ship the heater

Last couple weeks of play: 15k breakeven followed by 14 bi upswong, all 100nlhu. I like Christmas. :)

levels #2

This hand is against a pretty good, thinking villain.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($172.95)
SB ($100)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, 10

Hero raises to $3, SB calls $2

Flop: ($6) 10, Q, 4 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($6) 8 (2 players)

SB bets $5, Hero calls $5

River: ($16) 3 (2 players)

SB bets $30, Hero calls $30

Total pot: $76 | Rake: $0.50

Results:

Hero had A, 10 (one pair, tens).
SB had 8, 8 (three of a kind, eights).

Outcome: SB won $75.50


I check back the flop with a showdown-bound hand. I think cbetting there is okay to get some value out of the draws but I let it go this time. Villain donks the turn which, based on previous play against him, tells me he has some showdown value. I'm not totally sure whether my hand is best or whether he's towning me with better. I decide to re-evaluate on the river and so I just call.

River comes a brick and villain leads with an overbet. What led me to call is the fact that I've shown no strength in the hand and so there's no reason villain should expect me to call this bet. So as far as I'm concerned, he's bluffing here quite often because why would he make such a large bet with a strong hand? I'll rarely ever call it with whatever medium-strength hand I happen to have, so the more obvious way for him to get value out of me would be to bet some amount that I snapcall with my second pair.

It turns out he was one level ahead of me in this hand and got some great value out of his turned set. He read me as being showdown-bound and also realized that I might sniff out an overbet bluff, making it a great spot for him to overbet for value.

levels

This hand is against a pretty aggressive and thinking villain. We're effectively 224bb deep.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($223.80)
Hero (SB) ($337.10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, Q

Button raises to $3, Hero raises to $11, Button calls $8

Flop: ($22) 4, 6, 9 (2 players)

Hero bets $14, Button calls $14

Turn: ($50) 10 (2 players)

Hero bets $36, Button calls $36

River: ($122) 3 (2 players)

Hero bets $42, Button raises to $162.80 (All-In), Hero calls $120.80

Total pot: $447.60 | Rake: $0.50

Results:

Button had 4, Q (one pair, fours).

Hero had Q, Q (one pair, Queens).

Outcome: Hero won $447.10


The pf, flop, and turn are all pretty standard. On the river I put out a blocker and villain ships in over it. A couple things led me to call:

- his hand range: he's got the nuts (straight with 78 or a set) or air, so his range is very polarized. He likely raises his two-pair hands on the turn so we can rule those out. It's also unlikely that he made two-pair on the river. So his raise represents a very narrow range - which makes it more likely that he's bluffing.
- his level: this guy was definitely good enough to recognize a blocking bet and to raise over it trying to get me to fold. This obviously leads me to call, even though we're putting ourselves into a catch-22 of sorts in a lot of spots with this type of thinking. However, against super aggressive villains it's usually okay.

be aggressive

Villain was 3-betting 34% of his hands. I had been fighting back with 4-bets and wider defends and mostly running the train. This is a light defend gone wrong.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($128.50)
Hero (Button) ($273.60)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, J

Hero raises to $3, SB raises to $11, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($22) 5, Q, K (2 players)

SB bets $13, Hero calls $13

Turn: ($48) 5 (2 players)

SB bets $22, Hero calls $22

River: ($92) 2 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $227.60 (All-In), SB calls $82.50 (All-In)

Total pot: $257 | Rake: $0.50


I call two streets hoping to hit the straight, then ship in the blank river hoping to fold out single pairs with a big bet. Villain calls down with K8o which I think is pretty terrible given how much I could be valuetowning him with in this spot. So as played I think the hand is okay because I turn up with better than K8o a lot more often than I do with air, and I can play my monsters exactly the same way as I did in this hand.

Another way to play it is to realize how wide his 3-betting range is, and that even if he hits top pair on the flop, he will often have a weak kicker. With that in mind I could have raised the flop and bet big on the turn and river. A line like that will likely get folds more often than the line I took in this hand, but it's obviously not as good for extracting max value when I have a monster.

some hands

Checking Back Flops

Hand 1

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($133.20)
SB ($98)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, 10

Hero raises to $3, SB calls $2

Flop: ($6) 4, 10, K (2 players)

SB checks, Hero checks -- not much worse is calling me here, so just check back

Turn: ($6) K (2 players)

SB bets $4, Hero calls $4 -- get some value

River: ($14) A (2 players)

SB checks, Hero checks -- just check it down to avoid value-owning myself

Total pot: $14 | Rake: $0.50

Results:

Hero had 6, 10 (two pair, Kings and tens).

SB had 6, 10 (two pair, Kings and tens).

Outcome: Hero won $6.75, SB won $6.75


Hand 2

This hand was against a pretty decent thinking villain who had seen the check/bet/bet line from me a couple of times.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($399.90)
SB ($108)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 5, A

Hero raises to $3, SB calls $2

Flop: ($6) 10, 3, J (2 players)

SB checks, Hero checks -- check back A-high since i've got some showdown value

Turn: ($6) 5 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $5, SB raises to $10, Hero calls $5

River: ($26) J (2 players)

SB bets $20, Hero folds -- flush gets there, and he's good enough to valuebet a ten here.. not beating much so this is a pretty standard fold i think

Total pot: $26 | Rake: $0.50

Results:

SB didn't show

Outcome: SB won $25.50


JTs In 3-Bet Pot

In this hand I turned into a station and just went with straight pot odds to draw to the flush. Problem is that I could have been drawing dead since my flush is just J-high. Not sure if I should be letting this go sooner or shipping it in or what.

This is the first 3b pot vs this villain so no real read as far as his play in 3b pots.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($140.60)
Button ($104.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, J

Button raises to $3, Hero raises to $11, Button calls $8

Flop: ($22) 6, 5, Q (2 players)

Hero bets $14, Button raises to $28, Hero calls $14 -- shipping it in here is good if he's doing this with a 5, 6, or a straight draw. I wasn't sure what his range was for this min-raise was so I just called.

Turn: ($78) 3 (2 players)

Hero checks, Button bets $28, Hero calls $28 -- straight pot-odds call on my part.

River: ($134) 2 (2 players)

Hero checks, Button bets $37.50 (All-In), Hero folds -- don't get there :/

Total pot: $134 | Rake: $0.50

Results:

Button didn't show

Outcome: Button won $133.50