1:45pm: This is a well written article contributed by SteveK (using the submit an article button). He brings up a lot of good questions, and I think it’s a good idea to ponder these things before moving forward with the answers to them. Enjoy

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Have you thought about it?

I mean, have you thought about it? By ‘it’, I mean how you would handle each type of player you run into at the tables. To me, that is the beauty of Heads Up matches; that you can label someone as a “calling station”, “maniac”, on tilt, too tight, etc. You do everything you can to exploit this current (or permanent in some cases) leak in their game like no other format. This applies to ring games and MTTs as well, but it is far easier to get deep in someone’s head in a heads up match. I play and talk to people on a regular basis that need to ask themselves the following questions, among many others:

• How do I handle a Maniac?

• Do I expand or tighten up my calling range?

• How do I handle “Tight Ted”?

• Do I try to bet him out of more pots or do I try to wait for a huge hand and hope he calls?

• How do I handle someone I’m pretty sure is drunk?

• Should I make any adjustment at all?

It gets more complicated if you use Sharkscope. You ask yourself, “Wow, this guy runs at a 10% ROI and he is raising every pot, what does this mean?” and “This guy runs at a -15% ROI, is my top pair with a crap kicker good here when he is putting me all in?” Upon looking at this guy’s chart, I see he does quite well at these stakes but moves up and gets crushed at the higher games. Sound familiar?

How should this affect my approach? This guy usually plays much higher, so why is he down here and how should this affect my approach to him? It’s essential to have a plan of attack going in, but in any competition adjustments are everything. Do you know how you would handle each type of player once you have put an appropriate label on them? You should.

1:54am: In my never ending quest to improve the site, I have implemented another change.

This time I’ve added something called “share this post”. This is a button added at the bottom of each post so that if you find the post interesting and relevant to you or any of your friends, you can now click the “share this post” button and can import any/all of your friends from multiple IM clients and social neworking sites. This is a very handy tool, instead of having to copy and paste the URL or the whole article itself, open your web mail client, compose a brand new email, paste it and press send. It also helps spread the word about HFL to others who have not seen our site yet.

All in all, I think this is a very nice feature, as it’s now easier for you to tell your friends about our site and our useful articles.

3:27pm: I just played a series of three matches. Unfortunately, I lost the first one when I spiked an ace with AK and my opponent flopped two pair on me and his hand held up to give him the victory. In the next two matches, I just ran crazy-hot. Here are a few hands from both matches:

1. Match One

Dealt to trujm [9d 9h]
trujm: raises 40 to 60
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (40) returned to trujm
trujm collected 40 from pot
trujm: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 40 | Rake 0
Seat 1: H.Prior (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) collected (40)

Two hands later:

Seat 1: H.Prior (1410 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (1590 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 10
H.Prior: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Qd Qs]
trujm: raises 40 to 60
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (40) returned to trujm
trujm collected 40 from pot
trujm: shows [Qd Qs] (a pair of Queens)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 40 | Rake 0
Seat 1: H.Prior (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) collected (40)

Very Next Hand:

Seat 1: H.Prior (1390 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (1610 in chips)
H.Prior: posts small blind 10
trujm: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ad Qd]
H.Prior: calls 10
trujm: raises 40 to 60
H.Prior: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [Kc Tc 7c]
trujm: checks
H.Prior: checks
*** TURN *** [Kc Tc 7c] [6c]
trujm: checks
H.Prior: checks
*** RIVER *** [Kc Tc 7c 6c] [5c]
trujm: checks
H.Prior: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Ad Qd] (a flush, King high)
H.Prior: shows [Jd 9s] (a flush, King high)
trujm collected 60 from pot
H.Prior collected 60 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 120 | Rake 0
Board [Kc Tc 7c 6c 5c]
Seat 1: H.Prior (button) (small blind) showed [Jd 9s] and won (60) with a flush, King high
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [Ad Qd] and won (60) with a flush, King high

3 Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [Th Jc]
trujm: calls 10
H.Prior: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qh Kc 9h]
H.Prior: checks
trujm: bets 20
H.Prior: calls 20
*** TURN *** [Qh Kc 9h] [As]
H.Prior: checks
trujm: bets 40
H.Prior: calls 40
*** RIVER *** [Qh Kc 9h As] [4s]
H.Prior: checks
trujm: bets 100
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (100) returned to trujm
trujm collected 160 from pot
trujm: shows [Th Jc] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 160 | Rake 0
Board [Qh Kc 9h As 4s]
Seat 1: H.Prior (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) collected (160)

Very Next Hand:

Dealt to trujm [Ad Ah]
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (10) returned to trujm
trujm collected 20 from pot
trujm: shows [Ad Ah] (a pair of Aces)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 20 | Rake 0
Seat 1: H.Prior (button) (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) collected (20)

Very Next Hand (yes, again):

Dealt to trujm [Qc Kd]
trujm: raises 40 to 60
H.Prior: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [Jh Tc 9h]
H.Prior: checks
trujm: bets 40
H.Prior: calls 40
*** TURN *** [Jh Tc 9h] [Qs]
H.Prior: checks
trujm: bets 100
H.Prior: raises 120 to 220
trujm: raises 1380 to 1600 and is all-in
H.Prior said, “78 :(”
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (1380) returned to trujm
trujm collected 640 from pot
trujm: shows [Qc Kd] (a straight, Nine to King)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 640 | Rake 0
Board [Jh Tc 9h Qs]
Seat 1: H.Prior (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) collected (640)

4 Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [Qc Qs]
trujm: raises 40 to 60
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (40) returned to trujm
trujm collected 40 from pot
trujm: shows [Qc Qs] (a pair of Queens)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 40 | Rake 0
Seat 1: H.Prior (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) collected (40)

8 Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [6c 9h]
H.Prior: calls 15
trujm: checks
*** FLOP *** [7d 8c Qd]
trujm: checks
H.Prior: bets 60
trujm: calls 60
*** TURN *** [7d 8c Qd] [Th]
trujm: checks
H.Prior: bets 120
trujm: raises 300 to 420
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (300) returned to trujm
trujm collected 420 from pot
trujm: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 420 | Rake 0
Board [7d 8c Qd Th]
Seat 1: H.Prior (button) (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) collected (420)

10 hands later:

Dealt to trujm [Jh Kh]
trujm: raises 60 to 90
H.Prior: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Td 5h 2h]
H.Prior: checks
trujm: checks
*** TURN *** [Td 5h 2h] [Qd]
H.Prior: checks
trujm: bets 60
H.Prior: folds
Uncalled bet (60) returned to trujm
trujm collected 180 from pot
trujm: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 180 | Rake 0
Board [Td 5h 2h Qd]
Seat 1: H.Prior (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) collected (180)

Next Hand:

Dealt to trujm [Ac As]
H.Prior: calls 15
trujm: raises 60 to 90
H.Prior: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [5h 9h Kd]
trujm: bets 150
H.Prior: raises 150 to 300
trujm: raises 1665 to 1965 and is all-in
H.Prior: calls 555 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1110) returned to trujm
*** TURN *** [5h 9h Kd] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [5h 9h Kd 6c] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Ac As] (two pair, Aces and Fives)
H.Prior: shows [3d Kc] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
trujm collected 1890 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1890 | Rake 0
Board [5h 9h Kd 6c 5s]
Seat 1: H.Prior (button) (small blind) showed [3d Kc] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [Ac As] and won (1890) with two pair, Aces and Fives

2. Match Two

Dealt to trujm [9h 9d]
tomiiii4: raises 40 to 60
trujm: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [7h 9s 8h]
trujm: checks
tomiiii4: bets 80
trujm: raises 200 to 280
tomiiii4: folds
Uncalled bet (200) returned to trujm
trujm collected 280 from pot
trujm: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 280 | Rake 0
Board [7h 9s 8h]
Seat 1: tomiiii4 (button) (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) collected (280)

Two Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [As Kd]
trujm: raises 40 to 60
tomiiii4: folds
Uncalled bet (40) returned to trujm
trujm collected 40 from pot
trujm: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 40 | Rake 0
Seat 1: tomiiii4 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) collected (40)

15 Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [3d 3c]
tomiiii4: raises 60 to 90
trujm: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Tc 3h Ts]
trujm: checks
tomiiii4: bets 120
trujm: calls 120
*** TURN *** [Tc 3h Ts] [Qc]
trujm: checks
tomiiii4: checks
*** RIVER *** [Tc 3h Ts Qc] [Ac]
trujm: bets 330
tomiiii4: folds
Uncalled bet (330) returned to trujm
trujm collected 420 from pot
trujm: shows [3d 3c] (a full house, Threes full of Tens)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 420 | Rake 0
Board [Tc 3h Ts Qc Ac]
Seat 1: tomiiii4 (button) (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) collected (420)

4 Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [Kc Kd]
tomiiii4: folds
Uncalled bet (15) returned to trujm
trujm collected 30 from pot
trujm: shows [Kc Kd] (a pair of Kings)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 30 | Rake 0
Seat 1: tomiiii4 (button) (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) collected (30)

6 Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [Jh Jc]
tomiiii4: folds
Uncalled bet (15) returned to trujm
trujm collected 30 from pot
trujm: shows [Jh Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 30 | Rake 0
Seat 1: tomiiii4 (button) (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) collected (30)

5 Hands Later:

Dealt to trujm [Kc Qh]
tomiiii4: raises 60 to 90
trujm: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [3h 7d Ks]
trujm: checks
tomiiii4: bets 120
trujm: raises 1441 to 1561 and is all-in
tomiiii4: folds
Uncalled bet (1441) returned to trujm
trujm collected 420 from pot
trujm: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 420 | Rake 0
Board [3h 7d Ks]
Seat 1: tomiiii4 (button) (small blind) folded

=================

After dropping the first match (0-1), I won the next two matches off of just cards alone. As stated before, I was ridiculously hot, as the hands above should show. That brings me to 2-1 on the day, 2-0 yesterday for a total of 4-1 over the last 12 hours — and FINALLY hitting $19,000 profit in the meantime! I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon, guys.

Keep HFL Free

1:43am: Although not often enough, sometimes you come across a hand and a board so beautiful that you know you’re going to get paid off no matter what. The way this hand played out also illustrates the deceptiveness of not raising with aces in heads up sit n gos.

Here is a picture of the board (before any betting on the river card took place) in a hand that I played 20 minutes ago, as well as the corresponding hand history — followed by the hand history of the last significant hand. The reason the previous hand is important is because I wanted my opponent to think (on this hand) that I was upset about having to fold in the previous hand, so I basically mimicked his actions from the previous hand. I felt like he wouldn’t take me seriously because (a) I didn’t raise pre flop, therefore the likelihood of me having an ace was less and (b) since I basically mirrored his actions on the previous hand, I felt like he wouldn’t take me seriously.

Previous Hand:

Seat 1: smokinmoon (1410 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (1590 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
smokinmoon: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [5s Ts]
trujm: calls 15
smokinmoon: checks
*** FLOP *** [Tc 9c 4c]
smokinmoon: checks
trujm: checks
*** TURN *** [Tc 9c 4c] [4s]
smokinmoon: checks
trujm: bets 60
smokinmoon: raises 60 to 120
trujm: folds
Uncalled bet (60) returned to smokinmoon
smokinmoon collected 180 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 180 | Rake 0
Board [Tc 9c 4c 4s]
Seat 1: smokinmoon (big blind) collected (180)
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) folded on the Turn

Current Hand:

Seat 1: smokinmoon (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (1500 in chips)
smokinmoon: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [As 5d]
smokinmoon: calls 15
trujm: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 9d Ac]
trujm: checks
smokinmoon: checks
*** TURN *** [Ah 9d Ac] [Jd]
trujm: checks
smokinmoon: bets 30
trujm: raises 60 to 90
smokinmoon: calls 60
*** RIVER *** [Ah 9d Ac Jd] [Ad]
trujm: bets 1380 and is all-in
smokinmoon: calls 1380 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [As 5d] (four of a kind, Aces)
smokinmoon: shows [9h Jc] (a full house, Aces full of Jacks)
trujm collected 3000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3000 | Rake 0
Board [Ah 9d Ac Jd Ad]
Seat 1: smokinmoon (button) (small blind) showed [9h Jc] and lost with a full house, Aces full of Jacks
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [As 5d] and won (3000) with four of a kind, Aces

This “over betting with the goods” tactic works very well, in my experience. I knew he either (a) had a jack, (b) slowplayed KK or QQ, or (c) hit a flush on the river. If it’s scenario (a), then he might think that I also had a jack and that I didn’t want to chop the pot, so I would put him to a decision in an attempt to win the whole thing. If it’s scenario (b), then he would know the only thing that beats him realistically is quads, and he would have no choice to pay it off. In this scenario, it would also be hard to put me on an ace since I didn’t raise pre flop. If it’s scenario (c), then I believe I’m actually better off over betting the pot than putting in a small value bet, as people are more likely to perceive over bets as extreme strength or extreme weakness, which would give me a crying chance at him not buying what I’m selling. All things considered, I felt the play here was to go all in, as the “implied odds”, so to speak, of me getting paid off on this hand was relatively high.

Thankfully, I was right as the most likely scenario (a) turned out to be the case and I was able to get paid off.

12:25pm: One of the most common questions I get asked on a daily basis is:

How do you know when to call in tough situations?

The thing is, in some cases I don’t - that is, until I take a second and think about the situation. By and large, one of the biggest mistakes I see people make in poker is to act on impulse, without much logical thought. I’m not saying you have to play Sherlock Holmes and recall every single detail of the hand. However, it is sometimes very beneficial to get into the habit of pausing 10 seconds before every tougher-than-normal situation you make.

What this does is forces you to think about whether your gut instinct has any kind of logical substance to it at all. For example, the other night while at Harrah’s New Orleans for a 2-5 NL session, I almost folded the winning hand. I had AsJc in the cutoff and there was an ace exposed pre flop, which happened to make the hand a lot more complicated than it normally would be. I raised to $30 (standard raise at Harrah’s New Orleans), hoping to take it down right there but was called the guy on the button.

The flop was: Ad Kh 3d

At this point, I usually make a decision whether I think the hand is good, and if I believe it is, then I’m going to play the whole hand under the assumption that I’m ahead. I decide the hand is good (due to the exposed preflop ace) and the fact that I was relatively sure the guy wouldn’t call a preflop raise with A3 or K3. Taking all that into consideration, I fire out $50 on the flop and the guy on the button doesn’t think very long before calling. At this point, I was torn 50/50 between whether he had a king or a flush draw. Either way, I was pretty sure he was weak because quick calls usually indicate weakness, as people who do this usually want you to stop betting.

The turn: 8s

At this point, I’m thinking that the guy is thinking that I probably don’t have an ace because of the one that was exposed preflop, so I felt like if I bet he would call me with an inferior hand. In addition to this, if he happens to have a draw, I don’t want to let him draw for free. Having said that, I would also like to leave myself room to get away from the hand if the guy completes his draw, so I fire out $75 on the turn and was indeed called by the gentleman. At this point, I’m a little bit more convinced that it’s a flush draw than a king because I had been playing with this man for over 4 hours, and he didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would stick around this long by just calling with middle pair.

The river: Kc

This was the worst card in the deck for me because I knew that if I checked it to him, no matter what he was going to bet. If he had a flush draw, then he would probably attempt to represent the king and if he had a king, he was going to value bet his hand. If I bet, I’m probably facing a large raise and I felt like it would be more beneficial to me to check it to him because on the off chance that he did miss the draw, I could extract more value out of the hand should he decide to bet and falsely represent the king.

I did just that and checked it to the man, and as I expected he starts playing with his chips. He was taking a really long time messing with different configurations of how he was going to stack his chips and place them in the middle. At one point he had $275 stacked, ready to place in the middle but the man thinks about it for 2-3 minutes and then decides to bet $150.

My spur-of-the-moment gut instinct was to fold this hand. However, I decided to just take a second and breathe and think the hand through some more. At this point, I thought back to what kind of night the man was having. Two hours earlier, he had been called down by ace high on an attempted steal and told the man who called him, “You’re a fucking retard. Why’d you call me?” 20 minutes later that same man won an even bigger pot when he called him (all in) with bottom two when he held top two, only to suck out on him when the bottom card hit the river. At this point, I decide that a bluff at this point might indeed be possible as the guy was having a pretty bad night and probably perceives me a solid player who would make a good fold here, figuring that he had the king.

After much thought, I decided that the man had missed his flush draw and was trying to manufacture some momentum by representing that he had the king, so I called. The man dropped his head when I put the chips in the middle, and then mucked his hand.

So you see, sometimes it pays to take a second (or ten) and breathe. Had I acted on impulse, I would have folded the hand.

10:16pm: I’ve got a decision to make. Regardless of which avenue I take, we’re signing an apartment lease by next Monday. Our original plan was to accept our previous complex’s offer to stay at a bigger apartment in a different building (the J building caught fire, and we would be moving to the W building). However, the rent would increase $130 per month from what we were paying before the fire, which is slightly more than we’d like to be paying to live there. That being said, even despite this it was still a steal considering the market value of all the other properties in the area. We took a look at the apartment today, and were SLIGHTLY disappointed with it because we didn’t see where we were getting our $130 worth even though they claimed the new apartment had more “living space” than the one that burned down a month ago.

Fortunately, we acquired a back up plan on Saturday night during my live 2-5 session at Harrah’s New Orleans. One of my good poker buddies said that he had a spare house that he was about to put up for rent, and was just waiting for the right people to make him an offer. Not even thinking we’d like it, we passed by today and were very pleasantly surprised with the property. We now have a very tough decision to make. Making it even tougher was the fact that for just slightly more per month than my original plan to move into my 2 bedroom apartment, we would be able to move into his 3 bedroom house with utilities INCLUDED.

Some people would say this is a complete and utter steal. However, I’m not one to rush into big decisions without having weighed all the facts beforehand. Being as such, I have decided to make a side by side comparison list of the benefits and costs of each avenue, and will then make a decision from there.

What’s a good poker player without his logic anyways?

2:12am: We’ve had a number of new visitors and sign ups this weekend, and I just want to take the time to extend my welcome to everyone that has just discovered HFL. I appreciate every single visitor, and look forward to getting to know most of you, if not all of you. Feel free to introduce yourself in the forums, and I hope the blog is as useful for you viewing it as it is fun for me running it.

Have fun, and if you have any questions or comments don’t hesitate to contact me.

-trujm

In other news, the fourth video tutorial will be released this week and will feature end-game strategy (25/50 blinds and up). A lot of people had requested tutorials that showed how to play this point of the match, as the previous three had mostly featured matches that lasted less than 20 minutes. I will keep everyone posted when it’s complete and uploaded.

Keep HFL Free

This is courtesy of PokerNews.com:

Full Tilt Poker has announced a brand new challenge for players with both the skills to play heads-up poker and the bankroll to prove that they’re the best. Full Tilt’s $25K Heads-Up World Championship will be contested on Saturday, May 24th and Sunday, May 25th, 2008, and is the highest buy-in ever for an online heads-up event.

Taking place one week after the currently-running FTOPS VIII series concludes, the event will be hosted by 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Champion and Team Full Tilt member Chris Ferguson. Other Full Tilt stars who have already announced their intentions to participate are Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer and Jennifer Harman. Key hands and match-ups will be recorded and post-event commentary will be provided by Phil Gordon and Ali Nejad. The toruney kicks off at 15:00 ET on May 24th.

For those who would love the chance to participate but can’t quite manage the $25,000 buy-in, Full Tilt will also host a couple of online qualifiers on the days preceding the championship. Exclusive play-inevents with a $500+35 entry fee will be held on Thursday, May 22nd and Friday May 23rd. The starting time on both of those dates is also 15:00 ET.

The championship will have a maximum of 64 players, and for both the championship itself and for the qualifiers, Full Tilt will use a “no byes”, perfect-field structure that encourages players to reserve their seats in advance. Late-registering players run the risk of having their buy-ins refunded if the next level of the field (16, 32, 64, etc.) remains unfilled.

Keep HFL Free

11:50am: It was my first live session in nearly two months, but I returned back to Harrah’s New Orleans yesterday and was able to pull out a decent winning session playing 2-5 NLHE. 30 minutes into the session I walked into trouble as I re raised to $65 from $20 with QQ and got two callers. The flop was 8 5 2, and I led out for $100 to see where i was at. I found out real quick, as the fairly tight player to my left raised it up to $400, only to get check re raised all in for $600 by the guy on my right. Although I got away fairly cheap on the hand, I was up against 55 (left) and KK (right). The set held up, as the man to my left took down a fairly sizable pot.

The rest of the night consisted of the following distribution of premium/notable hands:

AA: 0 times
KK: 4 times (1W, 3L)
QQ: 2 times (1W, 1L)
JJ: 1 time (1L)
10 10: 1 times (1L)
99: 4 times (2W, 2L)
AK: 2 times (2W)

KK and 99 were the two most frequently dealt hands pre flop. Amazingly, I flopped a full house with 99 once and filled up on the river on a lady who turned trips the other time. Unfortunately, she was really tight and I didn’t get paid off as much as I normally would have had anyone else in poker room had what she had.

That being said, the majority of the night I sat at -$200 to -$300, before going on a late run the last hour and a half of my 9 hour session. Included in that run was a great call I made with AJ against a guy who was trying to represent trips. I realized about 3 minutes into my thought process when I had to call $200 on the river that he had missed his flush draw and was trying to represent that he had been calling me down with middle pair and tripped up on the river. When I put the money into the pot, he just put his head down and mucked his hand.

All in all, it was a solid return for me as I profited $400. However, that was just a warm up and I expect better days to come. I will split my time this week between heads up matches, the blog, and live poker. This will be my first full week of full time poker since my apartment caught fire.

Good luck to everyone playing today, and happy mothers day!

4:19am: While my record might not show it, I feel like I’ve played some of my best poker over the last 24 hours. I’ve been picking off bluffs, value betting with precision, and spotting weakness like a bloodhound. However, the quality of the cards aren’t aligned with the quality of my play and as a result I’ve finished at a very mediocre 12-9 over the last 21 games. If hands would have held up, the record would be more like 15-6.

For one thing, I keep getting turned. The turn has been a thorn in my side for the last week. Mostly in situations where my opponent has one over (i.e. I have QQ, and they have A10), my opponent keeps hitting the dagger on the turn, leaving me too crippled to make any kind of comeback attempt. Something else that is rather frustrating is whenever I’m all in pre flop, my opponent keeps flopping monster draws. For example:

Me: AcAd
Opponent: KcQc

Flop: 3c10cJd

Sometimes the best thing to do from a psychological standpoint when you’re all in and your opponent flops a draw like this (or any draw for that matter) is to already assume they are going to hit it. Think of the match as over and done with. Finished. I always tell people, “where there are no expectations, there is no disappointment”. Remember: keeping your variance down and staying off tilt is all about mindset and the little manipulative ways you can twist results into “silver linings” to keep your head in the right place.

While some might argue that this is defeatist logic, it doesn’t matter because the action is already complete, and none of this affects how one plays a single hand of poker. It would be a totally different story if we’re betting each stage of the hand. Since that’s not the case because we’re talking about an all-in-pre-flop situation, this is an acceptable point of view because (a) you’re not so devastated when and if the dagger card hits for them and (b) if your hand holds up, you can consider it a bonus for you.

Just some food for thought