linkwood

again, if there is no fold equity then moving in is usually the wrong play. just because the player bet the pot doesn't mean they are ready to play for stacks. he could easily have a hand like 88 or Ahxh or a9, or a number of hands that could bet the pot not as a sign of strength, but as a sign of weakness hoping the hero goes away. its very dependent on the player. its not what i would do with those hands, or what you may do. but people do it and they may fold if you put them to the test. still, i think that people use the CRAI with big draws WAY too much and its fairly easy to pick off

Have you raised in the blinds before after a bunch of limpers? honestly, his play doesn't make sense. he obviously wants you to go away, because of his huge overbet. i think he has, at best 99 or aq here and likely won't call a push, so i move in. if he has aces or kings and played them this way then nh sir. i don't think you can just call because you give up control of the betting and you could easily be moved off of the best hand post flop. i'm usually not a fan of playing ak this aggressively pf, but i think this is one of the times i would make an exception.

i'm in the fold pf camp. i understand the desire to push back against the aggressive player, but a8o OOP isn't the hand to do it with. pick a better spot. i would almost rather do this with a suited connector than with a8o because with a connector its pretty easy to get away from if you don't connect. with this hand it gets difficult to let go of, as you can see. honestly, after you reraise and he calls the bet i almost would lean towards c/f the turn. you're in a spot where you're either drawing dead, or drawing to 3 outs, or, best case, he has a ton of outs against you. only in extrem

probably. you're not pushing because you think you're a big favorite. you're pushing because you think you're probably a favorite AND you want some fold equity as well. its a classic semi-bluff. adding the potential fold-equity makes this play very +EV. the only case where i wouldn't make a play like this is when i'm playing an opponent who just won't lay down a hand like top pair. if you take away the fold equity then i agree with you and i don't like pushing here. but against most opponents the play is pretty standard.

not much you can do (legally). keep reading books and start getting involved in the forums. post hands from your home games that you have questions about and discuss other people's hands to give/get insite. there's a lot of great players in this forum so learn from them. then, when you turn 18, find an indian casino and go play when you can. times like this are about proving to yourself how bad you really want it. a big part of poker is patience and discipline, and this could be a good lesson for you right now, especially given the things you say about your game. just wait it out, do wh

yeah. i agree with you guys. in the hand i realized that i wanted to get all the money in the middle, so i decided the best play was to raise the max, 200 more, to knock the guy out of the hand. he folded of course. i thought about it later and realized how badly i played it, allowing myself to win the minimum. as an aside, river was a k. i scooped the pot. villian 1 said he folded aq, so by doing the 'wrong' thing i actually won the pot. so, i guess that means i played it perfectly. shows what you guys know..

fold pf, for the reasons stated. fold the flop. you took a shot with a marginal hand and got raised. against a tricky opponent who i know is looking to trap me i will check behind sometimes with hands that have potential. let him win the small pots and you can win the big ones. fold the turn. you have 12 outs for sure, maybe more, but he could easily have two pair or a set and that would kill your two pair + outs. so you need about 3-1 to call and if my math is right you're only getting a little over 2-1. the only way i'd call is if he would do this with one pair, like jj or qq. in th

not with that attitude he won't!

2-3-5 spread limit. 200 max bet. 200 max buy inStacksHero ~425Villian 1 (MP) ~400Villian 2 (LP) ~180ReadsVillian 1 - somewhat new to the table but seems to be weak, loose and a mix of passive/aggressive. haven't seen a lot of show downs with him yet but he has won some big pots with some big hands recently so he's running good. Villian 2 - very new to the table. older, quiet guy. seems somewhat loose/passive, but tight after the flop. hasn't shown down a hand yet. Preflop. Hero has KQo.Villian 1 limps. Villian 2 limps. Button completes. SB completes. Hero checks.Flop (pot 20 after

that's great! not sure that would work while i'm in the office though...people don't look too kindly on having sex with things while they are trying to talk to clients on the phone. *shrug* then again...its so crazy it just might work

i have way too much time on my hands. in general, way too much checking. be aggressive with your premium hands. make people pay for playing weak cards. hand 1 - i would probably reraise preflop. the pot is almost 3 bucks, the villian already invested 1/3 of his stack. he is probably willing of put the rest of it in if he cold called the all in raise. get your money in when you can. hand 2 - standard. its a bad flop for you but with the size of the pot you really don't have anything else you can do. hand 3 - raise the flop. if you think you have the best hand then protect it. move i

I think this is a great plan. I really doubt we're behind here very often, cold calling a raise and then a lp reraise OOP sounds like something a LAG might do with a pair more often than two clubs (am i way off in this thinking?). so being aggressive is the key, but you don't want to lose the customer.

true, and the example is more standard than i intended. what if your hand is weaker? like q-10 or a-j. does that change anything?

I'm having trouble lately finding the balance between the two concepts of pot control and protecting your hand. I find that i get into a lot of situations where i have a one pair hand on a board with draws and i get into a situation where i don't want to make a monster pot with this hand but i also want to make sure i'm protecting my hand. Here's an example.25/.50 nlHero ~65Villian ~100Villian is somewhat LAG and tricky. He will slowplay hands, but he can also bet them fast, whether its a draw or a big hand. Hero is in CO with KhQh and raises to 1.50. Villian (Button) calls. Blinds fold.

...just reading your baby einstein, learning your shapes and colors. amen. ps. OP, what he said

Not really. I lead at these types of flops sometimes, but you have to be careful leading into 3 opponents, one of which is aggressive, OOP. If you face a couple calls and a raise by the aggressive player you may have to just dump the hand, not really knowing where you're at. I think you should lead with these hands sometimes, just to mix up your game, but check raising to isolate an aggressive opponent is probably the best move in this situation IMO.

Yeah, i blew that part. but do you have to reraise there? can you just call or fold?

i had one limper behind, so i normally raise 5x the bb against limpers. if i'm first to open i normally raise 4x bb. i don't think a difference of less than a dollar though would have really affected how the hand went down though. do you?yeah, i can kind of see that. do i have to raise here? can i dump the hand or just call? if i raise, how much?

yeah. there are hold em specialists, stud specialists. i'm a 'put my money in bad' specialist.

i agree that i have a marginal hand and i want to keep the pot small. the problem i had was identifying what cards were safe cards. obviously any spade is bad. any card 10+ is bad. but any card below, except for a 9 is a little scary too for two reasons: first, if he had a smaller pair that's one less hand that i beat, but i won't be able to identify that. second, it may give him one pair, which he may think is best and bet in such a way that i let go of my better hand. that's why i chose to raise. i figured that this was either a bluff or a jack and by raising so big i was able to def

me too.

Need some help with this one. back ground on the villian (BB), we played one hand where he limped in MP with 10-8o, called my button raise, and then paid me off after hitting top pair for half his stack when i played aces fast. After that hand he proceeded to go on tilt, playing every hand, somewhat LAG-y. I've been a TAG so far although i'm relatively new to the table. every time i have raised i have cb so far.Stack sizes:BB: $43.35Hero: $99.65Full Tilt PokerNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.15/$0.305 playersConverterPre-flop: (5 players) Hero is CO with UTG calls, Hero raises to $1.

i agree. stack sizes are important, but assuming a medium stack, you shouldn't freeze up with a flat call. continue your semi-bluff and lead again with a 35-50 dollar bet on the turn.

I absolutely agree here. I mean, you can't chase them every time, but in the right situations they are very profitable.

Folding here seems really weak. We've hit our hand, villian thinks we're playing with weak cards, which widens his range. I'm not saying shovel here, but i think if we fold here we're giving up too much. Villian could be on some weird semi bluff with AhQh or AhJh. I agree with mtdesmoines, its 50/50 in my mind, and if villian is a smart tag he'll know that when the hero flat calls the raise here he's probably not doing it with AQ and that he has a real hand, so unless villian has a FH already (or unless he disrespects hero's game) it would be difficult to shove the river as a bluff, fearin