WCOOP 2014+A Coulpe of Hand Histories

So September's well underway and things have been a little frustrating at the tables so far. As per usual, I could always benefit from a bit more volume but aside from that I've been running pretty cold across the board. I'm out almost 7 buy-ins in EV but the coolers have been more of an annoyance...when it's all said and done though, I'm still up a few buy-ins, feel like I'm playing pretty well and a heater could be right around the corner because the games have been good!

I won't bore y'all with the bad beats or paste out all of what I consider to be "coolers" but here are a couple examples of what I'm talkin' about for the sake of showing some hands:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed)

MP ($122.24)
CO ($38.84)
Hero (Button) ($118.94)
SB ($105.62)
BB ($100)
UTG ($184.28)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, K
3 folds, Hero raises to $2.50, SB raises to $8.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $19, SB calls $10.50

Flop: ($39) 7, 6, 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $21, SB raises to $86.62 (All-In), Hero calls $65.62

Turn: ($212.24) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($212.24) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $212.24 | Rake: $2.80

Results below:
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and sevens).
SB had A, A (two pair, Aces and sevens).
Outcome: SB won $209.44

This flop spot is kinda weird/annoying because without specific reads or history involving this exact pre-flop action it's very tough to know what kind of 4bet/calling range we're up against. I think as a general population read though, we're looking at something like AJ+/KQ+/JT+/99+/67s+...you know, stuff that doesn't want to shove and get called but has enough playability and strength to not fold. I'm not confident in that range being an accurate representation of the average 4bet/call range because I think it varies a ton from player to player...some might call all pocket pairs for example, while others will be super tight and even mix in some slow played KK/AA, as we see here. I do assume that most players are probably tighter rather than looser and the 4b/c range is going to be heavily weighted towards hands that do well against the button's 4bet bluffing range and will be less likely to include super value (so hands like AQ, or hands that have decent playability against Axs bluffs like KQs or JTs). With that in mind, I still think we can be pretty happy about bet-calling this flop since most opponents can probably show up with 99-QQ, pair + draw type hands or quite possibly be even weaker. Even now that I've seen this villain show up with slowplayed aces, it's hard to know if I'm always just beat by this flop c/r or if villain would play 99-QQ the same way...sample size seems to be too small to know.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed)

Hero (UTG) ($100)
UTG+1 ($110.98)
MP1 ($80.04)
MP2 ($100)
CO ($96.34)
Button ($106.17)
SB ($132.58)
BB ($101.50)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 5, 5
Hero raises to $3, 2 folds, MP2 calls $3, CO calls $3, Button calls $3, 1 fold, BB calls $2

Flop: ($15.50) 6, 5, 10 (5 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $10, 2 folds, Button calls $10, 1 fold

Turn: ($35.50) J (2 players)
Hero bets $25, Button calls $25

River: ($85.50) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $62 (All-In), Button calls $62

Total pot: $209.50 | Rake: $2.80

Results below:
Button had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Hero had 5, 5 (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: Button won $206.70

Here we have a bit of a loose open from EP but the BTN was a 51/33 weaker player so I wanted to get involved in some pots with them. I get an absolute dream run-out and I strongly consider going for a check-call on the river since our villain looks so draw-heavy but ultimatelyy decide against it for 2 reasons. Basically, I given that all draws missed I think that villain is almost always calling with Tx or wider...also, I have no idea what kind of bluffing frequency this player has. I wanted to go ahead and target the villain's calling range rather than risk a check-back from a weaker made hand, which would obviously be a disaster. I think our hand is a decent one to shove too since we don't block any potential pairs that our villain could have...if we had a hand like JT, I might be more interested in bluff-catching since now the villains range would probably be more draw-heavy. Anyways, I decided to shove and to start planning what to do with my new found $100. Bad idea.

Month so far:

I've been eyeing some WCOOP events to play and am tentatively planning on playing the following events:

19- $109 NLHE
20- $320 NLHE
43- $215 NLHE
47- $320 NLHE
48- $215 TKO
64- $215 8Max

Hopefully I can make a decent run in something :)

Other than poker, my days have consisted of family birthdays, ice hockey, crossfit, house renos and football! I won my first week fantasy matches in both of my leagues so that's off to a good start. I'm in some trouble in one of the league's though since I'm short on running backs to begin with and Tate went down with an injury on Sunday. In my other league my team is pretty ridiculous though...I have Moreno and Benjamin just sitting on my bench as well as having Josh Gordon stashed (looks like he's likely to play again this season based on recent reports).

My ice hockey season is off to a good start as well...we won our first game 6-1 and although I felt pretty rusty I think that I played pretty well. Things definitely seemed to start coming together more as the game went on and our line was pretty dominant throughout the entire game, although our team was just stronger overall. We won our second default by forfeit...super lame but after last season, we'll take all the wins we can get! I've got another game tomorrow so hopefully the other team shows up...I'm not sure how some of the other teams are in this division but my guess is that we'll likely get moved up at some point.

Alright, that's all for now...

gl at the tables!