I wasn't planning on shot taking 200NL quite yet but I played a long session and as tables broke and we got down to 3 tables I decided to add a 200NL table and just play tight. I think I played the first 2 MUBSy but the last one I think plays itself. Thoughts?


HAND 1:
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PokerStars - $2 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 317.32 BB
CO: 111.27 BB - VP 35 / PR 27 / 3B 0 / AF 1 (26 Hands)
Hero (BTN): 111.45 BB - VP 23 / PR 19 / 3B 14 / AF 5 (26 Hands)
SB: 76.7 BB
BB: 402.25 BB
UTG: 218.37 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K♣ K♥

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 6.5 BB

Flop: (19.5 BB, 2 players) 7♦ K♦ 7♠
CO checks, Hero bets 7 BB, CO raises to 23.27 BB, Hero calls 16.27 BB

Turn: (66.03 BB, 2 players) 3♠
CO bets 32.27 BB, Hero calls 32.27 BB

River: (130.56 BB, 2 players) 7♣
CO checks, Hero checks

This river check back in position is really soft. I would have gone for a smaller value bet at lower stakes. My reasoning at the time was that I'm only getting paid by the case K and getting stacked by the case 7 (probably not true if we size 1/3 - 1/2 pot). Also, the more I thought about it there are way more Kx and slow played AA with no reads than random 7x without even counting Hero calls from TT-QQ. And why would 7x check river without reads? If he has air will he call BS and come over the top? No reads so we play it probably too safe. How bad is this?

HAND 2:
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PokerStars - $2 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 100 BB - VP 27 / PR 27 / 3B 9 / AF 1 (37 Hands)
Hero (SB): 176 BB - VP 20 / PR 15 / 3B 14 / AF 2 (46 Hands)
BB: 69.2 BB
CO: 239.61 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q♠ Q♣

fold, BTN raises to 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 8.5 BB, fold, BTN calls 6 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) K♠ T♦ K♣
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (18 BB, 2 players) 2♥
Hero checks, BTN bets 6 BB, Hero calls 6 BB

River: (30 BB, 2 players) 3♣
Hero checks, BTN checks

This one is REALLY MUBSy but it's against the same guy and I've been getting a ton of premiums so it looks like I'm 3 betting light when I'm not. I also want to continue to ISO against this guy who isn't folding vs 3 bets much. The flop seems like a way ahead or way behind spot. It's rainbow so there are no flush draws to charge and we block some straight draws. Seems like a fine check since we know this same V has been seen turning hands like Ace high into a bluff in large pots. Plan was to x/c down clean run outs. We just don't really want to see an Ace. I was surprised V didn't stab on the river and wanted to avoid playing a bloated pot OOP and putting stacks in play.


HAND 3:
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PokerStars - $2 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 100 BB
CO: 123.97 BB - VP 27 / PR 27 / 3B 9 / AF 1 (37 Hands)
Hero (BTN): 201.13 BB - VP 21 / PR 16 / 3B 16 / AF 3 (87 Hands)
SB: 64.78 BB - VP 16 / PR 1 / 3B 0 / AF 3 (165 Hands)
BB: 100 BB
UTG: 246.1 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K♦ K♠

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, SB calls 9.5 BB, fold, CO raises to 35 BB, Hero raises to 110 BB, SB calls 54.78 BB and is all-in, CO raises to 123.97 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 13.97 BB

Flop: (313.71 BB, 3 players) 9♣ K♥ J♥

Turn: (313.71 BB, 3 players) 7♥

River: (313.71 BB, 3 players) 9♥

This is actually a different player to my immediate right in the CO but he's kind of playing the same way the old V did and my stats still look super aggro pre when in fact I'm just getting a ton of AQ+,QQ+ pre and not slow playing it.

Spoiler alert!

Click to Reveal!

CO shows A♠ Q♣ (One Pair, Nines)

Main Pot [195.33 BB]: (Pre 24%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot#1 [118.38 BB]: (Pre 29%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)

Hero shows K♦ K♠ (Full House, Kings full of Nines)

Main Pot [195.33 BB]: (Pre 58%, Flop 80%, Turn 79%)
Side Pot#1 [118.38 BB]: (Pre 71%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)

SB shows T♦ T♣ (Two Pair, Tens and Nines)

Main Pot [195.33 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 12%, Turn 17%)

Hero wins 312.21 BB

Rake paid 1.5 BB

Input on all 3 hands welcome.

Cut and paste error: Hand 2 V status were:
VP 35 / PR 30 / 3B 19 / AF 3

Not that the diff probably matters much.

First of all...it's nice to run like God when taking a shot at a higher limit.

Second of all...my experience when taking shots is that time spent at the higher limit, and # of hands played, is more important than extracting maximum EV every hand. As you play more hands, and become comfortable at the higher limit, you give yourself the time to realise that it's still the same game, and that some of your opponents are still bad.

In conclusion, you were certainly exhibiting MUBS on the first 2 hands, but you've also played more hands at this limit, and given the fact that you're up for the session, may be able to move up permanently soon.

Hands look good, glad you decided to shoot towards NL200.
You will understand that continually monitoring your progress towards NL200 and higher stakes requires significant mental effort and off-table preparation about your play and that of your opponents. That is why accompanying you on this trip is complicated if we do not have the necessary information in this regard. Anyway, I am available at times to give you my opinion on some singular hands that you decide to post on the NL200 forum. But continually monitoring your progress toward the HS is doing an entirely different follow-up job and I might be willing to do it if we can come to an agreement.
Greetings.

Hand 1
Its kind of weird, that he choose to check-raise into the preflop 3-better on a K77 board. When he check the river, I think, his range is mostly bluffs, that are giving up. So while I dont think, you are beat very often, I also dont think, there was a lot of value to extract. I dont hate checking back and basically take a note on, what the heck he had.

Hand 2
I think, you need to bet either the flop or the turn here. There are some gutshots like AQ or AJ, which you can get value from, or a hand like JJ or ATs. Checking twice and then just calling his very small turn bet is letting him off the hock a little to cheaply.

Hand 3
Not much to say here. Folding KK preflop require a really solid read, and at 6-max you should pretty much never do it for 100BB or less. You got it in, you were ahead, and you held. Nice job and nice boost to the bankroll

Originally Posted by Sidetracked

First of all...it's nice to run like God when taking a shot at a higher limit.

Second of all...my experience when taking shots is that time spent at the higher limit, and # of hands played, is more important than extracting maximum EV every hand. As you play more hands, and become comfortable at the higher limit, you give yourself the time to realise that it's still the same game, and that some of your opponents are still bad.

In conclusion, you were certainly exhibiting MUBS on the first 2 hands, but you've also played more hands at this limit, and given the fact that you're up for the session, may be able to move up permanently soon.

Amen to running like god! In 95 hands over 54 minutes I got AKo, AQo x 2, AJo, KK x 2, QQ, and TT x 2. The even crazier part was THEY ALL HELD.

Also agree with the sentiment that going for max EV isn't mandatory. It's good to get some HH with a lot of new players and see that it's not all doom and gloom. I'm still not very close to moving up without risking my roll but I'll be working some shots in to give myself a chance to arrive earlier rather than later. Honestly, if I could play 200NL I wouldn't really miss playing 2/5 live that much.

Originally Posted by gustav197poker

You will understand that continually monitoring your progress towards NL200 and higher stakes requires significant mental effort and off-table preparation about your play and that of your opponents. That is why accompanying you on this trip is complicated if we do not have the necessary information in this regard.

That's a good point. If I do make it to full time 200NL it's probably a good time to take my study to the next level and get at least a few coaching lessons. I'll continue posting here as well.

Originally Posted by fundiver199

Hand 1
Its kind of weird, that he choose to check-raise into the preflop 3-better on a K77 board. When he check the river, I think, his range is mostly bluffs, that are giving up. So while I dont think, you are beat very often, I also dont think, there was a lot of value to extract. I dont hate checking back and basically take a note on, what the heck he had.

Hand 2
I think, you need to bet either the flop or the turn here. There are some gutshots like AQ or AJ, which you can get value from, or a hand like JJ or ATs. Checking twice and then just calling his very small turn bet is letting him off the hock a little to cheaply.

Hand 3
Not much to say here. Folding KK preflop require a really solid read, and at 6-max you should pretty much never do it for 100BB or less. You got it in, you were ahead, and you held. Nice job and nice boost to the bankroll

Spot on, as per usual. He did have a bluff in H1, AQo. Which is part of the reason I played H2 so passively, but he actually had some showdown value in H2 and brain enough to check back river. So I missed at least a little value there worrying too much that he could come over the top with air like he did previously and get me to fold the best hand.

Yea, nice boost the the bankroll. Is 50 buy ins really necessary to move up? I have no idea how long it may take to grind the roll up to $10k (assuming we even keep winning consistently at 100NL).

In the second hand, I don't think you got enough value from that hand. I would consider betting turn and river to get value from worse pairs.