Well it looks as if PokerStars may stop the step tournaments this Sunday, as the PCA Event is filling up quicker than they anticipated. Well this certainly affects my plan....
PokerStars hasn't said what they'll do with all of the unused Step tickets. My buddy sent them an email and they replied that exchanging them for cash was unlikely and that they may allow you to use them in their next Step Satellites for what EPT/WPT Event is up next....ugh, hate that idea. At the very least I would want W$ or T$. I'll just complain as much as I can if they refuse....hopefully I can just get money.
I still have 28 step 2 tickets, as they weren't running that regularly today due to Thanksgiving so I didn't play. I'll play a bunch tomorrow I guess.
I'm happy to say that I'm fully a $2/5 player now live. I say "fully" because theres always that adjustment period you have to make whenever you move up. Its funny.....I've played $50/100 NL against some of the best players in the world, have been in $10,000 buy-in MTTs, and have played for a living for 4 years and yet I was still nervous and scared for the first few $2/5 sessions. The psychology of it all fascinates me. But I'm 3/3 with winning $2/5 live session, as in addition to the Venetian session I discussed a few days ago I have also logged small($100-$300) wins at MGM and Wynn. Nothing real interesting from the MGM session, but the Wynn session provided a few good hands.....
Hand of the Day #1
Usually with these hands of the day I stop at one point in particular and ask for comments and advise then give the results and my thoughts looking back. With this hand, however, there are literally interesting decisions on every street, so I don't know where I would stop. So I'll just go through everything all at once and provide my results, reasoning at the time, and thoughts looking back all at once....
Two villians in this hand. One in MP seems like an experiened player who was a regular in the room. Young guy, aggressive at times, think he might have even been a $5/10 regular. He had about $1000. He was visibly upset at me because I had flopped top set against him earlier and check raised him and when he asked if I had his overpair(which he showed before folding) beat I showed him one of my cards. He actually called me a #### for doing it...meh, I don't think theres anything wrong with it. Anyway, that had just happened a few minutes before this hand. He is in MP.
Other villian was a typical fish. No clue why he was playing $2/5 unless the $1/3 game was filled up. He only bought in for $200 and was now down to $90. He is in SB.
I am in BB. I've only been at the table for maybe 30 minutes. I've won one big pot with that set.. I've played 2 or 3 other hands, nothing too memorable except for one in which I raised preflop, continuation bet, and then folded when I was check raised(I had QQ and an ace came on the board that hand). I have both villians covered with about $1300. I get QQ this hand.
Maybe a limper before MP- I don't remember. Anyway, MP raises to $35. BB pushes all in for $90. I elect to flat call here, and I'm interested in thoughts on this. I would say that BB's range is 88-AA, AK, AQ, and maybe even AJs, QKs, or 77. So clearly I"m ahead of his range with my QQ. MP is much harder to read.....while he was mildly upset at me, it wasn't affecting his play and he wasn't tilting imo. $35 is a decent sized raise. I could try to isolate BB, but if MP calls me then I'm scared to death to play this hand out of position. Anyway I call.
He just calls. Interesting. I didn't sense strength. No real reasoning I can put in words to say why though. I definitely think he would be a player capable of flat calling with AA/KK there to trap, but I didn't think so here. I thought AK, JJ, TT were all very likely.
Flop comes J32 with 2 spades. Theres now $270+ in the pot and one player is all in. I hate the jack out there. AK of spades would probably play it aggressively enough that I'd be folding to him.
I decided to check and see what he did. Looking back I think this was a mistake because it doesn't put him to any sort of test nor does it give me the most amount of information. I dunno though...on one hand, I hate betting into a dry side pot when I'm not sure I can beat either player. And if he raised I clearly would have to fold.
Anyway, as I said I checked. He bet $50.....ugh, such a strangely small amount. I mean, I dunno.....I just can't see folding here. If he has JJ then hes giving me a really really cheap 2 out draw to stack him.
I call. Turn is a low spade, puttting 3 of them out there. I do NOT have a spade. Whats your move?
My thinking at this point is that I am a bit scared, out of position, and theres a lot of money in the pot- so if I can just see a showdown cheap I'll be happy. The spade had to scare him a bit, so I'll check and hope for a free card. I do think this was the right play here.
I checked. He bet $100, which just confused the hell out of me....thats two straight ridiculously small bets. The jack of spades was not out there, so maybe he had JJ with the spade draw too, but even still I think he has to fear a higher spade a bit since its clear by my call preflop that I most likely have some high cards in my hand. Theres really only one card in the deck that can come on the turn that makes me anything resembling confident(and even then the three spades are still a slight concern, although his betting $50 on the flop would make him holding two spades a lot less likely imo...well, I dunno maybe AK of spades would bet it there actually).
I thought for a while and called. Still not sure about it and I'd welcome comments. Just too much money already in the pot though imo.
River is brutal: another low spade. I'm pretty much check/folding at this point now.
I check, he checks. He shows TT with the ten of spades to take the $300 side pot. All in player shows JJ with the jack of spades to take the main pot.
Hand of the Day #2
The second hand involved the fish from the first hand. He now had a healthy stack of around $300 or so. I still had around $1000. I had been active with my preflop raises mostly because I had been getting some decent cards...nothing too noticeable though imo. I doubt anyone really had labeled me as anything yet.
Two limpers including fish from first hand. I'm on button with AJs and I raise to $25. Both blinds and both limpers call, which really wasn't what I wanted(was hoping to isolate fish as he had shown a willingness to call raises if he had limped nearly all of the time unless the raise was very high). Flop comes 69J with two spades(I don't have spades).
Everyone checks to me, I bet $40. Everyone folds to villian who calls.
Turn is a 9. I hated this card because he had shown a willingness to call with middle or even bottom pair in previous hands. At the same time though, there were a lot of draws out there. I checked.
River is a 6. No flush or straight was completed. He bets out $65. Your move.
What I did
I called. He showed 9J. I mucked.
What I think I should've done
I had never seen him caught bluffing, so I had no clue whether or not he was capable or likely to do so here. But with all of the draws out there and with me having played the hand very similar to AK it does make a lot of sense to me. I was getting an astounding 4-1 on the call. I dunno...the only reason I question the call is because I really really did think that the nine was a horrible card for me once it fell(it was, but little did I know that I was already beat before that too). I dunno...I think I have to call there though.
Hand of the Day #3
Villian was a relative TAG I guess. He had check raised flops twice on previous hands. Both of our stacks are around $1000.
One limper to me in LP. I get QQ(for the 3rd time) and raise to $25. Villian is in SB and re raises to $50. BB calls, limper calls.
I felt as if there was a decent chance I was beat. If rags came and he bet out big, I was folding. Just my read, could've been wrong though. I do hate to let two others in the pot though, but I had decided to pretty much play for set value here and to just use my position and postflop skills in the hand.
Flop comes TT6 with 2 diamonds. Villian checks. My first thought is "he would definitely do that with AA....just seemed like the type of move that he loves." BB bets $25, MP calls. Up to me. Whats your move?
What I did
I raised to $100. Villian raised to $300. At this point I was clearly folding no matter what, but I mucked my hand extra quickly when BB flat called!
The hand was checked down after the flop, which confused the hell out of me. Villian showed AA. BB showed JQ of diamonds(such a horrible play not only because of the crazy flush chase but also because he had every chance to steal the pot with a bluff/semi bluff after the flop or even with an all in on the flop).
What I think I should've done
I'm going back and forth on this one. On one hand, I did most definitely sense the check raise coming. But on the other hand, I'm sure that part of me is being results oriented. He could've easily had AK or even a medium pocket pair that for some reason was trying to isolate me preflop(although that makes his flop check a strange play imo). And I can't give flush draws for only $25 when there was $200+ in before we even saw the flop. Meh, I dunno.