January Hand Histories

I finally moved all my past hand histories from my desktop to my laptop so I could get everything migrated into my Poker Tracker database. After looking over my past month, as expected, my results for were looking pretty good. I've logged right around 4k hands since the first all at the .50/$1 HU level and in the span I've netted roughly $645. Now I know the variance in this HU game is crazy insane and the swings could have me in the red tomorrow but to be almost 3/4 of the way through January and to have about a black number is great in my book. Not to mention the rakeback I'm now receiving from playing on Tilt puts me well over $700 for the month!

Here are some hands that were pretty crucial in my past few sessions. I will try to give as much background as possible seeing as much of the rational behind the play comes from the way the match was shaping up, player tendencies, and my overall image.

The first hand I want to look at comes from a session I played where I instantly got down to my opponent about 2 buy-ins and was struggling to dig my way out of a hole. There was a lot of big betting going on and it looked as though I was tilting coming off a big bluff gone wrong.


Seat 1: tortuga0981 ($121.65) -
Seat 2: Darkstar9 ($303.70) - -


PRE-FLOP:

Darkstar9 posts small blind $0.50
tortuga0981 posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: tortuga0981


RAISE Darkstar9 ($3)
CALL tortuga0981 ($2)


FLOP:

Pot: $6
   

CHECK tortuga0981
BET Darkstar9 ($4)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($18)
CALL Darkstar9 ($14)


TURN:

Pot: $42
    

BET tortuga0981 ($33)
CALL Darkstar9 ($33)


RIVER:

Pot: $108
     

BET tortuga0981 ($67.65)
CALL Darkstar9 ($67.65)


SHOWDOWN:
tortuga0981:

MUCK Darkstar9

tortuga0981 collected $242.8 from main pot with a flush, King high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $243 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: tortuga0981 big blind showed [Qh 7h] and won 242.80 with a flush, King high - Net Gain/Loss: ($121.15)
Seat 2: Darkstar9 small blind mucked [8s 9s] - a pair of Eights - Net Gain/Loss: ($-121.65)



So this player actually made a good read and put in his money with a slight favorite but like I said we were playing back and forth at each other so much that there was no way I was letting this hand go. After the flop I check raise my opponent for a couple reasons....a) because I feel I could have the best hand with the best draw and b) to see where I stood in the hand. Well my opponent calls my raise which doesn't make me happy but given our history could mean he's holding anything. After his call I put him on something under a pair of kings (he would have pushed with top pair given the flow of the match) something like a pocket pair or a 7 or an 8. Making this read I feel I can push him off the hand barring a crazy turn card. Well a 4 peels off on the turn and I lead right into him with a 3/4 pot size bet. I was kind of scared of the open-ender hitting but all I could do was evaluate his move and go from there. He just calls again and I'm now praying for a heart, knowing there's no way I'm pushing him off his hand given what he's already invested and what I have left. A Jack of hearts rivers the cyber-felt and I instapush and induce a call from the his mediocre hand. After I look back at that hand I feel I played it correctly and had the right read. For him to continue to call down with second pair, shit kicker is crazy enough, but then to call the push on the river when the flush hit just tells me he's a calling station when he's got a stack.

So we both now have 200+ bb stacks the play is now getting nice and heated. My opponent then gets a nice rush of card and gets about $100 back taking the lead in stack sizes when this hand come up. He's won 4 out of the last seven hands to take this lead back and looks to be pumping up the aggression.


Seat 1: tortuga0981 ($173.40) - -
Seat 2: Darkstar9 ($238.25) -


PRE-FLOP:

tortuga0981 posts small blind $0.50
Darkstar9 posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: tortuga0981


RAISE tortuga0981 ($3)
CALL Darkstar9 ($2)


FLOP:

Pot: $6
   

CHECK Darkstar9
BET tortuga0981 ($6)
RAISE Darkstar9 ($18)
CALL tortuga0981 ($12)


TURN:

Pot: $42
    

BET Darkstar9 ($38)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($152.40)
FOLD Darkstar9
UNCALLED tortuga0981 ($114.40)
MUCK tortuga0981

tortuga0981 collected $117.5 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $118 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:
    

Seat 1: tortuga0981 small blind collected 117.50, mucked - Net Gain/Loss: ($58.5)
Seat 2: Darkstar9 big blind folded on the Turn - Net Gain/Loss: ($-59)




In this hand I make a standard raise from the SB and my opponent just calls. I flop well with my mediocre holdings and feel like my gutshot and flush draw is ahead of the majority of his range. I get check raised on the flop and have to think about things for a second before making my decision to just call. Now, ordinarily I would re-pop most players given this situation but since I've seen my opponent make this "check raise" play numerous times I figure more often than not he's simply bluffing at the pot and a call might induce another bet on the turn. Well, the turn pairs my 6 and as expected my opponent leads right out for a pot'ish sized bet. At this point he could be holding a king but I felt given his check raise that was highly unlikely. The lines that I've seen this guy take lean towards betting when he has it and making moves when he doesn't. So given the cold call pre-flop I can rule out most kings with a bigger than average kicker and any pocket pair (he re raises with a wide ass rage). My gut and my read lead me to believe that I could push him off his hand so I made a huge push on top of him for another $115 and he instafolds. Knowing that I did have some outs if I got called made me stare a little less intensely at the screen but it was still a marginal move at best that ended up working out. Against any king or a pocket pair above above six I'm roughly a 60/40 dog, I thought he wasn't in that rage and I pushed...and won!


This last hand was sheer insanity that ended up working out due to a good read but isn't something I advocate trying on a session to session basis.



Seat 1: Dirk DiggIer ($119.50) - -
Seat 2: tortuga0981 ($185.80) -


PRE-FLOP:

Dirk DiggIer posts small blind $0.50
tortuga0981 posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: tortuga0981


RAISE Dirk DiggIer ($3.30)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($11)
CALL Dirk DiggIer ($7.70)


FLOP:

Pot: $22
   

BET tortuga0981 ($19)
RAISE Dirk DiggIer ($42)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($174.80)
FOLD Dirk DiggIer
UNCALLED tortuga0981 ($132.80)
tortuga0981:


tortuga0981 collected $105.5 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $106 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:
   

Seat 1: Dirk DiggIer small blind folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-53)
Seat 2: tortuga0981 big blind collected 105.50 - Net Gain/Loss: ($52.5)




This is a new opponent and we are roughly 50 hands into our session. TO preface this I want to say that on about hand 12 we get it all in pre-flop JJ vs. 99 and I hold to jump out to a 200 to 100 bb lead. This player looked to instantly go on tilt and I fully took advantage of this with huge re-raises and applied pressure in key spots. My opponent raises the standard $3 and I make my standard re-raise to $11. He calls and instantly checks the flop. This instantaneous check played a lot into my decision when I got min raised after betting $19 into $22. So he min raises to $38 and without a second thought I make a huge push on top of the $38 and he doesn't think about it for a second before folding. A few things to look at in this hand are his past lines, his table image, his range, and lastly the situation. First and foremost I've never seen him make this min raise play before so I found that odd and unorthodox. I've logged a fair amount of hands with this player and feel like I have a good read on the lines he takes. If he had a hand like a Jack with a decent enough kicker to go with, given his tilt factor and the aggression he's been showing a push or a call would have been more in line. I obviously felt the min raise was more of a probe type bluff and that there was no way he was calling a push. The thing that also made this hand so great was the aftermath. I usually don't show my hands but given the circumstances I knew it would more than likely be a profitable show...and it was.

The following hands are how the session finished with this player.



Seat 1: Dirk DiggIer ($101.50) -
Seat 2: tortuga0981 ($236.80) - -


PRE-FLOP:

tortuga0981 posts small blind $0.50
Dirk DiggIer posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: tortuga0981


RAISE tortuga0981 ($3)
RAISE Dirk DiggIer ($13)
CALL tortuga0981 ($10)


FLOP:

Pot: $26
   

BET Dirk DiggIer ($21)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($223.80)
CALL Dirk DiggIer ($67.50)
UNCALLED tortuga0981 ($135.30)


TURN:

Pot: $203
    



RIVER:

Pot: $203
     



SHOWDOWN:
tortuga0981:

Dirk DiggIer:


tortuga0981 collected $202.5 from main pot with two pair, Eights and Threes

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $203 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: Dirk DiggIer big blind showed [Jc Ac] and lost with a pair of Threes - Net Gain/Loss: ($-101.5)
  
Seat 2: tortuga0981 small blind showed [8c 8d] and won 202.50 with two pair, Eights and Threes - Net Gain/Loss: ($101)




And to top things off, here is the finally hand we play.



Seat 1: Dirk DiggIer ($116.90) - -
Seat 2: tortuga0981 ($323.50) -


PRE-FLOP:

Dirk DiggIer posts small blind $0.50
tortuga0981 posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: tortuga0981


RAISE Dirk DiggIer ($3.30)
CALL tortuga0981 ($2.30)


FLOP:

Pot: $6.6
   

CHECK tortuga0981
BET Dirk DiggIer ($5)
CALL tortuga0981 ($5)


TURN:

Pot: $16.6
    

CHECK tortuga0981
BET Dirk DiggIer ($13)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($26)
CALL Dirk DiggIer ($13)


RIVER:

Pot: $68.6
     

BET tortuga0981 ($44)
RAISE Dirk DiggIer ($82.60)
CALL tortuga0981 ($38.60)


SHOWDOWN:
Dirk DiggIer:

tortuga0981:


tortuga0981 collected $233.3 from main pot with a straight, Queen high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $233 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: Dirk DiggIer small blind showed [8h 8s] and lost with three of a kind, Eights - Net Gain/Loss: ($-116.9)
  
Seat 2: tortuga0981 big blind showed [Qd Tc] and won 233.30 with a straight, Queen high - Net Gain/Loss: ($116.4)




Something else to note is that I was playing two tables with this opponent and I can't stress enough how much I love doing this. I feel as though you gather information quicker on your opponent and can then use it to manipulate he/she on two fronts. Some of the best second and third level thinking comes up when you are in situations like these. Let's take for example a situation I had come up in this past session. On one table I had just taken down a nice size pot having shown down a marginal hand after his pre-flop re-raise, and while all this this going on I pick up KK on the other table and 3-bet him pre-flop. Now what's a player to think in a situation like this...to me it almost an increased tilt builder. And don't get me wrong it can go both ways because there have been times where I've been on the raw end of the deal.

We have about 8 more days left in January and I'm crossing my fingers that things continue to roll the way they are. I should get in some more HU play tonight and hope to also get in on the Daily Double tourney's as well. Updates will probably come early next week but if something crazy happens I know I'll be on here ranting or celebrating!