Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Runner Runner Perfect Perfect

I thought it would never happen but I hit quads on line with 2 perfect cards, my only outs. Martin commented last night that good players don't give bad beats but it can happen under the right circumstances. Here, the stakes are low relative to my cake roll, I have a good hand post flop, which I think might be good, and I am up against a short stack. I am also running good on this session so my confidence is high. I think I have played well over 100,000 hands on line and this is the first runner runner perfect perfect I can remember.

Running Quads

I can't remember the exact details of Ryan's greatest suckout ever at .02/.04 NL Hold'em, but this one has to rival it.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Two Hands

These are, imo, the two most interesting hands I played in my generally disastrous session last night. I'love to hear your thoughts on my play.


1. Hero is UTG w/ offsuit pocket aces.

Hero raises to 10. Relatively unknown tight passive player in MP calls. Another call on the button, and one in the big blind.

~40 in the pot, 4 players to the flop.

6♣7♣9♦

Hero checks. Tight passive bets 30. Others fold. Hero folds.


2. (My memory's a little hazy on the specifics of this one, chime in if you remember anything, Royal).

Hero is in late position with 88.

Royal raises to 9 from middle position. Hero calls. At least two other callers to the flop.

K♠2♦2♣

Royal bets 20. Hero calls. Others fold.

Turn is a K♣. Royal checks. Hero bets 30. Royal raises to 70. Hero calls.

(FYI, At this point I am pretty certain that Royal does not have a strong hand, ie, a King or a deuce)

River is a 4♦. Royal bets 100. Hero calls.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Interesting O8 Problems

I have had 2 very interesting O8 hands in the last 30 days with 2 very difficult decisions. With ROtty thinking, I made the correct decision in one case and may have made the correct decision in both cases. You decide.

Should you ever fold the nuts on the river? Here was my dilemna. PLO8 $2/$4. The board read 4,5,7,9 J no flush possibilities and it is 4 handed at the river with the following stack sizes preflop. Small blind good player about $900. Early position player about $150, me, mid position about $575, button about $225. The button was the original raiser and early position player has been leading the betting. Pot has about $240 in it after the turn, river is the Jack. Small blind checks early position player bets $75, I have A27,x for the nut low and a pair of sevens for the high. I call thinking I am likely quartered by the button who was the original raiser. Button has been raising a good percentage of pots preflop though mainly from position. Button moves in for about $150 more, small blind check raises all in for his whole stack, early position player moves in for insignificant dollars. What do you do? There is about $1200 in the pot and it is I think $465 for me to call. You know small blind has the nuts just don't know which one or possibly both. Besides the small blind player who you can tell from the chat is a very good player everyone else is unknown. What do you do?

The other interesting hand was a $1/$2 table 6 handed PLO8 and you are heads up with the original raiser. Board has 2 high cards, 2 low cards, no pairs and you have J,2,3,4 with 3 clubs and a made jack high flush on the turn. No Ace, King or Queen of clubs, on the board you have the 4th nut flush. You are not counterfeighted at this point so an Ace on the river would give you the nut low. I bet the pot on the turn about $65, and I am check raised on the turn all in about $170 to call. The player I am playing with is Ecoholic, a known aggressive player who is also comfortable playing much higher stakes than this table. What should I do?

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Drawing dead pre-flop

Can you be drawing dead pre-flop? This had been discussed a couple times before, once at the lunch game and another time at Tuesday Night Poker. I had a solution where a hand couldn't outright win the hand but Ryan said that the hand would chop if the board came out Quads with an Ace kicker. I asked for clarification on what "drawing dead" meant and Ryan said that there is no way for the hand to win any portion of the pot whatsoever, a definition I agree with.

Fast forward a few weeks and as I'm getting my stuff put together to head out for the day it dawns on me.

KcKs - "Hero"
KhHd
AcAs
AhAd
TcTs
ThTd
5c5s
5h5d

At this eight handed table, Hero picks up two black Kings yet he cannot lay claim to any part of the pot regardless of which five board cards come. In fact as long as the hand does not have an Ace in it, it is possible to be drawing dead pre-flop. JhJc, 6s7s, 9h2d, 5s5d, doesn't matter, they can all be guaranteed losers.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

O8: How Would You Play It?

I had AAT6 with diamonds in this hand, and I just did not know how to play it. Reraise the initial minraise and telegraph aces? Pot it when it comes back around to me again after a three bet and a caller, or see a flop before committing to the hand? I obviously wasn't feeling like gambling here and went set mining, but WWJD? What is correct?