Much to Learn!

I didn’t get a ton of play in last night, as I watched a movie with the misses.  We watched Mad Money, she wanted to see that movie.  Let’s just say it obviously is not good, but is certainly better than the Darjeeling limited, which we decided to turn off the other day, lol.

In any event, I got in some $50NL HU hands, working on that.  I played pretty well to start and took a stack off a really weak tight player in about 30 hands.  He got fed up with my raising and I could tell he was getting frustrated and he started to make some very light call downs.  Fortunately, I had anticipated this and was able to get good value on many hands.  Eventually he shoved with 89 on an 852r board for what was basically a total stack size of 22 BBs and I had QQ and held.  I played a few other opponents before dinner and was up a fair amount. 

I finished dinner and cleaned up a bit, and played some more before the movie.  The same guy I stacked was sitting with $30, so I sat down, got $6 off him pretty quick, and then he left the table. 

One player I was up against was very interesting.  He sat down with $20, so immediately my first thought was that he was not a stellar player.  After a few hands of going back and forth, he was at maybe $18 or so, he raised preflop, I had 99, and 3bet him, he shoved.  I am definitely needing to learn more about HU play and the dynamics of various situations, but I think this is a call.  He tabled QQ and won the hand, but I still think to call the shove was correct, given his stack size. 

This is where it got interesting.  I noticed a little while after this hand, his aggression started going way up.  He just was playing back at me on every hand.  He would min 3bet my raises probably 70% of the time.  If I cbet, he called 100% of the time.  In 6max, this is super easy to counter, you just stay patient, and when you get a hand, you bet for value.  In HU, this seems much different.  I wasn’t sure how to react to this.  One such example is when he called my 3bet OOP with AQs, called a rag flop cbet, and called a double barrel on a turn king.  He also ran stupid hot against me and there didn’t seem to be much I could do.  I did not want to leave the table, because he clearly was a spew monkey and wanted to give me his chips if he calling two barrels in a 3bet pot with A high.  Generally, I notice when people get frustrated with me, they are gettign short and I have absolutely no problem getting it in with pps and hands like AJ for 40 BBs or less, if I can tell they are just getting annoyed.  Here though, I built some of the losses back up and we were about 140 BBs deep, so I didn’t know the proper play.  This is okay though, this just means I need to study more and learn more about the game.  The other thing that was wierd about this villain was that I was taking notes on him, but after a while I saw the notes were not being quite as useful.  He would bet pot with strong hands or air.  He would bet 1/2 pot with strong hands or air.  This is not a typo.  I could not get a betting size read on him.  The only thing I noticed that he did 3 times (he liked to show his good hands, fool) is that when he was really strong, he would tank for half the allotted time and bet pot.  That read that I developed was consistent throughout the game. 

I have much to learn and this should be a lot of fun, I am definitely enjoying learning about HU play.  My hope is that through HU play, I can really learn a lot about postflop play and develop some interesting lines.  The other really interesting thing about this endeavor so far is the mental aspect f the game.  Maybe it is from progressing in this department as a whole, maybe it is going in expecting various things, I am not sure.  I was talking a little about this with Noel yesterday.  HU is pretty high variance poker.  I go in with the mindset that without question I am going to get sucked out regularly, coolered, have my opponent run sick hot against me, and that many donks will hit and run.  I just know this will happen and accept it and just focus on trying to play my best poker (which in HU play, is not good right now, lol).  Yesterday for example, I went from $0 to +$75 to -$20 to finally finishing +$10.  The night before I made a BI, but after my post, dropped to -$7.  So my total profit for the two days of HU play is … $3.  yet not once did I ever get frustrated, roll my eyes, or anything of that nature.  I stayed calm, played my game, and had a lot of fun.  So interestingly enough, HU play is going to help me remain focused on playing optimally, rather than frustrate the hell out of me. 

Tonight I am going to go back to playing some 6-max, as that is my bread and butter.  HU play is just for developing my game more and a nice change of pace from the grind that 6-max sometimes can be.  Hopefully I will be able to make many good decisions at the tables tonight and hopefully Detroit can finish off Dallas and get the sweep.  All I hear is Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, playing so well, oh so hot.  Last I checked, the Red Wings have rattled off 9 straight wins and Osgood hasn’t yet lost a game in the playoffs (I say this now and just doomed him tonight).  Detroit has played Nashville, Colorado, and now Dallas, much tougher opposition than Pittsburgh has yet to play, and is crushing their opponents every game, dominating faceoffs, hits, shots on goal, attack time, and time of possession all the time.  Where is all the love for Detroit??  In any event, Philly can you please win one freaking game, so I can go to a Cup game?  Is that too much to ask really??  Switching it up a little below, no music video.  Instead, it is some Red Wings highlights from this year.  I know LuckySOB will love this video soooo much.  btw, in particular check out the pass at the 2:10 mark, it is a ridiculously creative play.  GO WINGS!  Oh yeah, on a side note, the Pistons have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the6th straight year.  With a healthy Billups, Cleveland or Boston can come to play, but they won’t be playing for the title.