I run goot

Last night I played 184 hands NL cash.  I won 291 BBs.  My stats were 34/21/2.3.  A little bit looser than I'd like to see, my target is more like 17/15/3.  I played 2 sessions, and pretty much tripled up in both, and was certainly dominating.  I thought I was playing well.  I see one bad hand, and I don't remember it.  But I remember the villain, so I think I know what I was up to.  

He was a short stacker, and he was pretty good at it.  I doubled him up, but I stacked him once, so I think it is a wash.  In the loser, I had KQs and he had KK.  In the winner I happened to have the same hand, and he had jacks and I hit the flop.  Short stackers are so hard to play against, you pretty much have to make your decision pre-flop.   But I wasn't allin preflop, and should have been able to easily get off my hand post flop when I missed, so it just looks like a mistake to me. -46BB We were chatting a lot to, and I really enjoyed playing with him.  But this was definitely spew, it was after midnight.  I see overall I beat him out of 20BB in 51 hands. Might want to rethink KQs against shorties.

Only 4 losers over 10BBs, but 3 after midnight, altho those others don't look too spewy. 

Hands:

My biggest winner was A9o vs KK with a 9J9 board.  Just a cooler. +97BB.

22 vs JJ and I flopped a boat was good for +75BB.

AJ in a 5 way raised pot!  It just plays weird.  I apparently have tilted the table. +51

KQs vs JJ +23.  vs different shorty. Flop AQ8, shorty shoves.  I think this is ok.

Nothing else over 20BB.

Sessions:

I shut down the game in the first session.  They just all ran away.  I was a bit maniacal. ;)

I had a really good read on everyone.  They were loose passive typical players.  I'll post that weird hand as an example. cashed ~$25.  The interesting thing about this session is that I very carefully chose the table, playing random poker tight at a donk table while I waited half an hour for a seat.  The stats were like 25pf $2.00 which is semi-loose aggressive at these stakes.  My style works better against tighter, and more aggressive players than typical.  

Second session was longer, as I was intentionally trying to not look like such a bully.  fun table.  I sure wish more people would chat it up.  Maybe I should try more to start conversations.  Cashes $25, down from $32.

3 interesting hands:

This one, I thought I played really well.  The villain was the shorty that won the biggest pot off of me.  My read was he was a very decent player.  He was trying to play pots with me and was calling a lot of my preflop raises.  he would push a lot post, so he was tough, but he folded a lot too.

Hero (SB) ($25.75)
UTG+1 ($6)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6, A
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.10, 5 folds, Hero bets $0.40, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.30
Flop: ($0.90) 5, 8, 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 checks
Turn: ($0.90) A (2 players)
Hero bets $0.60, UTG+1 calls $0.60
River: ($2.10) J (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50

Results:
Hero had 6, A (one pair, Aces).
UTG+1 had A, 3 (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $2.95

I considered folding the river, but when replaying the hand in my mind, I felt his most likely holdings were really restricted.  I put him on a weak ace 9 or lower, and not 8, 5 or 2.  I'm pretty certain he would raise the turn with any stronger ace, or 2 pair against me.  And I'm pretty sure he folds without an ace, when I bet it.  So the 9,7 beats me, and the 3,4 I win, 6 we chop.  So given I was getting 5:1 for my call, folding would be really bad.   Factor in a few bluff possibilities which are certainly possible given that I checked the river, and I really am a favorite against his range.

I say he would raise me because we had a lot of history, and I had often called his pushes relatively thin, just because of stack sizes.  He just wasn't slowplaying much.  Of course he had a bit more money here, so who knows.  Once you focus on your opponent's hand, NLHE becomes a lot easier.

Here's that weird hand:

Button ($4.70)
Hero (SB) ($9.65)
BB ($10.80)
UTG ($6.20)
UTG+1 ($2.10)
MP1 ($5.60)
MP2 ($10.80)
CO ($8.30)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, J
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.10, 1 fold, CO calls $0.10, Button calls $0.10, Hero bets $0.40, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.30, MP1 calls $0.30, CO calls $0.30, Button calls $0.30

Flop: ($2.10) 7, 7, 6 (5 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks, CO checks, Button checks

Turn: ($2.10) 2 (5 players)
Hero bets $1, 2 folds, CO calls $1, Button calls $1

River: ($5.10) A (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.90, Button calls $0.90, Hero calls $0.90

Total pot: $7.80 | Rake: $0.35

CO had 98o for an oesd he had to bluff, Button had A9s for a flush draw. I'm lucky I got out alive. These schoolers. Maybe my turn bluff is a little off, but turns out I was protecting the best hand. lol.

CO (t3870)
SB (t2325)
BB (t2685)
Hero (UTG) (t2815)
UTG+1 (t2835)
MP1 (t2925)
MP2 (t3075)
Hero's M: 46.92
Preflop: Hero is UTG with 9, 9
Hero bets t160, 2 folds, MP2 calls t160, 1 fold, CO calls t160, 3 folds

Flop: (t540) 3, 3, J (3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t400, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1160, MP2 calls t760

Turn: (t2860) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets t1495 (All-In), MP2 calls t1495

River: (t5850) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t5850
Results:
Hero had 9, 9 (two pair, nines and threes).
MP2 had J, 8 (two pair, Jacks and threes).

I played this just terrible, turning my 99 into a bluff.  Villain just plain outplayed me.  He was an amazing player.  He would minraise open every single pot, and call raises.  He would min-raise any small raises too.  It's an interesting strategy.    It's pretty cheap to do, and I have no idea how to defend against it.  This was in the real early going when everyone is playing really tight, and if you used that to win a couple of stacks, and then settle down, it could be very effective.  It sure shut the table down (and me too).  I honestly almost folded the 99, just because I thought he would put me in tough spots too often.  He definitely scared me.  All attention was on him.  I guess 99 utg really is a little loose, but it was the 2nd pot I had played, and I want to test him and then just apparently lost my mind.

I might give the strategy a try.  If I see it again, I think I'll just watch the show and try not to tilt.

The good news is that I recognized the problem immediately, and corrected, and these fine cash games were the result.  note my agg factor is lower than usual, and this is part of the reason.  There was a time when I would have said something like "who calls raises with J8, what a donk!"  Playing against the line I took, his top pair no kicker pretty much had to be the nuts.  Live and Learn.