Week 13

Bankroll is up to $7,238.

Monday morning I played a small session, I've decided to take the $won and BB/100 off my HoldemManager because I find I let short term results effect me too much. At the very least it should make it more awkward for me to find out anyway. I'll put it back on at the end of the week when I'm posting my stats though. I went to the post office delivery office to collect my LeggoPoker tshirt and hoodie that arrived while I was on holidays and played a second session when I got back. I paid another $50 for hand histories for the next month and started a $250 reload bonus I was offered for being inactive for two weeks. The offer was for 50% up to $500 but I only have 15 days to clear it and I didn't want to have to force myself to clear a big bonus. This way I should be able to clear it pretty comfortably.

Tuesday morning I tried to do a video but struggled to get 4 tables running, by the time I did I wasn't in the mood to do it so went for a break instead. I bought a smoothie maker at Argos, I got the idea off RoadSweeper's blog. I bought some juices (orange, tropical and apple), wholegrain yogurts (plain, raspberry and summer berry), honey, oatmeal, frozen fruits (strawberry, raspberry and summer fruits) and some fresh fruit (oranges, bananas, pears, pineapple and melon). Going to try mixing things together and seeing what comes out :).

I started with orange juice, frozen summer fruits, a bananna and some honey. I found the frozen berries very bitter so I don't think I'll be trying this one again. I managed to get a video recorded during my second session.

Wednesday I had a frozen strawberry, plain yogurt, banana and oatmeal smoothie. With a small bit of orange juice and honey. Much nicer taste even though there was a bit too much oatmeal in it. Played a decent session and then had a frozen raspberry, raspberry yogurt, banana and apple juice smoothie. This one was very nice. Didn't get in a second session but watched about three videos.

Thursday I woke up pretty late as I'm in a bad sleeping pattern since coming home. I played a pretty long session in the afternoon and SlowHabit sent me his comments on my video in the evening. He feels like I pot control too much, put too much emphasis on showdown value and tend to auto pilot with strong hands without putting my opponents on a range first. So definitely some pretty important leaks to fix there. I didn't play a second session as I was going through what he sent me and asking follow up questions.

Friday morning I had a fresh strawberry, raspberry yogurt, banana and orange juice smoothie with a little honey. Very nice again although there were a bit too many seeds in it, probably from the fresh strawberries and the raspberry yogurt. I got in a decent session, felt I was cbetting a bit more and not caring as much about getting my bottom or middle pair to showdown. I tried to pay more attention to my opponents range when I had a big hand but I'm not sure I put enough thought into it. Didn't play a second session but watched a couple of videos.

Saturday morning I had a pineapple, pear, apple, orange, banana and tropical juice smoothie. Nice to have something a little different to the strawberry/raspberry combos. Only got in one session again, I really need to start getting up earlier and starting earlier.

Sunday I got started pretty soon after I got up but didn't get up until about 2. Played a decent session and ran pretty well.

Here's an interesting hand.

Party Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $370.35
Hero (BB): $203
UTG: $210.95
MP: $282.08
CO: $390.87
BTN: $106.50

Pre-Flop: Q A dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, MP raises to $7, 2 folds, SB calls $6, Hero calls $5

MP is playing 19/14/2.3 over 13k hands and the SB is playing 29/12/1.4 over 290 hands. MP is opening 17% first in from that position and the SB is calling opens 22% of the time.

I decide to flat because against MP I feel that squeezing would sort of be turning my hand into a bluff and with good relative position I'm going to have a lot of spots where I can check raise with overcards and back door draws. I could squeeze to isolate the SB and if he was a bit looser then I think the upsides of isolating him would outweigh the risks of turning my hand into a bluff against MP. I also expect MP and the SB to have dominated aces and queens a decent amount as well although that's a concept which would usually apply more to AJ/AT.

Flop: ($21) 2 T J (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP bets $15, SB folds, Hero calls $15

I flop a gutshot and two overcards and check to the preflop raiser. MP cbets 71% of the time but has a turn cbet of 33% with a river cbet of 73%. I also have a note which says that he slowplayed in a limped pot and checked AQ on A76 as the PFR OOP. What this tells me is that this player will cbet with air very frequently, almost never follow up on the turn without a hand and will often check the flop with top or middle pair for pot control.

We have a weak but hidden draw , two overcards and a modest amount of showdown value. The K is a pretty disguised out which, if he does have a big hand, he'll have trouble getting away on. If I hit an A or Q my hand will often be best and I might be able to get a small amount of value on the river if the turn checks through, if he does bet the turn it would put me in an awkward spot, I think I'd probably call and fold the river but it would be close.

If the turn and river does get checked through I may have the best hand against a suited connector type hand. I think check raising is reasonable as well but this is a type of draw I'd prefer to play passively whereas something like As7s I'd usually play aggressively although that's also a hand that can be played passively.

Turn: ($51) 8 (2 Players)
Hero bets $38, MP folds

The 8 is a hidden bluff out which means that even though I was drawing to a gutshot, I can represent that I was drawing to a flush draw, so all the spades give me more outs to try and win the pot. If I check I would never check raise as I doubt he's going to bet the turn thin at all, I wouldn't be surprised if a turn bet was a flush only.

So I expect the turn to check though a lot of the time but a river bet isn't going to be that great as a bluff because he can be pot controlling any number of made hands which will happily pay off one river bet to show down their hand but may be more inclined to fold the turn fearing another bet on the river. So by donking the turn I can leverage my stack.

I would probably bluff any spade card and probably bet really small on a A/K/Q/9 to gain a crying call from a J but I think check folding an A/Q would be o.k. too. I wouldn't bet any board pairing card but other cards would be closer and more timing/feel dependent.

Results: $51 Pot
Hero mucked Q A and WON $86.45 (+$64.45 NET)

Looking at my graph for the week it's been very breakeven, just up and down accross the 0 line the whole time. I've got a sweat session on Tuesday which I'm looking forward to. I also highly recommend getting a smoothie maker, I've always struggled to eat enough fruit so it's a great help.