A difficult decision or not?

Here's a situation I'm struggling with:

I'm dealt pocket Aces in LP and raise to be called by one villain in MP.
Flop shows a rainbow K, 6, 3 and the villain bets 2/3 of the pot into me.

What could he have?

• pocket kings? unlikely because he limped and just called a raise
• two pair? unlikely, I don't see him calling a raise with a K6 or 63 out of position.
• pocket 66 or pocket 33? these are possible hands that fit his pattern.
• a draw? he might have an open ended straight draw or a gutshot draw, but would he bet that?
• a bluff? possible, but that would be a very daring play

So, I'm basically thinking he probably has a set or there is a small chance he is bluffing.

I played this hand like a total donk (cause I was tilting) by calling his bets on all streets. I should have laid it down when he bet again on the turn.

Still, I'm wondering what the right play is here.

Folding on the flop was the correct play of course, but wouldn't this be extremely weak? If I start folding top pairs on the flop everytime I get bet into, I feel like like a sitting duck: just bet me and I'll fold.

Looking back on that hand, calling doesn't feel right either. Most likely, I'll be facing another bet on the turn and be in the same spot again, only for more money.

I'm now thinking I should have reraised him on the flop. If he 3bets or even goes all-in, I have an easier laydown, cause I doubt he would take a bluff this far. It would be lost money, but now I did loose even more on later streets. The alternative would be to just call and give up on the turn if the villain bets again.

I definately would like some feedback on this, so feel free to post your thoughts.

The problem hands

Last night I digged into my holdem manager stats to find out if my lack of results at the 4NL tables is a matter of running bad or playing bad.

Two things were noticable: results per position and my top loosing hands.

Results per position:

• early: a little down
• middle: a little down
• cutoff: a little up
• button: big winner
• small blind: huge looser
• big blind: big winner

So, the first thing to work on is my play from the small blind: I'm playing way too many hands (VPIP of over 40%). So, the next sessions I'll tighten up there and see how that works.

Top loosing hands:

My biggest loosing hands are the so called problem hands: KQo, KJo, QJo, KQs. I'm also loosing big with hands like ATo, KTo etc. It seems I tend to play these hands very often and from almost any position. So, I plan on laying them down a lot more often in EP and MP, especially when facing a raise and just try limping with these hands. I guess I should also play these hands a lot more careful when flopping just a pair.

Overall, my top hands are high pocket pairs, most middle and bottom pairs, suited connectors and a few other hands like ofsuit connectors and suited one-gappers that got lucky.

So two things to focus on the next sessions: tighten up from the small blind and play the 'problem hands' less and more conservative. Hopefully this will help to turn things around.

Sometimes poker is like riding a rollercoaster

After my last session, where I lost almost 4 buyins (I play $0.02-$0.04 with a $5 buyin), I really hoped to do better this time. The start was looking good as played some tight but aggressive poker and I got up something like $3. Then it hit me again: loosing three big pots in a short time, two of which I got in with the best hand and the other one being up against a flopped set with my flopped two pair. And there it was: down another $13.

The only difference with the big loosing session before was that I felt I was playing at least ok and the cards were just against me. So I kept playing (after taking a 10 min. break to calm down) and slowly I got some back. About an hour later I felted a guy so I got up to -$4.

I was looking to call it a day when I'm dealt pocket kings in later position and I smooth call a raise in EP from a fairly tight player. Now the flop shows a queen and two lows and the initial raiser bets about 2/3 of the pot. A bit much for a c-bet so I figured he might have QQ, AQ or maybe JJ or TT. At that point I was a bit worried he might have QQ and if he did, I would be way behind. The turn is a blank and he bets again, again about 2/3 of the pot. So now I'm pretty confident he has either QQ or AQ. I make a questionable call, but the pot is getting pretty big now and I'm kinda committed. For once, the cards like me and the river brings a much needed king. The rest of the money goes in and I pick up the pot having sucked out 'cause the other guy did have pocket queens.

That brought me to a $1 up and I decide to take another break. That luckbox hand did make a big difference (down $9 or up $1) but after all these suckouts against me the last two sessions, I guess I was due.

After a short break I fired up Titan Poker to play one table of 6-max 10NL. Only played for about half an hour but managed to win a few pots and earn little over $3 so that was nice.

I'm still a bit down because of my previous session, which threw me back big time, but I'm not giving up on poker just yet.

Sayonara!

Worst session ever

Yup,

yesterday evening was definately my session ever. I won a lot of small pots but managed to loose every single big one. I played like a complete donkey, that much is for sure. The decks were after me too: whenever I flopped a set, nobody had anything, but when I got a big starting hand like AA of JJ, sure enough, some guy flopped a set.

To make things worse I tilted. I kept telling myself I wasn't but I was.

So it seems a habit: I play a couple of solid and winning sessions and then blow it of in one big loosing session. It's probably a blessing I'm going on a vacation soon so I won't be able to play poker for a month.

I'm just so frustrated at this point. If I can't win a this level, what realistic expectation can there be I could win at even higher levels in the future?

Tonight I will play again though but if I keep making these horrible mistakes, I guess I should think about quitting.

DAMN!

Cashing out my original deposits

Thanks to my winnings at the 2NL tables and a total of just over $200 in bonusses, I did earn enough to cash out my original deposits of $390 and still have a bankroll that is big enough to keep playing at the 4NL tables.

Even though I realize cashing out this early will delay moving up to the 10NL tables, it's just a nice feeling playing poker for free and trying to continue building my bankroll without putting any money of my own into it.

So my bankroll has fallen back from $616 to $227 but none of it is my own money :)

Results for June 2008

Another month has passed so it's time to recap...

My goals for June were:

• Clear the bonus at Partypoker: good, I picked up the $25 bonus
• Play at least 5000 hands at 4NL: ok, I played 4,700 hands at 4NL and 230 hands at 10NL
• Win $30: bad, I earned a whopping $3.58

After my bad start at the 4NL tables in May, I was eager to do better this month and the first half of the month DID go very well as I was up $21. In the next 5 sessions I lost $21 so I was back to zero. At that point I decided to cut back on the multi-tabling and just played on two tables, which would allow me to make better decisions and actually pay attention to how my opponents are playing. So, my meagre profit for this month is a result of my last two sessions.

Up until now, I have played a total of almost 9,000 hands at 4NL and lost $1 to show for it.

I have been looking back on several specific hands and most big losses were just bad plays. It also seems I'm playing some starting hands such as AJo, KQo, KJo and QJo far too often and far too optimistic.

Statwise, I'm hovering at about VPIP: 24%, PFR: 6%, PFA: 1.4

So, these are heading in the right direction, but I feel I still need to show more aggression and less limping.

No goals for July because I'll be enjoying a much anticipated vacation to France in a couple of days.

I downloaded all episodes of High Stakes to my ipod and will pack my Harrington on Cash games volumes so I can study some more while in France.

Enjoy the game!