Free Poker Lessons Here!

We'll start things off today with one of the sickest hands I've been involved with in a long, long time.

Playing a $5 SnG, I'm up to about 1700 or so when I get KK UTG. Blinds are 30\60, and I raise it up to 180. Player to my left, who hasn't been involved in that many pots, reraises me to 630, about 1\2 his stack. AA is a possibility, but I put his range on AA-JJ, AK, AQ, and I'm only afraid of one of those hands. BB is the bigstack and has been playing loose, donkish poker. BB also makes the call, and I'm really not worried about his hand. I go for the push, knowing that A) I've got UTG+1 covered & B) BB is going to call, so even if I'm up against AA, I should be able to double the rest of my stack through the BB. UTG+1 calls, and on cue, BB calls as well.

UTG+1: AA
BB: KQo

Fuck me! I appreciate BB calling off 40% of his stack with KQo, but not the same time I'm all in against AA as well! Oh well, at least I know I won't be out.

Flop comes 99K. I hit the fucking one outer!
Turn is a T
River is an A.

The ol' suck-resuck. I'd be more pissed if this knocked me out, and I would've been happier with a 5k stack instead of the 1100 I was left with, but it's always fun to be involved in a hand like this and live to tell about it. BTW, I ended up 3rd when I rivered two pair, only to push into the donkBB's turned straight. GG me.
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Last night, I sat down with my girlfriend & played some online poker with her. Her interest in poker has really grown since we started hosting some home games, and she's to the point now where's she's improving her understanding of basic poker strategy.

The first game, things started well when it checked to us in the BB with 58. Flop comes 458, and we take our two pair to the river and it's good against someone's limped 99.

We stack up to about 1900 or so when I show her how to overplay AK. Player to the right minraises to 60, and I tell her to reraise to 200. Two callers see a flop of 335, and we bet 1\2 pot. Original raiser calls. Turn is a 6 and I tell her to put him all in for 830 more. I was convinced this guy would fold, and I wanted to show her the joys of aggressive betting. The guy instead calls and shows A3o. Looks like I'll be showing her the joys of short-stack playing.

Next hand is QQ UTG, and we raise 5xBB, no callers.

Final hand is KK in the SB. A raise UTG and an EP call before us, and we push for 700. UTG then pushes for about 1100 total, and EP calls. The hands?

UTG: T9h
EP: AQo

Nice! Looks like a triple up for us!

Flop comes Qxx, two hearts.
Turn is a blank
River is an A. GG us.

Since we ended that game so early, we fired up one more. This ended up being a really good game for instructional value because there were so many different types of players.

Our first big hand was 99 in EP. A 3xBB raise got one caller, a very loose player in the BB who like to overbet and bluff.

Flop comes A87, and he leads out a minbet. We reraise, representing an A, and he calls. Turn is a 5 and he minbets again. We call to keep the pot small. River is a beautiful 9, and he leads puts us all in. Normally, I'd be worried about a 6, but we're not folding trips to this guy. We call, and he shows T8o.

Next big hand, we get 66 in EP and just limp in. Checks to the same BB again who raises 3.5xBB. We make the call and see a J64, two heart flop. BB shoves for 1700 into a 500 pot and we call with our trips. BB shows A2c and goes home. Again, I'd fold 66 to other players, but I explain to my GF that we made the call knowing we'd get all his chips if we catch a 6. With that overbet, I'd call even if we didn't.

A couple hands later, we got AJo on the button, and I elected to limp. The BB then reraises about 5xBB, and I tell my GF we should fold. Flop comes AQx and BB bets out big, UTG calls. Gets to the river, another A, and the two show 55 & 98 sooted. Even though our AJ would have been good, I try to convince my girlfriend that laying down AJo to a preflop raise is a good thing.

Later, we get AK on the button and a somewhat shortstack raises 3xBB to 360 from UTG. I convince my GF to reraise him all in, and he calls with QQ. We flop a flush draw which gets there on the river, and I explain to my GF that we made the play because we were up against a shortstack with a premium hand, and we were really only afraid of two hands, AA or KK.

The person to the right of us was playing pretty tight to start, so I encouraged my GF to make a couple of laydowns, but I also noticed that, as the table got shorter, this person was stealing a lot more. So we used to our advantage a couple of times.

First, we open-raised with AQs and the tighty called from the BB. Flop came A42, two clubs, and we bet less than 1\2. I told her to bet this so that it'd seem weak. Sure enough, the BB reraised our 200 bet to 650. We came over the top for 1400, and she folded.

We then made a loose cal in the SB with 22 against the tighty, and I thought about pushing the raise on a TT3 flop. But then I noticed the tighty put 1\2 her stack in on the flop bet and elected to fold instead.

A couple hands later, we called another bet from the tighty with 86d - gotta teach her the beauty of suited connecters, right? Flop came J85, and the button bet out 600 - less than half the pot about about 1\4 of her stack. I reraised what looked like a C-bet, and she folded.

We end up getting heads up against the player who reraised from the BB against our AJo with 98 sooted. Heads up lasts about 6 hands when he min-raises our BB, and we call with KJo. Flop comes KJx, two spades, and we lead out looking weak. SB pushes and shows 58o for a complete bluff. And just like that (with a little bit of help), my girlfriend won her first online SnG.

The victory was nice, but more importantly, this game was great practice for her. I was able to give her pointers that she can use at a full game rather than heads up, which is the biggest difficulty about trying to teach her one on one. I showed her things like aggressive betting, check-raising, identifying your opponent, and the different between raising A6 from the button three-handed and folding A2 sooted to a push from the button 3 handed. I felt like a seasoned poker vet when I was instructing her as every single play we made paid off, and we completely owned the table. And as helpful as it was for my girlfriend to get some more practice, it was helpful for me too, as it helped build up my confidence just a little bit more.