BlondePoker Heads Up Challenge #2

Finished 3rd/28 in the BlondePoker.com Heads-up Challenge #2 held at PokerStars, losing to WSOP gold bracelet winner Brian Wilson in the semi final. Riverdave beat Brian in the final to take down the event. Well done.

I started off well building a 14k:10k lead against Brian Wilson but to his credit he adjusted very well and was soon luring me into playing bigger pots preflop after I had decided that I needed to trap him post-flop. The key hand (the biggest pot in the match) in my Semi final that made me lose the psychological war was:

Seat 1: flopit20 (14137 in chips)
Seat 2: #1DaMatrix (9863 in chips)

#1DaMatrix: posts small blind 120
flopit20: posts big blind 240

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [9h Th]
#1DaMatrix: raises 480 to 720 [Decide to raise with T9s at a time where my opponent would put me on premium cards: AA/KK/QQ/JJ/AK...]
flopit20: calls 480 [calls hoping to outplay me post-flop but I am one step ahead with a disguised hand on the button]

*** FLOP *** [Qs Jd 6s]
flopit20: checks [trying to outplay me with a check raise? flopped a set?]
#1DaMatrix: checks [sensed he would have check raised me if I bet, so I checked to try and hit and make him pay for his cruel intentions lol]

*** TURN *** [Qs Jd 6s] [7d]
flopit20: checks [figured now was the time for him to lead out, but he checks... hmmmm]
#1DaMatrix: bets 777 [I take a stab since he checked again]
flopit20: raises 777 to 1554 [min-raises me - either v. strong or v. weak. I read it as a set-up for a bluff on the river if I call due to the dynamics of the match]
#1DaMatrix: calls 777 [I call instead of reraising, since if I hit my draw I feel confident he will pay me off for my whole stack since I am 100% sure he doesn't think T9 could be one of my possible hands. Also protective if he does have a monster and I'm not going to win a huge pot if I raise and he folds if his hand is worse than mine - I don't think he's folding hands better than mine here]

*** RIVER *** [Qs Jd 6s 7d] [7s]
flopit20: bets 240 [Very strange bet this. Some railbirds said after the hand that it was very clear he had a hand with this bet. It's not as clear cut as that. I am either calling or raising. It looks like he wants me to raise (although I read it as wanting a cheap showdown) and I feel that I can't win by calling. Dilemma.]
#1DaMatrix: raises 3093 to 3333 [I decided a big bet is in order which can easily represent a full-house the way I have played the hand and the match up to then. If he reraises then I have to fold - and that was in the back of my mind too but fealt that the chance that he would re-bluff here to be very small (since losing the pot would put him at a big disadvantage). I've made it big enough so that he's either folding or reraising. He has to put me on AK/QQ/JJ cos I hadn't raised a lot on the button (the T9s raise was to disguise my hand) and the chances that he has QQ/JJ are very slim (he would have reraised me preflop). I am also tricky enough to slowplay the QQ or JJ in the same spot]
flopit20: raises 8530 to 11863 and is all-in [To be honest, this move was totally unexpected as I thought I must have had some respect by that point in the match. I think one factor that made him think that he could pull off the move was the time it took me to bet. That could have been the motive behind the min-bet on the river. If I call the hand is over and he got a cheap showdown. But if I decide to raise then he might be able to decide whether I am weak or not by the time it takes me to bet. So, he got the right read and goes all-in! He either has nothing or close to the nuts. I have read him as weak all the way. But with a min bet and then a re-raise all-in? I guess he figured out that I couldn't call with AK. Took a big risk though, because I estimate 50% of the time I would have had a hand to call him with here]
flopit20 said, "call"
#1DaMatrix said, "damn wp" [I concede that he outplayed me]
flopit20 said, "call"
flopit20 said, "call" [the "call call call" was interesting. I know he doesn't want to lose to me - he doesn't want to lose to anybody. He's like daring me to call. For a moment I think he wants me to win and has actually got nothing. But Ten high! It's an almost impossible call. I did think about it with him urging me to call, even if it was just to see his hand - but I didn't want to look like an idiot with lots of BlondeForum members watching the match and then him showing down a full house against my ten high lol.]
#1DaMatrix: folds [after a long think I decide to fold with enough chips for a decent shot at a comeback. The right move is sometimes folding a marginal winning hand to then trap your overly-confident opponent for all of his chips later on]
flopit20 collected 11214 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11214 Rake 0
Board [Qs Jd 6s 7d 7s]
Seat 1: flopit20 (big blind) collected (11214)
Seat 2: #1DaMatrix (button) (small blind) folded on the River

Here is what Brian Wilson had to say about the hand:

"i had nothing, great game u fight like a tiger, gl"

Then his all-in on the end was a fantastic move. Must have put me on AK. No wonder he is a WSOP champ the way he set that up! Min betting to induce a bluff to then re-bluff! Crazy move!

The best thing about the hand is that it doesn't matter what he had. I was outplayed either way. Whether he had a hand or he didn't. Nevertheless, a very interesting hand. In hindsight, it looks after my bet on the river that I have enough chips to fold if he moves all-in. When choosing my bet, I had 7,589 chips left and I was thinking of betting 2,222, 3,333, 4,444 or all-in. I figured the 2,222 was too small and callable, the fact that he bet the min on the river meant that going all-in would have looked to0 fishy (another reason why the min-bet was clever, if he had bet the pot instead then I could have moved all-in on him). So it was between 3,333 and 4,444 and I chose the 3,333 since it might be interpreted as stronger and also minimises my loss in achieving the same or better effect. That min bet basically completely trapped me - you can trap with a good hand or if your a champ you can also trap with a bluff!!

DaMatrix's Road to the Semis:

Match 1: beat Lauren Elise (1 hand)
Match 2: beat MKKMOO (7 hands)
Match 3: beat henrik7777 (18 hands)
Match 4 (semi final): lost to flopit20 (55 hands)

Blonde H/U #2 Results

That's back to back semi final appearances in BlondePoker H/U competitions for me. Not bad. I have cashed in 4/5 Blonde Tournaments now.

As a bonus, here's another hand that occured between me and Brian Wilson, after being down to the felt I had come back a little and was trying to build momentum, Wilson was having none of it though:

Seat 1: flopit20 (17524 in chips)
Seat 2: #1DaMatrix (6476 in chips)

flopit20: posts small blind 200
#1DaMatrix: posts big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to #1DaMatrix [5d 3s]

flopit20: raises 400 to 800
#1DaMatrix: raises 1600 to 2400
flopit20: raises 8000 to 10400
#1DaMatrix: folds [Seriously considered calling here, but 53o was too weak to make a stand with even though I had just above 2-1, 4k to win 8.8k [5d3s (34%) v 6c7c (66%)]. In a small sit and go with an opponent who had been playing similarly I would have called, but once again I chickened out under the BlondePoker spotlight! lol]

flopit20 collected 4800 from pot

flopit20: shows [6c 7c] (high card Seven)

That hand pretty much killed off any chance of winning that I had and 7 hands later I was toast. It's very hard to win a heads-up match when your opponent doesn't respect any of your raises or he can see your hole cards!!