Knew it would happen sooner or later. Ran terribly last night. Was tough going all night long, couldnt hold up and couldnt win flips. When i lost AAvKK on 2 tables in the space of 5 minutes i was on suicide watch. But i wont bore you. Also im finding im getting called down a LOT thinner now, so iv adjusted my game to those who think second pair is check/call material for 3 streets. The play was ridic shocking @ 2/4 + 3/6 last night on ipoker, the number of players open limping, cold calling and generally playing check call poker was astounding. Played for nearly 30 hours in the last 48 and have broken even. Tired, grumpy and stressed.

Im a bit frustrated and annoyed to be honest, so ill change the subject and talk you through proper 6-max LAG value betting and hand-reading. Im not really being a know it all, this is a results based-hand after all, but ill let you in on my thought process. Listen close, this took me a LONG time to learn (im slow but keen).


Had a couple of interesting situations last night, including a hand i think i maxd which is prolly the biggest singular difference to my game now to 6 months ago.

Hand1. Villain has been murdering the table for the short while he has been here. I noticed after a river CR with second pair (for value) that he was probably a loose aggressive (good) thinking player. We had tangled a lot with him getting the better of me in a pissing contest. Villain knows im lag too. Villain can think and is prolly a level 3/4 thinker.

GAME #796643992: Texas Hold'em NL $2.00/$4.00 2008-01-13 05:55:04
Table Cuneo
Seat 1: BeerPong ($459.00 in chips)
Seat 3: Gwendallina ($364.00 in chips)
Seat 5: nikinblinds ($590.50 in chips) DEALER
Seat 6: azure123 ($486.80 in chips)
Seat 8: euro200champ ($1 136.60 in chips)
Seat 10: noiq3442615 ($491.00 in chips)
azure123: Post SB $2.00
euro200champ : Post BB $4.00

Holecards:
Dealt to euro200champ [ X X ]
Dealt to nikinblinds [ HK DQ ]
FOLD noiq3442615
FOLD BeerPong
FOLD Gwendallina
nikinblinds: Raise $14.00
FOLD azure123
euro200champ : Call $10.00

Flop:
[ S5 D8 SQ ]
euro200champ : Check
nikinblinds: Bet $24.00
euro200champ : Call $24.00

Turn:
[ H3 ]
euro200champ : Check
nikinblinds: Bet $58.00
euro200champ : Call $58.00

River:
[ C9 ]
euro200champ : Check
nikinblinds: Bet $150.00
euro200champ : Call $150.00

SUMMARY:
Total pot $491.00 Rake $3.00
nikinblinds: wins $491.00

Preflop, he flat calls from his blind. Not good poker really but meh. No info apart from he doenst have a monster. No AQ or overpair for this bad boy. 1010 is a distinct possibility, but definitely not JJ.

Obv on flop i hit my hand nicely. Only 1 primary draw in the form of 67. He flat calls flop bet, clue no.1 about villains hand.

Turn info makes situation clearer. I make turn bet chunky to facilitate big river bet and (although its going out of fashion) to get real quality information about his hand. Now we know we are ahead when he flats, we would have heard about a set by now and 2pair type hands are non-existent on this board. When he calls the turn i can downgrade 67 as a holding as opponent knows he wont make a huge amount oop v me.

The river is the key part. Thank the lord. He checks. He wouldnt run the risk of me checking behind if he had hit his straight. He craised the river with second pair in another hand FOR VALUE, so i doubt he wouldnt bet out his str8/2pair type hands when we are deep with me showing the aggression. Its worth noting that 2 pair hands on this board are few and far between, only 89 got there legitimately. Whilst its true that the 9 has just arrived for the straight, i could easily have been seimbluffing light all the way from villains prespective. Which adds up to me assessing risk of being Craised to be minimal. Id guess 70% of reg TAG players check behind on this river, because the draw has arrived, villain knows this too and there is a chance of being c/raised. Nonsense, you cross those bridges when you hit them. Also, its a very nitty sort of player that check raises rivers, generally bad cally wally types.


Selling the hand. Whe you bet this river, after betting strong the whole way, a thinking player thinks you have either a monster or air. The likelihood of either makes his mind up. He told me afterwards that my river bet made him certain he was ahead. So his made hand holdings look stronger if i bet, if ur with me, so he is more inclined to call a large bet now than ever. So it has to be QJ or Q10, possibly A8. Valuetown, what can we get for our hand? A large bet looks suspicious and i dont want it to "look" like a value bet, so we go for the max and the plan comes together. Truly great feeling when you know ur opponents hole cards and gain maximum equity. Rant over.


Ok im going to sleep for a bit, then im going to Luton for a chillout and a nice freindly little game of poker at the G luton.