Maximizing Value Out of Position

PokerStars Hand #81911003875: Tournament #574130835, $27.58+$2.42 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2012/06/13 20:37:35 WET [2012/06/13 15:37:35 ET]
Table '574130835 1' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Player 1 (2336 in chips)
Seat 2: Player 2 (824 in chips)
Seat 3: Player 3 (1600 in chips)
Seat 4: Hero (1440 in chips)
Seat 5: Villain (1730 in chips)
Seat 6: Player 6 (1070 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind 15
Villain: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ad As]
Player 6: folds
Player 1: folds
Player 2: folds
Player 3: folds
Hero: raises 60 to 90
Villain: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [9s 5h 8c]
Hero: bets 100
Villain: raises 100 to 200
Hero: calls 100
*** TURN *** [9s 5h 8c] [3d]
Hero: checks
Villain: bets 120
Hero: calls 120
*** RIVER *** [9s 5h 8c 3d] [Th]
Hero: checks
Villain: bets 90
Hero: raises 390 to 480
Villain: calls 390
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Ad As] (a pair of Aces)
Villain: mucks hand [9d Jc]
Hero collected 1780 from pot


This hand is played against a tricky regular opponent who likes to see a lot of flops both in and out of position. This particular time I'm in the worst possible place to be playing a player of this nature, the small blind which will lead to me playing all postflop streets out of position therefore meaning I will be acting first and therefore have less information to work with. To top this off he very rarely folds flops which, whilst it means getting value for strong made hands on flops, it makes for trickier decisions for more marginal hands or indeed maximizing value from the aforementioned strong hands as you are unable to define a players range with ease. So, in this particular occasion I took an unusual line with a strong hand in order to maximize value.

So, I'm in the small blind and the action is folded round to me and I have the absolute best hand possible and as this is a blind defending regular I make it the full 3 times the big blind confident that I will be called a large percentage of the time. The villain plays to the script and invests the extra 60 chips required to see the flop. The flop comes a rather wet board with a possible straight out there and a reasonable amount of 2 pairs are faesable too but there are also copius amounts of draws and 1 pair hands that I will be looking to extract value from(as well as a few floats from overcards etc) so I bet 100 into a pot of 180 and I immediately get raised. I'm not particularly surprised or concerned by this as I know he was unlikely to fold, especially on a board like this. But what does he have? It's easy to think he could have top pair but the number of 9s in his range vs the amount of times he could bluff or have me beat here is rather small. That combined with the fact that he's a regular and is good enough to throw away 1 pair to a shove all in here means I elect to call and let him continue his story as I know he's not one to turn down the chance to bluff despite the vulnerability of my hand. The turn is a beautiful 3 of diamonds completing the rainbow board so no flushes are possible. I continue my passive line and check call the Villains rather small bet of 120 chips. The river is the 10 of hearts which only improves a couple of hands that I was ahead of (9T with an outside shot of QJ as his flop raise doesn't make sense) that took this line. This could possibly be a spot to value bet but would chase away the bluffs from before (a series of gutshot straight draws and small pairs he'd turn into a bluff...this boy loves to bluff) so I check. The Villain bets a minute 90 chips into a pot of 910. This is clearly a value bet looking for value from an A8, 77, 66...but to name a few hands. So, the tricky reg has finally defined his range for me to either a weak 10 (possibly J10) or some sort of 9 that wasnt helped by the river. As my line is so passive this is a fantastic spot to polarise MY range by making an unorthodox play to maximize the value of my hand. I check-raise the river to 480 representing a very strong hand like QJ making a straight on the river, or a stone cold bluff. Giving him pot odds of almost 5 to 1 he instantly calls and shows 2nd pair with J9 off suit.

Against a more straight forward player, raising the flop to 600 would almost always be the best move. However, with a player who has a combination of low fold % and a high propensity to bluff, it is important to let them define their range for you especially with very strong hands so you can maximize your value.

bigstealer

April and May 2012

So, the end of May has come and summer has arrived. With my Pokerstars account being frozen in mid April and only getting reopened in the 2nd week of May, I've only been playing for just under 3 weeks on Stars. However, I broke even on iPoker with significant amounts of rakeback making my stint on there worthwhile. As I returned to Stars I decided to try out a new piece of software called Table of Interest allowing me to play more tables more efficiently my compartmentalising the tables to different parts of my screen for me. This has allowed me to play up to 18 tables at a time whilst retaining the ability to make good decisions without missing the intricate spots that typical mass tabling regs tend to get exploited in. Consequently, I have increased my volume and my daily VPPs have increased to almost double my previous daily rate which obviously boosts my rakeback on Pokerstars too. I have made a decision to play fewer MTTs but have still hit 3 final tables in the last 2 weeks despite only playing 1 or 2 a day. I have been running a bit better in general but not as well in the high stakes games ($200-$500 games) resulting in this last week being break even despite my 'In the Money' percentage increasing greatly. I do enjoy the flexibility that reducing the number of MTTs brings me. It also gives me a good idea about whether going for Supernova Elite in 2013 would be achievable/worth the commitment. Obviously the commitment to it would be significant (40+ hours a week as opposed to the 25-30 I'm used to) but whilst it has been fun lying in til whenever I want I think the time has come to work hard with an aim to save some money up for some long term stability (so wise....).

I'm thinking this blog will also become a port for interesting hands I've experienced much like md261 and Pezrez's blog but I'm yet to really decide on that.

I will update this again soon once I've decided upon putting certain hands here.

bigstealer