Won my biggest pot ever

I just got done with an 11 hour live poker session at the Wynn. I managed to finish up about $4.3k and won a massive $6k pot at $2/5 NL.

The session started out pretty rough, as I lost all of my chips ($500) about 40 minutes in. The player that stacked me in this hand was the guy I eventually felted to win the $6k pot. I'll call him "maniac." He was playing and raising a ridiculous amount of hands for a 9 handed full ring game. He was raising probably about 30% of his hands and entering the pot at least half of the time. He had a very unique style... he would just simply bet the size of the pot whenever anyone checked to him after he raised pre-flop. He didn't seem to take into account board texture, his opponent's possible hands, or anything really. He was just a prime example of pure aggression. He had been caught betting all three streets for hundreds of dollars with J2o, J high and I also caught him betting the flop and turn against me, and calling a shove on a K388 board with A6o ?!?!? I had KQ that hand to double up about midway through the session.

It was actually pretty difficult to play against him deep stacked, as he was not shy about pulling huge bluffs. The hand I mentioned where I lost $500, I called his middle position raise when I was on the button (2 other people had called). The maniac bet $100 on the Ac Js 5s flop... I had top two pair (AJ) and I re-raised to $250... he thought for a few seconds and then called. The turn was a total blank, an offsuit 2 and he put me all in. I called pretty quickly and he showed 555 for a set of 5's. This is a total cooler and unlucky hand because of how wild that player was playing.

I then doubled up with KK vs the maniac on a Q T 3 3 board as he called my turn shove with who knows what.

I had some other pots that were mildly interesting, and after a while I had about $3k on the table. The past few hours of play were 6 handed, because almost everyone had gone to sleep and left the card room.

The big pot came when the maniac raised in middle position after a few people had limped before him. I called on the button with JJ and two other players called (one of the blinds and one of the limpers.) The flop came a beautiful Js 5c 4c which gave me the nuts on the flop... he c-bet pot and I re-raised to $300 more... he thinks for a few seconds and moves all in for about $2k more... I snapcall-FISTPUMP. He shows pocket 4's for a set of fours and my hand holds to scoop the $6k pot.

Here is a picture of my stack after I won that pot... took forever to stack up the chips lol




It felt really good to finally be able to book a big win from live poker. Most of my previous sessions on this trip have either resulted in trivially small losses, small wins, and pretty much just break even results. After this win, I've profited about $5k from live poker so far over this trip which I'm pretty happy with.

Vegas Update

My trip to Vegas is going pretty well so far. It has been a ton of fun meeting all of my poker friends and meeting some more new poker players. When I stayed at the house Tim (Nutedawg) was staying at I got to meet a few of the Cardrunners pros, Derrick (Sixpeppers) and Thomas (Brystmar). That was pretty cool and I got to watch each of them play a little bit online.

Here is a picture of the house I stayed in:




Now I'm staying at the Rio with Ryan and his friend Dave.

I went golfing this past Saturday with everyone from my poker group. The course we golfed at was pretty tough, but it was still a lot of fun.

Here is a pic of everyone from my poker group, Destined2pwn. From left to right: Ryan, John, Forrest, and myself.




I'm not really making a killing from live poker... I'm up about $500 so far playing $2/5 NL. I've only played about 12 hours though. I played a tournament at the Venetian today as well ($235 buyin) but got busted out only 3 hours in. I've made approximately $1,000 online since getting here. I'm pumped because I'm already at about $15k for the month and I'm very close to passing the mark of $16k which is the most I've made from poker in one month.

Here are a few more pictures from Vegas...

This is one of the three main poker rooms in the Rio... these tables in the picture are all cash game tables, but they also had about 100 or more tournament tables on the other side of the room.




I ran into Johnny Chan in the hallway of the Rio. He has won ten WSOP bracelets and won the Main Event twice. Also, he was in the classic poker movie, "Rounders." I kind of felt like a little kid asking to get my picture with him but meh, whatever. Lots of other people were getting pictures with him as well. It was pretty cool to meet him, as he is probably one of the most famous professional poker players ever.




I'm going to continue to mix both live and online play to finish off the month strong.

Making a trip to Vegas!

Looks like I will be going down to Vegas for a bit after all. Right now, all of the World Series of Poker events are running so this is really the best time of year to go down there and play poker. Also, a lot of my poker friends that I met online are down there now, so I should get to meet them in person.

I'll be in Vegas for about 10 days, as I leave this Friday and come back on Monday, June 30th. I'm not staying quite as long as I did in March, (stayed 20 days that time) but it will still be plenty of time to hang out with my friends, party a bit, and play some live poker.

I probably won't play any of the WSOP tournaments this year, mainly because that is not my specialty. I have had some decent success in online Multi-table tournaments, but I don't really feel like playing a live tournament for a significant sum of money... mainly because MTTs have a huge luck factor in them. You have to get extremely lucky even to make the money and win a lot of coin flips.

So I'll be playing cash games down there, mostly $2/5 NL. All of the games are nine handed live, unless you play during the early morning hours (the tables get short around 4AM-10AM). Towards the end of my first trip to Vegas in March, I really started to get the hang of live poker so hopefully this time I can crush it.

I played for about four hours on Absolute Poker today and finished + $560

None of my winning hands were all that interesting, as most of them were me just hitting a pretty big hand and getting value from solid betting.

My biggest losing hand of the day was pretty interesting, however.

Here it is: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2773299

While I was playing the hand I was just thinking to myself that I would check-raise the flop this time with TPTK because before, in a similar situation against the same opponent about 30 minutes ago, I just check/called three streets with TPTK. I figured this would mix up my play. Once I turned top two pair I felt I needed to go with the hand, because QJ was still a likely holding for him (also maybe even a stubborn AK on the flop). I never see anyone check-raise twice in a hand like this... and I think most people assume that if you check raise the flop and don't lead the turn then you were probably just making a move on the flop... this, in my opinion, allows me to pick off some of his bluffs on the turn as well. Just so happened the turn card gave him the straight. I don't mind the way I played this hand... although it definitely wasn't normally how I would play it. Any comments would be appreciated.

I plan on continuing to update my blog, if I have time, when I'm in Vegas. I'll be bringing my laptop computer with and probably play a bit online while I'm down there as well.

Played a bit on AP on Monday

So I had a six hour session playing $1/2 NL and $2/4 NL 6 Max on Absolute Poker yesterday... I played pretty solid for the most part and ended up + $1,470. I did, however, make a few bad plays during the session. I think that I may have a small to medium sized leak of not being able to release good but not great hands to sure signs of strength.

The bad beat jackpot on AP is really high right now, it is over $650,000... if you lose a hand with quad 8's or better you get a lotttt of money. So I might play on there tomorrow and even if you are playing the same game type when the jackpot is released you get some money as well.

I'll post the two hands I think I made an error in and one ridiculous winning hand, which was my biggest profit in one hand of the session.

Losing Hands:

Hand #1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2768829

This hand was towards the end of the session, and I don't think I was thinking perfectly clearly here... I had an overpair which was a decent hand, however, Luckylanz bet into three other opponents, which is a sure sign of strength. Also, Huggybear69 called the large bet without knowing what was going to happen behind him... which means he could also have a really big hand. I think the answer here was maybe just calling the flop bet and folding to further aggression if I didn't improve. Once he shoves all in on the turn it is pretty clear he has two pair or a set but I decided to call anyways because he had really fishy stats (70/18 AF 1.8 over 50 hands... donk bet flop 43%). I think that sometimes I don't give players with fishy stats credit even when they make a really strong play, and I think that is definitely a leak that I have to iron out.

Hand #2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2768833

This is a similar type of situation in where it might be a good idea to at least consider laying down my overpair. Often times, when opponents bet into the pre-flop raiser like Marino did, they will have top pair, weak kicker or some type of draw. Once he calls my flop raise, he could still have a one pair type hand or a draw... but he would never just open shove the turn with a draw, I don't think. This turn shove probably means 9x most of the time from an idiot because they are just pressing buttons and get trips and get excited and stick all the money in. I didn't make a terrible mistake here, as he could have had something like TT or JJ possibly, but I think there are better spots to get the money in. I had a problem folding this, once again, because the villain's stats were pretty fishy (73/25 AF 3.0 over 200 hands). I'd like a few comments on this and to see what you think the best play is here.

Winning Hand:

Hand #3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2768837

I don't really know what to say about this one, other than the fact that I just won a $800 pot with Ace high lol. I'm not sure what the other two players were doing in this hand, but my play is pretty standard I think. I had two overcards and the nut flush draw, which normally has plenty of equity against any type of hand my opponents would have. It kind of sucks that the board is paired, but it's unlikely that they have trips or a full house. Ship the cookies!


I'm thinking about possibly making a trip to Vegas soon (for the WSOP festivities and whatnot), as some of my poker friends are heading down there within the next week. If I go down there, I won't play any donkaments... I'll probably stick to $2/5 NL Cash games. I'm going to check out some flights tomorrow and figure out whether or not I'm going down there for about a week.

Went Fishing over the weekend

Hey everyone, I ended up going fishing all day Saturday and Sunday so I didn't play much poker then. It was a really fun trip. My dad's friend invited us (my dad, brother, and I) to go fishing at Lake of the Woods. It is a really large lake that has a ton of great scenery. There are plenty of sick houses along the shore as well, and many of them are on secluded islands.

We ended up doing OK at fishing, we caught 6 walleye on Saturday (I got 3 of them) and we caught 8 fish on Sunday (6 walleye, 1 perch, and I caught the only Northern Pike of the weekend... it was a pretty big one). It was a great time and it was nice to get away and relax for a few days.

Here are a few pics if you are interested:


My dad and my younger brother (in his ridiculous rain poncho he was borrowing, lol)



Sunset pic I took that turned out pretty good



Another scenery pic



Picture of my dad, brother, and I with the catch of the day



Picture of a Bald Eagle (we saw three of them flying around)

Best Cash Game Day Ever

I had an awesome day today and had my biggest career cash game win for a single day. Ended up $3,700 for the day.




I played for a loooong time (about 11 hours). The games were really juicy and lots of terrible players were playing. About half of my win is from $2/4 blinds No Limit Holdem Full Ring cash games. These are cash games where there are nine total people at the table. The rest was from my usually game, $1/2 NLHE 6 Max.

I'm pretty happy with my play... I don't think I made any huge mistakes. However, I did play a little tighter than I normally would like, especially for 6 Max. But that was due to playing too many tables because of all the fish. I played, on average, about 8 tables at a time.

Since I won today, I'll switch it up and post some of my biggest winning hands first.


Winning Hands:


- FULL RING HANDS -


Hand #1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2755561

It actually looks like I got lucky on this hand because I was behind on the turn, however, I got almost all of the money in good. I was a big favorite pre-flop when I 4-bet to $199 and a pretty big favorite on the flop as well (73% to win).

Hand #2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2755572

I played this hand especially well. I called before the flop to set mine and hit my hand. I didn't want to re-raise on the flop because that would have likely scared off most of his possible holdings. So instead, I waited until he had committed half of his stack on the turn to shove all in.


- 6 MAX HANDS -

Hand #3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2755576

I played this hand great as well. I called the 3-bet before the flop because we were deepstacked and I had huge implied odds if he had AA or KK and I hit a set. I hit my hand and made a small raise to make it seem like I was just seeing if he had a pair or not... this would allow him to likely shove his JJ+ overpair now if he chose. It would be unlikely that he wouldn't shove a big pair here because of the flushdraw on the board. Also, it gives him the illusion of fold equity and allows him to monkey it in with random shit... like he did in this case.

Hand #4: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2755584

This hand is my favorite of the session. I had a hand that I wanted to commit all of my chips with, if possible. However in this hand we are both deepstacked (150bbs deep). This means that I won't be able to get enough money in the pot to get all in if I just bet the standard 3/4 of the pot on every street. Note my bet sizing on the turn which is actual an overbet of the pot. I bet $85 into a $62 pot to allow for about a pot sized bet for a river shove. This allows me to extract maximum value and eases the money in a little better than just overbet shoving the river for whatever I have left.

There were plenty of other big winners, but most of the other winning hands were pretty standard (hands like AA vs KK pre-flop, set over set, etc.)


Losing Hands:


Hand #5: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2755597

KK vs AA all in pre-flop in a 6 Max game is a cooler... but in full ring I'm not quite so sure. His 3-bet of my UTG raise is ultra-strong and paired with the fact that he is super tight makes me feel like I should at least consider an alternative line than what I actually did. (He played 12% of his hands and raised 10% of them, with a 3-bet stat of 2.4%, AF of 7). I don't think folding the 2nd best starting hand before the flop is the answer, but I think I should have just called his pre-flop re-raise and gotten it all in on any non Ace flop. This allows me to stack JJ if the board comes 4h2c6d and lets me get away from my Kings if he has AK and flops an A. I would like some comments on this hand if you would. This was my biggest losing hand of the day.

Hand #6: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2755613

This is a pretty marginal call on my part, looking back on it. This villain was very wild and he was always check raising my continuation bet... his turn shove just doesn't make any sense and looks like a hand such as AcQh. It doesn't look like he wants action... so I put him on a pair and a flushdraw which I'm beating, and I called... he happened to hit his gutshot on the turn and I made a big call into a pot where I didn't have much money invested. Villain's stats were: 42/3 AF 1.1 over 170 hands, raises c-bet 25% of the time.

I would also like to see what other poker players think about this hand. Post it in the comments at the end of this post.


That's about it for all the interesting losing hands, I don't plan on posting bad beats anymore as long as I played the hand perfectly.


Hope this was a good read, see you all at the tables.

Rough day at the tables...

Unfortunately my first post involving poker is about a losing session. Some days things just don't go your way, and yesterday was one of those days. I think I played pretty well for the most part, however, I did make two mistakes in large pots.

I played 2,983 hands over about seven hours and lost about $1,200. I was playing $1/2 blinds No Limit Texas Holdem 6 Max, which is a cash game table with five other players on it. This is the type of game that I normally play.

I have a poker statistics program called "Holdem Manager" that keeps track of all of the hands I play, wins and losses, and a bunch of other statistics. Holdem Manager says that I ran approximately $1,500 below expectation. This means that if I would have had average luck (when I got it all in) I would have actually won about $300 instead of losing $1,200. So obviously I got pretty unlucky yesterday.

I don't like to whine about or dwell on bad days like these, because they are just part of the game of poker. There will be days where you get the money in consistently as a huge favorite and continue to get sucked out on. It is the nature of the beast.

I'm going to post some hands although most of the hands I lost big on were bad beats due to getting unlucky or coolers (hands where I have to go all in based on my hand strength but the other person happened to have a ridiculously good hand at the same time, which beats my extremely strong hand. These types of hands are not figured in when calculating what my "expectation" should have been... because often times I'll be going all in with a very small percent chance to win, but going all in isn't a mistake).


Losing hands:

Hand #1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752918

Not much I can really do about this hand... this is a perfect example of a "cooler." I call pre-flop to hit a 6 for a set of 6's... and I actually hit my hand so I have to go with it. It's just unfortunate that someone happened to have a higher set than me.

Hand #2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752922

Here I hit a huge flop for my hand... I flop the second best possible hand plus a re-draw to the second nut flush. I'm building the pot on the flop and turn so I can get it all in on good rivers... Notice my bet sizing on the turn is perfect because it allows for a less than pot-sized bet on the river, which means he will almost have to call if I go all in on the river...

Well that river was terrible because it was very likely he had two pair on the flop and that just gave him a full house. He bet so small in relation to the pot on the river I had to call obviously in case he had some crazy hand like AK for only one pair. I had him by the balls though, I was 91% to win before the river came

Hand #3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752930

This hand is pretty standard, normally I'm playing pretty aggressive and will be able to profitably get JJ all in pre-flop in a spot where my opponent could easily be squeezing fairly lightly. Not too much to talk about here, I was 57% to win before the flop and just lost the coinflip.

Hand #4: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752938

Here is another classic cooler. I decide to make a play against an aggressive UTG initial raiser because he is opening a lot of pots and unlikely to have much here. I normally don't have to worry too much about beepokerking because if he had a huge hand he would have re-raised ExB1983 himself. Obviously that's an excellent flop for my hand and I'll be looking to get all in with it... just so happens that he flopped the full house... not much I can do.

Hand #5: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752945

Another sick unlucky spot. I put so many chips in before the flop, that I pretty much have to go all in on any flop because I have one pot-sized bet left to bet. It just so happens that he hit one of the two cards that could save him on the flop. I was 81% to win pre-flop, and I'm 4-betting here to $68 instead of shoving all in so he can monkey it in with some bullshit like 78 suited. I'm getting all in vs. his high pocket pairs anyways, however, 4-betting to an amount 2.5x of what he put in gives me options if I'm bluffing and gives him some rope to make a huge mistake.

Hand #6: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752974

Another bad beat. I decide to just call his 3-bet in position because I had not 4-bet yet at that table, which means I would get a ton of respect and he would fold most of his hands. This is a great flop for me because AK just hit top pair, top kicker... so I bet/call on flop and get 2 outed on the river. I was 91% to win on the flop.

Hand #7: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752982

This hand I actually made an error in. I don't think getting it all in on the turn is profitable, once he goes all in. However, my initial read on both of these players on the flop was that they were on draws or mediocre hands because they like INSTA-called my c-bet. Most opponents will take a second or two to think about what they want to do with hands like a flopped straight, two pair, or a set. It's pretty uncommon to have someone just snap-call a c-bet on this draw-heavy board with a set because they normally consider raising. That's why I like my turn bet, but once he shoves it's a pretty clear fold against this opponent I think.

Hand #8: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2752999

I made a pretty large error in this hand... I was raising on the flop to protect my hand and extract value from worse Jacks... however once he comes over the top again it's pretty obvious that he has me beat and is holding JT, QQ+, or a set. I should have folded to his $82 raise.

Hand #9: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2753004

Just a bad beat, I was 71% to win when the money got in.

Hand #10: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2753006

Another bad beat, got the money in as an 89% favorite on the flop.

Hand #11: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2753011

I have the best starting hand in poker, we go all in before the flop, and I lose to quads. I'm 81% to win pre-flop.


So yea, not a whole lot to learn from these hands other than hands #7 and 8... but sometimes it feels good to post these types of hands just to bring closure to the bad day, as well as re-assure myself that I was playing well and getting most of the money in good.


Here are a few winning hands:


Hand #12: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2753023

I actually won a hand with AA this session, believe it or not.


Hand #13: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2753031

I played this hand perfectly... I made a good all in shove on the turn and he made a terrible call... he had been playing wildly.

Hand #14: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2753040

This is what happens sometimes when you 4-bet to 2.5xs... this guy took his rope and hung himself.


Ok well this entry got pretty long, but hopefully it was an OK read. I plan on making my standard entries a lot shorter, but I just got a bit carried away on this one. I plan on playing tonight, as Friday night is the most profitable night to play online poker because of all the recreational players playing. Also, lots of drunk people play, etc. so the games get pretty juicy.

Have a great weekend.

Duckblog is born

Hey everyone, I finally decided to make a blog.

I am a 21 year old professional poker player from North Dakota. I graduated about six months ago with my degree in Business Management from the University of North Dakota. Now, I am putting my degree to good use... managing my poker business.

The purpose of this blog is primarily to track my progress as a professional poker player while discussing and analyzing both hands and playing sessions. I will post goals that I am attempting to reach as well as recent results.

I will try and make my blog as interesting as possible though and definitely plan on adding pictures and talking about some of my hobbies (hunting, shooting sporting clays, golf, and hockey.)

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the adventures of Duckslayer2k!