The Long Hard Grind continues…and other noteworthy poker stuff

I’ve been stepping up my game a little.

I’ve almost doubled my BR on FullTilt in less than 3 weeks playing 25 NL.

I usually play about 200 hands per session 2-3x a week. (I can’t play poker all the time or can I? lol)

I have played 1,575 hands on FullTilt so far. Not a big sample but it is what it is.

My quest to reach $1k from a zero bankroll is almost going on a year now. On PS where this whole thing started in the first place I’ve managed to reach $200 in profit from $0. It took me 10 months of grinding freerolls, super micro SNGs and MTTs so I’m happy with the progress there.

The problem is that I’ve virtually stopped playing on PokerStars because of FullTilt. I have my deposit bonus to bag on FullTilt plus I signed up for RakeBack so my time on PokerStars has been next to nothing.

The difference between the play at both sites is up for debate. Although, I wonder if it’s the players or is it me?

It took me 10 months to reach $200 on PS, while it took me about 3 weeks to almost match that number on FullTilt.

When I was grinding my $1k challenge on PokerStars, that’s all the BR I had to play with. So maybe I was playing ultra tight and not gambling at all. Building my BR literally a few cents at a time.

Now that I’ve deposited on FullTilt, I feel maybe that since I have some money there to fall back on in case my BR takes a dip, I’m probably playing different, playing a little more aggressively and I gamble more. That plus I’m playing exclusively 25 NL to build BR (with a  session or two of 50NL mixed in…ok I cheated some more here) on FullTilt where as on PokerStars I played mostly $10 NL with some $25NL mixed occasionally. 

In any event, I’m still grinding it out to $1k from $0 although I probably cheated a little when I deposited on FullTilt so who knows.

At this point I’m happy with the results so far and I hope to continue my solid play and hit the $1k mark by summer this year.

So far I’m up $194 on PS and $153 on FullTilt. So I’m about 35% to my goal of $1k.

I was hot for a bit on FullTilt this holiday weekend and people can’t stop shoving chips my way when I’m ahead:

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG: $21.65
Hero (CO): $22.95
BTN: $8.55
SB: $44.75
BB: $28.75

Pre-Flop: 9 K dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.75, BTN calls $0.75, 2 folds

Flop: ($1.85) 2 K 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $1.25, BTN calls $1.25

Turn: ($4.35) K (2 Players)
Hero bets $2.75, BTN raises to $6.55 and is All-In, Hero calls $3.80

River: ($17.45) 9 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: $17.45 Pot ($0.85 Rake)
Hero showed 9 K (a full house, Kings full of Nines) and WON $16.60 (+$8.05 NET)
BTN showed T T (two pair, Kings and Tens) and LOST (-$8.55 NET)

This is where my aggressiveness paid off. I’ve been consistently raising the blinds either on the button, cutoff or CO+1. I may have gotten lucky here with the trip Kings but I know that the caller here thought he had the best hand based on my previous aggression.

I try and mix up my play, sometimes I play soft and other times I play aggressive. I think that’s the best way to approach NLHE, you have to keep the other players guessing and then you can bust them when they least expect it. This particular table was pretty passive except for one good player who I happened to tangle with in this hand:

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $31
SB: $25
BB: $25.60
UTG: $44.65
CO: $28.40

Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG calls $0.25, CO folds, Hero raises to $1, SB folds, BB calls $0.75, UTG calls $0.75

Flop: ($3.10) 3 J 3 (3 Players)
BB checks, UTG bets $3.10, Hero raises to $11, BB folds, UTG raises to $43.65 and is All-In, Hero calls $19 and is All-In

Turn: ($63.10) 2 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: ($63.10) 4 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: $63.10 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed K K (two pair, Kings and Threes) and WON $60.10 (+$29.10 NET)
UTG showed T T (two pair, Tens and Threes) and LOST (-$31 NET)

Now this hand was a little tricky. DriDri could’ve had Aces here and slowplayed it. It really took me for a loop that DriDri bet that much after my raise. At that point the only way that DriDri could make that kind of re-raise after my raise is if he had AA, A3 or JJ maybe (though highly unlikely as he would’ve slowplayed that hand). By DriDri shoving, I could only think that he had a decent PP like QQ, 99,1010 something like that. Maybe he could’ve pushed with 22-88 and end it right there (if he put me on two high cards etc..). But then I could be facing a true monster and I’m going to pay him off. Experience tells me that most passive players will elect to call you down when they have a monster rather than making a move like shoving with the nuts (that’s why I like shove with the nuts every now and then, because most players won’t expect you to do that sure I’ll lose value sometimes but then every now and then you get somebody to pay you off big time when you time it right). DriDri is the only player at this table that I think has any game so this is a tough spot for me. I elect to call because I don’t think he would re-raise me if he had AA, A3 or JJ or so I hope.

After analyzing this hand afterwards I think that this was actually a pretty good play by DriDri, if he puts me on a flush draw or QQ or A/J in this hand I’m laying that down. Heck I thought about dumping my KK in this spot as I took all the allotted time thinking about what he could have in order to make such a raise. He might have put me on a flush draw as there were 2 spades out there so that could be it. I’m glad it worked out in the end for me though.

The next hand I felt like posting is where I made a bluff on the river.

I really felt that I could get this guy to lay down his hand even though I missed my draws on the river. I’m not sure if this bluff made sense but at the time it felt right or maybe this is a spot where he had nothing and me being aggressive won the pot. I’d like to think that this was a good bluff:

The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Me [7h Kh] <————— two suited cards? Why not limp in and see if I get lucky. I’ve been pretty aggressive so I decide to slow down here.
River Vendetta calls $0.25
Chip_Trix1 folds
Sultan_M folds
d4ki folds
adolf8880 folds
Me calls $0.25
flying09 calls $0.15
MichaelG1980 checks
*** FLOP *** [Jc Qh 9d]
flying09 checks
MichaelG1980 checks
River Vendetta bets $0.75
Me calls $0.75 <——— loose call here but what the heck if I hit my 10 then I’m golden. Or I can set him up for a bluff next street.
flying09 folds
MichaelG1980 folds
*** TURN *** [Jc Qh 9d] [3h]
Chip_Trix1: variance sucks
River Vendetta bets $1.50 <– Villain bets out again. He’s either drawing or he’s got a weak pair. If he had anything real decent he’d try and take it right there.
Me raises to $5 <————————- I re-raise him here representing a strong hand (like maybe a set of 9s or a made straight) to make it seem like I’m hating the 2 hearts out there. But I’m really drawing to a gut shot and a flush here.
River Vendetta has 15 seconds left to act <— He’s taking his time to think about what I have. I have a good chance of bluffing him on the river. 
River Vendetta calls $3.50 <———- If he has something he’ll go over the top and I fold. He elects to call, not the result I was looking for. He has a draw/pair combo hand I surmise but more likely a drawing type hand.

*** RIVER *** [Jc Qh 9d 3h] [3c]
River Vendetta checks <—————- He checks it over to me on the river. He’s giving up the pot.  He’s missed his draws I think but so did I, so I stick to my read (most likely a pair/draw combo to a straight like 9/10) and will take another shot at this pot.
Me bets $11 <——————————- I toss in a pot sized bet. Let’s see who blinks first. Maybe too aggressive??
River Vendetta folds <——————— Whew. I’m glad he folded.
Uncalled bet of $11 returned to Me
YelloMenace mucks
YelloMenace wins the pot ($11.90)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $12.50 | Rake $0.60
Board: [Jc Qh 9d 3h 3c]
Seat 1: MichaelG1980 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: River Vendetta folded on the River
Seat 3: Dantete19 is sitting out
Seat 4: Chip_Trix1 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: Sultan_M didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: d4ki didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 7: adolf8880 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 8: Me (button) collected ($11.90), mucked
Seat 9: flying09 (small blind) folded on the Flop

I wish I could say I kept my hot streak alive but then later one I lost a big pot to another player when I had JJ and he had 88. We both hit our sets on the flop. We both get all of our money in the middle (a $70 pot in 25NL is pretty huge) on the turn and the river brings his case 8. Cooler time.

So what could’ve been a potential +$80 dollar session, winds up only being +$2.05

Oh well, win some lose some.