It's been an interesting day. I managed to get 1,200 hands in and went on a nice little heater. I was flopping sets left and right, and even managed to get paid off on a few of them! To illustrate this, take a gander at my whacked out setometer:



A few hands were worrisome. There are times at 10NL where I feel like I'm obligated to push certain hands because I know how badly my opponents typically play. For example:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

MP1 ($7.75)
MP2 ($20.55)
MP3 ($8.15)
CO ($11.65)
Hero ($11.60)
SB ($8.60)
BB ($2.85)
UTG ($9.50)
UTG+1 ($12.35)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.10, SB completes, BB raises to $0.5, UTG+1 calls $0.40, MP2 folds, Hero calls $0.40, SB folds.

Flop: ($1.70) , , (3 players)
BB bets $2.35 (All-In), UTG+1 calls $2.35, Hero raises to $11.1, UTG+1 calls $8.75.

Turn: ($8.75) (3 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($8.75) (3 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $26.25

Results in white below:
BB has Jd As (one pair, fives).
UTG+1 has 7h 7c (straight, eight high).
Hero has 6d 6h (full house, sixes full of fives).
Outcome: Hero wins $26.25.

I felt uneasy pushing here, but I know that I'm up against draws and overpairs often enough for this to be +EV, even against two opponents. I also know that UTG+1 isn't folding, no matter what he has. Nobody here is capable of laying a hand down after investing 23 bbs. I suspect that this might not be such a good move at 100NL. But here at 10NL I just shove it in and hope for the best. I don't even need to give it much thought, which concerns me. I don't think this is preparing me very well for the higher limits.

Another example:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

UTG ($3.30)
UTG+1 ($8.05)
MP1 ($4.90)
Hero ($10)
MP3 ($11.40)
CO ($6.85)
Button ($6.10)
SB ($10.10)
BB ($11.10)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with , .
UTG raises to $0.4, UTG+1 calls $0.40, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.5, MP3 raises to $3, 4 folds, UTG raises to $3.3, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $1.80, MP3 calls $0.30.

Flop: ($10.45) , , (3 players)
Hero checks, MP3 bets $3.9, Hero raises to $6.7, MP3 calls $2.80.

Turn: ($23.85) (3 players)

River: ($23.85) (3 players)

Final Pot: $23.85

Results in white below:
UTG has As Qs (one pair, queens).
Hero has Qd Qh (three of a kind, queens).
MP3 has Ks Kc (one pair, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins $23.85.

MP3's four-bet doesn't concern me very much. I see people do this with silly hands like AJ or TT all the time. I'm not sure why I didn't go over the top preflop. For some reason I just called and decided that I was going to push on the flop as long as no overcards hit.

An obvious flaw in this reasoning is that my opponents aren't always going to make such reckless decisions. From time to time they will actually have monsters and I'm probably going to pay them off. But they're spewing often enough for the trade off to be profitable. However, I know there will come a time when I can no longer bet down TPTK and scoop a huge pot against A-rag. I just wonder when this will be and if I'll be prepared to adjust.

Enough about that though. It's graph time!


WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!





I don't know how reliable these EV graphs are, but they seem to indicate that I'm running better than I should. I hope it doesn't cool off any time soon.

So after clearing my $50 bonus and making $41 at the tables, it's been a fantastic day. My $100 should be loaded into ePass by Thursday, by which time I'll probably be ready to tackle $25NL.

Bankroll: 373.85