sierradave

[EDIT: upon further reflection, I've completely phrased the question wrong. I rephrase it in the 7th response post below. My real question is whether this is a good, mediocre, or terrible spot to reraise as, essentially, a bluff. Sorry, still new at this...]This $1/2 hand came up in a Philly-area card club. Not a lot of people were there that night, and a few had busted out and gone home. We were down to playing 4-handed, and two of the players at the table were playing pretty tight-passive (three more players were on their way, so the game was basically in a holding pattern until they ar

Thanks, I appreciate the responses. I'm not sure that my original plan was clear enough. This guy had the nice habit of making a lot of small raises with marginal hands, betting small on the flop, then giving up on the turn. I was trying to float any hand that didn't look to have a lot of other callers, steal on the turn when he shut down, otherwise give up. I was doing that once every couple of orbits probably, just infrequently enough that it wouldn't become too obvious to the table. My point is, yeah, I'm definitely with you all, a2 is profitable here only in the weirdest of circumstan

A hand came up last night that illustrates an ongoing issue that I've been considering:the game is $1/2 nl in Atlantic City. Table is very interesting, with a couple of players who are loose-aggressive preflop, but then clam up postflop. The villain in question has a particularly fun habit of raising small with speculative hands (k7o, ace-rag, small pairs, suited connectors) and raising huge with his big hands (raised to $25 preflop with AA when no one had limped before him, heard him lecturing another player about how you "have to raise big with those hands to protect them"). He generally

That's where the opponent's playing style is important. I'd definitely check-call a habitual bluffer, but plenty of people at the lower stakes don't bluff much. If I'm up against someone who doesn't bluff much, I'd make a $2 blocking bet on this river and fold to a raise.Major question is does this person feel more comfortable calling bets or making bets. If they're a caller, make the blocking bet, set the price, and get paid off by a hand like a7 or 87. If their a bettor/raiser, check-call. The problem with that is villain likely got there and by letting him set the price, you're making

+1 to pretty much everything said so far.Once you flop that set, you're only choosing between 2 options. You either bet out, hoping to get raised so you can reraise the flop or else you check, planning to check-raise hard on the flop. I like your betting pattern read, but yeah, the pot is $115 when it gets back around to you and there are plenty of ugly cards that can come on the turn. Raise to $100 in this spot, bet your final $85 on the turn, close your eyes and hope for running paint cards or a board pair. Your drawing pretty live against the nut str8 here, and much more often you'll be

The pot size philosophy, as described by Sklansky and Miller, is "Big Pots and Big Bets are for Big Hands." (No Limit Hold 'Em Theory and Practice)What we mean (er, well, what I mean... I'm still adjusting to no-limit) is that postflop betting is usually done in relation to the size of the pot. If your opponent puts in the third bet on the turn, he's committing to playing a very large pot with one pair. By just calling, he keeps the pot smaller. That means subsequent bets are going to be smaller, which means he isn't going to have to commit his entire stack. Pot control is one of the major

I'm pretty sure he was making a joke. I definitely laughed...

only reason not to bet out is if he's the type of player who was likely to be bluffing/semibluffing on that turn card. If so, he's either going to bet with air on the river or else have completed his semibluff on the river. The min-reraise with position probably isn't a turn bluff, though, so the only way he's betting this river for value is if he has a bigger boat. Yeah, bet out between 10 and 15 dollars, if he reraises all-in, first puke, then call.

For starters, "Hero bets 2 blind before the flop?!?" Gonna have to explain that one to me, buddy. You have bad position and are making a blind bet that offers all other players 40-to-1, yielding no information if they call and almost no information if they raise. Why?I'm fine with the check-raise shove here, but what you're mainly doing with it is trying to force out anyone else with a Q who would chop with you if the str8 hits. I'd rather have a few fewer chips here to make this play - I think most of the time when we get action, we're trailing, and sometimes in a bad way. Still, you're

Thanks for all the responses, folks. I ended up deciding on option 1 and announced "I'm just gonna call" while turning over my flopped boat. He replied "is that all you have?" and mucked his ad9d. The guy got up a couple of hands later and half the table spent the next ten minutes telling me I was a complete idiot for not shoving.The range I had him on included suited connector 8s (7d8d, 8d9d), ad9d, QQ, KK, 22, or an oddball but deadly k8.I wasn't all that sure of the preflop weakness read. It's a read that I try to make at the beginning of a hand just to set my mind around how hard I'm h

+1.Besides betting a little bigger on the flop, I think I'd play AA exactly the way your opponent did. Control the pot on the flop with position. Don't give a free card on the turn when you're very likely still ahead. Check the relatively bad river card. When you think about it, all of the money went in when he was the favorite. He didn't pay a cent when he was beat. Not a bad way to live.

1/2nl at Caesar's in Atlantic City. Villain is a solid TAG. We've played together for about 4 hours and he's done a good job of avoiding large pots unless he has a huge hand. Doesn't appear to bluff very often, capable of making a decent fold. Hero has a solid/TAG image. Due to a recent run of cold cards, my raises and bets are actually getting a little too much respect for my taste.The table includes a couple of live ones who will pay through the nose with unprofitable draws and middle pairs. The strong players have mostly been avoiding each other, taking turns against the tourists.Rele

If the villain's stack is a bit smaller, I'd be with you on the all-in push. But there's relatively little draw on these two boards (rainbow one-gappers for both) and I just don't see why fold equity should be the dominant consideration for us. You're absolutely right that the $100 raise guarantees a call of the turn bet, but that's the whole point. We're far ahead of most of our opponent's range here. The all-in raise on the flop offers our opponent terrible odds (1.5 to 1) and is, IMO, a classic example of risking a lot to win a little. We're only getting called by non-horrendous oppone

Nope.I probably would have raised to $100, pushed on the turn in hand 1. The results would be the same, but you'll get action once in awhile from hands that are trailing you and getting a bad price. I just don't like betting $150 to win $75... with this sort of overbet, you probably aren't ever getting called unless you're already beat, which means you're going to win a lot of small pots while losing big ones. Wouldn't make a difference one way or the other on this hand, though.Hand 2 is relatively standard. There isn't a lot of draw on the board, so you could also smooth-call and then pus

Ugh, hate that. Any particular read on the opponent? Unless he's particularly tricky/aggressive, yeah this is a clear fold.

Interesting spot for the squeeze play. The river bet from sb seems like a blocking bet to me, I expect he's going to fold to your raise. So the real question is what you put MP1 on. You mention he'll fold to pressure, but what range of hands do you have him on here? Did his pause seem more like call vs raise or call vs fold?I doubt I'd make this river bluff against two players, but it seems like a decent spot regardless. Worst case scenario, given your TAG image, is that you get called and give players a hell of a lot more to think about when you raise them on the late streets in other ha

I see your point and raise you. I was in a live ring $1-2 game this weekend in Atlantic City. An utterly standard hand came up where I raised preflop with AQ, got called behind in one spot by an older guy who had mostly been folding. The flop came J-high, I c-bet, he called. Turn was a brick, I check-folded to his $50 bet. A minute later, they called his name for the $2-5 game and I said jokingly, "If I knew you were a 2-5 player, I would've check-raised that turn." He replied, "it would've worked" and sure seemed to be serious. That fits exactly the point you make above: the only reaso

[first to clarify, hero is in early position, villain is button...]I take this line about 30% of the time, lead out the other 70%. Problem is that our 9s are still very vulnerable to overcards. If opponent has a flush draw, it likely has between 12 and 15 outs. The deuce is very unlikely to hit our opponent, and given our image, I can see him holding tight with A8.I never check-raise this, but think that's a real hole in my game. We want to be able to c-bet these boards, and the major challenge there is a smart opponent who starts floating the flop to steal on the turn. The check-raise he

Ouch! Couldn't you at least have given us "the pot odds say I should..."As for the play of the hand, I don't hate the check-calls so long as you call the river. I'd particularly call the river because it paired the top card on the flop. If your opponent had AA or KK here, that would be cause for huge concern. He can't put you on QQ, and top pair + str8 draw was one of your most likely holdings. What hands would he expect to be extracting value from? As played, I expect him to either have a boat (probably with JJ, as you mentioned) or ace-high and a prayer.

I think this depends a lot on your recent actions at the table/table image. If I've been picking up hands/betting a lot of pots, I'll lead into the raiser here for sure. If I've been caught in any sort of a check-raise bluff, I'll go for the check-raise. My style is pretty tight-aggressive, though, and if I've been card-dead and no one has seen me bet a pot in the past hour or two, I'm much more likely to check this flop. I'm hoping to check-call a flop with barely any draws on it, then reevaluate the turn, either leading out, check-raising, or check-calling with the plan of leading out on

Sure, but that makes that game that much easier. I love going up against opponents who never fold to a bluff - particularly in a live game. I strike up a conversation with another decent player at the table, tell enough jokes that people don't start thinking, "that guy hasn't done anything for two hours" when I finally bet, and just sit and wait to get paid. Sure beats workin'...

Besides my general habit of folding 10-3s preflop, there are two things I don't particularly like here: first, I *particularly* don't want to call with 10-3s in a protected pot. 10-3 doesn't play well against a random hand. You can't bluff with it because there's already an all-in. So you're stuck calling OOP with suited, unconnected junk. And even if you happen to hit huge here, it's a protected pot, so other players will know you aren't bluffing and usually won't pay you off.On a similar note, I don't see how the $75 bet by the button is a steal attempt. I guess maybe the guy could be t

A few thoughts:-Speaking as a former limit player who's making the adjustment to NL, the backdoor flush draw is worth approximately one extra out. So yeah, don't go chasing them alone, just like you wouldn't chase a one-outer alone. But they add value. The implied odds on them are especially attractive, because everyone who flops top pair on a two-flush board is worried about the third flush card coming, but they're a lot less likely to worry when the backdoor comes through. The more hidden your draw is, the more likely you are to get paid when it comes through.-Position gives you a lot mo

Can't decide if I'd bet the turn or check the turn. For sure, I'm only betting one of the two streets. The real question is what range we're giving him preflop. This is feeling like a pocket pair to me. If he hit his set or had AA or KK, he's check-raising the turn and I'm folding to it. But I often see a middle pp like 99 or 1010 here. In that case, I'm checking the turn *hoping* that he'll bet the river for me (or at least call my river bet if he checks the turn, then checks the river). The deuce is a little troubling because any ace now picked up four more outs, but the pot is still

I particularly don't like the $150 raise here because the board includes the 10d-7d. Having been hit by the deck, AK might very well decide you're loose-aggressive and are raising with the flush draw and/or air. A tight player who's been watching you take down pot after pot while he waits for cards might decide this is a good spot to represent aces/kings and reraise as a bluff.Meanwhile, by just calling, you're left with 5 cards that give you a likely winner and 15 scare cards. If the 5d hits the turn, he's often going to have to fold to a meaningful bet unless he has the Ad.[First post, bt