LOL Donkament

Played round one of my match in the 2p2 SSFR HU tournament the other day; it was interesting to play HU for a $100 buyin shootout, a format I don't get a lot of. Very much a bragging rights type thing, but the money would be cool, too.

My first opponent was Robert Fripp, a very aggressive player from South America who threatened to run me over from the get go. The first meaningful hand, he'd been 3betting up a storm, I raised to 30, he 3bet to 100, I called with Ah3h, which was a monster against his range. Flop came Q24dd, I check-called 150, turn 7s, I check-called 360, river Tc I check-folded 1190 all-in into 1220. In retrospect it was a clear call as he was bluffing without a doubt, but my balls weren't quite in place yet. This dropped me down to an early large chip deficit.

I made some of it back when I raised KK OTB, he called, flop came 59Jr. He check-called 40 on the flop, turn was an ace, he checks I bet 110, he raises to 300. I tanked a bit to make it look like I was contemplating a fold, when in reality I'm never folding here (as he'd made it clear he was 3betting any ace pre). My only real option was between calling and 3betting and I chose to call. He gave up on a river 9 and I checked behind against his polarized range. He had 7h 5h and I dragged a nice-sized pot.

The very next hand I defended w/QhTh and took a pot down with a CR on a 26Khh flop.

I took another 100 when I 4bet TT pre with the intent of getting it in, then another 190 when I defended w/A7o and check-called 2 streets on an AQQ2 board before he finally gave up on a river T, showing 9Ts.

Later, with my stack at 1335 (starting stack: 2000) I defended w/QTo and the flop came 89J rainbow, lol. I check-called the flop, turn was an ugly 7, check-check, river king, I bet 120, he raised to 300, I shoved and he tanked and folded, saying he folded K8. This took us back to almost even.

Another interesting hand, I defended 5h7h, flop came 2h5s8c, I check-called the now-standard cbet of 40. Turn Jh, I c/r'd a bet of 100 up to 310 and he folded.

Then came the hand where the match really changed. I defended w/TcJc, flop came Jh7h7c. I check-called 40, turn 9c. I check-called 100, river 8d giving me the straight. I led out 310 into 340 and my opponent raised to 980. WTF!! I tanked for a bit and asked him if he'd boated up, which was obv what he was repping, and against a straightforward player this is such an obvious fold, but this guy had been such a monkey that folding wasn't really an option. I called and he showed Qd 4d for the stone river bluff, LOL. This gave me an almost 2:1 chip lead.

That turned the first match in my favor and I never ceded the lead. Later I defended w/A8o and check-called 40 on a 339r flop. Turn 8, I c/c'd 110, river 7, I c/c'd 240, he showed Qd 5d.

Thr first match ended w/me raising AQo, he defended. Flop 3d5dQc, I bet 40, he cr'd to 120, I called. Turn 4h, he checks, I bet 200, he CRAI's to 680, I instacall, he shows 2h 3h for bottom pair+OESD, river bricks.

His stats for the match were something like 61/54/15.8 - yes, an AF of 15.8 - and didn't appreciably change. My defense was easy - play about 55/45/0.9! I just slow-played everything and he only really started to adjust after it was already too late.

The second match was over very quickly, something like 32 hands. We donked back and forth a small bit. Finally a huge hand hit when I had JhKh, opened to 30, he defended. Flop came 2h4h8c for overs+2nfd. He checks, I bet 40, he cr'd to 120 as he always did (his c/r percentage was over 70% for the match). I 3bet to 420, he 4bet to 1040, I shoved for 920 more, he folds!!!!! Yes ladies and gentlemen that is a postflop 4bet-fold.

The sick thing about that hand is that I knew I had FE. He had been 3betting me so much that I figured he was going to try to stay a level ahead and on a board like this, relatively innocuous, he knew I might try to come over the top with air, and pre-planned a 4bet in advance. His 4bet was way too fast. Obviously my overs+FD are the nuts, but against a player like him it's ordinarily more profitable to wait until it hits, unless you get them to 4bet-fold.

Final hand was sexy too, I had 22 and defended, flop 23Q, noice! I check-called 40 despite a FD being on the board, turn is a 2!!! I check, he bets 100, I call. River is a 9, I check, he bets 270, I CRAI 625 more, he puke/calls off his last chips with Q5o. Not horrible on his part actually, and he knew I was defending him so light that he had to keep v-betting TPNK, and he has to be conscious of my potentially coming over the top w/missed clubs or w/e. Poor guy goes to all this trouble to set up a maniac image, finally gets to vbet thin, and runs into quads. Not his day.

Next match I'm up against a very good 2p2 regular who I've played against quite a bit at 1/2 on FT, so we'll see how it goes ... suffice to say that I expect the match to be less about exploitation and more about unexploitability.

Back in stride?

April was rough, essentially a breakeven month where I endured a $1500 downswing. It was a mixture of bad-ish play and running bad, I think. Lots of coolers one way, no coolers the other, but I think I took the LAGgish tendencies I've been developing over the past couple of months and took them a little too far, playing more like a maniac. I learned to start chilling on my cbets a bit, as nobody observant was giving me any respect, and I wasn't hitting the hands to make that profitable; meanwhile I was bleeding a lot of money in small pots.

Thus month I've calmed down and have been running about 19/14, which is about in my comfort zone. I had to deal with a ~-$800 session about a week ago, but have followed that up with four straight winning sessions, including a $1030 day today, the first $1k day I've had in a while (I put together two in March, none in April). Notably, I was up over $500 in non-showdown pots today, which is extremely weird for me.