Session Notes: Part I

I write a question and answer column for the CardPlayer website. If you want to send in your own question, send it to [email protected] with my name in the subject line. Recently, someone sent in a question on how to deal with bad runs at the table and one of the things I suggested was keeping track of all of the hands played for the session. After the session, I suggest taking a look at the hands objectively to see how you feel about the play in those hands and get an idea if you’re actually running poorly or if you’re making it worse by making some sub-optimal decisions as well.

My advice reminded me that I hadn’t recorded my hands during a session for a while, so I remedied the situation the other day and recorded every hand I played from a 12 hour session at $5-$5 no-limit hold’em. There were some very interesting hands and lots of not so interesting hands, but I definitely learned a few things from recording my session. This will be a series of articles from that session. The first few will review specific hands from the session and then I will write a wrap-up article that encompasses some of the lessons I learned, some ways I can do a better job of recording the hands, and some ways I can improve my play.

The first interesting hand came up when we were playing four-handed. I opened for $20 from the cutoff with 8 6, and the big blind (BB), who had $300 in his stack, called. The flop was J-10-9 with two hearts, and he check/called $25. The turn was the A, he led for $50, I jammed $255 effective, and he called with A 2.

In my experience, the check/call flop line and lead on an ace turn is quite often someone turning a one-pair hand into a bluff. I don’t have the right equity to call, especially since I don’t get paid that often, and sometimes when I hit a queen, he has a king for a higher straight. So, I felt like jamming the turn would work to get hands like Q-x, K-J, and K-10 to fold. If he does call, I have some equity to win the pot, though not as much as I’d like. As we see from the results, it wasn’t a bluff, though it was an oddly played hand. I wonder if a better line would have been to call the turn and then jam all river cards if he checks and fold if he bets and I haven’t improved.

Five-handed now, I make it $20 from the cutoff with A 8, and the villain from last hand calls in the small blind (SB). The flop is K-Q-J with two spades, and he leads $25. I make it $65, he calls. The turn and river are a 6 and an 8, offsuit, which we both check down and we chop the pot.

I had seen villain donk into three players with Q-J on a ten-high board when he had no other draws, and a few other times that didn’t go to showdown, so I decided to raise him with what I thought was the best hand. He can quite often have ten-high here, and I might get lucky and find him in a folding mood and make him muck a jack. Unlikely, but possible. Once he called, I thought I had enough showdown equity to get there pretty cheaply, and I don’t think I had to worry too much about him trying to bluff me on the river since he seemed to do all of his weird bluffing on the flop.

The button makes it $20, SB calls, I call in the BB with A J. The flop is K-K-2 with two diamonds. We all check. The turn is an offsuit five, I bet $45 and the button calls. The river is an offsuit four, I bet $55 and the button calls with K-9.

I have played quite a few hours with this player and he calls down super light in almost any situation. I was pretty confident that I had the best hand when he called the river and I was surprised to find out what I lost to. I’m pretty OK with my opponent’s check behind on the flop, but it really makes no sense to not raise either the turn or the river. If you aren’t raising with a king on this board, what can you raise with? It really polarizes your raising range and makes it incredibly difficult to both get value when you have a value hand and bluff when you don’t. This is an fine way to play a hand like A-Q, 3-3, or other small pairs, but it makes it really tough to play future hands if you don’t raise with any king here.

I’m really looking forward to giving these hands a good looking over and sharing the insights I gain from them. It’s always important to continue improving and looking for new ways of learning about your game. Remember to try to stay objective when looking through your notes, and always make sure you take the notes down with as much information as you can, so you have a better idea of what was going on. See you next time! ♠

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