Rope a Dope

I didn't play last night as I was tired and was not going to play tired two nights in a row.

Instead, I took a look through my hand history from the night before.

Mistakes made:
Playing too many hands, attempting to steal pots from loose callers, attempting to steal when my image was loose/weak, calling against the odds when on draws, raising preflop with sub-standard hands, limping in preflop with weak holdings and then calling raises with them, playing when feeling tired and unfocussed, unable to settle for a small loss and playing on to "get even".

A litany of errors all of which I know I shouldn't commit...yet I still do. Why? The simple answer is that I lack discipline. The solution should be simple - "Just Be More Disciplined". But it's not so simple to implement.
But it is a matter of deciding to do something and then sticking to it, and unless I can do that I am wasting my time playing.

I shall return to that subject anon. In the mean time, here's a hand from the night before last. This is an example of a play which Harrington calls the "rope-a-dope".

Game:
$25 NL Hold'em, blinds 12c/25c.

Main Characters:
Mr Solid: Selective, aggressive and very competent player.
Mr Loose: Plays too many hands, bets in an indisciplined way.

Extras:
Me and the big blind

Mr Loose in middle position raises $1 before the flop. Mr Solid in LP reraises to $2. I call with QQ on the button. The big blind calls the reraise. Four players contest an $8 pot.

The flop comes 9d-Td-Ts. The blind checks and the loose middle position player bets $1. The solid preflop reraiser raises just to $2.

Now I'm suspicious. Having watched this player previously, he always bets big to protect his hand from draws.
But now he raises just $2 into a $9 pot on a 2-suited board, against three opponents?
The only reason that makes sense is if it's a value bet that he wants called.
It can't be a bluff because Mr Loose is not going to fold to a min raise.

Well, whatever his bet represents, I can feel in my waters that my queens are no good.... I fold and so does the blind.

I forget what the turn card was but again Mr Loose bets, this time $1.50, and again Mr Solid raises, this time to $3. Mr Loose calls the raise and now over half his stack is in the pot.

I again consider what Mr Solid might have. To have trip tens he would have to have reraised preflop with a hand like ATs. Unlikely, but even if he did have trip 10s, knowing the kind of player he is, surely he would have bet stronger on the flop to protect his hand? The same logic would apply on the turn. Could he have reraised preflop with 99 and flopped a full house?

The river card seems to be a blank and Mr Loose bets his last $5 or so, and is called.

Mr Loose didn't show his cards but Mr Solid shows TT and wins a big pot with his flopped quads.

Observations: When a good player who you know to be selective/aggressive doesn't appear to fear draws in a multi way pot, be wary - he has a very strong hand.

Not Firing On All Cylinders

Played for about an hour and a three quarters last night. The usual $25 NL Hold'em. Not a particularly good session, down $12 overall.

Started off tight and stayed that way for a while. Played few hands and the very very few times I did hit a hand I bet it strongly. But little in pay-offs. Varying between being up and down 8-12 dollars most of the session.

The table was initially quite loose with one or two players making very bad calls, but unfortunately these players got stacked by others before I could get to them.
I was getting no premiums and very few even playable hands, and was hoping for an opportunity to play connectors or the like and hit a strong disguised hand. But anytime I stuck my neck out to tried and sneak in with a suited connector I was snapped off by a big raise. I was soon down about $17 and feeling a bit frustrated but anyway I bought back up to $25.

Was getting a bit impatient and made a few silly plays like raising with J8s and calling a preflop raise with 97s only to flop middle pair and fold to a bet.
But eventually an opportunity arose. I limped in with a pair of fours in MP. A very loose player in LP raised, another player called and I called.
The flop was a nice 4-rag-rag. At last I thought, a hand! With no straight or flush draws on the raggedy flop I checked. To my dismay the raiser checked behind me, as did the third player. I figured he might have Ax and had not hit.

The turn looked like a blank and the board was four different suits and no straight draws, so I decided to check again - I figured betting now would look suspicious and they would both fold to any bet.

The river came an ace. This was potentially a great card for me as it was very likely one of them (probably the raiser) held a high card hand. Continuing my pattern so far in the hand, I checked. Now my opponent bet the pot and the third player mucked. I raised him a bit and he reraised back all in (he had about $14). I called and he showed AK. A nice pot and I was back to nearly even.

After a while I sensed the table had lost its profitability and when two sharks I had encountered before sat down I should probably have taken it as a sign from the gods and called it a night. But for whatever reason I stayed on. Both sharks were very tight players, and when they entered a pot they usually bet very aggressively.

The sharks were folding and folding patiently and I was getting bored and tired but I wouldn't get up and go to bed. I tried a steal when last to act on a rag board after the turn and river were checked-checked, but my $3 bet was called by a player with middle pair no kicker! Doh! When trying a steal, at least consider the likelihood your opponent will fold. This guy had been calling with weak hands all night and I should have remembered that.

About half an hour elapses and I have AKs on the button... one limper calls and the shark to my right makes it $1.50. Him being tight, I put him on anything from AA to roughly 88, AK or KQ. I briefly contemplate reraising but as I have position I decide to call and see a flop. The limper also calls.

While waiting for the flop I was thinking about what I would do if an A flopped and also trying to think what the shark would be likely to do if an A flopped and he had AA, KK, AK lower pair etc. But my thoughts were a bit muddled. And I was a bit wary of this player as he usually played a very tight range of hands.

The flop came A-rag-rag. Shark bet about half the pot. My thinking was that it's more likely he has AK or an underpair (KK-88) than AA. But AA was possible and if I called I wouldn't know where I stood on the turn. So I raised about 3 times his bet, intending to fold if he reraised me large (negative thinking?). The limper folded and after thinking for a while, shark layed it down.

I thought afterward that his half pot bet was more likely a "see where I am" bet than a value bet and am not sure if I made the right decision in raising. Maybe I could have made more out of him by flat calling the flop bet, but there was no draw on the board that I could credibly be playing; and he would have had to have put me on an A and would therefore be unlikely to pay me off on the turn if he couldn't beat my pair of aces.

An hour passed and I was getting tired, feeling unfocussed and past the point where I should have quit for the night. Why do I play when I am not firing on all cylinders? I suppose because I want to play, but that's not a good enough reason.

Now I'm in the big blind, and oh, here's JJ. Two callers in MP and Mr Shark raises $1.50 from the button. I call.
The flop comes three cards lower than my jacks. I'm first to act. Now what? With a pot of about $5.50, I decide to "donk" bet $3. The preflop caller folds and after thinking for ages shark raises to $8.50. The question I'm asking by donk betting into him is "Can you beat JJ?", and his raise says "Yes I can". The flop is lowish cards so his raise says high pair or bluff. I'm contemplating a fold but don't feel too good about it. But I'm definitely not going to call, it's either raise all-in or muck. The tight side of TAG. I credit him with AA-KK-QQ and lay down my jacks.

Thinking back over this hand I think I made a mistake by betting my jacks on the flop from out of position. He had previously seen me raising him on the flop in the AK hand when he had raised preflop. He had folded so didn't see my cards.
This hand was playing out similarly, perhaps from his point of view he remembered the previous AK hand and figured I was 'again' stealing on a rag flop.
So maybe he decided to play back at me with a hand like AK when in fact my jacks were good?

Overall I am unhappy with how I played. Though I did bet solidly to protect some made hands, overall I feel I played weak tight at times and too loose at other times. And I tried a couple of very dumb bluffs. I played when feeling unfocussed and tired. I think it was Mike Caro who said that the time you feel like you are "stuck to the chair" is the very time you should leave the game.

On to better sessions......