Woo, just made my 3rd Final table in a row for $5 tournaments. This is the tournament that the bluff hands below are from. Unfortunately, the payouts here are not impressive, so there is a good incentive to win this and not care about moving up just one more slot. We will see how it goes.

I entered the final table third in chips. We immediately lost one person.

*down to 7 and I haven't really played a hand yet. The distribution of chips is flat right now, ranging between 20k and 40k.

Break.

Get AK, raise to 6k (1k/2k blinds). One caller. Miss the flop but get a flush draw. Check it down for the win. This restablishes my 3rd place and I am behind 2nd by 600 chips.

This hand happens. My steal knocks it down to 6 players and I am in first.


A turned trips knocks a short stack out. Down to 5.

2-1 chip lead over 2nd after this.

*About here I begin to bully the table and grow my stack. I am up to 105k in chips. 2nd has 41k. Let's see if I can blow this.


I crush 5th place and he later gets knocked out with a smaller stack.

4th places loses with AQ to KK.

top 3 left.


This gets us heads up

The guy starts going all in every hand. I call the second hand with AJ, and lose to 33 that gets quads! I am now the short stack by 10k. This gap increases to 50k.


I lose this hand heads up! I hate AP.


I rebound and build my meager 20k into 93k. Phew, I have a chance again.

Yay, the stacks are even.

Then through some bluffing I get into the lead. It's a very fragile lead.


This is probably the longest heads up session I have been in. I can't be too aggressive as he is not afraid to push and I can't call with half of my hands.

I blew it. I ende dup in 2nd place for $140. :(. I need to work on this game.

Bluffing and Strategy


I am continuing to work on my tournament games and avoiding my cash games. I have always been a better tournament player than a cash game player and I think part of that is due to my adherence to Harrington-esque style of calculating plays and moves. Given that I want my blog to include more theory and less pure hand history/analysis. I plan to have certain posts deal with particular topics. Given that, I am playing in another $5 MTT (because they love me on AP) and am working on some bluffing techniques.

Now, a fundamental concept of bluffing requires you to both represent your hand and understand what your opponent has. Naturally, a key concept is to determine whether or not your opponent is capable of playing beyond his or her cards. Now, as most of my 2 readers know, there are two fundamental bluffs to consider. The pure bluff where you have no chance of winning except by your opponent folding and the semi-bluff where you are probably behind now, but have chances to improve on the following streets. There is also a third kind of bet that does not quite fall into either of those categories. This is the information bet that can come in a few different forms.

The first is a traditional continuation bet. You missed the flop, say with AK, and do not know if your opponents did or not. You bet 1/2+ of the pot and see where you are. The second can occur on the flop or after and usually occurs when you have a low middle pair. You are in LP with A6s and you call with two other people in the pot. The flop is K62 rainbow. Both the BB and the limper check to you. You can check behind here and hope to check it down or place a bet and hope to win it now. You are probably going to get called by most Kings, even with K7+ being a bit curious. However, many pocket pairs might be folding at this point. 77-TT all have an incentive to fold at this point. JJ and QQ are going to call, but they are probably not in the hand due to the lack of preflop raising.


Hands played in the same tournament

Pure bluffs -

A Representation Hand - I was steamrolling the table at this point and playing a bit more quickly than I should have been. At this point, I had only shown strong hands so I wanted to increase my winning by varying my preflop raises. Here I am representing TT+, and AQs+ given my previous hands. On the flop, I raise representing a continuation bet or an overpair that needs to be protected. The turn gives me one more shot and it is enough to get him out of the pot. One thing I didn't realize is that if he reraised all in, I would have to call on the chance that my draw was okay. Make sure to pay attention to your opponent's stack size.

Semi bluffs -

This is a continuation bet- but I believe my two overcards are both live, so if I hit either here I am probably good.

Information bets that are bluffs.

Information bet - Based on the preflop raise, I think my 6 might be good here. One way to find out is bet, and it is. I don't think this is a bluff as a better hand would almost always call, unless it was a middle pocket pair.

Final Table

New post for hands at the final table. This is my second one in the last couple of days so woo. I am going to post all of my significant plays.


*Down to 8 players by the 3rd hand. Yay FT tilting.


Betting the ace pays off

I don't know about this handI was tempted to call on the river here with bottom pair. If anything, I should have bet the turn and represented my AQ, but I wanted the free draw. I went into the bank on the river and decided to fold.

*Down to 7.

I get a monster - again people need not to slow play TPMK.

*Down to 6.

A decent bluff to put me back in 3rd.

*Down to 5.

I missed a hand and bet as the sb, get called. Check-bet-fold on the turn puts me in 4th.

*3rd place goes to battle with 2nd place. He gets knocked down to 50k chips which puts me in 3rd for the time being.

*5th places gets kings and doubles up. I am back in 4th.

5 minute break. The chip stacks are 228k, 187k, 90k, 81k, 40k. I am the 81k.

4 left after a set gets runner runner four flushed. I am now in fourth, behind 3rd by 18k.

My play starts falling apart. Two steals are thwarted and I call once with 56s and miss entirely. Down to 40k.


I lose in 4th.


The Hand

Time to start posting the winning hands that are getting me where I am in this tournament. We are down to 36 players (top 36 are paid) and I am sitting in 1st place with 27k chip lead over 2nd. Here are a few hands that got me where I am now:



When you hit hard and bet they often may not believe you. This can be an effective way to get the money in the middle, especially against a middle stack that wants to double up but would otherwise be cautious.

This contains a decent amount of luck boxing, the preflop call was cake - though I might have wanted to pop the all in. I kept getting odds to call my monster draw and I made both of them.



Notable hands after the bubble:

Switched positions with 2nd place on this hand

Against the chipleader - this puts me back in the lead.

I ended up in 4th place in the 2k tournament listed in the previous post for a finish near $140. Felt nice to make a FT after this long dry spell.


I played in a pokerstars $30 to play with a friend. The friend gets knocked out hand #1 to a two-outtere on the river. I make it in deep, but bust out in 74th, 20 from the money. I move all in preflop with AT (as my chip stack is getting weak), everyone folds to the BB who calls with K6o. K on the river beats my T on the flop.


Trying the 2k again and having some good plays that pan out, such as this:

When mixing up your pre-flop raising really pays off

This hand was followed by a similar move the next hand but with TT, hitting another T on the flop, and losing to a 4 flush. I am still doing well, we will see how it goes.


This is why you do not underbet the flop

I am playing some of my worst poker in cash games right now. All my made hands are getting cracked or I am not laying them down. This is quite the downswing I am having this past week and I have already dropped down a level...

On the other hand, I seem to be playing my current tournament correctly.

My good check-raise bluffs in a 2k guranteed tournament:


First hand
The very next hand

While working on a paper I decided to play in a moderate expensive tournament to work on my game. So, while this happens I figured I would do some play by play and see how I donk out and open myself for criticism. Most major plays will be here.

Information $30 Rebuy, I initially rebuy so I can start with 3k chips.
First table has only 6 players.

First hand Played Way too passive, but his min bets keep me in with middle pair for the win.

The very next hand I have QJs and accidently call instead of raising in the SB with one limper and the BB. the flop is 272, I raise to 60. Button calls. I raise the 10h that comes and he folds.

Hand #6 - So, I am already posting 3 hands and I am only on number 6. I think this was a solid read here. 3x BB made me put him on KK, QQ, or maybe AK. The flop makes me discount AK a bit and want to see his raise. An overraise looks like protection to me, so I put him and he calls!

Hand #13 - Pick up pocket Kings, three limpers, raise to 6xBB of $180, Get one caller (the first limper). Flop is AKJ with two diamonds. I raise to 300, s/he folds.

Shit, I didn't realize this game had a double add-on. Well, that makes this tournament cost $120!

First hand after the break with a small river raise A potential flaw here, but his min betting seemed like he was trying to just test to see if I was on a draw. I think I should have bet the turn here and taken it away from him, but this seemed okay.

Good lay down?


I donk draws to the nut flush. I probably should have bet on the flop, but I would have to fold to a reraise. This was a horrible call, but I thought I had two live cards plus the flush.

My Aggressive Draw Play doesn't pan out.

The min-raise should have tipped me off.

My shortstack push gets lucky.

Maybe I shouldn't push short stacks... but this one pays off.

I make a decent lay down short stacked. Two people go all in, I have AQ and fold. KK wins it.

Go all in with AQ in EP and get called by another AQ. We split the pot.

My final hand. I make the right play, but I bust out of the tournament, 2 away form the money.

Decided to play in a rebuy tournament and its currently going alright. A list of noteworthy hands:


Good:
Quite the bet to call...

Bad:

Agression on the bubble gets me into a bit of trouble, but I don't see this hand going down any other way given our chip stacks.
The hand that knocked me out...


I ended up in 10th place for $52.44

Grading Papers tonight, so here is a list of notable hands while 2-tabling on AP and grading:

The Good
Q4s from the Cut-off - Seeing too many limpers made me want to dominate this hand with my position.


Versus DoeRayMe
First Hand that shocked me:This is how a pro plays AA
The following Hand: Slowplay followed by a bluff, I think this was an easy read with a tough call.

The Bad
I donk gutshots

Was doing alright in a tournament where I went from 500 chips to over 3000 within a few rounds of good solid bluffs and general plays. Then this hand came:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?983434


I believe I made a few mistakes. First, I should not have bet into the empty sidepot unless I was willing to fold my hand to a significant reraise. My initial raise should have been a probe and since my hand was vulnerable, checking it down might have been better. Also, the call on the river was obviously wrong here, it might be in the longterm too. The guy initially raised and the hand I am hoping he is preflop raising and calling with here with AQ. KK and AA might also be nice at this point in the hand.

How to win a $450 pot


My luckfest hand

My first Royal Flush after playing the game for a looong time and it was dirty:


http://www.pokerhand.org/?979430

It's been almost 5 months since I have posted and I think it is time to revive the blog. My game has been decent where I have cashed in multiple tournaments including a $1100 win at turning stone last Thursday. However, my cash game has been flagging a bit. The poker club I frequent has led to 4 very bad sessions in the row and I am not sure I can return anytime soon until I figure what is going on. Variance has smacked me in the face while I have been making some truly attrocious plays.


So, I plan to play more online cash games to figure out where I am standing. It seems like I am best at tournaments when I can completely focus on the game in front of me while cash games require some form of distraction as there is no clear end point. Consequently, I think I require a healthy mix of online cash games and live tournaments to operate correctly. I will be mostly be playing online, but going to play tournamens will receive a priority over cash games in the future.