Had a few minutes free here, and I wanted to put this up for a while.

I posted the hand history of my win in the Stars $55 50k guaranteed on PokerXFactor. I opened a thread on 2+2 to discuss it; you can post questions you have on anything in it here or there.

PokerXFactor link (viewer only)
PokerXFactor Link (Hand History Analyzer)
2+2 Discussion Thread

On a side note, we seem to have found a place to live, and hopefully we'll get it finalized and moved in after the weekend. When that happens, you can expect the pace to pick up around here.

Anonymous says

I am actually going to read all of this and get back to you. Don't miss out on floating down the Guadalupe river.

09/03/07

lakong says

Nath, I've gotten through the first 50 hands. Most of it seems pretty straight forward. I have questions on three hands so far:

hand #13: UTG+3. One limper, you have KJ and fold. Is this pretty standard for you? How many seats to the left do you need to be to play this hand?

hand #43: Your in SB with 99 and 4750 in chips (blinds 25/50). The button pushes with 2,120 in chips and only 225 in pot (one limper and one mini-raise before the push). You fold. Was this an easy decision? What range did you put him on? I was thinking 77-QQ / AK-AQ. What hand did you need to call the push? Would you have done it with TT/JJ, or a AK?

Hand #195: I also FF to hand 195 since someone mentioned it on 2plus2. The poster says that the BB should have RR you with his AJ and you agreed. I'm assuming you guys had lots of blind vs. blind and blind vs. button confrontations and he wanted to play a bit sneaky here. He was also worried that if he RR you and you pushed or made a play against him he would be forced to fold. He was hoping for a flop like he got, or even any A and he would punish you if you got out of line. That's what happened, but of course you got incredibly lucky with that flop. So my question is... do you really think it was so bad that he didn't RR you with AJ? You would never call in a situation like he had (aggressive SB, had lots of previous history, etc.)


- S

09/04/07

lakong says

Watched hands 51-100. A few more comments/questions:

Hand 53: AQ button, 50/100 blinds. UTG makes it 270, you fold. MP raised to 300 on hand 60 and you flat called with AQ in BB. Now I understand that you already had 100 invested in hand #60 AND the raise was from MP, but here you would be OP all hand and before you had position. Did you have a read on the UTG? The only hands you don't want to see are AK, AA, KK and QQ, but his raising range from UTG could be much wider if he's a standard internet player. Did you peg him as pretty tight or do you just assume that an UTG raise (not knowing anything about the player) is usually category I Sklansky hands?

It turns out that his hand wasn't that strong because after you folded the BB raises and UTG folded. Just not sure I see that much difference between the flat call on one hand and the fold in the other. Can you explain? What's with you and AQ in this tournament. You proceed to get it 4-5 times more in the next bunch of hands.

Hand 78: 88 in BB, MP makes it 150 (75/150), you make it 800. How often do you raise here vs. just calling? Why?

Hand 87: 100/200, you have 94s in BB. UTG+2 makes it 550, UTG+3 calls. You push for 5175. Classic squeeze? Fairly standard for you? Did you have a read on first raiser (stacksanchez?)

Hand 99: 150/300, you have AQ in CO. MP makes it 877, you push. Why the push here when the hand before was somewhat similar situation. You're on button with AQs, EP/MP guy makes it 600 (margonio999) and you just called. Here you pushed against mgw21. Was it just the amount of the raise that led you to believe he didn't have much? Was it the guy? He called you, and of course you were counting on him folding here. While the first guy had you covered, this guy had 4900 to your 5800 stack so he had the ability to cripple you, which he did when his 88 help up.

09/04/07

nath says

Hand 13 - Sometimes I raise here, sometimes I fold here. It really depends on the table and my goals for it, and here I had already piled up a decent stack and could avoid a more marginal spot, plus my position is bad. I'd probably raise this up on CO or button. I don't like overlimping with these hands.

Hand 43 - The push is such a huge overbet that it's hard for us to find a good range here; essentially, we're hoping to flip for half our stack. We're dominated enough of the time that we can't ignore it, and there's still no telling what the people behind us will do (ErickW in particular could show up with a big hand, he's, to put it charitably, "unpredictable").

Hand 195 - I think, in general, not pushing edges is a mistake, and AJ is so far ahead of my range here that a reraise should be considered for value. Stacks are shallow enough that the villain should feel good if he ends up all-in here. If he misses the flop, he is playing a guessing game when he has 10% of his stack in the middle. In short, not reraising opens up the possibility for him that he makes a big mistake.

Hand 53 - I'm going to quote the response I gave in the SSMTT thread:

"AQo kind of sucks vs an EP open here, especially since we're playing for stacks on any board we hit. I wasn't comfortable playing for stacks preflop, and I think my reverse implied odds postflop are enough to let the hand go."

In other words, his range is too tight here to play the hand profitably, and the times we outflop him, we're going to win less than the times the flop hits us and he's still ahead. (We probably can't stack his JJ on an A-high or Q-high flop, but we have to play for stacks on Q-high and A-high flops, and when we get them in, we often lose to AK in the former or KK+ in the latter.)

In the previous hand, I'm closing the action when I call; in addition, the raise came from later position and is more likely to indicate a wider range of hands. I'm happier with my hand vs. his range when I flop top pair.

Hand 78 - Since he limped and didn't raise, I don't think anything special of his hand. But I also need to raise enough to make up for my bad position and cut down on my reverse implied odds. Against a standard raise, I might vary between calling and raising, mostly calling with these stacks. Deeper, I might be more inclined to play for set value. But here, I have the best hand preflop, and I'm fine picking up the pot-- and I can more confidently go broke with an overpair postflop.

Hand 87 - Yeah, it's a classic squeeze-- I didn't have a read on the raiser beyond that he wasn't committed, but I thought the caller was loose, and the raiser would have to worry about him. I answered this one in the thread: "The stacks are ideal for it, as well as a caller who has enough chips to play looser than he should PF for a small bet, but not a big one."

Hand 99 - Antes mean the pots are now worth going for with a wider range of holdings. So a hand which was not strong enough to 3-bet preflop previously now is. Our stack-to-pot ratio is much smaller in this hand than in the previous one. Pushing isn't a gross overbet that gets out all but the hands that crush us, and the opener has a looser range than previously, so he should fold more often and we win a nice pot without showdown. I generally screw down my game in the 50/100 to 100/200 level on Stars.

The other key element of this hand is that I had him covered and not the other way around-- I could be crippled, but not knocked out, and that made all the difference. :)

09/04/07

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