Some people have asked me to talk about what kind of thoughts go through my head and what type of thiking I approach certain situations with, so I decided to write a blog about this in a hand I played last night. This obviously played out well for me as I made all correct assumptions and held to win the pot. But like everyone else, it isn't always like this and I do make mistakes too, and i'll try to do another blog like this about a hand where I make a mistake or mistakes and talk about them. So here is the hand and then i'll talk about it after the action has been listed:

50/100 NL Holdem MTT
Chip Stacks
SB 3250
BB(ME) 5575
UTG 2000
UTG+1 1250
MP 1300
MP2 2100
HJ(HiJack) 3150
CO(Cutoff) 5250
BT(Button) 4125

Preflop Action

UTG Fold
UTG+1 Fold
MP Fold
MP2 Call 100
HJ Call 100
CO Call 100
Button Fold
SB Call 50
BB Check

Flop: Ace of diamonds, four of hearts, 2 of hearts Pot 500

Sb Check
BB (Me) with A of diamonds, Q of hearts Bet 350
All fold except CO who calls 350.

Turn: eight of clubs, Pot 1200
BB bets 1100
CO calls 1100

River: Ace of Spades, Pot 3400
BB checks
CO is all-i for 3700
BB calls

Showdown: BB shows AQ for trip Aces, CO shows 56 of hearts

Preflop Analysis
So I'm in the BB with AQ offsuit. First thing I wanna say about this is position is power. I would much rather play ANY two cards in position heads up, than have AK, AQ, or even QQ out of position in a multi-way pot. So with four limpers already ahead of me, I could make it 500 to go, to try and protect my hand. But doing this I decided wouldn't accomplish much, with the Cutoff having about 50 bets, he will likely call and take a flop in position, and being that I will probably miss the flop (you will only hit a flop 1 in 4 times with any two) i'd have to commit more of my chips to a continuation bet and leave myself very vulnerable to getting outplayed because I am out of position. Furthermore, MiddlePosition2 only has 20 bets and is likely to reshove, laying me about 2 to 1 pot odds to call, where his range could have any PP, AJ+, even KQ maybe, and i'd be almost forced to call his bet, rcaing for half my stack in a best case scenario. So that isn't really a desirable result either, being that i'm so deepstacked at this stage. So I decide the best play is to check/fold if I miss, or play cautiously if I hit and control the size of the pot.

Flop: Ace of Diamonds, Four of Hearts, Deuce of Hearts

The flop is ok for me. Top pair with a good kicker, but someone could've easily floppede a set or aces up with their limping ranges. SB checks, and I decide to bet my normal 1/2 to 3/4 of the pot, 350. This is very important, you MUST keep your bets sizes close to the same size all the time or good players will pickup patterns and then you become very exploitable. So when I made this bet it gives me more information about my opponents hands and also lets me get away from the hand cheaply if someone plays back at me.
All fold, except for the Cutoff whole calls the 350 and is the only player at the table as deep as I am, about 50 bets. So this call gives me quite a bit of information, I have his range on flush draws or a set....the flush draws are far more likely, as with the a set he is probably going to raise me here to protect his hand agaist the flush draw. If he has the ace high flush draw, he is also probably going to raise me thinking he probably alreayd has the best hand, and if not his two pair outs and flush outs are enough to make his play profitable in the long run. So i'm pretty certain he has something like 56, 67, 78 of hearts, so should a heart come o the turn, I can check/fold and lose the minimum on the hand.

Turn Eight of Clubs

Good card for me, checking here is an awful play for two reasons. Number one, I have to make him pay to draw at his flush, preferably giving him bad odds and making him make a mistake. Two, if he has a set, by checking it makes it far more difficult to figure out when he bets, so by betting I find out more information about his hand. Now the question is how much to bet? In previous hands, i've seen this player playing flush draws very passively and poorly. So I wanna give him terrible pot odds to call, further improving my equity on the hand. If he does have 56 of hearts, he'll be about 28% to hit his flush or straight outs on the river, or about 2.3 to 1. Therefore, I decide to bet 1100 laying him a slighly worse price than that...thinking more about it now, I maybe made a mistake here.
I calculated his odds incorrectly during the hand, missing the extra three outs he added with the turn card. I then laid him a price I would normally only lay a good player to induce action, I could've got far more out of this player. He called, which is perfect, now I have his hand nailed, he has a flush draw with the possibility of a pair with it, but i'm about 80% certain he has 56 of hearts. This thinking also may have been a mistake, as I may be giving him too much credit here. Hey may have no concept of pots odds whatsoever, which as funny as that sounds, a lot of players actually don't.

River Ace of Spades
Ok, so now this is the tough part. How do I extract anymore value from this hand? I have 4025 left with the pot at 3400 and he has 3700. If I bet it would have to be 1700-2000ish, which would all but kill my action to a busted flush as he will know I am pot committed to his raise on the river. The solution...check and let him try to bet his way out of his demise or he checks behind which would have the same result as me betting, so essetially its a freeroll to more equity. I check and he moves in for 3700, I snap call and he shows 56 of hearts and I collect a very large pot.

This particular hand had probably only half the thinking I use on most hands, as this one got isolated to headsup on the flop cheaply and I was able to decipher a read on my opponent quite easily. This is the type of thinking you have to have on every single hand with utmost concentration. Thats why I always say don't play drunk or if you're having personal problems distracting you, because not only will it cost you equity, but essentially your entire stack and you will plummet your Return on Investment rapidly.

I know some of you will read this and get discouraged, because most of you are novice players, but dont be. I know its a lot of thinking for just one hand, and a lot of work, it is very difficult to incorporate into your game in the beginning, it takes time, a lot of it actually, but eventually it will become second nature like it is to me.
There is simply no better learning tool than experience and putting new strategies into play, even if you don't feel a particular strategy is suited for your style of play, you should still try it, this way you can recognize that strategy when it is played against you.

This blog is a very good representation of why I can't teach people what I know about the game in a hour, a week, a month, or even a year. It's a game you must study intensively. I mean this was one hand out of thousands I play a day, and the amount of thinking required is quite strenuous at times.
So recapping on this blog:

1) Position is power-Good players love playing flops in position. It increases their edge and is far easier for them to gain information and outplay their opponent. If you are going to play a hand out of position, which does happen on occasion, play very cautiously. Likewise, if you're going to raise out of position, make sure you are prepared to call a shove. Because you are gonna have to put in a large raise to put your opponent to a shove/fold situation.

2) Be flexible on your reads-Always begin the hand by putting your opponent on a range of hands, and try to widdle that down throughout the hand as you gain more information. If you find yourself confused or with no read, which happens sometimes, play caustiously.

3) Be aware of stack sizes-Before you put in a bet, make sure to evaluate your opponents stack sizes, its very important. For example, you are on the button on a steal with 57 of diamonds, and your opponent has a perfect reshove stack (15 bets) in the BB. He's going to reshove on you a large percentage of the time, so you'll just be donating that bet, or you raise with the same hand from the cutoff and the button has a large stack, 50 bets, he's going to call you with a large range of hands and low and behold, now you're playing out of position, not fun.

4) Pay attention to your opponents tendencies even when not involved in the hand-This is free information for you and will likely become a valuable tool for you if you get involved ina similar spot with this opponent. e.g. How my opponent had played flush draws in the past.

5) Always be on your toes-If you aren't completely focused, step away, take a break and come back when you are ready or just quit the session for the day, as playing unfocused will cost you equity.

I really enjoyed replaying this hand and will try to do this a couple of times a week. It gives me a chance to go back and take my time looking in depth at how I played a hand and see where I may have made mistakes, like I did in this one when I thought I played the hand perfectly in realtime.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes, you will learn from them. Hands that you play perfectly or good doesn't do much but give you a pat on the back and a confidence boost. Have a mentor too, if you play a hand and are completely baffled whether it was a good play or not, ask someone whose game you hold in high regard. They will be more than happy to help you, listen to the advice they give you. On the flipside, DON'T give advice to someone who doesn't ask. I know its hard sometimes, but they aren't gonna listen, probably are going to get angry, and you've just wasted your time. Its like giving advice about someones golf game, if they don't ask, don't tell, because they won't appreciate the advice. Well, I hope you all found this interesting and thought provoking, i'll try to do one tomorrow where I make a glaring mistake, which will probably happen tonight, haha. On to some more other things.

I am going home September 1st-8th to Minnesota, to fish, smoke cigars, and drink beers with the family and friends. I am very excited and can't wait to get back up north.

I am also going to get my real estate license within the next few months and hopefully can work for a good company in Las Vegas and learn the tricks of the trade. I really would like to get into Real Estate Investing someday and start my own company, I have a very good idea of how I want to do it and am drawing up a business plan for it as we speak. That'll be all for now.

-Bakken out

Wow, its been almost a year since my last blog...i'm just gonna focus on recent events in this one so its not too lengthy. The WSOP once again thrashed another bankroll of mine, I did have a backer this year, but I still shouldve stayed away from all events, since my tourney game was very rusty. So I have started playing tournament poker, mainly SNG's(Sit-n-Go's) to rebuild my bankroll, these games were my bread and butter for many years and I decided to go back to them. Its a painstakingly slow process as I am playing such low stakes, but has been going very well so far. I have been playing $10+1 SNG's on Full Tilt and the occasional MTT (Multi-Table Tournament) pretty much everyday. My ROI (Return on Investment) is nothing short of godly right now...just under 66%, meaning for every $100 I put in, I should expect to profit $66 for that $100 invested. Obviously I am running very well, because even at these low stakes that is an insane ROI, so I should expect a downswing soon. SNG's just fit my game so well, I went back to how I used to play in college, not playing much of anything out position, and if I do making sure I give myself large fold equity against my opponents, and playing almost anything in position and chipping away at the small pots slowly growing my stack. This strategy works very well in these games as your stack increases very safely and then you can start busting people with a large range of hands depending on the percentage of the stack and pot odds it costs you. Its also very good for your table image, you look almost like a maniac even to the most novice of players who rarely pay attention to things of such matter, which in turn allows them to make weak pushes against you, and pay off your big hands, and also makes them afraid to play any pot against you because you look like such a loose cannon, when in fact you are playing a very controlled and calculated strategy. On the flipside, MTT's are going quite the opposite of SNG's, I haven't cashed in eleven, and have been running very bad, but thats to be expected. The variance is so high in MTT's that it isn't a far cry to go 0 for 30 in cashes, although that is a very bad streak of variance.

My truck is toasted, so I sold the sweet ride for $500 and will miss her. The even worse news is I have no way to get to Blue Martini, so that job is essentially down the tubes. I will be coming home to Minnesota September 1st-8th and look forward to seeing the family and friends. It'll be nice to play some non desert golf courses too.

Well....thats pretty much all I got for now, hopefully my next blog will include a hand replay of a major cash and limit increase.

-Bakken out