Weekend Recap

Howdy Folks. I hope your holiday weekend was good. The weekend was slightly profitable on the poker tables for me. I am continuing my good streak and have had positive days now for nine days in a row. Unfortunately only a few of them have been big wins, with the majority being under $100. I finally deposited over at FullTilt Poker. I've shown a slight profit there so far, and have cleared $40 of the bonus so far. I'm not sure how much I will play there in the future. As a whole, the players there seem to be much better than other sites like the B2B and Tribeca sits. One thing that is really different there is the amount of pot sized and greater bets. It is really hard to play draws when the players are making pot sized bets. So I guess I'll have to tighten up a little there. But more than likely I'll go to another Tribeca or B2B soon, as there are bigger fish to fry there.

I want to also try playing over at Pacific. I can sign up at Pacific through http://www.pokersavvy.com/ and get some extra bonus dollars through them. I haven't signed up at PokerSavvy yet, so the first person who posts there referral ID in the comments, I will sign up through them.

And as a follow up to my last post about min-raises, is there a new book out, or maybe a post by a pro over at twoplustwo that advocated min-raising? I can't tell you how many times people were min-raising this weekend. It was absolutely unbelievable. At FullTilt, it was either a full pot or bigger bet, or a min-raise. WTF? There must be a new book out or something.

I decided that I am going to start posting some hands from the previous days where I lost the most, and then post some hands where I think I played pretty well. Hopefully this can start a little discussion, and maybe I can get some advice from some of you out there. Also, this will be good for me to look back on in the future.

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TopRankedPoker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: EUR 0.50/1
5 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: 43.60
CO: 78.70
Button: 58.74
SB: 107.00
HERO: 142.85

Pre-flop: (5 players) HERO is BB with 4c 5c
UTG folds, CO calls, Button raises to 3.00, SB calls, HERO calls, CO calls.

Flop: 5s Kd 4s (EUR 12.00, 4 players)
SB checks, HERO bets 11.00, CO folds, Button folds, SB raises to 42.00, HERO re-raises to 128.85 and is all-in, SB calls and is all-in.

Turn: Jc (EUR 218.00, 2 players)

River: 3s (EUR 218.00, 2 players)

Results:
Final pot: EUR 218.00
HERO showed 4c 5c (Two Pair, fives & fours)
UTG showed Ks Qs (Flush, King high)

It turns out that after the flop, it was almost exactly a coinflip. I'm not too disappointed about my play here though. I could have easily been representing a set or something like that, so basically my opponent was drawing to the flush. And I don't think I could have folded after the flop with two pair. Phil Gorden in his Little Green Book says that you should play bottom two pair really fast. So that is what I did.

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Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $1/$2
9 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $192
UTG+1: $208.45
MP1: $197.25
MP2: $166
MP3: $207.95
CO: $200
Button: $113.35
SB: $264.50
HERO: $160.40

Pre-flop: (9 players) HERO is BB with Qc Qh
UTG calls, 4 folds, CO (poster) checks, Button folds, SB calls, HERO raises to $12, UTG calls, 2 folds.

Flop: 9s 6c 8h ($28, 2 players)
HERO bets $16, UTG calls.

Turn: Ah ($60, 2 players)
HERO bets $26, UTG calls.

River: 9d ($112, 2 players)
HERO bets $28, UTG calls.

Results:
Final pot: $168
HERO showed Qc Qh (Pair, Queens)
UTG showed Kd Ad (Pair, Aces)

Ugg, I hate big pocket pairs in the blinds, as I will be out of position the rest of the hand. I think I should have bet more on the flop. It might have gotten him to fold. Though, his call on the flop with a wiffed AK was pretty loose. If he would have raised on the Turn or River, I would have folded. The River bet was meant purely as a blocking bet, just in case he had something like pocket Jacks or Tens or something like that.

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Stack sizes:
UTG: 98.65
CO: 102.95
HERO: 95.25
SB: 107.50
BB: 123.75

Pre-flop: (5 players) HERO is BB with Ad Qd
2 folds, HERO bets 4.00, SB raises to $10.00, 1 folds, HERO calls.

Flop: Td 3d 8c (EUR 22.00, 2 players)
SB bets 14.00, HERO calls.

Turn: 7c (EUR 50.00, 2 players)
SB bets 41.00, HERO calls.

River: 4c (EUR 132.00, 2 players)
SB bets 29.00, HERO folds.

Results:
Final pot: EUR 132.00
SB wins: (doesn't show hand)

I played this hand really bad. This guy plays his overpairs really really fast. I'm ok with the call on the flop, as if I hit, I can probably stack him, so my implied odds are pretty high. The turn call was terrible though. Doh! I definitely didn't have odds to call there. As a side note, I did win a nice pot against this guy a little later when it was obvious again he had an over pair, but I bluffed on a really scary board with all low cards and he folded.

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TopRankedPoker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: EUR 0.50/1
8 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: 102.40
EP: 116.00
MP: 110.65
LP: 66.58
CO: 117.42
Button: 14.15
HERO: 97.25
BB: 97.50

Pre-flop: (8 players) HERO is SB with 6d Td
3 folds, LP bets 2.00, 2 folds, HERO calls, 1 folds.

Flop: Ts 7h 6s (EUR 5.00, 2 players)
HERO bets 4.00, LP calls.

Turn: 4h (EUR 13.00, 2 players)
HERO bets 12.00, LP raises to 31.00, HERO re-raises to79.25 and is all-in, LP calls and is all-in.

River: Qd (EUR 131.16, 2 players)

Results:
Final pot: EUR 131.16
HERO showed 6d Td (2 Pair, tens & sixes)
LP showed 4d 4s (three of a kind, fours)

Ugg, not much to say on this hand. He min-bet PF, and I probably should have folded this. But I figured it was pretty cheap for me to see a flop. I am really surprised he called the flop bet with three overs to his small pocket pair. And it was just bad luck that he hit his two outer on the turn. Oh well.

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Here were some of my big hands that I won from the weekend:

TopRankedPoker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: EUR 0.50/1
6 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: 93.20
HERO: 111.52
CO: 103.25
Button: 105.63
SB: 95.50
BB: 131.90

Pre-flop: (6 players) HERO is MP with Ad Kd
UTG calls, HERO raises to 4.50, 3 folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: 4s 7h 8c (EUR 14.00, 3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, HERO bets 9.50, BB raises to 19.00, UTG folds, HERO calls.

Turn: Kc (EUR 52.00, 2 players)
BB bets 27.00, HERO raises to 88.02 and is all-in, BB calls and is all-in.

River: Qs (EUR 225.04, 2 players)

Results:
Final pot: EUR 225.04
HERO showed Ad Kd (Pair, kings)
LP showed 5c 5s (pair, fives)

Take that damn Min-Raiser! Nice turn card for me. I know this play has pretty high variance, but this guy was a total donk. Later on in the day, he min-raised me again! And again I took his stack. He's on my buddy list now.

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Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $1/$2
10 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $142.91
UTG+1: $223.95
UTG+2: $158
MP1: $221.50
MP2: $427.75
MP3: $176.40
CO: $333.90
HERO: $157
SB: $161.50
BB: $326.75

Pre-flop: (10 players) HERO is Button with Kh Kd
4 folds, MP2 raises to $7, 2 folds, HERO calls, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: 5s 4s Th ($22, 3 players)
BB bets $7.5, MP2 raises to $15, HERO raises to $40, BB folds, MP2 raises to $65, HERO raises all-in $110, MP2 folds.
Uncalled bets: $110 returned to HERO.

Results:
Final pot: $134.5

I didn't re-raise PF, because sometimes I like to just call with the big pocket pairs. My feeling is that if I re-raise, it is too easy for someone to put me on a high pocket pair, and someone could take advantage of that. Again, we got another min-raiser here, with the PF raiser min-raising the BB bet. And then he min-raises me again after I put in a nice big raise! I think it is definately possible that he had Aces and folded thinking I had a set. I definitely played it like a set. I suppose he could have had Jacks or Queens too. I was pretty proud of this hand, especially since I haven't been playing at NL200 much yet.

Anyone have any comments on the above hands?