Big Pots/ Interesting Spots

I just returned from a weekend road trip with my friend Ryan, also known as Benji. We went down to College Park in Maryland and it was a blast. Benj' knew a girl on the soccer team and we caught the opening game of the season. Later we went out at night with the team. Its always a great time when you get all 75 inches and 220 pounds of Benj cuttin' a rug while pounding Jack and cokes. Ry walked in with a light grey shirt and left with a black one. The bar was hot as hell. Later on I was found sitting Indian style in a grass field devouring moo shu pork. If poker does not pan out I will train to be a competitive eater someday haha. It was really good to just get away from the tables for a bit. I have been running so disgustingly cold for 5 weeks now, and I am doing my best to keep kicking. Now that I manage my money a lot better these days, the swings no longer affect my mood as much. Sure losing 4k in 60 minutes still sucks, but it does not bother me as soon as I'm done playing. I might mull over a hand or two for a bit, but then I move on to whatever I got next in my day. Maybe I'll just sit outside and BBQ or hit the gym for an hour. My next informational article is going to be about bankroll management and controlled risk taking at higher levels. This is one of the most overlooked skills that is vital to being a successful poker player. Winning in this game extends far beyond talent.

Here are some hands from the last 4-5 days. My session from Friday of last week was the worst poker I have played in the last 4 months, and I acknowledge that. I kept getting sucked out on in situations where I was the overwhelming favorite, eventually I lost control of my emotions and went too far with 2 hands:

3/6: I open AA second to act at a 6 handed table- this is known as middle position(MP). The button calls, he is tight and slightly aggressive. The big blind (BB) squeezes. His range for doing this when I open from middle position is tighter, perhaps TT-AA and AJs+. However he is sort of timid with hands like AK JJ and QQ so if i re raise he'll fold those hands. I decided to call and take a more deceptive route while keeping his dominated hands in the pot. The button calls as well.

Flop: J2J -- BB leads for 2/3 of the pot I call and the button shoves. This is almost always a jack from a tighter player, but I found myself with 2/5 of my stack in the middle and was getting 2 to 1 on my money with AA in a re raised pot. I doubt my hand is good that often here but I was frustrated from the session and called the buttons shove. The BB folded. This was bad poker I'm pretty sure.

2/4 The cutoff opens he is loose and aggro. The button is loose and passive but likes to trap and slow play. I squeeze to 66 with TT from the small blind (SB) to try and pick up the dead money with the intention of folding to a re raise from the button but stacking off versus the cutoff. Cutoff folds, button calls and we see the flop.

Flop: 992 2c (clubs)- I bet he calls. The turn is 8c and i have a little less than the pot at this point. My stack is 230 ish and the pot is just under 300. I think I need to c/f (check-fold) here most times and rarely c/c (check call) a bet or shove. These two hands occurred back to back. Shortly after shoving the turn I pulled the plug on this session.

3/6 A very erratic player open otb (on the button). He was raising after the cutoff limped. The cutoff was a weak player and the button is likely doing this with marginal hands often. I had KQ in the SB and thought for a while about what to do. Re raising is an option if I think that the button will call with worse. My notes on the button are as follows: bad calling station post flop, cannot be bluffed, passive post flop with KK on a JT2 board- he called my raise pre flop with KK called one bet then checked it down with me, I have no idea why, lastly he bet 3 bet bluffs an A34 2c board way with absolutely nothing-this is brain dead poker.

Flop JT5 2d (diamonds)- I think about lines for a while. If I c/r (check raise here) I'm not really sure what to do if he puts me all in. It will be very tough for me to fold. After glancing at my notes and remembering that he bet-3bet bluffed multi way I decided he might view a lead from me as weak and decided to bet 3bet all in. I bet 3/4 of the pot he raised to 175ish and I over bet shoved. It was a large shove, about 665 into 225 but once I bet that flop, given the pot to stack ratios, its pretty ugly to call. So i just stuck it in. He had 55 and I did not hit.

2/4 The one highlight of my session was calling it off pre flop w 77, and being right. I opened 77 in the cutoff(CO), button was a loose passive fish and called, the small blind is a winning regular. He loves to pick on me and try to run the show. SB squeezes to 64, I think for a second and decide he is doing this with such a wide range that my hand is Usually best. But I cannot just call and defend 77, its a losing play because large cards flop too often so I 4bet him small to 144. The reason for this is that I believe re raising him small looks very bluffy and will blow up his 5bet shoving range. So when looking at this in terms of psychology I think he knows that I know he is making a play here a lot, so he will expect me to re bluff him often, at which point I need to leave him room to re bluff me once again. Flat out shoving 77 pre flop in my position is fine but hell never call me with worse and this guy just loves to try and be table captain so much that he will come back over the top of me often. And that's what he did w K high so I called and my hand held. The entire table went nuts and berated my play including one player saying "shame on you" haha. From that point on everyone gave me a hard time but I was able to get a lot of action and my image actually added more value to marginal hands. So I like my play here with 77. Also just to note, shoving 77 in my spot would be fine if the squeezer is apt to call my small 4bet instead of shoving over it. In that case, shoving 77 pre flop is better than 4betting small. And you always could just fold the hand, but thats no fun.

3/6 This is the last hand. I'm sitting on 1.4k at 3/6 with another good winning regular to my right. He covers me. We've been beating down the table but avoiding each other. He opens otb where he has a very wide range and I defend A2s. The flop falls AA5r (rainbow-no flush draws) and I go for a c/r. Now this is odd because I have trips with the weakest kicker possible and I am going to put myself in a lot of uncomfortable spots. By c/r'ing the flop it actually makes my hand look a lot weaker. It looks like I have nothing. I am representing trips or a full house, both of which are very hard to make and I know that he knows this. My opponent will "re bluff" me on the flop here often or float my c/r. But I also know that he is not the type, to run a massive bluff on several streets. My plan to is to c/r and call if he re raises the flop then fold the turn should he bet again. If he just calls my flop c/r, I will check every turn to him, call one bet, and fold the river. Anyone have thoughts on my line? Weird hand. In the actual hand I c/r the flop, he calls, I check call the turn, and we check it down on the river.