Playing Against Aggressive Players

Just a couple of fun hands I played today against a regular (21/19/2.93, 3Bet:11.72). We have a long history together and he gives no respect to my 3bets...

FIRST HAND:
No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (5 handed)
Button ($110.80)
SB ($96.50)
Hero (BB) ($99.45)
UTG ($93.08)
MP ($94.20)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4, 7
2 folds, Button bets $3.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $11, Button calls $7.50
Flop: ($22.50) J, A, A (2 players)
Hero bets $15, Button calls $15
Turn: ($52.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks
River: ($52.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $24, Hero calls $24
Total pot: $100.50 Rake: $2

Results:
Button had Q, J (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
Hero had 4, 7 (full house, fours over Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $98.50


SECOND HAND:
No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (4 handed)UTG ($106.80)

Button ($99.50)
Hero (SB) ($145.45)
BB ($101)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7, 8
1 fold, Button bets $3.50, Hero raises to $11.50, 1 fold, Button calls $8
Flop: ($24) 4, 7, 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $14, Hero calls $14
Turn: ($52) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $37, Hero raises to $119.95 (All-In), Button calls $37 (All-In)
River: ($200) 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: $200 Rake: $2


Results:
Button had Q, K (high card, King).
Hero had 7, 8 (one pair, sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $198

January

January was a good month as far as poker goes. It could have been great but I had a mini downswing towards the end where I gave back about $750... It could have been better but I'll take it...

Poker Thoughts: Call-call-call

Long time no see... I've been playing a bit of NL200 lately and I'll be posting a few of the interesting hands in the following days... Here is the first one:

I only have a very small sample of hands with my opponent but he is clearly a loose aggressive player: 44/21/7 over 28 hands and 3bet percentage of 15%.

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed)

BB ($201.10)
UTG ($359.18)
MP ($244.10)
Hero (Button) ($181.40)
SB ($48.05)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 10
2 folds, Hero raises to $7, 1 fold, BB calls $5

Preflop is standard, I raise from the button and he calls from the BB. The fact that he doesn't 3bet tends to indicate that he does not have a very strong hand because his 3bet percentage is 15% (although it does not mean much over such a small sample of hands)

Flop: ($15) 5, 6, 8 (2 players)
BB bets $15, Hero calls $15

Flop is very good for me although pretty much any card of the deck that comes on the turn is going to be a scary card for me. My opponent bets pot and here is the critical decision for me in this hand: either flat call or raise.

The only hands that fit a pot sized bet on this flop given the preflop action are a set or air. If he has a set he will want to protect it from all the flushes or straights that may come on such a drawy board. However, the probability of him calling with a middle pair preflop and flopping a set are far less than him having a flush draw, straight draw or nothing on this spot and trying to steal the pot from me. If this is the case, he will likely keep betting pot on every straight if a scary card comes (and a scary card will definitely come given the board texture). If I decide to call I must be ready to call him down, unless maybe a diamond comes.

Turn: ($45) 9 (2 players)
BB bets $45, Hero calls $45

The turn is the 9s. This completes the straight. If he had a 7 I'm screwed... But the action does not really fit him having a 7: now there is only one card to come and if he has a straight he would probably try to make a smaller value bet in order to make sure I call.

On the other hand, if he had a set on the flop, this card should scare him and make him slow down in case I had called him down with a 7 on the flop.

However, he bets pot again. This makes me think that he really doesn't have nothing and he is going to bet pot - bet pot - bet pot on every street (consistent with his aggression factor).


River: ($135) Q (2 players)
BB bets $134.10 (All-In), Hero calls $114.40 (All-In)

The Q is a blank. If he had a hand like QT, QJ, KQ he simply got lucky. However, given that I called the turn I must go with my read and call his river bet. There is no reason for me to fold at this point.

Total pot: $363.80 Rake: $2

Results:
Hero had 10, 10 (one pair, tens).
BB had K, 6 (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: Hero won $361.80

So here is an example of how the call-call-call play can be very profitable against a very aggressive opponent who will bet pot-pot-pot on every street when his preflop action indicates that he does not hold a very strong hand.

Ski Day - Made in Spain

So today I went skiing with Angel, Evaristo and their girlfriends (although their girlfriends decided to stay in the cafeteria for reasons that will become apparent to the reader after the first two pictures).

We went to a ski resort named "La Covatilla" which is probably the smallest place I've been to in all my years of skiing. Small is not necessarily bad (;P). However, in this case it was not only small but also pretty warm, which means that instead of snowing it was raining for most of the day... Skiing while it's snowing is not too much fun but it is tolerable (particulary if you haven't skied in a long time and it's the first day of the season). However, skiing while raining is hell...

We got to the place early in the morning and this is what we found: rain! Here Angel is trying to convince me that a few drops of water are actually good for you (like Guinness)

Half way up the lift the drops of rain turned into snow (although the consistency was half water and half snow)

Evaristo and I half frozen on the ski lift... At this point I'm totally soaked... even my underwear is wet. The combination of rain at the bottom of the slopes and wet snow at the top is "typical Spanish"... that's probably why Spanish skiers are tougher than northern European... we are used to more extreme skiing conditions!

Lunchtime... I'm about to freeze... (we obviously didn't go back to the slopes after lunch)

So that was our ski day... ok, ok, I'll admit it: I wish there were real mountains in Spain with decent snow and not this watery crap...

There you go, I said it: I wish the Alps were in Spain... we may have to go over there and conquer them someday ;P

Tomorrow I'll be flying to Florida so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to post any updates...

Good Poker Session

Hi, I'm back... I've been playing for less than one and a half hours and I've made $221.57 so it's been a pretty good session. Here are the stats:

and a graph of the session:

Today I've played NL50 so making over 4 buy-ins in less than 1.5 hours is not bad at all (that's a winrate of $180/hour). As I've already mentioned in this blog, lately I've been finding it very hard to focus while playing poker: for some reason it seems that I can't stop thinking about Lady Waterfall while I'm playing so a couple of weeks ago I decided to move down from NL100 to NL50. I think it has been a good decision because there are more donkeys, swings are smaller and I can still make a decent hourly rate.

I think it's a bad idea to play at your highest limit tables if you're having problems concentrating so I'll stay at NL50 until I get over my current personal issues...

Tomorrow I may go skiing... I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I hope you're happy...

Poker Thoughts: 3-betting Preflop

Today I've pretty much wasted my day so far: I had to pick up a certified letter from the post office and after driving all the way over there it was closed. I then went to the gym and it was closed also. Apparently today is a holiday in Spain so I haven't been able to do any of the stuff I wanted to do before leaving for Florida.

I've decided to play some poker (yes, I've purchased a legal license of Poker Tracker 3) but before that I'll write the promised post about 3-betting preflop. First of all, for those of you who don't know what 3-betting is, it's the same as reraising. That is, putting in a third bet after someone has already raised.

Usually, poor players don't 3-bet a lot. It's not unlikely to see players with just a 1.5% 3-bet preflop percentage. These players will only 3-bet with AA, KK and sometimes QQ. Therefore, their 3-bet range is hugely polarized, meaning that when they 3-bet you know that they are holding a monster and you can fold your hand without losing any money. By 3-betting only AA and KK players make your decisions very easy: if you raise and get reraised by one of these players you just have to fold and move on to the next hand.

In order to balance your 3-betting range you need to 3-bet not only your premium hands like AA and KK but also other hands that may be a little bit more speculative. This way your opponents will not be able to put you on a monster every time you 3-bet and you'll make their decisions post flop a lot harder.

Here are a couple of points to keep in mind when 3-betting.

1. 3-betting is required in order to balance your range of hands and hide your monsters (if you only 3-bet AA and KK you're helping your opponents make the right decisions when playing against you). A 5% 3-betting preflop percentage is reasonable.
2. 3-betting against certain opponents can be very profitable because they will put you on a very strong hand and usually fold preflop. Aggressive opponents tend to raise a very wide range of hands when they are on the cutoff or on the button. Take advantage of this tendency by 3-betting from the button or the blinds.

Example 1:

$0.50 BB (6 handed)

UTG ($80.25)
MP ($46.70)
CO ($73.50)
Button ($33.31)
Hero (SB) ($52.70)
BB ($46.20)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8, 9
2 folds, CO raises to $1.75, 1 fold, Hero raises to $5.75, 2 folds

Typical situation: CO is 21/12/3.2 (he will open-raise 12% of this starting hands, meaning that he will probably open-raise up to 20-25% of his starting hands from the CO and button). When he raises from the CO as he usually does I give him no credit and 3-bet from the SB with my connectors (which play well against his range of hands).

CO folds his hand and I take down the pot right there.

Total pot: $4

Results:
Hero didn't show 8, 9 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $4

Example 2:

$0.50 BB (5 handed)

MP ($53.80)
Button ($146)
SB ($49.50)
Hero (BB) ($98.55)
UTG ($39.35)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, 10
3 folds, SB raises to $2, Hero raises to $6, 1 fold

Here, everybody folds to the SB, who is once again an aggressive player (25/18/3). He raises trying to take down the pot (with those stats he will probably raise there with pretty much any hand). I give him no credit and 3-bet him knowing that I will also have position over him for the rest of the hand.

Total pot: $4

Results:
Hero didn't show J, 10 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $4

Example 3:

$0.50 BB (6 handed)

SB ($24.60)
BB ($33.75)
UTG ($33.10)
MP ($26.24)
CO ($52.30)
Hero (Button) ($51.05)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, K
2 folds, CO raises to $1.75, Hero raises to $6, 3 folds

Once again I take advantage of my position against an aggressive player who open-raises a lot preflop (19/17/2.3) in order to 3-bet his raise a take down the pot preflop.

Total pot: $4.25

Results:
Hero didn't show 9, K (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $4.25