April was indeed pretty good for me, as you can see in the picture. With rakeback and bonuses I won over 25k which is likely the best month I've had online. I think I won 4 different tournaments, finished in the top 3 about 20 times and final tabled maybe 50 tournaments. Being backed has helped my game tremendously, as I've had to think less about money and I've been able to go mega lagtard on everyone's ass and experiment all kinds of funky stuff.

Here are a couple of troublesome hands from the last week:

 

1) From the $640 Party Million.

I know how dirty this looks like, so allow me to elaborate. Rostiks13 is possibly the worst player I have encountered in my life. Three hours into a $640 tournament he's 80/3. He's flatted a cold 4bet with 54o. Yes COLD FLATTED a COLD 4BET. His fold to 3bet% is 0. In this hand, his range to flat my 3bet is like 40% of hands at the least, probably way more. Ulumbek I didn't know at the time, he had been in the table for about two orbits. He'd also open limp/folded a couple of times but didn't seem mega spazzy, he was like 22/5 over a small sample. I was really confused about his cold flat to my 3bet, as he didn't seem bad enough to flat here ridiculously light. Probably still too light, I thought maybe his range is like any pair, AK-AQ, AJs, KQs, also including monsters? He also tanked for 30 seconds before flatting which made me think his hand was likely strong-ish.

Anyway... rostiks13 also had a habit of donkbetting every single flop every single time. It was always smallish like this and he did it 100% of the time whether it was HU or 7-way. While I know how lollabad it is to raise for information as a concept, I thought this would work here as I believe Ulumbek is now forced to be pretty honest about his hand and at the same time it works as a value raise vs rostiks. My plan was to not commit any more chips into the pot if Ulumbek continues in the hand, and if he folds just valueshove turn vs rostiks. Thoughts on all this?

Party Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200.00/t400.00 Blinds - 10 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

AAirline (UTG+2): t17770.00 M = 29.62
amaze1 (MP1): t39702.00 M = 66.17
rostiks13 (MP2): t16894.00 M = 28.16
Hero (MP3): t23686.00 M = 39.48
siapok (CO): t1763.00 M = 2.94
Ulumbek (BTN): t19605.00 M = 32.67
Lost_Dawg (SB): t26150.00 M = 43.58
Ilkin72 (BB): t33100.00 M = 55.17
opperstoof (UTG): t22030.00 M = 36.72
nice_verona (UTG+1): t25175.00 M = 41.96

Pre Flop: (t600) Hero is MP3 with J J
3 folds, amaze1 raises to t950, rostiks13 calls t950, Hero raises to t3600, 1 fold, Ulumbek calls t3600, 3 folds, rostiks13 calls t2650

Flop: (t12350) 2 K K (3 players)
rostiks13 bets t1200.00, Hero raises to t2800, Ulumbek calls t2800, rostiks13 raises to t13294, Hero folds


***


2) From the $640 Party Million.

The villain here liked to open limp a fair bit, but wasn't superbad. He was like 25/5 over 100 hands. I'd been isoing him a fair bit and he usually never folded, so I figured it'd be best to just complete here for a change.

On the flop and turn I just hate stack sizes. I wanted to raise big OTF as he was stationey post, and I thought I could just cram blank turns vs him if he flatted. Do I still jam this turn with a gross 1,6xPSB behind? Should I have sized my flop cr differently? The avg at the time was 45-50k so we are annoyingly deep, too.


Party Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1200.00/t2400.00 Blinds - 10 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP3: t55100.00 M = 15.31
CO: t23404.00 M = 6.50
BTN: t38487.00 M = 10.69
Hero (SB): t86172.00 M = 23.94
BB: t38297.00 M = 10.64
UTG: t57979.00 M = 16.11
UTG+1: t91620.00 M = 25.45
UTG+2: t88484.00 M = 24.58
MP1: t35349.00 M = 9.82
MP2: t128835.00 M = 35.79

Pre Flop: (t3600) Hero is SB with 9 Q
2 folds, UTG+2 calls t2400, 5 folds, Hero calls t1200, BB checks

Flop: (t7200) J 9 Q (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG+2 bets t5500.00, Hero raises to t19650, BB folds, UTG+2 calls t14150

Turn: (t46500) 2 (2 players)
Hero

 

***

 

3) From the $108 cubed (cubed=1 rebuy+ 1 add-on), folding a set vol. 2:

 

Like 10 hands into the tournament. Me and villain both used our single rebuys already, so this plays like a freezeout for both of us. Villain is a random, I'm pretty sure that I'd know if he were a very good reg since it's a small network and I play here a ton. Oh and it's euro, so I think the level of play is generally comparable to Stars 50c.

My whole line feels so stupid, but what else can I do? On the river we need like 25% to call, but I can't come up with enough hand combos to get even that as we have blockers to most two pair combos.


Ongame Network No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10.00/t20.00 Blinds - 10 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG+1: t4910.00 M = 163.67
UTG+2: t2470.00 M = 82.33
MP1: t2780.00 M = 92.67
MP2: t4910.00 M = 163.67
MP3: t2085.00 M = 69.50
CO: t2795.00 M = 93.17
BTN: t4970.00 M = 165.67
SB: t5350.00 M = 178.33
BB: t2530.00 M = 84.33
Hero (UTG): t4700.00 M = 156.67

Pre Flop: (t30) Hero is UTG with 5 5
Hero calls t20, UTG+1 calls t20, 6 folds, SB calls t10, BB checks

Flop: (t80) 5 8 6 (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t60.00, UTG+1 raises to t200, SB folds, BB folds, Hero calls t140

Turn: (t480) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets t360.00, Hero calls t360

River: (t1200) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets t680.00, Hero folds

 

***

 

4) From the $215 Sunday Million:


First hand of the 2nd level. I haven't been concentrating on this as I had a lot going on, and I've been splashing around, been caught bluffing, etc. Villain seems competent, but I haven't seen much of him due to multitabling. He's 12/7 after the first hour which is the only sample I've got of him. I OPR'd him before my turn bet and found out he's -20% ROI at $42 ABI over almost 2k games.

Can I rep a missed draw here to get him to station enough with a lower overpair enough for it to make up for all those times I lose to his AA/set? How's my river overshove compared to a standard bet?

Poker Stars No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50.00/t100.00 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: t10550.00 M = 70.33
UTG: t9200.00 M = 61.33
UTG+1: t10100.00 M = 67.33
UTG+2: t13645.00 M = 90.97
MP1: t9850.00 M = 65.67
Hero (MP2): t9400.00 M = 62.67
CO: t9550.00 M = 63.67
BTN: t21125.00 M = 140.83
SB: t10150.00 M = 67.67

Pre Flop: (t150) Hero is MP2 with K K
UTG raises to t300, 3 folds, Hero calls t300, 4 folds

Flop: (t750) 6 6 7 (2 players)
UTG bets t300.00, Hero raises to t900, UTG calls t600

Turn: (t2550) 2 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t1530.00, UTG calls t1530

River: (t5610) 3 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t6670.00

 

5) A sick 4bet from Pokerstars $55 final table:

 

Villain is a highly profitable reg with whom I play a lot, he's 90k up from midstakes MTT's with a good ROI. He probably views me as a good, aggro player. I don't think I've ever made big moves on him that he'd called (I usually make notes when this happens).

Here me and villain have been by far the most active people in the table. The other two seem to be waiting to move up in the price ladder. Since villain knows I am thinking, he knows I know I can't 4bet like anything here for ICM reasons, so do I in fact need to jam any two since his range can be any two?


Here are the payouts for the ICM people:

1: 3,6k
2: 2,6k
3: 2k
4: 1,5k


Poker Stars No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t4000.00/t8000.00 Blinds, 800 antes - 4 players

The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Dixi-Olli (BB): t146901.00
Hero (CO): t243400.00
ttvitra (BTN): t47819.00
jambeyang (SB): t617880.00


Pre Flop: (t12000) Hero is CO with J 4
Hero raises to t17000, 1 fold, jambeyang raises to t49000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t242400

 

***


...And finally, two possible ICM folds from the Ongame $54 Brazilian Daily FT:

 

6a) This is the softest FT I have ever seen at this level. In both hands I've been playing over 50% of hands during the FT and running over everyone. Everyone except the villains in hand 1 are mega nits playing like 7/5. Prior to this hand I've raised like 6 hands straight and been caught bluffing recently. The opener is the only player in the table who wants to play back at me. He's flatted or 3bet me every time I've opened on his BB. He's a cash game player who sometimes randomly plays tourneys and is kind of spazzy aggro, playing 34/17. His sizings are always too large and he's not stack size/ICM aware. The flatter is the only other villain who's not a mega nit, he's just a standard loose/passive fish who can have like 22/76o/KJ here. I don't think he's ever trapping with a monster.

So I was gonna flat this, but then the other guy flatted and I didn't want to play a pot OOP 3-way with the relative nuts. Before 3-betting I had a feeling the opener is going to jam a LOT here. If I knock him out, I'm going to win like every time since my only competitor is out. If I lose the hand, I'm out as I cover him by 1k only.

3bet/folding seems absurd, but should I just have flatted him in the first place to avoid this? My problem is that while he's 4betting wide, he's never opening wide on my BB, and most of his 4bet bluff hands are still like 50% against me and consist mainly of broadway combos and JT type stuff. Any chance this could even be a 3bet/ICM fold? I can't stress enough how huge my edge is over everyone else in this table, I'm the only player with a positive ROI here.



Ongame Network No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t600.00/t1200.00 Blinds, 150 antes - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP: t40822.00
CO: t49794.00
BTN: t28244.00
SB: t37028.00
Hero (BB): t50020.00
UTG: t29092.00

Pre Flop: (t1800) Hero is BB with 9 9
2 folds, CO raises to t3000, BTN calls t3000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t9600, CO raises to t49674, 1 fold, Hero

Semi-accurate stove here:


Hand 0: 53.309% 52.87% 00.44% 1211300652 10040568.00 { 99 }
Hand 1: 46.691% 46.25% 00.44% 1059680964 10040568.00 { 44+, A9s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo }



6b) This is probably a lot less close. Same table a bit earlier, same images except that villain is one of those mega nits playing 9/6 since we were ITM and I don't think he's open raised once during the FT.


Ongame Network No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t300.00/t600.00 Blinds, 50 antes - 10 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP2: t24114.00
MP3: t18288.00
CO: t41663.00
BTN: t14567.00
SB: t7151.00
BB: t24216.00
UTG: t14640.00
Hero (UTG+1): t51580.00
UTG+2: t6310.00
MP1: t32471.00

Pre Flop: (t900) Hero is UTG+1 with K A
1 fold, Hero raises to t1500, 2 folds, MP2 raises to t24054, 5 folds, Hero

 

 

I had a pretty rough sunday tonight. I played a $700 WSOP ME satty with no success, and was 10-15 spots off the money in three different sunday majors. The only relevant cash today was finishing 39th at the iPoker $320 for $1258, but all in all I had a losing day. Can't win every day!