My Old Notebook

I was back home in Chicago over the summer at my parents’ house and I came across an old notebook where I used to keep notes on hands that I had played. My guess is that these hands are from 2004-2005 and all of them are limit hold‘em. It’s pretty laughable how badly I played many of these hands and, yet, I was a winning player in these games. It really amazes me sometimes how much poker has progressed in this short amount of time. When you get some well-trained minds and well-programmed computers behind something, it really develops quickly. Besides being a more sophisticated poker player than I was eight years ago, I am also a more sophisticated hand recorder. I’ll do my best to discuss these hands as they were played, but it may be difficult because some of this stuff is hard to decipher (I also don’t have very good handwriting).

Hand No. 1 ($25-$50 limit hold‘em)

Three players limp, I’m on the button (I hope) with A 7 and call. Small blind (SB) completes and big blind (BB) checks.

I would never play this hand now. The reverse implied odds are atrocious and it’s really not a very good multiway hand. It’s a clear raise on the button when folded to, but this apparently wasn’t that type of game.

Flop is 7-7-2 (no suits recorded) BB bets into the field, one player calls, I raise. BB reraises, other guy calls, I cap, both call.

This seems pretty standard and good. If BB and I were heads up, I would most likely stop raising at some point and raise the turn. However, with the other player still in the pot, it’s a good idea to get as much money in when the bets are small because he won’t generally fold after having put in three bets on the flop. On the turn, when the bets get big, he’s more likely to get away from his hand.

Turn is a 9, BB leads again, late position (LP) calls, I raise, they both call.
Still standard and good. No reason to think that my hand isn’t still good at this point and we still have our straggler around, so the raise for value is obviously good. Having the extra money in there from LP (unless this is the world’s biggest slowplay with 2-2) really makes my turn raises valuable. The BB has taken a strong line, but when he doesn’t three-bet the turn, I am certain my hand is good.

River 8. BB leads again! Straggler calls, I raise, BB three-bets, LP folds, I four-bet, he calls, I win (no other hand recorded).

I’m struggling with this river play I think. One part of me thinks it’s pretty good, another disagrees. If this was someone other than the BB who got a free look, the 9,8 runout would be pretty terrible for me since his range of 7s would be mostly limited to connectors and suited hands. Stuff like 7-5 offsuit, 7-6 offsuit, 7-8 offsuit, 7-9 offsuit, 7-10 offsuit, A-7 offsuit, 7-4 suited+. Since it was the BB though, his range of hands that contain a 7 has to be expanded to all hands that would contain a 7. This adds three more combinations of hands that beat me (7-2), but many more combinations that don’t. Since these things are true, and presumably my read on this guy was that he was super spazzy, the four-bet seems to be not too out of line (though clearly not good). However, in today’s current poker climate, there is no chance I would four-bet the river. In fact, against some opponents I might not raise the river and against other opponents (very few) I could raise the river and fold to a three-bet.

It’s hard for me to criticize this play too much though, because it was right. I’m so far removed from a world where this is the correct play, but it’s possible that such a world exists. I would like to go back to such a world, but it doesn’t seem likely to ever exist again. I remember a hand from Party Poker $10-$20 6-max limit hold‘em around the same time frame where I was the preflop raiser with A-J and the flop came J-6-5. One of the blinds led into me, I raised, he three-bet, I four-bet, he called. Turn ace, he led, and four bets went in again. River was a 4, he bet, I raised, and he three-bet. I just called, expecting to lose to a straight or a flush or chop with A-J, but I was getting such a good price that I couldn’t fold for one more bet in the instance that he was spazzing with 6-5, A-6, A-5, etcetera. My opponent showed down 3-4 and I won the pot. I guess, having played that hand, I could understand this hand a little better. That’s just how things went down in that era.

Over the next several issues, I’ll continue to share some old hands from this notebook. I think it’s an interesting exercise on how things have changed in the poker world. So, for the foreseeable future, we’ll be looking into the past and seeing how things have changed. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG