I've been busy lately and haven't had a chance to update the blog. But I've made day 5 of the PCA 24 left and 2 milllion + for first. My real name is posted in the 2p2 HSNL thread I'd rather not post it here though. I'll try and post a detailed analysis of hands I've played when I get a chance but I still need to play the tournament.

Last night I was a little annoyed with poker so I took a break, got high and watched Almost Famous. After watching the movie I felt this strange fascination to play poker so I did and played one of the my best sessions ever. I had two particularly interesting hands.

The first one was HU vs a good aggressive regular HU at a 6max table. I lost the HH from this one but here it is from memory. Hero has 77.

BTN raises to $18
Hero raises to $60
BTN Calls $42

Flop Jc6d2s

Hero bets $88
BTN calls $88

Turn 3c

Hero bets $222
BTN raises all in $852
Hero calls $630

BTN Shows 55
Hero wins

I'll give my thoughts on every street pf can go either way. I chose to 3bet because with our current match flow I thought on low card boards I could get a lot of value out of high card hands plus villain is good and it will be difficult to check call him down.

The flop is a standard cbet there is value in it and checking would be bad, it turns my hand face up and against a good aggressive player I don't want to check call check call and than guess his frequencies on the river.

Turn is the most interesting street of course, I chose to bet because if I check its a super tough spot, he can float the flop with ace high, or KQ or QT and if I check my life will be very tough. By betting I get all those hands (which don't have bad equity vs me) to fold. If I bet turn it makes my perceived range stronger. Aswell I keep the impetus and can chose to bluff certain rivers if I feel so inclined. I wasn't expecting him to shove but once I did I was fairly confused. I don't think he would shove a jack on the turn and on this texture I would expect him to slowplay a lot of his big hands. There's no reason to shove turn with big hands here, he can call 100% of rivers with a set or QQ+ and not feel bad about + there is only pot left so there is no need to build a pot.His line just doe not make sense. When we consider he calls the flop with any pair and a lot of high card combos, his range has a lot of hand that are worse than two sevens in it. He also knows, I know how weak his range is so he correctly expects me to be betting a wide range on the turn. It is far more likely he has something like middle pair and a gutter or 67 or ATcc, than a made a hand so I closed my eyes and called and he had 55 and I won.


Full Tilt Poker $3/$6 No Limit Hold'em $1 Ante - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP: $2827.45
CO: $4595.95
Hero (BTN): $2861.45
SB: $1149.60
BB: $300.00
UTG: $600.00

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is BTN with A K
1 fold, MP raises to $21, CO calls $21, Hero raises to $99, 2 folds, MP raises to $333, 1 fold, Hero calls $234

Flop: ($702.00) 5 2 4 (2 players)
MP bets $422, Hero calls $422

Turn: ($1546.00) A (2 players)
MP requests TIME, MP checks, Hero checks

River: ($1546.00) 9 (2 players)
MP requests TIME, MP checks, Hero requests TIME, Hero bets $555, MP raises to $2071.45 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $1516.45

Final Pot: $5688.90
MP shows A 8 (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows A K (a pair of Aces)
Hero wins $5685.90
(Rake: $3.00)

This hand was a little scary. PF is standard I 3bet in position with one of the strongest hands in NLH i don't mind playing a big pot. He 4bets which I know he can do with a wide range so I'm ready to play poker in position.

The flop is fairly standard I have position I know he's 4betting a wide range, and his only value hands really are AA and KK. I have the best hand a lot and I don't think he's going to barrel off. As well my hand looks like QQ/JJ so the cards that are good for me will induce bluffs.

The turn is the Ad he tanks and checks for a while. On the turn I'm fairly certain that he would bet with any big diamond or flush or three aces. This is a great bluff card for him he choses to check which means he must have some showdown. I don't think he would 4bet queens or jacks so I think his hand is either KK without a diamond or an ace with a worse kicker than mine that he was 4bet bluffing. I considered betting but figured it looks very strong and could get a lot of folds. I figured if I check my hand looks like two queens or something similar and if the river is not a diamond he will always vbet his Ax and maybe his KK. So I tanked for a while and checked back praying no diamond.

Fuck! That was roughly my first thought on the river. Now he tanked for not that long and checked, here is where the hand gets really interesting. I think he as a flush an incredibly small % of the time. The reason for this is if he 4bet me pf as a bluff I think he'd do it with a suited hand more often than a non suited hand. If he turned a two card flush he would bet about 100% of the time so its unlikely he has a two card flush. Once we acknowledge he doesn't have a two card flush he has very few diamonds. The Ad is on board, so for him to have a strong flush he would have need to 4bet my squeeze with two unsuited cards both below an ace or have exactly KdKx. While he can have something like KQo or QJo or KJo with a diamond some % I expect him to shove the turn with them (especially with the Kd) a large %. Furthermore once I check turn he will vbet his big diamonds on the river. Its hard for me to have big diamonds unless I have KdKx or QdQx or maybe JdJx. He expects me to check this river a large % of the time so he needs to vbet his strong hands here.

Once he checks I'm fairly confident he does not have a flush, which means my hand is best, he doesn't check the turn with a set or two pair so unless he has A9s my hand is best. I decided to bet 555 for value, as he was tanking I thought what do I if he check raises and than he check raised all in. My first thought was fuck why did I bet the river, I'm an idiot I'm going to play a 6k pot at 3/6 with TPTK, why didn't I just check. Than I calmed down, slowed my breathing and tanked it I bet the river because I was fairly sure he didn't have a flush, the only hand he would crai for value here is the Kd which he would not check on the river, he has to be bluffing nothing else makes sense. My heart was pounding so fast and I tanked it and finally made the call to get shown A8. After that hand I literally sat in my desk shaking for a few minutes at the sheer awesomeness of it. Hands like that remind me why poker is fun.

Today I played two sessions, one in the morning where I crushed. I ran very well I got KK allin vs TT on QT22 and binked a two outer. I had KK AIPF vs AA and vs JJ and flopped a King. I made top set with 99 vs KK in a 3bet pot. I quit the session up a bunch and feeling great, knowing I didn't play spectacularly well. After watching some Curb Your Enthusiasm I decided to play another session because I felt fairly motivated.

In the second session I made a few mistakes. I bet three bet an open ender against an obvious set, I called the river with QQ in a 3bet pot on J92TQ when villain almost always had me beat. But other than that I played fine, made a few very good folds and did not make many mistakes.Despite this I lost, I got coolered, lost some flips, had some bad run outs and ended up losing most of my profits

Naturally it is easy whenever you lose in the second session to be tilted, but after thinking about it more I did not make many mistakes, I played well in both sessions, I knew I ran absurdly well in the first session and this was just variance evening it out. Obviously this isn't particularly enlightening and we all "know" its true but accepting it is much harder.In the past I would feel bad for starting a new session even though I know I played well, but I feel at ease right now which is more important than any poker hand.

Its easy to have a selection bias in poker I'll give one example. Today I had a hand where UTG (100 deep)opened the BTN(200 deep) 3bet and I(200 deep) flatted with AA; utg folded. The flop was 832r I check called, the turn was an ace it went check check and I bet 1/2 pot on the river which was called by KK. After the hand I bemoaned my luck as I essentially was 2 outered for the rest of his stack. However I remembered the other day I played a hand where UTG opened I 3bet AA utg+1 he called. The flop was 822 and he check called. The turn was an Ace villain c/r I called the river was a blank he shoved with AK. In that spot I hit a 1 outer to stack villain but that wasn't good luck it was brilliant induction.

Today I had one fun hand which is not interesting. All stacks are 200bbs deep. UTG raise I flat QTss in the CO the BTN squeezed and UTG called, which I give a 6.5/10 fold may be better. The flop was Q82r its check to the button who bets 60% pot and he is called by UTG. I tank and realize my hand is no good I have 5 outs, and a queen is very transparent and will rarely get paid off. I tank and make a disciplined fold in this 3bet pot only to see the turn roll off an offsuit T. For a brief moment I consoled myself, I know my fold is +ev but I still think "If only I made that bad call I would win a 4k pot at 3/6. The BTN and UTG got the rest of their stacks in on the turn with AA vs KK, and I sighed a little only to see an 8 roll off on the river, rewarding my fold and reminding that all is right in the world.

Bkice posted a fairly interesting hand on 2p2 at the brawl FT. I initially responded lol call because folding is a clear mistake in my opinion. But I eventually decided to give some more in depth analysis and I figured id post it here.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/87...awl-ft-645937/
The hand for those too lazy to click the link is below.

YrrsiNN (BB): t948309 M = 10.54
Hero (UTG): t1382943 M = 15.37
mikkelstrack (MP): t1762204 M = 19.58
Jotagran49 (CO): t702630 M = 7.81
Snusarn1 (BTN): t2615646 M = 29.06
SpazIsPlusEV (SB): t970268 M = 10.78

Pre Flop: (t90000) Hero is UTG with Ts Ac
Hero raises to t92750, mikkelstrack calls t92750, 4 folds

Flop: (t275500) 7c Th Ah (2 players)
Hero bets t154000, mikkelstrack calls t154000

Turn: (t583500) Qc (2 players)
Hero bets t342000, mikkelstrack raises to t1510454 all in

The point is he's a random $100 mtt reg. I'm sure you guys all have a friend from high school who is a "serious poker player" but he just plays $100 mtts and only plays a few tables, and if you sit down and talk to him about poker he is obviously clueless. There is a good chance this player fits into that archetype. He is probably uncomfortable at the final table which means he will likely play in one of two ways.

1. Extraordinarily tight
2. He will think, "wow I'm playing for a lot of money, I don't want to get run over because its for more money"

Given that he has been splashing around a lot(as per the reads bkice gave)its much more reasonable he is in category 2. Now when he gets to the turn he has a multitude of combos with a pair and a fd or a pair and straight draw or two pair and he gets there and sees a lot of money in the middle and will often just decide **** it I'm all in. It seems like I'm making this up and constructing a narrative when its not there, but I have seen this happen so many times in mtts. Often with players who are more skilled and disciplined than your average $100 mtt reg. The turn is one of the worst cards in the deck as we go from having basically the nuts to a hand that is vulnerable and may no longer be good, but the turn is still a clear bet call.

Now lets get into villain's pf thoughts a little more. He has already flatted a few opens with shallow stacks which indicates his preflop game is not particularly polished. Now he flats another open with three reshove stacks behind. Do you think his thought process is.

1. "There are three good stacks to reshove on me, I should be tight in this spot because I can't call loosely.
or
2. Hmm 89s, let's try and hit a flop.

Obviously I am oversimplifying but this type of player's thought process is much closer to the latter than the former, which he has shown with his play thus far. Once we have established he does not have a polished pf game, and is probably balancing a combination of fatigue, anxiety and adrenaline, the number of hands in his pf range becomes incredibly wide.Now when he shoves the turn I'm not in love and he certainly has AQ/77/KJ a significant % of the time but there is simply no way you can fold AT.

Losing hurts more than winning, most of us remember when he has AQ/77/KJ. We dwell on the hand and post it on the forums, and wonder if we could have done anything differently. Especially if its a big tournament, in an opportunity we might not get again.But its so easy to forget when people clown it up and shove KQ or AJ or some other inexplicable hand and we win, and than move on.

This forum is incredibly nitty because most of the hands people post are pots they lose, we all know not to be results-oriented but it is much harder in practice than in theory. When a reg(nothing against bkice) makes a thread "silly spot 6 handed at brawl ft" He most likely came 6th in the tournament. There are very few posters who will post hands that they won, in fact if bkice binked an Ace on the river he probably would not have posted this hand, which makes him just like everyone else. When most of us lose big pots we want reassurance we did not make a mistake and when we win big pots its because of our incredible skill. I've spent the last 8 hours in my head discussing the merits of checking back vs betting 69dd on KT6dd, when the answer is it really does not matter. One is higher variance but the EV($ and chip) is more or less the same. Part of the reason poker is so frustrating and profitable, is because we do not have as much control over the outcome as we would like. In a lot of spots you ultimately need to click call or shove and hope to run into the right part of someone's range, which can be especially frustrating in tournaments where some pots are worth 50k and others $50.

The day started extremely well. I won a flip with AK vs 99 and than won another big pot when I ran my AA into some other guy's KK.

After that it all went downhill. It was a very tough day. Whenever I cbet and had air I got raised, and whenever I had big hands people folded. I am fairly observant live and didn't give much off it was just annoying running into the wrong part of people's ranges. I didn't play perfectly and certainly made a few mistakes, with a few loose pf calls which I should not have. They aren't significant mistakes but certainly add up and I'm a little disappointed about that.

I honestly had 0 interesting spots today most of them where just simple std spots, that I maybe could have played differently but they were mostly spots where it the ev between bet and check or call and fold were so small there's no point in really going over it.

I busted with about 20 minutes left in the day. I opened the CO with 69dd and the BB peeled. The flop was KT6dd He chcked I bet 12k he c/r to about 32k, I didn't think I had much FE but had no real choice but to shove so I did he called with KT and I lost the flip. Such is life. I did not play perfect today, I made a few mistakes but they were all marginal and I don't feel too bad about it.

Considering how the day was going I had a lot of spots where I could have theoretically spewed off some chips but stayed fairly composed and didn't so I'm pleased about that.

I just played a long day of live poker so I apologize for any typos/spots where the action isn't clear. I just reread it and I think its fine but who knows.

Finished day 1a with 117k. Probably top 5 in chips definitely top 10. I basically crushed everyone. I chipped up to 40k early.

When I 3bet TT 4 handed(nobody showed up on time) raiser called. He c/c 650 on KKQ Turn T he I bet 1850 he c/r to 4200 I call. River brick he c/c 8k.

Kinda got owned for a while lost some chips when ep opens I flat KJs 2 more flatters BB who is a weird euro 3bets I call because we are 300bbs deep. 3 ways to the flop 997. 3better is a bad old guy who's a huge tellbox, he checks quickly so he obviously has nothing. I bet btn folds he tanks for literally 3-4 minutes. I consider calling the clock but than realize that will just tilt him. Unfortunately someone else calls the clock and he insta c/r. I still think he's full of shit but I don't want to 4bet bluff 1/2 my stack in level 1 so I fold and he windmills AQo. meh.

Than Jesper(live pro who's decent) raises ep I flat A9ss OTB BB calls. He cbets 778ss I call. Turn 9 he checks I don't want to get c/r so I check river 5. He 1/4 pots I cry call and he has 66.

Next orbit young scandi opens utg UTG+1 flats I peel BB with 77. Flop 886 I check utg checks utg+1 bets 1200 I flat UTG flats. Turn is a 5. I decide to donk for 4k figuring it looks ridic strong UTG folds (he later told me he had KK) UTG+1 flats. River is an 8 I check he shoves for 10k I fold. A bit of a weird line but I like it.

I end up grinding down to about 33k when I raise QQ utg to 500 middle aged euro with a baller watch who just got moved to the table makes it 1200 OTB. I call. Flop 336 I c/c 3k, turn 7 He bets 6500 I call. Turn is close, playing with him longer is 100% a fold but he had been at the table for literally 5 hands. River is a T i check he bets 12k I fold and he shows AA.

Down to 20k I chip up some more when I flat QQ pf and call this old euro on every street of J9823 he had AJ.

Than HJ opens t800 at 150/300, I'm fairly certain he's a local live pro I flat with AA in the CO. I hadn't been 3betting much and had been flatting a bunch + he's not the type to 4bet spaz. Flop is Q23ss He bets 1200 I make it 2750 he calls. Turn is an offsuit 9 he checks I shove he has 2 5ks and a 25 chip left so I tank for a minute and throw in 3 5ks thinking it looks super weak. He calls KQ river brick.

Than Jesper limps in ep he's been limping a lot I overlimp Jd9s OTB sb completes BB completes. Flop T85hh SB bets BB (Marcin Horecki, Polish stars pro who played very well) calls Jesper calls. I decide to peel one off. Turn is the Ah sb checks Marcin checks Jesper checks. I figure my hand looks like a fd so I bet 3200 sb folds Marcin folds Jesper calls. River is an offsuit 6 he checks I think he's 100% good enough to fold two pair in this spot so I bet 8k he tanks for not very long and folds. I mean my hand looks so much like a flush, I think its a very good bluff tbh.

So after being down to 20k I've grinded up to 60k. For a while I have no interesting hands, a few light 3bets against live tellboxes, a few cbets and a few hands where I flat pf and just miss.

Than I open AThh in LP Marcin Horecki 3bets OTB pretty small I think sizing was about 800 open (150/300/25) and he makes it 2400 so I call 50k deep. Flop is QT3 check check. Turn is a 9 I check call 3200 river 3 check check he has T9o.

A few orbits later I raise JTdd utg+1 t1k at 200/400/50 Marcin makes it 3k total. I think he's rarely light because I have been tight in ep but I we are 50k deep and I have JTs so I call. Flop is J97r I check and he checks. The turn is the Ks. I check he bets 3200 I tank and make it 11500. I think it looks super strong, he almost always has AK and he is certainly good enough to fold it. Even if he has AK I still have lots of outs and was planning on betting 20k on any river that wasn't a K/A/T. A Q is very close because he might also have KQ but I'm not sure what I would do on that river. Anyways he tanked for a very long time before folding what he said was AK, I tend to believe him.

I finish the level with about 65k and than went on a massive heater. Folded to me in the sb I raise A6o t1800 at 300/600/50) young scandi flats BB. Flop AKK I check he checks. Turn A i bet 1150 into 4k he calls. River is a 9 I bet 4k he calls and mucks. I think I live owned him pretty good on this one.

Than button limps sb folds I check T8ss. Flop A82 I c/c 1200. Turn 8 I c/c 4k. River T i check he bets 7500 I shove for a minraise and he snap calls AJo. I mean seems standard on all parts just clowns gifting me chips.

Than I get moved tables my new table has a bunch of young aggro kids. First hand I play 100k stack opens t1600 I flat A4dd flop is J42r He bets 2100. Flatting is probably best but I thought he wasn't that spazzy so I just made it 5500 planning on shutting down He 4bet me small, I thought there was a decent chance he was FOS but I don't feel like chunking off a bunch of chips with one pair of 4s given how good my stack is. He later told me he had A9o which is w/e obviously not a strong play by him but such is life.

Luckily I got some of those chips back next orbit young kid with a 25k opens to 2k at 400/800/50 UTG 6max The guy who raised my cbet earlier 3bets small to 5k. I tank with AQo OTB its clear that the shorty is always folding(live tellbox) so I make it 11k figuring that the 3better can have a super wide range because 1. He might have the airballs, 2 he can 3bet call it off with stuff like 88 and AJ. PFR folds teh 3better tanks for a long time and calls. Flop is QTx he checks I figure I'll just bet 9.5k and shutdown because he would need to be a complete nutjob to c/r bluff me and if I check back flop I don't want to play guessing games on future streets. He folds pretty fast so who knows what he has.

A few hands the same kid who opened earlier minraises utg with 22k I flat KQhh UTG 6max sb calls BB calls. Flop is Q82ddh checked to me I bet 4800 everyone folds.

Day ends i have 117k and feel like I played a great day. I have tommorow off but hopefully I can keep it up for the week

My last blog I gave some vague description of table dynamics but now I will use a few example to illustrate it. A simple way of explaining table dynamics is if you understand them you will know when to be on the right level.

I had a hand in my session today where I opened the CO with KK an aggro reg 3bet me on the button and I called the flop was KJ7ss I checked and he bet I considered raising but i figured that it would look very strong, and if I check call my hand looks like a pair and a flush draw. Given this he will bet more on good cards for me than bad cards so I called.The turn was a king giving me quads, I check called again, this is pretty standard he shoves a full house on 100% of rivers and he has a lot of bluffs, some which will backdoor into value shoves for example AsQd. The only hands I lose value from by calling are flopped flushes when a J or 7 or spade hits the river. The river is a blank i check and he checks behind with 24cc. His line here is pretty awful I love playing pots in position but with no outs and no equity its not a good spot.

The next orbit I open the button with AA and he 3bets the small blind. My standard play in position is to flat, I can reasonably flat a lot of hands in position and he can 3bet a wide range most of which don't want to get stacks in preflop. However in this spot I opted to 4bet, the reason for this is he knows he just showed down 24s 3betting. His thought process will likely be "I just showed down 4 high, he knows I'm 3betting wide and trying to exploit it." This is a particularly great spot to 4bet because the villain in this spot typically will get too ego-oriented. Instead of thinking rationally about my range of hands his thought process will simply be "I have shown an exploitable tendency, the villain will try to exploit me so I must play back."

While he should be considering my range, whether or not I'm balanced how often I flat 3bets and a multitude of options all he can think of is whether or not he will get owned. Villain shoved in this hand for a 130 bbs fairly fast and had KQo. Obviously there is a chance that he just spewed off here but I think there is a fairly good chance if I had 4bet him an orbit earlier he would have folded.

I will illustrate another example this from a live tournament. Let's use two examples you get moved to a new table in a live tournament. Average stack is abut 40k at 500/1k/100

Your third hand at the table you open the HJ with 99 and a 40k stack to 2.5k the button a young player with about 100k chips quickly makes it 7500. What is your play? Obviously it is close and we wish we had more information but I would often end up going all in in this spot. Especially if you like me are young looking and will be assumed to be aggressive regardless how you have been playing.

Now let us consider another scenario you have been at the table for 30 mins and have opened a few pots none have gone to showdown. You open with 99 with 40k to 2.5kthe HJ and a young player with 100k 3bet makes it 7500 on the button. In this case the young player has been fairly active, but has not yet shown down a hand. He has yet to 3bet and has instamucked his hand to many late position options. What do you do?

The second hand is a much more difficult spot. Let's think about what we know in each scenario

In the first example
Villain has a lot of chips
He is young
The first hand you have played he has shown aggression.
He re-raised his first hand in position. The only other hands he folded to raises in the worst positions at the table.
He can have a wide range because you are assumed to be folding or shoving most of your range.
What is the probability this player is bluffing?

Think about the second example
Villain has a lot of chips
He is young
He has had many opportunities to show aggression but has not.
He has insta-mucked many hands indicating his range is significantly narrower.
He has had many opportunities to re raise preflop and has yet to do it.
What is the probability this player is bluffing?

You don't need to give exact answers to these questions, that is not the point. The point is in this scenario most players will (correctly) shove 99. The second scenario is much tougher and against some people its a easy fold, against others its a shove. The point however is to notice how their different images create such different responses from opponents. Which is why its so imporant to be aware of your own image. If you are the BTN in the first hand with QJo its mathematically a +ev spot to 3bet but in doing so you ruin your image for nearly the whole table, it is not worth it, your first impression is so important and now you have ruined it. But by simply being patient and waiting for your spots you get much more credit.

In EPT Villamoura, I 3bet 3/4 times on day 1, everytime I was light and everytime I got snapfolds, I did get lucky to run into the bottom of their ranges but simply by creating an image where my range was considered to be strong I gained a lot of EV.

I don't mean to post these hands as brags(I lost the KQ pot and didn't cash in Villamoura) but rather I'm pointing out that if you really focus on your image and try and get inside the head of your opponents you can pick up a lot. It may seem like a difficult task, but poker players are not robots, they are humans with tendencies and emotions who will make mistakes. Simply take a deep breath, slow down, focus and try and get inside your opponents head and good things will happen. Timing tells, live reads, bet sizing all can give you a lot of information but its not cryptic. I don't think someone who bets small is weak always but sometimes I do. Just ask yourself questions. What does my hand look like to him? Why would he bet small? What is he trying to accomplish? As long as you remember to be aware of these little things you will pick up a lot more information and your game will improve.

able dynamics are incredibly important in poker but they are rarely discussed, mainly because it is nearly impossible to quantify. Poker players learn early on the EV of ace king versus two queens all in preflop and when they are getting correct odds to call with a flush draw. This basic math sets up a general template for how to play, as the beginner now knows which hands are valuable and which are not. As players improve and math becomes more complex players dissect hand ranges into specific combinations and determine the probability the opponent is bluffing, value betting a better hand or value betting a worse hand and make a decision based on that information. With no other information it is reasonable to assume the player with a strong math background will be better than one without, but it fails to explain why certain players with seemingly no math background have great sucess, and players who can you tell their equity to the third decimal point struggle.

When I discuss hands with friends or post on two plus two, I do my best to figure out what the most plus ev play is. Often when pre-occupied I will give a simple one word or one number response. If I have time I will give a more detailed analysis because the explanation is far more valuable than the answer. One word answers do not provide much insight, presumably I will only be sent interesting hands so even if I were to guess randomly between fold, raise and call my answer would seem reasonable often. On the river often there are only two options so flipping a coin would provide as much insight as simply typing fold. Although it is hard to do, because ideally I know the answer to every hand, sometimes when I am truly focusing I will think for one or two minutes about a hand and decide "I do not know." There are two reasons why this will happen, the hand is against a highly skilled opponent who simply put us in a difficult spot, or I do not have information about how the table has been playing. In the case of the former there is nothing you can do except sit out preflop, and acknowledge that your decision will never cosr you that much money, because of how close it is.The latter case is different it is a spot where good players will win a lot of money and bad players will lose a lot without even realizing they are making a mistake, this is where table dynamics come into play.

Thus far I have explained why table dynamics are important but I have yet to explain what they are, partially because it is not easily defined. The best definition I came up with is "How the conditions of the table, and emotional state of players in a game, causes their ranges to be significantly unbalanced."

I apolgize for the cliffhanger ending but I am tired and if I write more the content will start to suffer. I could save the draft but I would rather have regular content. I will attempt to finish this when I get a chance.

Busted very early in Day 1b.

It was a very difficult hand. After being moved from my first table which was incredibly soft, I got moved to probably the toughest table in the tournament. It was myself, Jason Mercier, Johannes Strasseman(Psier on stars), and two other pretty good young players.

Jason and Johannes are friends with my older brother Max, and knew that I was his brother and I had been friendly with them. After a few hands of folding I raise AQs t2500 with a 35k stack UTG+2, Mercier makes it 6500 in the CO. Its a very tough spot but he 3bets a very wide range so I 4bet shoved. He called with KK. I flopped an Ace but he backdoor flushed me, if I win that pot I have an 80k stack and could have probably made a lot of good things happen but alas such is life.

Luckily Its sunny out I'm on the ocean and life all around is pretty great. Going to get a massage now, but I figured giving a quick update would be smart.

Played Day 1b of EPT Villamoura yesterday. Villamoura is a spectacular place, but I don't have that much time so this will blog will be mainly poker content, not how awesome Villamoura is content.


The day started off basically as badly as possible.

Starting stacks 30k at 50/100, my table has two good young players, one ok but spazzy Portugese stars pro, and a bunch of older portugese men and women who did not know how to play poker. I will do my best with reads but the fact is bad portugese player is the description for 80% of my table. I suppose I could say Old portugese man with the green shirt, but that wouldn't be that helpful to anyone either.

I lose 6k of my stack early in two seperate hands when I raise pf and bet twice with AK on an Ace high board with two spades. The turn brought a third spade I bet and get called, the river is the Js I check and lose to AhTs.

The next hand I raise AA utg and get called by one player in EP and both blinds. I cbet AJThhh and get c/r by the BB, I''m fairly certain he has a flush but I call hoping the board pairs because he's obviously never folding a flush. The turn is an offsuit K he bets 6k which is about pot and I fold. I'm fairly certain he had me beat.

After this I made probably the worst fold I have ever made in my life, I really have no idea what I was thinking and in general I call too much. A clowny european limps utg I iso JTdd Co flats he thinks for a bit looks like he's considering folding and calls.

Flop is JJ2(bink).

Checked to me, my first thought is well nobody will put me on a jack awesome. I bet 850 into 1350 UTG c/r small(note he considered folding pf so he never has a two face cards or a pair). I call. Turn is a 3 he bets 3k I call. River is a 7 He bets 6500 and for some crazy reason I decided to fold. I honestly have no idea why I thought river was a fold its horrificly bad Its closer to a raise than a fold. Anyways I fold and get shown ace high obviously.

I normally don't tilt too badly but I was clearly on tilt at this point so I left for about 10 minutes to recollect my thoughts. I reminded myself "past decisions don't matter focus on the present" but I honestly could not, I could not stop thinking about making this awful fold for a 20k pot.

I came back didn't play many hands and went on break. After break I felt a lot better and was ready to play some poker, I reminded myself I still had 90bbs had a very soft table and that I was still in the tournament.

My next big hand I open 97s the position before the HJ. The button who is an older portugese man calls.
Flop is As8h5h.
I continuation bet and he calls instantly. He did this earlier with a draw, he could certainly have a weak top pair but he clearly, wanted to see turn/river for cheap. The turn wa the Ks so I bet 2700 into a little over 3k he mulled it over for a good minute and called. The river was the 5c, one of the worst cards in the deck for me. That said he has a lot of draws in his range so I bet 1/2 pot because I have 9 high and I'm certain he folds without an ace. Unfortunately he had A2hh and called so I was down to 8k.

Nothing intersting for a while. My stack fluctuates between 6500 and 10k when the blinds are 100/200/25. An old portugese women opens in middle position for 600, I have 7k and look down at two jacks in the BB, I decide if I 3bet less than all in she will certainly flat a bunch of hands that are worse than two jacks so I make it 2500 planning on shipping any flop. The flop is AQQ, this unfortunately is one of the worst flops I could hit. I consider tilt shoving but remind myself that c/f is clearly a better play so I do. I go on break very annoyed with 4.5k.

At this point I remind myself poker is a game of decisions so just make good ones and make some hands and it will work out.

First hand of of 150/300/25 aggressive portugese stars pro opens I reshove AQs for about 4700 he folds. A few hands later loose old portugese players opens in early position and gets flatted by this portugese women who can literally have ATC. I reshove 7k with AJo from the small blind. The big blind instantly grabs 2 5k chips, I'm certain I'm cooked but somehow everyone folds pulling me up to 9k.

A few hands later CO opens and I look down at AA in the BB. She is an middle aged portugese women who is awful at poker so I 3bet really small. She made it 800 and I make it 2400 total, unforutantely she decides to fold.

Still 150/300/25 my stack is at about 11k I open with J6dd in the HJ because everyone behind is fairly tight and bad. The button calls as does the BB. The flop is 922r I opt to cbet because the BB is peeling very wide and the button is tight and will fold a lot of reasonably strong hands on the flop, certainly ace high maybe low pairs. The button folds but unfortunately the BB calls. The turn is the beautiful Qd. BB checks I think for about 20 seconds and say all in, because I'm pretty sure she folds a 9 or ace high or whatever else she peeled. Fortunately she does fold. Putting me up to 15k with the blinds at 200/400/50

A few hands later JustLuck(young aggro mtt player who has been opening very wide) raises in the HJ the clowny euro who bluffed me early and is visibly tilted after losing a pot makes it 3k OTB. I look down at ATss think about 10 seconds and ship it. Its simply a great spot for me both pplayers have very wide ranges my hand looks strong and stacks are perfect There is 5100 dead and I''m only shoving 14k total. As well I have enough that the button needs to fold all his air and might even fold if he 3bet 55 or something. They both fold and I scoop up that pot. After I win a few more I'm at about 22.5k and feeling pretty good.

Next orbit the clowny euro opens the CO with about 10k raise to 1k. His opens have been getting shit on but I can't imagine him open folding A2 or 78s so I make it 3500 with A9o he flats. The flop is 932dd I shove for pot and get snap called. I'm fairly unhappy when he rolls over KTdd but I somehow dodge 15 outs twice and get up to 40k.

The very next hand I''m stacking my chips and decide this would be a great spot to open or 3bet because it looks super strong. Since I'm theoritcally focused on stacking my chips and not on playing poker I would need a very strong hand. UTG limps and I look down at K8dd OTB I decide to just limp and play well in position. SB limps BB checks. Flops 457hh its checked to me and I bet 1500 into 2k. SB calls fairly fast BB tanks for a while and finally calls, utg snap folds. The turn is an offsuit Q. I'm certain the SB would peel any piece on the flop and I'm also certain that the BB would raise any strong hand on the flop so I bet 5500 on the turn and they both fold.

I played a bunch of small pots but nothing particularly intersting. I did 3bet an UTG with K3s because he was opening about 30% utg and I figured it would look absurdly strong. But that's about I finished the day with 37k and tommorow starts at 500/1k/100 so gl me. Tourney starts in 2 hours so hopefully I won't be blogging for at least anouter 11 hours.