The Rollercoaster Continues
Wow yesterday's poker was stressful! I dropped $450 in the first hour and a half. Was one of those sessions. Everything seemed to be going wrong - kept running into small sets after raising with premium hands from late position. Kept missing the flop and making continuation bets that got called or raised. My bluffs were called by middle pairs. My good hands lost. Ugh.
I had been speaking to a friend of mine earlier in the day who is pro/semi pro and analysing my recently aquired pokertracker stats with him. We noticed that I was losing far too much money on the BB, and established that this was probably because I was not punishing limpers enough; ie: checking my BB too much. He said a pot sized raise here would need to be succesful only around 50% of the time to be profitable.
I decided to put this into practice last night - with inevitable results. The first hand I got AK and the button limp-called my $8 raise. The flop came A-2-2 and we got it all in (he only had about $35-$40 at the start of the hand). He had 5-2. Ahem. The next time it was the cutoff who limp-called my $8 raise. This time I only had T-2 but the flop came ten high with two diamonds and we got it all-in again (he also was short stacked with about $50 at the start of the hand.) This time I was up against J-7d. Ahem again. He missed flush but hit jack on river. Not a great start.
The hand that really sent me over the edge was about an hour later when I raised the cutoff's preflop bet with QQ and the SB re-raised all-in. I called (I had seen him make this play with 99 a few hands ealier) and he had J-9c . . . . . . Needless to say the flop came J-9-3 and I never caught up.
Fortunately I managed a good come back and finished only $80 down for the session. This was largely down to two big hands, the first of which I played to perfection. Ok, I did have aces, but that wasnt the point. Samobo, on my left, had just started bitching at the whole table because some guy raised preflop with 88? I told him to calm down so he started bitching at me. He was clearly steaming and had been playing awful for a while now, so when I got AA in the SB on the very next hand I decided he was probably keen to make a donation.
He limped from under the gun and I decided to raise $10 into a $6 pot - thinking this would prob piss him off :-) He called and the flop came down king high. I decided to bet $32 - thinking again that the overbet would annoy him. Sure enough he came over the top with K-4 and I collected the $300 pot. He piped down for a bit after that.
Then about two hands later I got KK and busted the BB who moved in with A-J. That put me up to about $420 on that table, and I was steadily building up to the $300 mark on my other table. I played on for about another 45 minutes and was in pretty much total control of both tables. It seems people had finally decided to stop calling my preflop raises with 5-2 and J-7 or if they did they were missing the flop and folding. Finished with about $470 on the one table and $340 on the other.
Today has been a case of deja vu. Started feeling good and ready for a strong session but found myself down $100 within about ten hands. Mostly from raising with pocket pairs or premium aces and missing the flop or seeing the flop come down with overcards. My continuation bets are called or raised and i have to let them go. Then this extraordinary player called MAPLE1 calls my $9 pf raise with T-8o. The flop is J-8-7 and he re-raises me all-in. I call with K-J and he rivers a third eight. Still, just as I'm about to start steaming I flop a set of fours and win a $320 pot.
Meanwhile MAPLE1 is quickly down to about $30 again and has not folded preflop for about 40 hands. Now all of a sudden he starts catching cards - its great to watch. Busting people after calling $16 preflop with A-3o. . . .lol. Its awesome. I'm still playing with him now, biding my time before I (hopefully) bust him.
I had been speaking to a friend of mine earlier in the day who is pro/semi pro and analysing my recently aquired pokertracker stats with him. We noticed that I was losing far too much money on the BB, and established that this was probably because I was not punishing limpers enough; ie: checking my BB too much. He said a pot sized raise here would need to be succesful only around 50% of the time to be profitable.
I decided to put this into practice last night - with inevitable results. The first hand I got AK and the button limp-called my $8 raise. The flop came A-2-2 and we got it all in (he only had about $35-$40 at the start of the hand). He had 5-2. Ahem. The next time it was the cutoff who limp-called my $8 raise. This time I only had T-2 but the flop came ten high with two diamonds and we got it all-in again (he also was short stacked with about $50 at the start of the hand.) This time I was up against J-7d. Ahem again. He missed flush but hit jack on river. Not a great start.
The hand that really sent me over the edge was about an hour later when I raised the cutoff's preflop bet with QQ and the SB re-raised all-in. I called (I had seen him make this play with 99 a few hands ealier) and he had J-9c . . . . . . Needless to say the flop came J-9-3 and I never caught up.
Fortunately I managed a good come back and finished only $80 down for the session. This was largely down to two big hands, the first of which I played to perfection. Ok, I did have aces, but that wasnt the point. Samobo, on my left, had just started bitching at the whole table because some guy raised preflop with 88? I told him to calm down so he started bitching at me. He was clearly steaming and had been playing awful for a while now, so when I got AA in the SB on the very next hand I decided he was probably keen to make a donation.
He limped from under the gun and I decided to raise $10 into a $6 pot - thinking this would prob piss him off :-) He called and the flop came down king high. I decided to bet $32 - thinking again that the overbet would annoy him. Sure enough he came over the top with K-4 and I collected the $300 pot. He piped down for a bit after that.
Then about two hands later I got KK and busted the BB who moved in with A-J. That put me up to about $420 on that table, and I was steadily building up to the $300 mark on my other table. I played on for about another 45 minutes and was in pretty much total control of both tables. It seems people had finally decided to stop calling my preflop raises with 5-2 and J-7 or if they did they were missing the flop and folding. Finished with about $470 on the one table and $340 on the other.
Today has been a case of deja vu. Started feeling good and ready for a strong session but found myself down $100 within about ten hands. Mostly from raising with pocket pairs or premium aces and missing the flop or seeing the flop come down with overcards. My continuation bets are called or raised and i have to let them go. Then this extraordinary player called MAPLE1 calls my $9 pf raise with T-8o. The flop is J-8-7 and he re-raises me all-in. I call with K-J and he rivers a third eight. Still, just as I'm about to start steaming I flop a set of fours and win a $320 pot.
Meanwhile MAPLE1 is quickly down to about $30 again and has not folded preflop for about 40 hands. Now all of a sudden he starts catching cards - its great to watch. Busting people after calling $16 preflop with A-3o. . . .lol. Its awesome. I'm still playing with him now, biding my time before I (hopefully) bust him.
posted by Mal | 3:32 AM
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