02/22-24/08 100NL

Online
Played 9,196 hands at 100NL and won $174.25.

Total for period: $174.25
Total since start: $11,784.30

Total Hands this month: 57,915

I have to earn another 20k FPP in order to buy a bonus for March, basically that means that I have to play an additional 13k hands above my 60k goal. Considering how close I am to the 60k goal I don’t think this will be too difficult – but as usual just a grind. I was expecting this to be a $5k month but I’m about $950 short of that, so I guess I’ll actually try to win $$ while grinding.

Two hands from the last couple days:

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 7 Players


UTG+1: $130.90
MP: $114.80
Hero (CO): $300.60
BTN: $105.55
SB: $58.55
BB: $53.45
UTG: $25.65

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (CO)
3 folds, Hero raises to $4, BTN calls $4, 2 folds

I make my standard raise and get a single caller behind me who is the BTN (58/7/0.6 after 114 hands I probably had a lot less hands at the time).

Flop: ($9.50) 6 T 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $6, BTN calls $6

The flop comes a completely mundane T65r – quite a few hands hit this flop but few actually connect strongly. I make my standard con’t bet and the BTN calls – not exactly the scariest thing to see from this opponent.

Turn: ($21.50) J (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $12, Hero raises to $30, BTN raises to $95.55 and is All-In, Hero calls $65.55

This opponent actually had a fairly high turn bet % number (around 40% - a lot of people just look at the overall AF # and forget that it’s actually a combo stat that is very heavily weighted towards the flop). I decide that a check/raise here will allow me to extract the most value/get away from my hand. Unfortunately, I don’t follow through with my plan of getting away from the hand facing ‘extreme’ resistance and I call anyway. Really there’s no hand here that will push after I c/r that I am ahead of and I got pretty lucky in that he only had 2-pair and I had a lot of outs – though none of them hit.

River: ($212.60) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $212.60 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A A (a pair of Aces) and LOST (-$105.55 NET)
BTN showed 6 J (two pair, Jacks and Sixes) and WON $209.60 (+$104.05 NET)

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players


SB: $25
BB: $100
UTG: $95.45
UTG+1: $69.20
UTG+2: $51.85
MP1: $103.80
MP2: $41.45
Hero (CO): $98
BTN: $369.95

Pre-Flop: K T dealt to Hero (CO)
4 folds, MP2 calls $1, Hero raises to $4, BTN calls $4, 2 folds, MP2 calls $3

I raise here to isolate the limper since I’ll have position the rest of the hand, I don’t like the button calling behind me – but the more the merrier I guess.

Flop: ($13.50) 8 6 K (3 Players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets $7, BTN raises to $14, MP2 folds, Hero calls $7

It checks to me and I make my STD con’t bet in this sort of pot (the pot is actually ~$12.70), while this bet may seem small I think it gives me the most flexibility and is the right balance between pricing people out/getting calls/ allowing me to spend as little as possible finding folds on the hands where I miss. I get min-raised by BTN, which I don’t really like – if I reraise I’m basically only getting played with by hands that destroy me and getting everything else to fold. I choose to call even though I’ll be OOP. BTN only raises the flop ~4% of the time and only bets turn ~21% of the time (after 164 hands) so it seems that if this is a complete bluff he’d be much more likely to just check behind on the turn and let me know where I’m at – potentially letting me value-bet my pretty weak hand on the river.

Turn: ($41.50) 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $22, Hero raises to $80 and is All-In, BTN calls $58

This card is fantastic for me, I now have TP with a FD and a gutter. BTNs bet basically means he likes his hand – but it’s also small enough for me to have plenty of FE. I kinda put his range here on something like AA, KK, AK, 88, 66, Kx down to like K8, 86, 97, 77. Against this range I’m about a 48.2% underdog. So this is a fairly easy push, eliminating the weaker Kxs I’m still a 43.8% underdog – which with the dead $$ is more than enough to push in this spot. (Oh the reason why hands like AA-AK are included is that the BTN in this hand is 25/2.5 so they’re well within his range). Against what BTN actually had, I was only a 36.36% underdog, but obviously this move is +ev. I happened to get lucky and hit my flush.

River: ($201.50) J (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $201.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed K T (a flush, King high) and WON $198.50 (+$100.50 NET)
BTN mucked A A and LOST (-$98 NET)

Hmm I actually like doing these analyses I’ll try doing some more in the future. Since I’m usually playing anywhere between 12-14 tables a lot of my ‘reads’ of non-regulars are based purely on stats. However, stats coupled with experience and hand reading at this level are good enough to make me winner.