After that miserable piece of poker knowledge that Mr. Blue dropped here last time, I will show you something today that you can really use to improve your own game. It’s all about certain moves you can make on the river.

I stumbled upon this subject because I was involved in a specific situation this week during a tournament on FTP:

I like my hand a little more because I’m on the button here. I could have raised, but try to see a flop cheaply here. Now the Ace flops with a pair of threes and the small blind leads out: always risky. However, I’m not folding of course and try to see what he’ll do on the turn. He bets the same amount on the turn which could be a sign of having a three: there’s a small chance that I’m going to outdraw that hand on this board. When he bets small on the river again I have enough information and I make a raise for two reasons.

First of all I was playing fairly loose-aggressive on this table and he could call me here with a medium pocket pair because of my image. And second, he might have a smaller Ace and pay my value raise. I think he had like 55 or something and he folds. Btw, if you would like to read more of my plays and the terrible beats I have to face now and then in specific, you can visit my own very interesting poker blog!

Submitted by Mr. White

Every poker player will have its own different tactics to play the big pocket pairs from let’s say Queens to Aces. Hand like Jacks and Tens are known as ‘problem-hands’, as people are often dragged into big pots with those hands. But how to play the small pocket pairs preflop?

The great part of all poker players agrees on how to play them in early and middle position: just limp when possible and try to flop your set. Of course, in late position you can be a little more creative and try to win the pot preflop or acquire pot control. I have a little expample from a tournament I played this week, where I had 33 in early position:

Now this is a relatively weak raise on the button: three times the big blind with already two callers in front you. Maybe I should have bet the flop with the paired board but in the end I’m still able to pick up the pot with a good bet.

Mr. Brown has also sent me an interesting hand from an heads-up game he played on Full Tilt:

Apparently he’s playing Pot Limit Omaha for the moment and apparently he made a royal flush . Now I don’t know much about this game but the pot looks nice ^^.

Submitted by Mr. Blue

Hello folks, I’m finally getting back into poker again. I didn’t play for a couple of months after the challenge, but I decided to deposit a small amount of money in my Pokerstars account and play some sng’s without much stress. And there you go: I won a tourney with 45 players .

I even saved some hands to show you. The first hand shows that it’s possible to win a nice pot with the magnificent Eight-Deuce:

The turn is a beauty for me and I offer the two drawers the wrong price to chase a flushdraw or gutshot with a 9 or a Jack. When the river comes the Ace of hearts I know I’m good and make a value bet in case somebody had a pair with his draw. Some moments later I make an excellent read as far as that’s possible in online poker:

Having AK on the button is of course perfect, your hand is always disguised. I also check the flop and bet the turn when I hit toppair. Now what you don’t see in the replay, is that my opponent took a long time before making the call. That’s why I check the river and notice my opponent made his flush on the turn. It are those hands and moments which determine if you’ll reach the money in a tournament, not the big pots that you win. Well of course, they are also important .

So Mr. Brown was watching some High Stakes Poker yesterday and I saw a really great pot during episode 11 of season 4. It’s one of the last episodes in this season where the players have decided to bring $500k to the table. This means there’s $5 million total on the table.

Now there’s of course the always tight playing Sammy Farha (you must love the man), French cash game player David Benyamine and his fellow countryman Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil. I’ve got the hand right here for you, it starts after 7 minutes:

Now how sick is this?? Sammy of course calls Guy’s preflop raise with 32 suited and flops the flushdraw. But Guy realizes this is a dangerous board and bets his topset. Now it’s probably because there’s an extra player in this pot with Sammy that Guy bets his set directly and that saves him a LOT of money. Of course Sammy makes his flush and Guy is lucky to make a boat but the poor Benyamine would have made running quads…

Hi, it’s Mr. White here . I decided to grind the $.10/.25 cashgames on FTP lately and I enjoy it after playing tournaments for such a long period . I mean, sometimes it’s so easy to take a nice pot:

Hehe the minraise preflop obviously isn’t enough to get my KT out off of the way. The same bet on the flop is an insta call with my middle pair. Then he checks the turn, which is a sign of weakness of course. I can chase my straight for free and hit it. When he raises that big on the river I know he doesn’t have a flush, that would make no sense at all! Ship it fish!

Yes maybe we have a winner in a few days, but it’s more likely we have a loser in a few days . Me and Ms. Pink are down to $134 and $63 and will play simultaneously this week for our entire bankroll. Meanwhile it’s becoming a very exciting duel between Mr. Blue and Mr. White.

So I lost some $240 this week by steaming and my excellent strategy of playing completely behind my bankroll. So I won’t annoy you with showing some of my hands . Ms. Pink also lost again and one of these days we’ll play now or never at the same time: Ms. Pink will play a shorthanded $50+5 tourney and I will do the same with a $100+9 tournament.

So what about the other two guys? Mr. White had a few good sessions, playing some longhanded $20 tourneys, resulting in about $170 profit. He sent me one particular hand which he ‘played like a genius’:

So he calls an extra 180 chips in early position with J8 suited. Btw, If I would make the same call I would be called an idiot. His remaining stack is about the size of the pot and he leads out by moving all-in. He stated he had to make that move, because the power of this move is the fact that you can also win this hand (besides by making a flush of course) by a fold of your opponents. If he would have opted for a check-raise, at least one opponent would have been committed anyway and you absolutely need to catch your diamond.

Mr. Blue had a little downswing some days ago but recovered with a little steam moment, by playing a $50 shorthanded sng. He ended up as the winner, resulting in a $195 cash-out. The deciding heads-up hand:

So he obviously plays the hand like a retard and gets very lucky on the river…

Submitted by Mr. Brown

Trays, treys, crabs, call them whatever you like but they helped me a lot yesterday, leading to a nice cash-out of $162, which brought me in the lead in the challenge, with the $1000 within reach!

So let’s watch what happened. I decided to play a $30 sit and go with 18 players (I was running a little bad and the plan of Brown and Pink made me little nervous ) and things weren’t going that good: I was able to survive but without many ambitions due my short stack. Then I made a move with A3 suited:

So snowmen was not wat I wished he had, hoping for KQ or something. But the flop was very good for me and luckily he did have two red eights . Only two hands later:

So I limp in early position with 33 and flop a set on a low board. There’s a minimum bet and I decide to slowplay it. On the turn the guy who just called on the flop suddenly leads out with a pot sized bet, so I know he must be strong and immediately shove. He was indeed strong: toppair with an OESD. But luckily he didn’t catch a straight on the river. After those two hands I was totally back in the tournament and was able to finish as runner-up.

This second place gave me an advantage of $137 on Mr. White, who is playing a little status-quo lately, mainly in $20 9 handed sng’s. Behind us are Brown ($402), who experienced his expected downswing (still playing beyond his bankroll) and Pink ($138), who is all but dead. Maybe her best strategy would be to play on very low stakes and just wait for Mr. Brown to go broke first. Will save her $100 .

Submitted by Mr. Blue

Yes ladies and gentlemen, Mr. White is totally back in the running, with only Mr. Rock …uh.. Mr. Blue in front of him: $403 vs $379. Mr. Brown keeps donking his money away on the hu-tables, so if you want to make any money online: there’s still $290 left to be spended on FTP. Ms. Pink is following close behind him ($284) and she will probably never go broke, but reaching $1000 will not be accomplished at this pace within four years.

Now let’s watch how Mr. White made some profit this week, applying the tournament theory of Phil Hellmuth, called ‘That’s why I lay it down’. Winning tournaments is about laying crucial hands down to be able to win another hand later on in the tournament. So what happened yesterday?

So a donkey raise and a reraise in front of me which I call with QQ, hoping the UTG idiot will fold and I can see a flop. Instead he goes all-in and the other player calls. Well, you can never fold KK preflop, but great players can do this with QQ. About five hands later:

So that’s why I fold QQ: to get paid paid off later on bij some moron with toppair lazy kicker! Bring more of them to my table and I will finish this callenge within 1 week ^^.

Submitted by Mr. White

…which means he had to hand over the lead to myself, Mr. Blue. I went from $292 to $364 the last few days, which is enough to keep Mr. White ($318), Mr. Brown ($311) and Ms. Pink ($238) behind me.

My most important cash out this week was a second place in a $10 sng with 45 players. Let’s watch an important hand from that tourney, because that’s most interesting after all:

So it’s a hand between four players after the SB raises two times the BB :s , I mean why??! I catch the absolute dream flop: top pair top kicker with the nut flushdraw (OK it also could have been AAT, but small chance I would have been paid in that case). The SB bets 2 BB’s again and I make a small raise: obviously I want to build a big pot here. It’s checked to me on the turn which I bet of course, one caller. River gives me the nuts and I get called by QQ, which is probably played at his worst by this player .

Mr. White is also running quiete well and has a good run on the nine and six handed sng’s. Ms. Pink is trying to cath up with the rest meanwhile, but will need a big cash out soon to accomplice that. Finally I’ll show you a hand from Mr. Brown which he played during his bad run^^:

Hehe, nice board .

Submitted by Mr. Blue

The battle is off for a few days now because Mr. White ia abroad at the moment so he can’t play. The battle will resume the 7th of March. However, this doesn’t mean we can’t talk about poker meanwhile. About Gus Hansen for example.

Yes we better call this hero Guts Hansen after the 2008 WSOP. I was watching some episodes yesterday after Mr. White said it was a very good edition (of course he had to reveal already that Phil Hellmuth does ‘very well’ in this Main Event). But I saw he was not the only one, because the Crazy Dane also had a good run.

Now look at the following hand (starts after 4′40″):

Now we all remember Hansen’s insane call against the Magician with Ten high in the WPT. Here he makes a call for 500k more chips with an OESD . Of course he makes a brilliant read: Jeremy Joseph is just on an A high bluff, so his 7 and Q are also still alive. This separates Hansen from nits like Hellmuth and Lederer, who would never have made this call.

Submitted by Mr. Brown