Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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!!

1 comment:

Klopzi said...

I don't get the check-raise on the flop. You're out of position against a loose-passive player and he's bet the flop.

I'd either lead on the flop and shut down if called or raised unless I improve on the turn. And I'd definitely give up on the hand after check-raising the flop and getting called.

If he's on a draw, your Ace may be good so check on the turn and hope for a cheap showdown.

As played, I'm guessing Villain called.

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