Who? Mike Jones

No need for an introduction. Ill pick up where I left off. The South Padre trip was interesting to say the least. Im pretty sure that Cam (my roommate) and I drank enough to kill a small army over the course of the week. During the day, everyone crowded a particular beach for all day drinking and chaos that typically comes with the territory. After that, we would nap. Upon waking, more drinking ensued. Once we lost touch with reality, we ventured to whatever random night club was going on that night. A couple days into our trip, we met up with a friend (Alex) of ours from school. He lives in Texas so South Padre was in his backyard. He was with a friend from home. Our first night together. His friend parted ways with us to meet up with some of his friends who were also down. Alex ended up crashing at our place. When we went back to his hotel around noon, his friend was not there. And there were no signs thay he had ever been there. His cellphone was off. He was pretty wasted the night before. We called the local hospital. No records of him. We called the jail. Got 'em. He spent the night and morning in the jail. Needless to say, he said it was pretty miserable. Also needless to say, I found it pretty funny. I didnt manage to take too many pictures bc Im not a camera kind of guy. "Hold on! Let's pose for a pic you silly goose!" Nope, not me. I manage to snap off a few, though.


After flying back to Jersey early Saturday morning, we were pretty beat. However, we still had a little bit of fuel left in the tank for Saturday night. Actually, Im pretty sure we were running on fumes. My sisters best friend from college is pretty loaded. Anyways, her parents rented out a stretch Hummer for an event they were attending. Once they were finished with it, we took it up to their college - Villanova - for a night at the bars. The stretch fit all 7 of us pretty comfortably. It also wasnt terrible that my sister's friend brought two bottles of Goose along for the ride. Fun night.


In somewhat related news, shout-out to my sister who made the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleading squad. Over 400 girls tried out and 38 were selected after four rounds of eliminations. Congrats to the sis.

Outside of that, Ive been spending way too much time in the library. I've had the pleasure of watching the sun rise from the library windows more times than I'd like to remember. We actually had our last day of classes on Wednesday, so that was nice. We're in the midst of finals week now but I finished up with three of my finals today. Brutal, but Im relieved. At least until Wednesday, which is when I shall make my glorious return to the library for the majority of my waking hours until Friday evening.

Ahh the library, such a depressing topic. I'll move on to another depressing topic. My poker results. Ive been practically break even on the year over 100k hands. Im actually pretty pleased with break even status considering how things have gone/been going. However, I still have lots to learn and much to improve on. In any event, Ill move on because bitching is for the birds.

On Thursday, after our last day of class, a good buddy of mine and I ventured over to East Carolina Univ. He had visited friends there before and I heard nothing but rave reviews. It was pretty unbelievable. Now I see why people say college is the best four years of your life. Dont get me wrong, I find my fun here at Duke. But the good majority of Dukies are not here to party, they're here to study.

I want to start using this blog for hand analysis because it will improve my game. Here are some hands from tonights session. It was the first time I was able to play in over a week because of school work and my trip to ECU.


$2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

BTN: $665.15
SB: $236
BB: $400
Hero (UTG): $562
CO: $646.10

Pre-Flop: A J dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $12, CO folds, BTN calls $12, 2 folds
Im new to the table. Im assuming the the BTN is a weak player because I saw him open limp on the button.

Flop: ($30) 4 J 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $20, BTN calls $20
Could make it $24 here.

Turn: ($70) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets $44, BTN raises to $128, Hero calls $84
When raised, I feel his range is polarized. He either has a made flush or is bluffing. My main decision is how to react to the raise. I have two options: shove or call and c/r the river. If I shove, he calls with his made flushes and folds his bluffs. I opt to call because I figure that he would bet any made flush on the river and sometimes his bluffs. Im also assuming that a bad player does not have the ability to fold a made flush on the river to a c/r. However, I think its pretty trivial either way because I dont think he bluffs here too much without a read on me.

River: ($326) A (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $112, Hero raises to $402 and is All-In, BTN calls $290

Results: $1,130 Pot ($2 Rake)
BTN mucked 6 8 and LOST (-$562 NET)
Hero showed A J (a flush, Ace high) and WON $1,128 (+$566 NET)

$2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

CO: $412
BTN: $340
SB: $475.10
Hero (BB): $439.90
UTG: $433.80

Pre-Flop: 9 9 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG calls $4, 2 folds, SB calls $2, Hero raises to $20, UTG calls $16, SB folds
Solid image. Havent had any real confrontations with UTG. Hes running 22/12 over a short sample. When he calls, Im assuming the majority of his range consists of suited connectors and small pairs.

Flop: ($44) A 7 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $32, UTG calls $32
I find it common for semi-competant opponents to call any cbet with pocket pairs after they limp and call a raise. After Im called, I believe that he is on the heart draw or is floating with a pair.

Turn: ($108) 4 (2 Players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $64, Hero calls $64
My plan is to check/call the turn. He could be semibluffing a heart draw or simply betting the turn as part of his plan to float.

River: ($236) 4 (2 Players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $160, Hero calls $160
Wtf? Thats my initial thought. By betting the turn and river as strong as he did, hes repping a pretty huge hand. I retrace the actions through the hand. Any set raises the flop. He could have floated the flop with 44 and turned his set, that makes sense but the probability of that is significantly discounted after the 4 pairs on the river. If he limp called an AJ or AT type of hand, I would assume that he'd check the turn back for pot control. This is another case of a spot where I thought his range was very polarized. I thought he could have played AA and possibly a slowplayed set like this. All draws missed and I called because I felt he had more bluffs in his range than monsters.

Results: $556 Pot ($2 Rake)
Hero mucked 9 9 and LOST (-$276 NET)
UTG showed A 5 (two pair, Aces and Fours) and WON $554 (+$278 NET)
--Pwned. Lesson learned: dont give unknown players credit for being semi-competent.


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

Hero (CO): $498.15
BTN: $410.80
SB: $382
BB: $466.50
UTG: $388
MP: $1,117.05

Pre-Flop: 9 9 dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, Hero raises to $12, BTN folds, SB raises to $36, BB folds, Hero calls $24
My rust certainly showed in this hand. I learned from it, though. Ive been playing with SB for most of my session across a couple tables. Hes tight and is running at 18/14 over a decent sample. Hes 3 bet me a few times but hasnt been out of line. I play alot of hands from the steal positions. I have set odds, a good made hand, and position - call.

Flop: ($76) 7 3 5 (2 Players)
SB bets $50, Hero calls $50
Way ahead/ way behind - call.

Turn: ($176) 2 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $102, SB raises to $296 and is All-In, Hero calls $194
My thought process was way too risk averse in this spot. I opted to bet because I didnt want to give AK-Q a free card. He tanked before he c/r, but once I bet the turn, I wasnt folding bc i sized my bet so he might think he had fold equity for an AK-Q c/r semibluff. If I wanted to bet here, I should do it with a big hand or air so I can confidently call or fold. This is a spot where a check is the optimal choice. Checking the turn will allow me to play optimally on the river because out of position aggressors will normally either value bet or check down in this spot. If he bets the river, I can safely fold. If he checks, I can check behind because a bet rarely gets called by worse against this tight player.

River: ($768) A (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $768 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero mucked 9 9 and LOST (-$382 NET)
SB showed K K (a pair of Kings) and WON $765 (+$383 NET)
- Boo this man. Hopefully the rust has worn off.