Movie night

My wife and I just watched Bad Boys (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence). Just a nice way to spend a little "quality time" together. (You've got to have watched Bad Boys to understand that reference). Anyway, she just went to bed, and I decided to play some poker before I do the same.

Hopped into the first HU SNG I could find. I got lucky to find "tatta" sitting at the $55+2.5 table. He's great. His raise percentage from the SB/button PF is as big as his fold percentage. So not only does he make the mistake of giving me too many free chips when he folds, his raises mean he's got a decent hand that works together. Even better is that he never raises from the BB without AAbaby or AK2X, which is usually where I break him.

Outside of that, he calls weak, so I limit my naked bluffing against him, and value bet like crazy and he pays off constantly. If he calls a bet on the turn, he's either got a hand, or the draw is pretty apparent from the board. Therefore I can play the river accordingly. I said I limit my bluffing, but when I know (ok, have a good feeling) that he's missed, I will naked bluff the river.

In game 1, the first critical hand, I called on the button and he raised PF from the SB. I called with my random 4 cards. Not a +EV play in general, but since I get so many free blinds from him, and I have good implied odds, I'll make it. That's the beauty of a tourney. You make your -EV plays cost you little and your +EV plays pay a lot. Anyway, flop comes QJ5 rainbow, and I flop top and bottom pair. He checks, which I expect, even with AA since there is no associated low draw. I bet, and get the call that I'm looking for. I turn my full house, when a 5 hits. He checks, and I check back. The check here is that I need to keep him in the hand. I think, for the most part, he believes that I bet with something. So if I bet there, I must have the 5. Can't have him think that. He needs to think I only have a Q, so that his Aces-Up looks good. River is a T which makes a possible straight, and he checks again. This time I bet 2/3 of the pot, and he takes his time, but does call.

The hand I won the tourney, I did gamble on the flop. The flop was 5s6sKc, I had 3s4sAc6c, I bet, and he effectively raised all in. I would've had about 500-600 chips left if I lost (10-20 blind level), so with my knowledge, I felt like I could grind out from there. I called and he tabled AA68. He pushed his AA and lost again. $52.50 in all of 10 minutes.

After that game, I took a break, checked work email, and then came back to get lucky again and find him waiting for a game. I was so happy to oblige! This time, he started raising more frequently and I played defensively. I always wonder how much my opponents actually adjust to me. One of the toughest things to figure out is what an opponent's motivation is. Do they just play, and their current skill is the skill they win or lose with, or are they constantly trying to improve. I fall into the former more than the latter, though I'm trying to use this blog to think about my game after the fact to see if I can spot problems sooner.

I figure he's the type of player whose game is set: his VIP ranking at PS is pretty high, and he multi-tables HU games. The latter is the overriding factor. You can't really play a unique style in 2 or more different HU games. You basically have to play the same, or else you're likely to get confused.

Anyway, game #2 lasted longer, and he had me down for a bit, but I was able to take a couple critical hands away, and secure a second victory. Obviously I'm tired, since I don't really remember the details of the hands, and normally those things embed themselves automatically in my mind.

I'll take another winning night and try to continue the streak.

$55+2.5: 2/0 $105.00