7 2 BLUFF...Diary of a poker player

Impressed by the content of SplitSuit videos on YouTube

I’m currently in full review mode as although my game is good I still make fundamental mistakes which annoy the hell out of me and when I make mistakes I always go back to basics and ensure my fundamentals are correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tLLim3hai8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt5QuzWchXM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD6gO1Hlusk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEmAwcNJBbk

I’ve been impressed by these videos so am sharing always good to get back to basics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKg7N4vZvCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC1FaJR9RvU

Day 2 888 Aspers – Find a reason to fold rather than a reason to call and you’ll be a better player don’t be a POW Pay Off Wizard

I have 167K the average stack and I raise 11K from the CO with K9o blinds 2,500/5,000 500 ante the big stack calls on the button, the SB folds and the BB goes all in for his last 22K.

Mistake 1 – I allowed the BB to re-open the action I should have either bet bigger to 16K to cap the betting. I noticed the Button was aware of this and was concerned it had been factored into his call.

Mistake 2 – I go to isolate but instead throw in one 25K chip and it is taken as a call. The Button obviously completes and we go 3 way to a flop of 649 two clubs with 72K in the middle.

Mistake 3 – I  raise 25K which is too small. I want protection for my top pair but the bet is too small even into an empty pot. Button calls which sets off alarm bells as I am never bluffing in this spot. I check the turn and the Button bets 50K into the pot of 122K and I make a crying call with top pair. The river is a blank and the Button makes it 50K and I should fold but as the flush draw didn’t get there I call and he shows me a turned straight with 75 which oddly the BB also has. His 50K bet into the 220K pot ensures he gets paid I’m getting over 5-1

As for the flush he is never betting 50K for the flush draw with one card to come into a side pot. He is always checking back as either way he has to show down and beat the BB so why risk 50K to win 50K?

What did the bets. mean?

My bet says “I have hit this flop and want to take this pot down”

The Button’s call says “I too have hit this flop”.

My turn check says “I’m unsure where I am at let’s not bloat this pot”

The Button’s 50K turn bet says “I have really hit this flop and am not on a flush draw I can also beat top pair, I am rarely bluffing as I still have to beat the BB”

The Button’s river bet says “The flush didn’t get there but you have something, I have the nuts please pay me off is this small enough for you donkey boy?”

I had a flopped full house in position at Aspers 888 Day 1 near the end of the day and may have misplayed it. It is hard to get paid when you flop a house as you dominate the board, but this one was wet and I could have extracted more by simply betting small on flop, the turn and jamming river. REMEMBER THIS NEXT TIME.

I opened J 10 and the flop came J 10 10  the villain checked and I checked back, the turn was a 8 putting a spade flush draw out there to go with the flop heart draw and a straight draw or straight and villain bet 8K into the 17K pot. I tank and check raised to 15K hoping my bluffy image would lead to a mistake, villain tanked and folded. I showed and a guy at the table said I  had butchered the hand and someone else agreed, I hate to say it but they may have been right. Their view was to let him bluff into me and just call, my view was with all the draws available my min-raise would get called allowing me to shove the river and get stacks in.

Here’s how Jonathan Little plays one and I prefer his approach.

I bluff too much, I love to bluff, for me it is one of the most fun things to do in poker. I have a book on bluffing by Johnathan Little which I need to review as not all my bluffs are good….in Berlin they nicknamed me “Bluffalo Bill” when I played in their Friday night cash game.

” You bluff too much” Said “Second Pair”Carmen as she correctly called me down 3 streets with second pair again.

“You call to much” I replied.

First rule of bluffing …you can’t bluff a donkey.

Friday I played the £110 entry  888 £28K GTD at Aspers. I’d been to the gym showered and was ready, it seemed better value to me than the £170 PokerStars event at the Hippodrome…which I later found out had a guarantee of  £40K.

In Aspers Queen Ten is Kings, I bluffed a woman who called me down with second pair without thinking, I bluffed off 18K and lost 10K on a flip within an hour. The woman I had failed to bluff insta called someone else’s all in with a  pair of fives on an 8 high flop. He overshoved the flop for 15K and she was shown Aces in a spot where she was never going to be good. She played regularly and knew the London tournaments yet to me seemed terrible. She made Day 2 or at least I saw her near the end of day 1 and was surprised. Another guy at the table Ashely M’Tanios also did his stack with some high variance plays, he showed me his $21K win from the previous week on PokerStars on his phone. He’d qualified  via a satellite to a $320 buyin game online and come 1st for a decent score hew was on his 4th bullet.

I rebought and vowed to never bluff at Aspers, just value bet the hell out of them and made it comfortably through the day to the last level with a stack of 150K when the average was 80K. I had played well and was in the zone when I woke up with AK under the gun and the blinds at 1000/2000 200 ante. I raised to  6,000. The button shoved on me for the second time in succession and I instantly called his 60K bet to be shown A 10. “How do you think A 10 is good for shoving against my under the gun opening range?”

The flop seemed great but the turn and river killed me and now I had 90K instead of 210K, a night’s work ruined in  one hand. I battled hard and finished the day with 95,600 when the average was 105K, my friend who was one card from the door had 195K and would have a top ten stack for day 2.

Saturday I bought in for £100 to the Super 60 at Aspers  and played really well until the following hand decimated my stack. I raise UTG to 3K and UTG+1 calls and then the whole table decides to call, the BB decides it is a good spot to but his final 7K in with 34o. I re-raise to 30K off a stack of 80K for UTG+1 to decide to go all in for 70K which I call to be shown AK. His ace hits the turn to decimate my stack, “How do you decide not to raise AK and then want to call off your whole stack with it. I’ve put in 30K  and clearly shown I’m never folding” I ranted in my head

I ground my way back into contention with 100K winning an all in 3 way with QQ with the average was 127K. A new player joined to my right just as the hand finished and I stacked my chips, the blinds were 1600/3200/400 when he raised off a stack of 240K to 10K from the CO and finding A10 I decide to shove my awkward stack size of 31BB. If I raise to 25K  there would be 43K in the middle and 15K to call giving odds of 3-1 and if I bet more would be pot committing myself. I decided a shove was best against his CO range either that or a fold. He tanked before calling with AQ and holding to bust me, perhaps I overplayed the hand I don’t like to call too passive, a fold seems too tight but perhaps the shove was too aggressive. A difficult spot. I’ll review on Flopzilla and see how I should have played it. So I busted 30th out of  66 runners somewhat annoyed that I had just got myself back in the game only to throw it away the very next hand with A10 one of the trouble hands.

I made it home by midnight and slept it off, now I was in for £320 for the weekend I needed a good cash tomorrow or it was going to be an expensive weekend. I hate losing money at poker, I play to win money so losing money doesn’t sit well with me.