Great session last night! (Warning - this is long)

After this weekend’s debacle, I actually had a good session on a .10/.20 table at Sportsbook today. I struggled with the starting hands I got, with almost no pairs and no premium hands at all other than an A-Q I had to fold after an awful flop. But, I played very smart – I got away as cheaply as possible from bad hands, I stole when I could, and I correctly folded hands like Q-J and A-x suited in poor positions. The 30-cent wins I got almost entirely from continuation bets allowed me to hang around long enough to hit a miracle flop right at the end of my session (I had a hard stop of 10:30 today, which sucks…after I hit that hand I could have run this table over for a while afterwards and perhaps profited even more).

The thing is, you have to pick the right table to suit your style. The stats they show on the lobby page should be of utmost interest to the serious micro-stakes player…if you like to steal and make continuation bets, you need a table with a low percentage of players seeing the flop and a low average pot size (like this one was). If you like to see a lot of flops with suited connectors and the like and are sure that you get away from hands when someone’s donked out on you, you want the high flop-percentage tables with the large average pot sizes.

The stats didn’t lie with this table – there was more checking going on than in a Charlestown Chiefs game. I’m not kidding – I got *five* walks in this one session alone! The play was so passive as to defy belief, which is exceedingly strange at the micro level. Not only that, but the table was comprised of mainly Chinese players for most of the time I was there, so I wonder if there was some kind of communal respect thing going on or something. Actually, I have to admit at first that I was afraid of collusion because there were two groups of three people all from the same town, but in the end it didn’t seem to go down that way. Despite the fact that the table did at times spasm into a frenzy of raises and re-raises, it would quickly go back to normal. My continuation-bet strategy worked like a charm considering the crappy hands I was getting stuck with, and it was quite a nice break that when I finally did hit that miracle flop, it was against a player who had shown some loose-aggressive tendencies during the session (it’s so important to watch the action as much as you can and not get distracted with other stuff).

All of that said, here are some of the notable hands from the session. Not all will include me, but I’ve condensed the hand histories into short summaries to keep this at a readable length.

- Here’s one example of the check-calling nonsense (albeit with a crazy river) that I was talking about in previous posts. I had Qh-3h in the small blind, and I called along with five other people. Flop was Jd-8s-6s, no help to me with my hearts. One guy bets .20, he gets three callers while my cards go to the muck. Turn was 3c, three check, but one bets .65 (not the person who bet on the flop). One caller survives to see the Ah river. The guy who hadn’t raised once goes all in for $18.95, the .65 raiser calls for his last $3.40. Umm, OK. Turns out crazy river man had 8h 6c and had flopped two pair, but his stupid check-call routine allowed the other guy to catch the Ace on the river and win with his As-Js. Nice shootin’, Tex…especially because you could have lost with any spade on the river, too. So, you gave someone with a 2.28:1 shot to win two free cards to beat you. Awesome. Meanwhile, I have to say I like the .65 turn bet from that one guy. He could have taken it down right there if everyone had whiffed, and he had outs if someone hadn’t.

- I wonder if this was too tight a fold on my part. I had Qc-Js in middle position, and it’s folded around to me. I open for my standard raise to .60, one guy folds, another person in middle position (this is the crazy person who would eventually succumb to my full house, but she hadn’t exhibited those tendencies yet) raised to $1 total. I call, everyone else folds. The flop is Kh-Kd-8c. I check, she bets .20, and I fold. She hadn’t raised a whole lot previous to that, so I had A-A, A-K, A-Q and even A-10 in her range of holdings. All of those would beat me, along with the rare case that she had a King. It just smelled like a string-along bet to me, although there is to me a 50% chance that it was a post-oak bluff. While the usual donk move is to check-call all the way down, the second-most common ploy is these tiny little bets in the hope that you catch something and then bet big at it. I decided discretion was the better part of valor here, though I can’t help but wonder if a tiny re-raise to .40 or so wouldn’t have given me the information needed to be sure.

- Here’s a bit of aggression that should be a part of any serious player’s repertoire. I’m in the big blind with Kd-Js. There’s one caller, so I raise it up to .60. They call, and the flop comes 4s-4c-4h. I immediately bet .40 at it (not a crazy amount, I’ve learned from the situations I’ve mentioned in previous posts). The caller immediately folds. See, there’s almost no risk here – if they call or raise, you know you’re beat and it’s an immediate check-fold situation from there. But, if they don’t have a pocket pair or the case card, then you’ll take it down a lot more often than not…even at this donk level.

- I wasn’t in this hand, but here’s another example of how timid this table was. Pre-flop, there’s one caller and the BB checks (the SB folded, which is horrible…for half a bet, you should call with almost any two cards). Flop is Kh-Js-6s. Both guys check. Turn is Ah, both guys check. River is 7s, both guys check. The caller shows Qh-Jh to win, the BB shows Qs-7h. Wow…no one had the balls to bet on this at all? Not once? Not even with all those checks? With only one overcard to your hand, I think you have to bet on that flop with your Jack paired. This guy is a ridiculously-tight player (I recognize him from other sessions), but that is just insane…it’s like virgin-cheerleader tight. I mean, what if the BB has A-x, and the free card you allowed him to see ends up beating you? Awful, awful, awful.

- Here’s another episode of Donkerpiece Theater in a hand I wasn’t in. There’s one caller, SB folds (super-tight guy from the last hand), and Crazy Girl in the BB checks. Flop comes 6s-3s-2d. Crazy Girl checks, caller bets .20, Crazy Girl calls. The same pattern happens on the turn and river, which are 6h and Jd. Crazy Girl shows As-2h, the caller shows 10h-3h. Isn’t this amazing on about 37 different levels? First of all, you have someone calling with 10-3 (“…but it’s SOOTED!”). Next, you have someone who tenuously hits a flop but only pussy-raises at it the rest of the way. Meanwhile, you have Donk McDonkerson just smooth-calling with middle pair, which happens to be THREES. What a clusterfuck of bad play this was, eh? One raise…ONE RAISE would have won this hand either way. Wow. Moving on…

- And the hits just keep on coming! Four callers to the flop (Crazy Girl folds the SB), flop comes Jh-7s-3h. Everyone checks. Turn is 9d, everyone checks. River is Qh, one guy bets .20, one person calls, the others go away. One shows Kd-Qc, the other Ks-Qs. Considering both people hit their Queen with a nice kicker on the turn, how the holy jumping fuck was there no action on either that street or on 5th? Nimrod A and Nimrod B chop a pot that either of them at least had a chance of winning with a raise or re-raise to at least represent that they had A-Q or something. Outstanding.

- Now I’m back in a hand. While I’m not complaining, what are you calling with if a continuation bet makes you go away on this flop? I’m 3 off the button and get Qc-9c. I hadn’t played a hand in two orbits I think, so I pop it up to .40 to try and steal the blinds. I also do this at times because if I get a good hand soon after, I’ll get some action on it. I get one customer, and the flop comes As-5d-4d. I bet .60, and the caller goes away. Hmm. So, you didn’t have an Ace, or you’d check-call me all the way down. You didn’t have any kind of draw, didn’t think to represent one, and probably didn’t have any picture cards at all. What do you guys reckon they had? I’m going to go with 9-8 off-suit.

- Another one I’m in caused a bit of a conundrum for me. I think he had his flush, but what do you all think? Was he stealing? Why so much? Is it a normal donk over-betting move, expecting me to likewise donk away chips because I have a pair?

I’m in the BB with Ks-9d. Three callers come along with me (the SB folded AGAIN) for a flop of Js-7h-4s. It’s checked around for a turn of Kh. Despite my mediocre kicker, you all know me…full speed ahead with a .60 bet. Two go away, but one guy calls. The river is the 5s. I fire .60 at it again, and the guy raises all the way up to $5.50. There was only $2.60 in the pot, so doesn’t that seem strange? However, with just top pair and a middling kicker, I sure as hell wasn’t going to pay him off to find out. I think he had the absolute nuts with an Ace-high flush, but maybe he was trying to protect an A-K holding or something? Either way, I will defend this fold as the right way to go.

- Here, was it proper to draw to the flush here to begin with? At the very least, I realized the danger and got the hell out of there.

I get Kd-Jd on the button, and bump it up to .60. I get four customers to a flop of 7d-3d-3h. Nothing is scaring me there and I have the second-nut flush draw. The BB checks, one guy bets .20, the third folds, and the fourth raises to $1.90. This seems highly suspicious to me, and the BB folding means I had a tough pot-odds decision to make in 15 seconds. Specifically, I had to call $1.90 into a pot of $5.10. That’s 2.68:1, but keep in mind that you have to put the Ace-high flush draw among his holdings there. On top of that, there was still one person left to act. I ended up calling, and the other guy did as well. The turn was 2s. The non-raiser checked, and the raiser bumped it up to $2.20. Now, it’s $2.20 into a $7.30 pot, or 3.31:1. But, I know it’s 4:1 to catch your flush with one card to go, and I still felt like the guy doing the raising was on the Ace-high draw. Admittedly, I wasn’t even considering what the other guy had. However, I heard alarm bells ringing and slipped quietly out the back door with a fold. The second guy called for his last $1.90. The raiser ended up having 10h-10s, and for my money did a great job of protecting his hand against the flush draw. There were no overcards, so he played it perfectly. The guy who called ended up having Ad-10d, and lost when the river came 5c. Believe me, I felt great at having folded when I did once I saw what the other guys had!

I actually had put the guy with 10s on the A-high flush draw, but either way, I saved myself a lot of money here. This was played well by me and by the guy who won it…but was it proper for the other guy to donk off the rest of his stack?

- This was one of the few real mistakes I made. I got 3h-3d under the gun, and made the call. The SB called, the BB checked. Flop was 4s-5c-5d. Both blinds checked, so I fired a continuation bet of .60 at it (this wasn’t the mistake, though .40 would have gotten the same information). SB folds, BB calls. The turn is 10d, and it goes check-check. Should I have bet there? Honestly, I don’t think so…he called the more-than-pot-sized bet on the flop, so he had something he liked. I was a bit worried about the check-call routine, so I’ll argue that checking was the correct option. The river came 2h, he bets .90, and I called.

Here’s the thing. What could I possibly have beaten there? If he has any pocket pair other than 2-2, I’m toast. If he hit anything on the flop or turn, I’m beat. Essentially, the only thing I was ahead of was a busted diamond draw, a busted straight draw or unpaired high cards. If it was any of those, the usual donk move is to make a post-oak bluff of .20 and hope to hell that the other guy folds. In that case, I may even have raised. However, he not only ended up betting out at it (which is strange enough for these people and usually an indicator of a monster). but it was the 1/2-pot button on top of that (which we all know is another tell of strength). Calling this was poor on my part, and I deserved to lose as much as I did.

- I wonder how tight of a fold this was. I got Kd-Js in the SB, one guy calls. I raise to .60, the BB folds, and the one caller doubles my raise up to $1.20. I thought about it for 5-10 seconds, and elected to let it go. A couple of things played on my mind here. First, this was one of the lesser players at the table, and I don’t think he was capable of a re-raise without a rocket launcher of a hand. Second, my self-analysis had conclusively proven that I have a giant problem with overplaying marginal hands such as this. Third, I have a sinking feeling that the main difference between Fold and Call here was the fact that my cards weren’t SOOTED…if they were, I think I may have made the call…bad or not.

- So, I’m down to $13.40 in chips, and I get 9s-8d one off the button. This is a hand that I’d always call with in this position if it’s suited, and sometimes I’ll do it in this case when it isn’t. I kind of thought about it, but I folded it pretty quickly. What was the flop? Of fucking COURSE, it was 9c-9d-8h. If you saw my face at that moment, you wouldn’t be able to tell if I was playing poker or watching the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. It turns out one guy had Ah-Qd, the other 7c-6s. I *definitely* would have gotten action on this one, too.

- Know how I have been talking about Crazy Girl for this whole post? This was the exact hand when I determined that she was insane, and that I could extract a lot of money from her if I happened upon the right situation. I’m on the button with Ac-9d, and since I hadn’t played a hand really in 2-3 orbits, I popped it up to .60. I was just trying to steal the blinds, really. Crazy Girl calls in the BB. The flop comes 10s-3h-3c. She checks, so I am legally bound by my possession of two testicles to make the continuation bet…so, .60 goes into the pot. She takes about 2.1 nanoseconds to muck her hand. OK, so riddle me this, Batman - what could you have that you’re willing to call 6X the BB pre-flop, only to shot-put your cards into the muck the second a 10-3-3 flop comes out? I don’t even know…did she put me on A-10? A rag hand with a 3 in it? Admittedly, I did a pretty good job of raising with enough different hands to exactly .60 so that maybe there was some confusion there, but I had also been stealing blinds from the button and the BB all night. I’m pretty much mystified with this one.

- Here’s a quick one that I hope shows that I’m starting to learn about marginal high hands. I get Ad-10d two off the button, but a tight player opens for $1.10 three seats before me. Everyone, including me, mucks their hand. Sorry, I’m not calling that much for probably just my 25% or whatever chance of hitting my flush.

- Finally, the hand that finished off my night on the positive side of the ledger! My roommate was watching me play for a good portion of the session to get a sense of what .10/.20 was like, and he ended up ensuring that I didn’t do something stupid at the end.

I got Ac-4c in the BB, Crazy Girl calls, the SB folds and the BB checks. The flop comes 4s-4d-3d. To quote Vince Van Patten, “Showtunes are going off in his head, Mike! He can’t believe his luck”. I check the flop, something I had pretty much only done when my intention was to check-fold the rest of the way. I figured that would get Crazy Girl out of her shell even if she had nothing, which actually wasn’t the case (even better!). She fires out .40, and I pretend to think for about 10 seconds before calling. The turn is a Js, and I check again. Normally I wouldn’t slowplay a monster, but there is little here that I was afraid of so far. If she had J-J, I was just going to pay her off. She bets $2.10, and I fire an immediate re-raise to $4.20 using the auto-button. I hope to hell she hadn’t read that it’s usually a sign of strength, and I guess she hadn’t because she insta-called. The turn was As, and I audibly groaned and said “shit, she probably has a flush!” I guess I’m so conditioned to losing at times that I let it get into my head…I probably would have noticed in a second anyway, but I was grateful to him for pointing out that I had actually just been gifted with the absolute stone-cold nuts. Let this be a lesson to all of you – don’t get so mentally down that you just assume you’re going to lose all the time…because that shit will QUICKLY become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Anyway, what would you do now in this case? You have an unassailable position, and a lunatic in front of you who obviously has something she likes? At that moment, I had about $8.75 left, she had about $14.75 left. The way I see it, the choices are pretty much:

- Check it down, and hope she fires out a bet: No, no, no, no, no. While you could re-raise her all-in if she does bet out, there’s always the chance that she’ll check behind you and cost you the chance to extract more chips. It may have been possible that doing so would make her put me on a busted diamond or straight draw, but I don’t recall re-raising anyone once during the entire session. I put her on putting me on a big hand, so this option is out the window.

- Go all-in myself: I thought about it, but I figured that there was too much of a chance that even the Mad Hatter inside her brain would recognize that the tea party was over, and that there was no way she had me beat. For me, the only argument for this would be that a) she’s a loony and b) she had me covered. Still, I had a feeling she would fold if I went down this route.

- Bet out, and hope to get re-raised: This is what I opted for, given the above. Now, it was a lightning-quick decision about how much to bet. The intention here is obviously to entice a re-raise, and at worst to at least have her call whatever I put out there. The three sub-choices at this point are:

- Bet a very small amount relative to the pot, like $2: Enticing, but she had to have sensed just enough danger to be more than happy to show it down for such a reduced price. A re-raise was unlikely given the player and the situation. If it were me in her shoes, it would work a good amount of the time.

- Bet just a shade under all-in, like $6: Also enticing, but I feared that would be too much, and she’d maybe get just suspicious enough to muck her hand.

- Bet something in the middle: This is what I opted for, and there wasn’t much science to it. I dragged the slider over to a little past the midpoint of the bar, and hit “Bet”. It ended up being $4.80, and she called and showed down her Kd-Kh.

Again, I have to stress that all of the above only relates to how I approached this one player on this one hand, so don’t get any ideas if you happen to find yourself against me on the felt some day! Even I know enough to know that you have to approach each hand as a completely different situation and adjust your game and your patterns accordingly. Anyway, this was a great session in the end, and even though I only profited because of that one monster at the end, I think I played much better than I had in the recent past, and that I’ll make even more money if I keep it up.