Santa Barbara, Spring Break

Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Last weekend all the CR guys met up in Santa Barbara to get some work done and party at Brian's place. His house was so sick and we had a blast out there. The content we made turned out really well too, CR members will be pleased.

I've been playing a lot the past week or so and doing really well in NL but running horrible in PLO. I feel like I've got a strong edge in the games I'm playing in but have just been getting crushed in all the big pots. I've been mixing up playing short and full depending on the lineup and how deep certain players are. In the five biggest pots of the past week I've gotten my money in pretty good so hopefully this will turn around soon. Sorry if this sounds like whining but I'm probably due for a vent after this session.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2164724

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2164727

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2164731

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2164731

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2164736

Anyways enough of that, I'm still having a good year at the tables and am grateful for that. I'm having a lot of fun in Virginia right now too, life is good.

Next week is our Spring Break and a bunch of us are going to Ft Myers, Florida where we rented a beach house. It should be a nice relaxing week and we're going to hit up a Miami Heat game (they play the Raptors early in the week, if anyone can hook up good seats let me know please!). This week everyone has midterms and stuff so I think I may try to book a flight to Tahoe for tomorrow and snowboard for a few days? If anyone wants to go let me know.

I'll throw a little poker content here from a heads up session as well.

A few days ago I was playing 25/50NL heads up against a player who was taking a shot, and was a regular in the 10/20HU games. I had been beating up on him generally this session and he appeared to be scared money.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 3: Hero ($8,195.50) - -
Seat 6: Villain 2 ($5,844.50) -


PRE-FLOP:

Hero posts small blind $25
Villain 2 posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: Hero


RAISE Hero ($150)
CALL Villain 2 ($100)


FLOP:

Pot: $300


CHECK Villain 2
BET Hero ($265)
RAISE Villain 2 ($700)
CALL Hero ($435)


TURN:

Pot: $1700


BET Villain 2 ($1021)
CALL Hero ($1021)


RIVER:

Pot: $3742


CHECK Villain 2
CHECK Hero


SHOWDOWN:
Villain 2:

Hero:


Hero collected $3741.5 from main pot with two pair, Aces and Sevens

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $3 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 3: Hero small blind showed [As 6d] and won 3,741.50 with two pair, Aces and Sevens - Net Gain/Loss: ($1870.5)
Seat 4: Villain 1 is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: Villain 2 big blind showed [9s Qd] and lost with a pair of Sevens - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1871)

I thought this was an interesting hand mainly because of the type of player it was against. When playing someone who is taking a shot, they are probably going to be playing slightly low variance styles and be more hesitant to make big bluffs. Against this type of player I definitely don't want to get top and bottom in on the flop because he's unlikely to play many hands that I do well against equity-wise quick on the flop. So I peel one off and we see the turn. The turn puts out the four flush and he fires again. It's basically mandatory for him to fire the turn if he was bluffing the flop, but against a good player who is going to bluff the river an optimal amount, calling the turn can be a pretty thin spot. However against someone who is scared money and not likely to follow through on a river bluff, we'll usually be able to check it down on the river if he was bluffing. Additionally everyone thinks I'm a station and it sure looks like I have a flush, so a river bluff in his spot is going to be pretty ballsy. If the river brings a fourth heart I'm going to bet to avoid chops.

The concept of playing the same hand different ways against different playing styles is an interesting one though and something you should incorporate into your game. Here's basically the exact same hand that I played completely differently against a very very tough aggressive player last week:

Seat 1: Villain 1 ($6,035) Sitting Out
Seat 2: Villain 2 ($3,967.50) -
Seat 3: Villain 3 ($5,214)
Seat 4: Hero ($4,925) -
Seat 5: Villain 4 ($11,621) -
Seat 6: Villain 5 ($5,000) Sitting Out


PRE-FLOP:

Villain 4 posts small blind $25
Villain 2 posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: Hero


FOLD Villain 3
RAISE Hero ($175)
CALL Villain 4 ($150)
FOLD Villain 2


FLOP:

Pot: $400


CHECK Villain 4
BET Hero ($350)
RAISE Villain 4 ($1250)
RAISE Hero ($4750)
CALL Villain 4 ($3500)


TURN:

Pot: $9900




RIVER:

Pot: $9900




SHOWDOWN:
Hero:

Villain 4:


Hero collected $9898 from main pot with a full house, Aces full of Sixes

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $9 Rake: $2

Final Board:


Seat 1: Villain 1 is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: Villain 2 big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 3: Villain 3 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: Hero button showed [As 6c] and won 9,898 with a full house, Aces full of Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($4973)
Seat 5: Villain 4 small blind showed [Kh Ac] and lost with three of a kind, Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($-4925)

Seat 6: Villain 5 is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)

Good luck at the tables,

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

Life is Good

Date: Tue, Feb 12, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Martin and I had a great tour through Thailand. After Samui we hit Krabi for a few days and then went to Railay Island for a rock climbing course. It was really intense private training with Martin and I and our coach "Nut." His name was fitting as he was absolutely insane, but a really nice and fun guy. I'll narrate some of the trip through pics

Playing some guitar on the way to Railay. Martin's really good at anything musical -- I have no guitar experience but played the drums for a few years back in middle school.

Railay Beach. Sickest beach I've ever been to, the water/sand/mountains are just awesome. Felt like being in a postcard.

Martin towards the end of a top rope climb.

Our coach, Nut.

On our "take it easy" day Nut decides to take us on some walk through a cave to a cliff. It felt like we were in that Brendan Frasier movie The Mummy and was pretty scary.

After a 30 minute hike through a pitch black cave we finally get to this awesome view at the top of a really high cliff. Nut then informs us we are repelling down this cliff...

Martin and I doing some more lead and multipitch climbing

Martin and I playing some drinking WAR -- note the thin value, my J beats his T, my trey beats his deuce

Anyways the Thailand trip lasted about two weeks and was awesome. We had a great time rock climbing and it really let me clear my mind. Martin (high stakes player alexeimartov, MagicNinja) is a great travel buddy and has been all over, I'm sure we'll find a new adventure sometime soon.

After two weeks I was a little homesick and ready to see my friends, girlfriend, and family, so I hopped a flight back to Virginia. I've been here for two weeks now and it's been great to be home.

After a nice break from poker I've ramped up my playing and have been hitting the tables very hard the past week. The results have been great, I'm running hot and feel like I'm playing some of the best poker I've ever played. In PLO I've been a bit too sloppy with my game selection and am stuck $62,000 but at 200/400 blinds this is just a blip. I'm really stoked that gordo has joined team CardRunners. He's an awesome PLO players and I can't wait to watch his vids. NL however I've been crushing. There has been the occasional bigger action but I'm really proud of the amount I have taken out of the 25/50 games this year. I've been playing a bit of heads up against Phil Ivey lately too which is always fun and a challenge due to his unique style. 2008 NLHE:

Running well in all aspects of life and having a lot of fun -- hope ya'll are too,

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

Travel!

Date: Fri, Jan 25, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

---rigged, the pics come up in my Edit Blog screen, but arent showing up correctly, ideas?

---edit: ok they work if you click on the "View/Add Comments" at the bottom of the entry, so do this if you want to see all the pics

The past few weeks have been really crazy and a lot of fun as I've been traveling a ton and playing some live tourneys. For New Years, a bunch of friends from college and I hit up NYC for a party or two we had tickets to and it was a blast. One of our friends' parents had a really sick apartment in the city, here's a picture of the view

Right after New Years I was on my way to Bahamas for the PokerStars PCA event. I went last year and had a pretty good but not great time, but this year was awesome. I busted like 200th out of 1200 in the event which was kind of lame because I had to play for a day and a half and didn't cash, but it happens. I barely did any poker related stuff the whole time and focused on having a fun vacation. Dave (raptor, Aeron73) and I brought our girlfriends and did a bunch of fun stuff together like swimming with the dolphins, renting a boat and boozing around the ocean, and eating Nobu every night. Here's a picture from the last night of Nobu -- Peter (apathy), me, Brian (chuddo), Todd (bigt)

Despite only eight people at this dinner, we managed to pile up a bill of close to $6k; Dave lost credit card roullette as usual.

I flew home from the Bahamas for one or two days in Williamsburg before heading back out on the road to Melbourne, Australia for the Aussie Millions tourney. I'd never been to Australia before but my friend Martin (CloseUrEyes, alexeimartov) lives in Melbourne so I was looking forward to meeting up with him again. The airlines lost my luggage so I was semitilting and decided not to play the tourney, but to get some hands in online and explore Melbourne a bit. Actually I've been getting owned hard by the airlines lately, on the way to PCA I had three flights cancelled and was a day late. Anyways, Melbourne was a lot of fun and the city has a fun nightlife. There is a Nobu in the Crown Towers so I could keep my sushi addiction appeased. Rockpool was another great restaurant I'd recommend checking out.

Here I'm about to read Leon's (yvesaint) soul in a game of rock paper scissors.

When Martin and I were living at Commerce in LA together a year or so ago we were on a pretty steady Dom diet, we've both gotten a lot more responsible with money, but it had been a while so we ordered our standard Dom + caviar + french fries before going out on the last night.

On my last day in Melbourne I was supposed to fly back to Virginia to start back up school. I've been out of school for a year and a half now and have three semesters left. Last fall I spent my time living in an offcampus apartment, seeing all my college friends, but taking no classes and doing plenty of traveling and poker playing. It's definitely been the most fun six months or so of my life. I had been manufacturing reasons to get back into classes but at the last minute I decided I'd be happier doing what I did last semester so I decided not to go back to school yet. I needed some time to clear my mind, and I decided this all in the limo on the way to the airport with Martin, so we just booked the next flight out of Melbourne and were happy to end up anywhere. The soonest flight was to Bangkok so we flew there and then picked up another random flight to a Thai island, Samui. The travel agent thought we were insane:

Me on the beach in Samui in zombie mode after two straight days of travel and five hours of sleep in the past three days.

Out to lunch and playing some Chinese poker
Martin and I shooting some guns at a random ghetto gun range



There are worse places to play online thats for sure....

So that's what I've been up to. We're still in Samui at the moment and I'm about to go for a dip in the ocean. The weather is great, the people are very nice, it's a really relaxing atmosphere here. Poker has been swingy but good lately and I'm running hot in life for sure. I've got a bunch of fun hands and some more pics that I'll post later.

gl

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

2008!

Date: Thu, Jan 3, 2008 Professional Internet Live Tournament

I've been so busy lately traveling, enjoying the holidays, and getting some poker in, sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a really fun month though!

Right after my last blog I caught the flight to Prague and met up with Alec (aka traheho). I didn't really know what to expect from Prague and to be honest I kind of figured it was going to be like.... well, Bratislava from Eurotrip if any of ya'll have seen that movie (and if you haven't, do yourself a favor, stop reading, and go rent it). I was horribly wrong, the city was awesome. It was one of the best poker trips I've had.

I'll get the tourney stuff out of the way first I guess -- there were several events I was thinking of playing but I ended up only playing the big one, 5k euro, and busted in like level three after losing a couple of coinflips. Meh. Alec made it to day two with a huge stack but bluffed it all off before the bubble. The city was so much fun though that we didn't end up playing any other live poker.

The weather was chilly but not unbearably cold the whole time, and you could tell everyone in the city was really happy about Christmas. Our hotel had a 30" Christmas tree in the lobby, there were lights hanging on every corner in town, and extravagant decorations in the town square.

We met up with a bunch of Dutch players the first night and ended up hitting a bunch of the clubs with them every night. Our schedule was pretty screwed up, we'd wake up at 6pm or so, get dinner and drinks, go out and enjoy the town square at night, and then hit the clubs till 5:30am or so when they closed. This worked out perfectly since our hotel buffet breakfast opened at 6am so we'd come back hammered, eat breakfast, and gamble playing Chinese poker with each other till 10am or so before passing out and repeating. It was awesome. Alec and I had both played harrydebeng a lot on Full Tilt so it was cool to meet and hang with him, he is pretty massively degen, extremely fun, and at least 50% insane.

town square

alec about halfway through a bottle of wine, several shots of absinthe, and some beers at dinner before hitting the clubs

alec, the dutchies, and i grabbing some beers and at 6am breakfast after a long night at the clubs-- to the right of the dutch guys was a huge poster of Noah Boeken that we moved over to have breakfast with us. the hotel didn't really like that

In the middle of our Prague trip Alec and I saw a 200/400nl game running on FTP and decided to sit -- the very first orbit we get 99 vs TT allin on a 976 flop and lose a 100k pot :( but after that we went on a sick rush and managed to book a 300k+ win on the night. Needless to say going to the bars after that was a lot of fun.

After Prague I was supposed to go to the Cardrunners Christmas party in Chicago, but my flight was delayed at the last minute so I couldn't make it out there. I'm a little pissed about it because I heard the party was ridiculous.

So instead of Chicago I hung out in Richmond and Williamsburg with a bunch of friends from high school. We rented a condo at Wintergreen for three days of snowboarding and had a blast out there. I hadn't been snowboarding in a while and I definitely want to get back into it. I wanted a good car for road trips so I picked up a Cadillac Escalade the other day. It fits 7 comfortably, has all the options, I like it a lot.

For New Years, ten of my college friends and I took the trip to New York City. My friend Conor managed to score us the most absurd apartment that a family friend owned -- the place was soooo luxurious, really big, and in a great location. We met up with my poker friends Jay (aka KRANTZ aka pr1nnyraid), Dave, and TJ and went to a private party at a bar called Royale that Jay managed to get us into. It was a lot of fun, open bar from 10pm till 4am, free food, etc. Definitely an awesome New Years celebration.

A bunch of people asked to see my poker setup after I posted about my new dual 53" lcds so here are some pics of my apartment. I've got my own 2 bedroom place at college, my bedroom is a wreck right now but here is the rest of the pad:

Now for a December poker report. High stakes went poorly. One of the very first sessions of my month I lost 65k or so at 100/200, and then I played a bit of 200/400plo and ran just lol losing every big pot, here were the only ones for stacks:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1888249 - flop , wtf?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1888252

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1888256

It's frustrating to run bad playing bigger, but I absolutely demolished 25/50nl this month (average players 3.1, don't go too crazy)

so with that, the good chopped session with trah, and a small 2/4 win vs Ziigmund yesterday, the month wasn't too bad and I managed to win somewhere between 100k and 200k. Can't complain really as winning a few of the nosebleed pots would have swung it into a pretty great month, and I did have a really good November. Also I don't really want to get into my private life here as I've learned a lesson or two from that, but I'm running great in life lately and having a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I leave for Bahamas for PCA, then right when I get back I'm going to Melbourne for Aussie Millions. Get at me if you're going to be at either of these tourneys and want to meet up. After Aussie, spring semester starts and I'm a student again for the first time in a while.

2007 was a great year. I've got a lot of things to look forward to in 2008. Happy New Years everyone.

-Cole

Read Full Blog Post

EPT

Date: Sat, Dec 8, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Hey guys, it's been a really busy week and I'm running late for a plane flight so don't have time to post a full blog right now. I'm on my way to Prague for the EPT with Alec (traheho), who's a good friend I haven't seen in a while, so it should be a fun trip. Let me know if any of ya'll are there!

gl

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

Macau Pt 2

Date: Mon, Nov 26, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Yesterday I played the $15k High Roller event in Macau. It got a really good turnout of 75 people or so I think and the structure was really awesome, with pretty deep stacks and shorterhanded than usual play. The field was pretty tough, but still some soft spots, for example one guy just called a 2x-pot river bet of mine on a 23456 board just to chop, lol donkaments. I busted out pretty quick though. I was on a nice little roll winning a few pots.

In the first one ElkY opened from the cutoff to 325 at 100/200 blinds and I repopped to 1250 from the small blind with KdTd and another 15,000 behind. We know each other and so even though we haven't played any pots we probably both think that the other one is going to be reraising light/bluffing a lot even though we respect each other's games. The flop came AKQr with backdoor diamonds. I thought a while and checked. He instabet 2200 and I called. The turn was an offsuit king giving me trips and I debated leading for a while but checked. He checked behind and I led 3100 on a deuce river. He called and mucked.

A few hands later the worst player at the table who has already been run over a bit opens four off the button for 300. I make it 1050 on the button with KTo and I can already see him steaming, so this is probably a bad spot. The flop comes 655 with a flush draw and he checks. I thought for a while, but it's hard to rep much here and he's frustrated so he definitely isn't folding any pair and maybe not ace high. I can probably fold out some pairs on any AQJ turn, bet T's for value, and check Ks for deception. So I checked behind and the river brought an ace. He checked and I instabet 1450. He thought for a while and at one point had all his chips in his hands like he was putting them in, but eventually mucked his nines face up.

Then I got all-in preflop against a somewhat shortstacked ElkY, my 99 vs his 88. Well, flop comes 8 high and I lose. A few hands later I busted when I bet/3-bet all-in KQhh on a 95h37h board vs a slowplayed 99 against a player who was making a lot of moves. Meh I think it was fine.

Can't complain because I've been doing really well playing cash since I've been here, up $125k online. I have been sticking to heads up NL, mostly at 25/50 and have had some sick sick matches. The biggest and craziest match I've played has lasted several days and a whopping 5,000 hands vs ChrisBG on Prima. I didn't think he was very good at the start but now it's clear he is a tough player, one of the better ones I've faced on Prima. We both play a super aggressive/crazy style and there have been some insane pots. The deck has been smacking him in the face and at one point he was up close to $50,000 on me. I've won most of it back and he's now up $9,000 or so. I'm confident in my edge in the match, but there are better spots out there, I'm not sure how much longer we will play. It seems like every hand is reraised and we have both ran some pretty crazy bluffs. Here are some of the big hands... edit -- ok this is a lot of hands, we played a long ass match

Starting with the ones I lose:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744077 I get sucked out on and coolered in a massive pot

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744079 Again extremely coolered with the second nuts in a huge pot

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744082 Cooler in this match

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744085 Definitely don't like his turn play but I manage to get it in near dead for more than 200bbs

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744088 With so many reraised pots there is a sick amount of (re)bluffing on the flop, I'm really happy to get it in here

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744092 lol

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744099 meh fine, see the QTo hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744101 pfft

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744103 pfftttt

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744104 cmon now

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744105 pretty surprised he didnt just raise/call the flop. with the speed he called the riv i was pretty sure i was beat but thought he'd be boated

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744106 tough game when you don't win with your flushes and sets

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744111 pretty thin/tilty call by me, doesn't pay off

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744115 tilt/probably bad play by me. thought i got him on the river at least, noooope

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744118 definitely thin, but he was tilting hard at this point and i am barely outpipped here

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744318 one time can my flush be good

Now the big pots I won,

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744120 standard, not sure what he had, he thought a while before calling though

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744125 combo draw beats his AA in a huge pot

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744132 nice riv =)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744134 my implied odds are pretty good with this hand so i usually don't cr the flop but gotta mix it up, hitting doesn't hurt

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744136 sooooo much bluffing on the flop between us in this match. AJ = the nuttssss here

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744140 i didnt need the turn card here he said but it almost helps just because it makes my line look bluffier. with these stacks you have to play this hand for pot control in a lot of matches on the flop. not with this one and the sick amount of bluffing going on.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744144 suckresuck

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744146 i like this line vs him

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744149 misclick pre sets it up for an easy big pot even though no money goes in on the flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744152 i get a set to hold

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744155 i'm not sure what he had here but i probably sucked out i would guess. with the amount of flop nonsense going on though i don't mind my play, the pot is huge by the time he bets the turn so i just hope he's priced in with a draw or 77 and jam

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744160 flopped the nuts

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744163 lol this hand is great. flop play for value of course

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744167 pretty thin play all around here

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744171 this hand is very sick. one of those ones where you first bet for value then realize that your bet probably just induced a bluff and maybe you should call

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744175 a big bluff in a 4-bet pot

basically so many pots were reraised it was just a bunch of floating and hoping you didn't run into a hand for both of us -- lots of this http://www.pokerhand.org/?1744259

Looking back through the big pots in PokerTracker I gotta say he does mix it up pretty well in reraised pots. He's been fun to play though and I respect his game for sure. Also I definitely don't mean to come off as complaining about running bad against him, I've been doing very well against basically everyone else and am enjoying poker a lot the past few days.

In Macau cash games have not been legalized yet but they have this mix between live and computer poker called Lightning Poker. It sounds kinda dumb but it's actually really, really fun. I definitely want to get one for my place back in VA.

I just finished ordering a bunch of free(ish) stuff from the FTP and Stars stores. From the FTP store I just got a ton of random stuff, the deluxe poker table, some ipods, etc. From Stars concierge I got another Samsung 52" LCD (I have one already, it's a really sick TV) so I can have two screens for sports/poker, a Nintendo Wii (yet to bowl a perfect game, score is still 276), and this chair.

Apparently Macau has the tallest bungie jump in the world so Alan (TheUsher), Travis (TravestyFund), Mike (timex), and I were going to try to hit it up today, trip report coming soon.

gl

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

Macau Trip Report

Date: Sat, Nov 24, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

It's 2PM in Macau now and I've had a fun past two days. The flight was really really long to get here, I arrived in Hong Kong at about 11pm and then took a taxi to the ferry and finally wound up in Macau around 1am. I was pretty jetlagged and didn't really feel like sleeping, plus I had to get up early to register for the APPT event in the morning so I decided I'd just stay up all night. This was probably a bad idea since the next day I had a poker tournament from noon to midnight. So I played poker all night, broke evenish, then left my hotel (Starworld Casino, very very nice hotel) to the casino where the APPT is being played, the Grand Waldo. Apparently counterfeit bills are a problem in China because they are really strict on the bills they accept and I'd say 30% of the currency I brought with me was rejected. But I had plenty to buy into yesterdays $2500 main event, the first poker tournament ever in Macau. There were 350 runners and I got in as the eighth alternate since I registered so late.

Describing the field... wow. I've played some big live tournaments before, but this was unreal. Everyone was so bad. Sosososo unreal bad. Out of the 350 players I barely recognized anyone -- I met up with Alan "TheUsher" Sass, Travis "TravestyFund" Rice, Van "Sirens", a few CardRunners members, and saw two or three big name live pros but other than that it was all amateurs. My table was especially soft and I thought I played very well. In the past I have been a bit too impatient in live tournaments and just have been upset with my play in general. Yesterday I played very precise, tightish, straightforward poker and was very pleased with myself. A lot of live poker is using your table image and knowing when you can steal or when the table is going to play back at you. I kept a pretty reasonable image the whole time, and during level 4 or so I showed down some big hands getting all-in preflop with ace king and stacking someone with a boat a few hands later. A few hands after the boat I had an interesting hand.

I had ran up a pretty big stack and had a tight image when some terrible donk opened in middle position for 1200 at 200/400/25 blinds. I made it 3100 when it was folded to me in the small blind with 5h3h. The big blind folded and the PFR SNAP called my reraise, literally instantly. I think he'd at least consider a decision before slowplaying a monster so at this point I put him on something like 66/98s/QJ. The flop came Kh 7c 3s, there was 6500 in the pot, and we had 11,000 behind. I checked, he bet 3000 and I checkraised all-in for the rest. He tanked tanked and tanked finally calling with KQ. I backdoored a flush to send him home and the table was pretty surprised about my play.

I think the play is good though especially with my image, his preflop range, and the fact that I have a whole 25% equity against KQ anyways. However live poker players are just dumb in general and seem to think a hand like this is the sickest beat ever. General other observations about live poker players -- they are clueless and never know the pot size so you can get away with betting huge for value and betting small on your bluffs, they don't understand how powerful ace-king is, well they just don't understand poker in general. There are certainly some good live players but as a whole, a live table is just so much softer than the online ones and it was a nice change of pace.

So after level 4 I had a large stack and kept it going picking up some small pots until level 9. We were set to play 10 levels in the day. I got moved to a new table early on in level 9 and the second hand I picked up KK in late position. Some European guy opens from middle position to 3000 at 500/1000/100 and I make it 8200. He starts whining about how he's potstuck and shoves his 12000 stack in with A3o. Board comes AAxxx and I lose a chunk. Very next hand I pick up QQ and get all-in preflop for a bigger pot against AK and lose the flip. Next hand I put money in preflop and on the flop with 8h8x vs AsTs and lose on a Qh5h3h7xAx board where he checked behind the river, lol. I don't pick up a hand for the rest of the level and so I'm pretty shortstacked going into level 10. Our resident 100vpip limps UTG at 600/1200/200 and I shove 16000 on the button with QTo when it's folded to me (ok?). The blinds fold and he snap calls with KQo and holds.

Meh? I was pleased with how I played and wasn't tilted or anything afterwards, to do well in tournaments you have to get pretty lucky. I finished 91st out of 350 I think. Kinda annoying to be in the poker room for 11hrs 45min and not get anything out of it though. I did like the experience and think I'm going to try to hit some more live tournaments soon -- maybe Prague, then Aussie Millions rather than PCA?

So last night I got back to my hotel room at 1am and was literally hallucenating/sleepwalking from having been up for two days straight. I crashed and woke up this morning to play a bunch of 25/50HU on Prima. It went really well and I won a bunch. Again sorry for the raw hand histories, does anyone know a Prima converter that works? Here were the biggest pots:

** Game ID 1733600549 starting - 2007-11-24 12:50:17
** Rich Kid [Hold 'em] (25.00|50.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- hallohallo2 sitting in seat 1 with $12454.87
- calibrat sitting in seat 2 with $8750.00 [Dealer]

calibrat posted the small blind - $25.00
hallohallo2 posted the big blind - $50.00
** Dealing card to hallohallo2: ,
calibrat raised - $175.00
hallohallo2 called - $175.00

** Dealing the flop: , ,
hallohallo2 checked
calibrat bet - $250.00
hallohallo2 raised - $1111.00
calibrat called - $1111.00

** Dealing the turn: , , ,
hallohallo2 bet - $2311.00
calibrat called - $2311.00

** Dealing the river: , , ,,
hallohallo2 went all-in - $8907.87
calibrat went all-in - $5178.00
hallohallo2 shows: ,
calibrat shows: ,
calibrat wins $17549.00 from the main pot

** Game ID 1733613864 starting - 2007-11-24 13:23:40
** Rich Kid [Hold 'em] (25.00|50.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- hallohallo2 sitting in seat 1 with $11521.00 [Dealer]
- calibrat sitting in seat 2 with $17739.01

hallohallo2 posted the small blind - $25.00
calibrat posted the big blind - $50.00
** Dealing card to hallohallo2: ,
hallohallo2 raised - $175.00
calibrat raised - $716.00
hallohallo2 called - $716.00

** Dealing the flop: , ,
calibrat bet - $999.00
hallohallo2 called - $999.00

** Dealing the turn: , ,,
calibrat bet - $1715.00
hallohallo2 called - $1715.00

** Dealing the river: , ,,,
calibrat went all-in - $14359.01
hallohallo2 went all-in - $8116.00
calibrat shows: ,
hallohallo2 shows: ,
hallohallo2 wins $23091.00 from the main pot

** Rich Kid [Hold 'em] (25.00|50.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- hallohallo2 sitting in seat 1 with $16272.50 [Dealer]
- calibrat sitting in seat 2 with $12966.51

hallohallo2 posted the small blind - $25.00
calibrat posted the big blind - $50.00
** Dealing card to hallohallo2: ,
hallohallo2 raised - $175.00
calibrat raised - $800.00
hallohallo2 called - $800.00

** Dealing the flop: , ,
calibrat bet - $1250.00
hallohallo2 called - $1250.00

** Dealing the turn: , , ,
calibrat bet - $2300.00
hallohallo2 called - $2300.00

** Dealing the river: , , ,,
calibrat checked
hallohallo2 went all-in - $11947.50
calibrat went all-in - $8666.51
calibrat shows: ,
hallohallo2 shows: ,
hallohallo2 wins $26032.02 from the main pot

Basically the European games aren't too hard to beat as long as you remember that they lovvvve to bluff and will never ever fold a pair no matter the action or how scary the board gets. I know I had some comments on my last post requesting my thought process on some hands and while I do give it occasionally, it's something I don't want to post in every blog. It gives away quite a bit in a heads up match, I may be playing these people again, and it's something I don't hold back at all in my CardRunners videos so it's an incentive to sign up.

The APPT $2500 main event last a couple more days and then on Monday is the $15,000 High Roller event which I'm planning on playing. Other than Alan and Travis I'm not sure who's playing it so hopefully some donks sign up, but regardless it will be fun because the structure is so good -- at 24 people the tournament switches to 6max!

I've checked out a bit of Macau but am going to do some touristy stuff this weekend probably as well as hitting the nightlife tonight.

gl!

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

Bleh

Date: Tue, Nov 20, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

Normally the beats don't get to me but today they were just too sick. Quitting for the day and probably a miracle I only lost $32k.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1720772

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1720773

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1720775

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1720777

Just got punished for the maximum everywhere basically, I don't think I played too bad all around, but was probably a little bit tilty towards the end of the session.

The turducken turned out awesome, I'm definitely going to have to make that a Thanksgiving tradition. I'm booking my flight/hotel to Macau today and I think I'm going to play both the $2500 and $15000 events.

Can't really complain too much about today as even after it I put together a pretty good week, but really damn swingy

gl

Cole

edit -- got some more hu action and managed to get to +5k on the day before quitting =)

Read Full Blog Post

School, HU NL

Date: Sat, Nov 17, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

So I decided it's about time to get back in school and finish my degree. It looks like it'll take me two or three semesters which isn't too bad at all. I'm already done with my math major/econ minor so basically it's just filler credits from here and I registered for Intro to International Politics, Global Economics, Cryptography, Philosophical Problems, and Modern Middle East. I've got some business stuff in the works that could make me change my plans at the last minute, but as of now I'm a student again. Lately I've really gotten interested in politics/news/IR stuff and while grabbing a coffee the other day with Conor, who's sick in the loop when it comes to current events/history/government, we made a (possibly long lasting) bet racing to get our names in The Economist. Shotgun approach is allowed so writing 50 letters to the editor per week is fine, but I'll just stick to one a week and hopefully this will also keep me interested in world affairs. I've been getting all my news lately from The Economist and Stratfor but if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them -- basically I just try to avoid the boring Scott Peterson/missing sorority girl in Aruba stuff.

Pokerwise I feel like I've been kinda all over the place lately so just to get into a good routine I decided I'm ONLY playing heads up no-limit for a bit even if the sixmax games look pretty good. The past week I have been on a sick heater, winning a ton of buy-ins almost all at 25/50NL. Stinger shipped me $25k on Prima and rather than grinding 10/20 or something safe I went the get-rolled-or-bust strategy of playing 25/50 HU with 5 buy-ins. It went well though and I've ran the account up to $135k in just three days or so. I've also focused on playing less tables, playing a bit more solid, increasing my folding frequency a bit, and it's paid off as I feel my game is really sharp right now. Here are a couple big pots from Prima. I don't know a converter that works for them sorry, but I tried to clean them up a bit

** Game ID 1720147950 starting - 2007-11-15 12:42:40
** Fredrico Delit [Hold 'em] (25.00|50.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- hallohallo2 sitting in seat 1 with $25252.00
- -NoName- sitting in seat 2 with $9723.00 [Dealer]

-NoName- posted the small blind - $25.00
hallohallo2 posted the big blind - $50.00
** Dealing card to hallohallo2: ,
-NoName- raised - $175.00
hallohallo2 raised - $605.00
-NoName- called - $605.00

** Dealing the flop: , , (Pot $1210)
hallohallo2 bet - $822.00
-NoName- called - $822.00

** Dealing the turn:, , , (Pot $2854)
hallohallo2 checked
-NoName- bet - $2200.00
hallohallo2 called - $2200.00

** Dealing the river:, , , , (Pot $7254)
hallohallo2 checked
-NoName- went all-in - $6121.00
hallohallo2 called - $6121.00
-NoName- shows: 5 of Clubs, King of Spades
hallohallo2 shows: Jack of Spades, Ace of Diamonds
hallohallo2 wins $19495.00 from the main pot

** Game ID 1720058605 starting - 2007-11-15 11:50:55
** Poor Kid [Hold 'em] (25.00|50.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- hallohallo2 sitting in seat 1 with $5074.00
- Bigt2k4 sitting in seat 2 with $5381.00 [Dealer]

Bigt2k4 posted the small blind - $25.00
hallohallo2 posted the big blind - $50.00
** Dealing card to hallohallo2: ,
Bigt2k4 raised - $150.00
hallohallo2 called - $150.00

** Dealing the flop: , ,
hallohallo2 checked
Bigt2k4 bet - $250.00
hallohallo2 raised - $788.00
Bigt2k4 called - $788.00

** Dealing the turn: , , ,
hallohallo2 checked
Bigt2k4 bet - $1400.00
hallohallo2 went all-in - $4186.00
Bigt2k4 called - $4186.00

** Dealing the river: , , ,,
hallohallo2 shows: King of Clubs, 6 of Clubs
Bigt2k4 shows: 8 of Spades, 9 of Spades
Bigt2k4 wins $10247.00 from the main pot

** Game ID 1720475965 starting - 2007-11-15 15:32:10
** Fredrico Delit [Hold 'em] (25.00|50.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- hallohallo2 sitting in seat 1 with $7822.00 [Dealer]
- Owre sitting in seat 2 with $8326.00

hallohallo2 posted the small blind - $25.00
Owre posted the big blind - $50.00
** Dealing card to hallohallo2: ,
hallohallo2 raised - $175.00
Owre raised - $550.00
hallohallo2 called - $550.00

** Dealing the flop: , ,
Owre bet - $950.00
hallohallo2 called - $950.00

** Dealing the turn: , , ,
Owre checked
hallohallo2 checked

** Dealing the river:, , ,,
Owre bet - $3000.00
hallohallo2 went all-in - $6347.00
Owre folded
hallohallo2 wins $12346.00 from the main pot

I don't think my play in the second one is very good against that player, but can't win em all.

I'm going to book a ticket to Macau for the APPT next weekend, anyone going? I haven't played a hand of live poker in a long time, I'm sure I'll be a tellbox as usual. I was planning on hitting Vegas for a night or two on the way as well, get at me if you're going to be there.

A couple of friends are having a Thanksgiving dinner/party at their place tomorrow night so I ordered a turducken yesterday. It got here an hour or two ago and it looks awesome, I'm pretty psyched about it.

Good luck, hope everyone has a fun Thanksgiving.

-Cole

Read Full Blog Post

HUD file

Date: Thu, Nov 8, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

In my last vid I said I'd post my HUD file and it's been in the forums section but I guess people who aren't CR members couldn't view it so RodeoBlue was nice enough to upload it to his server I think, you can find it here. I prefer a pretty simple setup only displaying VPIP/PFR/AF/#HANDS and using pop-up stats whenever I have to think about a tough hand.

Yesterday I saw American Gangster which was pretty sick, it's hard to go wrong with a Denzel movie. At the theatre I saw the posters for the new Rambo movie, so I just checked out the preview on YouTube and wow I'm psyched for it.

I played an interesting hand yesterday at 50/100NL heads up. My opponent is a pretty weak player but we haven't been playing for that long. I've been doing quite a bit of reraising. If he has an ace I'm going to stack him anyways so my plan was just to check all three streets to him and CRAI the river. Board came out pretty nasty but by the river I'm getting too good odds and look him up.

Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($10,152.50) -
Seat 2: LadyDraw ($17,388.50) - -


PRE-FLOP:

LadyDraw posts small blind $50
MUCKEMSAYUHH posts BIG blind $100
Dealt To: MUCKEMSAYUHH


RAISE LadyDraw($200)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH($788)
CALL LadyDraw($588)


FLOP:

Pot: $1576


CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH
BET LadyDraw($800)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH($800)


TURN:

Pot: $3176


CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH
BET LadyDraw($2000)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH($2000)


RIVER:

Pot: $7176


CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH
BET LadyDraw($3900)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH($3900)


SHOWDOWN:
LadyDraw:

MUCKEMSAYUHH:


MUCKEMSAYUHH collected $14975.5 from main pot with a full house, Tens full of Aces

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $14 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH big blind showed [Th Td] and won 14,975.50 with a full house, Tens full of Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($7487.5)
Seat 2: LadyDraw small blind showed [Kc 9c] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($-7488)

gl

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

Fresh Start

Date: Thu, Nov 1, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

There's something about fresh starts in poker that motivate me to play my best. Making goals, starting new months, even just creating a new PokerTracker database can spark some good runs for me. Today was the first day of November and I decided I'm going to stop playing on my laptop and reformatted an old desktop. It's a Dell I bought a long time ago but it's quick enough and I couldn't stand Windows Vista which was on this lousy Sony VAIO I was using (def wouldn't recommend one of those). So starting a new month on a new computer with a new PokerTracker db, I hopped on all the 25/50 games and there was some decent action. I lost about five buy-ins in the six-max games, but won a ton heads up for an overall profit of $43,000 over 2,800 hands. Almost all my profit was heads-up against agilitybob, and there were some interesting hands.

The following two hands happened right at the start of the session with only a few minutes between them

Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($8,800.50) -
Seat 2: agilitybob ($5,817.75) - -


PRE-FLOP:

agilitybob posts small blind $25
MUCKEMSAYUHH posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: MUCKEMSAYUHH


CALL agilitybob ($25)
CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH


FLOP:

Pot: $100


BET MUCKEMSAYUHH ($100)
CALL agilitybob ($100)


TURN:

Pot: $300


BET MUCKEMSAYUHH ($300)
CALL agilitybob ($300)


RIVER:

Pot: $900


CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH
BET agilitybob ($900)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($2879)
FOLD agilitybob
UNCALLED MUCKEMSAYUHH ($1979)
MUCKEMSAYUHH:


MUCKEMSAYUHH collected $2699.5 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $2 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH big blind collected 2,699.50 - Net Gain/Loss: ($1349.5)
Seat 2: agilitybob small blind folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1350)

Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($6,873) -
Seat 2: agilitybob ($7,422) - -


PRE-FLOP:

agilitybob posts small blind $25
MUCKEMSAYUHH posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: MUCKEMSAYUHH


RAISE agilitybob ($150)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH ($100)


FLOP:

Pot: $300


CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH
BET agilitybob ($300)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH ($300)


TURN:

Pot: $900


CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH
CHECK agilitybob


RIVER:

Pot: $900


CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH
BET agilitybob ($900)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($2999)
CALL agilitybob ($2099)


SHOWDOWN:
MUCKEMSAYUHH:

MUCK agilitybob

MUCKEMSAYUHH collected $6897.5 from main pot with two pair, Aces and Sevens

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $6 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH big blind showed [7c Ac] and won 6,897.50 with two pair, Aces and Sevens - Net Gain/Loss: ($3448.5)
Seat 2: agilitybob small blind mucked [2h Ah] - two pair, Aces and Fours - Net Gain/Loss: ($-3449)

I thought these two hands were a pretty good example of how to manipulate a player using their short-term memory against them. Plays like this work particularly well against thinking, but first level, players (ie not great players). In the first hand I take a stab on the flop with a hand that has no chance to win at showdown. He's been floating me a bit so on the turn I make a wheel draw and pot it again. Then the river brings a king and I decide that I can't make him fold a pair, so I check. Then he fires full pot (?) which makes very little sense unless he rivered kings up but he would raise KT, KJ preflop so he would have to have precisely K5. I think he's full of it so I checkraise and he instamucks. He's the type of player to go on tilt easily so I show the nut low. Then a few hands later I river aces up. I think checking the river is always going to be the best play here because it allows him to value bet worse or bluff the ace, and since my hand is rarely going to be beaten I throw out a big checkraise which he snap calls off. This is a spot where I'd bluff pretty rarely since he's usually going to have air or top pair which he isn't folding.

To be honest I didn't really put many sick beats on this guy, but there was one big hand where we got it in on the turn and I got there with 7 outs. I think I played it well though. His line doesn't make sense and I think usually he's going to have some sort of gutshot that he c/c the flop with. Who c/c the flop with AQ? And he's been reraising pretty light, but not slowplaying on the flop, and he's not reraising hands that make queens up here too often. He was reraising so much though that with deep stacks I was just calling with any two and raising all flops that I miss. This is pretty exploitable against someone good, who is also not scared money. But against bob it's perfect.

Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($16,463.50) - -
Seat 2: agilitybob ($10,645.30) -


PRE-FLOP:

MUCKEMSAYUHH posts small blind $25
agilitybob posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: MUCKEMSAYUHH


RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($150)
RAISE agilitybob ($450)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH ($300)


FLOP:

Pot: $900


CHECK agilitybob
BET MUCKEMSAYUHH ($774)
CALL agilitybob ($774)


TURN:

Pot: $2448


BET agilitybob ($2448)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($15239.50)
CALL agilitybob ($6973.30)
UNCALLED MUCKEMSAYUHH ($5818.20)


RIVER:

Pot: $21290.6




SHOWDOWN:
MUCKEMSAYUHH:

agilitybob:


MUCKEMSAYUHH collected $21290.1 from main pot with a straight, Five high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $21 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:


Seat 1: MUCKEMSAYUHH small blind showed [4c 3d] and won 21,290.10 with a straight, Five high - Net Gain/Loss: ($10644.8)
Seat 2: agilitybob big blind showed [Ah Qs] and lost with two pair, Aces and Queens - Net Gain/Loss: ($-10645.3)

Looking back through the hands I don't really see anything else all that interesting, just a lot of stuff where he's tilted and I get it in really good.

In other news I found out today that you can pick up cases of Fiji Water (24 bottles) for $11 -- the key is to get the actual case, not the $5 six packs -- which is nice because I'm pretty addicted to this stuff

I'm heading out for the night and then tomorrow Wes and I managed to score some good seats to the UVA/Wake football game. I'm going to try and get my grind on this month though and play a lot of hands.

gl

Cole

Read Full Blog Post

Some NL

Date: Wed, Oct 31, 2007 Professional Internet Live Tournament

I've been taking it pretty easy this month enjoying life (last weekend was our homecoming which was pretty out of control) and not playing too much poker, but the past few days I hit the tables pretty hard playing mostly 25/50NL and have been doing pretty well. I'll get right to some interesting hands.

This first one is vs peachykeen, one of the best players on Stars. His river play is similar to one of Jman's 300/600NL hands vs Antonious where Jman bets the river with bottom pair not for value, but to induce a checkraise bluff. Here though peachys call is def a little thinner tho . The Jman thread can be found here, it's a very good read.

Seat 1: El Diablo ($9686)
Seat 2: LittleZen ($2575)
Seat 3: p3achy_keen ($5000)
Seat 4: Mr. Larry M ($5868) -
Seat 5: cts687 ($4950) -
Seat 6: thegrumpyone ($5197) -


PRE-FLOP:

cts687 posts small blind $25
thegrumpyone posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: cts687


FOLD El Diablo
FOLD LittleZen
RAISE p3achy_keen ($150)
CALL Mr. Larry M ($150)
CALL cts687 ($125)
FOLD thegrumpyone


FLOP:

Pot: $500


CHECK cts687
BET p3achy_keen ($400)
FOLD Mr. Larry M
CALL cts687 ($400)


TURN:

Pot: $1300


CHECK cts687
CHECK p3achy_keen


RIVER:

Pot: $1300


CHECK cts687
BET p3achy_keen ($1050)
RAISE cts687 ($4400)
CALL p3achy_keen ($3350)


SHOWDOWN:
cts687:

MUCK p3achy_keen

cts687 collected $10097 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $10100 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: El Diablo folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: LittleZen folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: p3achy_keen mucked [Qc Jc] - Net Gain/Loss: ($-4950)

Seat 4: Mr. Larry M button folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-150)
Seat 5: cts687 small blind showed [7h 7c] and won 10097 with two pair, Sevens and Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($5147)
Seat 6: thegrumpyone big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)

I generally do really well against poopers but he gets me here. I don't mind my play as I'm 30%ish against an overpair and I've seen him call preflop in this spot with A7s before.

Seat 3: p3achy_keen ($7850) -
Seat 4: Mr. Larry M ($13766)
Seat 5: cts687 ($5506) -
Seat 6: poopers ($4950) -


PRE-FLOP:

poopers posts small blind $25
p3achy_keen posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: cts687


FOLD Mr. Larry M
RAISE cts687 ($175)
RAISE poopers ($600)
FOLD p3achy_keen
RAISE cts687 ($1250)
CALL poopers ($650)


FLOP:

Pot: $2750


CHECK poopers
BET cts687 ($4256)
CALL poopers ($3700)


TURN:

Pot: $10706




RIVER:

Pot: $10706




SHOWDOWN:
poopers:

MUCK cts687

poopers collected $9948 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $9950 Rake: $2

Final Board:


Seat 3: p3achy_keen big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 4: Mr. Larry M folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: cts687 button mucked [Ad 4s] - Net Gain/Loss: ($-5506)
Seat 6: poopers small blind showed [Kc Ks] and won 9948 with a pair of Kings - Net Gain/Loss: ($4998)

Also on Stars I had been playing a bit of a heads up match vs Marion. I was running him over pretty badly and he was stuck a bit when we played this hand. Meh? I'm not a fan of his bet sizing on the turn if he has quads, but why's he going to try to bluff me off of a boat and I'm getting bad odds to draw at a chop of course.

Seat 7: cts687 ($5550) -
Seat 8: Marion ($4450) - -


PRE-FLOP:

Marion posts small blind $25
cts687 posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: cts687


CALL Marion ($25)
RAISE cts687 ($250)
CALL Marion ($200)


FLOP:

Pot: $550


CHECK cts687
BET Marion ($300)
CALL cts687 ($300)


TURN:

Pot: $1150


CHECK cts687
BET Marion ($600)
CALL cts687 ($600)


RIVER:

Pot: $2350


CHECK cts687
BET Marion ($3300)
FOLD cts687

Marion collected $2299 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $2300 Rake: $1

Final Board:


Seat 7: cts687 big blind folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1150)
Seat 8: Marion button small blind collected 2299 - Net Gain/Loss: ($1149)

Another hand from our heads up session. I've been reraising him nonstop and he's starting to adjust by 4-betting and floating flops. So I've cooled down the preflop action and instead am now getting out of line on the flop. JTs plays really well and I don't want to get blown off of it so I'm polarizing my preflop 3-bet range to monsters and trash, even against his minraise. I've donked into him a few times on the flop but none of the hands have gotten to showdown. He's probably getting a little bit frustrated with this and since this pot is only minraised he's facing a tiny flop bet and can float me with air. With the way the match was going I really like how I played this hand. I had been making some big folds so it's always nice to have the timing on a thin call pay off. The river card is pretty good because this guy just doesn't value bet very thin and I'm not sure how light he pushes on a four straight.

Seat 7: cts687 ($7666) -
Seat 8: Marion ($4652) - -


PRE-FLOP:

Marion posts small blind $25
cts687 posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: cts687


RAISE Marion ($100)
CALL cts687 ($50)


FLOP:

Pot: $225


BET cts687 ($144)
CALL Marion ($144)


TURN:

Pot: $513


BET cts687 ($411)
RAISE Marion ($1500)
CALL cts687 ($1089)


RIVER:

Pot: $3513


CHECK cts687
BET Marion ($2908)
CALL cts687 ($2908)


SHOWDOWN:
Marion:

cts687:


cts687 collected $9303 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $9304 Rake: $1

Final Board:


Seat 7: cts687 big blind showed [Ts Js] and won 9303 with a pair of Jacks - Net Gain/Loss: ($4651)
Seat 8: Marion button small blind showed [3d Qd] and lost with high card Queen - Net Gain/Loss: ($-4652)

One last heads up hand vs Marion. I don't use overbets too often but this was a good spot for one. I've been extremely out of line, a few hands ago I 4-bet him with 74o, shoved a piece of the flop, and showed. He's not in the folding mood. I like betting a bit larger than pot on the turn for a couple of reasons. If he has an ace I'm stacking him anyways but if he has a nine there are a lot of scary cards that can come on the river for him so I want to get as much money in as possible now. The bet also looks suspicious and he may jam a flush draw. Also if he puts in this much on the turn with a worse hand it's going to be a lot harder for him to get away from the rest on the river because he's getting better odds than if I would have just bet $700 on the turn.

Seat 7: cts687 ($8949) - -
Seat 8: Marion ($3956) -


PRE-FLOP:

cts687 posts small blind $25
Marion posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: cts687


RAISE cts687 ($150)
CALL Marion ($100)


FLOP:

Pot: $325


CHECK Marion
BET cts687 ($255)
CALL Marion ($255)


TURN:

Pot: $835


CHECK Marion
BET cts687 ($1111)
CALL Marion ($1111)


RIVER:

Pot: $3057


CHECK Marion
BET cts687 ($7433)
CALL Marion ($2440)


SHOWDOWN:
cts687:

MUCK Marion

cts687 collected $7911 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $7912 Rake: $1

Final Board:


Seat 7: cts687 button small blind showed [Ad Qc] and won 7911 with three of a kind, Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($+3956)
Seat 8: Marion big blind mucked [6s As] - Net Gain/Loss: ($-3956)

This hand is against Tatute, a player I have a ton of history with. We've been playing 10/20 and 25/50 together on Stars mostly for the past year or so and both get pretty out of line, with lots of big bluffs. He's calling my 3-bets very lightly and on the flop I check for pot control and maybe to improve if he has a better hand. I haven't actually been that out of line this session so if possible I would like to show down the 63o just to help get a crazy image when in reality I'm not making that many plays. Against a player who's bluffing me a lot I prefer just to call here on the turn and then at showdown it's a cooler obv.

Seat 1: Tatute ($11,202)
Seat 2: Kinetica ($975)
Seat 3: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($5,000) -
Seat 4: Ungrateful1 ($10,678) -
Seat 5: 313OG ($14,646) -
Seat 6: Ansky451 ($5,072)


PRE-FLOP:

Ungrateful1 posts small blind $25
313OG posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: MUCKEMSAYUHH


FOLD Ansky451
RAISE Tatute ($175)
FOLD Kinetica
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($600)
FOLD Ungrateful1
FOLD 313OG
CALL Tatute ($425)


FLOP:

Pot: $1275


CHECK Tatute
CHECK MUCKEMSAYUHH


TURN:

Pot: $1275


BET Tatute ($850)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH ($850)


RIVER:

Pot: $2975


BET Tatute ($1500)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($3550)
CALL Tatute ($2050)


SHOWDOWN:
MUCKEMSAYUHH:

MUCK Tatute

MUCKEMSAYUHH collected $10072 from main pot with four of a kind, Sixes

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $10 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: Tatute mucked [Kh Qd] - a full house, Sixes full of Kings - Net Gain/Loss: ($-5000)
Seat 2: Kinetica didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: MUCKEMSAYUHH button showed [3h 6s] and won 10,072 with four of a kind, Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($5072)
Seat 4: Ungrateful1 small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-25)
Seat 5: 313OG big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 6: Ansky451 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)

The biggest pot I've lost over the past few days. Image pays off. NO ACE!


Seat 1: Kinetica ($850) -
Seat 2: Stadty ($2,557) -
Seat 3: 313OG ($5,000) -
Seat 4: Ungrateful1 ($8,067.75)
Seat 5: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($7,697)
Seat 6: Ansky451 ($7,630)


PRE-FLOP:

Stadty posts small blind $25
313OG posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: MUCKEMSAYUHH


FOLD Ungrateful1
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($175)
RAISE Ansky451 ($600)
FOLD Kinetica
FOLD Stadty
FOLD 313OG
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($1600)
RAISE Ansky451 ($7630)
CALL MUCKEMSAYUHH ($6030)


FLOP:

Pot: $15335




TURN:

Pot: $15335




RIVER:

Pot: $15335




SHOWDOWN:
Ansky451:

MUCKEMSAYUHH:


Ansky451 collected $15332 from main pot with two pair, Jacks and Eights

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $15 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: Kinetica button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: Stadty small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-25)
Seat 3: 313OG big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 4: Ungrateful1 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: MUCKEMSAYUHH showed [Kc Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings - Net Gain/Loss: ($-7630)
Seat 6: Ansky451 showed [Jd 8d] and won 15,332 with two pair, Jacks and Eights - Net Gain/Loss: ($7702)

Man I really wanted to jam the river here but I wimped out, he has $7,100 more behind. I had a really bad image but he can't have a big hand here...

Seat 1: RoxmorE ($5,535)
Seat 2: MUCKEMSAYUHH ($18,859)
Seat 3: Ungrateful1 ($4,755)
Seat 4: b4udiwllfku ($1,245) -
Seat 5: 313OG ($13,885) -
Seat 6: Ansky451 ($4,925) -


PRE-FLOP:

313OG posts small blind $25
Ansky451 posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: MUCKEMSAYUHH


CALL RoxmorE ($50)
RAISE MUCKEMSAYUHH ($255)
FOLD Ungrateful1
FOLD b4udiwllfku
CALL 313OG ($230)
FOLD Ansky451
CALL RoxmorE ($205)


FLOP:

Pot: $815


CHECK 313OG
CHECK RoxmorE
BET MUCKEMSAYUHH ($675)
CALL 313OG ($675)
FOLD RoxmorE


TURN:

Pot: $2165


CHECK 313OG
BET MUCKEMSAYUHH ($1825)
CALL 313OG ($1825)


RIVER:

Pot: $5815


BET 313OG ($4000)
FOLD MUCKEMSAYUHH
UNCALLED 313OG ($4000)
MUCK 313OG

313OG collected $5812 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $5 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: RoxmorE folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-255)
Seat 2: MUCKEMSAYUHH folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2755)
Seat 3: Ungrateful1 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: b4udiwllfku button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: 313OG small blind collected 5,812, mucked - Net Gain/Loss: ($3057)
Seat 6: Ansky451 big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)

That's it for now, gl!

Cole

Read Full Blog Post