goal (which some say isn't possible). Yay! (Also, during this stretch, I also amazingly made 31BB/100 over 1000 hands at 50nl!)

I have the final frisbee game of the summer season monday night, so, believe it or not I might not have time for poker. Which is probably a good thing since I played 12 hours friday-sunday, watched a few poker shows on DVD, and read more in my book about the biggest poker game of all time.

I do do other things. You'll just have to take my word for it.

I just got home from my friend's dad's & sister's birthday party in Rhode Island. I was feeling sleepy on the way home, so I had this long going inner monologue with myself about whether or not I should play when I got home. When I finally arrived and got into the house, I was feeling a bit better...but the call of poker, and the enticement of completing my revenge from the debacle on friday night was just too tempting.

I played 40 hands. At one table, I was dealt 13 hands, winning only 1 when my KJd hit the flop hard Kc6d2d. The turn was a 7d, making me the flush. I raised my lone opponent and he called. The river was a blank. I bet big again, and he called with only pocket tens. A 68x pot.

At the other table....27 hands...13 minutes, I was dealt (in order):
43
62
KJ I raised, was min-reraised. The flop was jack high. We both checked. Turn was a T. He checked, I bet 10x. He called. River J, and he bet out 40x...a bet slightly larger than the pot. Now I said I wouldn't call these anymore, but I just couldn't see him beating my 3 jacks, and thought that he might have been trying to get tricky with QQ or KK, in which case I had him beat. I called and he had A2d, no pair! Bizarre.
44 Flopped a set, won a decent pot
K6
J3s everyone folded to me
K3s
85
AK flopped a king and won on flop
52
88
54 I limped in SB and the BB folded?!? (He could have checked for free)
Q7
A7c
QJ
Q5
QT
AK
22
JJ folded to me in SB. I raise to 4x, Mr A2d from before, min reraises to 7x. I make a huge raise, putting him all in. He instantly calls 90x with 87d?!? A 7 comes but my jacks win. What the hell just happened. That guy is truly someone I want to play with every night. Moving all in with 87 against someone who raised it truly crazy...but calling all-in with 87 is another level of stupidity/insanity alltogether.
74
K3
T5
62h
AQh
AQ
A8s won small pot

13 very solid starting hands + 1 crazyman = nice profit.

So in 2100 hands, I'm hovering right around 5BB/100. I'll just keep plugging away...

I played with avengence on saturday morning/afternoon. I resolved to play a little big tighter and less aggressive preflop, and felt I did an excellent job. Although, after looking at my stats, they were only down slightly from the night before. I am making a conscious effort to try and keep the pot size small when I only have 1 pair, even if it is a big pair. I'll raise big preflop and on the flop, but slow down if there is resistance later in the hand. When I have really good hands I am going to be the one making big bets and raises, not reacting to everyone else. When someone plays back at me hard, I am going to be very careful.

This is one of the hardest things about being really aggressive. When somone plays back at you, you're never quite sure how good their hand is. And, since I am setting myself up to be bluffed (by making lots of bets and raises), I always want to call them down because I think they are making a play at me. Way more often than not, they have really good hands...and I'm giving too much action. I should be getting action, but not giving. As I think about it, it makes sense that people wouldn't try to bluff too often against the style I have been playing, because it's very hard to know what cards I have, and whether or not they coordinate with those on the board. They just wait for a good hand, and then get paid off by my slightly worse hand.

Anyway, it was nothing more than winning a lot of small and moderate sized pots. I did win 1 biggie with 74c when the board came 3c5c3h 8c 4s....and from the way my opponent played, I knew he had 3 3's. (He ended up having A3). I could have bet more on the river, and he probably would have called (because he called my river bet fairly quickly). The pot ended up being 127x. Woo-hoo!

Another place where I probably could have made more money was on the following hand:
I was dealt AA in the BB and thankfully had just reloaded my chips (having lost a sizeable pot the hand before). The button raised to 3.5x. I reraised to 12.5x, and the raiser and another player called.

The flop was a harmless 975. I bet 22.5x, got called by 1 player, and the preflop raiser folded.

The turn was a 9. I checked, not sure if I should be worried that he now had 3 9's. He checked also.

The river was a 2. I bet 37.5x and he folded. In retrospect, I think he may have had some sort of drawing hand, although maybe not. I'm not sure what it could have been actually. T8? Would he actually call that huge raise? Maybe he had something like TT? Very hard to say. But where I am going with this is that there are definately times when the board is very coordinated and I have a decent hand, I bet the flop, and then check the turn. When I bet the river, they fold...which means they were drawing to a hand, and missed, safely folding on the river. If I bet the turn, I can extract more money from them when their hand can still improve. After the river comes out, they know their hand can't get any better. So, altough this seems to slightly oppose my theory of keeping the pot small when I have 1 pair...I also need to try and make more money on the turn when my opponents are drawing.

Other than that...not too much noteworthy happened, and I felt really good about the way I played. After playing for 20 minutes or so, I opened 2 $50nl tables, with the idea that playing 4 at once would cause me to play a few less hands. Not sure if it affected my results, but I did win an extra 20-30x at those tables!

So for the session, I made 125x in 500 hands for a rate of: 12 BigBets/100 hands. Yay!

Since I had napped friday night so that I could be up and playing during prime time, I was still wide awake at 2am early saturday morning. I had quit playing 200nl and played a few tournaments just to ease the hemmoraging. I busted out of a 100 SnG (sit n' go, 1 table tournament), and then played a 50nl tourney with over 500 entrants. I ended up going out 125th or so, which was decent. I did misplay a hand where I had AKs and raised from the BB. 1 opponent called and the flop was QJx, and we both checked. The turn was another spade, giving me 4 spades. I checked, and he bet the minimum. At this point, I know he doesn't like his hand that much. So the river comes, and it was like an 8 or something, making a relatively scary board. I bet out for about 3/4 of the pot, and he called with KJ, just a pair of jacks. Now I know his hand wasn't that great, but in retrospect, I just didn't play the hand like I had anything either, so when I represented a big hand on the river, it looked suspicious. I've read this before, but hopefully this hand will help re-enforce that if I'm going to bluff, I need to pretend that I have a specific good hand that fits with the board, and play it accordingly. Not just make a big bet because I think your opponent is weak. I busted out going all in with KJ and AT called me.

Actually, I went all in a lot more than I usually do, thanks to the advice in Harrington on Hold 'Em, Vol 2. Rather than wait till my stack is too small (like I usually do), I started making moves sooner, and it worked well because I had gone all in probably 5 times and not been called. My stack was close in size to many of the others at the table, so for them to play against me would be putting their tournament on the line as well. Alas, it was not to be.

While playing the tournies, I played a $50nl table. These are much, much easier than the $200's. I left with 500% of what I sat down with. That makes up for about 40% of what I lost at $200. Better than nothing. (And it helped make me feel better too!)