Recently I made another big withdrawal from Stars and have been grinding things back up at 50nl for the past two weeks or so. The past two days I did battle with a reg who has apparently been beating up the games. Suffice to say I held over him pretty hard and we developed an aggressive dynamic early on. I think I adjusted extremely well to our dynamic. Let's look at how it all went down:

Hand 1: Here he shows a pretty clear leak in raising. This is the biggest pot he has won off of me. I am not going to get caught up enough in battling to not recognize this for what it is. Moreover he should know my range to bet here includes value hands I am going to value shove and air I could bluff shove on the river if he just calls.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

CO: $96.61
BTN: $34.30
SB: $63.05
Hero (BB): $58.24
UTG: $69.50
MP: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with K A
1 fold, MP raises to $1.50, 3 folds, Hero raises to $5, MP calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.25) 5 9 3(2 players)
Hero bets $5.50, MP calls $5.50

Turn: ($21.25) A(2 players)
Hero bets $11, MP raises to $22, Hero folds

Final Pot: $43.25
MP wins $41.30
(Rake: $1.95)

Hand 2: Here I make a loose open which I do not like. I think opening is a mistake and I am trying to cut back on some of these opens. Anyways once I flop like this I think firing twice is my best option. The turn bet may be getting thin but I am not letting him take control of the hand and I know he wants to station/float me on a lot of flop textures. So the way to punish someone for that is to widen your value ranges. I really like the way I played this hand postflop. He should be betting the river one would think.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
BTN: $50.00
SB: $50.58
BB: $76.62
Hero (UTG): $88.39
CO: $81.51

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with 9 A
Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, BTN calls $1.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($3.75) Q A 5(2 players)
Hero bets $2.50, BTN calls $2.50

Turn: ($8.75) J(2 players)
Hero bets $6, BTN calls $6

River: ($20.75) 6(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Final Pot: $20.75
BTN shows J Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
Hero shows 9 A (a pair of Aces)
BTN wins $19.82
(Rake: $0.93)

Hand 3: I continue my turn aggression here and I again think it is fine. A ton of players at 50nl would check-call this turn and I think its just clearly inferior to betting.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BB: $50.75
UTG: $60.47
MP: $97.60
CO: $92.79
BTN: $132.47
Hero (SB): $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with A T
4 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) K 2 6(2 players)
Hero bets $2, BB calls $2

Turn: ($7.00) T(2 players)
Hero bets $4.50, BB calls $4.50

River: ($16.00) 3(2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Final Pot: $16.00
BB shows K 7 (a pair of Kings)
Hero shows A T (a pair of Tens)
BB wins $15.28
(Rake: $0.72)

Hand 4: So onto the winning hands. I am going to include any hands that saw the turn with us HU. Consequently this next hand is very standard.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

Hero (MP): $174.87
CO: $48.37
BTN: $28.58
SB: $36.50
BB: $64.02
UTG: $96.80

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP with A K
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.50, 2 folds, SB calls $1.25, BB calls $1

Flop: ($4.50) K 2 5(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $3, SB folds, BB calls $3

Turn: ($10.50) 9(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6.50, BB calls $6.50

River: ($23.50) 3(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $14.50, BB folds

Final Pot: $23.50
Hero mucks A K
Hero wins $22.44
(Rake: $1.06)

Hand 5: Here I use my image of showing down strong hands versus him so far and load up on his capped range. I expected him to have folded some AX in game when I shoved and given how long he tanked (forever) I assume that it is a strong possibility that he did. File this one under: don't try this at home if you are trying to beat 50nl. To make a non-tilting hero call he has to put me on a float or a made hand being turned into a bluff. Most people at 50nl don't do that, so if he is thinking, he should come to the right conclusion and fold his bluff-catcher on the river.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

Hero (CO): $66.41
BTN: $50.00
SB: $78.03
BB: $23.33
UTG: $116.65
MP: $38.05

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with 4 5
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, SB raises to $5, 1 fold, Hero calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.50) 9 5 A(2 players)
SB bets $6.01, Hero calls $6.01

Turn: ($22.52) A(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $11.50, SB calls $11.50

River: ($45.52) Q(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $43.90 all in, SB folds

Final Pot: $45.52
Hero mucks 4 5
Hero wins $43.47
(Rake: $2.05)

Hand 6: This is one of the hands that came after the 45hh bluff so hopefully it made him feel good about his fold. Getting lucky against a player like this just goes a long way into turning things in your favour so when you find yourself so fortunate you really need to make sure you keep him down (see subsequent hands).

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

Hero (BTN): $56.87
SB: $55.28
BB: $20.50
UTG: $54.36
CO: $53.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with A A
1 fold, CO raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.50, 2 folds, CO raises to $10, Hero raises to $56.87 all in, CO calls $43 all in

Flop: ($106.75) J 3 T(2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($106.75) J(2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($106.75) Q(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $106.75
Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
CO shows K K (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
Hero wins $104.25
(Rake: $2.50)

Hand 7: This was in our first session seven minutes after the 54hh hand. When you suspect someone is 3betting you very wide one adjustment you can make is 4bet/calling wider. One of the things that has to happen for this to be the best adjustment is that they have to follow up their 3betting frequency by 5 bet shoving lighter. In this instance I expected him to make that adjustment and consequently adjusted my 4 bet/calling range about 2 notches wider than I would normally have it in this spot. This is a really clear example of something that is pretty rare at 50nl tbh, being able to adjust to a thinking player. Another factor is that we are 117x deep, giving a 5 bet some alluring fold equity. Also a lot of 50nl players will start tightening their stack off ranges as early as 110x, something I, usually to my detriment, don't suffer from :).

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

Hero (BTN): $84.87
SB: $50.25
BB: $58.37
UTG: $26.79
MP: $115.15
CO: $34.51

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with 8 8
2 folds, CO calls $0.50, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, BB raises to $6, 1 fold, Hero raises to $12.50, BB raises to $58.37 all in, Hero calls $45.87

Flop: ($117.49) K 7 3(2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($117.49) 6(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($117.49) K(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $117.49
Hero shows 8 8 (two pair, Kings and Eights)
BB shows 9 7 (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
Hero wins $114.99
(Rake: $2.50)

Hand 8: Hand 7 really comes into play here, the next day, where I pull the 3-way 5 bet bluff pre. Pretty much the perfect spot for it. Not going to go into all the details but since he will remember the hand above I think that works to our advantage here. Yes, I do this. He is SB.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

SB: $88.07
BB: $99.82
UTG: $43.25
Hero (CO): $110.78
BTN: $51.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with A J
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.50, BTN raises to $4.50, SB raises to $11.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $24, 2 folds

Final Pot: $28.00
Hero mucks A J
Hero wins $28.00

Hand 9: Final hand we played together. Just a really clear case of adjusting to a flumoxed opponent trying to win pots too hard after some things haven't gone his way. He insta-quit after this. His river bet is really bad considering that A) His perception of my c/c'ing range should be a lot of TX, JJ type hands. B) All the draws missed C) He has no TX in his river bet range that isn't a boat. Again, not a lot of players at 50nl will change their line from c-betting to c/c TPTK on this wet of a board, they will usually autopilot the flop decision and start thinking after that.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

CO: $76.32
BTN: $109.44
SB: $48.75
BB: $41.25
Hero (UTG): $125.53
MP: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with A Q
Hero raises to $1.75, 1 fold, CO calls $1.75, 3 folds

Flop: ($4.25) 8 Q T(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2.84, Hero calls $2.84

Turn: ($9.93) 2(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $7.58, Hero calls $7.58

River: ($25.09) T(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $14.37, Hero calls $14.37

Final Pot: $53.83
CO shows 7 A (a pair of Tens)
Hero shows A Q (two pair, Queens and Tens)
Hero wins $51.41
(Rake: $2.42)

I know this space had been lacking some poker content lately so... there it is!

I wish every confrontation with a regular could go this way .

Gareth