The sleeping fox catches no poultry

Back in Durham after an awesome Thanksgiving break at home. Good family time, good parties, good bar nights, and other good extra curriculars. This trip home easily gets an A+.

School work is going to slow down for a short period of time before finals. I'm looking forward to logging more hands. I had a session with Brian last night. I learned alot. 2-4 is beginning to feel like home, which is nice. After we concluded our session, I continued to play. WARNING, brag to follow: I stacked Brystmar. It was cool. Nothing too crazy. I had a LAG image and used a reverse timing tell to disrupt his read.

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

MicoTX (BTN): $437.50
drombanna (SB): $317.20
Triumph44 (BB): $370
Mano Nera (UTG): $452.60
imnob (MP): $354.30
Hero (CO): $400

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, Hero raises to $14, MicoTX raises to $48, 2 folds, Hero raises to $112, MicoTX raises to $437.50 and is All-In, Hero calls $288 and is All-In

Flop: ($806) Q 9 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: ($806) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: ($806) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $806 Pot ($3 Rake)
MicoTX showed Q T (a full house, Nines full of Queens) and LOST (-$400 NET)
Hero showed Q Q (a full house, Queens full of Nines) and WON $803 (+$403 NET)

... Scratch that vid, sir.

A big congratulations to Verneer, who was offered a position at Cardrunners as a Guest Pro. This is a huge accomplishment and is a testament to his abilities as a player and teacher. His instructional videos will be top-notch for low limit players. I'm very fortunate to have been coached by him and also to have him as a friend.

Reads

I was going over some hands and I came across an interesting one where I made a move based off of a read. He was 73/28/1.1 over 125 hands. I had a note where I observed his min raise was weak in 3b pots.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($569)
SB ($430.10)
Hero ($837.60)
UTG ($400)
MP ($80)
CO ($400)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ks, Kh.
1 fold, CO raises to $12, Button calls $12, 1 fold, BB raises to $56, 1 fold, Button calls $40.

Flop: ($122) 2c, 7h, As (3 players)
BB bets $84, Button raises to $168, BB raises to $869.6 (All-In), Button folds.

Final Pot: $243.60

Im happy the play worked well based off of my read. However, I do not think I maximized my value here. Without a draw in sight, I should have called the flop. I can check the turn and allow him to bluff again. Basically, instead of shoving the flop I should have check called this hand all the way down bc my hand is essentially a bluff catcher and it allows him to keep bluffing. On the flip side, he could be min raising A9-3 to see where hes at, but hes usually calling with those hands anyway. I played this hand awhile ago. If my memory serves me correctly (there's a good chance it isn't), he's not folding very many A's in this spot. I don't really have any conclusive remarks in regards to the feeler raise but I'm just trying to cover all the bases. Sorry if this was scattered. Just my thoughts as they came to me.

On another note, I arrived home last night from school for Thanksgiving Break. Home sweet home. Big plans this week. Lots of fun stuff going on and I am looking forward to it. On a sad note, I have a huge presentation on Monday when I get back. Ill be on my grind with that at some point in time this week. My school work is like a tsunami. It comes in huge waves. You see it coming, but you can't run or hide. It is not a pleasant experience. The month of November has been a continuous tsunami. From an optimistic point of view, its a pretty small price to pay considering the long-term benefits of a college education.

Update

I haven't had a whole lot of time to play this week. Ive played four sessions since my last entry. Combine the latter with 2/3 tabling and you get a small amount of hands. Although I haven't played much, I can feel myself growing as a player. Pawel did an excellent job in teaching me how to play optimal ABC poker with some tricks. Learning this is the key to beating SSNL. You cannot build a huge, fancy house without a strong foundation. Build your foundation at the small stakes, then build the rest of your crib at MSNL. Want a big, fancy house? Make sure you have a good foundation. I can thank Pawel for mine.

At this point in time, Im ready to build off of my strong foundation. To guide me through the process, I felt it would be best to bring in a specialist. Brian Rue (hookem148) and I had our first two sessions on Sunday and Monday. I can also thank Pawel for that one. My game is progressing. Brian has helped me with how image affects one's play and when to switch gears. Image and switching hears are very important factors in MSNL. Players are much better hand readers and game flow is a very important variable to consider. Im very grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with Brian.

Ive pretty much luck sacked my way through my first 1.7k hands at 2-4. Im running at an astronomical 15ptbb/100. I have been practicing very careful table selection. Since Im only playing 2-3 tables, Im pretty crazy about my table selection. Last night I was break even after an hour of play. I was about to leave my tables because I had a meeting about a school project. Before leaving for the meeting I went from TAG to LAG. When I switched to LAG, I got credit for several orbits. When I was about to leave my tables (which would have been about the time I would have switched back to TAG), I caught a couple of big/ semi-big hands and got paid. A perfect example of how image and table flow dictate the correct play. Im certainly not even close to perfect. There are still some adjustments I need to make. FPS caused me to miss some value on a hand I played yesterday. As SirNeb said to me, "Standard TAG lines turn your hand face up. MSNL regulars are much better hand readers." This does not imply FPS should consume your lines. It implies that thinking one level deeper is a necessity to beating MSNL for a solid win rate.

400nl

Played my first session at 2-4 last night. I had a very productive AIM chat with SirNeb on Tuesday night. What he told me will probably save me at least a couple weeks/months of aggravation. He advised me that the regulars are much better hand readers than what I found at 1-2. SirNeb stated that standard TAG lines would turn your hand face up against these guys - I definitely observed this. I still have not completely digested all that we talked about, but Ive been thinking about it non-stop. As I play and review my game, I should get better at adapting to these games. That said, I was a bit rusty tonight but I think I played well. I could have squeezed a little more value out of some hands, but overall it was a good learning experience.

I played about 500 hands between 2 and 4 tabling. I spent the majority of the time 2 tabling and finished up a BI. Played in my first ~1k pot. Well, actually, two pots. I won one http://www.pokerhand.org/?1678159 and lost one (Im including this for the indirect comedy - villain was bad, obviously) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1678167. I was nervous he had AA/KK but I had notes on him. I had him tagged as a slowplayer and that he bluffed with small bets. I also saw him min bet/ min 3 bet with a monster.

Here is a small hand that I learned alot from: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1678180 The previous orbit I had floated him BvB and raised his turn bet, to which he tanked it and folded. The texture of this flop is so draw heavy. Hes only behind JT, 55 or maybe a TP type hand (KJ). TP is kind of sketchy bc I 3 bet AJ PF and flat his flop lead with QJ for pot control. There are so many draws out. When I raise he can deduce that the majority of my range is a draw or air especially since I had raised him BvB last orbit. He tanked it during this hand as well and made the proper play by pricing out most draws, folding out air, and putting me in a tough spot with TP (even tougher depending on my kicker). I should have flatted his flop lead and reevaluated on the turn. If I hit my gin card on the turn, I can hit him with the same line as I did last orbit. Except this time I think theres a good chance that he goes with any hand that has value.

Still Alive

Sorry for the lack of updates. Since last Sunday I have been quite busy. Last week I had my 21st birthday, Halloween, and it was parents' weekend at school. The birthday was fun. My buddies took good care of me. Halloween was an extension to the birthday. We went to Franklin St in Chapel Hill. It was nuts. We decided to go into any bar that didn't have a ridiculous line. The Library eventually fulfilled this requirement. We all had a great time. It was a 180 degree turn from the Duke social scene. An interesting thing occurred in the bar: I was called our for using a pick up line. It was quite hilarious because I did not use a "pick up" line. I told her that it was not a pickup line and that I thought she was the one trying to pick me up. A friend of mine told me that he had been called out for using pick up lines in the past, and I found it funny that I was called out. It kind of caught me off guard but I remained composed because I really wasn't using one. On to the weekend.. My parents, aunt, sister (19) and brother (16) visited for the weekend. A great time was had by all. Saturday night my parents allowed my brother to come out with my sister and I. This was pretty cool because it was the first time my brother and I have been out together. He is now a sophomore in high school and I am beginning to treat him more like a friend and less like the little brother who I used to just beat up all the time. Its a pretty cool transition. I'm proud of him bc he held his own quite well in social situations consisting of people alot older and more experienced than him. All in all, the past week has been a much needed breath of fresh air from my daily routine. All good times must come to an end, though. Back to business.

School work is going to pick up in the coming weeks. I have planned out the rest of the month of November. Its going to take alot of discipline on my part to successfully complete my academic and poker related goals.