Yesterday I played another 1500 NLH, was hoping to make it further than the 3 hours I had the previous two 1500s. I did that; we played for over thirteen hours, starting at noon.

We started with 4500 and I had a great starting table. Though there were no absolute droolers, there were no good players either. I got up to 7k pretty easily without showdown. I have six hh written down but nothing non standard. Then there were two limps in late position, the small blind completed, and I checked J7o in the bb. The flop was J74ddc and the sb led for 4x. In this spot I have no play but to raise and made it 12x. The small blind called and the turn was an offsuit 8. The small blind checked I bet 22x at 28x. The river was the Qd, completing the flush. He checked with like 45-50x effective I didn't get an extact count. I ended up checking back which is the standard play in this spot. It really depend on how good of a player he is. I am fairly certain he doesn't have a straight or a flush but if I want to make a river value bet it has to be small to get paid off by AJ type hands which is going to be difficult the way the board has run out. Anyways I checked back and he showed J4s. He ended up being a solid player who didn't want to go broke on the flop in this spot. I really only have J7, 44, and maybe 77 in my bb check range that beats him.

So I had about 10k at 50/100. An older player min opened the cutoff to 200 and I defended the bb with 67ss. The flop was K34hhs, I checked, and he c-bet 200. I check-raised to 525. I was just getting a ton of straightforward spots like this so it made for easy play. Basically a few things are happening: the villain I know is c-betting his whole range, I had seen him make river bets with medium strength hands that were only losing when called, so he should have lots of mid pocket pairs that I can put him in a tough spot with a check-raise, in addition to folding out AQ/AJ/AT type c-bets. The other thing is that we have a flop that's hard to connect with, easy to bluff at, where I can bluff a turn heart or I can turn a value hand with the 5, or a disguised draw with a spade. So like the A8o spot I described yesterday, pretty perfect spot, this time it worked though and I took it down on the flop. I played a lot of pots like this but I assume readers don't want to hear about c-betting and taking it down.

I had an opportunity to pick up some chips when a short shoved over a limp with 1650 at 50/100 w ATo, I called with AQcc but it ran out K22,A,6.

Later I made a nice double barrel that I was happy with. I opened 89dd in EP to 400 at 100/200 and had been playing pretty tight. I got called by a young guy who seemed a bit in over his head but had a lot of chips. The flop was JT6ssc and I c-bet 650, he called. The turn was the 9s. This is a definite spot to double barrel and its important to recognize it I think given my image especially. So I double barreled to 1300 and he sigh folded.

There was a silly internet kid on my left after a bit. I guess I give internet kids too much credit for being mentallly strong. First he 3 bet shoved A9o versus a lp isolation of a weak player's limp. The isolator woke up with QQ and the internet kid made some remark to let it be known that he was unlucky to run into that hand. The next hand he opened 76s utg and was called by another internet kid in the cutoff. The flop was J72dds, he c-bet, and was raised, and called. The turn was the 2 of spades and it went check-check. The river was the 3 of spades. The initial raiser led out pretty huge with his 7 high flush, probably 75% of his stack. The flop raiser flatted with Q9ss, also backdooring a flush. This seems to me an entirely standard lag confrontation. As in, the in position player's flop raising range should have a lot of backdoor draws, particularly connected spades with an over. It just so happened that the c-better decided to continue with the weakest part of his utg range on this board and they both got there. Nothing to complain about. Well you wouldn't know it as the internet kid just went on and on about how the flop raiser "never wins the pot" if it hadn't rolled out that way. He mentioned how he didn't stack him and sort of implied that this was a result of him being a good player and the Q9ss player not being a good player. It just seems like everything he said and did was meant to convey to the rest of the table that he was unlucky and that he was a good player.

Jared Tendler talks a lot about the desire of poker players, humans more generally, to have justice, or be recognized when befallen by injustice. It just seems like such a clear leak to care, much less to make it clear to everyone else that you care. The behaviour didn't stop and those were only two instances of many.

Anyways the next important hand came where the 'in over his head' kid opened EP to 625. We are 10 handed at 150/300/25. The button, who had a mountain of chips, just called. I made it 1975 in the SB w AKo. The initial raiser folded and the button called. He was young and had a lot of chips; from what I saw he was good, but that was my mistake. Anyways the flop comes A83r and I c-bet 1600, which was quickly called. The turn was a 7, and I decided to check. I have about 6k back at this point. I could have definitely gone 2200, shove or 1800, shove, but instead decided to check. The river was a 7, no flush completed. Pot is about 8k with 6k back and I shoved. He didn't take too long to fold and when our table broke he told me he had kings and was trapping preflop. I find that hard to believe but its certainly possible.

Later on I picked up 99 in the big blind. MP opens to 3x with 22x to start the hand and I have about 34x. I shoved and he went into the tank. He said things like "I didn't want to go out this way," while in the tank. Eventually he called... with AKs. This other player, let's call him 'psycho lag,' called him out for a slowroll. I didn't say a word. Flop was A high and that was that, I was left with a 12bb stack or so. I went through the big blind and the following hand happened. This women with a ton of chips opened to 1100 at 200/400 and psycho lag 3-bet to 2800. I had QQ in the SB with 3900 and shoved. Because I didn't re-open the action the lady came along and we saw a flop 3way, K65r. Lady checked and psycho lag bet small, she folded. Thankfully he bet with 64o and I held and tripled.

Psycho lag then played the following hand of interest. This is, mind you, after showing down 64o in a four-bet pot. Dude wasn't a psycho for what its worth, that's just a short hand. But anyways, he opened UTG, the sb called, and the women called in the bb. They saw a T74 flop with a flush draw. The sb checked, the bb led out for pot and the lag raised 2.8x or so. The SB made it clear that he had a hand that would have called the lead but not the raise, folded, and the BB called. The turn was an offsuit jack. The BB woman now leads for 7.5k, which is a big bet at this point in the tournament. The lag thinks for a while before deciding to shove for like 30k effective. She tanked and tanked. She tanked for about 4 minutes and no one called the clock because of how big the bet was. I thought for sure he was value shoving knowing he had showndown 64o not an orbit before and that she would never get away from anything she took this line with.

So she finally calls with ATo for second pair top kicker. He was lucky enough to have three outs. With K5s, no flush draw. It bricked and she had all the chips in the world. Our table was breaking and I didn't see her again.

At my next table I played the short stack as the blinds went up to 400/800 and then 500/1000. At 400/800 I shoved Q7o with a shade under 8 big blinds in the HJ and was isolated by the cutoff. I managed to squeek that one out. Then a little while later I shoved 12.5 big blinds with QJs in MP, got isolated by AKo with distinct suits, and didn't get there. That's about as good as you can ask for, I had 40% equity preflop in that spot and much less in the Q7o hand. It looks like the Q7o shove is not unexploitably +cEV, which doesn't necessarily mean it was a mistake, but it certainly makes it less clear. Two of the player's left to act, the cutoff and the button where probably going to play pretty close to correctly versus it while the blinds were definitely not going to continue correctly. At worst it was a small mistake. I hadn't had much opportunity to open shove, the table was pretty active with lots of opening and three-betting. I was going to adjust to this by opening up my 3-betting/getting it in range but didn't get any spot to put that adjustment into place. There was no question about the QJs shove, I have to keep moving my stack and finished 315th out of 2300 with top 234 paid. At that point I am not yet in an ICM situation where I can just make huge survival folds where there is an opportunity to accumulate chips. No regrets.

Next one up is basically the same event next Saturday.

Gareth