I was in the mood for some heads up poker yesterday, but when I started my own table, everyone who sat down kept buying in for less than half the maximum. This isn’t really a problem, because these guys tend to be terrible and usually just hand you $100 or so and leave, but they are also very annoying to play because nothing interesting happens and if they do manage to double up they often quit immediately.
So while I was mindlessly fleecing a few of those guys, I took a seat across from a 3/6 NL regular whom I did not consider particularly talented. He sat out and typed, “No ty.” It was a nice ego boost that he refused to play me heads up, but I was still without an opponent. I finally found a guy whose name I didn’t recognize (usually a good sign, because at these stakes I know most of the good players on FTP) sitting with a full stack at 5/10. He was decent but a little too loose and aggressive, which was just the kind of opponent I was looking for. Unfortunately he stacked me almost immediately:
Note: This converter screws up heads up hand histories, so the player labeled button is actually the BB and the other player is actually the button who posts the SB.
Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $10 BB (2 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
Button ($1119.50)
Hero ($990)
Preflop: Hero is BB with As, 7d. Button posts a blind of $10.
Hero raises to $30, Button (poster) calls $20.
Flop: ($55) Jc, 6s, 7h (2 players)
Button bets $41, Hero calls $41.
Turn: ($137) Js (2 players)
Button bets $120, Hero raises to $319, Button calls $199.
River: ($775) 2s (2 players)
Button checks, Hero bets $600 (All-In), Button calls $600.
Final Pot: $1975
He beat me with J9.
We had no history, so I wasn’t sure what to make of his flop lead, but on such a dry board middle pair top kicker should be good almost always. Once the J pairs, I’m ready to stack off. I’m raising for value and calling a shove, as there are now several plausible draws out there. I really didn’t expect him just to call the raise and then to check the river with trips, so again my shove was for value. I don’t that he plays worse pairs like this on the flop and turn, but I doubt he ever folds them on the river once he gets there and I didn’t think he’d check a worse hand. He actually tanked for a while before calling, but I can’t imagine he was considering a fold, especially when you see some of his calls later. They made me feel better about shoving this for value.
Thankfully, I quickly took my grand back:
Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $10 BB (2 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
Button ($2113.50)
Hero ($995)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Ts, 6c. Button posts a blind of $10.
Hero raises to $30, Button (poster) calls $20.
Flop: ($55) 9s, 6s, Th (2 players)
Button checks, Hero bets $45, Button raises to $145, Hero raises to $495, Button raises to $2228.5 (All-In), Hero calls $470 (All-In).
Turn: ($3248.50) 8d (2 players, 2 all-in).
River: ($3248.50) As (2 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: $3248.50
He lost with QT. I think this one’s pretty straightforward with all the draws on the board. I guess it’s ok for him to get it in with QT, but really he’s often way behind or slightly ahead of a draw with 9 or more outs.
We played for a while without any big pots but with a lot of pre-flop aggression, then I stacked him again:
Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $10 BB (2 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
Button ($986.50)
Hero ($2120.50)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Tc, Ac. Button posts a blind of $10.
Hero raises to $30, Button (poster) raises to $99, Hero calls $69.
Flop: ($193) Kc, 5c, Ad (2 players)
Button bets $120, Hero calls $120.
Turn: ($433) 7h (2 players)
Button bets $250, Hero calls $250.
River: ($933) Td (2 players)
Button checks, Hero bets $938, Button calls $517.50 (All-In).
Final Pot: $2388.50
Results in white below:
Hero has Tc Ac (two pair, aces and tens).
Button had Ah 9s.
Outcome: Hero wins $2388.50.
He’d been reraising a lot pre-flop, so I didn’t think he had to have much of a hand. Regardless, in a reraised pot, I don’t think there’s a lot of value in raising flop and/or turn with this hand. It’s a good board for him to double and maybe triple barrel, since I could be calling him with a K or weak A. I was going to call a river shove (unhappily) even if I didn’t make two pair. I just think he bluffs more often than he calls a raise with worse, and on the river he may be more inclined to make a heroic call if clubs miss.
Here’s the hand we’re building towards. As I said, he’d been 3-betting me a ton pre-flop, and I was occasionally 4-betting him, maybe like 15% of the time. The only time one of those pots went to showdown, I 4-bet, he called out of position, and we checked a ragged board all the way. We both held AQ and chopped the pot.
Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $10 BB (2 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
Button ($1453.75)
Hero ($2742.75)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Ad, 3s. Button posts a blind of $10.
Hero raises to $25, Button (poster) raises to $99, Hero raises to $307, Button calls $193.
Flop: ($599) 4c, 7d, 5d (2 players)
Button checks, Hero checks.
Turn: ($599) Jc (2 players)
Button checks, Hero bets $350, Button calls $350.
River: ($1299) 9s (2 players)
Button checks, Hero bets $1284, Button calls $811.75 (All-In).
Final Pot: $3394.75
Results in white below:
Hero has Ad 3s (high card, ace).
Button has 6c 7s (one pair, sevens).
Outcome: Button wins $2922.50. Hero wins $472.25.
I think if he’d been a little deeper I could have gotten him off of this, but I don’t really fault him for the river call. He was getting pretty good odds on a board where all the obvious draws missed. Has has seen me make some thinnish value bets, though, such as the A7 from the first hand. I think this is pretty much a neutral EV spot for him, because I am going to be shoving a great many hands that beat him. His passive turn play establishes an upper limit on how strong his hand can be, and I thought he’d often have a mid-pair and a draw. It’s really just a game theory problem on the river with regard to how often I ought to bluff and he ought to call.
We didn’t get to investigate that interesting problem further, however, because just like the short stackers, the SOB quit a few hands after this. This despite the fact that I gave him a 10-minute warning when I was ahead but thinking of going to bed. Oh well, I guess its not surprising that so many poker players have no ethics.