Thanks to my lovely mentor Manuel I have been fortunate to move over to to the new pokertime software.

 Adjusting to the software took a few thousand hands, not least because of the speed of the deal! The software is a strange mix of very modern and smooth graphical interface twinned with what feels like a fairly ancient piece of programming and analogue windows. You can feel it with the button clicks, that while it looks modern there is actually a constant delay on the click and response time, which I imagine would seriously hamper anyone playing over 6 tables at a time.

There are a lot of badbeat players on this network, and this blog post concerns a two hands from a session against the same player who has the screen Alias 'Gruntled'. He is a player I have noticed for two reasons:
1) he is hyperactive, there is only one other player I have shared as many hands with in the last few days.
2) He is one of the few players who is neither overly passive (check/call, check/call style) or ridiculously aggressive (I got QQ, automatic 3bet shove preflop!!!!!). He lies well in the middle, backing up his hands with good sized bets ensuring that his opponents pay for their drawing streets.

 Part 1: When an unstoppable force hits an immovable object.
So this leads me onto hand 1. Having settled into my general read on him as a fairly traditional tight/conservative/aggressive player, I picked out a hand where I thought I could try to run a bluff by. The hand played as follows:

 Our Hero: (D) 7s 5s - $49.50
 Gruntled: (UTG) - $64.50

Preflop:
Gruntled - Raise to $2
Hero - Call

Pot $4.75
Flop: 2d Js Ad

Gruntled - Bet $2.50, Call
Hero - Raise to $8.50

Having watched my new friend, I gave him credit for a hand. However obviously there is a fairly wide range of hands he can continue with after the flop, ranging from an ace, to KK/QQ and any flush draw. He is tight, not passive. So it was at this point with my ownership of the button that I decided to vary my play slightly and see what he did with my raise. The call did not surprise me at all, as obviously nearly all the hands in the range he could have would have reason to think they might be good in this spot, I would have been more surprised had he folded. Probably the only hand rule out him having is AJ or A7, which is good for my play as they are the 2 of the 5 big hands my play has close to 0% chance against. So the interesting card for this play is of course the turn.

Pot - $22
Turn: 2d Js Ad 7c

Woohoo I made a pair!

Gruntled - Check, Call
Hero - Bet $9

This slightly surprised me, purely because the flush has missed. So I now rule out AK/AQ and any 2pair/set, as these hands (I think) he would want to kill the pot with at this stage. So either he has the flush draw himself, or a weak ace. A weak ace would surprise me, but perhaps he is hoping for a free showdown at the river. In short, if a diamond misses I have to fancy that my intended bluff is batting a high % against whatever range he is normally holding.

Pot $40
River: 2d Js Ad 7c 3s

Gin. A perfect blank.

Gruntled - Check, Call
Hero - Bet $19

He then showed A10 to claim the pot. I was quite surprised, I personally don't believe I could have stomached the $19 on the river myself after such sustained pressure, but there we are he must have assumed I had been pushing a busted draw and made the brave call.

Part 2: The Empire Strikes Back!

Armed with my new image agaisnt my new friend, the story resumes on the flop in a 3 way pot after he has preflop raised, 4 or 5 hands later.

Gruntled: $97
Hero: As 9s $56

Pot: $6
Flop - 9h 9d 7s

Gruntled - bet $3
Hero - raise to $6

Now I am armed with a real hand and he is leading out into a 3 way pot. Traditional thought would suggest that I just call this and try to get more on the turn, however armed with our recent tussle in which he saw me bluff I decided to pump for the minimum raise. Any raise would work of course if he has a real hand, but I figured that a min-raise might look like a lazy bluff to steal a paired board rather than a thought out bet.

The third player got out of the way at which point my new friend made it $14.50. Obviously he might have 77, in which case I am cooked, but it is hardly likely and nor can I chuck an ace kicker at this stage anyway. Far more likely is that he has a 9 himself, or a big overpair. So keen to give the idea that I am weak, perhaps a pair of my own or a mere 7, I call in the knowledge that he acts first and will likely bet again with my show of weakness.

Pot - $44
Turn - 9h 9d 7s 6d

Gruntled - bet $21, Call
Hero - Raise allin for $40

Obviously the turn is slightly scary to him, as I might just have fished out with 8-10. Given his 3bet on the flop though, I had no such worries myself that he might have made a straight. So the simple all in bet was made, and he made a (no doubt) crying call with Qh Qd. River blank secured the pot.

But for the history of the previous hand, I doubt I would have doubled through in the sequel. Much more likely that I would have flat called his flop bet, and then the smaller pot size would stop him stacking to me. completely. I would predict that he checks the river and calls a fairly small value bet, probably shaving about $30 off of the pot total by the end.

Either way it was a fun series of hands, no doubt we will share more!