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.