Hand-History Analysis

I've often written about the advantages and disadvantages of being an amateur over a pro and vica-versa but one of the more obvious pros of being a pro, as it were, is the extra time you have to study the hand-history files in order to fine tune your game. It might also have been the case that were I a professional player, I may have spent more time working through and analysing hands in greater depth on this blog.

Regular and perceptive readers of my blog, who may be serious poker players and who have looked at some of the hand-histories I have posted here, will have noticed the weaknesses in my play. I certainly know that I may have played passively in some hands and I also know that I've raised excessively pre-flop with premiums. I'd like to think that there were reasons for this but sometimes we just have to put our hands up and say - yep, I played the hand badly, plain and simple.

Another facet that a lot of good players may have noticed about my game is that I don't post or write about hands where I bluffed very often. In fact, I don't think I've ever posted a single hand that shows me playing a well-timed bluff. Now this is not to say that I never bluff, you have to in today's game - especially online - but I've just never really felt the need to write a post about it - until now. What got me thinking about all this was how I played Key Hand #2 in my last live session and how I could maybe have rectified it had I been a little more creative. Let's turn the clock back, then, and have a ponder...

A "Wobbly" Hand Analysis (Ooh Err Missus, Ooh No Don't...) 

This is a very interesting hand which shows how sub-standard/bog-standard thinking can get you suckered into competing for a pot which costs you far much more money than if you just folded preflop when you bloody should have! On the other hand, I hope to show how one might have played it otherwise which just might have got one off the hook.

We're in a live £1/£2 cash game and we've been very active and playing for quite a few pots. We've also been quite aggressive, almost to the point of being the table bully, and our image is that of someone who doesn't mind throwing chips into the pot willy-nilly. We're in the small blind and we look down at 3 4 of spades. There are two limpers in late position and so with £7 in the pot we must make our first decision - whether to limp in for that extra £1.

Now a lot of strategists would suggest throwing 3 4 straight into the muck as it just plays terribly from early position with practically any flop - even if they are suited and with the 8-1 odds that the pot is giving us. So, yeh, give yourself top marks if you would have chucked 'em. However, on the night, with the Big Blind not being a particularly tricky player (we'll see why in a minute) I thought I'd come along for the ride and I just called the extra £1.

The BB then chucks in three blue chips making it £5! Not only is this bad because he's only going to get a string of callers (increasing the chance he'll have the worst hand on the flop) but he's also increased the pot in a hand where he'll now need to play while in early position (UTG+1). Still, his extra £3 goes in and the three of us call. (Yeh, you may argue that I'm now getting worse odds of slightly less than 7-1, and this along with a few other factors might give me enough reason to fold, but I make the marginal call.

The flop comes A 3 7 and I check, which is a standard move. The preflop raiser throws in £10 and it's folded all round back to me. Now that £10 raise just seemed a bit wimpy and overly-cautious to me - but here is my point: my thoughts were generally focused around my hand strength and what it could improve to if I called. What I should have done was, by noting the weak raise, put him on a hand and come to the conclusion that he must have held any pair between 88 and KK inclusive - and floated the flop with a view to attacking back later while representing Ax. If he had held AJ - AK here himself, I'm sure he wouldn't have been so cautious with his betting. 

What happened was that I responded to his weak raise with not only a weak reply but a weak plan as well. ( I called his flop bet by the way due to outs and implied odds.) The interesting part was that when the 5 hit the turn - and dynamic and creative play was called for -I simply check/called his £10 bet in the hope that more outs (four 2s) would give me a better chance to improve on the river and I could take it away with superior cards (rather than superior play). Needless to say the outs didn't appear on the river and I made a very feeble £10 crying call.  

What I am saying is that while the villain wasn't the most dangerous player in the world, I think I could (and should) have represented a pocket ace and got him to fold by putting in a check/raise of about £30-£50 on the turn. Maybe, with him betting yet another cautious £10 on the river (when an ace fell) I could have even done this then (more for £40-£50) and taken the pot away from him then. This river-bluff, incidentally, would probably have less chance of working against better players who would most likely smell a rat.

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So there it is, my version of an in-depth hand analysis. The point I'm making really, is that as I move towards the new year I really do need to be ready and willing to make more dynamic moves like this. However, not only are hand reading skills important but also how you think the opponent is going to play that hand as well. It's touch and go whether my opponent, in this case, would really have laid down the QQ that he had, in this situation, but the fact is, the float play with a definite and emphatic plan behind it MUST now be an extra weapon I must add and use from the arsenal. (Or should that be an extra tool from the tool-box?) Anyway, you get the idea.