January 03, 2013

Big Upswing, Tons of HHs, and Remember to Check out the Vid

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, been a long time in coming for a blog post for me. I had about a week and a half of hand histories that I needed to post, and then I had two very frustrating days of poker where I played 23k hands and nothing really went my way before Christmas. I then decided to make those two days of hand histories into a video that was released earlier this week so please check those out because I learned a lot from my own video and hopefully it can help you too. I used a lot of those ideas and some run good to go on a great heater the last 5 days, I think I am up about 45 bi. When I am on a good heater, I tend to play a ton and not do much work away from the tables so at the end I included a few interesting hands and some thoughts on what I need to work on in the future, as always these are my biggest losing hands:

http://weaktight.com/5302070

Not thrilled with my play here, I think its pretty marginal at best and I definitely need to fold here

http://weaktight.com/5302072

JJ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5302073

QQ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5302076

Ughhhh AA < AK

http://weaktight.com/5302074

I think checking back the turn here might be the superior play, especially considering this guy is much looser than most regs. With that said, I was having a hard time finding a range that beat me here, I thought any Ax with spade draw would raise flop and his most obvious Ax that would call me is AQ and I have a lot of card removal. My buddies pretty much said that despite the small amount of combos, he so rarely is not best here that I should fold

http://weaktight.com/5302077

same guy, same weird spot, probably similar analysis that he is never really bluffing here and I am not at the top of my range so I should have folded

http://weaktight.com/5302078

God maybe this is a fold too

http://weaktight.com/5302080

Another tough spot, another fold spot

http://weaktight.com/5302081

Poor board runout

http://weaktight.com/5302082

Unlucky, finally made a good fold though

http://weaktight.com/5307282

AQ < JJ, really sick spot because he 3bets something insane like 38% in this spot

http://weaktight.com/5307283

I didn't think he had many bluffs in his range, but I think this is just such a strong hand here in 3bet pot, especially considering he is calling with hands like 85ss and he is a very aggro player.

http://weaktight.com/5307284

Ughhh this is a puke spot on the turn

http://weaktight.com/5307287

Lol, no idea how he has 99 here, and no idea how I am beat here unless he calls me two streets with AT, but this one stunk

http://weaktight.com/5307288

I like this bluff spot, and I really like this bluff size, just unfortunate he panic called me with 1 second left.

http://weaktight.com/5308868

Love my play here, if I saw his hand face up on the river I would have done the exact same thing, and he called me rather quickly so I am totally fine with using that info and exploiting him later on

http://weaktight.com/5308872

QQ < AA

http://weaktight.com/5308874

AQ < AK, I thought I set this up absolutely perfectly, and he is the type that could even call here with AJ/KQ and all of the small pp

http://weaktight.com/5308877

KK < AK

http://weaktight.com/5308879

77 < AK 3 handed

http://weaktight.com/5308880

Man terrible call on the river, he is bluffy but he is not the type to just totally lose his mind, and I think this rivered backdoor diamond draw gave me a way out of this hand and I did not take it

http://weaktight.com/5308888

Gross, btw I think my blocker bet here is quite poor, I think most people are going to be happy about checking down two pair type hands on the river which are the only hands I can beat

http://weaktight.com/5308891

I like this overbet a lot, but this is a really poor card to do it with because I think this completes two pair for him a lot in this spot

http://weaktight.com/5308894

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5308898

Happy I slowplayed KK

http://weaktight.com/5308905

Honestly I don't even think this is an auto raise here on the river, but because he called in the sb, there are just so few combos that he can have here I think it is a raise and when he shoves I just about snap folded because I don't think he is good enough to use card removal to bluff shove a hand like AJ with ace of spades

http://weaktight.com/5314163

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5314165

Man, this guy just seems to hit so many hands against me, but at the same time, I am just adjusting really poorly. I think this was a big time mistake by me here, I think his betsizing is probably really strong and I just don't have enough equity to make this move.

http://weaktight.com/5314167

ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/5314170

yuck

http://weaktight.com/5314174

I actually think that this should be a fold, he makes such a big raise that he is clearly pot committed and because he is not a total maniac that has a small chance of getting in worse or folding here. With that said, I really thought the only flush draw he could have is Aqss but somehow he had A5ss to calling a 3bet OOP

http://weaktight.com/5314175

AK < QQ

http://weaktight.com/5314176

AK < 99

http://weaktight.com/5314177

So I knew when I called the turn he probably had an overpair or TPTK. On the river it is really tough to take poor players off of big hands, but I really thought that this board is ideal to take him off a hand, but I guess this was wrong, certainly not a bluff I would regularly try to do so I won't sweat it too much

http://weaktight.com/5314179

I thought this guy was much fishier based on 20 hands than he actually was, and thus I would not float here normally against a better player who ended up being a regular

http://weaktight.com/5314182

It took me awhile to catch onto this guy because he checkraises turns and rivers more than absolutely anyone I have ever seen, but now I have a good feel for his ranges and can exploit them, fwiw if I was faced with this spot now I probably would have called too

http://weaktight.com/5314184

Ughhh how is the 3 not a total blank?

http://weaktight.com/5314187

At the time I really liked this bluff, but like I talked to my friends about, even as believable as my line was, I think trying to get players in this era of poker to fold top pair good kicker is a very tough thing

http://weaktight.com/5314190

I think my bet sizing on the river is a little too big here, because what happens is his calling range becomes really narrowed and then I can't beat a ton of his narrowed calling range

http://weaktight.com/5314192

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5314193

I think I lose my stack regardless here, but his 3bet calling range is quite wide so I wanted to give him the opportunity to bluff off his stack here

http://weaktight.com/5314202

Yuck

http://weaktight.com/5314203

I definitely think the river is a call against this player

http://weaktight.com/5314205

Wow, never expected this hand to show up

http://weaktight.com/5314211

This might be the grossest fold ever, it is definitely close and I have a close poker buddy that would 100% fold here, if he made it like 50 I would have folded but I think this is probably a close math call

http://weaktight.com/5314215

Same sort of line here, except I think this river is far more of a fold than the above hand

http://weaktight.com/5314217

one worse

http://weaktight.com/5314222

This was a really tough spot, this was a weaker player that doesn't mind getting in his stack super light. He has a 3bet % of 10% on the button, so I really thought that his overall range was pretty weak here like 99-TT and lower pp, and then a number of AJ/KQ/KJ/maybe even a few suited connectors in this spot. I think overall against that range, even if I tighten it up to 99-QQ, AQ/AJ/KQ/KJ then I think it is a call

http://weaktight.com/5314223

Ughhh, not my favorite play here, I definitely am ok with the call on the flop, but I think I should just get the money in on the turn instead of giving them such an amazing price to draw.

http://weaktight.com/5314224

Failed double barrel, his range seems quite weak here but AT high is certainly not strong enough to make a big calldown

http://weaktight.com/5314226

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5340927

Ughhh, just a frustration and tired play, he is a regular so there is really no reason to shove here because I am only getting called by better and maybe small chance he calls me with AJ or AQ flush draw. This is a taking the easy way out play against a guy who at the time I knew had a tight range and I really should have just folded turn to this bet size.

http://weaktight.com/5340929

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5340931

This is a fucking fold god damnit, that is terrible.

http://weaktight.com/5340932

This is a fold too, just a tough spot considering I don't think I was dealt aces in a few hours but that is no excuse

http://weaktight.com/5340933

KK vs AA

http://weaktight.com/5340957

AK vs AK

http://weaktight.com/5340958

I'm fine taking a stab at this one on the flop, but on the turn and river I make a big mistake because there are just so few combos that I can bluff him off of. I think on the river I am hoping he had QJ, JT and that he would fold AT which are just so few combos.

http://weaktight.com/5340959

At first I was concerned this was a mistake, but I just think the way the hand played out I definitely have to make a small value bet like this is best, and then when he shoves he can certainly have the other chop combos and he was a poor player so there was a small chance he doesn't even have qx. Against a better opponent I can definitely think about bet folding but not against this guy

http://weaktight.com/5340960

Same idea as the other king high boards, there are some 3bet boards that one and done is a much better strategy.

http://weaktight.com/5340962

AK < KK

http://weaktight.com/5340965

gross against a fish

http://weaktight.com/5340966

Ughhh

http://weaktight.com/5340968

Tough spot against a weak player, on the flop I am betting for pure value. I think on the turn against a guy who can definitely call me with a ton of dominated hands like AJ or KQ, I should just be checking to him here and allow him to bluff off because I am perfectly fine with calling for value here, and if he has a hand like 7x, he is not folding that anyway so I might as well take advantage of his bluffing range

http://weaktight.com/5340969

? I went over this hand in my video

http://weaktight.com/5340970

Basic pot control line with a bad ace, this is a really easy fold on the river that I failed to make here

http://weaktight.com/5340971

I don't think I evaluated his range very well in this hand. I think if he has an overpair he is going to bet turn most of the time, so it makes a lot of sense that he has a pair and a draw or if he has an overpair he will have a draw with that.

http://weaktight.com/5340972

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5340973

Definitely one of the problems with calling OOP with a hand like this, but this guy is more capable than just about anyone of bluffing in this spot so I don't really mind the call and the bb was a fish who I was happy to play a pot with

http://weaktight.com/5340975

Unlucky board runout but happy with my plan

http://weaktight.com/5340976

I am really not sure about this spot on the river. Till then I am completely fine with my strategy. At the time I called pretty fast so I am going to trust my instincts. He certainly is capable of bluffing a lot in this spot, this issue is how much does my hand look like it is getting to showdown. He bet TT so he obviously doesn't think I can have a big pp which in reality I would have a lot of here. So if he doesn't perceive that in my range then I think this is a good c-c.

http://weaktight.com/5340979

So shocked he had this hand and that I was beat here

http://weaktight.com/5340980

Big fish, fine with my line just unlucky I think.

http://weaktight.com/5340981

Either fold or shove preflop, or just call preflop, but this is just a terrible plan and it backfired on me, I think I made a fine fold on river but that is just throwing away money with this plan

http://weaktight.com/5340982

Pretty unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5340983

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5340985

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5340986

AJ < KK, not a bad spot against this particular opponent who 4bet bluffs constantly and I need to throw this into my 3bet/5bet range

http://weaktight.com/5340988

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5340989

So tough when a guy 3bets 2%, QQ does not play well against that range, and certainly its tough but I need to fold.

http://weaktight.com/5340990

Value owned myself but as you guys know, that is a totally fine mistake in my book to be making

http://weaktight.com/5340991

Like my play a lot on all streets here

http://weaktight.com/5340992

Pretty standard triple barrel here, I think with this plan I don't need to bet quite this big on the river though, his folding range can make a fold for slightly smaller here

http://weaktight.com/5340994

Poor board runout

http://weaktight.com/5340994

Honestly I don't remember this hand, and even if this line looks fishy, I shouldnt be trying to race or gamble with weak opponents, I think I should have 66+ and AJ+ to make this call, I think KQ is just a bit too loose

http://weaktight.com/5340996

Same idea here, really weak loose opponent, but there are better spots

http://weaktight.com/5340998

Lol, a little FPSy, but I do this rarely and the few times and as long as its not a regular thing I am fine with it

http://weaktight.com/5340999

I am definitely making a few too many calls with these sort of hands and I need to stop it unless I have some very strong reads on my opponents

http://weaktight.com/5341000

Why can't I just miss the flop?

http://weaktight.com/5341001

Pretty unlucky spot here I think on all accounts, fine with my play

http://weaktight.com/5341003

Unlucky

*** Some things to work on***

make sure you are awake and playing your best if you still play past 2am!

Need to think about when I miss AK in 3bet pots when they have 40-80bbs to start the hand

how to play AK in 3bet pots against regs when you have Kxx dry

do not counter super aggro players with more aggression

make less crazy bluffs against fishy players

turn checkraises on paired boards are NOT bluffs

TIGHTEN UP 3bet calling ranges when you have loose image

http://weaktight.com/5370173

This player was definitely a losing player and over a small sample was capable of some strange plays, with that said I think this board just fits far too many weird hands that I expect him to call 3bets with and there were just so few hands that missed here, I think I can only beat TT and JJ realistically so I think this should have been a super hard fold

http://weaktight.com/5370174

Like I said in my notes to work on, the last few days I have really struggled with what to do with AK with short stack depths. I think against a loose player such as this, while he certainly can float here, I think more realistically he caught a piece and knows I am bluffy enough to bluff off here, so even though he tanked, he eventually called with 99 and he probably would have done it with 7x as well if he somehow got here with it, so I think that one and done here is best

http://weaktight.com/5370209

Just had to post this because of how much I hated my play here, I think the bet on the river is good, but the size is just terrible, I need to make this look valuey, especially against a guy that is capable of these type of moves and is far from a nit who will auto fold one pair to a big bet

http://weaktight.com/5370212

I mean cmon Grant! Flush gets there, straight gets there, and he makes a giant bet on turn, really what am I hoping for here, AK or AA does not seem realistic, if he is able to bluff a hand like AJ with ace of spades more power to him but terrible terrible call

http://weaktight.com/5370217

I hate hate hate my play here. Mathematically it was not the worst play in the world, but on ace high boards, these are the worst boards to fast play these pair combo draws because of how much less likely they are to fold Ax, even if he just has Ax, he will call me down two or a lot of times 3 streets. Hate my play

Its a new year, so new diet plan for me lol. So far so good, hopefully a more healthy lifestyle as well as a an even better work ethic will lead to my best year ever.

Salud!

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January 02, 2013

New Year New Video Out

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys I will have a more substantial blog coming soon, but just wanted to give you the heads up that a new video just came out yesterday. It was actually inspired by a blog that I was about to write so please check it out and give me your thoughts. Hope everyone has a great start to the new year!



Salud!

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December 09, 2012

Fight Night!

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, wow what a night of fights that was! Rarely do a big boxing card and UFC share nights, but they were perfectly spaced out and starting at 5pm it was just about 8 hours straight of awesome fights. The UFC prelims had a number of really amazing knockouts including Trujillo, Yves Edwards, and a really sick headkick by Cruckshank. The main card was absolutely stacked and 3 of the fights could have easily headlined pay per views. Matt Brown started off with a totally sick combo knockout, then my boy BJ Penn got absolutely destroyed (and probably forced into retirement), Alexander Gustaffson beat another legend in Shogun Hua and probably made himself the next challenger to Jon Jones once he kills Chael Sonnen, and finally Benson Henderson solidified himself as the best 155lber in the world right now, he is a total beast in every form of MMA.

Finally the main event of the night was even better than anyone could have hoped. I recently watched all three of the previous Marquez-Pacquiao fights and had JMM winning the first and third and a draw in the second. I thought that Marquez would win this fight because his counter punching style is just perfect against Manny, but at the same time I would not be shocked if he lost another questionable judges decision, but would have never expected what happened. Marquez knocked Pacquiao down for the first time in 39 rounds, and two rounds later Pacman knocked down Marquez. This back and forth absurdity continued when Pacquaio broke Marquez's nose in the 6th and was close to knocking him out completely in both 5th and 6th rounds but with two seconds left Marquez caught Pacquiao with a blind right hand as Manny jumped in and knocked him out COLD!!! I have really never been more shocked in a boxing match, I mean how often do you see fighters out cold on the canvas completely unconscious in boxing, it looked like a sick UFC KO. Then on top of that, Manny has never been laid out like that and he was utterly dominating the fight the last two rounds and Marquez looked like he was panicking with a broken nose.

This was definitely the fight of the year in boxing and will be an all time great fight when you consider how highly ranked each guy was in the pound for pound rankings and the high stakes of this fight. Really just an awesome night of fights, if you missed it look for the boxing replay on HBO next saturday night and the ufc prelims and main event will be rerun on FX a good bit in the next week. It was also really cool that in JMM dressing room prior to his fight, they showed a clip of him warming up and he was watching the UFC fights on tv!

Here are just a few hands from Friday where I started out down 6bi in 600 hands, and managed to finish up 2.5bi which was a really big win for me

http://weaktight.com/5294482

Man this one really makes me sick. This player was playing 4 tables and over a 50% vpip and was really playing a pretty crazy style, sometimes he would stop at 1 street of bluffing and others he would continue on. I understood when I bet the turn that I was definitely willing to play a big pot with him, and although AQ is not terribly relatively strong on this board, I just thought that his style was too crazy to find a fold here. I certainly was never folding turn, river is a little dicey especially considering it was the end of the night, but I think I am ok with finding a call.

http://weaktight.com/5294483

99 < AK

http://weaktight.com/5294484

Set over set

http://weaktight.com/5294485

This guy is too aggro to make this a poor play, although I will say that making a raise with this weak of a relative hand is certainly a mistake against some guys in this same spot, I don't mind it here at all because I can certainly be called by worse

http://weaktight.com/5294486

missed draw on turn in 3bet pot

http://weaktight.com/5294487

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5294488

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5294490

Really liked my raise here situationally, but at the same time I don't really like the fact that I made this big play against a relative unknown over only 20 hands and I think I could have been more patience and just folded turn

http://weaktight.com/5294491

As is my style of calling off light early on against questionable type of players, I don't mind my call here at all

http://weaktight.com/5294492

I was totally frozen by the runout of this board, but my raise is definitely profitable and I think his call with TT is almost always going to be a losing play.

http://weaktight.com/5294495

Unlucky board runout

New video out tomorrow! GO RAVENS

Salud!

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December 07, 2012

Ravens Suck and I am Finally on a Heater

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, been a rather boring week for me after that really tough loss to the Steelers on Sunday night. I just really could not believe what I was watching that we took the most conservative gameplan in the world on both offense and defense and let a 37 year old never had a prime Charlie Batch murder our defense after we could not get pressure with our front four all day. At the same time, for some reason Ray Rice did not touch the ball once in the fourth quarter, fuck you Cam Cameron you idiot. Now we have a super scary four games left: we are playing at the redskins without suggs its looking like (going to that game of course), both manning brothers coming to Baltimore, and then at Cinci who will be playing for the 6th playoff spot in that game. I mean I could even see us going 0-4 or 1-3 in that stretch. Just a huge blown opportunity and these dumb games are what keep us from home games in the playoffs that ultimately cost us Super Bowl opportunities. And finally you absolutely blow Joe Flacco. Besides worrying about football, pretty much all I have been doing is grinding my ass off at poker. I started December off with one of my worst poker days all year, but now am on a 40bi upswing the rest of the week. I am definitely going to play at least 100k hands this month despite the Christmas break, so here it goes:

http://weaktight.com/5257281

So the flop play I think is necessary to mix in because he is always repping it and is probably nitty enough to give up with total air. My plan was to rep the flush card, and also to continue on any card that gives me a draw. I think if he bets 2/3 pot on river, this would be a really good spot to shove over him, but I think his betsize here just looks so much like he is trying to induce a bluff that I should just be folding and moving on

http://weaktight.com/5257283

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5257285

Really think this is the only combo that raises here, I thought he would also raise KQ, 98, AQ, and maybe a few other bluffs, so I am totally fine with this play

http://weaktight.com/5257286

Talked for 30 minutes with my buddies about this. Pretty much it is a totally gross spot that I would not beat myself up on either a fold or call on river. Just super strange spot

http://weaktight.com/5257287

Unlucky against a fish

http://weaktight.com/5257288

Failed double barrel in 3bet pot on ideal board, but I think a triple barrel would have been a really bad spot

http://weaktight.com/5257290

unlucky board runout

http://weaktight.com/5257291

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5261043

This guy was a fish, but he also was not 3betting 1) out of the bb 2) against early position raiser. Against that range I was fine with just calling and assuming if I do not raise that he will go nuts against me. I still think this strategy is good, but looking back his small bet on the turn makes a hell of a lot of sense, and maybe I should just be shoving in this spot. Very close whether to raise or call turn

http://weaktight.com/5261045

I got totally and completely owned, really great value bet by this guy

http://weaktight.com/5261046

Lost a flip AK vs QQ

http://weaktight.com/5261047

Man this play is just total garbage on all fronts. The preflop call is pretty bad even against a 3bet happy fish. Now the turn shove is really really bad, primarily for the exact thing that happened that very weak hands can call me and I will be behind, his big betsize on this board pretty much screams that he has something and I just got stubborn and took the easy and wrong way out

http://weaktight.com/5261048

This spot I like the turn shove way more than the above hand. This guy is the classic bet-fold guy, so he can very easily have QQ or Jx and I think he folds all of those, so if you combine that with the large amount of equity I don't mind this shove at all

http://weaktight.com/5261049

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5261050

Guess I ran into a slow played set on the flop

http://weaktight.com/5261052

Pretty unlucky I ran into this exact hand versus his extremely wide range

http://weaktight.com/5261053

ughhh, fold river Grant, hell maybe fold turn

http://weaktight.com/5261054

wow, maybe quads???? maybe rivered tens? I think this is such a suicide bluff especially when I have some 8x in my range that I never think he is bluffing here

http://weaktight.com/5261055

I was shocked he even had a hand this good considering he was tilting and playing 70% of hands

http://weaktight.com/5261056

I love my play here. I think I was exceptionally unlucky here that he played KK in a weird manner. In reality, kk is the exact same hand here as Kq, and I think he would fold kq here all day but unfortunately the mindset of a lot of poker players is that it is much harder folding kk or aa even in some pretty obvious spots. Nice call I guess?

http://weaktight.com/5261057

Nice play by this guy, I guess he thought my checking range on turn was almost entirely air, so he allowed me to catch up or rep catching up, unfortunately he is pretty fishy so he might not have been thinking this at all as evidenced by him just calling

http://weaktight.com/5261058

I don't think I can fold getting these odds against this fish

http://weaktight.com/5261059

AA < AK

http://weaktight.com/5273292

Man this is a pure tilt river call. I think my hand is so face up, and the board texture is so bad for bluffing that even if I am frustrated or whatever, he would have to have a lot of craziness in his game to make this call justifiable and he is not that wild to make this is a profitable call

http://weaktight.com/5273293

I need to find better adjustments against this guy, he is totally owning me and always seems to show up huge here dispite his crazy ranges

http://weaktight.com/5273296

This guy and I have enough history to more than justify this 5bet bluff

http://weaktight.com/5273297

AK vs QQ, im never folding AK in this spot to a guy with such a wide VPIP

http://weaktight.com/5273299

This guy had an 85% VPIP, how am I not good? Lol

http://weaktight.com/5273300

Nice spot to overbet bluff river unless he has a monster

http://weaktight.com/5273301

Don't love my float here, I can find a better spot where at least there is a spade on board, totally fine with my stab on the turn but I also don't love my betsize, I think I should make it smaller so that I have more flexibility

http://weaktight.com/5273302

Failed CR, I think one and done is slightly better here though than my double barrel

http://weaktight.com/5273304

Totally totally wrong guy to overbet bluff here agianst

http://weaktight.com/5273305

I hate my strategy towards this hand here. I am totally fine with my cold 4bet, but I either need to commit to this board of bluffing multiple streets, or giving up, because it is so rare for him to fold to one bet here.

http://weaktight.com/5273305

JJ < AA

http://weaktight.com/5273306

AK < QQ

http://weaktight.com/5273310

TT < JJ

http://weaktight.com/5273311

cooler, especially against a guy that has a number of 2x in his preflop calling range

http://weaktight.com/5273315

He is crazy in all other aspects over 40 hands, but he was not insane 4bet happy, so I was not surprised at all that this was the hand he called with, and I think I am misapplying some preflop theories recently. There are certain guys that I drastically need to widen my get it in range, and others that there are far better spots, this is a good example, he is a 60% raise guy, he will just raise call to my 3bets constantly and then I can own him, I don't need to stack off with AQ here.

http://weaktight.com/5273316

I thought when I called here that not only was he shoving any draw, but also all his 6x that he has a lot of and would actually probably just call his better Qx and shove the bad ones which there can't be a lot of them

http://weaktight.com/5273317

I go back and forth on whether these are good boards to triple barrel the dry A high boards. I think my plan all along was to triple barrel, and I definitely do not think the T is an ideal card. I think a Q or K would be the ideal ones against a loose player who can not have those hands. With that said, I clearly picked the wrong guy here to bluff at all because if his hand was face up I would love my bet and he still called

http://weaktight.com/5273319

SHOVE THE RIVER U DUMMY!!! If I am not willing to shove the river than betting turn is just a suicide mission

http://weaktight.com/5273320

I lost but I love my thought process here. I think this player is not nearly good enough to barrel AT or AJ, and is not a bluffing machine so I thought he would give up a lot here too. So with those reads a c-c is definitely a bad plan, but I think this is a weird line that I can get called by worse Ax and maybe even kj or KQ depending on my image

http://weaktight.com/5273321

I thought I had plenty of showdown equity to check it back here'

http://weaktight.com/5285218

AQ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5285220

KK < AK

http://weaktight.com/5285220

KK < AQ

http://weaktight.com/5285230

Total cooler

http://weaktight.com/5285235

man I think this is a pretty poor call on the turn and then I paid for it, river is whatever but the turn call

is what screwed me here

http://weaktight.com/5285240

Unlucky against a fish

http://weaktight.com/5285244

QQ < AQ

http://weaktight.com/5285246

AK < TT

http://weaktight.com/5285248

Against a super loose and bluffy player, this was a really unlucky board runout

http://weaktight.com/5285249

This is probably a puke fold

http://weaktight.com/5285251

If he is bluffing here its a pretty amazing bluff but don't really think that is possible and I also dont think that he raises AI with QJ, so good fold I am happy with here

http://weaktight.com/5285253

Slowplaying AA pre loses here

http://weaktight.com/5285256

I talked about this hand a lot with my friends. First of all, we definitely came to a consensus that I am overrepping my hand here by betting turn. Secondly, this is just such a suicide bluff from a reg, that despite the fact that he showed up with what seemed like an impossible hand, he just is not bluffing, so I should be folding turn even though it is totally gross and really nothing makes sense in his range

http://weaktight.com/5285257

Definitely do not love my double barrel here

http://weaktight.com/5291313

Set over set in 3bet pot

http://weaktight.com/5291314

Ughhh, I am pretty fine with the flop and turn against a maniac, but the river I think is just too thin and this guy would give me his money eventually, just too much FPS here

http://weaktight.com/5291315

AK < QQ

http://weaktight.com/5291316

I honestly think shoving this boat was a mistake here, I think he can easily have both AT or AA, and he is also one of the better guys I play against and I don't think he calls down here with AK, and I really am not sure he calls me off here with 8T or 9T, maybe KT or JT but he is capable of folding all of those I think.

http://weaktight.com/5291318

KK < AA

http://weaktight.com/5291319

Unlucky against a fish

http://weaktight.com/5291320

One of the sicker just calls I have made in a long time, super happy with my play here

http://weaktight.com/5291321

Definitely not my best play here, I am ok with my float here, and ok with my bet on the turn, but I think even if he had a weaker hand like 9x here, he talks himself into it for a variety of reasons thus making my bluff even worse

http://weaktight.com/5291322

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5291324

I have a pretty good read on this guy, and this was just not the board runout to triple barrel him off his hand, I am fine with my two barrels here though

http://weaktight.com/5291325

ughhh, pretty sure he shoves river if he misses here

http://weaktight.com/5291326

Eh, is almost certainly a fold on the river

http://weaktight.com/5291326

AK < JJ

http://weaktight.com/5291345

I really never want to see this hand again, I mean just the absolute worst play ever, I told myself if he shoves river you have to fold and somehow I click the call button, just absolute garbage by me here

http://weaktight.com/5291346

JJ < KK

http://weaktight.com/5291347

AK < AA

http://weaktight.com/5291348

Gross

http://weaktight.com/5291349

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5291350

AA < KK

http://weaktight.com/5291351

Ughhh

http://weaktight.com/5291353

AQ < KQ

http://weaktight.com/5291355

Unlucky, he is a bad enough player that he could definitely have a naked tx

http://weaktight.com/5291357

Definitely a fold, seems like he went runner runner here with a hand like 77

http://weaktight.com/5291358

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5291364

unlucky

Hope everyone is doing well at the tables, as always I am looking for another student or two, so if you are looking for some help on your game let me know if we can work something out. Also look for Mdoran and my next video coming out on Monday

Salud!

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1203 Views | 2 Comments

November 25, 2012

New Video Coming Out, and I Really Need Your Help

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, first of all I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Such a great holiday to spend a lot of time with my new giant Greek family and watch a ton of football, plus I won a propbet against my father in law so the thirty year season ticket owner of the Pats had to wear a Ray Lewis jersey all day.

I am coming to an exceptionally important time in my life. My wife works in politics and of course is a diehard conservative (does that surprise anyone? Lol). She is exceptionally frustrated with the direction of the country, and for the first time is completely on board with moving out of the country for my poker career despite her lucrative job. In fact, she is more than on board, but is strongly in favor of making the move. I am actually the reason that we are not definitely moving because I have met some great friends here in DC and have really grown to love the area on top of the proximity to my family in Baltimore. My lease runs out in late March so I really need to make a decision soon whether to go against my nature and move in order to pursue poker, or stay the course. I think if Lock poker was more stable than I would give it another year and hope that legislation passes, but cashing out has really become a joke, and now I hear that the rest of the world is taking 6 weeks + to receive their withdrawals, so this is becoming less and less of a viable option.

One of the biggest reasons why I am talking about this now is I am hoping to hear some stories or info that you guys have about moving out of the country for poker, or some suggestions about where to go. I have been scouring 2+2 travel section and have learned a lot. I think my wife and my criteria for a country to move to is:

Safe, first world environment

Warm surroundings, ideally a Caribbean island?

English is widely spoken if not the first language

Not too far away from the United States so that we can travel back to see our families regularly

Any help you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated. This is definitely one of the biggest decision that my wife and I have faced and will be wearing on me for the next few months, thanks a lot guys.

Also, on Monday my second series with Mdoran is coming out. The first series was really well received by you guys and I think this one is even better. Now that I have a good feel for his game, we were able to expand on the topics we talked about in the first series to the next level of depth. I am really proud of this and I hope you can learn a lot from it.

Finally, one of the only things I really don't enjoy about going up to Boston with my wife's family for Thanksgiving is the weather. 40 degree weather is not conducive to smoking cigars so I am enjoying my first cigar in awhile and preparing for today's football games. I picked against my Ravens in a pickem contest so not feeling a ton of confidence, but a win at San Diego would be huge going into a nice homestand.

Salud!

Entry Tags:
5506 Views | 6 Comments

November 19, 2012

RAVENS WIN And a really tough November

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, well I made a mental note to myself that I was not going to post a blog until I had some really positive things to say, and quite honestly it took far longer than I expected to have a major positive note to start the blog out on but it finally happened tonight: Ravens 13 Steelers 10. Man this was a super ugly game. I think if Ben is healthy we get crushed, I think our offense is still freaking awful on the road, I can't stand us going to shotgun on every 3rd and 2 and in particular with 2 minutes left and a lead and no timeouts for the Steelers going shotgun on 3rd and 2 is truly awful, but I learned a long time ago that nothing else matters but a win in the nfl so I am very thankful, but god damn is that a bad 8-2 team.

Ok there is the positive. Beside tonight, wow November has been a really tough. A really really tough month. I guess I have to address the election first. Since I can remember, I have heard from respected people on both sides of the political aisle that this is a center right leaning country. I no longer believe that statement. I also believed most republican analysts who said that polling data was incorrect because they were referring to 2008 numbers, an election that featured the first ever black candidate and someone that was uniquely compelling to voters. What ended up happening was that not only were these numbers correct, but they might have even been underestimating the democratic political machine and turnouts. This was a really shocking thing for me, because I thought conservatives would be more motivated than at any point to vote. Instead I think the hurricane and Christie's essential endorsement of Obama (and death to any future ambitions as a Republican Presidential candidate) played a major factor that turned the 5% undecided vote almost entirely for the Democrat, as well as a lot of evangelicals not turning out to vote. I knew very early on in the night that we were in big trouble when Pennsylvania was instantly called for Obama, and an hour later Wisconsin was immediately called while at the same time North Carolina was too close to call. For the past few months, I was absolutely sure that Romney would carry Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, and the fact that he lost two out of three was beyond shocking to me. I have to think that the tens of millions of dollars that Obama spent to portray Romney as a rich out of touch wishywashy politician ultimately worked. I also think that Romney really missed some opportunities to hammer home the Libya misleadings (this is a nice term that will almost certainly come out as blatant lies to the American people in future months) as well as playing the final two debates very safe as if he had a commanding lead over Obama which was obviously not the case. Finally, I have always looked at the Presidential vote as largely a popularity contest, but I have lost all of my trust in the American people. Exit polls state that over 50% of people either think the economy is improving or not a big problem. That is amazing to me. Additionally, I guess I am still shocked how much of a social issue election this was. I mean this "war against women" nonsense really seemed to be a voting issue, but at what point did Romney make abortion an issue? At what point did he make gay rights an issue? His stance has always been that these are states rights issues that should not be dealt on the national level. Additionally, at what point did Obama claim these issues? Plenty of people brought it up in his defense at the DNC, but this was not his platform. He finally endorsed gay marriage only when the polls definitively showed that gay marriage was popular. But somehow there are people like my sister that do not understand the issues but voted for Obama because he was "pro woman". I would be the first to say that I was never a big Romney guy until I learned more about him the past 6 months. There was no doubt in my mind that he was the man for the time. His entire life he has shown an ability to lead people, to balance budgets, to create a coalition of incredibly bright people to solve problems, and a man of great morals and selfless deeds; and America chose the popular cool candidate with no mandate nor rationale for a second term. Well we now have to live with his decision. We have an economy that has no signs of getting better, we are at an absolutely critical point in middle east policy with no leadership, and heading towards a western Europe style of government and society that has proven constantly in history not to work.

While this was by far the most crucial event, as United States poker players we also met with some terrible news that the DOJ is no where close to repaying players. This was an incredibly sad moment for me because I thought the relaunch of FTP in the rest of the world would likely coincide with major news from the DOJ. This really is another example of failure of government and how the individual is far more effective than government, in this case Pokerstars is far more able to refund players. I guess I should not anticipate getting paid anytime soon and am really worried that I will potentially have ~ 50k stolen from me by my government. Please start hammering home at your Congressman and the DOJ for resolution, action, and answers.

Finally, poker has been really rough for me recently. I am down 4k in ev this month, and really have been incredibly frustrated during and after sessions. I know these are struggles we all deal with as poker players, but the really great players can play similarly to when they are crushing, and not let the beats get to them, and in this case I have really been failing the past month. I need to be more positive when playing, and need to improve my mindset in order to meet the results I desire. In that light, here is a big hand dump:

http://weaktight.com/5212692

I think this is the tiniest +EV spot, but at the same time I think it is not worth it to throw my variance through the roof, I much prefer a call in position and outplay him from there

http://weaktight.com/5212690

This spot I am much more comfortable getting AQ in and I think it is significantly +EV given the situation and my opponent

http://weaktight.com/5212693

QQ < AA

http://weaktight.com/5212695

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5212696

This guy was betting POT when checked to all the time, I am not sure this is the best spot to call off here. I think I should be bet folding against this guy in this spot because I think he can call at least two streets with far worse. At the same time, I don't think this spot can be too terrible considering he had a 50%+ VPIP

http://weaktight.com/5212698

Unlucky but good bet fold spot against super loose nutjob

http://weaktight.com/5212701

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5212702

Man I really hate this bet here. I know I have this personality in poker where I like to win every pot and checking back 7 high hurts my soul, but in this spot, it is just such an incredibly obvious c-c spot from most regs, and from just about every weak reg that I need to not stab here, and if I do make it very small

http://weaktight.com/5212703

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5212706

FPS here, but even worse its FPS against a guy that really only folds air against me, forgot during this session just how much of a nonbeliever he is against me

http://weaktight.com/5212708

Missed huge draw against a guy with a crazy weak range

http://weaktight.com/5212709

Same guy that does not fold to me, now I know

http://weaktight.com/5212710

Lucky he only had 40bbs in this cooler

http://weaktight.com/5212711

Quads no good :(

http://weaktight.com/5212713

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5212714

AA < AK

http://weaktight.com/5212717

KK < QQ

http://weaktight.com/5212718

Unlucky with his exact hand, but this guy is a loose player and he could definitely float flop with Ax or KQ, so I think this board runout tried to give me a break and I ended up making a very iffy call at best

http://weaktight.com/5212719

Failed triple barrel, probably a mistake with the double barrel, but once this river hits I think it would be a big mistake to not bet it

http://weaktight.com/5212720

Little bit of a cooler, but this felt just so ugly I think I need to make this fold, and if one of my buddies posted this hand I would have told him to definitely fold river and maybe even fold turn

http://weaktight.com/5212723

Just a bad board runout, I don't think I can ever lose less here

http://weaktight.com/5220186

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5220189

So this guy is a complete psycho, with that said, I just have seen this overbet shove from enough bad players are far too often they have the stone nuts, and when I have direct position on him, I definitely think that I can find a better spot and he will give me a lot of opportunities

http://weaktight.com/5220190

KK < AK

http://weaktight.com/5220193

KK < AA

http://weaktight.com/5220194

Not the type of guy I can ever fold to here

http://weaktight.com/5220195

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5220196

ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/5220200

Cooler against an aggro regular player, on river I obviously was not happy to see this card, but at the same time he made such a big bet on turn I thought there was a very good chance that not only could he be bluffing, but also that he could be value owning himself here

http://weaktight.com/5220202

I definitely think that he can call off here with TT, Jx, or QQ. Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5220203

AK < 77

http://weaktight.com/5220204

This is a play that I don't use a ton, basically because I have a lot of confidence in my postflop skils. I think this was a nice spot to use it, but I don't know how I feel about this play in general, for sure it increases variance a lot, but really how often will I be winning the pot with AQ if I just call?

http://weaktight.com/5220205

JJ < 99

http://weaktight.com/5220205

AK < AQ

http://weaktight.com/5220207

Eh, this is against my buddy, my play is total garbage, this was my plan to shove any k,8, or my value cards but he is too good of a player to make this dumb play oop

http://weaktight.com/5220208

AK < KK

http://weaktight.com/5220210

Lose with AA again

http://weaktight.com/5220212

http://weaktight.com/5220215

cooler

http://weaktight.com/5220217

Turned my hand into a bluff catcher but he had a monster, like my plan a lot here against a guy that folds flop so little

http://weaktight.com/5220218

OH COME ON WTF!??!?!!?!?!?!?

http://weaktight.com/5220219

Frustration call, I knew it was terrible the whole way, tough board run out but really good players fold here and the rest just lose money to a cooler

http://weaktight.com/5220220

Lol losing with AA again, so tilting

http://weaktight.com/5220221

I got owned here, was exceptionally tough for me to put him on Qx with his stats though.

http://weaktight.com/5220222

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5220225

First hand at the table, I don't mind gambling a little bit for a shot at his money

http://weaktight.com/5220226

My buddy, no possible idea what he is doing here, but he is a station lol

http://weaktight.com/5220227

Another loser with AA

http://weaktight.com/5220228

Lol, good example of the terrible board runouts, he is a loose player who has a ton of bluffs, but either I hit my hand to bust him or I fold, but unfortunately the ace gets all my money

http://weaktight.com/5220229

Unlucky board runout, maybe an iffy call on the flop but I knew nothing about the player

http://weaktight.com/5220231

This guy was a one street bluffer, and his vpip was through the roof so 4x and 5x are certainly part of his limp calling range here

http://weaktight.com/5220242

KK < AA

http://weaktight.com/5220243

Failed 5bet bluff but I really like this spot and the cards that I did it with

http://weaktight.com/5220245

He reisolates far more than most, and at the same point I don't want him bluffing over me with AQ or AJ or KQ that all are flips against me, so I definitely like my line here and lost a flip

http://weaktight.com/5220247

Ughhh, and I got nitrolled

http://weaktight.com/5220248

Lol I remember a hand that sbrugby played in a video that was exactly like this. He shoved and he made millions of dollars in this same spot so I did the same thing :) Actually turned out to be a great spot and he still got there.

http://weaktight.com/5220250

Cold called a 3bet in pos and it backfired on me

http://weaktight.com/5220254

aghhhhhhs;ljg;ldfhlkhgsalfhsl

http://weaktight.com/5220254

ughhhhh

http://weaktight.com/5220257

Big combo draw misses against set, I think if he makes a larger 3bet than it becomes a super standard shove, but I think with this min 3bet, his range actually becomes much stronger. On top of that, if I call here and he is bluffing, it is so difficult to continue that I can win the hand even if I don't hit it. So probably a small ev mistake here

http://weaktight.com/5220260

ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/5220263

I hate my turn call here, just fold, I know I am folding river and I also know he is shoving river at bare minimum 80% of the time, so I need to be folding earlier

One final positive note, my best man and I have been playing golf since we were 13 or 14 years old, and one of us finally got a hole in one. Humble brag I have never birdied a par 3 before and lost the hole :). Really a cool moment and glad I was there to see it. On top of that, I have won my last 5 golf matches and have gotten my unadjusted handicap below an 8 for the first time in 10 years.

Salud!

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4430 Views | 2 Comments

November 02, 2012

Massive Hand Dump and Some Goals for the Next Month of Poker

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, sorry I forgot to post a hand dump earlier than this, but it was a rather frustrating month of poker. I made a small profit this month, but I think I was a little burned out from the previous 4 months of over 100k hands each. I finished up 30bi over 60k hands, but really struggled the final two weeks. Check it out below:

http://weaktight.com/5133325

So gross against a weak player

http://weaktight.com/5133326

FPS to the max degree by me. No use in going over my flawed thought process, just need to remind myself that so few players are going to be capable of bluffing in a deep pot after I stole the betting lead

http://weaktight.com/5133327

AK < KK deep

http://weaktight.com/5133328

Probably one of the worse calls I have made in awhile. I actually was struggling with finding a hand that beats me that checks back the flop, but this one is so obvious I just did not think of it at the time, really big mistake by me

http://weaktight.com/5133329

JJ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5133331

AK < QQ

http://weaktight.com/5133332

AA < KK

http://weaktight.com/5133333

Gross

http://weaktight.com/5133334

Gross, especially because I have seen this guy 3bet shove for 80bbs and make this same play maybe 5 minutes before so it would be tough to be nutted in all of those spots and I obviously think he is bad enough to have kx here a lot

http://weaktight.com/5133335

lol how does he not get my stack here?

http://weaktight.com/5133336

Failed double barrel in 3bet pot, glad the king paired the board and allowed me to stop because I am pretty sure he snaps me on the river if I continue

http://weaktight.com/5133339

he 3bets so much in this spot that I have to take a stand at some point, and I think this hand plays far better for seeing a flop then it does as a 4bet bluff or 4bet call off. Just got unlucky here that I either let him hit his hand or he had a real hand

http://weaktight.com/5133341

This hand was just about the least likely type of hand I was possibly expecting, I had no problem calling off here and I actually got the money back a few hands later when he donked 3 streets on K4225 with k9 including an overbet all in on river

http://weaktight.com/5133343

Good betsize by my opponent, I was planning on c-f to just about any bet because his calling range preflop in this spot just makes it really tough for him to not have me beat and he does not have a lot of hands that would value own himself

http://weaktight.com/5133344

I think this call on the turn is pretty marginal. I was obviously thinking of turning my showdown value into a bluff if checked to on the river, but really I just don't see many bluffs or even marginal showdown like AT betting this turn so I think I am calling against a very strong range with an obvious draw so I think I prefer folding here

http://weaktight.com/5133345

Man, this was a really tough fold, but I think it needs to be made. I think this river hits my range really well and he still bets pot. I also have not seen him make this play before so this is often weird line from reg = big hand. Tough spot but I think playing my best I fold here

http://weaktight.com/5133346

lol woops

http://weaktight.com/5133347

I think against this player he believes this line is more bluffy against me than most players do, so I just need to watch out for that, but I think my play is fine because he will be double barreling on this board more than just about anyone and I can't simply c-f, and c-c against an aggro player with just nine outs is not going to show a profit with a non nutted non combo draw.

http://weaktight.com/5133348

I could be wrong about this, but I felt like he was full of it on the flop, and on the river I thought he would bet a scare card whether it hit him or not, but I think his bestsize is just so valuey, that this might be a fold and if he shoves that is probably closer to a call against a rather transparent player

http://weaktight.com/5139500

AK < JJ

http://weaktight.com/5139501

I am not surprised at all with his range here. He was a weak enough player to call with any pair on this flop, or even a hand like KQ with Q of diamonds. I think this is a pretty close spot to shoving or waiting one pair and shoving the correct type of cards. I think I am ok with my play here against a weak player but I should think about it more

http://weaktight.com/5139502

I swear I get negatively reinforced against this play so often when I raise top pair for thin value against an aggro opponent in position. I know this play is certainly better on a wet board, but I definitely thought that this guy could call down light or 3bet bluff in this spot, but this was pretty much a disaster

http://weaktight.com/5139506

QQ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5139503

same thing here really, this is not a spot that I am checkraising this sort of hand regularly, and this is one of the biggest reasons for it because I can find so many ways to win this hand that doesn't more blindly gamble my money away even if my opponent is extremely aggro

http://weaktight.com/5139507

KK < AQ

QQ < KK

http://weaktight.com/5139511

TT < JJ

http://weaktight.com/5139513

So I think I have been a little too showdown happy against these "pro shortstackers". I think they are willing to check call river with a pretty strong range compared to good players, but at the same time, I was thinking that if I thew in some overbets than I could get them to fold their entire range. I still think this plan is quite good, but in this spot I ran into an unlikely play

http://weaktight.com/5139514

AK < QQ

http://weaktight.com/5139516

I was done with this hand unless I hit my hand, but he had a very distinct timing tell that made me think he was super weak so I could value bet this hand, now I just know that it was a reverse tell and I can use that in the future to save some bets

http://weaktight.com/5139517

Probably a hero call I did not need to make, but man he has been insanely aggro against me

http://weaktight.com/5139518

Man I thought this was the nuts against this particular guy, against most players I would find an easy fold with the overpair though

http://weaktight.com/5139519

Well I guess I got crazy owned here, but then he went ahead and made some crazy bad call downs so I am not sure what to think. With that said, I think I was somewhat lucky he had this exact hand and even though I didn't get afold, this was the sort of hand I was trying to bluff off. There are certainly better spots where I can be more definitive about his range in order to pull off bluffs

http://weaktight.com/5139520

Lol guess I lost the min

http://weaktight.com/5139522

QQ < KK

http://weaktight.com/5139523

Really interesting spot here. This guy I do not think gets the money in with JJ here, I think he probably just calls a 3bet OOP. Therefore I like calling his 4bet and allowing him to barrel off with a lot of bluffs. I think the flop is rather standard, but the turn is definitely close. Although I don't think it is common, I knew that getting bluffed here was actually a possibility. This spot as a bluff I think most regs at my level do not have. I had a hard time determining his range when he checks turn here, but I think KK is also a decent part of it. It's a pretty clear fold, but I think checking back the turn is slightly better

http://weaktight.com/5139524

Sickest fold you will really ever see me make. This is against a short stacker that got deep stacked. I certainly understand that there is a chance he can value bet worse, specifically QQ here. That is what I was worried about but I think this guy definitely checks back all Jx hands that are not JT, so I am quite happy with this crazy fold against just this opponent

http://weaktight.com/5139526

Terrible board runout for my hand, don't mind my small value raise here at all though based on his betsize and willingness to call off light here

http://weaktight.com/5139527

Gross

http://weaktight.com/5139531

Missed a straight flush draw

http://weaktight.com/5139532

Normally I am not going to blame myself too badly for calling off in a 3bet pot with top pair, but I think this board is too connected to call off with KJ here, and when you combine his lack off aggression on turn, even though his river aggression was very high, I think I need to fold river here

http://weaktight.com/5139535

AA < KK

http://weaktight.com/5139533

5bet bluff with KQ failed

http://weaktight.com/5139534

AK < QQ

http://weaktight.com/5139537

Ughh gross board runout against a fish that was capable of having an extremely wide range and bluff vortexing here

http://weaktight.com/5139538

Set over set

http://weaktight.com/5139539

Unlucky but lost the min and really happy with my hand reading here, I actually checked back in about .4 seconds

http://weaktight.com/5139541

Terrible board runout but really happy I folded here because I really can't have the best hand here

http://weaktight.com/5139542

Ughhh, another one of these spots where I am not sure how to call off here. I think I am about 3/8 in these spots for calling off correctly. So I think in the future I am going to fold here more often unless the guy is really crazy

http://weaktight.com/5139544

Ughhhhh

http://weaktight.com/5139545

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5139548

Setup

http://weaktight.com/5142480

3bet/5bet bluff failed

http://weaktight.com/5142481

tough spot, but I really just cant find a fold here. Throw on top of the fact that I have major blockers for the hand that I am most concerned about KQ, so I really don't think I can fold here. The one hand I was most worried about was actually AA.

http://weaktight.com/5142482

99 < AK, really gross I was even in a flip here because he was tilting and ready to shove any 2

http://weaktight.com/5142484

AK < KK

http://weaktight.com/5142486

This player was very happy to get any top pair in the middle, so I was thrilled to get the money in against a super wide opening range

http://weaktight.com/5142488

hjklglkgkjgfkjfdghhfd

http://weaktight.com/5142489

I snap called here because my plan was to check back turn and likely induce a lot of bluffs from a pretty wild and strange player. But this is a spot where the betsize really changes everything. I called in about 3 seconds and it is a really big mistake. By him betting pot, I think that really strengthens his range and even though I assumed there would be some bluffs in his range, I think a hand like AK really makes a ton of sense here. Good play by him and bad by me, I definitely could have gotten away from this hand despite going away from my plan

http://weaktight.com/5142490

gross

http://weaktight.com/5142492

Really poor river call here, just too easy to value bet and too hard to come up with enough bluffing hands here for him to have.

http://weaktight.com/5142497

Gross

http://weaktight.com/5145614

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5145615

This guy was barreling indescriminately, but at the same time my buddy pointed out that despite his bluffing range, so many hands that he is semi bluffing got there and I really have no folding range here, which makes it even more of a fold even if he is a barrel monkey.

http://weaktight.com/5145616

Failed 5bet bluff, but I really love this spot

http://weaktight.com/5145617

KK < AK

http://weaktight.com/5145618

This guy was 3betting me a lot, and I thought that this hand plays better in this situation as a 3bet call rather than 4bet folding it. Unfortunately he showed up with a real hand. I also think that I probably should be checkraising flop here as opposed to turn, because if I hit a good turn card, I don't think there will be as many bluffs in his range unless I hit my king outs. The other outs that are good for me probably will not promote that many bluffs

http://weaktight.com/5145619

Typically QQ is not going to be a mistake to get in, but the way this hand played out, I think I should be folding here because his range is only KK-AA-AK here and I think he does fold or call AK occasionally here and I think almost always if not always folds JJ

http://weaktight.com/5145620

I just think this is too hopeful against an aggro guy, but its not like he is super insane. On top of that, he could easily barrel of KQ and KJ, so its not like I am just trying to call down against nutted flushes or bluffs. I think this is just not an ideal spot and I should have folded the river

http://weaktight.com/5145621

Ughhh

http://weaktight.com/5145622

I am so sick to my stomach over this play. I just need to fold this sort of hand here, and although he could have a hand like 97, all of his 9s have showdown for the most part and I think he is happy to check it down, hell this is probably a fold on turn.

http://weaktight.com/5145624

This in hindsight is definitely a tilt call, just did not play my best by a long shot here and I think I was just getting frustrated by everything going on during this session, Just horrible

http://weaktight.com/5145626

Ughh, maybe not the greatest call, but god damn how does he have this hand here?

http://weaktight.com/5145627

Wrong guy to bluff, but man this one was frustrating because I felt like I knew exactly what he had, except I did not account for him possibly catching a 7 with his draw

http://weaktight.com/5145628

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5145630

Well I guess I wildly misinterpreted his range here, because I thought he has Axh for most of it, and was really shocked that he showed up with this hand although I suppose that him just calling does show my line is quite believable

http://weaktight.com/5145631

Ughhh, of course 72o would hit a boat

http://weaktight.com/5145632

Failed hero call, but like my play

http://weaktight.com/5145633

Gave up on my river bluff here because I thought his range contained a lot of QQ-KK-AA and obviously this river card hit a lot of that range.

http://weaktight.com/5145634

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5145635

I think this spot is really close, but I think if I was playing my best I find a fold here

http://weaktight.com/5145636

Was betting the turn for value, but once he calls me on turn it is a no brainer check back on the river

http://weaktight.com/5145639

ughh, I just suck, nice way to sum up my play tonight

http://weaktight.com/5167904

Definitely a bad call there is no doubt about it, and I should have lost 1bi less tonight, this was just a conclusion of super frustrating play where I lost with AA 8 times AI. I would not make this call on just about any other night and feel confident that these were just extremely strange and tough circumstances

http://weaktight.com/5167906

Ughhh, 2 5bet bluffs tonight, two failed and caught bluffs

http://weaktight.com/5167908

Man I just found a super tough time trying to find hands that beat me here other than AJ and I was just really convinced that AJ would 4bet get it in. Then I am left with AT but I also think there is a decent chance that he checks back river because he struggles getting super thin value. Ultimately though, I know I have realized this the past 3 or 4 sessions that I am just giving up my stacks a little too easily and I have had a hard time hitting the fold button on the river. I need to leave aside how poorly I am running and how few hands that I have hit and instead just focus on the moment

http://weaktight.com/5167910

AA < KK

http://weaktight.com/5167911

Ughhh horrendous play on my part. Man if I never make this play again before I get to 10-20nl I will be happy. Just far too FPS

http://weaktight.com/5167912

The other failed 5bet bluff, in this spot I think I was actually about two levels in front of him which is exactly the same as being behind. This has always been something that I felt like I was not quite as good as I should be with timing 5bet bluffs, but it is still definitely a work in progress

http://weaktight.com/5167913

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5167914

Unlucky here, I definitely think against this guy who I was 3 or 4 tabling, he would get in so many more bluffs or semi bluffs or weak value against me than he has pure value that I really like my CR get it in plan

http://weaktight.com/5167915

KK < TT

http://weaktight.com/5167916

Fuck this is frustrating

http://weaktight.com/5167917

AA < AK

http://weaktight.com/5167919

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5167921

AK < JJ

http://weaktight.com/5167922

I really am not sure if this is a mistake here. I have to say that I was totally owned here by his betsize because it definitely looks like he was trying to pot control with a draw that he wanted to get the correct odds for. I didn't have a ton of info on his heads up game, but he was certainly a tricky aggro 6max player so I thought a lot of that would work with heads up. On the turn, I thought there was also a small chance he calls me off here with 77-99 that he was playing in a weird way and puts me on the draw, as well as calling me off with a really big draw, but I guess its easy to play a monster like this in an interesting way. If he was more straight forward I would have just called the turn and folded to this river.

http://weaktight.com/5167923

ashgafaskfgskaf;sagjslaghs

http://weaktight.com/5167924

Super interesting spot, especially considering he overbet bluff river on K83AA with 44 after triple barreling. With that said, I think that line makes this even more of a fold for me because it is so difficult for a reg at 100nl to 2 street overbet bluff as well as overbet after showing me a big overbet bluff. Definitely is a fold even though in game it was an extremely tough spot for me.

http://weaktight.com/5167925

failed two barrel checkraise bluff

http://weaktight.com/5167927

Ughh this 18/8 somehow has k6ss

http://weaktight.com/5167928

No matter how I play aa im going to lose with it

http://weaktight.com/5167930

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/5167931

99 < aq

http://weaktight.com/5167932

I definitely think that I need to make bluffs like this in order to balance my calling range, as well as get value in this same spot when I have it and want to fast play it. I don't know what to think about his call here, but I guess this is simply the wrong guy to take this line and to really have a bluff based strategy against in 3bet pots

http://weaktight.com/5167933

Well, I was stuck with a very difficult spot here. I understood that his range is pretty weak, and I have seen him c-f a lot of turns with this line. At the same time, I thought that he would definitely shove a J or K, or QQ, or better, and I wasn't super worried about a random pair because his 3betting patterns were largely based on connected cards. I do think he can check a real monster to me here on the river like KKK or JJJ. I think this player is also capable of caling me down with 76, or 99 or TT, so ultimately I think its super close but checking is the best play here.

http://weaktight.com/5167937

So this guy is a firing machine in 3bet pots when its checked to him, so I thought c-c down AA was definitely the play on this flop texture and against this opponent, but I think I did not compensate enough for betsizing and how little players overbet bluff rivers here. Additionally, I think on this exact board runout, my hand is amazingly face up and therefore a fold is in order. Just really got trapped in my plan on the flop for the hand and did not deviate from it

http://weaktight.com/5167939

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5167939

Failed 5bet bluff, but I really like this spot and opponent to do it against

http://weaktight.com/5167942

JJ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5167944

lol, talk about getting owned and having a terrible read on the situation. I thought this player was going to double an absolute ton and then if he checks he would fold always on the river. Great play by him, but this is far too FPS. Not even the line itself, but the problem is that I have no equity going forward with this plan. If I have some equity on both streets to float with this plan, even if it is just a gutter or low pair, then this play is fine but I hate it with my hand on this board

http://weaktight.com/5167945

Missed a monster draw and over against a super weak opponent hand

http://weaktight.com/5167949

Just getting killed by these idiots that are calling 3bets with low pp and are hitting

http://weaktight.com/5167951

Nice little knife twist with the way I lost this hand

http://weaktight.com/5167953

Failed double barrel in 3bet pot, definitely glad I did not triple barrel here though

Wow I think that was a record number of hands for the blog, sorry to anyone attempting to get through some of it, but going through these was a big help to myself. Before playing tonight, I think I made a lot of really great adjustments but there are still some really fundamental things I need to work on:

I need to be totally focused at the beginning of my session. Sometimes I am just so amped up to play that I get in some super aggro/marginal spots early on. In fact the past two weeks it feels like I was down 4bi every single time within 1k hands, and then a lot of times I would settle into my A game, but it would take so long that making a lot of money with that formula is very tough

I need to have a more positive mindset. I mean I lost 9bi of EV just today, and have been running poorly, but a positive mindset was the reason for my 4 month huge upswing, so I need to remember that importance.

I need to do a little better job protecting my stack. What I mean by that is that I have called off in some incredibly marginal spots, and a lot of times my opponents are simply incapable of bluffing off in some spots that I have called down, so find some more folds.

I do not need to combat crazy 3bet and 4bet aggression with even great aggression, while this is a decent strategy, I definitely don't think that it maximizes my strengths, there are plenty of other ways to get around this

If I feel myself getting frustrated, I need to make better quits, poker will be there, take a small break or an hour or two and get back to it with a fresh mindset

Hopefully November will be another great month. I have a really fun weekend ahead of me with playing two great golf courses the next two days, and then of course the Ravens are playing Sunday. My wife and I are getting incredibly nervous about the election, but in the spirit of poker players, I need some one times to come through with Mitt Romney winning and getting back my FTP money (btw how fucking tilting is it that FTP is opening for the rest of the world before the US players get paid back!?!?!?!?!?). The polls are exceptionally close but I think ultimately the momentum that started with first debate has continued and the undecideds have woken up to the fact that Obama has no record to stand on nor any impetus or rationale for earning a second term. I think Romney will easily win Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia, and will find a way to eak out some wins in Ohio, Colorado, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and maybe Iowa/Michigan/Minnesota, maybe maybe Pennsylvania? Fingers big time crossed. This will be the election that matters the most for my generation because I believe if the President is re-elected, our country will be pushed to the brink of a welfare society with over 50% of the population relying on the government for support, and we have seen how terribly this failed in Greece or Italy.

Edit: I literally just read this and had to insert it in my blog because Charles Krauthammer summarizes my thoughts better than I ever could:

Every four years we are told that the coming election is the most important of one's life. This time it might actually be true. At stake is the relation between citizen and state, the very nature of the American social contract.

Finally check out my newest video with Matt Mdoran. I think its one of my most informative videos and look forward to more from us because we actually just finished a second series of leakfinders that will be out throughout November. Gl at the tables guys

Salud!

Entry Tags:
6506 Views | 4 Comments

October 23, 2012

New Leakfinder is Out with MDoran!

Blog by : Balbomb
1

Hey guys, I recently worked with Matt "MDoran" on a new series trying to help him move up permanently to 100nl. I know he has made a lot of really successful lower stakes videos and hopefully this series will help everyone improve their games or move up. Let me know what you think or what you want us to discuss or work on next time!




Salud!

Entry Tags:
5051 Views | 2 Comments

October 19, 2012

October 18th, Tough/Great Day

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, I was planning on doing a big breakdown of the debate but quite honestly I thought it was very low on substance. As far as theatre, I thought it was a pretty entertaining debate, especially in the first twenty minutes when both candidates were combative and really in each other's faces. I think this was rather predictable because the President faced so much criticism about his apathetic attitude towards the first debate, although I personally think that Romney's dominance over domestic issues was far more impressive than the President's mediocre performance. With that said, I thought there were a few important points from the debate:

1) I think the current polls that have Romney ahead 52/45 nationally with likely voters illustrates his complete dominance when talking about how to rescue the economy. This is the most important issue of the election, and it is very clear that his change of course with his 5 point plan is resonating with voters and Obama cannot overcome the fact that he is fine with staying the course of a failed four year economic plan

2) Obama scored nicely in this debate on issues. Although I obviously disagree with his liberal stances, there are a lot of people that will vote for him purely on his support of women's rights, gay marriage, and his stance on immigration.

3) I have no idea why Romney repeatedly asked questions of Obama, but allowing Obama time to make more points while of course never answering his questions directly was a huge flaw. I counted three different times where he asked President Obama a question, all of which he successfully batted away without answering and thus not helping Romney at all. As any lawyer will tell you, you never ask a question of someone without having direct evidence to the answer.

4) The most serious problem came when talking about Libya. Now this should absolutely be a slam dunk for Romney whenever the Libya question comes up because it is such a black eye on the administration. Instead of pointing out the failure in Libya to protect our ambassador, as well as some serious misleading accounts to the American people, he got bogged down by semantics and actually allowed Obama to use his righteous indignation defense that the administration would lie to the American people without addressing the Libyan failure. If there is any doubt that the administration is not telling the truth about the events, please check out this article about the timeline of information on Libya: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/from-video-to-terrorist-attack-a-definitive-timeline-of-administration-statements-on-the-libya-attack/2012/09/26/86105782-0826-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_blog.html

5) With that said, I think that this Libya issue certainly has legs. This administration sent out UN Ambassador Rice on the talk show circuit to say that there was a demonstration over a video that caused our Libyan Ambassador and 3 other Americans to die. He further went on to confirm this on The View and David Letterman. Well the problem of course was that there was no demonstration, and it was a coordinated attack. The fact that Obama is trying to tell us that there was no correlation to this attack and September 11th is a complete disgrace. Romney totally messed up this point, and the moderator did him absolutely no favors with her interruption, but make no mistake that Obama for what I believe are political reasons created a cover up story because the sitting President going into an election does not want a terrorist action to be in voter's minds.

6) This format is terrible and the moderator was a joke. Crowley actually said before the debate that she would not merely be a fly on the wall and she went ahead and inserted herself in unnecessary and biased ways. First of all the choice of questions were ridiculous to me. The most flagrant one was asking Romney "how are you different than George W Bush?" This question has no room in a debate and is clearly biased. How should Obama answer this? Why not have this a two part question and ask Obama how he is different from Jimmy Carter. Obama's best chance to win the election is to continue to remind the American people that he is not George Bush and he never fails to bring this up, thus making this question even more flagrant There were also some really weak questions, especially the one concerning AK47's when obviously fast and furious is an extremely hot button and important issue that needs to be discussed. Yet her biggest problem came when she inserted herself as referee during the Libya discussion. She came to Obama's defense and declared him to be right in his assertion. Less than an hour later she recanted her statement on the internet and said that Romney was in fact correct. This format where one moderator was able to choose all of the questions asked, inserted herself incorrectly in an important issue, and allowed Obama 4 minutes more while constantly interrupting Romney was really a failure.

Ultimately I believe that the debate was pretty much even, although I thought Romney's failure on the Libya topic and his 3 questions that he asked Obama blew his chance of another resounding victory.

I have also been a pretty busy with poker. So far I think that I have played about 25k hands so far this week and while I have won every day, it has been far from smooth sailing and am far from crushing it. It feels like every session has started off with me down a few buyins immediately and that makes it very difficult to overcome. I actually just finished playing 8k hands today and finally got over the hurdle and made half a buyin. Really has been a grind, and am just waiting my time till I start running hot because I have been working really hard and its only a matter of time until I start to win more of the coinflips. Here are a bunch of hands:

http://weaktight.com/5116991

Sick cooler

http://weaktight.com/5116992

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5116993

jj < kk

http://weaktight.com/5116994

qq < kk

http://weaktight.com/5116995

jj < AQ

http://weaktight.com/5116999

cooler

http://weaktight.com/5117000

This line of c-c/c-c/donk from fish has actually become so much weaker than it was at any time that I have been playing. In fact, just tonight I called in 3 different spots tonight that it was correct. At the same time, I think that this guy was just a little too passive for me to make this call, but I don't think its a huge mistake like I would have a year ago

http://weaktight.com/5117001

Lost a race but happy with my reads and unlucky that he called with a hand like this, or that he was in a race because he could have just as easily have 88

http://weaktight.com/5117002

bad board runout

http://weaktight.com/5117005

Super tricky spot against a player who I have a ton of history with and is tricky himself. For whatever reason we sort of have a weird dynamic in 3bet pots that I have checked a lot of flops in 3bet pots when he calls in position with a super wide range. He has sort of adjusted to that and therefore his checking back flop range can actually be quite strong. By the river I certainly think he could have a hand like KhQo that he turns into a bluff, or even KK, but I think he has a range that is far weighted toward value in this spot because he knows I can have a big hand here as well, in no way is QJ or even JJJ the top of my range here and he knows that.

http://weaktight.com/5120941

So gross to have the nuts and at best chop

http://weaktight.com/5120942

Every hand this guy got in with me he played super aggro today and he had it everytime, just really tough sometimes, I don't think I can fold here because the dynamics was so aggro that AJ might be the nuts for both of us

http://weaktight.com/5120943

QQ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5120944

AK < TT

http://weaktight.com/5120945

77 < AK

http://weaktight.com/5120946

So I think I picked just about the worst guy in the world to make this play against, he called me on the river in about .2 seconds. The good part of this failed bluff was that I was able to use this knowledge to completely value own him the rest of the night

http://weaktight.com/5120947

So, he is putting me on exactly this hand with the call, and at the time I thought that I am perceived to fold this hand when the top pair pairs because AK blocks my straight. I don't know if that is realistic or not. The other problem I had was that I thought he knew I would at least shove good Tx hands here and I have a lot of kx. I guess he has some sort of ego thing going with my plays, so I just need to adjust for that in spot like hero calls, loose 5bets, and maybe some river check raises

http://weaktight.com/5120947

Ughhh, the short timebank really screwed me here. I was analyzing my notes on him which were a lot and found one that really fit here and sort of panic called with about 4 seconds left. I really think if I give myself enough time here I can make the correct decision and just because this guy has more Ax suiteds than most, I also think he raises them a lot on previous streets and thus this call is quite poor, plus he has a lot of Qx that makes for a really easy river shove when checked to

http://weaktight.com/5120949

Ughhh

http://weaktight.com/5120949

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5120951

So I felt like he was tilting here, and I know he is capable of triple barrel bluffing in 3bet pots, but this is just a really bad river card to snap here because it hits my range so well and he is still more than happy to shove on me, so I am happy with this fold

http://weaktight.com/5120951

Terrible board runout, if I got bluffed great job by him

http://weaktight.com/5120951

Don't really want to go into too much detail here, but really pumped with my play

http://weaktight.com/5124365

This is simply a spot where I was trying to do too much. I know that I don't have the best hand, and I also know that it is going to be exceptionally difficult to get paid with my hand. Bottom line I should have folded because I was not playing against poor players and I should have just folded because even if I do just call turn and hit, it is going to be really difficult to get paid. Instead I was being hopeful in the fact that maybe both guys could have AK/AQ/KQ/low flush draw type hands, but realistically they are not folding sets and JT is possible for both guys, so bad play by me here

http://weaktight.com/5124366

KJ < TT HU

http://weaktight.com/5124367

Setup against this guy

http://weaktight.com/5124368

Totally love my bluff here, and unfortunately this guy is just an absolute luckbox because I am trying to rep his exact hand

http://weaktight.com/5124369

Ughhh, this is another luckbox, but I definitely like my approach to this hand in general

http://weaktight.com/5124371

5 minutes prior to this, this player hu 5bet shoved 95ss with no history so I don't think I can ever fold top pair in 3bet pot even if the board runout was not ideal

http://weaktight.com/5124372

JJ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5124373

Man when this guy's luck turns, my winrate is going to skyrocket because we play on all the tables and I think he is a pretty weak player.

http://weaktight.com/5124374

Happy with my read of the situation here, just pretty unlucky that the 3better showed up with a real hand 3handed

http://weaktight.com/5124375

99 < AK

http://weaktight.com/5124376

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5124377

missed flush draw against a player I think is very capable of 3bet bluffing this sort of board, if he was not capable of this then I think checkraising this hand is a big mistake

http://weaktight.com/5124377

Ughhh, sick how good this guy runs, especially given the history. I think when you flat a button open in big blind with KK, that pretty much shows how well you are running because you have decided to get super super tricky

http://weaktight.com/5124379

I thought this type of player could get to the river as weak as 4x or 6x, so I like my shove here and just unlucky because if he hit earlier in the hand I would have heard from him and would not have barreled off

http://weaktight.com/5124380

Just a sinfully awful call here. I was very frustrated with the session, but man this was the nut worse board runout and he allowed me to get away from my hand and I was unable to, terrible play by me

http://weaktight.com/5124382

I definitely forced this one, it was totally unnecessary although I totally got owned here, really great or bad call by him depending on what level he was on.

http://weaktight.com/5124383

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5124384

Very very happy that I did not bluff this river I don't think he is folding at all

http://weaktight.com/5124385

not going to beat myself up for this one, but I definitely think that this is a fold if I am playing my absolute best

http://weaktight.com/5124386

Same thing here, this is definitely a fold here

http://weaktight.com/5124387

I like my betsize a lot here, because I think I can fold out all the rest of the pocket pairs, and I did not think for a second that 9x was in his range so I am quite happy here with my play and just felt a little unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5124388

ughh, thought I had 6 free outs, but this reinforced something that I almost always do which is to fold flop here

http://weaktight.com/5124389

Yea this is another fold where I should have saved 25bbs

http://weaktight.com/5124390

And one more where I should have folded the turn. I definitely think that I should have made an extra buy in tonight for the 3 or 4 really marginal calls I made on turns

http://weaktight.com/5124391

AQ < AK

http://weaktight.com/5124392

Failed double barrel in 3bet pot

http://weaktight.com/5124393

Failed stab on the river

http://weaktight.com/5124394

Completely value owned myself here but don't mind my play at all. Sometimes I am really amazed how little value players can get with me in the hand.

http://weaktight.com/5124395

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5124396

Horrendous board runout

http://weaktight.com/5124397

Cooler but lost the min

http://weaktight.com/5124399

Lol, wrong guy to represent a certain range because he called quickly and was not thinking at all about what range I would normally be bluffing with on the flop (queen hits a lot of that) and the range that I would be raising for value on the flop that I had to check back based on the obvious straight on the turn.

Today is really important to me. This is the ten year anniversary since I met my beautiful wife. I am certainly blessed. This day is also bittersweet for me because eight years ago my grandfather passed away. I can't tell you how amazing he was. He and I were always exceptionally close and I still think about him constantly. He along with my father taught me all about how to be a man, the love of sports, and the importance of family. I am forever indebted to him. H suffered from Alzheimers in the last few years of his life, and I can't tell you how terrible this was on my family but one of the last times that he really knew his surroundings I introduced him to my girlfriend at the time who is now my wife and he immediately loved her. I can only imagine what the two of them would have been like had he been more healthy because they would clicked immediately, I mean I found a woman that is really hot, loves conservative politics, and knows more about sports than most of my friends, he would have loved her.

I right now am smoking a limited edition cigar called "My Father" that I have kept in my humidor for over 3 years and sipping a glass of Grand Marnier that my father and grandfather frequently bonded over after weekly dinners.

Pup Pup this "salud" is to you:

Salud!

Entry Tags:
1980 Views | 1 Comments

October 16, 2012

Great Fights, Terrible Injuries, and HH Dump

Blog by : Balbomb
0

Hey guys, first of all before I forget, if you have not seen the fight do yourself a favor and google:

"alvarado, rios, fight replay"

This is definitely the fight of the year in boxing and one of the best fights I have seen in 5 years. As you all know, I am a huge UFC guy, but I started off loving boxing and these are the type of fights that are just too few and far between. In fact although this was an amazing fight, an arguably equal fight happened at the same time in the Texiera-Maldonado fight at UFC 153. Also for the record, I am not sure Anderson Silva is human, that guy just destroys guys in such devastating fashion and although he is cocky and a little out of it sometimes, the dude is just amazing once he decides to finish fights.

Also over the weekend, my Ravens suffered some huge losses while moving to 5-1. That was a disgustingly poorly played game by both the Ravens and Cowboys, and while it was great to win it, we lost both Lardarius Webb who is the best cornerback in football with Revis out and Ray Lewis for the year. Combine that with Terrell Suggs the reigning defensive player of the year out until at least week 10, and our defense is really in shambles. I have no idea how we can stop any offense, and I think Arian Foster might set the record for rushing yards next week (btw Haloti Ngata who is the best DT in football also has a sprained MCL even though he will play). Really sucks because I think we were in the top 4 teams in the NFL before all of these injuries and had the best team since 2001 for the Ravens, but I guess Flacco and the offense need to prove their worth for us even to get into the playoffs now. Just a really depressing day, probably the worst I have felt after a win.

Since the debate is tomorrow I probably will post a blog about that so here is a hand history dump:

http://weaktight.com/5101268

This guy and I were really battling back and forth a lot, he was 3betting just an absolute ton, something like 40% so this is definitely a hand that I would never consider folding on the flop, and since he has such a wide range, I actually really like my line here and a slightly lesser hand value I think I can get him to fold

http://weaktight.com/5101269

Same guy, this is when I started to realize that he was going to call 4bets with a super wide range (he had already done this 3 times in about 30 minutes). I think this spot is really confusing and all I knew about him was that he was calling a ton of 4bets and I assumed he had enough bluffs in his range and I also thought my hand looked a lot like Kx, QQ, or AJ, and since I did not think he would shove Jx here, then it became a rather easy call, although it gets super tricky trying to anticipate just how bluffy he would be post knowing what I did about his preflop tendencies. I actually learned later on that he called a 4bet with JJ, so he is capable of balancing his calling 4bets a little bit and would fold this later on.

http://weaktight.com/5101269

99 < TT

http://weaktight.com/5101271

Man this river is really close. He is a 13% 3better from this spot and he also is capable of trple barreling all in. At the same time, I think my hand looks very close if not exactly to what it is, so I don't expect to be bluffed very often at all in this spot. I think if I am very critical about this decision, my image is one that is not going to be pushed around much and even though he is one of the few people capable of this sort of bluff, I still don't think he goes for it very often

http://weaktight.com/5101272

Wrong spot to go for thin value

http://weaktight.com/5101273

99 < JJ

http://weaktight.com/5101274

Unlucky situation and definitely thought that his tiny turn donk bet consisted of a ton of bluffs and was really surprised when he turned over a big hand

http://weaktight.com/5101274

Yea terrible board runout, and if I got bluffed here more power to him but it would be a really tough one to pull off


http://weaktight.com/5095255
Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5095256
Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5095257
AK < KK

http://weaktight.com/5095258
I think this was a little bit of a tilt call here. I just don't think there are many people capable of 1) bluffing in this spot, 2) Believing that my range is much wider than Qx and Jx. Therefore there is just far too much hope here to make this call

http://weaktight.com/balbomb
Another cooler

http://weaktight.com/5095260
Man this is a really close spot. I think against a worse player I can definitely raise fold this hand, but this guy and I have so much history and I definitely think that he can call me down with far less and he has shown this in the past so I just think this is an unlucky spot

http://weaktight.com/5095261
Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/5095263
This guy was absolutely insane, he was min 3betting with such a wide range and was playing super funky postflop, such that I would play 55 like this. I think that the river is a fold, but at the same point I made so much money in rather marginal spots like this against this player I definitely thought he could be bluffing, but I think this one I could probably find a better spot

http://weaktight.com/5095264
QQ < AA

http://weaktight.com/5095267
Man I felt like this was a really tight spot. First of all it is rather difficult to give him a straight here, but I did see that he was calling 25% of hands on the button which is a ton. The difficult issue I had here was that on a previous table less than five minutes ago I saw him make an incredibly strange play and he called a 4bet in pos with AJ and raise called off on T72 so he is definitely capable of some strange moves. I think if I fold this every time at this level I would probably make a good decision but I do think that this player can make this bluff more than most. I haven't played much with him but he appears to be an interesting player and will take more notes on him to better be prepared for this spot in the future (fwiw, i saw him triple barrel off when checked to)

http://weaktight.com/5095268
KK < AA

http://weaktight.com/5095272
I got outplayed here, this is a pretty unconventional line for me, but at the same time I thought he has a pretty balanced value/bluff triple barreling range here, and I also thought that he shuts down on river with one pair but could make some calls thinking im full of it, but I would much prefer to donk turn and river then simply donking river. Good play by him but I can just add this to our history and use it some time in the future.

http://weaktight.com/5095274
I don't mind this play at all, and the fish made a good cal down against me

http://weaktight.com/5095275
I don't think this player is good enough to make this sort of bluff here, so I am totally fine with taking this line to exploit some of the weaker players I am up against.


http://weaktight.com/5113641
Man this was a really close decision, this player is capable of some really strange plays, is more than capable of turning a pair into a bluff on the river. The question becomes, will he call Jx here? I thought that my range just seemed rather impossible to have a full house, so Jx had a ton of value, and he knows that I know he is capable of some big plays so I think he thinks I might be able to make some crazy moves. With that said, I just think he has such a polarized range, that it might just be very good Jx and total bluffs. I think a call is slightly better and is clearly better against almost all players but this guy certainly has enough weird parts of his game that I don't think its terrible. http://weaktight.com/5113642 Man I really am not sure how to attack a guy like this. I know his stats and they said he folded only 36% to cbets. So knowing this, I know there are a lot of floats in his range and I also thought he could turn some of his weak pairs into bluffs as well. I think this is probably an ideal way to play this hand, but I really am not sure if this was a J on turn whether he would bet one or two. I have a feeling I was just unlucky but I need to think more about it.

http://weaktight.com/5113643
Given the last 20 hands we played with me stacking him twice, I can't tell you how gross this was that he showed up with this hand and beat my AA

http://weaktight.com/5113644
Obviously the small blind is 3betting a ton with bluffs in this spot and the bb is good enough to know that and is capable of doing something about it, so I don't mind my shove at all

http://weaktight.com/5113645
This is very simply a spot where weird line from a reg = big line. I committed myself with my raise to calling off and I raised small on purpose so that I could call off, but I really think this is a terrible plan. I was sort of blinded by the size of my turn bet that I thought he would call super weak here, but I make this mistake rather frequently on the river of overvaluing his range based on my turn size. It also was really difficult for me to put him on any flushes, but I did not think about this exact hand and of course it makes a lot of sense and in fact I really like this play and ultimately don't love my raise and really really don't like my raise call
http://weaktight.com/5113647
QQ < AA
http://weaktight.com/5113648 Just so gross
http://weaktight.com/5113649 Really proud of myself for saving 18bbs, this fold actually gave me a lot of confidence and led to a nice upswing when I was actually close to quitting
http://weaktight.com/5113650 I need to talk to my friends about this one but I have to say I am absolutely confused, he has the exact hand I think he does, I think I am repping my hand very credibly, and somehow he still finds a call? I mean I am really not sure what bluffs I have here but I can adjust
http://weaktight.com/5113651 cooler, maybe a fold on the turn?
http://weaktight.com/5113652 Lol, this guy was so fishy but I have to say I was slow to realize what his biggest tell was. He was Cring with no pair, overplaying top pair, etc, but when he bet POT he had a really big hand or what he perceived to be a big hand so it took about 100 hands for me to finally catch that, and thus this play was a mistake
http://weaktight.com/5113654 Ughhh
http://weaktight.com/5113655 See what I mean about the POT read? It took me awhile to figure it out, that betting pot in all spots is strong, not just on the river
http://weaktight.com/5113656 Yuck, this bet sizing actually scared me a hell of a lot more than if he bet more, this might be a fold but I think that might just be too nitty. Close spot for sure
http://weaktight.com/5113657 Lol, tough beat
http://weaktight.com/5113658 I was going to fold just about all rivers here, but this is a spot I simply can't fold http://weaktight.com/5113660 Couple of ways I could have played this hand, but I am fine with this line, just a bad board runout for me
http://weaktight.com/5104016 I have a very aggro dynamic in the past with this player, but I definitely overplayed my hand early on this session. Some regs sort of forget how crazy past history is, and after this hand all day he was playing really straight forward against me, and I really didn't have enough time before this hand to establish where his mind was, so this is definitely a big time overplay of my hand

http://weaktight.com/5104017
JJ < AK
http://weaktight.com/5104018 AK < QQ
http://weaktight.com/5104019 This guy had a crazy aggro checkraise stat, but at the same time, how many guys will really bluff me in this spot? I think this is a pretty clear cut call flop fold turn spot and if you bluff me in a 4way pot on a dry board more power to you
http://weaktight.com/5104020 Failed triple barrel in a really good spot, nice call by him
http://weaktight.com/5104021 Definitely something I picked up on in the last week was that I was making far too many weak preflop calls in position and was not balancing them well enough,
http://weaktight.com/5104023 Terrible board runout
http://weaktight.com/5104025 Possible he is check jamming the lone ace of hearts, but I think the rest of his range is incredibly strong and I think I lost the min in this spot
http://weaktight.com/5104028 Yuck
http://weaktight.com/5104032 Definitely there are a lot of rivers that I was planning on shoving, but this was the nut low card to bluff, and I am quite happy that I did not because I think with my image he probably finds a thin call down here. http://weaktight.com/5104033 For me this is a really confusing spot. To put this in perspective, my 4 buddies all disagreed. Two guys said it was a snap call, the others said it was definitely a fold. Now it is definitely really difficult to determine the 4bet calling range of regulars because it doesn't happen all that often with most guys and normally I just go by tendencies of aggression and calling percentages. I tend to think his range is consisting of a lot of broadway hands, 99/TT/AQ type hands. Now I block a lot of these with my actual hand. I think this betsize of shoving is mostly made up of flush draws and Kx. I think he can feel pretty confident that Kx is good here although he does not know I will check back AA/KK/AK here a lot. Ultimately I think this is just not a typical bluff spot and without a specific read I thought folding is best but its really close.

I am going to play golf tomorrow and then will watch the debate. I have been a little lazy and burned out on poker considering I had 3 straight months of playing well over 100k hands, so the rest of the month I really need to put in a ton of hands.



Salud!

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