linkwood

I think it depends on your read of the villain. If he is a straightforward, solid player I would rather flat call because many times he will let me know on the turn if I'm ahead or not. Just calling gives you the added benefit of seeing what the BB does before committing too many chips to the pot. If he's a little more tricky (ie, will second barrel, especially if a scare card hits) though I think you may want to raise here to about 40 and see how he reacts to that.

If you were 90% sure that he had J8 and you figured that he was a competent player why shove? You knew it would be a terrible call then wouldn't you rather bet a smaller amount that you figure he'd be more likely to call? Not criticizing, but I just want to make sure I understand this. Is it just because of the pot size vs stack size?

Just to clarify, haven't seen him bluff or semi-bluff before.

No, most of his hands haven't gone to show down. Never seen him do anything out of line. He's a quiet player, but when he invests in a pot he's usually push the action, and since he's so short, that usually means he's shoving. But only after the flop. Preflop i can't remember him reraising once, but he hadn't been at the table that long, so, at the time I didn't know if this meant he never reraised, or just never had the chance.Also, i don't think he would be the type to call a raise with little cards that would complete the straight here. That is just a hunch though, I didn't have any so

1/2 NL at the Venitian. 10 handed.Stack sizesVillian: ~150Me: coversVillian has been relatively TAG, but hasn't shown down a lot of hands. When he plays a hand he's either folding or being very aggressive. A few hands earlier he raised in EP up to 15 with AA, one caller in MP, and i called in bb with 88. flop comes q83r. I led for 30, he pushed for a little over 100, MP called with kq, i shoved and stacked them both. Other than that we haven't tangled very much. Hero is probably seen as aggressive and somewhat loose, although I'm not sure if he's paying attention or not. 2 folds, Hero

KJ? I have trouble folding 5-3o. . . I withdraw my comment

I guess it depends on how much of a POW he is. If he is thinking at all then its hard to see him calling you with a worse hand here and you've basically turned your hand into a bluff. If he's really bad enough to call you with a10 here then I don't mind the play. FWIW, I really don't like calling pf with AJo from the sb after a tight player raised, another called and one other person to act. You're going to be out of position against one person who likely has a better hand than you, another who you will have trouble putting on a hand, and another who you obviously have no fold equity again

Not sure what to do here. Button is new to the table and seemingly TAG. This is the first pot we've gotten tangled up in. SB is very loose, somewhat aggressive, so I don't put a ton of stock in his preflop flat call. I'm a LAG. I am known to take pots when people show weakness, do big bluffs, etc. But I don't believe that the button has seen that. The sb has though. A few questions:Should I have reraised pf?Should I have led the flop?Do I call the turn?Full Tilt PokerNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.05/$0.106 playersConverterStack sizes:UTG: $9.40UTG+1: $10Hero: $12.35Button: $10.1

No solid reads on this guy. I've been a LAG and haven't shown down many hands. Standard?Full Tilt PokerNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.05/$0.106 playersConverterStack sizes:UTG: $14.75Hero: $12.10CO: $11.75Button: $4.35SB: $9.70BB: $10.65Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG+1 with Q Q UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.3, 2 folds, SB calls, BB folds.Flop: T J 2 ($0.7, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $0.45, SB calls.Turn: 7 ($1.6, 2 players)SB checks, Hero bets $1.2, SB raises to $2.7, Hero calls.River: A ($7, 2 players)SB bets $3, Hero folds.Uncalled bets: $3 returned to SB.Results:Final p

No solid reads on villian. Seems to be playing a solid TAG game. I've been a LAG. In my experience this flop push is a very strong hand 80% of the time. The worst hand I've seen is an overpair, which is unlikely here given the PF call. Against a range of two pair and sets, can I make this call?Full Tilt PokerNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.10/$0.256 playersConverterStack sizes:UTG: $21.55UTG+1: $25.60CO: $26.35Hero: $52.50SB: $27BB: $24.75Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with 9 J 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, SB calls, BB folds.Flop: 6 J 7 ($1.75, 2 players)SB bets $1.4, Hero

The villian and I have tangled in a few pots now. Not sure, but I think that he is gunning for a me bit. He raises my blind almost every time, calls me down light, and reraises my PFRs frequently. Overall I would say he's TAG, but he has been raising a lot more recently, especially against my blind. We haven't gotten to a lot of show downs, so I don't have a ton of information on what hands he's doing this with. The only show downs I can remember are one hand when I called him on the flop and river on a 10 10 3 10 k board and we chopped it with aq, and one where i called his raise in the

Ok, maybe I'm an idiot or something, but people seen to be coming up with math different than mine. From what I see, if the villian pushes its a call because we're getting the right price. Am I wrong in this?

Thinking "out loud" - So the pot is 75, 25 more to you. If you call that puts the pot at 100, and you have 105 left. If MP2 shoves it will put the pot at 220 with 105 to call. You're 2 - 1 against making your hand, so you're getting the right price to chase.This of course assumes that the CO folds. If he calls the all in you're likely against a set or two pair, which puts you at about a 3 - 1 dog in the hand. But the pot will be 325 (your pot that is) and 105 to call, so again, you're getting the right price. So I would say that you should call, hope the MP2 is an idiot and slowplays his

Against almost anyone else in almost any other situation. Seriously, this is purely situational, but against this guy, who has shown me that he's close to brain dead I just can't give him credit for a hand that beats mine all the time. Not even most of the time. Seriously, the guy has shown that he doesn't understand what his calling standards should be post flop and now we give him credit for having good raising standards? I've seen too many people who play this poorly turn over 88 in this spot. If he's got me beat, oh well. I'm just giving him more money that I can expect to get back l

thanks.I didn't mean I couldn't fold it ever. Just not in this spot.

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I'm playing with a lot of donks lately after having lost most of my online bankroll. I've seen donkeys similar to this take this line with a hand like kk or even 1010 that they limped in preflop with and now think is such a good hand that its worth raising with, but they don't really have it figured out when they should raise with it. Honestly, I don't think I could fold this hand.

I didn't bet the turn thinking that I had the best hand. I bet it in leui of the check raise on the flop. Like a stop and go play. And the queen is bad because it takes away one more hand that i can beat: a q . On the river there are two hands i can beat that I can see, AK or 99. Everything else beats me. Am I wrong in this thinking?

Full Tilt PokerNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.05/$0.108 playersConverterStack sizes:Hero: $37.95UTG+1: $8.80MP1: $29.05MP2: $3.70CO: $2.05Button: $10.20SB: $9.80BB: $11.05Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is UTG with T T Hero raises to $0.3, UTG+1 folds, MP1 raises to $1, 5 folds, Hero calls.Flop: 4 8 3 ($2.15, 2 players)Hero checks, MP1 bets $1.3, Hero calls.Turn: 2 ($4.75, 2 players)Hero bets $3.2, MP1 calls.River: Q ($11.15, 2 players)Hero checks, MP1 bets $14.9, Hero folds.Uncalled bets: $14.9 returned to MP1.Results:Final pot: $11.15This guy has reraised me pf about 3 other times in

In line with what others are saying about the flop, I think this is where the decision needs to be made on the hand. You have a huge draw and you're 50/50 with a made hand, but the problem is that if you make your hand it will scare the bejeezus out of a big ace, set, two pair, and you might not get action. When you don't have good implied odds on your hand you either have to get the money in or fold. If you just call you face a lot of problems. What happens if you miss? Do you check fold? What happens if you hit your straight? With four to a straight you may not get full value on your

wow! i really enjoy reading your posts. i hope that you get better soon. keep us posted.

I'm not sure about this one. I wet my pants whenever I get a pair and flush draw (that's my tell), but in this case, against a competent villain it seems more marginal. Here's how I see it, the villain led at a pot with 5 other people in it, where he was first to act. He's not bluffing with air here. two people call and then the hero puts in a healthy raise. Immediately the villain raises more, enough to commit him to the pot, enough to scare away the riff raff, but he didn't shovel. The range you guys already put in seems about right. Would the way he raised immediately though lead us

With the size of the pot and villain's stack size it looks like reevaluating the turn means he is likely getting it all in. Small raises like that mean different things from different opponents. I think you can call and reevaluate, but you're usually going to face a bit bet, probably an all in on the turn. So I think we have to make our decision now if we're going all the way with this hand or not. I'm torn between just calling and then perhaps donk betting a non-heart turn or just dumping it and moving on.

Also, villain probably wouldn't put hero on a draw, because he saw how hero recently played a big draw fast and would likely expect hero to play similarly with a straight or flush draw this time. So what could the hero have that the villain would expect to call with after he checked the flop. I just can't see this a reasonable value bet. I call.

The problem when you take stabs at boards with draws out there is that it makes it hard to put your opponent on a hand. If you bet on this board and get called you don't know if your opponent is calling with a pair, a straight, or a straight draw. So you're a little bit lost in the hand unless you have a good read on your opponents. Get to show down cheap on this pot.

This really depends on the villian, but as a default I think you need to fold it on the flop or raise, with my default to be fold. The villian is betting into two opponents which makes it less likely that they are bluffing, that flop hits a lot of hands and by just calling you're giving the opponent behind you good odds to call with a hand you don't know a lot about. This isn't the flop you want with Qd10d, you don't know how many, if any of the outs are good if you are behind, so I would just dump it on the flop and move on.