Session Notes Part 2

Last time I introduced an idea that I had about checking in with how I’m playing by recording every hand I play during a session and discussing the interesting ones. I’m going to continue with that series and share some more hands from the same $5-$5 no-limit hold’em session. Assume $1,000 effective stacks unless otherwise stated.

In the last column, the final hand that I talked about involved a villain who just called the river on a K-K-2-5-4 board with K-9 in a relatively small pot. He hadn’t raised any previous street either. I think it’s a pretty big mistake because it polarizes your range if you’re only raising full houses and complete air on the river. Perhaps he is even only raising full houses, which is even worse because I get to value bet him to death with my mid-to-strong pocket pairs, which he’ll pay off against with worse, and there is no problem in folding to his raises unless I have a good full house since he’s never bluffing or going for “thin” value.

Not too long later, I played a hand against the same villain where the villain limped in the cutoff, the button also limped, and I made it $35 in the small blind (SB) with J J. They both called and the flop was Q 4 2. I checked, the villain bet $55, the other limper folded and I called. The turn and river were checked, causing me to think my J-J was the best hand, but I was proven wrong when the villain turned over 6 5 for a flopped flush. Again, our villain has made playing future hands very tough on himself by not betting all flushes on the turn and river because I can safely fold my baby flushes and worse in this spot to him if he bets all three streets.

The short-handed game broke and we were combined with the next must move table to form a nine-handed game. The under-the-gun (UTG) player, who plays more than his share of hands and calls down pretty light, including suspect draws, but is pretty tight with his bets and raises on later streets, limps. Another loose-ish player who plays pretty well postflop limps, and I raise to $30 from three off the button with 7 7. Both limpers call to see a 10-4-2 flop with two spades. They check to me, I bet $55, and they both called. In my opinion, their ranges are tens, flush draws, small pocket pairs lower than tens, A-3, A-5, and 6-5. The turn is the K, putting up two flush draws. They check to me again, I bet $120. The first limper calls, and the second limper makes it $525. Everyone folds. Against tighter players who call less speculatively on the flop, I often check back the turn, but since both of these players could have draws that I can get value from and I can usually fold to a raise, I felt that betting was best. It’s also likely that I could get a worse hand to call the turn and the other player to fold a hand like 8-8, 9-9, or a 10 instead of overcalling. My play didn’t work out when the second limper check-raised, but it was an easy laydown anyways.

Later in that round, I make it $20 UTG plus one with Q J. We take the flop five-handed. The flop is K-J-x rainbow. Both blinds check to me, I bet $60, everyone but the big blind folds. The turn is the Q, putting out a flush draw. He checks, I bet $125 and he calls. The river is the 9, we both check and I win. I hated this hand and it’s a leak of mine I think to open Q-J offsuit and K-J offsuit from the first two seats. It’s something I need to work on for sure. I probably play a little too loose overall from UTG and UTG plus 1. In addition to folding preflop, I think I should have just checked the flop. Unfortunately for me, the hand turned out well and reinforced my bad play.

In the last interesting hand for this week, I made it $20 from three off the button with A 8. The hijack and small blind called. The flop was Q-7-4 with two hearts and the small blind checked. I bet $40 and the small blind came along. I think his range is smaller flush draws, weak queens, 6-5, and mid pairs. The turn is the K, he check/calls $95. I think we can probably drop 6-5 and mid pairs from his range, making it queens and flush draws. The river was the 9, he checked and I reached for my chips, causing him to fold. I honestly don’t remember how much I was going to bet, but I think it was an interesting exercise. Perhaps it makes sense to reach for chips at least some of the time I don’t plan on betting the river to see if I can get someone to fold without actually having the intention to bet. A little bit of gamesmanship never hurt anybody I guess. In this particular spot though, the main reason I bet the river was because many of his flush draw hands, like J 9, 10 9, 9 8, and pairs of sevens with a flush draw that either made a pair on the river or had a weak pair. I don’t think he folds queens or king-high flush draws that made a pair, but he almost certainly folds every other pair after I three-barrel.

Join me again next time as I continue to analyze this session of $5-$5 no-limit. ♠

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