Honeymoon or Bust!

[John A]

$0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 7 Players

MP1: $14 (28 bb)
MP2: $48.75 (97.5 bb)
MP3: $48.85 (97.7 bb)
CO: $47.45 (94.9 bb)
Hero (BTN): $63.20 (126.4 bb)
SB: $50.45 (100.9 bb)
BB: $52.69 (105.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with Q

T

4 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, SB folds, BB raises to $4.50, Hero calls $3

3-bet is small, and we're both over 100bbs, so going to defend with this hand. Lots of flops I can steal on.

Flop: ($9.25) 9

5

8

(2 players)
BB bets $6, Hero calls $6

If this person raised with AK-AJ, etc... type hand, they are going to slow down on the turn once I call. I have some outs and a nice gutshot = call vs raise.

Turn: ($21.25) J

(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $11.62, BB calls $11.62

Sweet... hit my gutshot, I'm such a luckbox. Trying to size my turn bet for an easy river shove and allow for the illusion of fold equity against me.

River: ($44.49) J

(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $41.08, BB calls $30.57 and is all-in

Not a bad river. Could have been better, but going to go for max value and hope my opponent has something, which I assume is somewhat so/so based on turn and river checking.

Results: $105.63 pot ($3 rake)
Final Board: 9

5

8

J

J

Hero showed Q

T

and won $102.63 ($49.94 net)
BB mucked A

A

and lost (-$52.69 net)

He had a little something. Another note too, I'll call with a lot of hands in position for when my opponent does have something like this too. I hit two pair or better, and you can usually stack people at these stakes with big pairs a lot.

 

[John A]

$0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
UTG: $96.70 (96.7 bb)
MP: $84.50 (84.5 bb)
CO: $119.15 (119.2 bb)
Hero (BTN): $101.50 (101.5 bb)
SB: $111 (111 bb)
BB: $185.95 (186 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with 9

8

3 folds, Hero raises to $3, SB raises to $10, BB folds, Hero calls $7

Had a pretty good read on this guy. This hand is from 2 days ago I think, so still really fresh on my mind. Saw him double and give up on a board he "shouldn't" have doubled on if he was a better player. So just kind of felt I could out play him.

Flop: ($21) 3

3

6

(2 players)
SB bets $10.50, Hero calls $10.50

I'm floating obviously.

Turn: ($42) 7

(2 players)
SB bets $29, Hero calls $29

Pick up the OESD, and really my plan is if I don't hit, I'm going to shove a lot of rivers if I'm checked to. I'm going with my read and making my plan for the hand. I don't think the poor sizing here matters too much, because can't really get him to fold any big pairs unless I had enough for over shoves. I need to get him off of Qx+ since I have no showdown value. I'll need him to fold around 33% of the time on my river bluff for it to be +EV. I was thinking based on my read it's probably 50%ish percent, so a river shove would be +EV and I have some nice outs. All this runs through my head pretty fast so it's funny trying to type it in here now on recollection. lol

River: ($100) T

(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $52 and is all-in, SB folds

End up hitting my hand, but my plan would have worked from the start also. Either way it worked out how I was reading the situation.

Results: $100 pot ($3 rake)
Final Board: 3

3

6

7

T

Hero mucked 9

8

and won $97 ($47.50 net)
SB mucked and lost (-$49.50 net)

 

[John A]

Yeah, and guess who just showed up at my door? DHL with a poker check for the honeymoon! Sweet. One check at a time baby!

God, I have a ton of 3-bet re-defends in this 30k hand sample. I'll try and look for some better ones when I have more time too. Hope this is a good start.

 

[bz54321]

Thank you John finding your re-playing of these hands very insightful.

Interested to see some hands were your opponent was aggressive and got you to fold like you are doing to the opponent in most of these hands. (please and thank you)

 

[TheKid84]

Keep this bad boy going - love reading the stuff posted here.

 

[KerouacsDog]

same here kid, its a goldmine of info

 

[icemonkey9]

It'd be interesting to see more of the "I didn't hit my hand" 3-bet re-defend hands and your thought process of both good folds / good situations to flot/raise/etc to get villains off their hands.

Thanks for the thread, good stuff.

 

[John A]

It'd be interesting to see more of the "I didn't hit my hand" 3-bet re-defend hands and your thought process of both good folds / good situations to flot/raise/etc to get villains off their hands.

Thanks for the thread, good stuff.

Think I posted some of these already. AQ/98 hand. QT kind of goes into this too (explain why I'd float vs raise, and in AQ why I'd raise versus float). I don't raise the flop w/ the 98o hand because I'll get re-bluffed too often there. Calling is much stronger and gives me more options. Is there something more specific you're looking for, and I'll see what I can find. Keep in mind, this is literally only 30k hands so far, so I have slim pickings.

$0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 4 Players

SB: $44.75 (89.5 bb)
BB: $81.77 (163.5 bb)
CO: $54.58 (109.2 bb)
Hero (BTN): $49 (98 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with 6

4

CO folds, Hero raises to $1.50, SB folds, BB raises to $5, Hero calls $3.50

Re-defending against a weak reg.

Flop: ($10.25) T

5

K

(2 players)
BB bets $5.62, Hero raises to $14.24, BB raises to $76.77, Hero folds

I don't have have any good back door outs other than a straight, no overs = raise > float since I can also get him to fold some big pairs and a ton of hands that crush my equity.

Opps, he had a real hand. Fold.
Results: $38.73 pot ($1.90 rake)
Final Board: T

5

K

SB mucked 2

K

and lost (-$0.25 net)
BB showed K

Q

and won $36.83 ($17.59 net)
CO mucked 8

T

and lostHero mucked 6

4

and lost (-$19.24 net)

 

[Deco]

Per Request.. I'll pull out some 3-bet defends.

Hand Converted by Ace Poker Drills Poker Training Software

NL Holdem $0.5(BB)
SB ($23.4)
BB ($77.7)
HJ ($50)
CO ($59.58)
HERO ($55.45)

Dealt to Hero A

Q

HJ Folds , CO Folds , HERO Raises To $1.75 , SB Calls $1.5 , BB Raises To $6.5 , HERO Calls $4.75 , SB Folds

Standard call, want him to bluff his secondary weak range.

Flop ($14.5) 3

9

J

BB Bets $10.87 , HERO Raises To $23.24 , BB Folds

Obviously I think I can fold out AK/AQ, and probably TT and small pairs. Small percentage of time a J likely also. Sometimes wouldn't mind a call/float here since I have some nice backdoor outs. If I'm shoved on I don't think I have more than 15-18% equity, so an easy fold.

HERO wins $34.69

Whats your value range here when raising the flop?
In villains shoes playing against yourself what are the weakest hands you'd continue with?

 

[Deco]

Nice thread btw and good luck with the marriage.

 

[vinylspiros]

lovely thread and very well played hands and also very interesting. reminds me alot of some plays i make but there are times when ,IF, you take that kind of play too far,you may be losing money (in my own experience). So i assume that you do not play every hand this creatively and sometimes just decide to fold to 3-bets. What makes you decide whether a 3-bet is worth defending? is it your gut? his stats? prior experience against him?

what im saying is that sometimes you raise 56 suited; someone 3 bets; and you insta fold, and other times the pot turns into an all-inner out of nowhere. is creativity (floating,4 bet bluffing,) actually worth it (which it is apparently) and how often?

thnks.

 

[tenbob]

Sub'd.

Nice thread, FYI I paid for my own honeymoon the exact same way. Unfortunately it was 2008, and I have never gotten my roll as high since.

 

[John A]

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I'm off for the evening, but wish you all a fabulous day/night. Guys... hope you're taking care of you woman (or womens).

I see some good questions, so I'll definitely come back and answer as soon as I can.

Spread the love you have inside, because life is short my friends.

 

[KerouacsDog]

thanks JA. you too bud, have a good evening. keep posting in this thread, its quality.

 

[Goathair]

Great thread! Really like the notes on the hands, some good stuff in there.

 

[duggs]

great thread

 

[KerouacsDog]

agreed

 

[Poker Orifice]

Enjoying the read. Where to on the honeymoon?

 

[dj11]

Talley so far; 9 hands,
Hero is button in 8 of them
CutOff in 1. (QJo)

Question I have is how often are you folding the button even if you could open the action?

 

[TheKid84]

Talley so far; 9 hands,
Hero is button in 8 of them
CutOff in 1. (QJo)

Question I have is how often are you folding the button even if you could open the action?

Nice catch.

 

[KerouacsDog]

John, amazing thread, Im learning more every time I read one of your hands.
Problem I have is that I play 2nl-10nl, can I make moves like the ones you do, or is there no point getting fancy at my levels, and just stick to ABC. Ive played up to 200pl omaha, but withdrew money, so now grinding micro again.

 

[nabmom]

Spread the love you have inside, because life is short my friends.

Amen!

John, this is a great thread for me because I've been really feeling like the play at US sites is different (tighter with lots of nitty regs-- at least at 6max Merge). I've wanted to see whether the build a bankroll can work in the US

What size roll did you start with and did you start out at 100nl or lower?
What date did you start and how many hands have you been getting in on average daily/weekly?
Someone asked but I didn't see an answer- are there days of the week or times of the day that you think are softer?
Have you played any micro stakes (10 or 25 NL) and if so, what are the differences you see from 100/200 (specifically at these US sites)?
Over the hands you've played, what are your biggest swings?
Given the small player pool, are you ever able to table select?
Are you mostly encountering regs?
Are you multi-tabling? How many tables?

OK. Enough inquisition. Thank you for taking time to post this here. It is greatly appreciated.
Now I'm going outside to try and ID some of the local water birds!

 

[KerouacsDog]

Amen!

John, this is a great thread for me because I've been really feeling like the play at US sites is different (tighter with lots of nitty regs-- at least at 6max Merge). I've wanted to see whether the build a bankroll can work in the US

What size roll did you start with and did you start out at 100nl or lower?
What date did you start and how many hands have you been getting in on average daily/weekly?
Someone asked but I didn't see an answer- are there days of the week or times of the day that you think are softer?
Have you played any micro stakes (10 or 25 NL) and if so, what are the differences you see from 100/200 (specifically at these US sites)?
Over the hands you've played, what are your biggest swings?
Given the small player pool, are you ever able to table select?
Are you mostly encountering regs?
Are you multi-tabling? How many tables?

OK. Enough inquisition. Thank you for taking time to post this here. It is greatly appreciated.
Now I'm going outside to try and ID some of the local water birds!

excellent questions nab. we want answers John!

 

[John A]

Whats your value range here when raising the flop?
In villains shoes playing against yourself what are the weakest hands you'd continue with?

Value range = KK+/33/99 ,draws and air. Notice I leave out JJ/QQ. I wouldn't raise top set because I crush his range, and I'm not folding really any amount in this hand. QQ I'm only really getting strong Jx hand to stack off for worse hands.

Villains hands against me would probably need to be AJ/KJ, QQ+ and the other obvious hands like sets.

 

[John A]

lovely thread and very well played hands and also very interesting. reminds me alot of some plays i make but there are times when ,IF, you take that kind of play too far,you may be losing money (in my own experience). So i assume that you do not play every hand this creatively and sometimes just decide to fold to 3-bets. What makes you decide whether a 3-bet is worth defending? is it your gut? his stats? prior experience against him?

what im saying is that sometimes you raise 56 suited; someone 3 bets; and you insta fold, and other times the pot turns into an all-inner out of nowhere. is creativity (floating,4 bet bluffing,) actually worth it (which it is apparently) and how often?

thnks.

Yes, good question, and this brings up an important point about exploitative play. No way I'm playing every hand this way, or really creatively. Too much of one thing, and some of the better regs are going to adjust and exploit my play. Finding that sweet spot of doing it just enough at the BEST POSSIBLE times is key.

To tie that in to your next question, what makes me decide when to defend. There's an ideal scenario I always look for first, and then scale it back from there depending on several factors. If I've been super active lately, I'm not going to make a really creative/aggressive play unless my read is that this opponent isn't adjusting. There's always a certain TC (tension count, something we talk about on pokerzion a lot) count at the table you need to be aware of. TC count gets too high, you need to scale back your aggressive/creative play because someone at the table will snap.

I'm always first looking at my opponents tendencies, and any notes/reads I have on them. See if there's something I think I can exploit at some point in the hand. Chip stack, position are the basics... always good to have, but not always critical when you do have a good read/note. So it has a lot to do with flow of the game and my read OR something obvious that I feel I can exploit about the person. Simple example, someone is a PFP (pre-flop player... you'll see them a lot at these kinds of stakes). They are 3-betting a good amount, but have low or really high c-bet in 3-bet pot%'s. I know in this case they aren't too sure of what they are doing, and in a lot of cases where 3bet% and c-bet% are high, I know I can call and raise a lot of flops small against them to get folds (like you've seen in this thread) because their pre-flop range will be wide and weak when/if it does hit a flop. And it's not super easy to hit a flop well enough to want to stack off in a 3-bet pot if you aren't sure what someone else's range is.

To your last set of questions, yes, of course it's profitable, but it's very much about making sure you are really reading the spots well. It does take some practice and a bit of a learning curve. Once you know what to ideally look for, you can spot lots of profitable spots to play exploitative poker. You just don't want to over do it or get carried away when you're first learning or you'll end up spewing buy-ins away.