May

15K hands at -2.5 BB/100 is the short version of the story. And despite a final table appearance in an FTP $100 rebuy, I lost money on tournaments as well, thought I didn’t play that many. I very nearly rallied on the last day of the month, only to get myself into some flush trouble. This first one may just be bad luck. It was against Jason Strasser. Though we’d never sat together before, I have some idea of how he plays, and I’m pretty sure this is a reasonable line to take against him. Guess I’m just going to lose some money when I hold the third nuts to his nuts:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $20 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB ($3338.50)
BB ($2272)
Hero ($5000)
MP ($4314)
Button ($11909)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Ks, Kd.
Hero raises to $70, 1 fold, Button calls $70, 2 folds.

Flop: ($170) 8s, Qs, Js (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $120, Hero calls $120.

Turn: ($410) 3s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $320, Hero calls $320.

River: ($1050) 7s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $800, Hero calls $800.

Final Pot: $2650

Results in white below:

Button has 9s Ts (straight flush, queen high).

Hero has Ks Kd (flush, king high).

Outcome: Button wins $2650.

This one I believe I played badly, though not for the reasons you might think:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $20 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($5459.50)
MP ($6787)
Hero ($9459.75)
Button ($1582)
SB ($4198)
BB ($3796)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 2s, 4s.
1 fold, MP calls $20, Hero raises to $90, 3 folds, MP calls $70.

Flop: ($210) Qs, As, Jc (2 players)
MP bets $200, Hero raises to $819, MP calls $619.

Turn: ($1848) Kh (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $1550, MP calls $1550.

River: ($4948) Ts (2 players)
MP bets $2020, Hero raises to $7000.75 (All-In), MP calls $2308 (All-In).

Final Pot: $16276.75

Results in white below:

MP has 9s 6s (flush, ace high).

Hero has 2s 4s (flush, ace high).

Outcome: MP wins $13604. Hero wins $2672.75.

Note that we are nearly 350 BB deep here. You’ll also need to know that my opponent was absolutely terrible and loved to play loose and passive from out of position. I was happy to oblige by raising roughly 90% of his limps, potting most flops, and then proceeding from there. So I think raising him with 42s is actually fine/good.

He didn’t lead into me that often, though, and I’m not a fan of my flop raise. He isn’t very likely to fold, and he’ll probably pay off if I hit my flush, so I’m almost surely better off calling and keeping stacks deeper for later streets. Having raised flop, I guess the turn bet is OK. There’s probably a good-sized gap between his range for calling the flop and his range for continuing on this turn, and I’m 99% sure he’s not raising with anything less than a pretty unlikely straight.

Alarm bells went off when he led the river, though. I really hadn’t been thinking enough about his range, but this is very consistent with his having a flush draw. Yes, I’d seen him check call pot on the turn with a bare flush draw and no plans for bluffing the river. If there weren’t a straight on the board, I wouldn’t even thinking about jamming on him. But here there is both a plausible reason for him to bet this river without a flush (even if I do call he’s probably chopping, since my hand doesn’t look very much like a flush) and a good reason for him to call a shove with less than a flush, since a chop is so likely.

That’s what should be the case. But this guy was bad and predictable and I was just pretty damn sure he had a better flush. But I convinced myself I was being a wuss and shoved the last 100 BB into the pot. I got to tell you, as much getting bad beat out of a big pot sucks, losing a monster because of your own mistakes is ten times worse. Ugh, if I had just called the flop, I could have avoided such a catastrophe.