Quick update

I played a somewhat short session today and made a decent profit:

• +$495.95

• Total for the year so far: +$5962.25 (29.8% of the way to my goal)!

Gogogo!

A couple of interesting hands

Here are a couple of interesting hands from my session last night. I will reserve my thoughts on them until people have commented:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($227.40)
Hero (UTG) ($410)
MP ($332.50)
CO ($427.55)
Button ($416.40)
SB ($142.20)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 6, 5
Hero bets $6, MP calls $6, CO calls $6, 2 folds, BB calls $4

Flop: ($25) 10, 6, K (4 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $18, 1 fold, CO calls $18, 1 fold

Turn: ($61) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $50, CO calls $50

River: ($161) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $115, Hero raises to $336 (All-In), 1 fold


Total pot: $391 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero didn't show 6, 5 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $388

Folding top set sucks. Booo. Villain is a generally passive player.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($438.30)
Hero (Button) ($400)
SB ($321.40)
BB ($469.50)
UTG ($176.55)

Preflop: Hero is Button with J, J
UTG calls $2, 1 fold, Hero bets $9, 1 fold, BB calls $7, 1 fold

Flop: ($21) J, 3, 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $11, BB calls $11

Turn: ($43) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $30, BB calls $30

River: ($103) 6 (2 players)
BB bets $86, Hero folds

Total pot: $103 | Rake: $3

Results:
BB didn't show

Outcome: BB won $100

Some good friends (in an EV sense)

I finished off a good session today, up $491. I think I played pretty well overall; I can't think of any hands that I really slaughtered...

I did run well below expectation in several big pots that cut into my wins for the evening. If I had won those hands in which I was always a big or a huge monster favorite, I would have been up well over $1K.

The first attempted donator was sitting at one of my tables. I stacked him when I turned a full house with 22 on a 55J2 board with three diamonds. I led right out on the turn, he check raised me, I flatted and he shoved a blank river. I snapped him off and he had 98o for a monstrous 9 high, no pair no draw at any point during the hand. O....K....

I guess he didn't like that hand, so he moved to another table. I followed him and almost immediately played another big pot with him:

He raises to 3x the BB UTG (effective stacks 100BB). I have him pegged as a crazy stupid bluffy tilt box, so I flat from the BB with 9s8s. Flop comes great: Kd9h8d. I check it to him, he bets 4.5BB and I checkraise him to ~20BB. He calls. Turn is a diamond. I bet 35BB or so and he shoves for the rest of his stack. I think a little bit, since this was not a happy turn, but call him anyway. He turns over: 8d7h for bottom pair and a 8 high flush draw. River is a diamond and he scoops a $400 pot. Bleh... I was a 10-1 favorite on the flop. Boo.

The tables are uneventful for a while, and then another attempted friend sits at one of my tables. On almost the first hand he plays, he limps UTG (we are 4 handed). I raise with QQ, the BB makes a 3bet and my attempted friend flats the 3bet. I 4bet, looking to get it in, original 3bettor folds, and the friend calls off the rest of his stack with: Js5s. And then immediately flops top two pair. I don't improve and he scoops a $180 pot.

This fellow then proceeds to dump my money to the rest of the people at the table with impressive speed. He gets stacked and then I pick of AKo in the SB. He min-raises to $4 and gets called. I make it $40 straight. He moves in, caller folds, I of course snap-call. He tables AQo. And then makes a straight. Away floats another $200 pot.

Oh well, them's the hits. I got my money in good, that's all I can really do...

Don't try to run bluffs based on the assumption intelligence

I was stuck at work this weekend babysitting a test and slow played some poker to pass the time. My first session went well. I ran like god, flopping sets left and right, and playing pretty well overall. I took a break and then played some more. I probably shouldn't have since I almost immediately lost two $800 pots in a row. The latter one was somewhat forgivable. However, the second one was just a spot where I should not have lost more than $16.

I basically made a read that based on raise size, a player could not have a hand much better than top pair. I then ran my AQo high into bottom set. Hooray. In the hand, the flop came Jc7x8c. I led into the pot and got min-raised. At this point, against a sane thinking player, I would eliminate monsters from his range, since on this board, there are draws abound. Making this raise lets medium strength made hands call down cheap and gives draws an extremely cheap card. Two blanks came off and I got called down by 77. I don't really stepping out of line once in a while, but against someone who I don't know who is probably an idiot, it's a really bad idea. I think I can reasonably represent T9, 88 or JJ with that line, so even bottom set has to give calling the river a little bit of thought, but the other player was a significant loser and is not going to be able to fold a set ever.

However, after those two pots, I got my head back together and managed to scrape my way back up. Overall for Saturday, I ended up $147, but it probably should have been significantly more.