Saturday Night Poker Diary

I had a pretty good night on Friday, making $1,823, although it should have been more:

I slow-played AA against what I knew was KK and got him to commit his stack on the turn. The river was a King. Then I reeled in another KK with my JJJ. The river was a King again. I was a 96% favourite in the first and a 94% favourite on the second. (The board was 4J44 so the case 4 would have saved him too.)

Combined, those pots were $1,000+

Last night, Saturday, I thought I'd take brief notes and post a few hands. I started around 11pm.

Hour 1.

I had some fairly decent hands, and didn't lose any major pots.

This was a nice pot. It's not exactly orthodox play by my opponent with QQ at full-handed cash, and as such he got himself into a lot of trouble.

Hand 1 (Click Here)

My computer was running slow and, as a result, PA HUD stats weren't appearing on all of my tables. It was also annoying so I had to close my tables and restart my PC.

At the end of the hour I was +$494


Hour 2.

I lost this hand with AK v AQ. I think I played the streets well to keep the pot small, apart from the river call (even at 3.4/1 odds.) If it was heads-up then the call is the correct play because my turn check appears weak and may have induced a bluff. However, with another player in the hand too he's far less likely to bluff- and I'm not beating much.

Hand 2

This next hand is either a great example of a bluff at these levels by someone with no clue as to what hand he is representing, or he is poor enough to believe his two-pair is that strong. Either way, it's demonstrates how much dead money there is at these tables. (My notes on him said that he likes to bluff on the river- so I didn't give him much credit for a backdoor flush.)

Hand 3

I made another $172 during the second hour. Profit was now at $666


Hour 3.

I only recently realised that although Full Tilt restricts you to playing 12 cash tables, you can also open up extra tournament tables. So now I have started to open up a 13th table and play a low-stake MTT. I played a 45-man $22 MTT and got second in that for about $230.

I have now had 2 x 2nd and 2 x 3rd in my last 5 of these 45-man tournaments. Although only a small 67-game sample, Sharkscope now shows my ROI as 89%! :)



In the following cash hand, I flopped a set of Aces, and turned a Royal Flush draw. Fortunately my opponent played the flop poorly with his made straight so I lost the minimum.

Hand 4

This next hand is not particularly exciting but it demonstrates how you can increase your BB/100 from picking up small pots here and there. Even without the pair of twos, I'd be making this bet. I'm representing either the King or trip 4s and I'm likely to be called here far less than the 50% of the time that I need for it to be profitable. (The second 4 arriving makes a call from a mid-pair unlikely.)

Hand 5

I made $200 during the 3rd hour for a running profit of $866


Hour 4.

On friday night I hit Quads a total of six times! This was my only occasion tonight against another over-played QQ. If he is going to re-raise pre-flop with QQ then he has to raise more else he prices in any pair.

Hand 6

I finished the fourth hour with an extra $236 for a updated total of $1,102


Hour 5.

I only played for another 30 minutes as I was getting tired and starting to make some lazy plays. I lost $85 during this time.


So, total for the night was +$1,017 taking the monthly total to $15,333. My average hourly rate ($114) has increased slightly this month partly due to the odd tournament that I'm now playing.


I have to add that the RunItTwice website that I'm using to display my hand histories is absolutely first class.