Upswings FTW

After the gf left on Sunday night, I wasnt really in the mood to play until Monday evening. I utilized my newest tool (PokerTableRankings.com's buddy list feature, more on that in a future post) and found some potentially juicy games. I played 6max on 7-8 tables (still no new monitor, not really sure where to set it up), signed up for the waiting lists on some heads up tables and had what I thought was a decent session. I knew I wasnt up alot, but maybe a buy in or so. Nope, when I checked my session I was down 7 dollars, whoops. I stopped when I did because of a pretty big migraine I had coming on; Im a frequent migraine sufferer and I could tell this one would be bad.The session lasted over an hour and all the while I was still on the waiting list of one of the HU games. As I was quitting the 6max games due to my headache, the HU table opened up and I was able to play the opponent I was waiting for. I had played this guy a bunch at 6max 50NL and he definitely was not good. He wasnt a superdonk that basically gives away his money, but he was a fairly straightforward player who wasnt too tricky and was easy to read. I decided to try to play through the pain and get in some HU poker action. What a very good decision it turned out to be...

My headache had turned into a full blown migraine and I was just trying to keep my mind off the pain and focus on the poker. Here are some of the highlights:

Nice flop eh: Obviously I flop gin and cooler this guy, but I think I missed alot of value on the river. If hes calling 67, hes probably calling more, even a shove. I really hate my river bet looking back on it.

Mmmm, thin value: I played this hand kinda tricky. At least pre and post flop. He had been 3betting pretty wide, but not maniacally. When I just call the 3bet and call the flop bet, I could have ALOT of hands. When my opponent leads the turn, I put him squarely on a worse ace and decided I wanted to get my money in here however I could (I was praying he didnt have AK). My plan worked and I got his money when he shows up with a barely worse kicker. Weeeeeee!

Nicer flop, eh: I had developed a read on this guy that he would bet the flop when first to act if he had a hand he liked. Knowing this, I wanted to build a pot to get his monies in. The turn is a bit scary since sets and some two pair hands boated up but I wasnt slowing down. I bet enough on the turn to allow for a little less than pot sized bet on the river which he gladly calls with 2nd pair.

Blech: I pick up 10s and get 3bet, since he had been doing this pretty wide, I four bet him and he flats. Against some players, this move is the absolute top of their range, but against this guy I knew he could be looking me up with worse (A9s+, A10+, 8s+). The flop isnt great but I wanted to end the hand there, he shoves and Im pretty much committed, considering he could have some overcards+FD hands that I still have equity against. He flips up KQ and I lose. IMO, his flat of my 4bet is pretty terrible. a) hes OOP b) I hadnt 4 bet much so I can only assume my perceived range is like 9s+, AJ+. A range that crushes his, especially since I dominate KQ often. Whatevs, moving on...

WP sir: This hand is kinda a cooler, but he played the hand really well in my opinion. He disguised the strength of his hand with the flat of my 3bet and even his raise on the flop doesnt mean he has me beat. I was a bit unlucky to have such a pretty board come out for my hand, but regardless, he played it well.

Poker is easy when you have aces: Pretty standard, value bet the crap out of my aces.

He valuetowns himself: Another pretty standard hand. I dont think my hand is strong enough to raise on the turn or the river but I am definitely calling. I knew he had a hand he liked somewhat, but I had a pretty good kicker so I thought TPGK would be good enough to merit a call.

The backbreaker: I have been calling raises OOP with smallish pairs HU trying to flop sets recently. I dont flat much with anything else (sometimes SC's) so this is kinda exploitable, I gotta fix that leak. I slowplay my set and get the perfect turn card for his hand. His two pair cant beat my 3 of a kind and I take down a sizable pot. He got pretty pissed after this one since he said it always seemed like whenever he had a good hand, I had a better one (definitely somewhat true). He played a few more hands then quit me. I ended up taking almost 500 clams from this guy. Definitely good medicine for a splitting headache.

I played a little yesterday, trying to replicate my HU success but I ended the day down some (less than a buy in).

Today, I logged in to see there was a new software update. This always excites me since there are sometimes a couple of drastic changes that dramatically change full tilt (tourney dollars, shootouts, late regging etc). I opened two tables of .5/1 (after trying out the 7 game mix for a bit) and there are definitely some big changes (more on that later) but was even happier to see that I sat down at a gold mine. In my experiment, I was able to win more than 2 buy ins. I like running good.

After a great couple of days, this is where I'm at:

Wow, 5k. Thats a lot of monies. It really shows how far Ive come. Wow.

Post coming soon discussing FTP changes, WSOP ME fiascoes and PokerTableRatings.

Good Luck everyone!!