Learning from the Pros- Hand History Edition

What up?!??!

There are times in poker when you just feel as if your opponent has your number. He has been outplaying you all day and you just can't seem to beat him in any pot. Then along comes a hand where he owns you so damn hard you just have to insta quit your session. In a fit of rage you toss a monitor off your balcony and laugh in satanic fashion as it narrowly misses a pedestrian. It hurts to know that you are just not up to par and your opponents have crushed your soul with their skillful manipulation of all your weaknesses. In honor of my last few frustrating months, I have put together a few of the hands that sent me into instant depression, with the knowledge that I had just been owned. There is also a lesson here. Learn to play as well as these guys, and you will probably someday be an online megastar.

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to DRluck3 [As Ac]

Jonah SJ: raises $20 to $40

DRluck3: raises $120 to $160

Sharknebulah: folds

Tim0thee: folds

jasond781: folds

zartrüssel: folds

$hark2u: folds

C-Webb93: folds

mustanggino: folds

Jonah SJ: calls $120

*** FLOP *** [7h 6d 5d]

Jonah SJ: bets $1301.45 and is all-in

DRluck3: calls $1301.45

*** TURN *** [7h 6d 5d] [9c]

*** RIVER *** [7h 6d 5d 9c] [Ad]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Jonah SJ: shows [8c 8s] (a straight, Five to Nine)

DRluck3: shows [As Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)

Jonah SJ collected $2949.90 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $2952.90 | Rake $3

Ok, at the time I'll admit I was a little frustrated by my opponents play. Looking back on it, I can see why he made the move he did, and really, its pure genius. Now there's no arguing with preflop. He has a pair and he is only facing a small raise, so its obvious he has to see the flop. I think everyone can see that. Now on the flop, it gets a bit more complex. There's a little less than 400 bucks in the pot. I think my opponent sense that I will fold out all the hands hes ahead of if he shoves, so its important that he does that. In my last log I talked about how strong ALL IN is, and this is a perfect example. He wouldn't want the turn to come an Ace or King. So he shoves to find out where he's at. Unluckily for him, he gets the bad news that he's been reduced to a straight draw, but this is one of those times where you just have to be able to rely on your feeling. I can only assume that he knew the turn would deliver him from evil, and he went with it. A nice hand to get inside the minds of a good player, and I think I learned from it.

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to DRluck3 [5d Ah]

justDgmt: folds

AndrewBoccia: folds

zarifula: folds

ValentjNN: folds

palluss: calls $3

DRluck3: raises $24 to $30

palluss: calls $24

*** FLOP *** [6d Ks 8h]

palluss: bets $42

DRluck3: raises $97.25 to $139.25

palluss: calls $21.70 and is all-in

Uncalled bet ($75.55) returned to DRluck3

*** TURN *** [6d Ks 8h] [4h]

*** RIVER *** [6d Ks 8h 4h] [Kh]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

palluss: shows [7s 5s] (a straight, Four to Eight)

DRluck3: shows [5d Ah] (a pair of Kings)

palluss collected $184.40 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $187.40 | Rake $3

Here's a hand where preflop play is the key to success. My opponent limps in, disguising the strength of his hand well. When I raise to 1/3 of his stack, he can obviously call, since its likely he will double up if he flops well. And wouldn't ya know it! He has flopped very nice indeed with the open ended straight draw. Now it just comes down to whether he feels it or not. Evidentially he did, since the turn delivered him his four, and the STONE COLD NUTS. I really liked the way this guy didn't let me get a read on his hand, until it was too late, and he was all in with the 7 high straight draw. Nice hand sir.

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to DRluck3 [Js Th]

emotionale: folds

Miss MaiTai: folds

AndrewBoccia: folds

1Spotz: raises $9 to $15

DRluck3: calls $9

*** FLOP *** [9d Ks 8s]

1Spotz: bets $21.90

DRluck3: calls $21.90

*** TURN *** [9d Ks 8s] [3h]

1Spotz: bets $55.25

DRluck3: raises $130.75 to $186

1Spotz: raises $77.30 to $263.30 and is all-in

DRluck3: calls $77.30

*** RIVER *** [9d Ks 8s 3h] [6d]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

1Spotz: shows [7s 7d] (a pair of Sevens)

DRluck3: shows [Js Th] (high card King)

1Spotz collected $598.40 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $600.40 | Rake $2

Here's one where my opponent relies on his "soul reading" capabilities. You can see that although there are three overcards on the board, and he is facing a committing raise, my opponent looked down the barrel of the shotgun and said, "Fuck it, if 77 isn't good here, I don't know when it is good." Gotta say, I'm legitimately impressed with the balls required to go with your read here. Honestly, I couldn't do it, and that's why this guys a top notch professional, and I'm just his little poker bitch.

Finally, its time for THE REAL GEM OF THEM ALL! My opponent here shows commitment, balls of steal, and total aggression, using a few techniques I discussed in my previous post. Let's take a gander...

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to DRluck3 [Kc Jc]

klupko69: raises $20 to $30

dougiedan678: calls $30

DRluck3: raises $96 to $126

AndrewBoccia: folds

p.stefano68: folds

C-Webb93: folds

klupko69: calls $96

dougiedan678: calls $96

*** FLOP *** [4h 2h Js]

klupko69: bets $976.70 and is all-in

dougiedan678: folds

DRluck3: calls $976.70

*** TURN *** [4h 2h Js] [4d]

*** RIVER *** [4h 2h Js 4d] [6h]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

klupko69: shows [Jh Th] (a flush, Jack high)

DRluck3: shows [Kc Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Fours)

klupko69 collected $2343.40 from pot

First, its essential that he does not fold preflop. If he did, the hand would be over and then he couldn't win it. So he does a good job by calling this 3-bet out of position. While I can't really give him the credit for being out of position, I can no doubt know that he's aware of the power of out of position. He gets to bet first! And bet he will...

Ok, so he's flopped pretty well here. He has a weak top pair and a nice flush draw to go with it. Great! Now the key is to shove. We don't want to let either of the other two players in the pot put a dime in with a worse hand! Get those aces, kings, and queens outta here! The 3x pot shove is intimidating enough to fold out tons of hands, and a better player could probably fold my hand, but I just clicked call anyways, and to my dismay my opponent had the flush draw. As we know, you hit your draw more often than not, and he gets it on the river. I think I should learn from this mistake and be folding in this spot from now on, but for the moment, I'm just going to go kickbox a chimpanzee and think about how all these guys kicked my ass.

Peace guys.

DRluck The Third

Keys to being a Successful Online Poker Fishcake

Ok! By clicking this link you have taken your first step. Today could be the day you break out and become an online poker superstar. Below I will break down in just a few easy steps how you can become like some of the greats today. And don't worry. You won't have to put a seconds worth of thought into it because its just that easy. Trust me.

The first thing you'll want to do is establish a percentage of hands you feel comfortable playing. I prefer to go with about 75% because it is enough that your opponents know you are not scared and not so much that they think you're a lunatic. I recommend limping in with about half these hands, and raising the rest. Remember to go with your gut. 310 offsuit might not necessarily be in the top 75% of hands, but I can't tell you the amount of times I've folded a hand only to see the perfect flop. If you feel it, it just might be coming.

If someone raises you before the flop you might be tempted to fold. This is not the time to wimp out! NEVER fold before the flop once you put a chip in! Preflop is only 1/4 of the game. You will still have the flop, turn, and river to outplay or outluck your opponents.

A lot of people you come across will suggest playing hands in position. You should dismiss these donks and their advice. After all when you are out of position YOU CAN BET FIRST! This is important because you can take the initiative in pots. If you called a raise with 74 and the flop is AK9 you can just bet right into the raiser and try to make him fold. If you are in position and the raiser bets, you are basically screwed. So clearly, playing out of position is better. NEVER give up on a pot. As long as you have outs stay in there until the end. Remember, draws hit more often than they miss, so don't worry about your opponents large bets. In fact, he will probably check the river anyway, so even if you miss (which is unlikely) you can just shove all in and make him fold. Don't worry about the size of the pot, ALL IN is the best way to intimidate your opponent into folding his cards.

Finally, we get to the most important part of becoming an amazing poker player. You need to mix it up. If your opponents start figuring out your tendencies, its trouble time. The only way to effectively do this is to be completely random. Hell, if you don't know what you're doing, how on earth are they going to figure it out. Flush draw? Randomly select between a 2x pot overbet and a minbet. If you start timing out and haven't made up your mind stick with old faithful. ALL IN! As long as you keep on mashing with total disregard for logic, you will do fine. Just make sure you don't start thinking. That's when things go south.

Later Nimrods,

DRL III

The Running of My Mouth

Arrrrrrrrg! Another chat ban! Here is the conversation I had with Stars.

Hello DRluck3,


We are writing to inform you that we have suspended your chat privilege for 1 month as a result of your chat on 2011/12/04.


The use of vulgarity when addressing another player is not allowed.

When asterisks are seen during chatting, it is a warning that what is being put into the chatbox is not allowed. Using spaces or other characters, or otherwise defeating the censor is a violation of the Card Room Rules.

Your chat privilege will be reinstated automatically once the suspension period is over. There is no need to write to support.

Our goal at PokerStars is to be a fun place to play, where everyone can feel comfortable. Abuse and other disruptions to the games takes away from everyone's enjoyment, and therefore will not be tolerated.

We thank you for your cooperation.


Regards,

PokerStars Chat Moderation Team



The following chat was observed

any of u dbags wanna play HU?

fkin gap toothed clown

First of all. The way they have this quotes is out of context. I called the guy a gap toothed clown b/c his response to my HU challenge to the table (see the chat post) was something regarding my mother and he was from the UK. As I also noted in my chat post, it is important to make rash generalizations, and the first thing I thought of when I saw United Kingdom was bad teeth. Anyway, I didn't think I deserved a ban, so I wrote to them that I thought this ban was nonsense and got this response:

Bypassing of the censor on vulgar words ("fkin") will be sanctioned if found. We informed you regarding this on seven occasions by informing you that: "Using spaces or other characters, or otherwise defeating the censor is a violation of the Card Room Rules."


We are happy to assist you. If there is anything else we can do for you please do not hesitate to let us know.


We wish you a good run at the tables and thank you for playing on PokerStars.


Regards,

Guido

PokerStars Chat Supervisor

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! So my seven previous one month violations really got me boned here. Ok Guido, well played. Keep on fist pumping.

Drluck III