« Kevin Ngo

Poker Session #12 - Robin Hood

22 Feb 2014

After heading to bed at 6am, I got up at 10:30am to play at the Final Table, a 30-second drive away. I played two of the turbo freeroll tournaments against familiar faces final table play was fucking amazing during the first tournament but had a couple of hiccups during the second. I chopped for first place in the first tournament for $220 and finished third in the second tournament for $90. With pressure from my mom and girlfriend, I gave my mom $100 for her to donate to the impoverished in Vietnam. Thus I nick myself today as Robin Hood, taking from the fish and giving to the poor.

11am Freeroll - Three-Way Chop for $220

Let’s just skip to the final table where I just had my way over everyone especially during the bububble. I recognized my M-ratio and took advantage of all of my favorable first-in vigorish situations to pick up dead chips. As always, I love punishing limpers from the blinds with shoves. Fish never recognize how wide you’re shoving. After a while, I accumulated a large stack. A note to myself, that female-Scotty-Nguyen-wannabe is a huge aggrodonk.

Unfortunately, my KK got cracked in a three-way pot against 44 vs JJ where a reg spiked a 4. I built it back up but this hand was actually somewhat beneficial since it was the first hand I showed down after shoving a lot. People gave me even more credit later. Every time I shoved with face-rag, I showed the face and got tons of respect. For instance, I shoved with K3o, showed the K, and got put on KK/KQ.

The reg who spiked a 4 built up a decent stack. He was a cool guy who complimented my game and shove timings. We talked a lot of about push/shove odds with the blind levels. It got down 3 way where I lost four 40/60s in a row. My chip lead dwindled to average until we were all about even. Unfortunate since I was a favorite to take it all down. Since the blinds were so large, it became a shove-fest so we negotiated a chop. I shot the shit with the reg outside, I kind of wanted to learn more about him but I went home to come back later for the next freeroll.

5pm Freeroll - Third Place for $90

Chicago (whom you may know from my previous posts) was in this one. I love playing against him since I target him every tournament. He’s an aggrodonk so I just tighten up and value-bet away. Though he gave me trouble in a couple of hands, and he was running super red hot. He went to win the freeroll, which is great because it’ll encourage him to play more. He won two flips to knock me out. But I want to talk about several different hands with Chicago.

Facing a Donk Shove with Top Pair Okay Kicker

I isolate two limpers on the button with A8o. Chicago calls from the BB and the limpers fold. Flop comes 49A two-tone. Chicago open-shoves. I tank. Chicago loves playing any Ax, he’ll never fold them. So A9/A4 does this as well as possibly any set. He doesn’t need to slowplay because I already represent a high-ace hand with my large raise preflop. I saw this as trying to get value by representing a bluff, but I know he doesn’t bluff here. I fold and he shows 49o. I adjust his calling range to any two cards when the blinds are low.

Facing a UTG 4-Bet with AK

Chicago raises 3x UTG. I 3bet from the big blind with AKo. He 4bet snap-shoves. This is pretty standard. His range is a bit wider so I can say {JJ+, AQ+}. Since I have blockers to aces and kings, it’s an okay call online but I expect to run into AA a lot here. Generally live, I should weigh snap shoves more towards AA and pick a better spot but I called since I had a rebuy. His AA holds. I get my chips back from him next hand when I squeeze-shove AQ from the SB.

Facing a Turn Shove on TQKx Board with AK

Chicago raises UTG during the final table with two callers. Since I had just seen him raise UTG with AA, my mind might have been a bit scared. I should 3bet squeeze here since it’s good against his UTG range is {88+, any two broadways}. But I made the mistake of smooth calling instead of 3bet squeezing after having just ran into the top end of his range.

Board comes TQKr. Chicago cbets, I smooth call again, hoping to further induce if he’s bluffing. However I called planning ahead for the turn. Chicago shoves the blank turn to cover me. I tank.

Since his UTG range was high pairs and two-broadways, his range on the turn here consists of a lot of straights, sets, and two pair. Although my top pair top kicker was a good hand, I don’t see a bluff here after my call. I hadn’t invested too many chips and I thought I could find a better spot than this. I fold, and Chicago shows K5o. That was definitely not in my perception of his UTG range, but I still think it was a good fold.

Session Conclusion

I seem to do pretty well in these turbo freerolls. They’re soft like Downy.