HU4Lollz: No Hypers, No Turbos, No Nonsense

First.

Subbed!

Good luck!

Cheers mate! How are your poker adventures coming along?

Update: wow, it only took me a day!

I actually ended up accidentally playing a $15 today and won it. Before you say "Dude, how on earth did you ACCIDENTALLY register for the wrong tournament?", I had both a $7 and $15 lobby open because I was comparing the rake of the two as a proportion of the full buy-in, just to see the difference. Turns out that the $15s actually have higher rake proportionally, but it's absolutely minute (0.02% more) and surely it's just to round the overall buy-in to a round number.

Anyway, after my little investigation I decided to play another game and forgot that I had the $15 lobby open, so I registered on autopilot and didn't pay attention to the "Your balance is x, y is coming out" message, it wasn't til the cards were dealt and I noticed the window said $15 that I was all like:

But fortunately for me my opponent was a complete aggrotard, and I have huge cojones.

Poker Stars, $14.29 Buy-in (10/20 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 1,510 (75.5 bb)
Hero (BB): 1,490 (74.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2 A
SB raises to 40, Hero raises to 120, SB calls 80

Flop: (240) 3 K J (2 players)
Hero bets 120, SB calls 120

Turn: (480) A (2 players)
Hero bets 240, SB raises to 500, Hero calls 260

River: (1,480) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets 770 and is all-in, Hero calls 750 and is all-in

Results:

Now my BR is $450.95 after playing and running good today. My next game will be a $15, and from now on if I fall below $450 it's back to the $7s. So yeah, I might play a $15, lose, and have to grind out some more $7s until I take another shot. That's me being a BR nit for you

My BR has broken $500!

I'm getting good results in $15s so far (minute sample size though), although I'll concede that I'm running hotter than Vesuvius as far as all-in EV is concerned, I'm running almost 3 BI above EV over 13 games But this is having won 9 so I'm clearly on a hot streak, and the times I've stacked off and sucked out from behind, it's often vs loose guys who 3bet a lot pre (I'm talking 25%+, sometimes 30%+), you finally stand up to them with Ax or a low pp and then run into the top of their range that one time That said, even if my winnings matched my EV, I'd have a 10% ROI so far for $15s at the moment, so I must be doing something right

Weekly Update!

Great week! Moved up to $15s most likely for good, broken $500 BR, and I'm looking good at these new stakes so far MTT-wise, played The Hot $3.30 last Monday and busted out a few hundred before the cash. I'll get there Also played the Cool Million on FT after the promo to transfer $10 from Stars and get a ticket, just transferred it back right afterwards Busted out of that in about 4 hands when I ran my flopped 2p into a super aggro guy's flopped straight, super standard.

HU I'm getting accustomed to playing fairly aggro guys now and I'm adapting so they're less of a pain, although there are still some super super aggro guys that I'm still uncomfortable playing against without making it a high variance crapshoot, but practice makes perfect. I've also started river betting a lot more thinly vs guys who'll check it down when they've missed, sometimes they'll call with A/K high regardless.

Current Bankroll: $513.33 (+$96.04)
Weekly High: $558.33
Weekly Low: $403.29

Last Week's Targets

Play at least 50 HU SnGs this week (this is likely to change drastically as I'm still not really sure how long each game takes on average, plus my work schedule is fairly sporadic)
51 HU SnGs, 2 MTTs

Work on my leaks vs aggro preflop players who 3bet often. These guys are the one type of player (bar overall good regs) that I find it really difficult to play against.
I still have room for improvement in this area, but I've stepped it up since the start of the week.

Play more aggressively postflop vs weak tight players. Often I'll just sit back and let these guys fold into me over and over again preflop, but I don't take the chance to seize small pots postflop that they've clearly given up on with their K/A high, and I just end up checking them down and letting them have it.
Bluffing these guys is now second nature

This Week's Targets

50 HU SnGs this week

Flat playable but marginal hands in the button more often when blinds are higher and my opponent is unlikely to give up preflop/otf.

C/r more of my range vs players who cbet too much.

:diamond:

Call or fold?

Poker Stars, $14.29 Buy-in (15/30 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 1,610 (53.7 bb)
Hero (BB): 1,390 (46.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q J
SB raises to 60, Hero calls 30

Flop: (120) 8 T 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets 90, Hero raises to 250, SB raises to 1,550 and is all-in, Hero ?

Villain is 70/40, 68% cbet, 50% reraise vs cbet raise, 50% fold. I could 3bet pre but villain folds to 3bets often and I'd rather see a flop with this hand where I can get paid off if I hit.

Flop brings the flush draw, gutshot, two over, perfect board to check-raise this guy so I make it happen, then he shoves and I'm not so sure. My hand should have a huge amount of equity here, but an overshove like that could mean a set trying to get me to pay a bad price for my draws, in which case my overs aren't outs anymore, or he has say the nut flush draw, in which case all my spades aren't outs anymore.

I've hidden the results so you can make up your own mind, but what would you do here?

River trips, raise or call?

Poker Stars, $14.29 Buy-in (10/20 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (SB): 1,820 (91 bb)
BB: 1,180 (59 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J A
Hero raises to 40, BB calls 20

Flop: (80) 9 8 A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 60, BB calls 60

Turn: (200) T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 140, BB raises to 320, Hero calls 180

River: (840) A (2 players)
BB bets 380, Hero raises to 760, BB calls 380 and is all-in

Villain is 60/41, 41% fold to cbet, 100% turn cbet raise (albeit only over a sample of 1). Standard raise pre, I can make it 3x but I prefer doing that vs villains who fold to cbets more often.

Flop TP and cbet 3/4 with the possible straight draw out there, standard.

Turn gives 3 to a straight and I get raised ott (again), he could have a higher ace although unlikely since he's going to 3bet AK/AQ usually, could have A8/A9/AT, could have 67 or QJ. Could have a set, although again most pps that make sets here are going to 3bet pre. On the other hand, he can have a weaker ace, he can have Tx and not believe I have an ace (I have 100% flop+turn cbet so far). He can also have 7x or Jx and be semi-bluffing. So I elect to call and reevaluate on the river.

I improve to trips on the river, him having Ax is less likely. His river bet size is a little fishy, like he wants me to shove over it, but I think my hand is going to be good here most of the time. Still, with him having raised the turn, should I throw caution to the wind and just call here?

How would you have played this?

Hi mate, nice blog. Seems like you're doing really well too. I don't play much HU (and rarely HUSNG) but here's my opinions on those two hands.

Hand #1

I think this is always a call after you re-raise. I think if we give him a pretty standard stacking off range here (with only two questionable assumptions: that he stacks AT and that he doesn't open T2) we can't do anything else (we need like only 28% equity):

Board: 8♠T♣2♠
       Equity     Win     Tie
MP2    44.42%  44.37%   0.05% { QsJs }
MP3    55.58%  55.53%   0.05% { TT+, 88, 22, ATs, T8s, AsKs, KsTs, As9s, Ks9s, As7s, 9s7s, As6s, As5s, As4s, ATo, T8o }

Hand #2

Hard to know without knowing his tendencies (does he turn 77/8x into a bluff here?). I don't think he makes this move with worse Ax when you could easily have a ton of gut shots on the flop that spike the turn, as well as lots of two pairs. I expect him to just call down turn/river with A2-7.

River call or raise is close IMO. Like you I don't put sets in his range since we expect him to 3-bet pre. Same with KQ that semi-bluffs the turn. Here's a rough estimate of what I'd believe his range is on the river (we almost certainly have more equity though since there are many random Jx/7x bluffs he raises the turn with):

Board: 9♠8♣A♦ T♥ A♥
       Equity     Win     Tie
MP2    57.35%  57.35%   0.00% { AcJc }
MP3    42.65%  42.65%   0.00% { 77, ATs-A8s, QJs, Q8s, J8s-J7s, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, ATo-A8o, QJo, Q8o, J8o-J7o, T8o+, 98o, 87o, 76o }

And his calling range on the river (assuming he still calls his counter-fitted two pairs, despite you looking like Ax every time):

Board: 9♠8♣A♦ T♥ A♥
       Equity     Win     Tie
MP2    45.59%  45.59%   0.00% { AcJc }
MP3    54.41%  54.41%   0.00% { ATs-A7s, QJs, T8s+, 98s, 76s, ATo-A7o, QJo, T8o+, 98o, 76o }

So with this assumption I think shipping it is +EV. But then I'm not a HU player so I might be way off here, and I think it's questionable whether he's really bet-calling those two-pair hands that got counter fitted by the river. Without this assumption I'd just be flatting his river bet.

Good luck at the tables

hand 1 - he is donking top pair or draws same as u not a set probably

hand 2- shove is good

Thanks for the replies guys, I pretty much agree with what you've both said, in hand 1 I called, he flipped over AsTd and I hit my flush ott. I think I actually had 60% equity even with him holding the ace so it must have been the right play.

Hand 2 I shoved and he called and showed QJo. Turn raise was a clue but there was so much else he could have done it with that I can't really put him on this.

Having a really, really rough time so far this week, on a 6 game losing streak in $15s, I've had to drop back down to $7s for the time being because my BR's dipped below $450. It's annoying because I've reviewed significant pots I've played in all these games, and bar one or two where I maybe could have folded the turn or river, most of them I wouldn't play them any differently under the circumstances, I'm just getting outflopped by loose aggro players or getting outdrawn by calling stations. I'm starting to lose count of the amount of times I flop TP only for the turn and river to bring 3 and 4 to a straight/flush

I know it'll turn around at some point, just gotta keep my head high.

Hey man, nice to see another HUSNG player blogging, will follow this.

About the second hand in your previous post. Those turn raises are a pretty nutty line. Most of the time you're beat. You need to learn to fold top pair there, that's an important skill. Refer to the [Link removed - as it breaks our rules - HollyMichelle]

I'll follow yours too, you look like you're already pretty firmly cemented in HU SnG success I see you're playing hypers at the moment, did you start at reg speed and just work your way to hypers for the increase in potential hourly winnings? Hypers seem to be all the rage these days but I can't get my head around what seems largely like a push/fold game

Agree with turn raises usually being very strong, in the example the guy had taken this line the last time I'd cbet the turn so I was dubious, and I still had an open ender so my plan was to call turn and fold if a J spiked, call any other card. Just wasn't sure what to do when the ace hit But vs a guy who hadn't c/r the turn in the past without a strong hand, I might be able to get away from it, if not ott then otr.

Was planning on making this evening a nice grinding session, but having moved back down to $7s to build my way back up I've just lost three 7s on the bounce to the same kind of crap, flop mid pair vs guy with cbet 80+% all streets and x/c him down, he's always got tp or better. I'll cbet often and always get raised when I was air and instafolded when I have a hand. The times I finally get them to stay past the flop, the turn and river bring running four straight/flush cards and they've obviously got it otr. It feels like I've been playing bots this week, I'm looking at my key pots and I honestly don't feel I've done all that much wrong, but I'm getting abslotely crushed and it's really wrecking my confidence For example, last game I played, I didn't win a pot til the 20th hand, and even that was just him folding to a cbet, largest pot I won all game was 5bb, he was just outflopping me every time I hit the flop, and this has been a running theme this week.

I need to play more because I know that if I'm better than most of the players I'm playing, my winnings will go up if I put volume in, but I'm feeling really tilted at the moment, scared I'm going to lose more and more every time I register for a new game.

Found my game again, won the next 5 and I'm past $450 now so taking shots at 15s (again :P) Hope my doomswitch doesn't come back on.

A lovely sight, all things considered this week :P:

Back to the suckouts again it seems. Went through 6 games this morning, lost 5. Let's have a look at the biggest pots in the ones I lost shall we?

1) K9o vs AKo, villain has 50% 3bet, I raise from button, get 3bet, flat it and flop is 6QK. He leads (100% cbet) I shove in for around 2x his raise and he snaps. Don't think I can do much about this.

2) 32hh vs KJdd, villain has 40% 3bet although they're mostly stupid min 3bets, I minraise from the button, get min 3 bet and flat just to see if I flop a draw, as this guy has barreled every street with the initiative this game. Flop is 2dKc2c, he leads for almost the pot, I call. Turn 6d, he leads for about 2/3 pot, I could raise here but seeing as he's extremely likely to barrel the river too I'd prefer to raise him otr so I flat again. I mean what do I have to worry about, a backdoor flush? River is 8d, he leads again, I shove in, he calls obviously.

3) A7o vs 88, villain is 78/14 with 12% 3bet, I raise from, the button and he for some reason flats with 88. 373 flop, I lead and get called. Turn is a 3, I lead again, he raises me for almost 3x my bet. Now quads is obviously extremely unlikely, and 77+ also makes no sense to me because he's going to be 3betting almost all of these hands preflop, I think he thinks I'm full of crap and he's doing this with Ax. So I shove in and blah.

4) 36o vs 33, villain is 67/12, he limps from the button so I call, I'm fairly shockstacked here, about 20bb with bb still at 30. Flop 356, he leads for pot, he can have a straight I guess but he could have 4x or a high 6 and I think shoving will get me calls from those so that's what I do. Not enough 3s in this deck.

5) Qh7d vs 10h4h, villain is 81/27, calls my button raise preflop. Flop is 6h6sJh, I lead out, he raises me 3x, I shove and get called. Turn spikes 3h, that's okay, I still have loads of outs, any heart, 3 queens, 3 jacks, 3 threes, the one remaining 6. River bricks me with 5c.

Now I appreciate that in these hands I'm only actually ahead once preflop, and twice on the flop, but in these hands I either get smashed to bits while ahead, or I run into the top of a ridiculous range (as in hand 1), or they do something that makes no sense (flatting their pps in hands 3 and 4 despite their PFR %) I don't know if I can play any of these any differently, maybe raise turn in hand 2 but I think that raising the river instead is usually going to be the best play in terms of EV.

Need to run better.

Originally posted by hendo2000
I'll follow yours too, you look like you're already pretty firmly cemented in HU SnG success I see you're playing hypers at the moment, did you start at reg speed and just work your way to hypers for the increase in potential hourly winnings? Hypers seem to be all the rage these days but I can't get my head around what seems largely like a push/fold game

Agree with turn raises usually being very strong, in the example the guy had taken this line the last time I'd cbet the turn so I was dubious, and I still had an open ender so my plan was to call turn and fold if a J spiked, call any other card. Just wasn't sure what to do when the ace hit But vs a guy who hadn't c/r the turn in the past without a strong hand, I might be able to get away from it, if not ott then otr.

Hey, sorry for not answering sooner, didn't have much time for the forums...

Yeah, I played some turbos, loved them, but all the time I was aware that hypers are the game to play nowdays. They really aren't a push/fold game, until you get to <8bb. Before that you have all the options for almost any hand.

About the hand, don't put so much value into him c/raising turn twice in a row. You really need a much bigger sample to be able to conclude anything. And in the slower formats especially, take your time and don't overadjust too soon.

And about your last post, don't focus on the outcome of hands. You can't influence it, so why focus on it? Be happy what you played them well and move on.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm criticizing you, or have any bad intentions. It's just advice

No problem At the moment I'm happy with reg speed, but at some point after having moved up a few more stakes I might make the transition to turbos, and maybe then turbos to hypers.

Good point, I think I take stuff like that for granted over very small samples because a lot of the time fishy players who like to bluff' will repeat the same action over and over again. But I don't think it was the case for this guy.

I only post like my previous one because my sample size at HU SnGs is such a drop in the ocean that I really don't know (and won't for quite a while yet) whether I'm actually a decent winner, or a losing player that went on a heater the first week, and now I'm starting to lose now that variance is about even again. If someone who's a proven winner comes and says "Lines look pretty sound, I'd have played them similarly", then I feel more confident that I'm beating the game, and I'm just having a rough week variance-wise. By the same token, if someone comes and says "I'd have played most/all of them differently, for reasons x, y, and z" I can accept that I have a lot of improving to do in my game, and I'll try to do so.

I know that variance is going to swing by a lot in these games, I just want to try to get an idea of where I'm at with regard to winning/losing by how I've played in game changing pots, rather than having to hit 10k games and looking at my ROI So seriously, any feedback, from anyone, positive or negative, is hugely appreciated.

My week in a nutshell (HEM2 messed up and didn't import the game for some reason) this is the first hand of a rematch, I won the first game and we have both been very bluffy in the previous game:

PokerStars Hand #94939471654: Tournament #697981324, $14.29+$0.71 USD Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2013/03/03 14:13:08 UTC [2013/03/03 9:13:08 ET]
Table '697981324 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Villain (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: hendosnap (1500 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 10
hendosnap: posts big blind 20
HOLE CARDS
Dealt to hendosnap [5s 4s]
Villain: raises 40 to 60
hendosnap: calls 40
FLOP [Ts Js Ks]
hendosnap: checks
Villain: bets 100
hendosnap: calls 100
TURN [Ts Js Ks] [Jc]
hendosnap: checks
Villain: bets 220
hendosnap: calls 220
RIVER [Ts Js Ks Jc] [6h]
hendosnap: bets 400
Villain: raises 720 to 1120 and is all-in
hendosnap: calls 720 and is all-in
SHOW DOWN
Villain: shows [Kc Jh] (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
hendosnap: shows [5s 4s] (a flush, King high)
Villain collected 3000 from pot

I should be raising the turn here for definite, I realised this as I was calling the turn bet and thought it was going to look weird as hell when I donked the river, but as it turned out it didn't really matter.

Can argue I should raise flop too in case he's drawing with Asx but his pot size bet makes me fairly sure he's already hit something, and I think raises will scare away Tx, Jx, and possible some Kx.

But yeah, this hand just sums up my whole week, I'm around $50 down total over 57 games and feeling kinda demoralised. Running $35 below EV in addition to setups like these hasn't helped. Playing the $11 SM sat later and giving myself a 2 week ban from MTTs to make up for playing a higher BI than I should be, also got a ticket to the Sunday Storm. Unless I end up cashing decently in the Storm or cashing in the SM (assuming I even get through the sat) then I'm definitely gonna be in the red for this week. I'm actually really tempted to throw the BR advice book out the window and play NL50 HU vs terribad fish to get myself back up to $500, but that's just asking to decimate my BR if I run even slightly bad

Edit: Played and lost another 2, absolute aggrotard 43% 3bet, always 3bet shoving while ridiculously deep, first game call his 3bet shove with A9o, run into AKs, saved on the river, then call his 3bet shove A7o into QQ and lose it. Second game he keeps hitting these standard 4 flush/straight boards vs my pairs and finally I get it in pre with AJs... into AQo. This is just getting ridiculous, I can't wait for AA/KK vs these guys or I get blinded out, I finally get it in with a hand that's ahead of his ridiculously wide range and get shown a premium ffs.

I CAN'T WIN A HEADS UP GAME ANYMORE. I don't know what gametype I should be playing. I don't even know if I'm a 'winning' player anymore

You should raise the flop for sure, because there are sooo many scare cards for his range and quite often he'll just put you on the As or Qs and call down couple of bets or jam if he has Kx+. I really hate slowplaying on this specific board for that reason. If it was say K82sss I'd be a lot more inclined to let him bluff/value bet worse, but not here.

Figuring out what you should be playing is something that took me about 2 years to figure out. Just try whatever appeals to you, sngs, cash, mtts, plo, mixed games, whatever. Then just focus on the one thats most fun or that you feel you're the best at.

Out of at SM ~9000th, paid top ~6300th, AK vs KK, the only time I got in in behind all tournament. Getting through 50k runners only to fall there was pretty depressing

Weekly Update!

Terrible week, pretty much the exact opposite of my last week. Running below EV and just setups left right and centre. There are certainly games where I lose because I misplay hands, and I'm all good with that, and I know setups are gonna happen every now and then, but coolers are supposed to be zero sum in theory and it doesn't feel like I've had many in my favour

If I have another crap week this week I'm going to have to strongly reconsider going back to cash, I only started doing these because I started well and it appeared to be less swingy.

Current Bankroll: $422.28 (-$91.05)
Weekly High: $552.47
Weekly Low: $422.28

Last Week's Targets

50 HU SnGs this week
60, played a few more determined to get myself closer to BE for the week. It didn't work.

Flat playable but marginal hands in the button more often when blinds are higher and my opponent is unlikely to give up preflop/otf.
This helped a bit, also did this vs guys who were very 3bet happy.

C/r more of my range vs players who cbet too much.
This worked a treat.

This Week's Targets

50 HU SnGs this week

If I keep running like crap in HU games, mix in some NL10

Be less willing to take flips vs opponents I clearly have a decent edge on