Still moving along nicely

Bankroll: -327

Tonight was another great night. I'm trying to limit myself to 2 tables, and only a couple of hours a night. I had some wonderful hands tonight. I'll post a few of the gems here now, and I'll try to fully analyze them tomorrow to see if I played them as well as I thought.

Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 829600

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



CO: $2.09

BTN: $1.87

SB: $1.75

BB: $1.96

Hero (UTG): $2.34



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG with 8 8

Hero raises to $0.07, 1 fold, BTN raises to $0.14, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.07



Flop: ($0.31) J 8 8 (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20



Turn: ($0.71) 6 (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets $0.40, Hero calls $0.40



River: ($1.51) 3 (2 players)

Hero requests TIME, Hero bets $0.77, BTN raises to $1.13 all in, Hero calls $0.36



Final Pot: $3.77

BTN shows A J (two pair, Jacks and Eights)

Hero shows 8 8 (four of a kind, Eights)

Hero wins $3.52

(Rake: $0.25)




Here, my opponent has been playing a 20/8 game over 60 hands. When he 3-bets my UTG raise, I know he's got something decent, but he min-3-bets it. Given that he has a full stack, I'm going to call at 3:1 odds and hope to hit an 8.

When I flop TWO Eights, I can only hope he hit his hand. I'm not concerned about flush draws here, so I check and hope he leads out. He obliges and I call. Same with the turn. At the river, I'm fairly certain by the way he's betting that he has either one or two jacks in his hand, which means he's dead in the water. If he's got 2 jacks, he'll put it in. If he only has one, then I need to simply milk as much as I can, given that by now he must suspect that I have one eight in my hand (or at least a jack). I lead out with a half pot size bet hoping that he'll call. He was nice enough to push, and I scoop after he shows AJ. I'm surprised he allowed things to get this far out of hand, and I was lucky enough to flop the nuts while an opponent hit a strong (but not monster) hand.

On the next hand, I flop a monster draw and hit. With some unusual betting, I manage to eeke out almost a full stack once I hit my flush.

Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 829605

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



MP: $2.03

CO: $2.05

BTN: $1.47

SB: $2.02

Hero (BB): $5.24

UTG: $2.75



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BB with 8 7

3 folds, BTN calls $0.02, 1 fold, Hero checks



Flop: ($0.05) 4 T 9 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.04, BTN calls $0.04



Turn: ($0.13) K (2 players)

Hero bets $0.02, BTN raises to $0.19, Hero calls $0.17



River: ($0.51) 9 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.04, BTN raises to $0.20, Hero raises to $1.11, BTN raises to $1.22 all in, Hero calls $0.11



Final Pot: $2.95

BTN shows K T (two pair, Kings and Tens)

Hero shows 8 7 (a flush, King high)

Hero wins $2.76

(Rake: $0.19)




Here, I don't have a lot of history on my opponent. Just 6 hands, and he's called in 4 of them... so maybe loose, but can't be sure at this stage. I flop a draw to an open ended straight and a flush (or a straight-flush). I bet out, and hope he'll call.

I hit my straight, and now the issue is how to extract as much as possible. I want to seem like I'm betting weakly, in an effort to draw him in. The danger here is that another heart could drop on the river, and then I've got some hard choices. After I lead out for 0.02, he decides I'm bluffing and bets the pot. I will either raise or call. If I raise, I think he'll see the flush and fold, so I simply call, and hope to make more money on the river.

A second nine falls, but not another flush card. I no longer hold the nuts any longer. If he's got a pair of 4's, 9's, T's, or K's, I've lost. Same with any number of better flushes. Given his betting so far, any of those hands is possible, but so are a multitude of other one-pair or two pair hand. I'm still trying to get some more money into the pot.

To be consistent with the turn, I bet 0.04. I'm afraid a larger bet may wake him up to the possibility that I actually hold the flush. Luckily, he takes the bait and reraises. His reraise is only 40% of the pot, so I don't think he's got one of the monster hands I described. I reraise nearly his whole stack, he puts in the rest, and shows me two pair, losing the hand.

My whole night has been like this and its been wondeful.

Anyways, my bankroll at Full Tilt has grown to $46. That covers the 20 Buy In's at NL2 I need, plus an extra $6. $6 is more than I need for an NL5 Buy In, so I will take a shot at NL5 next time I play. Wish me luck.