I found this hand to be quite interesting, because I genuinely wasn't sure what I was supposed to do on any street! There was three limpers before it gets to me in the hijack, I decided to 6x it and attempt to thin the field a bit. The guy who was UTG decides to flat and see a flop. A quick glance at his stats reveals that he is running 81/15 over 26 hands. Obviously this is a very small sample, but it is reasonably safe to assume that he would be limp/calling pretty wide here and I think his range is something like 22-88, Ax, two broadways, suited Q9/K7 type hands and the occasional bit of random garbage and SCs.

On the flop I have another interesting decision when it's checked to me. Obviously I have a gutshot and two overs, but this board hits him more often than I would like. I don't think he would give up small pairs to a cbet too often, but I have plenty of outs if that is what he does have. I also want to charge any draw he may have - there are plenty of gutshots in his range here. So I decide to fire out my standard 55-60% cbet and he calls.

As soon as the Ace hits the turn and he donks into me with a minbet, I am 95% confident that I have the best hand. Most of the time when fish do this I find that they show up with draws or very weak hands that can't stand a bet. I was tempted to just shove here and hopefully get looked up by this sort of hand, but that folds out all of his Tx range and I want to be called by AT/KT/QT. The number of flush draws in his range have been reduced quite a bit at this point as I have the Qh blocker and there is now pretty much zero chance he has Ahxh after donking the turn like that.

On the river I decided to make a thin shove knowing he was folding a huge percentage of the time. It would be hard for him to call with a worse hand, but as he seemed to play like such a tard, I thought that I was getting paid off much more than I would be losing to some random slow played Jack or whatever. Also, means I don't have to show my hand :)

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 4.4 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (9 handed)

MP2 (t1050)
Hero (MP3) (t1460)
CO (t830)
Button (t1970)
SB (t1260)
BB (t1830)
UTG (t1950)
UTG+1 (t1700)
MP1 (t1450)
Hero's M: 48.67

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Q♥, A♣ UTG calls t20, 1 fold, MP1 calls t20, MP2 calls t20, Hero bets t120, 4 folds, UTG calls t100, 2 folds

Flop: (t310) 10♥, J♥, J♦ (2 players) UTG checks, Hero bets t180, UTG calls t180 Turn: (t670) A♦ (2 players) UTG bets t20, Hero raises to t340, UTG calls t320

River: (t1350) 7♦ (2 players) UTG checks, Hero bets t820 (All-In), 1 fold Total pot: t1350 Results: Hero didn't show Q♥, A♣ (nothing). Outcome: Hero won t1350

Early 180man results

I have now played 17 of these SNGs and I have discovered that the standard at the $4 level is truly terrible. Without wanting to sound arrogant, I think the only thing holding me back from absolutely crushing these games is my own lack of patience. I am finding it difficult to play these when I am tired and bored after a long day at work. Also, I have discovered that it is difficult to multitable these without committing to a 6hour slot as they take much longer than I expected to get started (at least during the hours I would want to be playing).

A rethink of what times I play these tournaments is in order. Despite binking one of these, my results overall have been a little disappointing and I am now starting to appreciate the huge variance in this format. Although I have ran quite bad at the start of many tourneys and have found myself crippled/out in the early levels far too much after losing 80/20s and 70/30s, some of the time I just got my money in awful spots whilst in pure gamble mode. This is another reason why I need to think hard before starting another set of 180s. From now on, I will only be playing when I'm ready to play my best and I will turn off all other distractions.

Here are my results so far:




As you can see from the results above, I have currently spent $74.80 on buyins and I have won $249.84, giving a 234% ROI and $175.04 in profit. The bankroll required for this challenge isn't huge, but it is nice to have an early cushion. Hopefully I will be able to build from this and take down one or two more large scores before I complete the 100 games. Looking through the numbers, I think I am going out too early, too often. I have reviewed a few of my exit hands and perhaps I have reshoved a little too light when I have 15-20ish BBs. The levels are long in this structure and I believe I am better than average post flop, so perhaps I should be shoving a little less and seeing the flop more often than I have been.

Time for me to post some hands methinks, I will take another look through my HEM and see if I can see anything postworthy!

180man SNGs

It has been a long time since I have given myself a new poker challenge and I have been playing games at random without any sense of direction. I have decided that I am going to play 100 $4.40 180man SNGs on Stars and see how I do. I have very little experience in this sort of game, so I will not be setting an ROI target, my aim is simply to play 100 tourneys and try to make some profit.

I will be using this blog to keep track of my progress, any comments/advice will be welcomed.