Do You Make the Call and the HOYand SNG Wiz News

I want to start off by thanking everybody on their comments on the hands from my previous post. I do appreciate and I plan on pulling the original hands this week and comparing them to what I really did to what the advice was. It was really good and that is exactly what I needed as I re-learn No Limit.

Also, I meant to put a little thing about the upgraded SNG Wizard. As most of you know, SNG Wizard is a tool that helps you look at your SNG play and judge whether or not you played it correctly. One of the problems (if you can call it that) is the hand ranges that SNG Wizard bases it calculations on. They are not always spot on. With the latest release, he is asking to be able to collect the actual hand histories of your SNG to help with the average opponent hand ranges. There is a 2+2 Thread all about it. All of this is done in the back ground once you open up that particular SNG. It is an option and you need to explicitly turn it on. There are alot of people that don't want to share their data and so there is some discussion on the pros and cons. I, personally, don't mind and it if helps with the program in later releases, I am all for it. We'll see what happens.

As it was Monday, I did decide to play in the MATH last night knowing that I am just donating my money. Recently, I have been in the close by no cigar category as I bubbled once and came within 5 of the money (I think). As far as I know, I have never made the money in this thing. While I have enjoyed some success in the Mook winning it 2 times, I have not fared so well in the MATH.

The MATH had 65 players last night and paid 8 players. Again, I was able to make it deep into this tourney as I do like the 6 max format. OK, to make a long story short, I find myself in 9th place out of 9 people. Am I destined to bubble again? Stay tuned.

By the way, I did play a token race with 24 people getting tokens. I finished 26th. Dang!!!

First I want to talk about my cash games that I had going during the tournaments and then I want to discuss set ups. The hands that I want to talk about are AA hands and whether or not
you make the call?

AA Hand #1

In this hand, I do not have a read on the opponent yet.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $50.75
Hero (UTG): $63.30
CO: $19.55
BTN: $78.00
SB: $50.00

Pre Flop: Hero is UTG with A A

Hero raises to $1.75, 2 folds, SB calls $1.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.00) 2 Q 5 (2 players)

SB bets $3, Hero raises to $8, SB raises to $28, Hero ??????

After playing with him, I find out that he is about a 33/10 guy. Does that change your call?


AA Hand #2

Again, no reads on this guy which is why deciding on what to do is hard.



Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $131.90
Hero (BTN): $55.90
SB: $48.95
BB: $79.25
UTG: $48.05


Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with A A

UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.25, 2 folds, UTG calls $1.75

Flop: ($5.25) T 6 J (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets $5.25, UTG calls $5.25

Turn: ($15.75) T (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets $10, UTG calls $10

River: ($35.75) J (2 players)

UTG bets $15.50, Hero ????

This one seems a little bit tougher as I probably have odds to call?

What did I do? I layed them both down. Weak?

OK, one more Question? As I was really stuck on what to do? I ended up doing the wrong thing; but please give me your thoughts?


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $90.85
BTN: $50.50
SB: $49.95
BB: $55.00
UTG: $70.35

Pre Flop: Hero is CO with J J

UTG raises to $1.75, Hero raises to $5.50, 1 fold, SB calls $5.25, 1 fold, UTG calls $3.75

Flop: ($17.00) 9 J T (3 players)

SB bets $9.50, UTG calls $9.50, Hero raises to $85.35 all in, SB folds, UTG calls $55.35 all in

Turn: ($156.20) 5

River: ($156.20) 4

Final Pot: $156.20

Hero shows Jd Jc (three of a kind, Jacks)

UTG shows Ks Qs (a straight, King high)

UTG wins $153.20

(Rake: $3.00)

Given stack sizes, is this a bad push. It seems that the only thing that calls me here is perhaps KQ or a flush draw. Should I exercise pot control here? Certainly, I can't give up on the flop with the FH redraws?


Now, here are a couple of hands for your viewing pleasure. So many times (especially in NL) you find that guy that is willing to stack off with the worst of it. You just play it patiently and you know it is going to work and then afterwards you can quote Hannibal from the A-Team and say that you love it when a plan comes together.

I had two such hands.

The first hand, this guy was pushing all in every hand since he sat down. About the 5th hand, this is what happened.


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $77.00
CO: $92.40
Hero (BTN): $50.20
SB: $23.35
BB: $65.65
UTG: $54.60

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with K K

UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.50, SB raises to $23.35 all in, 1 fold, UTG calls $22.85, Hero raises to $50.20 all in, UTG calls $26.85

Right on cue, he goes all in again. Any thoughts on the KK limp?


Flop: ($124.25) 8 7 T

Turn: ($124.25) Q

River: ($124.25) A

Final Pot: $124.25

Hero shows Kd Kc (a pair of Kings)
SB shows Td Qd (two pair, Queens and Tens)
UTG shows Ah Jc (a pair of Aces)

DANG!!!!! I don't even get the side pot as that Ace came on river...



Hand #2

AGain, just waiting for this guy to overbet...

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 3 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $47.55
BTN: $76.90
SB: $42.95

Pre Flop: Hero is BB with T T

BTN raises to $1, 1 fold, Hero raises to $3.50, BTN raises to $76.90 all in, Hero calls $44.05 all in

Got him!!!!

Flop: ($95.35) 2 8 4

Are you kidding me???

Turn: ($95.35) 3

River: ($95.35) K

Final Pot: $95.35

Hero shows Tc Ts (a pair of Tens)
BTN shows 8d 8s (three of a kind, Eights)
BTN wins $94.35
(Rake: $1.00)


Fun stuff eh? I ended up losing a little over 2 buy ins. I was down over 4 at one point. Also, running KK, QQ and TT into Aces didn't help either. Some body hitting a FH with 73o on the river when I hit my flush on turn... blah, blah, blah...

That should to it for today.

Oh wait, the HOY. I did end up getting my much needed double up and actually made it into the money. Things were pretty typical as blinds were being stolen and things were changing quite a bit. Again, I find myself shortstacked. I steal the blinds. Next hand, Astin was on his typical roller coaster and this particular time, he had chips. He raises to 6600 and I push All in with AK for 15572. He calls with Q6s and as usual, he hits his Q and I am out in 5th place. I'm obviously a little disappointed how it ended; but at least now I have broken the curse of not cashing in the HOY.

I ended up 47th on the BBT3 leader board for the first month. I only played 9 of the 19 events so I guess not too bad.


One final thing. I ended up playing 6,826 hand of NL in March. I made a profit of $33. It feels terrible as I was up $500 at one point; but had the disastrous session that wiped most of it away.

I only played 999 hands of limit and finished down $130. So yes, another losing month. Not really if you count rakeback; but you know what I mean.

We'll keep giving it the college try.

Have a nice day!!!