Herocalls are probably my favorite hand examples. Do you want to have your own collection of impressive herocalls? It is a great material to brag about and show everybody how you are powning your opponents. I will give you a tip on how to create such a collection. My way is simple - be a big calling station. Call a ton. Most of the time bluffcatching with Q-high won't work. But you obviously won't show those hands to anybody. You will just quietly discard those hands. Once in a blue moon your Q-high hero call is good. You save that hand history and talk about it to anybody willing to listen.
What about this hand example? My perception of villain in this match was that he was limping only trashy hands at this moment. So king on the turn and Ace on the river (by the way that's the title of a great book from Barry Greenstein) are not very scary.

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Another calldown example. Some players are auto triple-barreling A-high boards, so under the right circumstances these calls are very profitable. But be aware about their preflop ranges! It makes a big difference whether they open 30% or 90% of buttons.

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Last example from this mini herocall series. The key idea here is that most people are not capable of valuebetting thinly. Villain is probably valuebetting only good jacks and twopairs. But that's only a small portion of his range. Look at all those missed flushdraws, straightdraws and gutshots! Easy call - especially when you need nice hands to brag about.

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For how long have you been playing poker? Five cards with Royal Flush combination is a typical poker symbol depicted at many places. To the uninitiated it might seem that royal flush is a common part of poker play. Very opposite is the truth! Hitting royal flush (using both your holecards) happens very rarely.
I have played a lot of poker hands - so I have a few royal flushes in my "collection". This hand is one example of me flopping royal flush.
If I remember correctly, I have never lost with quads (versus higher quads or straightflush). So I have not been in every poker situation yet. What about you? Have you been in those rare showdown situations were you proudly show quads only to find out that you are beaten?

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I don't want to be run over! Against a wide opener I am not waiting for premium cards to play the hand. T5o is certainly more than good enough for me to defend my big blind. Flop checks through. Very few villains have balanced flop-checking-back ranges. Villain probably has K-high, A-high or 6x. I imagine he doesn't want to play a big pot. His check on the flop screams: "Let's check it down cheaply!" No way! I am betting big on the turn and continue on the river with all-in if needed. Villain folded the turn and I took the pot. I don't call with T5o preflop to hit twopair. I need to use every opportunity to contest the pot even if I don't have a hand.

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Very standard hand. Correct play from both sides. There is not too much to discuss in terms of strategy. But let's make what I call "psychological replay". I am certain you have played similar hands many times before. What are your feelings during the hand?
Are you calm, or does your internal dialogue go like this:
CARDS DELT: Yes! Strong hand, A9! I want to bust this *****
still PREFLOP, villain shows AK: No! This **** happens again! This is 5th setup in a row!
FLOP: No help as usual.
TURN: YESSSSSSSSS!
RIVER: *****! ******! (smashing mouse)

If you are a recreational player maybe this is the reason you play poker. To feel these ups and downs of variance. Feeling happy when you hit miracle one-outer and being angry when you lose this way with A9. On the other hand if you want to play poker more seriously (as a semiprofessional or professional) you need to have completely different attitude. This was very standard hand. You should not be emotionally involved in any way. Working on psychological issues is as important as studying strategy. These topics are greatly covered in books of Jared Tendler and Tommy Angelo. I have read them and I recommend them as a nice source of information about poker psychology.
One comment about Expected value (EV). I have played this hand correctly. My PokerTracker database will show that in this tournament I lost some amount of EV. My EV-line (curve portraing my EV) will go down. Here it is important to pause for a second and think. Sometimes players think about EV-line like it is be-all and end-all when we speak about a player's ability. Yes, EV-line is a more precise measurement than simply dollars won. But be aware that even for a winning player EV-line could go down for some time because of these set-up situations. In summary I wanted to say that EV-line also needs some time to converge to be a meaninfull statistical tool.

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Don't miss Daniel's interview on Friday!