On the move

So I’m leaving town again tomorrow to visit some family back in Michigan for a couple of days so I figured I’d write up a post before I left. I’m not very thrilled with having to take so many days away from the tables again. I really hate it. I don’t mind taking a day or two off or only playing like 500 hands in a day, but if I take 6 days completely off like I’m about to, I tend to forget how to play poker. When I came back from the beach last week I did NOT play well. Lost maybe $8k or so (using a really buggy PT3 during this time didn’t help imo) but after I got back into the groove and went back to PT2 I’ve recovered and then some from that.

Here’s a hand I played recently that I thought was interesting. It’s a bluff that worked so obv its a good play, had I lost I’d prob be sitting here complaining how dumb I am, but that’s another story altogether.

Preflop all I’m gonna say is that flatting things like A9s here is going to increase your variance a ton and get you in tricky spots like these and I don’t mind a fold tbh but I thought I had good reads on villains here. Plus, its nice to be drawing to the nuts when you are this deep.

Flop villain was cbetting 100% of hands like 8/8 at this point so I decide to bluffraise with my gutter and backdoor draw. After he calls I thought his most likely holding was some sort of overpair.

Turn this is where it starts to get interesting. I think a lot of people would auto checkraise all in here cuz afterall we are drawing to the nuts and have lots of outs if we’re behind. The thing is, it’s pretty transparent I don’t have a set when I check the turn and if villain decides to bet the turn here he should be stacking to any sort of raise so really fold equity is not that high. 100bb deep I prob just bet/call a lot of the time and hope he believes I have a set. Here, with him only betting 1/2 pot I think we can draw cheaply with our ~35% equity and 150bb behind, had he bet bigger I would be more inclined to CRAI or just fold. The point I’m trying to make is it’s a spot where I don’t premeditate what I’m going to do before he bets and I let his betsizing determine my action.

River I don’t hit any of my outs but I do hit the ones I’m repping so I shove it in. I would play A9s the same way. I don’t usually try to bluff people off overpairs in what could potentially be 400bb pots but I thought this was a good spot. During the hand I didn’t consider what I would do if a spade out, but in the future I think it’s good to plan this out ahead of time so you are more prepared for it.

I just got done listening to a pokerroad interview with Brian Townsend and thought it was quite good (same show that had samo on last week). Something Btown mentioned was that he recommends moving up or at least shot taking at 15-20 buyins. This got me thinking and kinda makes me feel like a pussy for having ~$60k or so bankroll and not taking more shots at 10/20. He got me to stretch my comfort zone today and I played a bit of 10/20. I managed to hit & run after a very short span of hands and winning a little less than a buyin(the mega fish to my immediate left was replaced by Samh and I was like f that). I don’t want to become complacent but at the same time I don’t want to go on a major downswing either. I guess its more of how much calculated risk are you willing to take?

Recently, the 5/10 games haven’t been that great (my old coach nutedawg was playing in them today) and I didn’t feel like trying to take his monies so I have been playing a little 3/6 NLH and 2/4 PLO. Its been nice to have the option of playing PLO lately when the games aren’t that great. Yesterday I tilted a bit playing PLO and tried bluffing people and needless to say it didn’t go so well. I finally realized how light people will call you down in those games and I just played much more solidly today and booked a nice win. Interesting note: Earlier today on FTP there was exactly one 6max NLH game running above 5/10 (it was a 10/20 game) yet there were 4, yes 4, tables of 200/400 PLO 6max running. Learn PLO! It will pay you dividends later if you intend to make it to the highest limits. Trust me. GL & be good.

andr3w321

edit: forgot to add I was talking to nute today about how much $$ to bring to vegas, etc. and the following hilarious quote ensued. Enjoy!

Me: i dunno about carrying 10k around w/ me tho
nutedawg(aka baller): will make you feel like a man

Just 24 days ’til Vegas!