A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 261—280

Posted on Tuesday, 8 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

Our 143-entry 6-Max tournament has made the final table, and one player went on its first hand. The most aggressive player that I’ve observed in the game is player 5, who had more than three times his current stack back while we were at three tables. Throughout most of the tournament he’s played about three hands every orbit.


HAND 261			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	3J	197.2K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	D	22	243.9K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	SB	T6	125.9K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	9J	104.3K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	K7	43.8K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG shoves his king and gets folds from everyone.


HAND 262			1500/3000/300			73K		Q		2
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	48	196.9K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	CO	A6	243.6K	32	73	86	–	8	–	0
7	D	85	124.1K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	34	101K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	Q6	49.5K	20	27	14	–	92	–	100

The big stack in CO raises his ace to 6.6K and BB defends. CO doesn’t c-bet the flop, then BB catches the queen on the turn. This, CO bets for 8.5K, which BB calls. Then CO throws out another 36.7K on the river, BB goes all-in to call, and he’s suddenly back in the game. I don’t know what CO was thinking here, and it’s a significant missstep, giving player 5 a lot of breathing room. It does mean I’m chip leader, though.


HAND 263			1500/3000/300			JQ5		9		6
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	49	196.6K	21	22	21	–	71	–	100
32	UTG	K3	194.1K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	CO	22	123.8K	22	22	33	–	5	–	0
140	D	T6	99.2K	37	37	29	–	16	–	0
5	SB	3K	101.3K	10	18	18	–	8	–	0

DO. NOT. LIMP. CO comes in with his deuces. D limps his suited gappers (with more than a third equity in the hand and well ahead of the pair) SB comes along, and I check, because I rarely raise four-nine offsuit. On the flop, the deuces pull ahead by a little, but everyone checks. In fact, it gets checked down to the river, and I’ve got the best hand by then, but I wouldn’t have even been there if there’d been a pre-flop raise or bet on the flop.


HAND 264			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	KA	206.8K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	BB	AJ	193.8K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	UTG	T4	120.5K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	JQ	95.9K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	3K	98K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO has a little equity edge here, as both his cards are completely live and there’s an ace and a king dealt out. He min-raises to 6K, then I 3-bet to 18K from SB and he folds.


HAND 265			1500/3000/300			893		A		3
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	5T	217K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	SB	43	190.5K	27	35	13	–	–	–	–
7	BB	69	120.2K	25	27	36	47	0	–	0
140	UTG	T6	89.6K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	T6	97.7K	17	38	51	53	100	–	100

CO limps in. SB limps in. BB checks. Everyone catches a little something on the flop, but CO’s gut-shot and flush draws give him more equity than BB’s top pair. BB bets 6K on top pair, CO raises to 14.4K, SB folds and BB calls. Both players check the turn, when CO locks down the win. On the river, BB tries to use the second three to bluff trips or better for 6K. There’s already 40K in the pot, though, and CO has a decent flush, so he raises to 20K. I’ve got no idea what BB is thinking when he calls the raise.


HAND 266			1500/3000/300			J88		6		5
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	2K	216.7K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	D	4T	187.2K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	SB	7K	82.5K	14	29	17	–	10	–	0
140	BB	A9	89.3K	35	71	83	–	90	–	100
5	UTG	76	139.3K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–

SB limps in against the ace in BB and both players check down to the river.


HAND 267			1500/3000/300			64Q		5		K
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	74	216.4K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	CO	QA	186.9K	44	55	49	–	53	74	100
7	D	65	79.2K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	85	93.5K	22	27	45	–	29	–	–
5	BB	76	139K	12	18	6	–	18	26	0

CO raises to 6.9K, getting calls ffrom both blinds. CO bets 12K in top pair, SB’s picked up a large chunk of equity with gut-shot and flush draws, BB’s made middle pair with backdoor straight possibilities, but is worse off than he looks. Both of them call. Both of them fall behind again on the turn, and after they check, CO bets 33K. SB folds, but BB stays in. They both check the river and CO wins one of the largest pots of the tournament so far, nearly 125K.


HAND 268			1500/3000/300			TK8
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	65	216.1K	17	25	10	–	–	–	–
32	UTG	T8	258.9K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	CO	AT	78.9K	35	53	76	–	–	–	–
140	D	5K	74.3K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	5Q	86.8K	13	23	15	–	–	–	–

CO limps in, SB calls with crap, and I check. CO bets his second pair on the flop and wins.


HAND 269			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	Q2	212.8K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	BB	39	258.6K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	UTG	9A	86.1K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	76	74K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	7K	83.5K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG min-raises and wins.


HAND 270			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	JT	211K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	SB	72	255.3K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	BB	8K	91.8K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	84	73.7K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	JA	83.2K	31	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO limps in, I raise to 9K, and he shoves the ace-jack. I fold.


HAND 271			1500/3000/300			749
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	J3	201.7K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	D	65	253.5K	12	13	29	–	–	–	–
7	SB	6J	88.5K	7	8	4	–	–	–	–
140	BB	5Q	73.4K	10	10	4	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	AA	97.9K	64	69	63	–	–	–	–

An even better hand for player 5. You can see the power of aces in a five-way contest. He limps again. Everyone’s in the hand but me. UTG jams on the flop, and despite some extraordinarily bad calls in previous hands, D doesn’t call with his open-ended straight draw.


HAND 272			1500/3000/300			QQ5		A		2
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	68	201.4K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	CO	J7	250.2K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	D	AA	85.2K	56	88	98	–	100	–	100
140	SB	62	70.1K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	42	108.1K	9	12	2	–	0	–	0

Aces two hands in a row! D raises to 9K and gets called by the ever-experimental BB. They check the flop, D bets just 3K on the turn with his full house, which BB calls, either because of his now-useless gutshot straight draw or to float for a river bluff. He checks the river and CO bets 37K. BB folds.


HAND 273			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	7T	201.1K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	UTG	K6	249.9K	31	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	CO	Q8	99.9K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	35	68.3K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	37	95.8K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–

Everyone folds. I win.


HAND 274			1500/3000/300			3AK		4		A
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	T2	203.8K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	BB	TK	249.6K	29	61	95	–	92	–	100
7	UTG	86	99.6K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	5J	68K	22	39	5	–	8	–	0
5	D	37	94K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO limps in with garbage and goes HU with BB who has not only four times his stack but a better hand by far. They check it down to the river, BB bets top two pair for 6K, and incredibly gets a call. Even a three or a four is beating him. Sometimes I don’t understand what people are doing.


HAND 275			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	K5	202K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	SB	T8	261.3K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	BB	TQ	99.3K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	39	58.7K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	JA	93.7K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO raises to 9K and everyone folds, though I have a slight equity edge to start with.


HAND 276			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	4A	201.7K	34	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	D	Q7	259.5K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	SB	J6	96K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	7T	58.4K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	T8	99.4K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

I open up to 9K with my suited ace and the rest of the table folds.


HAND 277			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	8J	207.4K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	CO	T6	259.2K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	D	2Q	94.2K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	A4	55.1K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	74	99.1K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–

I fold a pretty good hand, and SB opens the pot to 12K, forcing a BB fold.


HAND 278			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	84	207.1K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	UTG	J2	258.9K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	CO	2Q	93.9K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	76	59.3K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	8Q	95.8K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–

SB opens to 9K and I fold.


HAND 279			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	4J	203.8K	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	BB	6T	258.6K	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	UTG	QQ	93.6K	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	29	59K	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	6T	100K	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG opens to 9K. Nobody calls the queens.


HAND 280			1500/3000/300
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	2K	202K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	SB	T2	255.3K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	BB	J7	99.3K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	68	58.7K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	45	99.7K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–

The sixth hand in a row where someone—SB this time—opens the pot (to 7.6K) and wins. Don’t worry, stuff’s about to get real.

Summary

No changes to the lineup in this batch of hands, though there was some action up front. I’m basically where I started at Hand 260, though I was up a little higher. The chip leader (player 32) has improved his position slightly, after recovering from a loss of about 30% of his stack. The losers are 7 and 140, who’ve both lost between 25% and 30%, while player 5 has more than doubled where he was. All of the hands here were dealt to five players.

The only significant changes in VPPIP/PFR are for a couple of players, likely from just having observed double the hands tracked at the end of the last set: player 7’s PFR is up to 11%, player 32’s VPIP is 23%.

Tomorrow is the #PNWPokerCalendar Planner, more hands and more action on Thursday!

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 241—260

Posted on Monday, 7 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

I joined this 143-entry 6-Max tournament more than four hours ago (rule of thumb in online tournaments: 1 hand ~ 1 minute) and something like 135 players have fallen by the wayside. There were no composition changes at our table in the last group of hands, just jockeying for position as we get to the final table.


HAND 241			1250/2500/250
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	86	84.3K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	52	62.4K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	AJ	81.2K	45	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	87	83K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–

We are getting down to the nitty-gritty at this point in the tournament. Only seven or eight players remain, the four players at our table have been here for a while, and the chip stacks have levelled out through either chance or tight play on the part of at least some of us. On this hand, action folds around to the Mutant Jack in the BB and he gets the chips.


HAND 242			1250/2500/250			485
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	99	84.1K	32	51	73	–	–	–	–
121	D	JQ	60.9K	34	49	27	–	–	–	–
140	SB	A5	83.2K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	82	82.8K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–

D has a pretty good hand and calls my 7.5K pre-flop raise. We’re HU to the flop my statistically insignificant lead. There’s not much for him in the flop, though, and my 10K bet would eat a significant portion out of his stack, so he folds.


HAND 243			1250/2500/250			548		J		2
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	JA	96.1K	58	86	91	–	98	–	–
121	UTG	97	53.2K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	69	81.7K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	9J	80K	10	14	9	–	2	–	–

This time it’s me with the Mutant Jack in the BB. SB limps in and I raise to 7.5K. Ever aggressive, he calls. We both check the flop, then I bet another 8K on the turn, which he calls. He’s drawing slim to a single remaining nine for two pair, which doesn’t come. I small ball it and don’t bet the backdoor flush. He checks and I win the showdown.


HAND 244			1250/2500/250			K44		8		5
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	JA	112.3K	52	59	28	–	18	17	100
121	BB	T4	52.9K	17	24	72	–	82	83	0
140	UTG	9A	81.5K	15	17	0	–	0	–	–
5	D	9T	64.3K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–

I pick up some more heat with another Mutant Jack. UTG min-raises his ace, D folds a hand for a change, I call, and BB comes along. His game’s about to get rough. He should be betting his flopped trips hard. Instead, he elects to check and the turn comes along without adding anything to the pot. The pot has 16.3K in it before the flop, A bet of 8—10K (if was called) would have left him with a pot-size bet to make on the turn if it wasn’t, say, a king or a spade. An eight on the turn practically seals the deal for him. Mistake #2 is not making a bigger bet here than 6.9K. That probably wasn’t a big-enough bet on the flop, it’s not big enough here to keep out someone drawing for better than trips (though it’s big enough for UTG). The river makes my flush and I bet 15K, which he calls, only to lose.


HAND 245			1250/2500/250			42Q		Q		A
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	67	145K	28	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	K4	25.8K	17	36	72	–	87	–	0
7	BB	AT	129K	27	64	28	–	13	–	100
140	UTG	29	76.2K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	5T	64K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–

We’re now at the final table, with the biggest-stacked player sitting out this hand because they come in between the button and blinds. Between him (player 32) and player 7, they have 404K, nearly 30% more than the combined stacks of the four players at our table.

My suited connectors are the best hand pre-flop! I fold them anyway, which is good, because SB takes his loss in the last hand poorly and shoves 10BB with a nothing hand. BB calls with a very good ace. On the flop and turn, it looks like SB’s Hail Mary play might just work, but the low pair catches up with him on the river and he’s out in sixth place.


HAND 246			1250/2500/250			JA6		T		3
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	HJ	42	144.7K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	CO	57	275K	23	26	9	9	0	–	0
7	SB	56	155.6K	17	19	13	–	–	–	–
140	BB	A9	76K	43	55	78	91	100	–	100
5	UTG	34	63.8K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–

The big stack in CO goes to work, raising to 6K (he’s another random number generator: 5,951), and both the blinds call. BB sets the hook by checking after the SB, and calling CO’s 10.2K c-bet. SB folds. Both players check the turn—CO is completely dead at this point—then BB bets 12.5K on the river and takes the pot.


HAND 247			1250/2500/250
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	79	144.5K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	CO	6Q	258.6K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	D	TK	149.4K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	QA	99.1K	37	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	7K	63.5K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–

D limps in and gets raised to 12.5K by SB. BB folds, D folds, and SB wins another pot.


HAND 248			1250/2500/250			T7T		9		T
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	AJ	144.2K	41	66	85	–	95	–	100
32	UTG	45	258.4K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	CO	26	146.6K	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	K6	105.1K	26	34	15	–	5	–	0
5	SB	26	60.8K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–

D raises his suited king to 7.5K and I call with yet another Mutant Jack in the BB. His six is more or less irrelevant, since two have been discarded, but we’re still 2:1 going to the flop. We check it all the way to the river, and my ace is the decider.


HAND 249			1250/2500/250
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	73	154K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	BB	A5	258.1K	32	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	UTG	24	146.4K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	3T	97.3K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	62	59.3K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–

Everyone folds to the big stack.


HAND 250			1250/2500/250			54A		3
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	JA	152.5K	31	65	79	–	84	–	–
32	SB	K9	260.4K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	BB	83	146.1K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	T5	97.1K	19	35	21	–	16	–	–
5	CO	J5	59K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–

For some reason, UTG here is deciding to raise a suited ten-five, I call with the ace. On the flop, I check-raise UTG’s c-bet from 5K to 10K and he calls. I bet another 20K on the turn and he finally gives it up.


HAND 251			1250/2500/250
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	Q2	172.2K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	D	32	258.9K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	SB	8K	143.4K	28	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	A8	81.8K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	AJ	58.8K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–

Player 5 may feel a little frustrated—he’s only played one hand of the last nine!—because he shoves more than 20BB with [ah jc]. With three players behind him each having nearly three times his stack (or more), perhaps not the safest move, but it works this time. Everyone folds.


HAND 252			1250/2500/250
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	JT	172K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	CO	T7	258.6K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	D	JK	141.9K	32	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	25	79.1K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	4T	63.5K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–

I’m quite surprised that D folds [jd ks] to my 7.5K raise here. I’m in far worse shape than I’d expect, with my top card dominated, and my bottom card duplicated. But I take the pot.


HAND 253			1250/2500/250			47T		A
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	KQ	176.7K	28	43	27	–	5	–	–
32	UTG	7J	258.4K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	CO	AJ	141.6K	24	57	73	–	95	–	–
140	D	9T	77.6K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	24	60.8K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO min-raises and I call. I fold to a turn bet of 12.5K, drawing even slimmer than I would think, with only one jack left.


HAND 254			1250/2500/250			A32		Q		J
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	7T	171.5K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	BB	96	258.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	UTG	K8	148.9K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	6Q	77.3K	25	62	29	–	89	–	100
5	D	28	59.3K	16	38	71	–	11	–	0*

Player 5 gets very tricky here. CO raises to 7.5K with his suited queen and D calls him with just [2c 8c]. It’s the two short stacks against each other, down to the bigger pay jumps of the tournament. CO is well ahead pre-flop. D catches bottom pair on the flop and calls 7.5K more from CO. CO checks the turn when he pulls back ahead. Then somehow on the river, when he’s already put 15K in voluntarily even before he made a pair, CO folds to a 17.5K bet from D. It just boggles the mind. But props to player 5 for sheer guts.


HAND 255			1250/2500/250			97K		J		A
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	98	170K	32	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	SB	73	255.4K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	BB	2Q	148.6K	15	30	46	–	24	–	0
140	UTG	QT	62.1K	28	70	54	–	76	–	100
5	CO	T2	79K	5	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG min-raised and went to the flop with BB. Both players check the flop, with BB picking up the flush draw and UTG with a gut-shot draw. UTG makes the nuts on the turn, but BB leads out with a bet to 2.5K, then calls UTG’s raise to 7.5K. BB misses his flush, and without even a pair has to release when UTG bets 15K.


HAND 256			1250/2500/250			A9J		4		6
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	32	169.7K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	D	KT	253.9K	27	63	33	–	18	–	0
7	SB	A4	135.9K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	J7	76.8K	21	37	67	–	82	–	100
5	UTG	58	78.8K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

D min-raises and gets called by BB. Personally, I like a little heftier raise. I don’t want people calling with any old cards. With the antes making the pot over 8K, having to call 2.5K means BB is getting better than 3:1 on his money, and he’s likely getting good enough odds to call. A 3x raise reduces the ratio closer to 2:1. BB calls D’s anemic c-bet of 5K (into a pot of more than 13K), he doesn’t follow through on the turn, and by the river, BB’s confident enough in second pair that he bets less than a third of the pot (7.5K) and D gives it up. How’d this guy get to be chip leader?


HAND 257			1250/2500/250			A25		K		J
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	AT	169.5K	27	61	78	–	76	–	100
32	CO	J8	243.6K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	D	T6	134.4K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	79	89.1K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	4K	78.5K	22	39	22	–	24	–	0

I open to 7.5K and BB is sticky enough to call with his king and four kicker. He picks up a gut-shot on the flop, which is enough for him to check-call 10K. I get another 20K out of him on the turn. I wish I hadn’t been as cautious as I was and had tried to knock him out at this point. I just checked the river behind him and won the pot.


HAND 258			1250/2500/250
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	T3	209.2K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	UTG	75	243.4K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	CO	T3	134.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	J2	87.6K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	2A	40.8K	28	–	–	–	–	–	–

I guess SB wasn’t happy about the result of the last hand, because he slams the ace for 16BB. I just fold.


HAND 259			1250/2500/250
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	32	206.5K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
32	BB	4J	243.1K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	UTG	97	133.9K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	6J	87.3K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	T5	44.3K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–

BB gets a walk.


HAND 260			1250/2500/250			3AK
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	TJ	205K	19	23	22	–	–	–	–
32	SB	K6	245.4K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	BB	68	133.6K	19	30	7	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	JA	87.1K	33	47	71	–	–	–	–
5	CO	58	44K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG raises to 7.5K and gets called by me (D) and BB. On the flop, BB checks, UTG bets another 7.5K, and I fold my gut-shot. BB folds.

Summary

We never actually played six-handed at the final table, as a player was knocked out on the first hand, while the chip leader was between the blinds and the button. A string of decent hands gave me the chance to more than double my chip stack, putting me in contention with the chip leader. Between the two of us, we have more than 60% of the chips in play.

One sixth of the hands dealt during the tournament have been won by a single raise.
There was only one walk in this batch of hands, the average has been 2.5 walks per 20 hands.
The hand with the most pre-flop equity continues to win more than 50% of all hands dealt.
Overall VPIP/PFR for the remaining players: 5 (54%/30%), 7 (38%/6%, based on only 16 hands), 32 (13%/13%, based on 7 hands), 50 (32%/23%), 140 (32%/26%). Short-stacked, player 5’s play has changed dramatically, going from a VPIP of 60% to just 54% over 20 of 110 tracked hands.

Lots of fireworks in tomorrow’s chapter!

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 221—240

Posted on Sunday, 6 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

Daily hand-by-hand equity charting of a 143-entry 6-Max tournament continues through this week, every day except Wednesday and Friday. I’m player 50, on the button in the first hand here. In yesterday’s installment, we played down from three to two tables, and slipped below nine players. By the end of the tournament, player 5—who has put money into nearly 60% of the pots I’ve seen him play—and I will be heads-up.


HAND 221			1000/2000/200			736
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	58	54K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	T9	65.9K	36	65	16	–	–	–	–
140	BB	73	40.5K	20	35	84	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	T6	150.5K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

The downside of limping. SB limps into the flop with the best hand and BB checks. The flop is all the BB. SB c-bets for 3.3K and BB with bottom two pair makes it 10.6K. SB has nothing and has to fold. He’s lost 4.3K when probably a 6K pre-flop raise would have made taken the pot and made him 1.6K.


HAND 222			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	J8	53.8K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	JJ	60.4K	61	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	35	46.4K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	T7	150.3K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–

Or he could have waited for this hand. Player 121 raises jacks from the button to 6K and gets folds.


HAND 223			1000/2000/200			487		7
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	T9	53.6K	30	50	100	–	100	–	–
121	UTG	8J	64K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	Q5	45.2K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	K2	148.1K	25	50	0	–	0	–	–

Equity’s distributed pretty equally all around pre-flop in this hand, but UTG and D choose to sit it out. Big stack in SB limps in against me and I raise to 6K. He calls. He calls another 6K on the flop, even though he’s drawing to the lowest flush (at best) or maybe backdoor trip kings. He gives up on the turn for another 15K.


HAND 224			1000/2000/200			294		8
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	K2	66.2K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	36	63.8K	8	25	26	–	12	–	–
140	UTG	K3	45K	29	75	74	–	88	–	–
5	D	6Q	135.9K	34	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG min-raises his suited king to 3K and gets called by BB. They both whiff the flop. BB’s gut-shot straight doesn’t add much equity to his side of the equation, and another heart on the turn just tilts things further in UTG’s direction.


HAND 225			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	77	65K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	35	59.6K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	JJ	50.6K	50	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	2Q	135.7K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–

Sevens are good enough for me to open from the button four-handed, so I raise to 6K. They’re not good enough to call off three-quarters of my stack when BB shoves his jacks. I can take a hint.

		b
HAND 226			1000/2000/200			9K8		J
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	2K	58.8K	36	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	78	58.4K	35	42	51	58	56	–	–
140	SB	38	58.2K	6	9	35	42	44	–	–
5	BB	J3	135.5K	23	49	13	–	–	–	–

Who knew king-deuce offsuit was such a strong hand? I didn’t, so I folded it and everyone limped into the flop except for me, the guy with the best hand. D hits bottom pair on the flop against what are generally considered to be pretty poor hands. SB bets 2K and BB folds. D comes along. The possibilities for a chop are strong. On the turn, there are three over cards to the pair D and SB share. D does have a gut-shot straight draw with his seven kicker but they’re chopping this hand unless a ten, seven, or three hits the river. Or one of them folds. SB checks and D makes a bet of 6K. SB folds.


HAND 227			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	28	58.6K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	83	65K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	78	54K	30	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	69	133.3K	43	–	–	–	–	–	–

Somehow, SB knows his six-nine offsuit is a monster. He opens the pot to 6.8K and I fold.


HAND 228			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	K6	56.4K	39	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	T3	64.8K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	4T	53.8K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	27	135.9K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–

I have shown to the big stack that I’m a wimp. He now feels impunity to raise [2s 7s] to 5.8K—probably giggling while he does it—and I lay my king down.


HAND 229			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	42	55.2K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	A8	62.6K	34	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	4A	53.6K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	87	139.5K	30	–	–	–	–	–	–

I guess raising unsuited connectors UTG 4-handed is just too wacky, player 5 folds. I fold, SB raises to 6K and BB with the worse ace shows admirable restraint and folds.


HAND 230			1000/2000/200			5JA		Q
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	QJ	55K	28	77	81	–	89	–	–
121	D	KT	65.2K	37	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	37	51.4K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	QT	139.3K	10	23	19	–	11	–	–

I raise to 6K and miracle-of-miracles D folds the best hand. SB folds and I get called by BB. He checks the flop, I bet 7K with my middle pair. He’s got the gut-shot. The queen gives me two pair and I shove. He folds. D is probably kicking himself because he would have made Broadway here. I pick up some chips.


HAND 231			1000/2000/200			JAT
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	34	69.6K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	K7	65K	39	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	76	50.2K	11	28	21*	–	–	–	–
5	SB	96	126.1K	26	72	79	–	–	–	–

My [3s 4c] here is actually well ahead of D’s [7s6h], because he;s outkicked on both his ranks, while my cards are in the clear; I have almost average equity. That doesn’t make me any slower to fold when D raises his hand to 4K. SB calls. SB checks the flop, giving D the chance to fire another 4K into the pot. I’m guessing he doesn’t actually think 7-high is good, so I’m chalking this up to a bluff. SB folds.


HAND 232			1000/2000/200			QJ2		A
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	77	67.4K	40	78	95	–	98	–	–
121	BB	76	64.8K	10	11	1	–	0*	–	–
140	UTG	8K	56.8K	39	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	66	121.9K	10	10	5	–	2	–	–

Two hands good; two hands bad. D raises to 6K, I call, and BB comes along. We all check the flop, although I’ve got a virtual lock on the equity. I check on the turn, BB smells fear and bets the ace with absolute no chance to win a showdown. 4K is all it takes to get me and D to fold.


HAND 233			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	KA	61.2K	45	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	8T	77.4K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	5T	56.6K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	Q9	115.7K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–

I raise to 8K and take the pot.


HAND 234			1000/2000/200			K22		Q
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	93	66.8K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	2K	76.2K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	Q4	54.4K	23	52	69	–	100	–	–
5	BB	87	113.5K	27	48	31	–	0	–	–

A pretty even match pre-flop, but I fold and D folds. SB limps in. D is kicking himself on the flop. SB makes the min-bet on the turn and BB folds.


HAND 235			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	AK	66.6K	33	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	JQ	76K	28	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	QT	57K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	54	111.3K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG raises to 5.8K and SB comes along with his little connectors. I slam it in for 66.4K and everyone folds.


HAND 236			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	2J	78.8K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	7A	70K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	2J	56.8K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	AK	105.3K	55	–	–	–	–	–	–

D jams his ace-king and takes it down.


HAND 237			1000/2000/200			K3J		4
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	A9	77.6K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	96	67.8K	16	25	3	–	–	–	–
140	BB	KQ	56.6K	35	50	95	98	100	–	–
5	UTG	78	108.9K	20	25	2	2	0	–	–

UTG limps, SB comes along. BB makes top pair and lets UTG drive the action with a 3.4K c-bet, which folds out SB. BB checks the turn when he’s got it locked down, UTG tries to bluff it for 6.8K, and BB raises him to 13.6K to win the hand.


HAND 238			1000/2000/200			448		T		6
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	23	77.4K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	8T	65.6K	38	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	K5	71.4K	31	69	68	–	82	–	0
5	BB	65	96.5K	17	31	32	–	18	–	100

In less than twenty hands, player 5 has lost a third of his stack, bringing him back into the general territory of the rest of us at the table, He’s put money in the pot in more than half those hands. It feels like he’s been doing well but he’s only actually won three of those hands, which is a bit less than the 25% you’d expect from average distribution. SB min-raises. BB calls with a dominated five. SB fails to c-bet the flop, though he might not have been able to get BB—with a gut-shot draw—to fold. BB calls SB’s delayed c-bet on the turn, then they both check the river when BB gets a pair.


HAND 239			1250/2500/250			A5K		8		J
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	6A	77.2K	31	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	59	65.4K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	KT	63.2K	29	71	78	–	73	–	100
5	SB	JT	105.1K	21	29	22	–	27	–	0

D raises to 7.5K, SB calls, and I fold the mediocre ace. On the flop, SB check-calls another 7.5K with gut-shot and backdoor flush draws. The turn keeps SB in contention as much as he’s ever been—both players check, but SB misses his draw on the river and the hand goes to showdown, with D picking up a 33.5K pot.


HAND 240			1250/2500/250			JQ4		9		9
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	KT	74.4K	32	37	47	–	100	–	100
121	BB	T5	65.2K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	4T	81.5K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	6A	89.9K	43	63	53	–	0	–	0

If I had [ks 9s] to start this hand, I’d be in a tie for 36% equity, but since two other tens are dealt out, my chances at the pot reduce the equity by several points. D raises his ace to 6.6K (again, he’s one of those guys who likes to type in random numbers, the exact value is 6,646). I call and we’re heads-up. The flop fills in the middle of my straight draw, we both check the flop. I make the nuts on the turn and check to let him bet since he’s been pretty aggressive so far. On the river, I’m not really afraid of the full house, but I check again to see if he’ll try something. Again no luck.

Summary

This group of hands was The Great Stack Leveling. Player 5 started with nearly three times as many chips as the other three players (including me), but his propensity to play fast and very loose ([ks 2h] and [jd 3c], for instance), has cost him his a significant lead. It’s not going to matter, I’ve already revealed we get heads-uo at the end, and it’s how he got to where he is, but a little more judicious play might have extended the lead rather than frittered it away.

All 20 hands in this batch were played 4-handed. Nobody busted or was moved.
Of the 43 hands dealt to 4 players so far this tournament, 21 have been won by the cards with the most pre-flop equity, and another 14 have been won by the next-best card combo.
In 4-handed play, I’m the tightest of the four at our table. My VPIP for just the past 20 hands is 35%, just slightly above my overall VPIP for the tournament, and to be expected since you have to open up the range with just 4 on the table. In a larger sample, it would probably be more of an increase. My PFR for these hands is 25%.
Players 121 and 140 have both been slightly less active than me overall, but they’ve picked up a little here, with VPIP/PFR for player 121 at 40%/15% and 45%/35% for player 140. 121’s pre-flop raises have run at about half his VPIP for the entire tournament.
And player 5. 65% VPIP. 20% PFR. His overall VPIP for the tournament is 60%, so no real change there.

Tomorrow, we get to the final table!

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 201-220

Posted on Saturday, 5 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

When we left off on Thursday, we were somewhere between 17 and 13 players remaining in a 143-entry 6-Max tournament that started hours ago. I’m publishing equity charts of every deal five days a week until the very last hand. Play has been relatively tight (for 6-Max) in the early stages of the money, with a number of stacks in the Danger Zone making things, well, dangerous….


HAND 201			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	38	55K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	UTG	97	22.8K	42	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	42	38.5K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	D	62	11.8K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	64	19.7K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–

When [9c 7h] had 42% of the preflop equity five-handed, you know there are a bunch of bad hands out there. I get a walk in BB—even [3c 8s] has better than average equity….


HAND 202			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	QQ	56.1K	33	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	BB	8J	22.7K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	56	38.4K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	CO	TK	11.6K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	A6	19K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–

D opens his ace for 3.6K and I raise to 12K. He and BB will be playing for at least half their stack if they call the raise, and all their chips if they 4-bet. Even 3-handed, with an over card in each of their hands, I have less than 50% equity, so I want them to be taking a risk to call. They both fold to the re-raise.


HAND 203			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	56	61.3K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	SB	67	21.4K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	94	38.2K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	UTG	99	11.5K	68	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	72	15.3K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–

My queens were only worth 33% pre-flop; up against weak hands the nines here are twice as good. UTG shoves his short stack and nobody calls.


HAND 204			800/1600/160
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	4Q	61.2K	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	D	9A	20.7K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	72	36.9K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	BB	QA	13.8K	37	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	94	15.2K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	HJ	T4	163.2K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–

How much must I have offended the Poker Gods to get a hand with just 4% equity? Particularly now that player 5’s back at the table? (This is an indication that we’re down to just two tables, with most of the carnage on the other tables.) D rips in 13BB after I fold and he’s lucky BB has some sort of timeout issue, because I’m fairly sure he would have called. Maybe he’s just letting himself get bullied so he can make the final table.


HAND 205			800/1600/160			AT4		K		Q
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	HJ	53	61.1K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	CO	8A	23.9K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	J7	36K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	SB	25	12K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	JA	15K	11	24	84	–	11	–	100
5	UTG	KK	163K	46	76	16	–	89	–	0

The big stack starts off with a UTG raise to 4.1K. Action folds around to BB, who shoves for about 15K, which UTG calls, naturally ehough. There’s a see-sawing shift in equity that ends with the small stack doubling up.


HAND 206			800/1600/160
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	49	60.9K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	HJ	4Q	23.7K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	98	35.8K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	D	9K	11.1K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	58	31.5K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	35	148K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–

BB gets a walk. Again the short stack in D times out and folds a hand they should be playing, even into two larger stacks.


HAND 207			800/1600/160			9J5		T		2
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	QJ	60.7K	23	51	41	49	6	–	0
52	UTG	79	23.5K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	HJ	5K	35.6K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	CO	42	10.9K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	Q8	30.5K	12	22	51	51	94	–	100
5	SB	7T	149.6K	15	27	8	–	–	–	–

D and SB limp in. I flop top pair, but on a monochrome board. My equity actually goes down on the flop; D’s dominated queen picks up a gutshot straight draw and the flush draw. I bet top pair for 2K, D check-calls, and SB folds. He makes the straight on the turn. I’m drawing to a chop at best, but I bet 5K, which he raises to 10K. I call, the river makes his flush, I finally give up and check and we show down.


HAND 208			800/1600/160			6J8		Q		4
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	KA	47K	28	73	84	–	33	–	100
52	BB	74	23.4K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	39	35.5K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	HJ	58	10.8K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	7T	46.5K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	AQ	147.9K	17	27	16	–	67	–	0

I’m only down for a minute. When player 5 opens for 4K from the button, I figure I’m doubling up or going out in the money, so I shove [kh ad] and he calls after BB folds. Everything’s fine on the flop, but the turn goes a bit wonky, until the river brings me a saving flush.


HAND 209			800/1600/160
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	8A	96.2K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	SB	3K	21.6K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	24	35.3K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	UTG	92	10.6K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	HJ	96	46.4K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	T4	100.9K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

I open to 4.8K and everyone folds.


HAND 210			800/1600/160			97Q		K		T
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	9A	99.4K	27	61	50	–	0	–	0
52	D	3T	20.7K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	TJ	33.6K	19	39	50	–	100	–	100
141	BB	35	10.4K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	J2	46.2K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	HJ	K6	100.7K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–

HJ raises his offsuit king to 4.6K and I just call. SB makes a creative decision to squeeze, HJ folds and I make the call. I make a pair but his draws are to everything, as he picks up an open-ended straight draw and a back-door flush draw. The king on the turn makes the straight. The fact that it gives him a four to the flush is irrelevant—I’m already dead.


HAND 211			800/1600/160
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	HJ	5J	65.8K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	CO	65	20.5K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	68	73.9K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	SB	T7	8.7K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	T4	46K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	K8	96K	30	–	–	–	–	–	–

Nobody feeling good after the last hand. BB gets walked.


HAND 212			800/1600/160
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	6Q	65.7K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	HJ	K5	20.3K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	2A	73.8K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	D	58	7.7K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	A6	47.6K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	JJ	95.8K	35	–	–	–	–	–	–

Action folds to the blinds, SB min-raises his ace, and BB jams with jacks.


HAND 213			800/1600/160			674		6		4
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	85	65.5K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	UTG	96	20.2K	5	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	HJ	QA	73.6K	40	79	33	–	0	–	0
141	CO	7K	7.6K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	9T	44.3K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	69	99.8K	4	21	67	–	100	–	100

UTG raises to 4.8K and somehow gets called by SB with the least amount of equity of any of the players. Like some sort of evil magic, player 5 flops a pair, checks that and the trips on the turn when he’s got HJ dead, then bets half pot (6.1K) and gets called by HJ, who’s hoping for a chop of two pair on the board with another ace, not lose to a full house.


HAND 214			800/1600/160			JT5		6		4
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	23	63.8K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	BB	A7	20K	28	57	16	–	8	–	0
121	UTG	5K	62.6K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	HJ	64	7.4K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	36	44.1K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	KT	113.1K	28	43	84	–	92	–	100

D opens to 4.1K and BB shoves his ace for about 20K, which gets called quickly. D pairs up on the flop and stays ahead to the river. Player 52 goes out in 11th place.


HAND 215			800/1600/160			K5A
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	38	62.8K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	46	62.4K	16	35	6	–	–	–	–
141	UTG	T7	7.2K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	HJ	98	44K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	KQ	134.6K	42	65	94	–	–	–	–

SB is dead. CO raises to 4.4K, BB calls. CO c-bets his pair of kings and BB folds.


HAND 216			800/1600/160
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	8K	62.6K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	62	57.8K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	BB	58	7.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	T3	43.8K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	HJ	7J	139.6K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–

Dead button. We’re letting player 5 push us around! Someone stand up and fight! He raises to 4.5K and we all fold.


HAND 217			800/1600/160
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	7J	62.5K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	QA	56.9K	31	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	SB	92	5.3K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	TQ	43.6K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	62	142.7K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–

I raise my suited jack-seven to 4.8K and see what happens? D shoves on me with ace-queen. I fold.


HAND 218			800/1600/160			A83		5		4
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	27	57.5K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	59	64.7K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	D	KJ	4.4K	38	67	24	–	13	–	0
140	SB	6K	41.9K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	86	142.5K	16	33	76	–	87	–	100

Looking back over his hands, it’s hard to tell where player 141 made his mistake, apart from not coming in deepstacked enough to play enough hands before being blinded away (he was among the last batch of players who entered, with less than 10BB to start). Now he has less than 3BB and he goes all-in, but nobody on the table is going to be hurt by a loss to him. I’d have called him with my [2s 7h] if I was in the BB (and won with a straight). BB only has to call 2.6K more, and while D’s ahead pre-flop, after that he sinks into the abyss in 9th place (see also the Summary).


HAND 219			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	74	57.4K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	2T	64.5K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	29	40.9K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	JA	148.1K	47	–	–	–	–	–	–

SB steals my BB with a 6K raise at the new blind level.


HAND 220			1000/2000/200
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	J9	55.2K	40	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	29	64.3K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	82	40.7K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	6J	150.7K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–

I should raise, but I don’t even bother.

Summary

We’re below nine players in the tournament.

Five more walks in these 20 hands.
Between me and player 5, we took 60% of the pots in this batch. Player 5 got eight of them, and he wasn’t even in the first three hands.
VPIP/PFR for the players who were at the table when it was six-handed: 5 (59%/33%), 50 (30%/20%), 52 (22%/11%), 121 (24%/16%), 140 (19%/17%), 141 (10%/10%). Player 141 has been tracked for 40 hands throughout the tournament, playing ultra-conservatively for 6-max, but he’s gone now after letting himself get too short. On the other end of the range, well, there’s the tournament leader, player 5, who’s playing literally twice as many hands as me. Heck, he’s raising more hands than I’m playing, and I’m playing more than anyone else.

Four-handed play continues tomorrow as we battle toward the final table.

My Time Is Coming: Report 6 or No Satty

Posted on Friday, 4 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

This week’s goal was to make enough to cover a quick flight trip to San Jose on Thursday or Friday to play a $1,080 WPT Shooting Star Main Event satellite on Thursday or Friday. The Main Event is $7.5K, so the satellite pays out better than 1 in 8. A couple weeks earlier, the flight would only have cost about $200—there’s a lot of tech-related traffic between PDX and SJC—and you could have done it for less than $1.3K total if you didn’t mind hanging in the casino all night long (Bay 101 is just a mile or so from the airport).

Let’s see how it went.

Bovada 0.5/1 & 0.1/0.25 NLHE Zone 6-Max

Corrections continue on Zone.

Sixteen sessions. Five hours. 880 hands. -255BB

Bovada 0.1/0.25 & 1/2 Omaha Hi-Lo

Limit O8 used to be my game. Perhaps Big O has corrupted me.

Two sessions. Forty-two minutes. 50 hands. -50 big bets.

Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker

I was doing pretty well in this event. There were seven $1K prizes in the pool (and over $700 for 8th place), we were down to about 40 players, and I was well over average. I had a fairly aggressive player on my left, who’d called an all-in for 15% of his stack from SB with [9d 3d], hitting a flush on the river to crack [td ts]. Just a few hands later, I have [9d 9s] and raise 3x to 250. Aggressive guy pushes it to 2.1K. I shove 8.3K and he calls with 5K behind. He has a slightly better hand this time: [jh ks]. The flop is [4d td 9c], I’ve managed to make a set! The river is [qc], giving him the straight.

Ninety minutes. 82 hands. 41st of 103 entries.

Encore Club $11K NLHE

I couldn’t play the big Saturday games at Lincoln City, Encore (a $25K special guarantee), or The Game ($20K guaranteed to first place), so I tried to console myself with the Friday night game at Encore, which had a smaller guarantee because of the next day’s tournament. I was bad. In the second level, a couple of players had limped in and I raised from 200 to 700 with [2d 5d]. The player on the button raised to 2.1K and one of the limpers called the re-raise. I was closing action, and I made the call. On a [tx 6d 4d] flop, the limp-caller over-shoves for nearly a full starting stack. I go all-in on the call, figuring I can re-buy if needed, then the re-raiser shoves. He has [ax ax]. The first shover has [qx qx]. Neither has a diamond. The turn is [qd], giving the shover a set. The river is [ad] giving the original raiser a set. But my hand wins the day with the flush. By the time we got to 22 players (14 places paid) I had 10% of the chips in play, and picked up more than that as we got closer to the money. It’s a dangerous period in this tournament, though, as even the larger stacks have a limited number of big blinds, and I laid down [9x 9x] and [ax qx] when a loss to an all-in would have cost me half to two-thirds of my stack. Instead, the player I laid down the nines to shoved again on the next hand, giving his chips to the player on my left who had—you guessed it—nines. And it was that player who took my dwindling (but still above-average) stack out when I shoved [ax qx] from the SB over two limps, and he called with [kx kx] in the BB. That knocked me out in 12th place and pretty much dashed any chance of making the Thursday satellite, since my schedule kept me from playing the big weekend tournaments.

Seven hours. 12th of 109 entries. +70% ROI.

The Game 1/2 NLHE

Stopped in after work for an hour or so. I was lucky I won the holler or I’d just have been farther down.

Ninety minutes. -37BB.

Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker

Never really got this going, then I got [8d 8h] in against [ac ah] and got chopped down to 5BB around hand 30. Managed to triple up with [4c qs] but only made it another 20 or so hands.

Fifty-five minutes. 43 hands. 70th of 90 entries.

Bovada $4K NLHE 6-Max

Stone cold bubbled this tournament. I was cruising along pretty well, hit a slow patch, then picked the wrong time to get [jc qc] in against [qd ad] and I went into free-fall.

Two hours and eight minutes. 147 hands. 25th of 140 entries.

Bovada $30K NLHE

Doubled up to 4x the starting stack a little over two hours in, then called a small raise and a starting-stack size all-in (about 6BB at the time) that I lost to a better ace. Shipped [tc 9c] and got called by [qd qh] six hands later and didn’t quite make a straight. 81 places paid.

Two hours and twenty-four minutes. 138 hands. 173rd of 655 entries.

Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker

More than doubled my stack but made a 3BB CO raise with [ah 5h] and got jammed on by BB with [7s 7c] and 12BB. Should have let it go and sat on a 23BB stack, but started sliding from there. There were 8 $1K prizes up for grabs.

Two hours. 121 hands. 36th of 112 entries.

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

The same daily tournament I’ve been writing up in my series A Game That Will Live in Infamy. Bad beat. I had 70BB on the button—nearly 6x the starting stack, well above average—and raised over a CO limp with [qc ts]. BB and CO call. The flop is [ks jd 9c], a perfect rainbow wrap around my cards. Both the other players check and I bet 2K. BB has a stack nearly as large as mine, and raises to 6.4K. CO folds, and I shove, BB calls with [kd jh] and the river is [jc]. I’m out on the next hand, shoving [jd kc] with 13BB and getting knocked out by [7d 9d] calling off a third of his stack.

Two and a half hours. 177 hands. 47th of 138 entries.

Bovada $5K NLHE

I was playing this simultaneously with the 6-Max, something I rarely do. I had a decent stack near the end, about 24BB, made a defend with [kc qd] against a 16BB stack in middle position and lost to [as 6c].

Four hours and thirty minutes. 194 hands. 31st of 501 entries. +155% ROI.

Bovada $30K NLHE

Took a big hit when I got all in with [ks js] and two pair, then got four-flushed in diamonds by [ad 5c] on the river.

Ninety minutes. 66 hands. 319th of 577 entries.

Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker

Didn’t even make it close to registration cutoff for this one. Lost a big hand drawing to the nut flush with [kc as] on a [qs 8s 3h 4s] board v a BB call from [js 2s].

Thirty-five minutes. 29 hands. 58th of 75 entries.

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

Quadrupled my stack, then got knocked back a couple hands, then lost a flip for half my stack [qx jx] v [ax kx]. Got lucky with [ah 4h] and caught my kicker against [ad jh], then [jc as] lost for me in a race against [td tc]. Doubled back up again and busted with [9h 9d] against [kh ad]. The flop was a scary [5h 3h 2h], I got semi-saved by the [6c] (since any four except for [4h] meant the straight was a chop), then the river was [kc] and I went out one short of the bubble.

Two hours and forty-five minutes. 184 hands. 26th of 135 entries.

Encore Club $2K NLHE

I don’t typically play the noon games anywhere because of some family scheduling issues, but Encore announced a $9K special event Thursday that gave me one last shot at making the Friday satellite*, and I decided to make my door fee do double duty. Things went reasonably well, although I got virtually no big pairs during the course of the tournament, I did get combinations of [ax kx] more times than I can ever recall having before, which came in handy as the structure of the tournament plays out very short. I was one of the two smaller stacks at the table as we approached the money bubble, and a woman at the other end of the table shoved for what looked to be about the same amount of chips as me. I had [as ks]. I had 129K—you can see from the tournament screen photo that even an average stack would have only 12BB—and I shoved. The big stack in BB thought about calling, and asked who got paid if both the all-ins got knocked out on the same hand (it would have been the original raiser, because she had me covered by 3K). Then he folded. The original raiser had [js jc]. [ac] on the flop and [kc] on the turn and everyone thought I’d won the hand for a second before the big stack saw that there were four clubs on the board, and I was out on the bubble.

Five hours and forty minutes. 6th of 35 entries.

Encore Club $9K NLHE

I had an early setback with a sticky player following me down to the river with a flush draw, that cost me 6K for my initial raise, c-bet, and turn bet, but I quickly picked off a bluff from a different player after flopping top two that more than made up for it, and I kept having the best hand for a couple of hours. By the first break, I’d more than doubled the 15K starting stack, knocked out a player just after the break (64K, including the 10K add-on), got more than double the chips I’d lost to the flush guy in a hand (72K), then one of those things happened. There were three limpers in the pot at 500/1K/100, I raised to 5K with [as js] and got two callers, including one of the regular dealers from Final Table and the flush guy. Ace-high rainbow flop. Both players check, I make a pot-sized bet of 15K and the dealer goes all-in for about 36K. Then flush guy shoves for less. There’s 90K in the pot. I have to call just over 21K. If I’d known my odds were in the <1% range, I might not have made the call. The dealer had a set of sixes. Flush guy had limped in with [ah qh]. There’s one heart on the flop, and two more by the time we hit the river. Flush guy makes—naturally— a flush. The dealer gets a side pot smaller than her original stack. Next hand I raise to 3K with [ad 9d] and the guy on my left pops it up to 11K. I take it to be protecting a small pair and shove, but no, it’s kings and he calls. No ace, no diamonds, and no trip to San Jose today. The tickets were a lot more expensive by now, anyway.

Two hours and thirty minutes. 84th of 139 entries.

So that’s the end of that self-challenge. There’s one more WPT main tour event in the West, at Thunder Valley in a couple of weeks, and I’ve got jury duty during the Main. If I do well at Final Table tonight in the $20K (see you all there), I may see if I can postpone that….

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 181—200

Posted on Thursday, 3 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

When we left off Tuesday after 180 hands, this 143-entry tournament played on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor was down to 18 players. The money bubble busted at 24. We’re in Level 14 and I’m the chip leader at my table (player 50). If you want to go back to the beginning to catch up on the action….


HAND 181			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	4A	47.1K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	SB	QA	31.7K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	J3	42.8K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	UTG	9J	9K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	HJ	68	16.2K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	CO	K4	24.2K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–

The player with the most equity preflop here is the suited one-gap hand in HJ. He’s in a virtual tie with the [9d jd] in UTG and the ace with a high kicker in SB, but in the lead. Everyone folds to the SB, though. He raises to 3.6K and takes the hand.


HAND 182			500/1000/100			K2K
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	44	47K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	D	85	33.2K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	89	41.7K	19	28	19	–	–	–	–
141	BB	75	8.9K	11	20	23	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	T6	16.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	HJ	TQ	24.1K	34	52	58	–	–	–	–

There are a lot of low cards. HJ limps in and I just toss the low pair. SB calls. Both the blinds check the flop, HJ makes a bet of 2K, and the blinds fold.


HAND 183			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	HJ	K3	46.9K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	CO	A9	33.1K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	Q3	40.6K	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	SB	23	7.8K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	A5	16K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	UTG	9Q	26.6K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

I ditch the best hand because I’m playing my game, and BB gets a walk.


HAND 184			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	JT	46.8K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	HJ	K3	33K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	JQ	40.5K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	D	2K	7.2K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	78	17K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	BB	87	26.5K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–

I opened to 3K and everyone folded. Seeing the cards, I don’t understand CO’s fold at all. We’re the largest stacks at the table, both with more than 40BB. CO has a high suited connector. In a 6-Max game, it will be the best hand at the river 25% of the time (aces are best just under 50%).


HAND 185			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	5A	48.8K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	UTG	46	32.9K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	HJ	A2	40.4K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	CO	7K	7.1K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	8Q	16.4K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	SB	4Q	25.4K	5	–	–	–	–	–	–

HJ raises his suited ace to 4K, both CO and D have connection issues and fold after timeouts, the blinds fold and HJ takes the hand.


HAND 186			500/1000/100			366		8		Q
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	97	47.7K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	BB	TA	32.8K	26	58	76	–	86	–	0
121	UTG	85	42.4K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	HJ	Q4	7K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	QK	16.3K	26	42	24	–	14	–	100
135	D	5J	24.8K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO raises his suited connectors to 3K and BB calls with the ace. They start the hand with an even chance to win. On the flop, BB’s ace pulls him ahead. Both players check the flop and turn, then the queen on the river swings all the equity to CO. He bets 2K into a pot of 7.1K, and BB check-folds.


HAND 187			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	94	47.1K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	SB	8T	29.7K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	62	42.3K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	UTG	K3	6.9K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	HJ	J9	20.3K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	CO	Q2	24.7K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–

Everyone folds and BB gets a walk.


HAND 188			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	4A	47K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	D	A8	29.1K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	7T	43.3K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	BB	55	6.8K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	2Q	20.2K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	HJ	46	24.6K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–

People are playing fairly snug as players are grinding their way up the payout ladder. You might expect a shove from the 7BB stack, even with a small pair in most situations, but after a 3K raise from D, BB folds due to a timeout. Maybe he meant to shove.


HAND 189			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	HJ	A6	46.9K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	CO	48	31.1K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	6T	42.7K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	SB	5T	5.7K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	88	20.1K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	UTG	39	24.5K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–

I raise to 3K after not doing anything for a long time, and BB shoves his pair at me. I fold.


HAND 190			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	3J	43.8K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	HJ	9T	31K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	6A	42.6K	28	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	D	TJ	5.1K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	7Q	24.1K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	BB	5Q	24.4K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO min-raises and takes the hand.


HAND 191			600/1200/120			36J		A		3
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	74	43.7K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	UTG	TQ	30.9K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	HJ	9A	44.6K	23	34	0	–	0	–	0
141	CO	JJ	5K	27	66	100	–	100	–	100
140	D	8J	23.5K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–

Player 135 is moved off the table for balance, which means we’re likely down to 15 players or less, although nobody on our table has been busted. Our small blind is dead. CO has a strong pair and has to know he’s getting called by someone, since we all have at least four times his stack. HJ limps in with the ace, CO shoves, and HJ’s the only caller. The jack on the flop spikes the double-up for CO.


HAND 192			600/1200/120			AT5
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	7Q	42.4K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	BB	JK	30.8K	36	66	83	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	34	39.6K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	HJ	8T	11.6K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	6Q	23.4K	15	34	17*	–	–	–	–

CO breaks the tight play at the table by raising [qc 6c] to 3.3K. BB calls with the suited king. BB checks the flop and CO bluffs the ace for another 3.6K, getting a fold from the better hand.


HAND 193			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	9A	41.6K	30	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	SB	Q7	27.4K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	39	39.4K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	UTG	53	11.5K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	2J	27.8K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–

I have the best hand, but SB’s computer hand is remarkably strong. Action got to me and I shoved. I had both players covered—though not by much—and we’re in the money, but it’s a bit of a risk with more than 30BB. I haven’t done anything for a while except for the fold a few hands earlier. The blinds fold.


HAND 194			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	QA	43.9K	32	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	D	22	26.7K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	K6	38.1K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	BB	J6	11.4K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	83	27.7K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–

This I just raise to 3.6K. And everyone folds. Note that D doesn’t bother to peel with his deuces.


HAND 195			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	JK	46.2K	35	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	CO	58	26.5K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	6Q	37.4K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	SB	4T	10.1K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	63	27.6K	9	–	–	–	–	–	–

Three in a row for me. I raise to 3.6K and get folds all around.


HAND 196			600/1200/120			699		K		5
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	94	48.5K	10	49	97	–	100	–	100
52	UTG	J3	26.4K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	82	37.3K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	D	J9	9.4K	31	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	SB	76	26.2K	27	51	3	–	0	–	0

I’m glad D’s connection is bad, because I’d have lost a chunk of chips to him. SB limps in and I hit the flop hard. He catches the bottom pair and bets 1.2K, I min-raise him, and he calls. We check the king (I do it just to try to be a little deceptive), then on the river, he checks and I bet 3.5K, which he calls. Back up over 50K!


HAND 197			600/1200/120			7TT		2
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	23	56.1K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	BB	56	26.3K	10	31	20	–	10	–	–
121	UTG	QA	37.2K	37	69	80	–	90	–	–
141	CO	5K	9.2K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	86	19K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG raises to 2.4K and BB calls the min-raise. Both players check the flop, then BB checks the turn and UTG bets 3.6K. If everyone had stayed in the hand to the turn, I’d be the only one with a paired card in my hand, but with a 61% chance of being counterfeited.


HAND 198			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	J9	55.3K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	SB	8Q	23.8K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	BB	57	40.6K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	UTG	AT	9.1K	30	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	69	18.9K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–

The short stack in UTG shoves his ace and everyone folds.


HAND 199			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	86	55.2K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	D	46	23.1K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	SB	5Q	39.3K	37	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	BB	T7	11.4K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	UTG	7T	18.8K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–

It seems odd that [5s qd] should have a better than one-in-three chance of winning a five-way hand, but there it is. Nobody’s happy with their cards, and BB gets a walk.


HAND 200			600/1200/120
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	J5	55.1K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	CO	Q5	22.9K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	D	47	38.6K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	SB	92	12.5K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	BB	T6	18.7K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–

Another walk. Notice that the same offsuit queen-five combo doesn’t have anywhere near the equity of the previous hand since nearly everyone’s cards are live in this hand.

Summary

I believe this is the first batch of hands where nobody’s been busted off of one my table(s). Presumably, there’s been action at the other tables, but the play’s been a bit tighter because people are probably jockeying for bigger payouts.

25 of the 200 deals have been walks.
A quarter of the deals have been won by a single pre-flop raise.
I took five pots in these 20 deals. Three pre-flop raises, one pre-flop shove, and another successful showdown.
VPIP/PFR stats for the players at the table now: 50 (31%/23%), 52 (27%/9%), 121 (28%/15%), 140 (18%/14%), 141 (9%/9%). Stats on anyone but me are mostly meaningless, because not only have I only tracked them for fewer than 25 hands and because of bubble/payout considerations.

#PNWPokerCalendar Planner for 2 March 2016

Posted on Wednesday, 2 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

PacWest Poker Classic Results

The spring run at Chinook Winds is over, and the results from all non-satellite events went up on Hendon Mob Monday. Congrats to Andrew Johnson, who takes first-place honors in consecutive Main Events at Chinook, and to Armand Alvarado, who placed 3rd on Sunday, 5th in last fall’s ME, 6th in the ME last February, and 4th in the spring 2014 ME back when it was run as part of the Deepstacks Poker Tour.

Is this supposed to be a selling point? Sounds like a threat. #poker pic.twitter.com/gW8EDT4GK4

— Zachary Elwood (@apokerplayer) February 26, 2016

Big Stack Big News

Big Stack Players Club‘s Brian Sarchi posted some teaser photos and then an announcement on the NW Poker Facebook page that there’s a move in the works in the next few months for the club. The Portland Meadows horse racing facility, in North Portland near the Columbia between I5 and Hwy 99 will be the venue, with 1,000 parking spaces (Brian included a photo) and relatively easy access from bus and MAX lines (a little bit of a walk from the Vanport/Delta Park Yellow line stop through some ugly intersections, but doable). Until then, Big Stack is still running Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday tournaments at 2435 N Lombard.

Hand-By-Hand 6-Max Continues

My “all cards revealed” 6-Max tournament equity analysis is down to the money at Hand 180, but there’s a lot more action before I get to heads-up. I’m publishing 20 hands a day (except for Wednesday and Friday). You can start from the beginning here.


HAND 180			500/1000/100			7TA
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	9K	50.2K	18	26	9	–	–	–	–
52	BB	55	34.8K	21	40	5	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	7T	42.9K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	CO	Q4	9.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	Q5	16.3K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	D	TK	17.7K	24	34	86	–	–	–	–

Bally’s World Series of Poker Circuit

Lots of players flipped from Lincoln City to Las Vegas between Thursday’s Big O game at Chinook Winds and the bigger Big O game ($580 buy-in and a WSOPC ring) at Bally’s, where they were met by other NW players coming from LAPC for what I call “The Devil’s Game.” Joe Brandenberg and Brian Pygon were among the NW players making it to Day 2 with Pygon going out in 10th place and Brandenberg taking 8th after one of those bad Big O beats. Jacque Lavadour cashed in the first event, which had 1,082 entries. Centralia’s C. Tamer Korman took the ring in Event #2 (Jackie Burkhart made the money in the same tournament). Former Portlander Jeff Dobrin nabbed his second Circuit ring in Event #3.

Portland represent @WSOP #BigO pic.twitter.com/QiF1WTiEyc

— Liz Tedder (@pokerlizzard) March 1, 2016

LAPC Final

At the time I’m writing this, Binh “Jimmy” Nguyen is among the final 14 contestants on Day 4 of the $10K buy-in LAPC Main Event with $1M in first place. He’d been as high as fourth place during the day, but he’s still in the running with more than 30BB.

Tulalip Pickup

If you were interested in knowing the results of the Tulalip Poker Pow Wow from the end of January, they’re on Hendon Mob, too. Mostly.

Full House Heads Up

Eugene’s Full House Poker is promoting a $10K Heads Up Championship with a $200 buy-in on the weekend of 9-10 April. There is a maximum of 64 seats, but players can pre-purchase up to three seats, with discounts for the extra seats: $350 for two seats and $500 for three seats. The event isn’t on their web site, so far as I can tell, and it does not specifically say “guarantee” on the info I’ve seen, but 64 seats sold even at the maximum discount comes to more than $10K. No indication whether it’s winner-take-all or what the payout structure might be, but contact them for info.

Deal of the Day: WSOP Circuit at The Bike

Technically, this is the combined Winnin’ o’ the Green and a WSOP Circuit stop, the last one on the West Coast before the summer. It kicks off with a $180 no re-entry/no re-buy, no add-on tournament with a $75K guarantee, then jumps into the $1M guarantee Mega Million XIV, with 18 entry flights, buy-ins ranging from $160 (with re-entry and a $100 add-on) to $550 (with re-entry), to the ability to jump directly into the money in Day 2 with 250K in chips for $4.3K (the payouts at the start of Day 2 are not $4.3K). Players who make it to Day 2 (5% of the smaller buy-in flights, 10% of the $550 flights) get paid $1K at the end of the session, and if you enter multiple flights and make it to Day 2 more than once (last year’s MM XII had 305 D2 qualifiers, with 21 of those being duplicates, including three players who qualified three times for six duplicates), you also get a seat to the Circuit Main Event and a bonus $500.

And that’s all before the first Circuit event on 19 March.

This Week in Portland Poker

People! Get your March calendars out before the end of February! I do this every damn week! Don’t make me have to turn this blog around and go home!

Encore Club has a special $9K tournament Thursday at 8pm. $60 buy-in, no re-buy, $30 add-on. And Sunday, they’ll be adding $1K to the prize pool for their noon tournament.
The First Friday $20K at Final Table is this weekend! 7pm for a $100 buy-in and $50 add-on. Their Friday 11am tournament is a double guarantee. Coming up a week from Saturday is their $20K guaranteed to first place game for a $200 buy-in.

Only a Day Away

Satellites tonight and next Wednesday at 7pm for the Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic. Tonight’s satellite is $125. The series starts two weeks from today.
The Card Player Poker Tour/Wynn Classic runs through 14 March. A $200K guarantee ($400 buy-in) starts today, with entries through Saturday and final on Sunday. Next weekend is a $500K guarantee ($1.6K buy-in).
The World Series of Poker Circuit at Bally’s runs through the weekend, with Friday and Saturday dedicated to starts for the $1,675 Main Event (with $1M guarantee).
The Great Canadian Freeze Out in Calgary runs through the weekend. The C$560 has starting days tomorrow through Saturday, with a final table on Sunday.
The Bicycle Casino’s Winnin’ o’ the Green and WSOP Circuit series starts tomorrow (see above in the Deal).
Stones Gambling Hall has its $300K Championship Series through 14 March. Notable are a Survivor-style Bankroll Builder with a $235 buy-in and $2K payouts for 1 in 10 players (10 March) and a $200K Main Event ($550 buy-in).
Sunday is the opening event of the WPT Shooting Star at Bay 101, a $2.1K buy-in with limited registration. Monday and Tuesday are starting days for the Main Event, a $7.5K buy-in with one re-entry allowed and $2.5K bounties on celebrity players.
Next Wednesday is the opening of the WPT Rolling Thunder at Thunder Valley, one of the less-expensive ($3.5K entry) World Poker Tour stops. Lots of satellites, plus $50K and $100K guarantee tournaments, a $550 HORSE game, and two big bounty tournaments.
A week from Thursday (10 March), Deepstacks Poker Tour arrives at Grey Eagle Casino in Calgary. The first event is a C$100K guarantee with a C$550 buy-in. The Main Event has a guarantee of C$250K for a C$1.1K (US$820) buy-in.
After Calgary and Sacramento, DSPT and the WPT combine for WPTDeepstacks Reno at the Atlantis, starting 17 March.
Yesterday was the end of the Venetian DSE I, but the 14th is the start of Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II (14—27 March), featuring two $150K events and a $300K.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker.

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 161—180

Posted on Tuesday, 1 March 2016 by Poker Mutant

Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max

Two and a half hours since I joined the game and the tournament is halfway over (in terms of the number of hands dealt; less than 20% of the field remains). We’re in Level 12, late registration has ended, and the money bubble is just about to bust at 24 players. There were 143 entries.


HAND 161			300/600/60
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	92	78.9K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	CO	2J	9.3K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	D	8K	18K	27	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	SB	3A	24.2K	35	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	83	69.5K	4	–	–	–	–	–	–

SB raises the ace to 1.5K and BB folds.


HAND 162			300/600/60			549		J		8
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	J3	78.8K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	UTG	QT	9.3K	26	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	CO	32	17.9K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	D	6A	25K	25	61	78	–	87	–	100
5	SB	2K	68.9K	24	39	22	–	13	–	0

Seriously, is it fair that the same player gets [ah] two hands in a row? Even if it is just a crummy ace? D raises to 1.5K and gets a call from SB. UTG really should be in there with the Portland Nuts—and he would have won if he’d gone to the river—but D and SB check it down to the river and the ace takes it.


HAND 163			300/600/60			45A
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	TK	78.2K	43	59	76	–	–	–	–
133	BB	K7	9.2K	6	14	11	–	–	–	–
105	UTG	K7	17.9K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	CO	9Q	27.5K	31	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	97	67.2K	14	28	14*	–	–	–	–

D opens to 1.6K with the suited one-gapper and I call with the best hand by far, along with BB who is in pretty bad shape. We both check the flop, though, and let D steal the pot.


HAND 164			400/800/80
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	36	76.4K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	SB	67	7.5K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	BB	8K	17.8K	28	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	UTG	42	27.4K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	JQ	70.8K	30	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO raises to 2K and everyone folds.


HAND 165			400/800/80			97Q		5		7
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	KA	76.4K	30	74	14	–	8	–	0
133	D	QK	7K	18	26	86	–	92	–	100
105	SB	J6	16.9K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	BB	T4	27.3K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	96	72.3K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–

Just one of those things. I open to 2.4K, short stack on the button shoves, we go HU to the flop, and the flop doesn’t go my way. I need an ace and it doesn’t show up.


HAND 166			400/800/80			367
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	UTG	J3	69.3K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	CO	28	15.5K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	D	AT	16.5K	32	59	7	–	–	–	–
19	SB	2A	26.5K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	67	72.2K	26	41	93	–	–	–	–

The suited ace min-raises and gets called by BB, then gets out-flopped by BB, who check-raises D from 4K to 14.8K. D gets the message and folds.


HAND 167			400/800/80			7JK		T		J
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	Q7	69.3K	18	31	16	–	13	–	0
133	UTG	73	15.4K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	CO	83	10.8K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	D	2A	26K	28	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	9K	78.5K	36	69	84	–	87	–	100

SB limps in against my BB and we’re HU to the flop. I make bottom pair with some backdoor draws on the flop and call a 1K c-bet. That slows SB down enough that I don’t have to pay on the next two streets as I pick up an open-ended straight draw, my two pair outs are negated by his own straight draw, and he gets a straight flush draw. [7s] on the river might have been costly.


HAND 168			400/800/80
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	8T	67.4K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	BB	92	15.3K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	UTG	7Q	10.7K	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	CO	KQ	25.9K	31	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	D	J4	80.7K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–

CO raises to 2K and everyone folds.


HAND 169			400/800/80			AK4		6
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	D	8T	66.9K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	SB	AT	14.4K	23	36	62	–	82	–	–
105	BB	QJ	10.6K	34	41	14	–	5	–	–
19	UTG	3A	27.4K	17	23	24	–	13	–	–
5	CO	39	80.6K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–

The suited ace raises to 1.6K and gets called by both blinds, so the hand involves all of the smaller stacks, on the cusp of the money. SB checks his top-pair-decent-kicker, BB bets 1.6K on a single-ended straight draw, UTG comes along with top-pair and some backdoor straight sraws, and SB moseys back into the party. Both blinds check the turn, UTG bets out 3K, then SB shoves the rest of his 11.2K stack. BB folds and UTG times out and is folded automatically.


HAND 170			400/800/80			269		2		9
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	CO	JQ	66.8K	37	50	56	–	34	–	0
133	D	34	24.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	SB	88	7.3K	29	50	44	–	66	–	100
19	BB	4T	21.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	UTG	67	80.5K	12	–	–	–	–	–	–

I open to 2.4K and SB shoves for just over 10% of my stack. I call, and it’s an actual coin-flip going to the flop, none of that 45/55 monkey business. With the over cards and the higher spade draw on the flop, I’m actually ahead in equity, but it doesn’t come through, and I double SB.


HAND 171			400/800/80			Q3J		K		J
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	UTG	K4	56.9K	20	–	–	–	–	–	–
50	CO	78	59.5K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	CO	74	24.1K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	D	79	15.7K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	SB	TT	20.3K	48	87	98	–	94	–	100
5	BB	49	80.4K	9	13	2	–	6	–	0

SB raises to 2.4K and gets a very speculative call from BB. BB inexplicably calls another 2.6K on the turn, with the bottom end of a gut-shot straight draw that would be beat by any ace SB might have, if it came through. They both check the river, and SB takes the hand. The sixth player at the table indicates that we’re now in the money, with four tables of six players.


HAND 172			400/800/80			8JQ		6		6
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	BB	42	56.8K	9	11	2	–	–	–	–
50	UTG	TT	59.4K	25	41	28	28	17	–	0
133	HJ	3A	24K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	CO	87	15.7K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	D	33	25.7K	8	10	5	–	–	–	–
5	SB	JK	75.3K	24	38	65	72	83	–	100

I open to 2.4K and get called by D and both blinds. I c-bet 5K, SB check-calls, and the other two players drop. SB picks up all of their equity. We check down to the river and he takes the pot.


HAND 173			400/800/80			55T		6		5
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	SB	JT	54.4K	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
50	BB	JK	51.9K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	UTG	68	23.9K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	HJ	77	15.6K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	CO	QA	23.2K	20	33	16	–	8	–	0
5	D	QQ	87.9K	25	67	84	–	92	–	100

You’d think the queens would be further ahead in this hand, but with all of the over cards, they’re just a little better than the ace-queen. HJ min-raises and CO 3-bets to 4K. D pops it up to 23.1K, just enough to put CO all-in to call. HJ folds his paid and CO calls. The board runs out a full house for D. Player 19 takes 22nd place.


HAND 174			400/800/80
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	D	TT	53.9K	44	–	–	–	–	–	–
50	SB	Q2	51K	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	BB	47	23.8K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	UTG	A4	13.9K	25	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	CO	Q2	114.2K	13	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG limps in along with CO. D raises his tens to 7.2K. Everyone folds.


HAND 175			400/800/80			837		5		9
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	CO	42	57K	13	24	16	–	0	–	0
50	D	T8	50.6K	17	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	SB	35	22.9K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
105	BB	96	13K	22	30	36	–	92	–	0
5	UTG	JT	113.4K	33	46	48	–	8	–	100

UTG limps and CO comes along. BB checks his option and gets handed what looks like a great shot to get out of the basement, with the flop filling in what he needs for an open-ended straight draw. Everyone checks. BB makes the nuts on the turn. He just checks. UTG checks his gut-shot draw, and CO bets 3.2K with zero equity. BB just calls, leaving 8K behind. I think he should have shoved here. He has the absolute best possible hand at the moment and he should know it. There are no flush draws. If anyone is going to put any money in at this point drawing to a higher straight or a full house, now’s the time to get them to do it. UTG just calls. Then the [9s] showws up on the river. BB bets 1.6K. UTG knows he’s got the nuts and bets 9.3K. BB goes all-in to make the call after CO folds, but now he’s dead. Player 105 goes out in 20th place for a min-cash.


HAND 176			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	UTG	56	52.9K	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
50	CO	K3	50.5K	33	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	D	6T	22.5K	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	BB	Q9	131K	30	–	–	–	–	–	–

The small blind is dead. Big stack gets a walk on the first hand of the new level.


HAND 177			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	BB	74	52.8K	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
50	UTG	7Q	50.4K	24	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	CO	5K	22.4K	14	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	SB	AK	131.3K	46	–	–	–	–	–	–

Dead button. CO takes a stab at the pot with the worst of the four hands, and SB raises to 22.3K, putting him all-in to call and leaving SB with nearly 110K if he wins. CO folds.


HAND 178			500/1000/100			8A7		4		T
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
74	SB	JA	51.7K	29	45	87	–	98	–	100
50	BB	K2	50.3K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
133	UTG	99	20K	30	55	13	–	2	–	0
5	D	8Q	134.9K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–

UTG shoves his nines and SB is the only caller. He hits the ace to take the lead away immediately, then gets the flush on the river. Player 5 would have won it if he’d taken the risk. Player 133 is out in 19th place and we’re down to three tables and 18 players.


HAND 179			500/1000/100
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	BB	95	49.2K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
52	UTG	57	34.9K	18	–	–	–	–	–	–
121	CO	J8	43K	23	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	CO	2K	9.2K	29	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	D	T8	16.4K	19	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	SB	95	18.3K	5	–	–	–	–	–	–

My new table doesn’t have any of the players from my other table on it and I’m table chip leader again, even though I’m way behind the tournament leader. My hand’s not impressive, but everyone folds and I get a walk!


HAND 180			500/1000/100			7TA
PLAYER	POSITION	CARDS	CHIPS	START	PRE-FLOP	POST-FLOP	PRE-TURN	POST-TURN	PRE-RIVER	RIVER
50	SB	9K	50.2K	18	26	9	–	–	–	–
52	BB	55	34.8K	21	40	5	–	–	–	–
121	UTG	7T	42.9K	21	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	CO	Q4	9.1K	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	CO	Q5	16.3K	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
135	D	TK	17.7K	24	34	86	–	–	–	–

D limps in and I raise to 3K. BB and D call. D opens bidding for the flop after a couple checks, and we give it up in the blinds.

Summary

Over this set of 20 hands, the money bubble has broken and the tournament as a whole has lost seven or eight players off of what were five partial tables in hand 160. Now we’re at three tables, and there may have been eliminations already at one or both of the others.

I don’t have much information on the players at the new table. I do know that player 5—before I was moved off of his table—continued to be very active. I’ve been dealt 53 hands with him at the table. He’s committed money to the pot voluntarily on 30 deals (57%), and he’s put in a pre-flop raise 15 times (28%), winning 13 of 16 showdowns. My own stats seem weak by comparison: VPIP 31% and 22% PFE, though I have won 15 of 21 showdowns.

Tomorrow is the Calendar Planner, so the next batch of hands appears on Thursday.

Mutant Poker

"One of the smartest writers in poker today." â€” Limon

Monthly Archives: March 2016

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 261—280

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 241—260

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 221—240

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 201-220

My Time Is Coming: Report 6 or No Satty

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 181—200

#PNWPokerCalendar Planner for 2 March 2016

A Game That Will Live In Infamy: Hands 161—180

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