Thursday, August 23, 2007

Played Poor, Ok Result

I didn't play that well in the beginning of my 400 hand session today. I made some poor call downs and a pretty bad shove in my opinion. I was down over a buy-in semi-early but I managed to get my act together and start playing well to end the session +$48. I came to the realization that it isn't about making great call downs/folds and fancy plays, but rather getting maximum value from your hands at this level. People take some really weird lines at $100 max so it's tough to decipher, but there are just so many calling stations that checking the turn for pot control often isn't the best play. I have never bet every street with just pair in my life than I have been recently, and it has been working. I just need to make sure I don't do this as I start to move up levels as it doesn't work as well against tougher opponents. Here's the chart:

One of these days my graph will rise at a nice 45 degree angle, but I'll take what I can get. Here are some hands:

Lots of Value
This is a good example of what I was talking about above. I'm not saying I wouldn't bet the turn here against a solid opponent but this guy made it pretty obvious he had a King and I don't expect people to be folding top pair at this level.

Ughh
This is the bad shove hand. This guy was running at something like 62/30 and was a pretty big donk, but I'm just not sure if it's worth shoving here. His huge raise sort of threw me off and made me lean toward JJ, but this was also my first big pocket pair, so I think I talked myself into it. I thought I was going to suck out too..

Bad Call
This was a pretty awful turn but I called anyways because I don't give anyone any credit. The only thing I can beat is a draw that was picked up on the turn (like Ace of clubs) buts thats reaching. Nothing better than putting it in when you are drawing dead.

I'm going back to school tomorrow and I'm pretty excited for it. I have one class that I think might be interesting, a game theory class. I'm also excited because I will get to see my girlfriend more and I should be able to play more poker. So lots of benefits...

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