Monthly Archives: February 2013

It was a weird spot to say the least. I was playing my usual deep stack 9 handed tournament hand ranges, which at these stages of the tournament was very tight aggressive. I felt my table image was represented like that but obviously as always it is pretty clear I am a person who grinds online, there’s something about an online grinder, it’s not hard to spot them.

I was in the BB with kc10s, in this case it is a pretty good hand, but in reality this unique spot would have been a spot where I would play a wide range of hands. I learnt a long time ago that anything you do in poker is a unique snap shot moment, every moment you are in, when playing poker, you have the thought process of will this be +ev in the long run. Seen as I rarely all out bluff, I like to have it with a random hand at a random time when I feel it is least expected my the victim (bar the times the hero calls you off and you look like a donkey and it’s gg and on to the next one). I didn’t go into the hand 100% bluffing but I was calling pre flop with the intention of representing hands such as sets on low boards, and on some wet boards maybe representing some hands a bb calling range couple perceptively hit.

The pre flop action, utg+1 raises on my BB, this player a very competent player, has the knowledge I do not like playing OOP, I perceived this range to be pretty wide but not super wide given he is still utg+1, if I assigned a range like 67s+, 10Jo+, all PPs, a8s+ a10o+ would be pretty close but as always with a great player like this, I can always add a few random balance hand in that doesn’t fall into his raise for value range. The button called, the bottom was one of the loosest players on the table, had classed him as a fish, some body who would over play hands. A good assigned range for him flatting would be 45s-KQs, 89o+, all pp’s 22-88, A2s-AJs, A7o-AJo.

The flop came 7c5c3h. I was first to act. I had previous knowledge that player UTG+1 folded AA when I lead out in a 3 handed pop prior, I showed down and set this time, I believe he would sometimes think I am balancing but sometimes leveling by taking the same line back to back. This player would consider all angles, it seemed like a perfect time to throw a hand where I have pure air into a spot and work off the information my opponents give me, leading here is going to set the dynamic for any further actions. I lead half the pot into both players. The original player flat called. I perceived this as weak and a lot of the times floats for further streets, lots of his hands with flush draws, bare ace of clubs sometimes 68 and sometimes a7.  I believe he would re raise all sets, all over pairs, the reason for this is the opponent on the button would be getting extremely good odds to call with a draw or something so he would have to protect his equity and slow playing just isn’t an option in this spot + in the past I have noticed this player liked to pile in a lot of chips when he had good hands and faced with aggression.
The button then came over the top for around 2.5 times my bet, I thought for 10seconds and 2.5times his bet back at him. The reason I done this was, the perceived situation so far from his shoes could go something a long the line of: Player one weak leading out to steal pot because flop is low, player two is weak just flat calling number one. I perceived his ranging range to be some squeezes with semi draws, some top pair type hands especially with ace kicker, he doesn’t have a flopped straight often at all. His range does weight towards, pairs, 8s sometimes 9s and straight draws or pairs and flush draws.
Opponent UTG+1 folds as expected and the bottom calls, this to me cleared the hand up here. If my opponent had a hand he was willing to go all in with he would choose this time to commit himself to the hand and go with it. The only made hands I could see flatting this bet would be 46 or clubs and that’s about it, he sometimes flat calls smaller sets but if this particular player just flats a set then I think I can push him on it on future streets given if he was confident he would have went with it on the flop. What ever hand he had, by him flat calling this bet I was confident that I was barreling the turn on most turn cards. My perceived range at this point should be something like this: A7, 75, 46, 77, 55, 33 and some combo draws and some over cards and flush draws, I am very confident air isn’t in my perceived range at this point.
The turn came and off suite 2, I didn’t think this card changed much to the hand unless opponent had A4 some how but this would have flatted the flop giving the implied odds and the two people in the hand. I was confident in finding out what my opponent was holding here on the turn or making him fold. I chose a decent size of close to half pot bet, this I believed from this opponent would narrow his calling range to A7, 75, 76, 78, and possibly 33 but I do not think 75 or 33 would flat this turn bet, I believe they would go all in, I strongly believe that all sets, and straights would be putting all the clips in on this bet on this turn if not already done by the flop. My opponent called after a long thought, I felt he was nervous and didn’t want to call but for some reason he still couldn’t fold, I was really leaning towards the hands with gut shots and pairs in them, flush draws with pairs would be more comfortable calling the turn bet than this man was, he seemed to have a hard decision.
I made up my mind that this opponent was probably fishy enough to call of most of the hands in his turn calling range on the river if I was to shove all in, I was confident in the fact that I could rep a flush if it came especially when I had the k of clubs, which was massive in the decision, it was unlikely he had hands like Kc Qc and Kc Jc etc. so I made the decision. If a club falls then I would go all in with the expectation of winning a high % of the time, and then just check folding if a brick card was to fall. I was still undecided what I would do if I hit my K or my 10 but I was leaning towards shoving all in for value given I felt it would be the best hand and better than checking down vs his range in the long run.

The river came the J of clubs and due to the premeditated decision I looked up at the card as if it was everything I was looking for (because it was) and I confidently released the words, ‘I’m all in’ at a calm collected voice, I chose my spot to stare at on the table and took the pressure as my opponent took at least 2minutes to decide and eventually fold.
I tabled the cards because I felt the uniqueness of this hand would only mess with my perceived ranges in the long run and make people make poor judgements on my ranges. I guess I also like to show off when I do such a crazy thing.

Other highlights of the WPT Flippetyflop getting too drunk on the first night and ending up in hospital. I bubbled the main event. I got kicked out of the WPT party for showing off to a girl by trying to steal drinks from the bar, the things I do when I am too drunk. I even offered the door man a 200Euro courtesy but he rejected it and we went to another club and partied all night. Great other news was when a new friend of mine came second in the 300euro side event and even more impressively back to back cashed when she won the Montesino 150euro event. Well done Gina.

Hold tight Christian Zetzche and WPT/fabphoto’s on the pictures.