From a crap MTT player to a crap 6max cash player

Another hero call....

I played a live cash game tonight after work, and after two hours at a crazy table this hand came up.

The game is €1/2. I have about €200, maybe a little less. The game is loose, particularly the player two seats to my left, who is a LAG fish. He has been lucky so far, hitting several flops hard and was up to around 700 from his initial 50 buy in.
Each time he flopped the nuts (two sets and a straight), he played very aggressively leading or raising. He overbet frequently, and even moved all in out of turn with the nut straight.
In the hand immediately prior to this one, he lost half his stack when someone slow played KK preflop, and flopped a set.

So back to the hand in question, I was dealt AQh in CO

Three players limp for 2, I raise to 15, the LAG SB calls, as do the Limper's. I have position.

The flop is A56 all spades. I do not have a spade. We all check the flop.

Turn is K diamond. SB checks, limper bets 25 into a pot of 60. Two folds, I call. SB looks at his hand and back at the board, then makes it 75. Limper folds, we are HU. At this point, here is my thought process:

AK: this player 3bets preflop almost 100%
Other 2 pair: unlikely but possible. Probably raise more than 1/4 pot
Sets: probably lead turn, probably raise more than 1/4 pot
Small flushes (87, JT etc) probably lead turn, probably raise more than 1/4 pot

I can't shake the feeling that this guy has the naked K of spades here a lot, and is attacking mine and the Limper's passive play so far. I feel like villain has the nuts or is semibluffing, so I call.

River is A diamond and villain goes all in. I have around €100 and pot is around €235.

Are you ever calling?

I think this is a big leak in my game. I tend to overly focus on a tiny part of my opponents range (usually the part I want him to have) and ignore the rest.

I would personally never check that flop with a fish in the hand. He will call so many draws and worse aces. As for the rest of the hand, I definitely think you are overly focussing on that tiny part of your opponent's range. You are basing the assumptions he is probably raising more than 1/4 pot on what? Like you said, he is a fish and fish do random things. They often don't look at the size of the pot when making decisions about their betsize, as illustrated by his overbets.

If you have seen him making any big (semi)bluffs, it's a fine spot to call. If you decide he is very likely semibluffing a king of spades on the turn you should never call the turn and fold the river but to be honest, I don't see fish raise this small as a bluff. In my opinion, it's much more likely he's slowplaying the nutflush.

Hi again jorny

I checked the flop as it was 5 handed. Is betting top pair 2nd kicker a better play here? I assume the optimal line is bet/fold?

About villain, Yeah he's been the most active player by far, probably playing 35% of hands at the 9 handed table. He frequently raises limpers or 3bets pre. He has done this with hands as weak as 54o.
I've seen him make several bluffs postflop, mostly attacking weakness and repping scare cards. He rarely bluffed the flop in multi way pots, but would bet if everyone checked flop and/or turn.

He showed every bluff, or at least one card.

In terms of him being a fish, its relative. Everybody bar one, perhaps two players at the table, are fairly poor. This guy is far too aggro and has continued to bluff at opponents who are obviously strong.

In the hand previously, where he lost a chunk of money, he raised one of the good players who had limped. The effective stack was 400bb+, and the raise was to 6bb
A player behind him went all in for around 16-20bb. The good player flatted, as did villain.
Flop was KQ8. Good player check called 30bb.
Turn was 6, putting a second flush draw on board. Good player check raised a 60bb bet to 150bb, villain folded. Good player showed KK and scooped the pot.

Yeah I would definitely bet/fold there. Especially with some weaker players in the hand. No one is going to go crazy against your cbet and most players will check call khigh flushdraw. The good player having showed his hand might make the agrofish less inclined to make a bluff since he knew he did not get bluffed out of the hand but at the same time he is repping absolutely nothing. You know what they say about fish repping nothing but I guess it might be different since he is so agro. What did you end up doing/ what was the result? I don't think you can ever fold the river after having called the turn.

Oh I called, and the fish had K4s for the nut flush.

I still think my general read was right. I reckon he would have played a set/2pair or a smaller flusher faster for fear of being outdrawn by a better flush. I was wrong about his hand in the moment though.

Once again, your bet/fold line comes out on top. I really need to start using that line. I thought that pot control was a better move, but I just give up equity when I'm ahead and fail to define the opponents hands when I'm behind.

Thanks man

(I'm assuming your guy. If you're a girl, thanks anyway, girl)

Played another 90min zoom session after work.

I have to be honest, I'm finding it really hard to motivate myself to play right now. Probably coz I'm working a lot and not doing enough fun things, but I find myself tilting really easy these days, and it's really not like me.

It seems every time I play online, I get off to a decent start. I play 700-1,000 hands, grind out a little profit, say 5-10bb/100 (double up on a couple of tables, or triple on one), then BANG! A hand like this comes up

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 76.88 BB
Hero (SB): 240.12 BB
BB: 196.88 BB (VPIP: 60.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
UTG: 94 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 12)
MP: 205.92 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 61)
CO: 152.48 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 7.14, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K♠ K♥

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 10 BB, BB calls 9 BB, fold

Flop: (23 BB, 2 players) 5♣ 8♣ 4♦
Hero bets 15.2 BB, BB calls 15.2 BB

Turn: (53.4 BB, 2 players) K♦
Hero bets 37.2 BB, BB calls 37.2 BB

River: (127.8 BB, 2 players) 7♦
Hero bets 177.72 BB and is all-in, BB calls 134.48 BB and is all-in

Do you guys do anything but shove here? I'm putting the guy on a really narrow range of missed flush draws, sets, possibly two pair with the 7, and the occasional lucky straight or flush. I figure I get full value from made hands I'm beating, while checking to induce bluffs rarely works as I've repped AK at worst. I don't think I can ever bet/fold to better hands either.

I'm posting this hand in a general forum too. I know it's probably just a cooler, but jesus fucking christ its tilting!!!

be water, my friend

I would bet smaller. If I were the BB I would fold a set of 4's/5's there + they probably raise flop this deep. With this overshove you are basically isolating against lucky backdoors that beat you.

Yeah I think I set myself up for a shove, and decided to go through with it regardless of what card hit the river (unless is was a flush card that suited the flop).

Lesson learned!

Do you have a blog Jorny? I looked around but couldn't find it.

First time doing this, hopefully it works...

A graph at 20K hands

http://imgur.com/DAjp4kX

I'm clawing my way back from a downswing, which was a combination of a bad run, bad play, and the tilt that followed.

Feel good about todays session though. Made one or two questionable plays but in general it went well. I'm being more cautious postflop, reigning in my aggression and Cbetting less. I'm trying to get better at folding marginal hands like TP and overpairs on the turn and river, and pot controlling more. Made a few good, thin, value bets too.

I might be a little too cautious though - my redline has taken a nosedive. I think I'm a little too tight postflop when playing from the blinds, and probably not calling or 3betting enough in position. I think this will change as I gather more information and stats on opponents and become a little more comfortable/confident in cash games in general.

Originally posted by CreamyGoodness
First time doing this, hopefully it works...

A graph at 20K hands

http://imgur.com/DAjp4kX

Instead of posting the link, try right-clicking on your uploaded image and select "Copy Image Location". You can then paste the image into your post using the "Insert Image" Function.

You can also additionally cover your image up with a spoiler tag, if you feel that it stretches your post out too long. That way, people could close the picture when they're done looking at it.

Nice one harrier, I'll do that at 50k hands

Originally posted by CreamyGoodness
Yeah I think I set myself up for a shove, and decided to go through with it regardless of what card hit the river (unless is was a flush card that suited the flop).

Lesson learned!

Do you have a blog Jorny? I looked around but couldn't find it.

If you were not so deep I would have shoved the river on any card that did not complete the possible flop flushdraw but because you are so deep, his range is much wider and he is going to have way more backdoors that complete on this river. This deep, I would only shove on complete blanks, not on rivers that complete a possible flushdraw or cards that bring the 4-card straight.

I had a blog on the Dutch-forum but I am currently doing an internship in the United States so no poker for me right now.

Alright, my crazy few weeks at work are nearing an end as everybody is back from holidays during this week. I've been doing extra hours to cover absences and took a little holiday of my own too.

Very little poker over the last three weeks. Zero live games (I'm losing interest in these anyway due to the late nights - games don't start around here until midnight). Played very little Zoom either, as when I'm off I'm mostly too tired to play effectively. Played a few MTTs last Friday with a friend, just to have fun while he sweated me. No luck there though, bar a small $200 cash which enabled me to pretty much break even.

In other news, I just finished my first coaching session with w34z3l. It was very interesting and I learned quite a bit, particularly about my positional stats and optimizing my pokertracker. A major point I took away from the session was to remember to check opponents info BEFORE I consider my actual hand, and to use certain stats to plan a few streets ahead. Right now I want nothing more than to play a good Zoom session, but I have to go back to work in an hour

I should be back at the online grind by Friday or Saturday, or next Monday at the latest.

Posted a thread in the tech section regarding a sound issue with my laptop. If anyone thinks they can help please take a look here

Laptop sound not working

Not much time to update at the moment....

I'm still working quite a few hours right now so I'm not getting close to the volume I wanted when I started this blog. Only getting 4-6k hands a week in, but I expect that to increase gradually over the next few weeks. By mid August I should be able to play pretty much full-time for about three weeks.

I am working closely with a coach at the moment, so although I'm not putting in much volume, when I do work on my game it tends to be fairly high quality study/learning and play.

I moved up to 50nl after (just about) beating 25nl over 25k hands. I only moved up because I think I'm over-rolled for 25nl, but after the beating I'm taking at 50nl I may have to move down again. I'm gonna play a little more, at least 10-15k more hands before making a decision though.

A few of the hands I lost I played in my usual spewy style - stacking off with KK post flop etc, but a fair few of the beats have been coolers with set vs straight, straight vs pair+FD, overpairs vs sets and unlikely straights in 3bet pots etc, so it may just be that my opponents have run well against me.

Staying positive and trying to put in the volume. I have faith in my coach, and I am willing and able to learn.

Peace