This series of hand analyses is intended to give the reader an in-depth look into what is rattling around in my head during the process of playing some interesting hands. I have been breaking down hands and analyzing my play on a regular basis since I decided to get serious about winning tournaments. I have found this analysis invaluable in determining what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong in particular situations as they arose. I will often take a day off from playing for the sole purpose of just analyzing hand histories.


I have found during this process that it is important for me to write down what was going on in my head during the hands so I could develop a full view of each hand as it played out. I believe that every hand has a story it tells and I figure if I can determine what that story was I will be better equipped to recognize stories live as they are being played out. I have also found that writing a summary of the hands allowed me to put closure to bad plays that I had made and the bad beats that I had taken. Please feel free to critique my method of analysis as well as my play. I can be reached at delareine1@yahoo.com.


Anatomy of a Bust Out

This hand illustrates how wrong I can be about the logical progression of a hand. This hand seems to develop so perfectly and demonstrates how something that appears so right can be soooooo wrong. This is what was going through my head throughout this hand. Key players in this hand:

Name Stack Position Image / Notes
delaReine 2700 UTG Tight / aggressive, seeing < 20% flops
ckhook 7510 3rd to act Aggressive, catching cards, winning pots.
Journey 2715 5th to act Tight / aggressive, seeing < 20% flops

General Notes:

1) 2 of the 3 previous hands that I played with ckhook he owned me but did not push the action to get full value, he just called down my hands. He was however pushing hands with other players, winning showdowns and taking pots.

2) This hand took place towards the end of the 1st hour of a $150 buy-in tournament. ckhook was one of the tournament chip leaders and Journey and my stacks were slightly above average.

Table "Pearl 12" (MTT) — Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: ckhook (7,510 in chips)
Seat 2: ts2000 (2,245 in chips)
Seat 4: Journey (2,715 in chips)
Seat 5: nyrfan (940 in chips)
Seat 6: Matty Mo (2,360 in chips)
Seat 7: lindycat (900 in chips)
Seat 8: VAMAN14 (1,135 in chips)
Seat 9: delaReine (2,700 in chips)
Seat 10: DRFEV1 (3,220 in chips)
nyrfan said, "gotta"
lindycat: Post Small Blind (50)
VAMAN14 : Post Big Blind (100)
Dealing…
Dealt to delaReine [ A? ]
Dealt to delaReine [ A? ]
delaReine: Call (100)

I’m UTG with A?A? and I want to get decent value. I figure that if I limp and ckhook has any kind of hand at all he will raise me, any which way I plan to play my A’s from the front very fast after the flop. I am definitely looking to get a piece of the big stack here if I can but other than my initial limp I do not plan to slow play.
DRFEV1: Fold
lindycat said, "yep"
ckhook: Raise (320)

This is my dream scenario. Mr. Big Stack raised just like he was suppose to!
ts2000: Fold
Journey: Call (320)

This even gets better, now I have a tight / aggressive player in the pot. I figure he has a real hand since he was willing to pay 320 to win 570 (1.8:1). Time to turn up the heat!
nyrfan: Fold
Matty Mo: Fold
lindycat: Fold
VAMAN14 : Fold

I’m going to re-raise “pot +” to see who is serious about their hand. Pot = 890.
delaReine: Raise (1,000)

Seeing as I limped from UTG and then re-raised a big stack and a caller I have let the “cat out of the bag” and figure that I will only get called by a big pair or AKs which is fine with me as I am satisfied at this point to take the 890 pot right now or go all the way against any other hand heads up where I should be an 80 – 90% favorite.
ckhook: Call (780)

I interpret ckhook’s call as an “ego call” and figure that since he has been hitting cards he wants to see a flop, I put him on no better than AQ and most likely something like AJ. I figure that if he had a “real” hand like AK or a big pair that he would have re-raised me all-in. His pot odds to call are 2.4:1.
Journey: Call (780)

This confirms in my mind that Journey has a “real” hand and he is the one that is going to lose most his chips to me. I figure him for Q’s or K’s. His pot odds for calling are 3.4:1. Pot = 3450
*** FLOP ***: [9? J? 7?]

This is an OK flop for me. I don’t foresee anyone still in the hand as having T8, 9’s, 7’s or a flush draw since I have the suited Ace. The only real concern that I have is that Journey may have stayed with J’s and I could be looking at a set. This is a good enough flop for me to proceed as planned so I put in my final 1600 into the 3450 pot. I do not want to give any free or cheap cards.
delaReine: Bet (1,600)
ckhook : Call (1,600)

I figure ckhook is calling with his top pair / top kicker. *bink*
Journey : Raise All-in (1,615)

Ok, now it’s time to see which “Big Pair” Journey is holding because AK folds here since I have the suited Ace.
ckhook: Call (15)

Final Main Pot = 8250

When the cards were exposed I was literally amazed at what I saw. ckhook was the one with the big pair (Q’s) and Journey who I had put on a big hand showed J7s of all things!?!?!?!?!? *BINK*
*** TURN *** : [9? J? 7?] [ 5? ]
*** RIVER *** : [9? J? 7? 5? ] [ 8? ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 8,250 | Side pot 1: 30 | Board: [9? J? 7? 5? 8? ]
ckhook lost 2,715 (showed hand) [ Q? Q? ] (a pair of queens)
ts2000 didn't bet (folded)
Journey bet 2,715, collected 8,280, net +5,565 (showed hand) [ 7? J? ] (two pair, jacks and sevens)
nyrfan didn't bet (folded)
Matty Mo didn't bet (folded)
lindycat lost 50 (folded)
VAMAN14 lost 100 (folded)
delaReine lost 2,700 (showed hand) [ A? A? ] (a pair of aces)
DRFEV1 didn't bet (folded)

Summary:

This hand illustrates how a hand and its development can seem to make so much sense to me and yet I can be way out in left field when all the cards are exposed. The best I can do is take my experience, knowledge and intuitive feel into each hand that I play with the hope of maximizing my gains and minimizing my losses. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. With hindsight analysis I don’t think I could have played it differently based on what I put each player on. If I suspected that either player held less than a premium hand preflop I would have pushed all-in with my preflop re-raise. I rarely slow play big pairs from the front but with an active big stack behind me I saw it as an opportunity for a re-raise. Some may consider this a “bad beat” but I don’t. I see it as unforeseen and unfortunate. I anticipated being a 75% favorite 3 way but that dropped to 65% with the “flyer” hand in the mix. This is the type of hand that keeps me humble and reminds me NOT to get married to a “read”.

Analysis of my opponents’ play:

ckhook held a top 3 hand and had close to a 3X stack in relation to mine or Journey’s. In that position with Q’s I raise to more than 3.2X, I like a raise to 500 – 700 here to clear out AJ / KQ and lower (I do not want to worry about a marginal hand like KJ or AT drawing out on me). I would definitely have considered putting UTG to the test by re-raising him all-in. The deep stack would support such a gamble if called and I would be more than happy with my opponents folding and collecting the 1890 pot. I don’t like a call here, in my mind I can’t justify calling with such a vulnerable hand. I do not like ckhook’s play during this hand.

Journey surprised the hell out of me when he flipped over J7s at the showdown. These cards did not even register as a potential calling hand in this situation. I am all for playing “flyers” every once in a while to mix up my play and collect a huge pot when I hit a miracle flop BUT I can’t justify calling the preflop re-raise with such a weak holding when someone has all but told me they have a big pair, the price was too steep. When playing a “flyer” I like to do it with mid suited connectors with no more than a single gap. I don’t play J7s given this situation. I do not like Journey’s play here of calling off 37% of his chips preflop when there is an obvious over pair in the hand, though he was rewarded.

The Numbers:

Actual Hands AA QQ J7s
Win % 3 Way 65.2% 17.1% 17.4%
Anticipated Hands AA QQ or KK AJ
Win % 3 Way 75.2% 17.8% 6%

Anatomy of a “Flyer”

To vary my play and on occasion hit a big pot I will play what I call a “flyer”. A flyer is a hand that I play even when I have no business still being in the hand with my weak holdings. My requirements for playing this hand are 1) I’m calling a 2 or 3X bet either cold or raised. 2) The hand has to have multiple ways of hitting and needs to have no cards common with what would normally be in play. These requirements set the stage for potentially huge payoffs if the flop hits you strong. It may also put you into position to collect small or medium sized pots with 2nd or 3rd pair when the board has clearly missed everyone else. The following hand illustrates not only an ideal situation to play a flyer but it also has the desired result.

This is what was going through my head during this hand. We are in the first half hour of a $100 buy-in freezeout tournament and I have no good reads on any of the other players.

Name Stack Position Image / Notes
TFC-Laser 1295 4th to act No image established yet
richirich775 1785 6th to act Avg stack for the table
shengy 2720 SB Biggest stack at table
rvitt 930 BB Smallest stack at table

PokerStars Game #2492355320: Tournament #11805726, Hold'em No Limit – Level II (15/30) – 2005/09/03 – 23:26:04 (ET)

Table '11805726 39' Seat #2 is the button

Seat 1: richirich775 (1785 in chips)

Seat 2: augie98 (1890 in chips)

Seat 3: shengy (2720 in chips)

Seat 4: rvitt (930 in chips)

Seat 5: thewileydog (1460 in chips)

Seat 6: apestyles (1150 in chips)

Seat 7: D19Stark (2425 in chips)

Seat 8: TFC-Laser (1295 in chips)

Seat 9: juicyacct (1575 in chips)

shengy: posts small blind 15

rvitt: posts big blind 30

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to TFC-Laser [3? 4?]

I’m definitely playing this hand to mix up my game and maybe I get lucky.

thewileydog: folds

apestyles: folds

D19Stark: folds

TFC-Laser: calls 30

I limp in and try to see a cheap flop with my baby suited connectors.

juicyacct: folds

richirich775: calls 30

augie98: folds

shengy: calls 15

rvitt: raises 60 to 90

hmmmmm… 3 limpers and BB raises to 3X, I’m next, do I fold, call or raise?

Pot = 180

TFC-Laser: calls 60

This is actually a very easy call. The pot is offering me 3:1 odds right now and when the other 2 limpers call it will be at 5:1 with FANTASTIC implied odds. This is a perfect setup for my babies!

richirich775: calls 60

shengy: calls 60

Pot = 360

*** FLOP *** [8? 9? J?]

EUREKA, I have flopped the flush! I have already decided to play this like the “nuts”. If someone has a bigger flush or draws out on me so be it. Time to chip up or go home.

shengy: checks

rvitt: bets 90

wtf is this ¼ pot bet?!?!?!? I think he is trying for a cheap steal, a very weak play with 3 to act behind him. Do I call or raise? If I raise, I may chase out some callers behind me, I am actually hoping for a raiser behind me to make a real stab at the pot.

Pot = 450

TFC-Laser: calls 90

I decide to trap and plan to play this hand very fast after the turn UNLESS another club comes out.

richirich775: folds

shengy: raises 450 to 540

BOOM!! The small blind does a pot matching check raise. The big question is “does he have a flush?” Does it make sense to play a made flush like this? What hands would I check raise with on this flop? Let’s see… Nut flush draw with 2 overs (this is a favorite play of mine), 2 pair, a set, a made straight, a low flush, a draw to the nut straight with top pair and a pure bluff steal. This flop offers a LOT of possible hands to check raise with and I have all but 1 of them beat. I decide to proceed with Plan A by playing my hand like the nuts. Now the question is do I call or re-raise? If I call I may be giving him a free card to beat me, at this point I have decided to go all the way with my hand, so it’s double up or go home.

Pot = 1080

rvitt: folds

expected

TFC-Laser: raises 450 to 990

I decide on a minimum re-raise to string him along.

shengy: raises 450 to 1440

There he goes…

TFC-Laser: calls 215 and is all-in

Here I go, please don’t have a flush!

When the cards are exposed I breathe a huge sigh of relief. He flopped the nut straight and decided to play it all the way. He needs runner – runner big clubs to split the pot.

*** TURN *** [8? 9? J?] [7?]

shengy is officially dead after the turn and I am doubled up!

*** RIVER *** [8? 9? J? 7?] [6?]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

shengy: shows [Q? T?] (a straight, Eight to Queen)

TFC-Laser: shows [3? 4?] (a flush, Jack high)

TFC-Laser collected 2860 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 2860 | Rake 0

Board [8? 9? J? 7? 6?]

Seat 1: richirich775 folded on the Flop

Seat 2: augie98 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 3: shengy (small blind) showed [Q? T?] and lost with a straight, Eight to Queen

Seat 4: rvitt (big blind) folded on the Flop

Seat 5: thewileydog folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 6: apestyles folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 7: D19Stark folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 8: TFC-Laser showed [3? 4?] and won (2860) with a flush, Jack high

Seat 9: juicyacct folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Summary:

This hand illustrates how a weak holding like 3? 4? (ranks 82nd of 169 at a full table and 150th of 169 heads up) can turn into a monster under the right circumstances. Usually I would be throwing this hand away after the flop when playing 3-way when unsuited overs hit the board. Occasionally an opportunity to steal the pot or collect a small pot with bottom pair may arise but generally my pre flop plan is simple. If the flop hits me big with a made hand I play it fast, if it hits me moderate like bottom pair with a big draw I will aggressively “feel” my way through the hand, if I get a small piece or miss completely I am more than willing to be done with the hand and toss it. I have found it invaluable to have a committed plan to prevent myself from any 2nd guessing when it’s time for the chips to hit the pot. I could have easily of whimped out and put the other player on a bigger flush when he came out with his big raise if I wasn’t mentally committed to going all the way. My thought here is “why play suited connectors if your not going to commit to the hands you make from them”. My only exception here might be if I make the ignorant end of a straight where picture cards complete the top side.

Analysis of my opponents’ play:

I cannot really fault “shengy’s” play here. Preflop he was in the SB and his initial call was with 7:1 pot odds and his call of the BB raise was offering him 5:1 pot odds which is fine for a hand like Q? T?.I liked his big check/raise post flop which should do a good job of defining his hand. His re-raise of my minimum re-raise shows that he was committed to going all the way with his nut straight which I can’t really fault since he had me well covered and would not be crippled if he lost. My primary reason for doing a minimum re-raise was to keep the big stack in the hand and try to get an ego call or re-raise.

The Numbers: (Heads Up played to the end)

Preflop Win Lose Tie
3? 4? vs. Q? T? 39.1% 60% 0.9%
Post flop Win Lose Tie
3? 4? vs. Q? T? 97.9% 0% 2.1%