First Few 100NL Sessions

It seems the move up in limits has gotten me very excited about poker again, as I've felt quite motivated to play lately. Unfortunately, my first few thousand hands contained a ton of coolers, and over the next five thousand or so I ran approximately five buyins below equity expectation. Thankfully, I had a bit of a heater session on Tuesday night, so my foray into the new limit hasn't been terrible so far.

The best part is, I've never felt better about my game. I'm more aggressive than ever in the appropriate spots. I feel like my postflop game is very solid, and while I sometime do still make some mistakes, I quickly realize my folly and as a result can make a note not to repeat it in the future.

Below is my EV graph for 100NL so far:


My luck graph for 100NL, showing that I'm -$170 in all-in luck thus far:


Finally, I'd like to discuss a hand from my Tuesday night session. This is probably one of the most interesting hands I've ever posted, because there are so many hands in my opponents range that have flopped huge. Initially after playing the hand, I thought I probably played it fairly well, but wasn't 100% sure. Lets look at it street by street.

Villain in this hand is 13/10/4.5 TAG over 100 hands, and seems decent.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
UTG+1: $40.15 (40.2 bb)
MP1: $124.95 (125 bb)
MP2: $19 (19 bb)
MP3: $100 (100 bb)
CO: $103.45 (103.5 bb)
Hero (BTN): $122.75 (122.8 bb)
SB: $100 (100 bb)
BB: $49.80 (49.8 bb)
UTG: $105.40 (105.4 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is BTN with
4 folds, MP3 raises to $4, CO folds, Hero calls $4, 2 folds

Our villain open raises from the Hijack position. We have TT, which is well ahead of his range. Some people might 3-bet here, but we're not going to because:
(1)Our hand plays very well postflop, especially in position.
(2)We are ahead of our opponents raising range, but almost certainly not his 3-bet calling range. Thus, while 3-betting is +EV, it is very possibly not nearly as +EV as taking a flop in position and playing poker.

Thus, we call behind and see a flop.

Flop: ($9.50) (2 players)
MP3 bets $7, Hero raises to $27, MP3 calls $20

A pretty insane flop hits. We have bottom set, but many hands in our opponents range have flopped big as well. Our opponent c-bets, and we raise. I think a raise size of $30-$32 rather than the $27 I actually used during this hand would be closer to optimal, but this is a very small mistake at worst. We are raising for value in this situation, as there are many 2 pair hands our villain can have which will likely come along, as well as 1-pair hands which may have outs such as AsJs, QQ, KQ, AK, etc. Our raise size must ensure that our opponent is making a mistake by calling if he has an OESD. $27 does accomplish this, but $30-$32 would make our opponent's mistake larger, while staying reasonable.

We also should have a plan for if we get reraised. Unfortunately, a reraise will put us in a terrible spot, as we're sometimes drawing to one out against KK or JJ, sometimes praying for the board to pair against a straight, and sometimes ahead of a semi-bluff draw. Had I been reraised here, I think I would have made a crying call.

Turn: ($63.50) (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero checks

The turn comes and makes things worse for us, as an ace hits. Many of the one pair hands we were ahead of before now have a straight. AK and AsJs now have two pair. Two pair hands have not improved and are likely scared of the ace. Our opponent checks. The million dollar question is: "can we bet for value here?" I think the answer is no. The weaker two pair hands (KJ, KT) almost certainly fold to a half pot turn bet. AK perhaps occasionally finds a call, but I find that doubtful. AsJs might shove over our bet at this point, but probably would have raised the flop so it is a extremely small part of our villain's range. At this stage of the hand, we're either beat by a straight or a bigger set that is almost as scared as we are, or we are ahead of a two pair hand that really doesn't want to get any more money into the pot. The good news is that we have position. This hand would have been brutal to play OOP. IP however, we check behind and see what opponent does on the river.

River: ($63.50) (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets $20, MP3 calls $20

The river blanks. Our opponent checks. Unless he is incredibly crafty, his hand now looks very much like two pair, or perhaps JJ/KK/AA that isn't interested in thin value. However, JJ/KK probably would have shoved the flop. Thus, two-pair is very much the most likely scenario. I decide to bet $20 to try to get a little more value out of two pair hands. I think this is a great spot to pick up some fairly thin value, and while a bet of $25-$30 might be a little better, I'm really happy with the way I played this street. Our opponent calls with KJ and we scoop the pot.

Results: $103.50 pot ($3 rake)
Hero showed (three of a kind, Tens) and won $100.50 ($49.50 net)
MP3 mucked (two pairs, Kings and Jacks) and lost (-$51 net)

I'm very happy with the way I played this this hand. During the hand I wasn't sure if I should perhaps be taking a b/f or b/c line on the turn rather than checking behind, but after analysis, the check was clearly correct. I think the value bet on the end was important, because a lot of people would check the river behind. Due to the betting patterns throughout the hand however, it is a pretty obvious spot to make a small bet for extra value.

I'd also like to quickly discuss our villain's river call. He is getting 4:1 on his money, but all he beats is KT or JT (which by betting the river are turned into bluffs) or a busted flush draw (something like 9s8s, etc.) trying to bluff at the pot. It's not absolutely terrible, but unless he knows I like to bluff missed draws I think the correct play is to fold, despite the great 4:1 odds.