HU Cash

I am dabbling a bit around in the online poker world. My usual game is NL100 full ring but I am getting bored by that at the minute. I tried my bollocks another time at the short handed tables but I seem to do essential mistakes in my short handed game. I am especially stacking off far too light and have a tendency to be over-aggressive. No idea why I only have those tendencies in short handed games. Just seems to not be my kind of game and I decided to give up on NL 6-max. Maybe I need to switch to the limits where they respect my raises. ;-)

As I have recently read about it in James Keys' blog I thought I give HU Cash on PKR a go as well. Because I have no real clue about that game, I watched some videos on PokerStrategy.com and decided to try my luck at NL25 HU tables. I really enjoyed it and managed to beat my opponent up in a two hour match to claim a 4 stack profit victory. I am not sure if I am tilt resistant enough though to play that kind of game consistently. I was close to implode when my TT got outdrawn by 85o but managed not to blow up after taking deep breaths for 2 minutes. I guess in HU tilt is pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you and bringing your opponent on monkey tilt is probably to most profitable way to approach HU. I have no idea. I used to play fixed limit heads up quite a bit but it is a completely different game and the experience doesn't help for NL HU games whatsoever.

I think I am going to try playing 4 or 5 other opponents on NL25 HU and see how I feel. If I feel I was in control I will switch to NL50 HU but am aiming to play NL100HU. I wouldn't mind doing some bum hunting either but I feel that this might not be necessary on PKR. I think on a site like Stars or FTP even those low stakes games must be kinda tough to beat if you don't put enough effort in.

Our long time German friends which we lived together with in the UK for a while are coming to visit us here in Spain for a week. I got a few days of work and hope to enjoy a nice long weekend. Very much looking forward to the banter the next days. Bought a bottle of Gin, Vodka and Jack Daniel's. I think total the cost was £3.50 ;-)

Just read that Robert Enke committed suicide yesterday and I am actually quite shocked. He was a superb personality and a great goalie! Also he was on a good way to be our number 1 for next year's World Cup. German football lost a great personality and sportsman. RIP.

Laters,

Truthans

Two Faced

This post is solely gonna be about my last nights cash game session so if you can't be bothered to read about poker hands you can stop right here. I just need to write this off my mind. Go to the last 3 lines to get a summary.

They have changed the Poker director in our local Casino and since that the cash games on Friday and Saturday are starting at 8:00 pm which is good for a smooth 8 hours of play. I bought in for the full 150bb stack at 9:00 pm and didn't know yet that this was going to be one of the most volatile and mood changing sessions I have played so far.

My first table was very soft. I had an extremely nitty PokerStrategy.com player to my left who would just fold everything except the top 8% of his range. The rest of the table was either very loose/passive or very tight/passive. With loose I mean VPIP of ca. 80 and the tight players probably around 40. lol. I played pretty solid and check-raised a lot of drawy boards to take down a few £20 - £40 pots. I didn't go to show-down for while until I had pocket 3's. Three way pot, I am the PFA. A52 - I am first to act and it goes check, check, check. Turn: A - I check, check, Button bets £10 into £12 pot. I have a good read on this player and know his betting patterns. He would have bet any ace on the flop. He never checks behind on the flop with an ace. Every time he has got a hand, he over bets the pot as well. I was pretty certain he had air as he does not bet a 5 or 2. River - 6 , I check and he bets 15 in that pot. The only thing I can beat is air but I make the call and he shows me J9. Confidence booster.

Then the first hand I played for a stack. I limped KTo from early mid and call a small raise from the small blind, who is a guy that is pretty drunk and just looked and smelled like a bum. He probably went back to his cardboard-box-home after the game. Anyway, K85 flop he leads and I am raising hoping to get it in. I saw him getting it in with a lot of shit before so I am ahead here the majority of the time. He calls and shoves his last £10 on the blank turn. River is a Q and he shows me pocket QQ's. I didn't really mind as he had the better hand and I had a pretty aggro image, so I probably get QQ in against myself as well. Just a shame the lady pops on the river. I think the pot was not even that big. hm...can't remember.

Then I remember shoving my flush draw into the PFA to my left who had c-bet the flop but the turn should have been a scare card for him and I thought I had FE. He had turned the Nut Straight with a gut shot and I missed my flush outs. Stack down.

I am stuck now and open up my gambling mood. Interesting hand follows.

MP - Limp
CO - Limp
BU - Raise £5

I wake up with TT in the SB and think about 3-betting. Problem is that the button is really passive and I think it is the second hand he raised in two hours. I didn't want to fold to a 4-bet shove and decided to flat call. It goes round to the former limpers and CO suddenly makes it £35 and button snap folds.

No I am not sure what this is. I am pretty sure that he doesn't overlimp AA,KK,QQ or JJ from the CO. Doesn't make sense. He just doesn't do that. I gave him the following range: AJ+, 44 - 99. And personally the whole situation smells more like the small PP and not like overs. Other than that my hand is pretty well disguised and he can't know that I am as strong as I am. I set him all-in and he shows AKs and I hold. Stack up.

Another English drunkard comes to the table and quickly donates another £150 in 10 hands to me. Now I got a bit sick of the table as there were 3 drunk english man at the table who had fun in berating themselves and slowing the game down to about 5 hands an hour. On the second table were 4 PokerStrategy players and no one else but it was a pretty sick line up. Simon "Schnibl0r" Muenz who is a high stakes reg at a variety of games. I think he was one of the best Fixed Limit HU players around a few years ago, playing $500/$1000 but he switched to NL later where he plays up to NL40k at the minute as far as I know. Next player is a dutch guy who is our Pro Team Manager and a NL2k to NL4k reg with a couple of big tourney cashes as well. Then there is our Head of Business Development who is not a good Poker player but he doesn't give a damn about the stakes and one other guy like me on a normal wage that hasn't made shitloads of Poker so far. Everybody is completely wasted except for me and the other "normal" guy. The game plays huge and I see bottom pair taking down a £500 in the first hand when it got a call by A high. I can't believe my eyes. I don't really know how to approach the game and have to fold my huge 3-bets twice when it got 4-bet shoved onto me. We were so fucking deep. Suddenly I find 86 of hearts and PF it's only £8 to call. lol. Flop is a sweet 9,5,7 and I get it in for a £600 pot. I change back to table one.

Lose another big pot in a 3 way all-in on the turn when I got like 6:1 for my straigth draw which didn't get there. Then I win AQ vs. AK on a Qxx,A,x board. All in on the flop. Then I lose a big pot with A8 vs. J9 on a 9,8,3 board where I made a terrible call.

In the end I finish a 7 hour session £18 up. lol. FML. Could easily have been £400. I am really annoyed by myself.

Anyway, £368 profit since staking. £1330 in total.

P.S.: Big congrats are going out to my staker James Keys who shipped a 2nd place finish for approx. $100k in the Baltic Poker Festival. Sick player, who is crushing the scene at the moment.