Mook Hands and when not to do Training

Of course it was Wednesday last night so of course that it means it was time for the MOOK . Man, were things going great or above average last night as I was getting the hands early. It felt a little Astin-ish. Unfortunately, not many of them got paid off and some of them completely missed the flop and I had to fold to pressure.

Speaking of Astin, I have 3 hands I want to review with my 1 or 2 readers in which 2 of them include Astin . A little history between the two of us as he laid down a pretty big hand last week while he was ahead. Congrats, by the way, go to Astin with a 2nd place finish.... again.

Hand #1

Seat 1: UnTiltable15 (2,125)
Seat 2: AgSweep (3,000)
Seat 3: Astin (2,880)
Seat 4: GScottW (4,000)
Seat 5: jamyhawk (2,150)
Seat 6: willwonka (3,655)
Seat 7: chipperdh (3,875)
Seat 8: VinNay (1,915)
Seat 9: Julkeus (6,280)

I have been raising a bunch as I mentioned earlier. I am UTG+2 in this hand with QTs (spades) and raise it to 180 (blinds are 30/60). Not a normal raising hand this early; but mixing it up and I have been raising a lot so perhaps people might read a little more strength with another raise based on gap concepts. Everybody folds to Astin who is in the BB.
Flop comes 9h8hJd. Bang!! Hit the flop.. Now how do I get chips?
Astin actually leads out 240 and I raise to 520 (intentionally small) as we all know that flopped straights are no good. Astin Calls.
Turn is harmless 2 spades and again Astin bets out.. this time 600.
What is your play? around 1970 in pot? My plays will be at then end of post.

Hand #2

This wasn't as exciting so I will breifly mention this one.

This hand is against AgSweep who is a player that I didn't recognize and hadn't played against.

I have 5445 in chips vs his 2540. I look down to another great hand QQ. Blinds are 50/100 and Ag raises from UTG+1 to 300 and I raise to 800 and now he re-pops to 800. It is 500 to call? What do you do?

Results below

Hand #3

Another hand with Mr Astin. Blinds are 60/120 and I have him outchipped 3205 to 1890. I am in the SB with J6d. Julkeus calls from UTG+1 and Astin from button and I call and BB checks. The flop comes:
Jc2h9s giving me top pair, crappy kicker. I check (with the intention of check/raising as I love to do). EP players also checks and Asting throws out 360 and I raise to 860 and he wastes no time in pushing all in which would cost me 910 more.
Is he just tired of me always seemingly check raising him? I definitely think he can push on a bluff or semi bluff.

Results below.

Hand 4

My last hand against my good buddy from Soonner land. I am now down to 895 and blinds are 80/160 so I'm just looking for a hand to push. I look down at AJs and I am primed to push away; but before I do that GCox raises to 560.
Knowing his play, do you wait until the next hand knowing that he has a good hand?

Results Below

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As I have mentioned, I have subcribed to some video training one of which being StoxPoker.
So far I am really enjoying it. They have a video category called "The ClassRoom" which talks of theoretical things as opposed to specific hand type stuff. Here are a few of the subjects:

-Stox talks about opening hand ranges when not in steal position.
-Bryce talks about Limit Holdem blind play
-Journey up in stakes
-Stox talks about the use of Poker Ace HUD and Poker Tracker
-Making poker decisions
-Stox reviewing biggest hands
-Bryce showing some PokerStove tricks
-Colin showing SNG Wizard

and more....

Great stuff so far. I have also subscribed to another service which I will talk about more later.

The problem for me is when to watch them. A couple of the videos I decided to watch after I was finished playing whether it be from a good or bad session. My problem is that it is usually late when I start these and it is hard to stay focused especially after a bad session as your mind drifts back towards your session.

So, having said that, I will not make a point to either watch them before I start playing or instead of playing? Thoughts?

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Results from above:

Hand #1 . I pushed for 2955 more and he folded; but he clearly didn't want to. We had a little conversation afterwards where I was saying that I was ahead; but didn't necessarily want a call. He wasn't so sure which confirms that he had a good hand.

Hand #2. I just called. Flop was 25Kr. Turn was 2cFlop and Turn both went check, check. River was Tc putting a backdoor flush out there. I checked and he put a nice value bet of 500 in and I called. He showed KK for a flopped set and turned boat. I think I did ok here to get out of this hand with a minimum loss

Hand #3. I had to call and he showed a better kicker. The board paired on the turn giving him thoughts of a split as his kicker was only a Ten. Turns out that card killed me as the river was a 6 and I lost with 3 pair.

Hand #4. I had to push and Gary showed QQ and I didn't improve and IGHN. I finished way down the pack a little worse than halfway. Oh well. There is always next week.

Have a nice day!!!

Peace!!