I’m only talking about NLHE in tournament format… Other games are similar, but the subtle differences are critical, and you’re right to point out that they can change things, but I don’t have enough experience with them to comment meaningfully beyond that. I think you make a great point about pot-building making some sense for PL games.
As great as my week was last week, this week is shaping up to be absolutely terrible. Now 2-9 on the week, that’s:
| Wins - losses | 2 - 9 |
|---|---|
| ITM% | 18% |
| Wins | 2 |
| 2nd place | 0 |
| 3rd place | 0 |
| 4th | 0 |
| 5th | 3 |
| 6th | 2 |
| 7th | 3 |
| 8th | 1 |
| 9th | 0 |
Most of my exits coming from ridiculous hands.
This most recent one:
I’m dealt QQ in early position, UTG+1, raise from 40 to 200, the table folds around to the blinds, who both call. Flop 227, the BB lets out a pot-sized bet, and I’m thinking no way do they have a 2 here, so I raise them, they call. OK, you have a 7. Maybe 77. Maybe 22. Fine, I’ll kill myself to see them. I end up all-in, and they have K2. Called a 5BB raise with K2.
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Earlier tonight, I’m at a table where the player behind me is playing a rather shove-heavy strategy, and the sick thing is it is working for him improbably well. He’s straight up stealing blinds, stealing flops, doesn’t matter, if there’s chips in the middle and he’s got a hand, he’s shoving it.
No one much likes it, but no one’s standing up to him. Eventually once or twice they do, but he ends up winning the hands.
Finally, he gets trapped, holding KT, flopping top pair Tens, against a player holding 88 who flopped a set. He calls the shove, and ends up hitting runner runner full house.
Just unbelievable luck in this guy’s run. Probably the best player to ever play the game.
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3rd hand at my first table of the day, Flopped a Q-high flush. Didn’t bet enough to dissuade 2-pair from continuing; they hit a full house on the Turn, and I put them on a higher flush but call anyway, just to get it over with because at that point, why bother going through the entire game when you know the deck is going to @#$@ on you like that the whole game.
I’m officially back on TILT this week.
This entire (@#&^ table, I get cards I can’t play, and hit monsters with them.
A6. You don’t ever play A6o, right. Not ever! Flop JKQ, river T for Broadway. Would have folded (“correctly”) to the big bet on the turn when the 2nd Q showed, up, but if I’d somehow played this to the river, could have chopped it with A9. A chop isn’t really worthwhile, but denying the winner a big pot like this while not losing any chips myself would have been OK.
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/511248741
77, I limp, hoping to hit a set. Flop comes 9QJ, someone could have a flush with KT or T8, I check until someone bets, I don’t call a min bet on the Turn with a 3rd spade appearing on the board. River is a 4th spade, really glad I didn’t have the guts to call a min raise on 77, the betting is still paltry but someone’s gotta have a spade here, sure enough someone does, the As3s for a 6-spade flush. Congratulations me on my fine fold.
34o, no one should ever play this right? Well, the 665 flop gives me an OESD, filled 3-7 on the Turn, a 4 comes on the river and someone else has 56 so would have beat my hand right from the flop, with a full house 66655. Ok, well I hit something but it was a mirage and a good decision not to play, even not knowing I would hit a straight.
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/511252048
K2o. Fold. Flop: KhTh6h, flush scare. One player bets and the table folds, so who knows. I wouldn’t have called with just top pair bottom kicker anyway.
85s, fold. “But they’re suited!” Flop 76T for a OESD. Hand closes on the flop, so no idea if I’d fill it. Probably not though; I hit OESDs on the flop the way double gutshot ISDs are supposed to fill up from the Turn.
QJs, raise, but not too much because I’m in early position and QJ really isn’t that great of a hand. I end up getting called by 4 players. The flop is 966, and the #9 finisher shoves, but no one calls him here. I dump on the flop when the board misses. I’m just a bad player; I can accept that.
…
Q6o, fold, flop bottom pair 6s. Huge betting goes on, no way I could have stayed in here even if I played the hand, river Q for two pair, would have won over JJ.
K5o, fold, flop AKK, river 5, full house (folded) over Ace-high flush.
Instead, I play cards that are in my range of playable cards (barely, so limping, trying to get into a hand, figuring hey I’ve hit so many flops I haven’t played, I HAVE to hit a flop when I DO play, DON’T I? No, no… that’s not how that works), and they ALWAYS miss the flop and I have to dump them.
So then I get a suited K4, and play it from middle position, sustain a small bet on the flop, which paired my 4, I see the King I hoped for on the Turn, I’m shortstacked and this is the best chance I’ve had all game on a hand that I’m actually still in on, so I go all in and am called, the player calling me had K7 for top two pair, and I’m out 7th. Because ##@@# me.
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Some people won’t fold middle pair no matter what, and about once in 300 hands you can actually exploit this.
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Flopped Straight improves to Straight Flush over Full House, both made on the river. Didn’t realize I won at first, all I could see was the boat.
This was ridiculous in a GOOD WAY.
2 Likes
I could post this in the League Discussion forum, but I’m not sure if I should since it’s long, and I’m not sure how @Badonkidonk wants us to use the forum thread.
I had my first game in the Grey Foals league, and did pretty well, coming in 5th, eliminated just on the bubble. My game ran great early, cooled down, but I was patient and held my chips, made it to the final table the #3 stack, and figured I would for sure money in this game, but it was not to be.
I played well, folded well, called well, value bet well, and only had really one disaster hand up until I went bust.
I started out self-handicapped by playing two games at the same time, as the Wednesday Night Disclosure league game is scheduled for the same time. Fortunately, this didn’t seem to hurt me any, as I did very well. Of course, it might have had something to do with the cards…
My first big hand of the game was on KQo, cracking GSOPhil’s Aces, on a 9-K straight. I flopped top pair, Kings, on a KTJ board, not realizing I was behind Phil’s AA, but liking my position and draw potential – I had 3 spades, and just needed a 9 to hit a straight, which came immediately on the Turn. If a Q hits this board, I get killed by Phil’s T-A straight, and I could have also been beaten by JJ or a set improving to a boat on the river. Quad Jacks was improbable enough that I didn’t worry about it, but I was a bit worried that I was about to exit early myself to a suck-out, but it was not Phil’s night and he was one of the first players eliminated. This win gave me a big stack advantage at my first table, and I held onto those chips very well through the first hour.
This was a big hand for me, flopping an A-high flush (spades) and getting action on the flop. A lot of the time when you flop a flush, it kills the action because everyone’s afraid of the flopped flush slow player. More recently, I’ve been seeing players betting more freely on flushed boards, either with two pair or sometimes even just a pair. Two pair is somewhat sensible since it can draw to a full house and turn the table against the flush player, which can be a disaster. A fourth spade hits the Turn, but I keep a player in all the way to the river, and got him to call me, taking in 5600 chips, which this early is huge. Considering the pot only stood at 400 chips on the flop, it’s incredible to me that it got bet up this much. I figure some other players had flush draws, hit them on the flop or Turn, and let go with lower cards.
The K and Q were on the board, so the next highest card anyone could have had here was the Js, which is a little surprising to see stand up in this hand. A pair of 3s hit the board with the river, so I could not have been up against a set here. But that possibility kept me from betting bigger. Not that I expected a bigger bet to get called anyway, except by a hand that could beat a nut flush.
KK, in the BB. I raise and get 1 call. The board worries me, it’s all low cards, a paired flop, 422, 3 on the turn. I’m betting and getting called, wondering if I’m about to get owned by some awful rag hand like 56 (straight), 24 (full house) or worse. The river helps me out, a third K, giving me Kings-full of 2s, and I’m confident now that whatever I’ve been called with, unless it’s 22, I’m beating it now. I layed out what I felt was a decent value bet, hoping maybe I’ll get raised, but I just get a call. It’s good for 3300 chips, though, and puts me up close to the top of the leaderboard.
66 in middle position. I limp, looking to set mine or cheaply get off the hand. The flop doesn’t hit me, but it gives me an ISD, 234, and I figure doesn’t hit anyone else’s range, except maybe giving Ax a wheel draw, and I don’t really put anyone on a weak Ace here, although there could be. With an overpair to the board, I don’t worry about missing the ISD if it doesn’t hit, although I’m hoping for a 5 more than a third 6 once I see the flop, and I’m comfortable calling most bets here. The table stays 5-handed to the river, which finally brings me the 5 that fills me up with Straight 2-6. No pair, no flush, and unless someone’s playing 67 here, I have the nuts, and I’m hoping that someone held an Ace here, now, because they’ll think their Wheel they just made is tops, and forget that Straight 2-6 is a no-name hand, but beats theirs. I get a call to my 1/2 pot value bet, and take the hand, happy and believing that I was right and my caller held an Ace.
At the hour break, just 9 of the 27 players had gotten knocked out, and I came back from the break with QT, in late position, tried to steal the blinds with a 2BB raise, tried again on the turn, got called instead, and lost a big hand. I picked the wrong time to try to steal, elanoftroy called my bets with K9, flopped A9A, didn’t face pressure to fold the 2 pair in the face of an implied Ace, I read her check as a miss, and tried to bet her off again on the Turn when the 2nd 9 came, thinking the threat of the boat would surely get a fold, but the turn 9 fill up her boat, and she took 6000 chips from me, about 1/3 of my stack. I didn’t have to try to play this hand, and QT wasn’t that great of a hand to play, so this was just all-around bad play, and I paid for it pretty bad.
I lose another 5000 chips over the next couple orbits, trying to up my aggression to get back what I lost, and now I’m feeling despondent, desperate and mad at myself for trying that blind steal after the break, throwing away all those chips. That’s when I get 99, on the button. Blinds are already kinda pricey, at 400/800, and I don’t want to put myself at too great risk here, I had had my disaster hand and chopped myself in half trying to build my stack higher. Here, I am fortunate to hit my set of 9s, the board pairs on the Turn, giving me a full house, and the river fills a straight for my opponent, making this a perfect hand for me, and I knock out hrc54, pulling back 13,000 chips to put me back up to 15000, nearly doubling me up, and putting me back into the top end of the leaderboard. This really turned my game around.
AQs, in the CO. I raise 3BB, getting called by the big stack, XPusher32. The flop is dry and we both check, a 4 hits the river, I reason that I might be able to steal here, and put in a bet, but am called. I check the river, and XPusher lets out a 1/4 pot bet, and I consider folding, but decide to call, and am rewarded, he’s bluffing with J2, lacking an A or 6 to make a baby straight, I guessed right and won the hand with A-kicker to the 4s on the board. I take a big pot to keep healthy, very important now that the blinds are getting ever bigger. A pot sized bet or shove would have been harder to call here, so I’m glad he didn’t try that.
That’s pretty much it for me. I folded a lot to get deeper into the tournament, and the 2nd hour had a couple of pretty cold stretches where I could do nothing. Once at the final table, I had one chance to get in on a big hand, which I’d been thinking I’d play, holding A5o in the BB, hoping I could at least limp, but instead a bunch of betting happened, a couple players were all-in, and I knew I would be too if I came in, and I didn’t want to get KO’d here, hoping instead I’d see 2 KO’d and that would put me past the bubble. If I’d stayed in, I would have hit trip Aces right on the flop, could have shoved right there, but most likely would have just called any bet. The turn paired the board again with 4s, which would have given me a full house, and the nuts. Whamm ends up taking the hand with QQ over KJo, knocking out elanoftroy, who was nice to me when I was down over my disaster hand in the mid-game and tried to give me encouragement to stay positive, and it helped. This hand ended up giving @whamm the dominant stack which he used to win the whole game, and if I’d played here, I could be talking about how I made a daring call and lucked out to take a huge pot that put me in the driver’s seat at the final table. But I feel like I got this deep in the tournament by not playing big pots for high risk-high reward, so I’m ok with how it ended up.
My last big hand that I was in and won also came with A5o, making a pair of Aces on the river. A pretty scary flop here, 769, followed by a Turn 6, could have been straight potential for somone, or given them trip 6s, and I still didn’t have anything, so even a paired low card could have beaten me here. When the Ace hit, I felt like if I was going to lose this hand to a better hand, I’d pay to see it, and it turned out I had the best hand, and ended up doubling up.
I thought this might keep me alive through the bubble, but it was not to be.I ended up going out on KJ, in the SB, I tried to bet the big stack off of the BB, but any size bet I could have made likely wouldn’t have done it. He had me very covered and could have doubled me up and still kept hte big stack. I hit top pair, Jacks, and feel good here, and am half-in already, so shove, and he snap calls, having hit a set of 3s, and there goes my dreams of taking chips out of this tournament.
LOL - the chat makes me think you had no idea you won this until they sent the chips your way. That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. Nice pot.
BTW, its ok to raise the flop if the guy can’t fold top pair (he can’t). You’re getting your chips in there at some point if he’ll oblige anyway. Turn is a bit scarier in this case but still not folding the straight with those stacks left.
I had a weird night of T7o being priced in and turning straights to ravage the table. Here’s 1 example of what happens when you have no fold equity left. Anyone raises a significant amount and I don’t see this flop: 511325860 (still can’t post direct links - sigh)
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Yes, well… I did think that I had just gotten beat by a full house. It didn’t register that that river Jc was the club, or that that was the one I needed to fill the straight flush until after I hit enter on the chat. I of course saw that I had the draw to it on the flop, and that was something that was in my mind when I decided to play the hand, but I didn’t actually expect to get it, and I was already worried about the straight getting beat with the pair of Queens on the table.
I think this is now just the 5th or 6th straight flush that I’ve had. Two royal flushes, two K-9 straight flush, this Q-high, and one J-high. They’re pretty hard to beat.
Re: Hand #511325860 - Replay Poker
Good job on that hand, KOing 3 with the T7 filling the straight. You did good. It’s clear why the small stacks were all-in preflop, and why the other player in the hand called you with their 2-pair. That was a perfect setup for you to clear half the table. I love hands like that.
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Going to sleep after this hand 
Stack was cut in half by a turn .- river bad beat some hands before. Tripled up from 800 then lost Aces.
sh1t happ3ns
Hand #511340807 · Replay Poker >> 800 to Aces
The call there is purely a consideration of stack sizes, although, I really have to say it’s questionable that a 16:3 advantage is enough to call that wide with that many still seated at the table. That’s a pretty sick beat, man, my sympathies.
1 Like
hahaha It’s fine, got a good pot earlier Hand #511323889 · Replay Poker (I’m holding J’s), so just going to leave it till tomorrow because that was really the groundshaking tilting one. Peace Any thoughts on that one, if I could have played it better maybe I think a bigger raise on flop but wanted as many people to call that.
Hmm, well I think you did pretty good on that one. As I was watching it, I was thinking you were on Q9 for a flopped straight, but the JJ is even better once the board pairs. I think you did great keeping everyone in until you shoved on the river, which is what you should have obviously done in this hand. The bet sizing is excellent – you built it up gradually and at just the right rate to get calls. Min-bet on the flop, building it up so that when you lay in the 10K bet on the Turn, it’s “only” a 30% pot bet, and the bigger stacks are all comfortable here, having you well covered. Then for the river, your shove isn’t so scary because it’s less than the size of the pot. You lucked out that the river 7 hit Johnny_Boy’s hand to make him a straight, or else he’s surely folding here, but even if you did see him fold here, you got him as far as the Turn on just 59 chasing a OESD. I think if you bet 2BB on the flop, the pot builds to where you’re close enough to shoving on the Turn that you probably do it there, and then he can’t call a bet that big on an unmade hand, and lays it down, costing you more than you would have gotten if you’d gotten an extra BB out of the two players who folded. So to me this is pretty much the best you could have hoped for.
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Raise bigger pre. Calling stations every where as you can see (Johnny calls with 59s, etc.) you need some protection, raise it to 4000/4500, also knowing you’re UTG+1.
Flop : the sizing is not very good. Ok, you got a great hand, but you need some protection here, because everyone is going to call a gutshot here (with a 9 or Q), I know that. So take profit of that, if a 9 or a Q gets there turn, your hand will be dead, and you’ll be sad for not having bet more on the flop, to get some kind of protection against these weak gutshot hands. I would say go around 8-9k here, you have to value your hand, while protecting it.
Turn : best card you can hope for almost. Here I would say just value value value, keep this gutshot hands in the game, bet small, something around 30% is good, you can even go less (due to my flop sizing), even if it doesn’t really make sense, small bets work good here on replay
Then you should thinking about shoving gently river, like you did.
Nice hand, nice pot, and wondering why Johnny is ranked 600th ? Pre flop… oh god, on the flop well ok, and turn even worse… It makes me sad, but I’m happy for you.
VF
why are we limping on the button with 8 high off 15 bb stack
may still not be big enough
the sizing is atrocious
should be betting 3/4 to pot in this super multiway pot, not for protection though… get that value. Sure it’s nice to charge draws, but these guys aren’t folding them anyway so give a bad price and get paid in the process. 8-9K is not enough, it does give them bad odds to call, even with open enders (9’s) but if they’re calling 8-9K they’ll call 20K and this gives us an easy pot size shove on the turn where we don’t get to the river having their draws bricked so they can fold. We want all of their chips and we should get em by the turn.
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Preflop:
Flop: Yes, I should’ve bet bigger for value (and protection as you say), I actually got so focus on making as many people call that totally forgot about OESD until turn.
Turn: I think this bet was good after bad move on flop becouse it still gives any Trips and OESD good odds, so 10k, maybe 30k if I had bet bigger on flop.
River: Value, value, value.
Thank you for feedback, I see that hand could’ve been played better.
You’re right, personally I wouldn’t have bet 8-9k lol, I would bet more like 90% but that’s how I play, depends on my opponents though… IMO it depends on what your general line is, but yeah, I didn’t write that in my reply it’s true!
And yes of course for value, we all get that when we see our top set lol, but why do we bet so big here especially on Replay, for some kind of protection, same goes for our pre-flop sizing …What would you go for pre-flop Dayman, 5-6k? Difficult to say though 
I wouldn’t shove turn though, give them that last free juicy card, you have the best hand 99% of the time anyway. But I understand that you’re saying that in general.
No problem Lorentito, by the way, if I can give you one last tip :" you have to value your hand, while protecting it". Be careful, Replay is so dangerous when it comes to protection 
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I always start with 3.5x + 1 for every limper. If I’m on a call happy table though where we’re going 5-7 to the flop I will increase up to 10-12 x opening no problem to get that down to HU or 3 way. If 10-12 is not enough to decrease the callers then your only option really is to tighten up to a more linear range and just value them to death while also over limping spec hands like small to mid pp’s and sc’s and own them when you flop big.
We turn top full house and our hand is not vulnerable at all as far losing this pot goes but we can see a lot of scare cards that shut down our opponents desire to call down as well as rivers that miss our opponents draws and then they won’t put anymore chips in the pot. These guys aren’t folding big draws so we have to get the chips in the pot while they still have them before the river card comes off the deck.
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