Holy %#$&

Two Hands Versus Eric Liu and Krantz

It’s been a pretty crazy month for me so far. Though I haven’t had any massive swings in terms of buy-ins, I am still getting used to the idea of having +/- $2000 sessions as the norm. Back when I was playing 2/4, a negative $2000 session would pretty much be considered an absolute disaster. Now, at 3/6 and 5/10, I can lose a race and miss a flush draw and instantly find myself stuck the same amount. Here’s the graph for August so far.

One nifty thing about playing 3/6+ is that I’m now playing with people I recognise from CardRunners videos. When I was a 1/2 player, I’d sit down and watch just about every one of Taylor and Brian’s 5/10 videos and dream of one day playing in those games. Now, actually sitting in those games and having those same players sit down with me, I think it really reinforces for me just how much progress I’ve made.

Speaking of CardRunners videos, I just remembered yesterday that I actually appeared in one! It was a 2/4 video by Eric Liu in June and I meant to blog about it then but I think it completely slipped my mind. I remember I was a 1/2 player at the time and was scanning the tables for good games when I noticed four 2/4 tables highlighted in red. Ordinarily this would mean that Hans Vogl was grinding away but when I clicked on the tables I was pleasantly surprised to see Eric Liu’s name instead. Though jumping into a 2/4 game filled with the best regs (more on that in a second) probably wasn’t the best idea in hindsight, I thought that having the opportunity to 1) appear in a CardRunners video 2) play against Eric and 3) get some feedback on my game was too good an opportunity to pass up. So I joined all four waiting lists and sat down at three of the tables in pretty quick time.

The composition of each table was pretty ridiculous. Despite CardRunners’ best intentions, there is no doubt that having red name pros as instructors detracts from the integrity of the videos. You see, within minutes, Eric’s tables had been swamped by the best 2/4 regulars who no doubt all saw the same opportunity as me. What followed then was a session of people mercilessly trying to outplay Eric and just generally give him a hard time. In short, this was certainly not your typical 2/4 game. In fact, if you watch the video you’ll actually see Eric having to continually fold to 3-bets preflop, all the while commenting on how ridiculously aggressive the 2/4 games had gotten. If you were a small stakes player watching this, you’d be forgiven for thinking “jeez, the games are crazy tough up there!”

I only really played one hand of note against Eric and in hindsight I’m not sure I played it very well. We had $500 effective stacks and he opened in the cutoff with AQo and I 3-bet from the big blind with TT. I’d 3-bet him about two orbits earlier in this same situation with 88 (he folded) so I wasn’t expecting to get much credit and indeed Eric quickly called the 3-bet. I think in the video he actually says something like “if I get 3-bet here there is no way I’m folding ace-queen”. The flop came Ks4s6c and I led $72 into the $99 pot and he quickly called. I remember thinking at the time that Eric was fairly unlikely to have a King here (I assume he’d 4-bet AK and fold KJ leaving only KQ/KJs as a real possibility) and that this flop was a good one for him to float if he thought I was playing back light preflop. Thus, before the turn came, I decided to check-shove just about any card as his call flop/bet turn range would heavily be weighted towards floats. My logic for this was that KQ probably would’ve raised the flop with the intention of getting it in while something like KJ or 99 would almost certainly check back the turn. The turn came the Kd and this was actually a very interesting card because it now means that KJs and KQ will bet the turn (rather than check behind) but it also means that these hands are less likely to be in his range. I think it’s a pretty close decision but in the end I did shove all-in after I checked and he bet half-pot. He obviously instantly folded. Here's the hand history for the whole hand.

Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Eric Liu (CO): $845.50

BTN: $544.50

SB: $1,546.80

Hero (BB): $509.40

UTG: $823.50

MP: $1,088.40

Pre-Flop: T T dealt to Hero (BB)

2 folds, Eric Liu raises to $14, 2 folds, Hero raises to $50, Eric Liu calls $36

Flop: ($102) 6 K 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets $72, Eric Liu calls $72

Turn: ($246) K (2 Players)

Hero checks, Eric Liu bets $122, Hero raises to $387.40 and is All-In, Eric Liu folds

Results: $490 Pot

In the video he actually remarks that he expects me to call the turn and then fold to a river bet. I was actually really surprised by this as I hadn’t considered check-calling the turn at all. For me, the decision on the turn was whether to go with the hand or not. If I decided to go with it, I thought the natural consequence was to shove since check-calling would almost certainly entail check-calling the river bet as well (I’d be getting 3-1). I actually chased Eric up on an FTP table a few days later and asked him about the hand and he said that he liked check-shoving with a read but preferred check-calling without. I’m still not sure what the correct play was in this particular hand but I do think now that I should’ve at least considered check-calling. My logic of being pot committed was pretty flawed since pot odds are quite irrelevant on the river if you’re beat. Whether you’re getting 3-1 or 10-1, stacking off 65BBs with no equity is certainly not something you want to be doing regularly!

To finish, I thought I’d post this hand that I played yesterday. It was against Krantz and is quite simply a superb example of me outplaying an opponent. Not many players can say that they’re up lifetime against Krantz, but I’m now one of them!

Party Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $2,061

pr1nnyraid (SB): $9,299

Hero (BB): $2,107

UTG: $3,813.50

CO: $2,939

Pre-Flop: K 9 dealt to Hero (BB)

3 folds, pr1nnyraid raises to $60, Hero raises to $180, pr1nnyraid folds

Results: $120 Pot

BOOYAH!

July Review and August Goals

July Review

At the start of July, I set myself two goals:

1. Continue winning at mid stakes
2. Have a sufficient bankroll by the end of the holidays to regularly play 5/10 NL

I think I can say that I achieved the first goal but not the second. I finished up $14,500 for the month which is comfortably my biggest month ever. That said, it could easily have been a lot better as not only did I not run very well ($10,000 below equity for the month) but I also lost several very soft buy-ins towards the end of the month (I was playing too many tables in an effort to hit $20,000 for the month and stacked off really poorly in some spots as a result). In terms of having a sufficient bankroll for 5/10 NL, my goal (rather ambitious I have to say) was to hit $60,000 by the end of the holidays. Due to lack of time and general laziness I didn’t put in anywhere near the amount of hands that I imagined I would and consequently I didn’t get anywhere near that goal. Even when I did have time to play, oftentimes I’d see that I was up $1,000 or so and think “oh well, that’s enough for the day I think” and just stop. Secretly, I think I was just trying to lock in a profit and that probably hurt my winning potential. Though I think, as raptor says, it’s not always about playing on whenever the games are good; locking in a winning session has its merits too (in raptor’s words, +Happiness EV). Anyway, here’s the graph and stats for July.



This means that I’ve now put in two consecutive $10,000 months. As I said at the end of my June Review, I really feel like I’ve finally figured out how to beat mid stakes and am feeling very confident in my game. Here’s the combined graph and stats for my last two months at mid stakes.

August Goals

I won’t be putting in many hands this month due to university so I’m not going to try to top the amount that I made last month. That said, I’d really like to make another $10,000 this month and make it three $10K months back to back. So I guess my monetary goal for August is to win $10,000.

I’ve been mixing 3/6 and 5/10 tables this month and I have to say that it is a lot more difficult than mixing 2/4 and 3/6 tables. For the most part, 2/4 and 3/6 play almost identically so you don’t have to make any big adjustments or switch mindsets as you move from one table to another. While I don’t think 5/10 is a massive jump from 3/6 in terms of skill, I do think the games play very differently and it’s therefore quite hard to play 3/6 and 5/10 at the same time. Thus, I’m going to try to play exclusively 3/6 this month until I hit my $10,000 goal and then play 5/10 exclusively after that. I doubt I’ll be able to stick to this goal, especially if I see a huge fish at a 5/10 table, but I hope that I’ll be able to stick to it for the most part.

My final poker goal for August is to stick to the poker timetable that I’ve made for myself. Basically, it involves playing only on weekends (to ensure that I don’t chase on weeknights) and studying during the week (watching CardRunners and Deuces Cracked videos and reviewing hands).

$8,700 Pot

To finish, I thought I’d post this hand that I played yesterday. It’s completely standard and pretty uninteresting, but it does qualify as the biggest pot I’ve ever lost. If my hand had held up, I’d already have reached my August goal!

Party Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


UTG: $640

MP: $5,625

Hero (CO): $5,983

BTN: $4,380

SB: $2,440

BB: $2,399

Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (CO)

2 folds, Hero raises to $70, BTN raises to $280, 2 folds, Hero raises to $930, BTN raises to $3,540, Hero raises to $5,983 and is All-In, BTN calls $840 and is All-In

Flop: ($8,790) J T A (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Turn: ($8,790) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


River: ($8,790) A (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $8,790 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed K K and LOST (-$4,380 NET)
BTN showed A Kand WON $8,787 (+$4,407 NET)