Think things through..

With Rakeback + $50 of cleared bonus, my original $500 bankroll is now over $1000 over 3800 hands. I havent posted many hand histories so heres a couple that grabbed my attention. Nothing too spectacular but something for me to babble on about....


$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 players
http://weaktight.com/93422

Stacks:

UTG		($9.10)
Hero		($66.25)
BTN		($49.20)
SB		($31.80)
BB		($108.87)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is CO

UTG goes all-in $9.1, Hero calls $9.1, BTN raises to $20.7, 2 folds, Hero goes all-in $66.25, BTN goes all-in $28.5

Flop: ($134.4, 3 players)

Turn: ($134.4, 3 players)

River: ($134.4, 3 players)
BTN shows:
UTG shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $121.8 ( won +$46.45 )
BTN lost -$49.20
UTG lost -$9.10

**The key part in this hand was the call of UTG's bet. He was short stacked having only $9.10. The guy to my left had been active 3 betting. The last thing I want is a 5 way pot with KK but with such a large opening UTG raise I made the assumption that the blinds would not be a part of this hand. I called the bet hoping that villain to the left of me would reraise as he did. To be fair he did have a decent hand but me reraising preflop might have made him lay down. I do not advocate slow playing large pairs but stacksizes and the read on the player to my left dictated that I could win a larger stack by doing this. Again nothing too spectacular in this hand but this highlights something that a lot of players miss. That is to take you time with decisions and look at ALL components of the hand including stacksizes.


$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
http://weaktight.com/93425

Stacks:

UTG		($59.20)
UTG+1		($87.50)
Hero		($56.30)
BTN		($87.60)
SB		($13.22)
BB		($91.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is CO

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $2.5, Hero calls $2.5, 1 fold, SB calls $2.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($8, 3 players)
SB checks, UTG+1 bets $3.5, Hero calls $3.5, SB folds

Turn: ($15, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets $4, Hero calls $4

River: ($23, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets $5, Hero calls $5

Final Pot: $33
UTG+1 shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $30.85 ( won +$15.85 )
SB lost -$2.50
UTG+1 lost -$15.00

My thought process in this hand changes as we move through the different streets. my preflop call is standard hoping UTG +1 has a decent hand and if I hit my set I will be in position to take a decent size of his stack. The Small Blind also comes along for the ride. The flop gives me a gutshot straight draw. My notes show UTG+1 continuation bets a lot so I am not giving his less than half pot bet much credit here. This looks like a steal. I think a big pair would have raised more so I call to re-evaluate on the turn. The 2 is a good card for me giving me an open ended straight draw (OESD). I have to think atleast one of my outs are gone as he could easily be holding on of the Aces. A very weak bet of $4 into a pot of $15. I could have reraised him here but with position I wanted to see another card to see if i could get a lock on the hand. The Q is not the best card for me now. QQ,AQ,KQ,QJ are all possible. QQ is unlikely as I would have seen heavier betting and QJ is a little weak to be raising UTG +1 from this player. His bets of $5 into a pot of $23 said to me that he wanted to be called. Here is where my game has changed from previous years. In my beginning years of playing cards I would have called as all i would have seen was a small bet. In my middle stages of learning I would have folded as I thought that was a bet intended for me to call and he must have a Q. In my present state I thought of other hands that he could be doing this with. This included other over pairs but also more importantly AK. Other over pairs 77-JJ would be scared of higher cards to come and would have put some more pressure on each street by betting more. That didnt add up. AK made sense when looking at the weak bets that had been made. It was $5 to win $28. I had to be right just 1 in 5.5 times to breakeven. With a good chance he held AK i made the call.


Dont rush hands, especially when things dont add up. step through what you have seen and think of hands that fit in. dont just think of the hands that beat you but the ones that also missed. This is a lot easier to play in position.

Good luck
Ryver

StarCity Tournament and Online Update

I played in the $100,000 tournament ($350 + $25) buy in tournament at Star City Casino on Monday. It was a public holiday and it started at midday. 260 runners + 30 or so reserves. First prize was around $30,000



I got off to a great start finding Aces in early position. My raise got one caller. I bet out on an Ace high flop and got reraised. No need to slowplay this as im out of position and he has hit something. I correctly put him on AK and me push all in was called. Nice double up for me. I got AA again in the next hour, unfortunately no action. I make a few steals over the next few blind levels but had no hands of note. 120 players left after 4 hours of play. I again picked up AA, this time on the button. I raised an early position bet and was called. A raggy flop with 2 hearts caem and villain pushed the rest of his chips in on an overbet. I called and he flipped KhJh for a flush draw. This put me back to just over the average approx 13k.



A few orbits later and I get dealt JJ in early position. Blinds are 500/1000 so i bet 3000. Everyone folds to the button who has slightly larger stack and stares me down for ages. He plays with chips, counts a bet, recounts, thinks, stares then reraises minimum....



My thought process here. The only hands i have shown all tournament are 3 x AA and 1 x KK. I have been playing super tight and this guy knows it. That alone says he may have a monster hand. He has not played any hands out of line and seems a reasonably good player. His minreraise is not showing signs of wanting me to fold. There is 8000 in the pot, 3000 for me to call. I have 9000 left. There is no set value and a call makes me pot committed so I either reraise all in or fold. A reraise would mean he would then need to call 6000 into a pot of 17000 so I dont have much fold equity.



If im up against AK or AQ im just over a coinflip. Im a 4-1 dog vs AA,KK,QQ. What other hands can i reasonably put him on ?



I make the fold and he turns over 88.



Im still trying to work out if this was good play on his part or a loose play. Im still not sure. If he knew how i was thinking then its good play. If he likes his 88 then its bad play.



a few orbits later im getting short, card dead. blinds are 750/1500 and i have 7700 left. With an M of 3.5 I push with the best hand i can find preflop before the big blind gets to me. I am utg+1 and see 9 10 offsuit. I get called by KQ and QQ. QQ holds up im out around the 50ish mark. Should i have waited for the blinds ? questionable but I believe I made the right decision.



Online has been fun. I continue to make a steady upward progress.











Ive played 3000 hands of .25/.50 and 700 hands of .50/1. My PT Stats are 20/11/3.3 I would prefer to have the pfr higher but i keep finding reasons to limp in on the button or complete the small blind with low hands as there are usually 4-5 callers pf and noone can lay down top pair giving my 2p pair + great odds. This will change as I climb the ladder. I have cleared $50 of bonues + $47 of rakeback so my $500 deposit is now at $962. Not a bad start.I hope i am not sitting on the right side of variance. I have been dealt a few beats and can only remember one suckout that I gave so I think I am doing ok.

I see from my counter that people are reading this blog. I hope I can add some juicy content and interesting hand situations. For those people out there with no rakeback pls go get some. It makes a HUGE difference on your bankroll and you are giving money away for free if you dont have it. sign up at http://www.rakeupdate.com/signup/ryverrat

Good luck
Ryver

A Fish called Paranoia

I sat down at 2x $0.50/$1 tables. I had played a few orbits and hadnt noticed anything too untoward. I didn't have many stats on anyone when the following hand came up.

$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

UTG	TJHOOKER65	($112.00)
UTG+1	LAURELB	($14.50)
CO	BRANDON77	($16.80)
BTN	Hero	($111.30)
SB	ROLLIN60	($76.36)
BB	RYAN_454545	($94.00)

Pre-flop: ($1.5, 6 players) Hero is BTN

TJHOOKER65 calls $1, LAURELB calls $1, 1 fold, Hero raises to $5, ROLLIN60 calls $4.5, 1 fold, TJHOOKER65 raises to $10, LAURELB goes all-in $14.5, Hero raises to $35, ROLLIN60 folds, TJHOOKER65 goes all-in $112, Hero goes all-in $76.3

Flop: ($254.8, 3 players)

Turn: ($254.8, 3 players)

River: ($254.8, 3 players)
Hero shows:
TJHOOKER65 shows:
LAURELB shows:

TJHOOKER65 wins $240.3 ( won +$118.3 )
Hero lost -$111.30
ROLLIN60 lost -$5.00
LAURELB lost -$15.50



I consider myself a level headed person in control of most emotions and understnad that bad hands will win sometimes, bad beats happen and decisions are the key to the game not results. BUT! wtf was this ? My mind started racing to all the recent allegations of cheating at Absolute Poker (AP) and Ultimate Bet (UB). How the heck can this guy min reraise out of position (OOP) and then push all in to a decent size rereraise with 67o ? He must have been able to know what cards were coming on the flop. I reload and start firing out questions. Not in a bad loser way but to try to get some conversation. This was for 2 reasons. Firstly i admit i was feeling tilt and couldnt just let that hand go, secondly i wanted to understand if this player was just a REALLY bad player sitting there with a nice stack. Well no response from villain but i did get a bit of grief from another player for so called crying at the table. Haha. I planned to start my own investigation on this player. track his stats, expose another maybe cheater. PARANOIA sets in deep...

Then a lucky break happened 13 hands later....

$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

UTG		($34.90)
UTG+1		($14.00)
Hero		($92.00)
BTN		($49.21)
SB		($191.10)
BB		($245.20)

Pre-flop: ($1.5, 6 players) Hero is CO

2 folds, Hero raises to $4, 2 folds, BB raises to $8, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($16.5, 2 players)
BB bets $15, Hero raises to $40, BB raises to $165, Hero goes all-in $44

Turn: ($265.5, 2 players)

River: ($265.5, 2 players)

Final Pot: $184.50
BB shows:
Hero shows:

BB wins $81 ( lost -$92 )
Hero wins $181 ( won +$89 )



Ha. Unlucky cheating player. This doused my paranoid flames for a bit as I reclaimed some cash.

4 hands later this happened

$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

UTG		($190.60)
UTG+1		($157.30)
CO		($31.90)
BTN		($14.85)
Hero		($180.00)
BB		($47.21)

Pre-flop: ($1.5, 6 players) Hero is SB

UTG raises to $4, UTG+1 calls $4, 1 fold, BTN calls $4, Hero raises to $20.5, 1 fold, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $16.5, BTN goes all-in $10.85

Flop: ($60.85, 3 players)
Hero bets $45, UTG+1 calls $45

Turn: ($150.85, 3 players)
Hero bets $107, UTG+1 goes all-in $91.8

River: ($349.65, 3 players)
BTN shows:
Hero shows:
UTG+1 shows:

Hero wins $346.15 ( won +$173.65 )
BTN lost -$14.85
UTG lost -$4.00
UTG+1 lost -$157.30



OMG! how wrong was I. T5 offsuit calling a large preflop raise and going all the way with middle pair crap kicker. Unfortunately clever cheating player that i understand wouldnt have a clue how to cheat has just stacked off all his cash to me.

Dont take everything at face value. I should have controlled that emotional response in me and looked at all the options. Cheating ? Bad player ? Drunk ? likes conectors preflop ? my new ATM ? I been playing this game for a few years now and am a little concerned that I got so easily troubled. That could have easily taken me on a bad run where i was desperate to get it back but the thought of cheating made me play a little conservative for that short period of time.

Im not paranoid... hmm... or was he just covering his tracks by paying me back when I mentioned in the chat the possibility of cheat accounts ????