Forget about it. My opponents give me absolutely no respect at all when it comes to HU sngs. They call me down with anything..

[x] two overs 

[x] sucker flush draws

[x] mid pairs with bad kickers.

[x] ace high. Believe me, it's true... 

As if I'm bluffing 60% of the time. Look at this(from earlier):

Seat 1: Lord Kinbote (1,640)
Seat 2: doinmax (1,360)
doinmax posts the small blind of 10
Lord Kinbote posts the big blind of 20
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Lord Kinbote [Ac 9d]
doinmax raises to 40
Lord Kinbote raises to 140
doinmax calls 100
*** FLOP *** [Js 6h Qh]
Lord Kinbote bets 180
doinmax calls 180
*** TURN *** [Js 6h Qh] [Tc]
Lord Kinbote has 15 seconds left to act
Lord Kinbote bets 360
doinmax calls 360
*** RIVER *** [Js 6h Qh Tc] [Qs]
Lord Kinbote bets 960, and is all in
doinmax calls 680, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 280 returned to Lord Kinbote
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Lord Kinbote shows [Ac 9d] a pair of Queens
doinmax shows [Jc 8c] two pair, Queens and Jacks
doinmax wins the pot (2,720) with two pair, Queens and Jacks

I'm not saying this is my best move ever, but damn, he called me down with J8!

This is against an opponent who has a 5% ROI in over 2700 games, and a profit of about 11K. These are nice stats. I dunno, maybe I have a timing tell or whatever, but I doubt it. He just called because he gives me absolutely no respect at all. I can't possibly look any stronger. I re-raised preflop out of position, and then bet THREE times after the flop. All sizeable bets.

I thought the turn was a great card for a 2nd barrel. Not only am I representing a lot of hands(AK, KQ, AQ, 1010-AA, KJ), but I also have good outs with the open-ended str8 draw. His call on the flop was pretty weak as well, so I thought it was a good opportunity. On the river, well, I'm just trying to complete the story, but he didn't believe me. I probably should have shut down on the river and give up.

This is all part of a trend I've been noticing in the past few months - more calling stations in the games. I think it's mostly because a lot of them don't know how to deal with aggressive players that can bluff a lot. Over time, calling people down more often becomes part of their game. It becomes their normal strategy, and it's totally exploitable. I just have to tighten up my re-raising range pre-flop, and decrease my bluff frequency, and make them pay when they call me down.

Also, I think that my bet sizes might be giving me more action than I really want. I like to bet 155 into 250 pots, or 165 into 280 pots, and so on. These may look too much like I'm trying to take down pots, so they open up their calling ranges against me. I'm currently testing different bet sizes and I'll see how they react to it. Maybe I'll be able to develop a new betting strategy that I can use to increase my edge. Instead of always betting the same amounts whether I'm bluffing or I have the nuts, maybe I can switch around more often depending on the information I have on the players. This might increase my edge just a little bit. Anyway, it's worth looking into.

And I'm not talking about the kind of tilt where you go apeshit and play a ton of poker out of your bankroll and lose a ton. I'm talking about the kind of tilt that makes you question whether you should just quit the game. The kind of tilt that makes life miserable to the point where I'm not getting any joy out of anything.

I mean, WTF? I'm playing $100 sngs here... Those aren't suppose to be hard to beat.

Look @ this:

Seat 1: Lord Kinbote (1,960)
Seat 2: fantoms (1,040)
Lord Kinbote posts the small blind of 15
fantoms posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Lord Kinbote [Ad Th]
Lord Kinbote raises to 75
fantoms raises to 120
Lord Kinbote raises to 400
fantoms raises to 1,040, and is all in
Lord Kinbote calls 640
fantoms shows [Qs Jd]
Lord Kinbote shows [Ad Th]
*** FLOP *** [2s Qh 9c]
*** TURN *** [2s Qh 9c] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [2s Qh 9c Ts] [Kc]
fantoms shows a straight, King high
Lord Kinbote shows a pair of Tens
fantoms wins the pot (2,080) with a straight, King high

---

Ok. So you're probably asking why the fuck would I call a shove after 4-betting a min re-raise. Mostly, I was just pot committed, but in reality, I insta-called.

I knew he wasn't that strong. He had min-raised quite a few times, and from a previous hand that went to showdown(see 2nd HH), I could easily make the assumption that the pre-flop min re-raises were weak.

---

He didn't actually min-raise here, but it shows how bad of a player he really is.

Seat 1: Lord Kinbote (1,055)
Seat 2: fantoms (1,945)
fantoms posts the small blind of 15
Lord Kinbote posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Lord Kinbote [Kh 9c]
fantoms raises to 60
Lord Kinbote calls 30
*** FLOP *** [Kd 4s 6s]
Lord Kinbote checks
fantoms bets 120
Lord Kinbote raises to 325
fantoms calls 205
*** TURN *** [Kd 4s 6s] [Jc]
Lord Kinbote has 15 seconds left to act
Lord Kinbote bets 670, and is all in
fantoms has 15 seconds left to act
fantoms calls 670
Lord Kinbote shows [Kh 9c]
fantoms shows [Ts Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 4s 6s Jc] [8c]
Lord Kinbote shows a pair of Kings
fantoms shows Ace King high
Lord Kinbote wins the pot (2,110) with a pair of Kings

Then this:

Seat 1: Lord Kinbote (1,465)
Seat 2: fantoms (1,535)
Lord Kinbote posts the small blind of 25
fantoms posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Lord Kinbote [As 2h]
Lord Kinbote raises to 125
fantoms calls 75
*** FLOP *** [3h Ah 7d]
fantoms bets 250
Lord Kinbote raises to 1,340, and is all in
fantoms calls 1,090
Lord Kinbote shows [As 2h]
fantoms shows [5h Kh]
*** TURN *** [3h Ah 7d] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [3h Ah 7d Qh] [Qd]
Lord Kinbote shows two pair, Aces and Queens
fantoms shows a flush, Ace high
fantoms wins the pot (2,930) with a flush, Ace high
Lord Kinbote stands up
fantoms stands up

---

He didn't min re-raise me preflop, so I can assume he has a weak hand. What's more, his pot bet on the flop reeks of the flush draw. The all-in shove is pretty standard here given the information I have on the guy. But I still fucking lose.

It's not really that game in particular that pisses me off. It's all of them. Even when I apply my 'foolproof' logic to every situation, it seems like it's not enough.

It should be enough. I know for a fact that I have an edge over 99% of my competition when it comes to HU sngs, and I'm only leaving the 1% off because I don't want to come off as arrogant lol ;).

But it's true. I don't know anyone that plays the game like I do. The better players avoid me; I avoid them. It's a win-win situation. So I play against what's left, which is mostly comprised of average to bad players.

I told myself I was going to play huge volume during the summer. Then I catched the flu and I was out for a week or so. Now, I just don't feel like playing anymore.

This post is all about hand histories I have collected from my HU games this week. I've had disappointing results with my HU game for a long time now, so there's more work to be done. I want to become one of the best HU players in the world, cash and sngs, and this is how I'm going to do it:

1. I have to play a bigger volume. I'm not putting in nearly enough hours to make significant money. If I want to move up in limits, I have to make more money.

2. I have to pinpoint the holes in my game, and eliminate them as soon as possible. In order to do that, I have to save as many relevant HH as possible and review them often. At first, I wanted to make it a daily review, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized it would simply be too time consuming. Instead, I will do it approximately once a week. Like Patriple7 told me, it gives me the benefit of recognize bad recurring patterns in my game by having a bigger picture, so it's a win-win situation.

3. I have to learn my opponent's game. Two reasons come to mind: It gives me an edge when I move up in limits if I play against them, and I might actually learn a few things I can use myself.

4. I have to improve my stamina. I've always had a hard time playing poker when I am losing. Last time I tried playing huge volume even when I was losing, I ended up tilting away a lot of money, and that's not acceptable. I think I'll simply try to increase my stamina little by little over time, and eventually I'll have the ability to play long hours without tilting, even if I'm losing, hopefully. I have a 2 buy-ins stop-loss right now. What I'll do is increase that to 3 buy-ins until I get comfortable. Then 4 buy-ins. And so on.

---

Let's get to work!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812350

From my experience, players usually min-raise preflop like that with A high or a big hand. Since I have position and I get good odds to call, I usually flat call with a lot of hands. I think my mistake was on the flop; leading would probably be the best move. I get him to fold a lot of hands, make him chase with A high or lower pair, and I get a better read if he has a big hand. I take control of this hand.

My check-call just doesn't accomplish anything, and I stay at the mercy of his aggressiveness - he can still bluff me out of this hand easily. I don't like check raising since I'll run head-on into a strong hand very often.

Given the range I gave him preflop, I don't think it's profitable to call on the river. That's why I folded.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812374

Check-raise for value on the river maybe? I dunno. If he has the flush, he probably bets the flop. If he has a pair on the flop, he probably bets it too. If he has a 10, if probably bets the turn. So on the river, it's unlikely that he has the flush or 2-pair, so he's either bluffing or he has the K. If he has the K, he either has AK, KQ, KJ, K9, K8, K3 o K2. I think he probably bets with K6 with the open-ended. Does he call with KJ or less to a value re-raise? I dunno. The call is probably is not a bad choice.

Also, is betting on the turn profitable. If he doesn't bet the flop, and he doesn't have a 10, it's probably real hard for him to call or do anything here on the turn if I'm aggressive. Let's not forget that I actually have the best hand here anyway.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812393

Too early to take the coinf flip? I mean I still have 1000 chips if I lose, and I get a chance to eliminate the guy. The shove makes it look like 2 overs or a low to mid pocket pair. I think it's a borderline call. Maybe if he had more like 700-900 it would be better.

I need to figure what is the limit for me to take a coin flip. It will certainly depend on how aggressive my opponent is, and my overall edge against him if I fold. I don't need to call against a player that gives me a lot of respect since I can chip him down easily as oppose to a calling-station. Also, I think the blinds were moving up to 25/50 very soon, so it definitely affects my decision. If the blinds are getting very close to getting high, no matter what I do, I'll have to make a move eventually.

This call isn't bad IMO.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812419

Yup. I get no respect at all. I think I hate myself for not betting on the river, but does he even give respect then. I wasn't taking notes with my HH when I started out. He might have been huge station and that's why I didn't bet, but still, I think I should have taken a stab at this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812424

Ok. I see where this was going. This is such a bad move considering the information I have on the guy that came from the previous hand. He his definitely a station, and I'm not going to make him fold on the river here.

First off. I raised the flop because I figured that he was limping preflop with weaker hands, and raising with better ones, so the odds were that had shitty cards and was trying to steal the pot. I use this move all the time. I bet the turn because I figured I might as well represent it to the max, plus I have outs now that I have a pair, but he still called. I over-reached on the river. I remember this hand, and I remember how I knew he would call me if I bet, but I still did it, trying to convince myself I could make him fold even the ace.

The best move would have been to shut down on the turn IMO. He's obviously not giving me any respect, and the call on the flop reaks of top pair. I shoudl save my chips for a better situation. I really sucked with this one...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812461

This is a tough situation. I don't like my call on the river because I'm basically calling for a split. If I check the river, I think I should probably fold to a bet. Instead, I should have bet 200 into 380, gotten more info out of it, and saved 55 chips most of the time. If he re-raises, he probably has the goods. if he calls, he's calling for a chop and he's the one making the mistake.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812473 

I've discussed this hand with Patriple7 already. It was the fourth time in ten hands or so that he shoved over me like that. I decided to take a stand, and I had the worst of it of course. I don't know, I guess the call is very marginal.

I could have countered his strategy by stopping to raise preflop, and just limping and playing the flop. I guess I got a little frustrated. The guy wasn't really playing badly either, but I had just doubled up with a good hand, KK versus 77 I think. I thought there was a tilt element to the shoves that I had to consider. Still, I think I could have handled this differently by playing less aggressively for a few hands. Let things settle down, and see how he reacts.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812491

WTF right? I guess I thought I had a 'read' on the guy. It's still early in the game though(first blind level), and I have no reason to believe my K is good there. It's a bad call and I lost some EV there. Just bad.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812502 

Another example of me overreaching. I know that when I raise out of position, and I get called, a big portion of the calling range is ace high. I know that. Still, I don't mind c-betting on the flop because I make them fold pockets, and other hands like KQ and QJs they might be calling me with. Here, there's no flush or str8 possibility, so I have to give him credit for the ace. My bet on the turn is just me spewing chips, and I need to fix that.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812516

The more I think about it, the more I think I should have folded on the flop. I felt he was strong since the min-raise was very unusual for him. I feel he would have put me all-in with a weaker hand. It appears like I have pot odds to call, but I only really have pot odds if I'm up against J8, which is the case right here. Nevertheless, I think I'm facing trips, a bigger 2-pair, top pair with bigger kicker more often then not here.

It might a tight fold, but I think it would have been the +EV play to make, even if I'm very short staked. I got lucky.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812530

I think it's a good fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812534

I should have went all-in on the turn I get beat by AQ, but so what. At least I'm not giving the free card, and he doesn't get the odds to call with the flush draw - 550 in 1190 to call if I go all-in on the turn.

On the river, I almost wanted to fold since the only hand I could see myself winning against was A9.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812553

Interestintg spot. I'm thinking value-betting if I hit the flush, and check calling if I don't. 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812568 

No respect. I lke my move, but to be honest, I wasn't expecting to go all-in versus A4. I have to call preflop obv.

My problem with this hand is that he went all-in with something I wasn't expecting, which means the ranges I was assigning to him were probably wrong, which means I might not have been paying attention enough.

Or maybe he just saw right through my raise.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812576

As I'm looking at this one, I'm thinking that the float on the flop might have been a good strategy. I could either have the three of a kind, and raise on the turn with it, or the flush draw, and raise on the turn with it. It would have been extremely hard for him to call even with K on the turn. Of course, if he gives a lot of action I can fold easily. I'm probably losing more chips on this particular hand regardless, but in the long run, I think it's the best way to go. Especially if my opponent has shown that he can fold, and if my image is appropriate.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812595

If I'm going to do that, I guess I might as well bet on the flop and look strong. If I check the turn again, he probably bets, and I have a tough situation again. Fuckin JJ.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812610

He was very aggressive. I don't think three of a kind is a big part of his range at all, but two pair definitely is. And low pockets, high pockets, and A high were all possibilities. I'm also getting very short stack, and I know that the guy is extremely aggressive, so it would have been very hard to play a short stack strategy agains him. I don't mind coin flipping here, as long as it's really a coin flip. 

A quick PokerStove analysis gave me about 45% chances of winning against his range, which included flush draws, str8 draws, ace high, hands like J10, pocket pairs, 2-pairs, etc.

Obviously, I don't have the pot odds to call, but if I fold, I get down to 590. I know from the time shown in the HHs that I have that the blinds are going to move up very soon to 25/50, which puts me very close to a push/fold strategy. Realistically, I will probably end up going in a 45-55 against him anyway, so I think it's a good call. 

This is more of game theory question. Is my winrate higher if I make a -EV call here but get a chance to have a bigger stack, or is my winrate better if I fold and play a push/fold strategy? Against him, I'm leaning for the former, but I really don't know the answer definitevely. I'm going with my guts. 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2812674

It's early in the game, and I don't have a read on the guy. With no flush possibility, I'm thinking he has top pair. Raising to 245 might have been better. If he calls me, I'm pretty sure he has tp, and I can shutdown, and use the info later in the game. I don't really lose that many chips really, and he might just be playing me.

---

Holy shit. I only skimmed through my first notepad - I have 5 of them - and it took me about an hour and a half to do this. I think it's worth it though; it gets me thinking more about my game, and about strategies. I have a lot more work to do.

Also, I started to take notes with my HHs in order to have a better perspective when I review them. I'll write my impressions on the hand and the player when I save the hand, so I have more info to work with later on. I think it's the better way to do things since it's easy to forget what happened in a game 5 days later.

I played a little session tonight. Played one 2-4 NL HU cash game and one 3-6 NL 6-max cash game. I ended up making a small profit of like $450, but who cares right. I played solid poker throughout the session, making little to no mistakes.

I saved this hand because I think it's my best play of the night:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2551779

He seemed to be a good player, but nothing great. The fact that he called my out of position raise after limping shows that he's not that great, but he wasn't being either. After playing for a while against him, I picked up on the fact that he could think about hands and fold.

What I like is how I took advantage of the flush possibility on the river to make a value bet bluff. I played it like I wanted him to call on the river, 60 into 140, and that's very scary.

I don't see how he can call there with K medium kicker too. After showing strenght preflop and postflop, he has to at least put me on top pair good kicker. Another reason why I like this play is that if I get called, and he sees my hand, he won't give me any respect for the rest of our session, which I can use to my advantage by playing tighter, and maximizing the value of my good hands.

One more thing, the reason why I didn't think he had the flush is that I couldn't see him trying to draw on me. From what I had seen so far, he seemed like a player that knew that chasing the flush draw isn't a good strategy, so I thought he would either fold on the turn or raise on the flop or turn if he had that.  

Anyway. I just wanted to share this one with you guys. Later!

I grinded down this clown to about 400 chips in a $200 HU sng. The blinds were 15/30, he min-raised, and I pushed all-in with A9. I was playing very aggressively. He seemed to be thinking about it - call or fold - and at that point, I thought I had him, until he called and showed AA.

Now this is a piece of shit move. It's one of the most disrespectful thing you can do to a poker player, and I called him out on it. That's when he noticed that I was Canadian.

Anyway, I still managed to chop chop the hand with him. The board gave us both the same str8. KARMA IS A BITCH MOTHER FUCKER!

Moving along. He managed to chip up, and the blinds were getting pretty high, 30/60 I think. I was raising often in position, applying pressure, and he offered little to no resistance. I was in total control.

Then, he put me all-in twice in 3 hands after I had raised in position. Both times, I made it seem like I was thinking about calling since I didn't want him to think that I was raising with just about anything just to steal the blinds. After my first fold, he called me a pussy. After my second fold, he said that I must be from quebec...

Right after that last comment, he min-raised preflop, and I called with Q9. The flop came Q 9 7 rainbow. I checked, and he bet pot.  This is where I totally owned him. Quickly, I wrote VIVE LE QUEBEC! in the chat box, and shoved all-in. Total over-bet, just like if I was on tilt. He called and showed Q6... I won.

Well, I'm not even from Quebec, but I live there, and I'm french, SO YOU CAN LMB YOU SLOWROLLING PIECE OF SHIT AND KEEP DONATING!

What can I say, I've been pretty lazy in the past 10 days or so. Real fuckin lazy. I've been oversleeping, drinking, watching lots of hockey, watching movies, surfing the internet, etc. It's all very pathetic if you ask me, but I'll take it as a vacation, I guess.

I really don't need a vacation though. In fact, I should have been grinding every day this month since I know I won't be able to play as much in May, and I have all the PokerFaction stuff that I need to be done with soon.

Now, for anybody to even consider signing up for this site, I think they need to have a pretty good incentive. People aren't just going to show up because I'm here writing about stuff. Obviously, the incentive we are trying to sell is to learn more about poker for free. This is what separates us from the other online poker "schools". As an additional incentive, I think I need to make myself available for any hand analysis people will submit to me in the forum. I see a lot of players in the other poker forums searching for a poker mentor, and I could fulfill that role to a certain extent with anybody that signs up with PokerFaction. I know this will be the most time consuming thing ever(imagine if even only 20 people submit hands every day or every week), but I enjoy it, and it helps my game. It's a win-win situation.

Why would they even listen to me though? That's right, I need more credibility. I think the best way for me to prove to anyone that I know quite a bit about poker would be through an HU sng article. It's my best game, not to mention the distinct lack of good HU strategy articles on the Internet. There's been a few attempts at it, but they always lacked the insight needed to shine the light on what separates the average player from the great player IMO. Once people read the article, I think they'll be hungry for more, and that's why they will come to the PokerFaction.

Also,when we finally decide to market the site, we will already have a nice little backlog of free poker videos, articles, and other content, so members will have a lot of stuff to go through if they choose to stay with us.

So it really boils down to the content. I think I need to release at least 6 videos this month, and have another 4 ready for next month(May). Additionally, I need the first part of my HU article ready for a release in May. I have already planned out how I'm going to write it(the structure, the HH, etc) and I don't envision it to be that hard to write. We will use that article to build up my credibility, so it's a must for us. I will probably write another 2-4 smaller articles about less important, but not to be overlooked aspects of playing poker.

One thing I don't want to do is to put a number on the amount of new members it would require for PokerFaction to be successful. I think it's too result oriented, and not very beneficial at all. If we play our cards right(build a library of good content, improve the site's functionality, etc), we should come out ahead in the long run, just like in poker.

So expect to see a lot of stuff coming out in the next two months.

... PokerFaction.com had a total of 8 guests at the same time this afternoon. Yeah!  Problably just a glitch though.

Also, isn't wet toilet paper the worst thing in the world, especially when it's the last roll? I mean, not when the roll is entirely drenched, but when it's like 25% soaked. Very annoying IMO.