Hand Plays

Had a very up and down night tonight playing $5-10 NL at the Venetian.

I started up the 2^nd must-move game with 2 other players. We played 3 handed for an hour. I didn’t win many hands. By the time I moved over to the main game I was stuck 3k. The key hand for me  in that must-move game played out like this:

I’m OP-PFR-MW-9s8s. That’s my poker code, meaning that I was out-of-position and the pre-flop raiser in a multi-way pot with the 9/8 of spades. The flop fell 9-6-4 two diamonds. I bet 80, the next guy makes it 210 and another player calls. I call. The turn brings an off-suit 7, giving me now an open-ended straight draw to go with my top pair. I checked; the raiser now bets 610 and the other guy, obviously on a flush draw calls. I have a total of about 1400 and get drawn-in by the size of the pot and I let it influence me.  I decide to make a move at this big pot and move all-in. I get called in both spots, with the last guy also all-in. The river pairs the board with a 6 and the raiser turns over pocket 99’s for 99’s full. I'm felted.

Turns out I was 12% to win going to the river, so I would need about 8.5-1 pot odds to be profitable. With fold-equity and the slight chance they were both on flush draws and I had the best hand maybe puts me needing about 7-1. I was getting about 4-1, so my shove turned out to be a bad play. Now I had to decide whether to pick up buy back in.

A couple of new players joined the game so I decided to buy back in. I was also next up on the must move, which looked like a halfway-decent game that I was moving to. When I re-bought, I definitely stepped up my game, improved my hand selection and overall reads and play of the hand in general.

I moved over to the main game and this key hand played out like this.

I’m OP(bb) – PFR – MW – Qc9c.

I 3 bet pre to better define my opponent’s hand strength and to take the lead in the hand. I'm planning to lead most flops. The flop fell 9-4-2 rainbow.  The small-blind checks, I bet 110 and get called by the initial raiser and now the small-blind check-raises and makes it 320 to go! 

I call and the other guy folds. 

The turn is a Q. The small blind now leads for 340. It was a weak (25% pot size) type of bet that polarized the guys range in my mind. It was either a "trap bet", designed to get me to raise, or it was a "scared bet" trying to save $ on what looked to be a bad turn card for him. 

I took my time and thought about it and decided it was more likely that my opponent hand TT’s or JJs. He had about 1200 behind, so if I raised and he moved in I was going to be committed, so I decided to get it all-in right there. My opponent went into the tank and after about 2 minutes folded.

An hour later I called it a night, booking a small loss. I’ll be back at it tomorrow at The Venetian DeepStack. The month long series starts tomorrow, so I hope to see you at a final table there soon.

Enjoy the Journey!

Kenna