absolutely understand puggy. just need take breaks now and then. I’m trying to play less and less and eventually just stop playing all together… I can’t take it and its not worth it anymore.
1 Like
Play the player, not the hand. The problem is that you are falling in love with certain hands. We all get bad beats, for example I mentioned yesterday losing a hand when my A5 was beaten by A4. This happens all the time.
If you take nine hands at a table and they all have equal stacks and all shove at the same time, how many times will the starting hand that starts ahead with two cards have the best hand when five more cards are added? Probably less than one third of the time. The only difference in a real game is that most of the time only three or four of the hands are played, and often winning hands are folded preflop.
2 Likes
I won my first SNG today, coming back from a pretty cold start to survive to the bubble, finally started getting playable cards and hitting something with them, and somehow got the big stack 3-up, and played well heads-up to win the table after over an hour.
Played the Badonk’s Foals game, went out 25th/31st, pretty dissatisfied with my play at this table, but also with the play at the table in general. There were, at any given point at my table, 2-3 players marked Away. This distorted the table: big stacks Away were effectively taking their chips off the table, and when the Away player was in the SB/BB, it gave great incentive to a player to try to steal the blinds with an oversized bet. I stayed out of it, until I happened to flop a flush draw, and one of the absentee players decided to shove the flop, and I called, bad call, didn’t hit the flush, wasn’t good pot odds to call. Went out a couple hands later shoving KJ, no fear from the table and couldn’t hit anything anyway.
Went on to play 4 more games, ice cold in each of them, finishing 5th and 6th, taking maybe one hand per game after sitting through 25-40 minutes of garbage cards, one game I got beat twice on JJ, went out on 44 short-stack committed through the BB.
In my last game, I got KK and won the blinds with them, 3BB raise and no one calling, at a table where typical raise of 5+BB would get at least a call. Was it my table image? Or did everyone get dealt garbage? I went out on AQ, my only other decent starting hand, when the player behind me opened to almost enough for me to go all-in, so I shoved it, they had pocket 7s, and neither of us improved.
So the upshot of all this is, I’m not tilted, I’m playing well, making mostly good decisions, and just ice cold for 5 games in a row, winning the first, but on the day up just 30,000 chips.
First game of my night went thusly:
Opening hand: ATo, flopped top pair. Bet off the hand by someone betting like they had something very good. I have my doubts but didn’t want to risk it so early. Could have been anything from AJ to two pair to a set to a very bold underpair hoping an Ace wouldn’t have seen this flop.
TT, just limp, didn’t hit a set, but did have an overpair and no action on the flop, last to act, bet pot, no calls, took 150 chips. Wooooo!
KTo, flopped a AJ gutshot draw, didn’t hit it because QQ had half my outs. We both check the river when another Ten hits the board. Sensing weakness I bluff the river and lose, down half my stack. Basically figured I was beaten and couldn’t convince my opponent otherwise.
KTo again an orbit later, I am in much the same situation, needing a Jack this time, but I give it up on the turn instead of chasing the draw. Down to 1100/3000 starting stack, and the blinds aren’t even above 60.
A9s on the BB, AK raises big ahead of me, I shove, I lose. Can I pick em or what?
Then there’s this hand:
KQs vs 99 (me).
AJ3 flop, gives me 3 hearts, villain has 3 diamonds and a royal flush draw. I don’t much like the flop, but call a bet anyway, then a 4th heart comes for me on the Turn, and my opponent puts an even bigger bet in, I’m thinking I should fold, I’m thinking he wants me to fold, I’m thinking I have a pair and four suited, so what the hell. I shove, he calls, misses his broadway draw, I hit a flush, but had him on the 9s anyway, get all but 15 of his chips. Sometimes standing up is OK.
Or this hand, flopping middle pair with a gutshot to a 9-K straight, I stay in against small bets from 44 who shouldn’t be betting, but I don’t try to raise them either. I see more hands play like this lately, where two players on weak holdings to the board don’t escalate much, but are willing to call to the river to defend their stake.
So this just happened…
1 Like
Today, on the whole, not so bad. 2/3 ITM, 2nd and 3rd place finishes, coming back after an 8th place finish, and getting ITM in two games where I had very few playable hands at all, although I did flop a royal flush.
folds okay pre, could go either way though, okay with a call
disagree, JTss is a fine shove there with 10 bb’s… KTss reshove with 20 bb’s is a little questionable.
I can’t tell which hand it is that you’re referring to here, so sorry I have no response.
League MTT, 14th/32.
First hour left us with 19 of the original 32 players, blinds at 300/600, and me at #2 on the leaderboard.
Most of the first hour I sat folding cards, I think I maybe played in 4-5 hands at the most, not counting limped blinds that I folded on the flop. I got dealt literally almost nothing playable for the first 40 minutes. I won a couple small pots just enough to offset my folds, basically breaking even, for the first 40 minutes.
Finally I got top pair, Jacks with a flush draw but a weak kicker, and the big stack holding AJ raised big with Top Pair, Top Kicker. I’m around 5000 chips at this point, down 1000 from the starting stack size, and the blinds are now such, and there are 3 big stacks at the table and they’re all routinely raising so big that I have to commit my whole stack to any hand I play from here forward, pretty much, and I know it, so this is a situation where I’m willing to take a chance, and I shoved, filling the flush on the Turn and taking a big chunk out of the big stack to double up and rocket through the leaderboard from middle of the pack to #3.
Immediately after that, I won another hand or two, and my stack is good enough that I can actually open without getting pot committed now, which enables me to take some blinds preflop, and with the blinds getting up to 200/400, these pots were good size, although not a lot of action in them, and by the hour break I was at just under 17k, 4k behind the leader. All of a sudden I feel pretty good about my prospects
After the break I am dealt Kc8c, folding it after flopping bottom pair, 8s, due to a very big bet from one of the other big stacks, but I would have made a flush by the river to take out a couple of big stacks. Folding was definitely the right thing to do in the situation, my hand strength and the pot odds were against me, but the cards taunt me with another flush, and if I’d stayed in, I could have nearly tripled up from about 18000 to a commanding 36000 that would have put me in excellent shape for a run into the final table, and knocked out two of the closest competitors. I see other players call big bets with less than top pair quite a bit, but with just 3 Clubs and a gutshot straight possible, I didn’t think it was worth calling. And yet, there’s the two Clubs running out the hand, on a pot that ended up being 30,000 chips. I can’t let it get to me, right?
Folded 77 the next hand, after a 3BB raise from someone. Should I have called? The player after me raised them, then they shoved, flip up AA, and take the hand, so no. Good fold. The player who tried raising them did it on Q9o, though. But they had enough chips to be able to sustain losing a big hand here, and in the end it was just AAK over QQK, they could have done worse.
then in the hand after that, called a shove from the smallest stack in the game with an OESD, my hand missing, getting a only a pair of Jacks, and beat by their two pair to double them up, and I drop back down to 12k chips and #5 on the leaderboard, 1/3 of my stack gone on three hands since the break. My streak of doubling up puny stacks continues.
It’s a terrible start to the 2nd hour, getting active and losing every hand I play, including folding what would have been a giant pot, but it was the right thing to do at the time.
Another big pot goes down that I stayed out of, the two big stacks at the table chop it and nothing really changes.
I’m #3 at the table, 6th overall, and would like to win a big one again to keep in contention, but I need to play patient and wait for good cards.
A5s, I try to limp, the player behind me shoves, I give up another 600 chips. QJo, UTG, limp again, table folds around to the BB and me, they bet min on the flop, an Ace, and I fold. Another 1200 gone, just like that.
A9 in the BB, player behind me raises and I’m game, I call, miss the flop, I fold after the last to act bets half pot, and now i’m down under 10K in about 6 hands,
I’ve lost almost half my stack in about an orbit. Semi-forced in to playing marginal hands and getting bad luck on the flop is a great way to waste an hour and a half and 100k chips for nothing at all.
Now I’m sitting on 8th place, 4th at my table, and still a long way away from the bubble. This situation, you need to be able to play aggressively, and being one of the shorter stacks that’s really hard to pull off, very risky, so I have to wait on a good hand and get everything out of it that I can. Basically, I’m looking to hit QQ+ or else flop a monster on a limped BB.
The next several hands are all garbage: J3s, fold, would have flopped into a Flush draw, don’t get to see if I would have made it. 74o, fold. T3s, UTG raises big, I muck, they chop with the short stack. 42s, fold. I must have the coldest cards in the whole tournament.
Finally, I get a reasonable hand to play ATo, I open to 3BB to 2400. Kindof expecting to just take it uncontested, but the player behind me calls, and another player on top of that. I flop a Broadway draw, don’t fill it, am beat by A9 who at least hit a pair of 9s, and K4 who hit a pair of Kings, both on the flop. A Jack was all I needed.
Next hand, A9s, I pair the Ace on the flop, bet pot, called by A2, I shove on the Turn, they call, they river a 2. I’m out 14th, well outside the bubble once again. Not the strongest Ace to shove, but the weakest Ace won.
What gives? Playing Ace-Deuce at all, let along holding onto it after the flop with a big bet from what’s obviously repping at least a better Ace than you could possibly have? Well, looking back at the flop, they had 4A3, and needed a 5 to fill a straight. So that’s why. They miss their draw, but find another out. FML.
this is my world… stay out 
I seem to be back to my winning ways this week. Over 50% ITM so far in Pegasus league, although most of the chip wins have been 3rd place finishes, and 0-2 with early exits in Badonk’s Foals. But of those chip wins in Astral, a lot of them were tenacious hang-on bubble survival wins, not letting the chip lead get away from me, and that’s big for me. Cards have been pretty cold for me all week, but I found ways to get in the money even just playing a few hands in an hour. Today they’re at least hitting boards for me pretty often when I come into a hand.
Probably my favorite hand of the night:
K7o, in the BB, two players blocking each other on AA, somehow they both just limp, allowing me to come into the hand and see a two pair flop. Both players go all-in by the river, and I have both of them covered, the board remains unpaired and I knock them both out, popping the bubble in a game that I went on to win in a swift 27 minutes, before the blinds even get above 75/150.
1 Like
serves them both right limping with AA. both probably thinking set a trap but trap was set on them.
3 Likes
I lost this hand, but I really enjoyed it. Full house over full house, well played, close hand.
My least favorite hand of the night:
AJ, raise 3BB from early position, get a raise, call it, 4 players in the hand to see the flop. I flop top pair, on a AQ board. First to act min bets, I raise almost the size of the pot, and get 4 calls. WTF? I figure there’s a player calling on a pair of Queens, maybe someone who’s holding a flush draw here. I hope I’m not up against AA or AQ.
On the turn, I shove, and the table folds, except that min-raising first-to-act player, who calls, flips up KK, I have them, except then the river is a 3rd King for them, and I’m ruined. Bad call, great outcome for Mr. KKK.
Yes, many players on RP attribute mystical powers to preflop hands like AK, KK, QQ, and in some cases all the way down to 22, and will shove the flop even when there is an A on the flop and every indication that opponent holds an A.
I was thinking about this last night when I was playing a 1 million chip buy-in tournament and was dealt 22. The flop came with three overcards and there were 2 opponents. Big blind led out the betting on the flop and I folded, but actually would have won the hand and a big pot had I held on to the river.
I finished in 7th place, with just 4 places paying prize chips, and that hand could have made all the difference. In my final hand I shoved from UTG with 4 players at the table holding A 8o. Needless to say, BB with a stack a little larger than mine called with 3 5 suited and won the hand. He finished in the money, and I was out. If I had an additional 1500 chips, I think there is a good chance that he would have folded that hand.
Such is poker.
The way I play pocket pairs preflop depends a great deal on a lot of things that have little to do with the value of the cards. Depending on the situation, I’ll play them differently. After the flop, it all depends on the texture of the board and how the other player(s) act. But none of my plans include calling a shove from a player repping Aces for the entire hand and one card left to hit my out.
My fourth Royal Flush:
Wow nice. You always get the good hands!
3 Likes