EdmondDantes says

Congrats on the magazine column. Looking forward to your WSOP updates.

Edmond

05/29/07

lakeoffire says

Good luck with the column. Looking forward to more posts.
LoF

05/30/07

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A quick announcement - a new quarterly magazine is picking up this blog as a syndicated column, along with some additional content from yours truly. We're still negotiating, but watch this space for updates.

I don't have a theme to write about at the moment due to not playing too many hands lately, but some of the ones I've played have been interesting, anyway. In no particular order:

-Spot the mistake(s): 25/50 in the 650 WSOP sat on Stars (I have about 3K chips.) I open limp AA UTG+1 hoping to limp/RR (this isn't the mistake), 1 more limper, SB completes, BB checks. The flop comes K54 2 clubs (I don't have the Ac), it's checked to me and I bet 150. The last limper raises to 500, the others fold, and I call. The turn is an offsuit 8 and I check/call 3/4 pot, then check/call 1/2 pot all in on a jack river. Clear mistake #1: not 3 betting the flop. If he has 54, fine, but I should be willing to get it in against the vast majority of his range on that board. Clear mistake #2: calling the river. It hit one of the few hands that he can very well have (KJ) that I still beat, and he should really not be 3 barreling a bluff by this point. I'm just not good often enough.

-A similar "fancy play syndrome" type hand that, IMO, is actually not FPS'd at all: In the Bodog 50K 109 on Sunday, a very loose, very bad player who calls down with any piece limps in MP at 75/150 (I have about 4K; he has me well covered). In a previous hand, he limp/overcalled my isolation raise from EP (the button had also called), led 1/3 pot into me on a Qxx board, then got 50 BB in vs. the button with Q9o. In this hand, it's folded to me on the button with AKs. The blinds are both decent and one of whom is probably capable of making a move. I overlimp looking to shove on a blind raise. Almost nobody ever overlimp/reraises on purpose (fish do it with hands like 44 sometimes.) I think this play is underrated, especially when you have a medium strength postflop hand like AK-AQ, JJ-88 (and very rarely, only with the right table conditions, AA-QQ) that you want to stack off with on some flops but not others. Just don't ever do it with 44/this is probably best off never used in a cash game where you can't just bomb it all in. A good chunk of the value here comes from them putting you on exactly a small pair and never anything as good as AK, and calling light.

-Playing with bounties, jackpots, and other weird promos: Some day, I'm going to write a few blog entries on this in detail, because, to my knowledge, nothing in print on any of these is any good.

I: In any promo where you can win your buyin back or a significant amount of money relative to the pot, loose preflop calls are basically essential. This especially goes for bounty tournaments where someone has shoved in front of you and you are closing the action; in a 50% bounty structure, even when half your chips are at risk to the all in, your pot odds are lousy, and you think you're ~33% to win (in other words, you have something like 92o), there is a very good argument for calling. Like I said, someday, I'll do the math (which is pretty extensive), but this is a popular format at the lower limits and people don't really play them well.

II: WSEX "Aces never lose" hand that I posted on 2+2: at 10/20 limit (where you get $75 back if your aces lose at showdown), I raise red AA UTG and only the BB calls. The flop comes something like J 9 5 , BB checks, and I check behind. The turn comes something like the 3 , bet/call; river J, bet/call. BB shows J7o, no clubs, and takes it, but I make $15 on the hand (35 postflop), and unless he was going to checkraise this on the flop and maybe 4 bet, I played it optimally. After doublechecking on 2+2, I'm pretty sure it's optimal vs. his entire range, too. "Insurance" promos like this one also make for odd strategy decisions.

There should be one more update before the WSOP - starting around the 6th, I'll be shifting to daily updates with lots and lots of live hands/chip counts :)