Learning in Practice

My sister gave me Daniel Negreanu's Power Hold'em Strategy for Christmas. I was extremely excited to add this book to my library and was anxious to break into it. I just started in on Daniel's section tonight. Preceding his chapter David Williams has a section on mixing up your game. It was a great read, and although he's a lot crazier than I am, he nailed a few great points. Specifically he talks about how trained your opponents memory will be on the bad things you have done to them.

Following, you'll see a hand from an 18-person sit and go tournament where I did a fantastic job of mixing up my play. I was re-raised three times before this hand. Each time I folded because I had squat. Each time the opponent (whether through other action or out of courtesy) showed me a great hand. When I got opponents in for all of their chips, I had them crushed!

One particular hand took place at the final table where I had raised pre-flop with JQo from under the gun, a very loose play. A tiny stack in seat 6 called all-in for a lot less than my raise. The player on the button, Mikey also called my raise, leaving 500 chips in a side pot between us as well as 500 in the main pot. I wasn't about to check the hand down when it came three low cards, I fired out a continuation bet, as implicit collusion didn't seem to apply. I was trying to win the 500 chip side pot as the other 500 seemed lost to me. Mikey folded and I showed down nothing. A queen hit the river and I took the main pot too! I knew that anyone paying attention would use that hand against me later, so I had to be careful.

PokerStars Game #23386612430: Tournament #130426290, $1.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2008/12/29 22:17:44 ET
Table '130426290 2' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: titan (4575 in chips)
Seat 3: NHRA (1900 in chips)
Seat 4: CgCook38 (9130 in chips)
Seat 7: Scorned (370 in chips) Another Shortstacked player, I don't care about how much I lose to this person because they are less than my current standard raise right now (600). It would be like folding after someone's reraise if I lose - only 600 chips lost (or less here).
Seat 8: van (3875 in chips)
Seat 9: Mikey (7150 in chips)
titan: posts the ante 25
NHRA: posts the ante 25
CgCook38: posts the ante 25
Scorned: posts the ante 25
van: posts the ante 25
Mikey: posts the ante 25 The same player in on the button in this hand, a perfect opportunity if the situation comes up again. Let's look at my cards.
titan: posts small blind 100
NHRA: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CgCook38 [9c 8c] Perfect. Last time I raised UTG I had two big cards. Now I've got crackers!
CgCook38: raises 400 to 600 Standard Raise
Scorned: calls 345 and is all-in Falling into my trap, I hope, one of the remaining players will call figuring that I will bluff the flop again. I will not bet into any flop unless I hit it hard.
van: folds
Mikey: folds
titan: calls 500 Perfect, he had to fold his blind last time, so no doubt he knows what's going on. If he has a hand, I hope it's Ace or Kings so I can bust him. Williams calls this a mistake, by the way. If he has enough chips and thinks I am bluffing he should reraise substantially.
NHRA: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ks 9d 9s] OMG! How much more perfect can this hand be (unless he has Kings of course)?
titan: bets 200
CgCook38: raises 1000 to 1200
titan: calls 1000 Trickle, trickle, trickle.
*** TURN *** [Ks 9d 9s] [Jd]
titan: bets 1500 Haha he's protecting against the flush and hoping against the nine!
CgCook38: raises 1500 to 3000
titan: calls 1250 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (250) returned to CgCook38
*** RIVER *** [Ks 9d 9s Jd] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
titan: shows [Ac Kh] (two pair, Aces and Kings) A reraise pre-flop would have chased me away and saved his tournament life.
CgCook38: shows [9c 8c] (three of a kind, Nines)
CgCook38 collected 8410 from side pot
Scorned: shows [Kc 9h] (a full house, Nines full of Kings) Like I said, I didn't care what this player had.
Scorned collected 1385 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9795 Main pot 1385. Side pot 8410. Rake 0
Board [Ks 9d 9s Jd As]
Seat 1: titan (small blind) showed [Ac Kh] and lost with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 3: NHRA (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: CgCook38 showed [9c 8c] and won (8410) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 7: Scorned showed [Kc 9h] and won (1385) with a full house, Nines full of Kings
Seat 8: van folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Mikey (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)