Good Times and Bluffing

The times that you are running good need to really be cherished as they don't come around too often.

Tonight, my night looked like this:

456 Hands (1.22 Hours)

I played a typcial TAG game with stats of 21.7/14.3/2.17 . I 3 bet about 8% and I did NOT hit any sets tonight.

Went to Showdown 31%
Won $ at Showdown 70%

Here is the sick graph (for me at least) as this never really happens to me.




Everybody knows that as soon as you blog about this, you totally jinx yourself. I hope that is not the case in the future.

Yesterday, I talked about a hand (I'll have another one below this) where I turned a straight; but that card also hit a flush draw. Here is the hand in review:

Villain is your typical TAG... 17/14/2.0.. but only after 30 hands.

Full Tilt p0ker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $120.85
Hero (BB): $120.00
UTG: $121.20
MP: $158.05
CO: $113.85
BTN: $200.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with 4s As
UTG raises to $3.50, 2 folds, BTN calls $3.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $2.50

Closing the action here, I don't mind seeing a flop. Thoughts?

Flop: ($11.00) 3c Ad 2d (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, BTN checks

Anybody bet out here?

Turn: ($11.00) 5d (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, BTN bets $9, Hero raises to $28, UTG folds, BTN calls $19

I check raise and get called? Shut it down?

River: ($67.00) 9s (2 players)
Hero ?

Two things were going on in my head when this happened. One of them kind of made sense and one of them didn't.

First, the one that didn't. After I made that check/raise on the turn, my focus immediately changed to another table where I was involved in a 125BB pot.

Second, after a brief time of thinking, it just seemed like a 2 pair type of hand such as A9.

So what did I do?

River: ($67.00) 9s (2 players)
Hero bets $44, BTN raises to $168.50 all in, Hero calls $44.50 all in

Final Pot: $244.00
Hero mucks 4s As
BTN shows Kd Jd (a flush, Ace high)
BTN wins $241.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I bet and got shoved on and really had to make the call. As this guy was a pretty straight forward tight player, I was pretty surprised to see him cold call with KJs; but live and learn.
Perhaps, I could have bet a little bit less and maybe could have folded. Also, maybe if I would have thought a little longer on his cold call on check raise, it probably should have sent out more warning signals.

I really didn't have any real tough decisions tonight so since I had just listened to a podcast from poker road called All Strategy about bluffing, I thought I would post a hand about bluffing from tonight to get your thoughts.

First, the podcast said that bluffing at the micro/small levels is not necessary and most likely a losing proposistion. I guess I somewhat agree; but there are plenty of players at my level that know what there doing and can fold to bets. That player was NOT the player that I was dealing with here.

The villain here is a weak passive player seeing 38% of flops and only raising 2%.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $100.00
Hero (CO): $196.55
BTN: $51.90
SB: $100.50
BB: $41.30

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with 9d Ah
1 fold, Hero raises to $3.50, BTN calls $3.50, 2 folds

Standard raise from cutoff.

Flop: ($8.50) 6h 8c 3d (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $3, Hero raises to $10.25, BTN calls $7.25

I don't always C-bet. I typically C-bet around 70% of the time and I had check folded once or twice at this table most likely. So I check raise and he calls?? The call seemed weak to me given his stack size.

Turn: ($29.00) Kd (2 players)
Hero bets $15, BTN ??

I thought this was a good spot to bluff and I knew it wouldn't take much of a bet to find out and I actually thought a 1/2 pot bet (again given his stack size) would definitely look like I wanted a call.

Let me know of your thoughts and I will post if he called/pushed/or folded tomorrow.

Have a nice day!!