Surfing

I’ve spent the last 6 months playing poker and traveling the world surfing, most recently to Hawaii.

Poker gives me the perfect combination of flexible schedule and portability – I can play free poker from anywhere that has an internet connection, and when the waves are up I can drop what I’m doing and go!

Hawaii was incredible!   I went with my fianceé Maria, we stayed in Waikiki for 3 days, and then we stayed on the North Shore for 5 days.  We were lucky to get some late-season swell on the north shore, and Maria snapped some awesome photos.

I’ll be recounting both poker adventures and surfing adventures in my posts from now on.

Poker, too!

Poker-wise I’m continuing to play $5/10 NL, and while game conditions have changed they are still quite beatable.

I’ve seen an increase in aggression in recent months, with many players becoming more tenacious about fighting for pots, and more paranoid about being bluffed.

Here’s an example that illustrates the change in the games, and also a counter-strategy.

$5/10 w/ $1400 stacks.
I raise Q♦K♥ on the CO to $35, and an aggressive, tenacious player in the blinds 3bets to $125.  I call.

A few years ago this would be a turbofold, nowadays a call is totally standard, and some argue for reraising!

Flop: K♦ 3♣ 4♥  (Pot: $260)

Villain bets $165 into $260.  This is a standard-sized cbet especially on a dry board.

A year ago I might have called for pot control, and to see what develops on the turn and river.  I wouldn’t want to build a big pot, because if I got the full 140bbs in my opponent would usually have AK, KK, or AA.

Today, however, I make a glorified min-raise to $400.  My opponent has been aggressive with 3bets, and is paranoid about being bluffed.

He also likely assumes(here his suspicions set in) that I would 4bet him preflop if I had a hand like A-K, and that I might be inclined to slowplay 444 or 333 on such a dry flop.

He quickly reraises all-in for  $1275 total, I call.  He shows 77.

While this player is more aggressive than normal, it illustrates an important point – by making my hand look like I’m getting frustrated and fighting back my opponent’s over-aggression and suspicion works to my advantage.

fThe hardest part about this hand is hitting top pair, haha!

Good luck at the tables!

I like to observe a few things about my opponent as I play:

• Is there a consistent fold/check/bet speed?
• Is s/he saying anything in chat?
• What is my opponents “comfort zone?”

Especially in HU, it can be easy to recognize a consistent speed at which your opponent acts, usually a couple seconds for each decision.

A player on tilt, however, may start making decisions incredibly quickly – calling or betting near-instantly for multiple hands in a row.

Sometimes chat is a dead giveaway. If you see lots of cursing, “OMG I CANT BELIEVE YOU HIT THAT,” etc in chat, keep your eyes out for erratic play. This can be faked of course, but it is often accurate.

What Is “Comfort Zone?”

Comfort Zone is how I describe a players “normal” habits of play. Does he like to limp alot preflop, or does he like to raise?

Usually when a player gets out of his or her CZ it’s for a reason. If Mr.Limpy min-checkraises the turn for the first time in 200 hands, he’s probably got a big hand.

However, sometimes it is drastic and consistent…all of a sudden Mr. Limpy starts raising every hand preflop. Or, Mr.Tight starts calling you down with mid pair.

What has happened? The player has told himself something about you, perhaps “He’s crazy! I wont stand for it any more!” or “I’m not going to get run over any longer, now I’m going to win some pots!”

Regardless, he’s gotten out of his comfort zone and is now playing erratically and irrationally.

Now is the time to adapt.

Adapting To A Tilter

Now once you are quite sure your opponent is actually tilting – he’s gone from limping and calling to uttering a non-stop stream of obscenities into chat, and raising every hand – now is the time to adjust.

So, we want to encourage whatever he’s doing wrong. If he’s raising and betting, lets let him do that. Call KQ-type hands preflop, and let him hang himself with bluffs if you flop top pair.

Note that a tilting player may stop tilting if he wins a good size pot, so it’s important to play a bit tight, and let him win tiny pots until you have a hand to make your move with, like TP or a decent 2nd pr.

If he’s started calling you down light, or calling bets very fast without thinking, it’s time to run a fake bluff.

Example:
2/4 NL HU, 100bb eff

Hero raises 33 from the button/SB to $12, Tilter calls in the BB.
Our opponent has started calling bets very fast, and seems to have told himself that Hero is crazy.

Flop: 3QTr ($24)
Jackpot flop, now it’s time to get some value.

BB checks, Hero bets $20, BB instacalls.

turn: 2o ($64)

BB checks, Hero bets $60, BB instacalls.

At this point, the super-fast-calls usually mean he has either a made hand that he’s decided to “call my bluff” with, or he has a strong draw like JK. The draw is folding the river UI, so we can ignore it and go for value from made hands.

River: 2o ($184)

BB checks, Hero goes All-In for $308, BB instacalls with Q7o.

BB in this hand clearly only beats a bluff, but he has convinced himself so thoroughly that Hero is crazy that he is willing to put his whole stack in to try and beat a bluff.

Ordinarily this might not be the most optimal way to extract value, but if you can spot changes in your opponents play you will see new areas for profit.

(click image for enlarged version)

I won a fair amount of pots without the goods, but today was one of those great days where I flop set over set, hit the nuts vs top2, etc, and just repeatedly stack people.

Also, one maniac at my table doubled me up twice, most notably for ~$1600 at 5/10.

He raises from the CO to $35, I 3bet to $150 with AA since he will call reraises light and we are deep.

I bet $200 into ~$300 on the flop (QT6r) and shove when he raises to $525 – he calls with a bare gutshot for over 160bbs! Fortunately he doesn’t hit(~18% chance) and I scoop a nice $3200 pot.

It wasn’t all easy though, I dodged a set by folding an overpair vs an aggressive flop c/r, and managed to fold a split 2pair vs a set in another hand. Saving bets is as important as earning them!

This $11,247.50 day was awesome. It ended up being over $2600/hr, crazy!

I do have to pay taxes at the end of Dec though, that’s going to be a bit painful after all this!

I get dealt KK and raise it to a standard 3.5BB in the CO. My opponent who is too loose and too passive calls in the small blind. He plays around 50% of his hands and only raises 10% of them. He is also one of the reasons I am at this table

The flop comes Q32

Looks good I thought, he is very unlikely to have hit that flop hard. My friend checks and calls my 3/4ths pot bet.

Turn is 3

Now he pots it. The things going through my head at this point were:

• Does he have a hand that beats me?
• What is he want me to think?
• What does he want to accomplish?

The first thing I do is start with hands that beat me. Does it make sense for him to have QQ, 33, 22, 3x? First of all, I think he re-raises pre-flop with QQ so I can pretty much rule it out. Also on the flop he would bet out or check-raise with his sets or twopairs to protect from draws. So I was not particularly worried about sets.

He could have slowplayed pocket aces but that is again very unlikely. A hand that could make sense for him would be something like 43 or A3.

Let’s get to hands I beat. What kind of hand plays like this? Well every draw out there is in his range at this point, as are any queen and some weirdly played pocket pairs.

In My Mind I Went Like This…

Hands I beat: Qx, medium pocket pairs (~40% of the time), flush draws, 45, 56, A5, A4 and add 5-10% chance he can have a random hand or a hand I didn’t count in since he is a loose player.

Hands that beat me: A3, 43 are pretty much the only ones that make sense.

What Does He Want Me To Think?

What I thought at the time was that he was saying “I bet big, you should fold”. His betting made no sense for a made hand wanting to get value. It felt more as a bet to scare me out.

He wants me to believe he has a big hand when in fact he wants me to fold was my psychological analysis of the situation.

The River

Is a safe 9 and he pots it again. Hmm, all the draws missed and I still believe that the only hands he could have that beat me are A3, 43, maybe even 53 but would he bet the for the full pot? Wouldn’t he want to get value out of those and not scare away what looks like a KQish hand for me?

I have to be right about 33% of the time calling a pot bet. If I input what I believe his hand-range is into Poker Stove.

His range: 22,33,53,43, AX spades (except AQ, A9 and A2), JTss-87s

Now notice that I gave him a few more hands than I thought he had. I gave him two sets and 53. Also I was very generous with the draws that I beat, I didn’t even put in the straight draws!

And do you know the equity I have vs. this range? My equity is 43.59% and I need 32-33%!

I didn’t know these numbers at the table but I had a feeling I had to call. So I did and he flipped up 45 for the missed open ender.

So what does Britney Spears and my opponent have in common? They are both unstable

In ~1,500 hands I won a little bit over $8,500 – not bad for about four hours work!

Most of this was at 5/10NL, with a little bit of 3/6 and a quick shot at 10/20 thrown in.

While I won a couple pots with “tricky” plays like floats(calling without a hand to represent one, usually in position) or “squeeze” re-raises, the majority of the winnings were accomplished with solid fundamentals:

• Planning the pot-size
• Extracting value
• Inducing bluffs / pot control
• Tilt avoidance

Plan the Pot from the Beginning

5/10 NL, $1000 effective stacks.

I am dealt AK in the cut-off, the UTG player folds and the HJ, an average player, limps.

The standard play is to raise 4-5x the BB. However, I’ve kept my eye on the table and the BB is a complete maniac:

• He will raise around 30-40% of his hands from any position if there is no raise
• If there is a raise, he will usually just call.
• If he gets reraised, he will almost always see a flop.

He’s the “easy money” at the table, so I target him first.I decide to take a chance and hope he has a hand to raise, so I overlimp behind the HJ. The button folds, the SB completes, and to my delight the BB raises to $50.

The first limper folds, and I reraise to $150. It is folded back to the BB who pauses and calls.

At this point my planning has started to take shape – I’ve got a good enough chunk of my stack in preflop that if I hit a pair I can happily get the rest in, since the pot will be ~$320 and we will have $850 remaining.

It may get a bit dicey if I do not hit top pair, but I have position and my opponent is generally entering the pot with a significantly weaker hand, so I’m willing to take that chance.

The flop is the beautiful: A T 2 (Pot: $320)

I bet $225, and villain thinks for a moment, then check-raises all-in for $625 more. I call quickly – villain has QT and my hand holds up.

Careful attention to my opponents, a little planning, and that pretty Ace allowed me to double up here.

Had I just raised pre-flop like normal the BB would have called, and I might have won a small- to medium-sized pot, since I would be forced to play for pot control with such a small portion of my stack invested preflop.

Extracting Value

Extracting value goes hand-in-hand with planning the pot. Here’s an example from 5/10 NL:

Hero(100bb) raises AK to $35 UTG, and gets 3 callers – a shortstack(30bb) in the HJ, a fishy player on the button(100bb), and a TAG in the SB(125bb).

Flop: A 2 2 (Pot: $150)

At this point, I notice a few things before acting:

1. The short-stack is irrelevant as I’m happy getting 30bb in w/ TPTK on this board
2. The TAG never has a 2 unless he has specifically 22 or A2s
3. The fishy button may hold a 2, but he will likely pay off 3 streets of betting with just an A

As a result, these factors along with the pot size ($150 with $965 left to bet) let me bet my TPTK aggressively because there are so few hands that beat me.

This results in a rare situation where I can commit my stack with top-pair in a multi-way raised pot.

So, I come out and bet $130 into $150. The shortstack folds, the fishy button calls, and the tag folds. This is my ideal scenario, heads-up with the deep fish.

Turn: 4; (pot: $410)

I bet $305, button calls.

River: 8 (pot: $1020)

I go all-in for my remaining $530, and villain calls with AJ.

AK was good to me on Friday

Solid Play Pays Off

Many players get caught up in the idea of “outplaying” their opponents. When it comes down to it, a solid, tight strategy and attention to your opponent’s habits are the most important factors – play well for long enough, and it will pay off!

I sat down at the table because of one player who plays about 65% of his hands pre-flop and raises 7% of these. He was the reason I was at this 6-max online game.

A few orbits go by and I have time to observe a few of his habits, although my reads are not rock-solid. He is often betting with nothing when checked to on multiple streets.

Then I receive a playable hand, Q J one off the cut-off (a.k.a MP or UTG+1) and decide to raise because I want to play pots against this guy.

Sure enough he calls on the button and everyone else folds.

The flop comes down KQ 8 and I decide to check it right away. Normally I would bet here because he calls with a wide range but I had seen him bluff when checked to. That meant he would bet almost all of his range here when I check to him and represent weakness.

He bets about 2/3rds of the pot and I call.

The turn comes K. A harmless card, no draws got there and it makes it less likely that he has a King. I check again, he bets 1/2 pot after thinking for 3 seconds and I call.

River brings 9 which completes a straight draw for a hand like JT but I am pretty sure about calling unless he does something crazy like shoves all-in. I check and he thinks until his timer has run down and bets a weird amount which amounts to about 1/2 pot.

Right here I am thinking about his range and how often I have to be good. When someone bets full pot and you have to call, you have to be good about 33% of the time.

The math goes something like this: If the pot is $100 and your opponent bets $100. The pot is $200 now (pot $100 and his bet $100 = $200) and you have to call $100, so add that in there and you have $300. Now take the amount you have to call ($100) and divide it by the pot + his bet + your call.

You get $100 / $100+$100+$100 = 0.33333 which means that you have to be good 33% of the time.

And when when someone bets 1/2 pot the same formula applies. For example someone bets $50 into $100, you have to call $50. This means $50 / $100+$50+$50 = 0.25 which means that you have to be good 25% of the time.

So my opponent bet a bit under 1/2 pot and I had to be good about 23-24% of the time. Considering that he could very well have a random hand, a missed flush draw or even a worse queen. I concluded that I would easily be good around 25% of the time and I called.

He flips up 65 for 6 high and I take the pot.

In spots like this versus opponents like this I like to call because my hand is easily good 23-24% of the time. You can make equity and hand range calculation yourself with PokerStove.

Feel free to ask questions or share your own thoughts.

Let’s cut the unnecessary word play and get started.

Playing The Flop With AK

What do you do when you re-raise a great hand like Ace King, get called and miss? You have to weigh a few factors when you make a decision like this, a few examples:

• How likely is your opponent to fold if you bet?
• What reactions does he have to different flops?
• What reactions does he have to different bet sizes?
• Will you opponent bluff a lot if you check to him?

Things like those are good to keep in mind to begin with. Most players can be manipulated in one way or another. Some are harder than others. Don’t blame me if you use what you read here as an excuse to make bad plays though!

Vs. Mike Isaballah

You put in chips for the re-raise and the clock starts ticking. Mike thinks for about 5 seconds and calls.

Flop #1

The flop comes down Q 5 3 missing you completely

What now? Since Mike is super-aggressive he will most likely put you on a hand he can beat. It is pretty unlikely Mike will fold a hand like pocket jacks or even pocket sixes.

If he called with a hand that now has a draw he will most likely just shove all-in if you bet. My play would be to just check-fold if you do not think there is a fair chance he will fold. And by fair I mean over 40-50%.

You will get better chances to stack Mike in the future. One thing to keep in mind if you play AK like this and just check-fold after re-raising, is to do it with a good hand next time.

An example would be the same scenario where you re-raise pocket aces. The flop comes without an Ace or King and you check. You can let Mike bet and check-raise him all-in or just check-call feigning weakness if the board is harmless (meaning without any flush draws or big straight draws).

Flop #2

The flop comes down A 6 8 and you hit the Ace, very nice!

You should just go ahead and bet, UNLESS you’ve played a hand weakly before this. Like we talked about in the above scenario where I wanted you to remember how you played hands in the past vs. a particular opponent.

So if you check-folded after re-raising before this hand, you should check here too! If you have the K you could check-call his bet after thinking a while, making him think you have a hand like kings or queens.

There are a lot of variables that go into a decision like this. It can be complicated from time to time, just keep reading and sooner or later it will click, promise!

Now if this is your first big hand vs. Mike I would just fire out a standard 2/3rds or 3/4ths of the pot, hoping Mike raises or calls. If he calls I’ll be happy to stick my stack in on pretty much any turn card.

Vs. Steve Hateswife

Same thing here, last time you re-raised Steve pre-flop and now he calls!

Flop #1

The flop brings Q J 2 kind of missing you, but you have some outs!

This is a flop I’d like to take a stab on, you will most likely get called by many hands, but Steve is unlikely to raise you unless he has a huge hand like twopair or better.

So if you bet you will accomplish a few things:

• You will fold out nothing which he might bet if you check
• You might fold out pairs Tens and down
• If you’re really lucky Steve might fold a hand like AK or AT if he plays that
• Even if you get called you often have 7-10 outs (gut shot + pair outs)

The reason I say 7 outs is that often he will have a hand like AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ and have you reverse dominated, meaning that if you hit one of your pair outs he will improve his hand to two pair or better.

The good thing about a bet here basically is that even if he calls you have outs and since Steve is a passive player he might give you a free peak at the river too!

I would say go ahead and bet, if you get called and you hit nothing on the turn just give it up.

Flop #2

The cards are dealt and show T 9 5 giving you nothing!

This is one of those flops you can just give up on with your Ace King off suit. I mean, you can take different lines if you have good reads but on a flop like this I would just check-fold most of the time vs. a player like Steve, because often he’ll call your flop bet putting you in a awkward situation on the turn and I doubt he folds a pair on this flop, or a any draw for that matter.

Vs. Grandma Jones

Ah, old Grandma Jones, she keeps talking about her teeth falling out, I don’t know what’s going on there. After a long time she calls and I have no way of knowing if this is a timing tell since she can just be dozing off.

Flop #1

The flop comes 2 6 T

I would just check-fold here so fast vs. Grandma Jones. She will call you so often on this flop it’s not even funny. I’ll wait for a hand where I flop something and can then value-bet her to death (pun intended).

Flop #2

Flop brings K T 8

A semi-scary flop but I would fire out as big of a bet that I think she calls with any pair or any draw. This flop being especially draw heavy I am going to gravitate to betting as close to the pot as possible.

Why? Because players like this don’t pay attention to bet sizes, so she won’t care if you bet 1/2 pot or full pot. You want to charge her the maximum for calling with any kind of hand and put in money while you are very likely ahead.

I bet pot and if she calls I will fire again on any turn card until she raises me.

Why? Because it is just too likely that I have her beat no matter what card comes on the turn, and she will likely call me down with any piece of the board. A dream come true!

Vs. Mikael Pengabank

Time for Mikael, when he calls your bet you should be worried. If you have been playing tight he will likely know it. He will have adjusted his calling range and will have you beat or tied quite often.

Flop #1

A 5 9

This flop is so harmless that I would wait about 5 seconds and then check to him, trying to make him think I have a hand that is scared (KK, QQ).

This is the best way to extract value because a player like Mikael will not be calling you pre-flop with AQ in this spot. So what hands does he have? I would say most likely AK, AA, KK, QQ and maybe JJ and TT.

That means that if you bet he will have you beat or tied. The best option would then be to check and give him the opportunity to bluff. This is exactly the scenario I left you hanging with in my last post, now you know the answer!

Flop #2

2 T 9

Let’s give Mikael a bit of a loose range with AK+, TT+. Let’s assume that he will fold all his non-pair hands (AKo and AKs). This means that you will win the pot about 23% of the time when he folds, those odds are a bit slim.

There are of course other variables to take into account. For example if you bet he will likely call with most of his hand looking to see what you do on the turn giving you a “free” ~12% chance to hit a pair.

The bad thing is that if you hit an Ace or King you will likely not get any action from anything you beat. My line would be to check-fold here. I will sometimes bet but very rarely.

The End

I hope you learned something. Do you have any requests for my next post? Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment.

Dan and I will soon be starting a weekly Q&A post where we will answer questions about anything ranging from our favorite fruit to specific hand analysis.

I will go through every hand in every position and today I am starting with Ace King offsuit out of the blinds.

Oh btw, this is for No-Limit Texas Hold’em, maybe Dan will make a similiar series for Limit Hold’em.

But “the blinds” is not a position you say? Well, I lied, deal with it. I am a poker player after all

But seriously, the blinds play pretty much the same so I decided to lump them together this time. I will separate them if it changes decisions and situations.

Have you ever wondered how exactly you should play AK? It is notorious for missing the flop and getting beginners into trouble because it can look so good pre-flop, but when the flop hits it can go from gold to a piece of <enter favorite bad word>.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Today I want to introduce 4 friends of mine. They will take part in all of these posts.

Mike Isaballah – Mike here is your typical youngster, he’s in his 20’s and has seen all the poker shows and seen how it is done. He is very aggressive, too much so. It usually results in him getting all-in in bad spots. It also means that he will tilt people because they will over-adjust.

Steve Hateswife – Steve is your average 40-year old who likes to sit down at the poker table and relax. A nice vacation from the high pitch soundstorms he frequently encounters at home. He is a bit too passive overall and a bit too loose.

Grandma Jones – Grandma here is about 120 years old, she never gives up in life nor in poker. She frequently calls down with any piece of the flop, sometimes she might fold because she needs a glass of water or else she’ll die.

Mikael Pengabank – Mikael is from Scandinavia. You know what that means, don’t you? He is tight and he is aggressive. He is a tough player to play against, because he is good at reading your hand and knowing where he stands in the hand. It is hard to extract money from him. I guess you could say Mikael here is a professional poker player because he frequently wins money playing poker and has done so for many years.

Pre-Flop With AK

The cards are dealt, one at a time, flowing smoothly over the online surface. You finally get to peek at your cards and what do you see? The dreaded Ace King, sometimes you feel bad about getting this hand because you just don’t know what to do with it, but life goes on and you tell yourself that you rock.

The game is $1/2 ($200 buy-in) NLHE 6-max and the first player to act raises it to the standard $7. Everyone folds and the action is on you, what do you do?

Vs. Mike Isaballah

You should re-raise. How do I know? Because you have to compare your hand vs Mike’s range here. And since he is an aggressive player he will be raising UTG with a very wide range. He might raise JTo, 76s sometimes, any pocket pair and hands like that.

And then you have to ask yourself, what will he call your re-raise with? You generally want to re-raise when you will get a call from a worse hand and thus getting the opportunity to stack YOUR OPPONENT! YEAH… OK.

Will Mike call with worse than AK? Absolutely, he might call with AQ, KQs that you totally dominate. He will most likely call with many pocket pairs also (unfortunately you are not ahead of those).

Vs. Steve Hateswife

What about our friend Stevie here? He will likely raise a tighter range of hands under the gun. But you should re-raise again. Why? Steve is a passive player isn’t he? Yes he is, but what you aren’t thinking about is what he range of hands he will call with.

You see, you are right on the fact that Steve is tighter on his opening range so he might only raise AT, KJ, 99 and better.

But what will he call with when you re-raise?

A player like Steve will usually call re-raises very liberally with hands like AJ and KJ hoping to hit something. What he doesn’t know is that you often have him totally dominated so when he hits that Ace or King you will most likely win his whole stack (or at least a big chunk of it).

Vs. Grandma Jones

Grandma Jones raises UTG and it’s to you again with your AK.

This situation is a bit harder. We have to think a bit more here, what do you think Grandma Jones raises under the gun? Which hands do you think she calls re-raises with?

A player like Grandma Jones will usually not raise under the gun without a premium hand and limp with anything else. That means that she will likely raise a range that is something like AA-JJ, MAYBE AQ and KQs, maybe even limp AK. You will have to observe a player like this and what their tendencies are.

What happens if you re-raise?

She will most likely call with KK, AK, AQ, KQs (if she plays that) and only hand I can see her 4-betting you with is Aces so you can safely fold if she re-re-raises you.

I say re-raise again because she will pay you off so lightly when you dominate her and you will know when she has you beat because she will suddenly spring to life.

Vs. Mikael Pengabank

Mikael is a tough tricky bastard. He will not be so eager to put his money in with a hand that you beat. If you’ve been playing solidly (which you should) then he will most likely fold a hand like Ace Queen. So you’re in a tricky spot here because like vs. many good players, it will be hard to extract value.

I would still re-raise because you have to re-raise a hand like AK vs. a player like this. If you’re just calling with AK and re-raising AA and KK then it becomes a bit too easy to read you.

And you never know, he might call you with AQ and go broke vs. your AK. Another scenario would be that you re-raise and he calls with Jacks, the flop comes A85r and you check to him and …

Caution

Remember, poker is a game of many variables and it is your job to properly assess them. When you misjudge it can lead to a lot of bad spots.

But when you know what someone is doing you will have a better idea of what to do. If you’re a beginner you probably do not know the best lines to take with different hands even when you know what he might have.

Don’t worry, the more you read and learn the better you become. These posts and articles are meant to show you different situations and how I think and evaluate them.

They are just one perspective. You should learn from several sources and learn to think for yourself!

How Do You Play AK On The Flop?

Next time I will go into detail how you should play different flops after you get called.

What happens when you miss the flop? What happens when you hit? How can you win the most and when should you just give up?

Subscribe to our RSS feed and avoid missing any of these gems! You owe it to yourself, dude!

The Waiting Game

The game was playing very aggressive, and very “actiony” – players willing to call raises preflop, reraise preflop, and get involved with less-than-premium holdings after the flop. I’m willing to play relatively tight and wait for high equity hands because of the action at the table.

I tread water for a few hours, losing and winning some small pots. I’m forced to fold postflop a number of times after raising and missing my hand – 88 doesn’t look so hot on a K9T flop when 3 people call your preflop raise.

I didn’t get many hands for a few hours, fortunately I was able to exploit my image a bit. I stole a couple pots on pure bluffs – I could donk the flop into the preflop raiser with backdoors and overcards and get a quick fold because of my nitty image. I also 3-barrelled(bet the flop, turn, and river strongly) a particularly dangerous board (AKxxx, 3 spades) against a good player who was capable of laying down an Ace.

I start to splash around a bit, but raising light is counterproductive when it is hard to take down a pot postflop and multiple players call raises – so I get a snack and settle in.

The Pots Keep Getting Bigger

I’m sitting with $3800 having lost a bit while splashing around. Everyone folds to an aggressive player in the small blind who covers me.

He open-raises to $140, I call with T8. I’m happy seeing a flop in position with different types of hands.

Flop: J 9 7 (Pot: $280)

Jackpot! I flop the nuts on a drawy board against an aggressive player. I’ve been splashing around a little, hopefully I look a bit more “action” than I did a few hours earlier.

He leads for $200, I raise to $700.

I need to build this pot early before an unfavorable turn or river card could kill my action – and raising the flop is the best way to give myself a chance to get my money in. Hopefully he will think I’m semi-bluffing, or trying to take a stand against the big stack. If I can encourage a “pissing contest” type confrontation, so much the better.

He calls in tempo.

Turn: (J 9 7) 7 (Pot: $1680)

The turn isn’t a great card since it could potentially make him a better hand, and gives worse hands like AA a four-out redraw. It doesn’t change my plan, though.

He checks, I bet $900. This will leave about $2000 left to bet in a $3500 pot if he calls the turn, a good sized river shove.

He starts reaching for chips, and asks the dealer for time. He asks me “Do you want the money to go in now, or on the river?”
I reply with my standard response to any question: “Whatever.”

He says “this is for the turn” and puts out a call of my $900, and then says “and this is for the river” and puts about $5k down, betting the river dark, and putting me all-in.

I call instantly, before the dealer gets a chance to burn + turn. My opponent seems a bit taken aback, I guess he put me on a draw and expected me to fold the river if I missed…

The River

The river, unfortunately, is the 9, leaving the board:

River: (J 9 7 7) 9 (Pot: $7600)

My opponent looks dismayed, so in my haste I turn over my cards before waiting to see his, and he mucks facedown! His likely holdings were an overpair, a draw, or a pure bluff – nothing else makes sense.

It’s incredible to have the dealer slide such an enormous pot in my direction, especially after such bad card for my hand hit on the river and it seemed like all might be lost. I was so stoked – it took me three hands to stack all my chips!

I played for awhile until I stopped for dinner, though no eventful hands followed.

Fortunately, I’d made quite a stack, turning a rough start into an awesome day!
The last day I played limit – I may do an Epilogue discussing some of the interesting LHE situations that came up, if there is interest.

I can’t wait to go back, live poker is a great change of pace, and it is exhilarating playing higher stakes than ever before. I hope you enjoyed the recount of my NL adventure!

Opening moves

Preflop: Ivey completes, Jackson checks. This is going to happen often, both players just want to see a flop. We can narrow ranges a bit – they probably don’t have AK, AA type hands – but not much else.

Flop: JJ7r
Jackson checks, Ivey stabs 80k into ~180k, a little less than half pot.

As the narrator correctly points out, Ivey will be making this bet with a very wide range of hands, putting pressure on his shorter-stacked opponent.

First Blood

Jackson clearly can’t call his 65o, but he realizes Phil’s range is wide, so he takes a shot at the pot, raising to $170k hoping to take it down. Many opponents will give up their bluff here and yield the pot, so it’s a decent move. Unfortunately, his opponent is Phil Ivey.

Ivey thinks for a moment, and likely realizes that there are very few calling hands on this flop, so Jackson is forced into a “raise or fold” situation when he holds, say, K-hi or worse. Jackson’s checkraise could be pot-building with trips, but it could very well be a cheap bluff – Jackson’s raise is barely over a minraise!

I’ve Got It, Do You?

Ivey doesn’t buy that Jackson has trips just yet, so he puts out a “I’ve got trips – do you have trips?” raise to $320k. This is a nice raise size, it forces Jackson to call only $150k more, but it says “we’re getting all-in on the turn if you call,” so it essentially forces Jackson to decide for his whole stack.

The wheels are turning in Jackson’s head, too. He realizes what Phil did earlier – that if he actually had the J he probably wouldn’t play it so fast, and that Phil might have caught on that the flop check-raise was likely to be a bluff. Jackson essentially is saying “yup, I’ve got it” as he re-re-raises to $470k.

Jackson’s Mistake

Jackson clearly has game, and is not backing down from Ivey here in this pot. However, he made one critical mistake at this point.
Phil asks him “how much have you got left?”
Jackson counts it up, about $380k – but the pot is $1 million!

Phil’s thinking it over… asking himself questions like:

• “why did he leave $380k behind?”
• “does he want me to call or fold?”
• “What does he think I have?”

A bad player might min-re-re-raise with the nuts to try and induce a call. However, Jackson is a savvy opponent, one who knows that if Ivey’s got a hand it doesn’t matter whether he bets that $380 now or on the turn, it’s going in regardless. Jackson realizes his mistake as he counts his chips and tells Ivey how few he has left. He’s thinking “damn, I should have gone all-in, I only have 380 left.”

The most likely hand that would min-re-re-raise 150k more, leaving 380 behind, is a seat-of-the-pants bluff. It wants to risk the minimum, and doesn’t care about remaining chips because he(Jackson) will fold to further action. If he actually had a Jack, he would have counted out his remaining stack before acting, realized his opponent was pot-committed, and pushed. Occasionally this will be a clever trap with a full house or trips, but most times huge hands will move all-in rather than making a tiny re-raise.

This is (somewhat) apparent as we analyze it away from the table, with the privilege of seeing both hole cards. It’s an absolutely incredible move by both players, their insight and awareness of the other’s thoughts and likely holdings make this a truly awesome hand.