Wily

remember this?$1-5 stud high at Turning Stone.Villain: Voted for Eisenhower, chases with 3 straight or 3 flush, or just high cards until 6th (calling $5 bets all the way), annoyed at me.Me: Check-raising up a storm all night long (how unethical).3rd I raise with (10 J) 10 against his 7 showing to $5, he calls along with a few others. 4th, I bet $5, only he calls5th He shows (xx)7 x 7. I am still unimproved I bet before I notice his door card paired by accident. He says, fine, I check, you can bet. I bet out $5 planning on folding to a check-raise. He just calls.6th: He gets board trips: xx7

Aseem, Chief, and I just came back from an insane, exhausting weekend in Turning Stone. This'll be the first of a few posts of poker hands from there ..There was a great $1-5 spread Stud Hi/Lo table going on last afternoon - all but Aseem and I, and one super-aggressive player at the table, were total calling stations who played every single hand. Every bet/raise was always the max of $5, on every street except maybe third. Antes were $1 (unfortunately), bring-in was $1.I declare that it's my last hand of the entire trip. I'm dealt (A 6)A . I'm last to act, everyone except Aseem limps (

Thanks for the responses. I thought about it for a while and decided a set/two pair would definitely try a check raise here. His hand was pretty much what you guys guessed him for - J 9 . With 14 outs, he was 50/50 against my overpair, and my hand held up. Knowing he was that strong, I would've folded; why risk my tournament this early on a coin toss? But in general, I could see a lot of people playing A9 this way.Reverse the roles. Say you limped and called with J 9 :heart. I think I would probably check call a pot sized bet here. If the turn helps me, I've got a lot of ways of ext

Not sure if there's a correct answer to this. Just wondering how you guys would play this kind of situation in general.First hand in a $5 NL HE SNG on PStars.You're dealt 10d-10c in MP1. Two limpers (no surprise), you raise to 100 to isolate hopefully.All fold to the two limpers, who call.Flop comes: 9c 2h 3h.UTG checks, UTG+1 unceremoniously pushes all in for his 1400 chips, exactly your stack.Call or fold?

Nice read of the situation!I smooth called in this case - CO called behind me.River was the 9 . SB bet, I raised, CO called, SB three-bet, I capped. call, call.SB/Maniac turns over 4-5. CO turned over Q 10 .I'm pretty sure CO wouldve followed us to the river with a flush draw that's hard to fold against most likely trips/AK. SB probably would've helped me cap the turn, any day, since he capped the river anyway. Great point about playing here at different limits - at 3/6 I'd probably more likely be against A-X and find a fold on the turn; or the flush draw may have wisened up and folded

SB is a maniac, bets/raise any pair. CO is tight so far. Let them hit their draws, or raise right now? PokerStars 0.25/0.50 Hold'em (10 handed) converterPreflop: Hero is BB with [Ah], [Ac]. UTG calls, 3 folds, UTG calls, MP2 calls, CO calls, SB calls.Flop: (10 SB) [5s], [Ad], [6s] (5 players)SB bets, UTG calls, MP2 folds, CO calls, SB calls.Turn: (9 BB) [5h] (4 players)SB bets, Hero (?)Perhaps being a bit results oriented in this hand - but raising wouldve been correct in this specific case with what my opponents held here. SB had 4-5, and CO had Q 10 . River was a 9 ; maniac SB and

Agreeing with what everyone said so far about the smooth call to the huge raise on the turn - you are almost guaranteed to be up against a set of Kings, precisely (unless your opponent is a fool and didn't raise the flop with a set then). Assuming he has no redraws, you're at 42.5% to win against a set of kings: http://www.twodimes.net/poker/?g=o&b=8c+Jh...D%0AAc+Qc+4c+Td My issue is with the small bet on the flop - you have a fairly strong holding then, with a top gutshot straight draw and nut flush draw - why not bet stronger and push off the low two pairs/other gutshots/overpairs that

Exactly... say you hold A K on a flop of K 10 9 after three-betting preflop. There's 3 or more players, and a player to your left bets; you should call on this flop and wait until a safe turn to raise and push off the gutshots/second pairs that can ruin your hand.

I think you should have a good read on your pushing Opp before you call an all-in with a mid pocket pair here. You want to have better odds than just a coin flip at least some of the time with your 8 8. Is he the type that would push with Ace rag, or a low pocket pair? Would he slowplay (min-raise, smooth-call) a big pocket pair, or also push all in too? If you feel that there's at least a chance you're better than a coin flip, you should call here with still a respectable amount left if you lose. However, in general I would not call an all-in at this point with just 8 8. With 10 10 and a

I'm wondering if I should've respected the big re-reraise on the turn. I figured both of my opponents were waiting for a safe turn to put all of their chips in, and if my low flush held up I'd be great position to win the entire $10 SNG. Thoughts?PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) converterSB (t1440)BB (t1440)UTG (t1440)UTG+1 (t1460)MP1 (t1180)Hero (t1470)MP3 (t1700)CO (t1620)Button (t1750)Preflop: Hero is MP2 with [7d], [6d]. 2 folds, MP1 calls t60, Hero calls t60, MP3 calls t60.I see a raised hand with a low suited connector. Flop: (t350) [Kd], [Jd], [Qd]

To the guy who asked - my Opp graciously showed. He had pocket Kings, and made a great play that pushed me off Aces.To the other poster about how this would've played in a NL tournament - if the stacks were deep enough, as they are late in most skillful tournaments, UTG *may* not have pushed all in preflop with KK if reraised him preflop. He may have looked for a safe board to push post-flop, or alternately hoped to trap me post-flop if my reraise was still not a huge portion of my stack. As for which is the more "skillful" game, I'd give the old line that no-limit and limit are completely d

I was thinking of it from my Opp's perspective, since I believe he was a smart player and has been observant all along. I three-bet preflop, which is his biggest piece of information. What would I three-bet with late in a tournament? AK, AQ, KQs (?), AA to 10 10. Why would he raise the turn with just ace high when he knows that all except one of the hands I would three-bet with in this situation (AK) he's behind? I think he would've just smooth called with ace high and hoped for a safe river for a split. As for other possibilities, I was thinking of two - he actually had a Q or a 5, or h

By the way, up to then I had only three-bet three or four times - with JJ, KK twice, and AK - pretty standard. Every time the hand was shown down, and I won all 4 I think. I was almost positive he read me for a big pocket pair, and was waiting for the turn to extract more value/get me pot committed.

Late in $10 limit HE sit and go on Stars (where the blinds go up insanely fast)- I folded AA on the turn. Used up all 60 seconds of time before I did, thinking it through. What do you guys think?PokerStars Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind t300 (4 handed) converterButton (t2125)Hero (t2940)BB (t5085)UTG (t3350)Preflop: Hero is SB with [Ah], [Ac]. UTG raises, UTG calls.Flop: (7 SB, t2100) [Qs], [Qd], [5s] (2 players)Hero bets, UTG calls.Turn: (4.50 BB, t2700) [5h] (2 players)Hero bets, Hero folds.Final Pot: 7.5 BB (t4500)I thought it about, and finally decided he had to have KQ/QJ, or possi

Hey all,This was a huge hand that came up while Aseem and I were LAGing it up in the .01/.02 PLO tables at Pokerstars. Both of us were big stacked, and this hand was the collision of both our stacks. I had one of the best possible flops for my hand, only to hit a turn that sunk me. The question is - should I be smooth calling Aseem's stop-and-go on the turn, looking for one of my many outs, instead of raising and facing a reraise that forced me to commit all of my chips? I had the nut flush draw, a set, and a gutshot for Broadway - all of these outs probably would've killed the action on t

Hey all,This was a huge hand that came up while Aseem and I were LAGing it up in the .01/.02 PLO tables at Pokerstars. Both of us were big stacked, and this hand was the collision of both our stacks. I had one of the best possible flops for my hand, only to hit a turn that sunk me. The question is - should I be smooth calling Aseem's stop-and-go on the turn, looking for one of my many outs, instead of raising and facing a reraise that forced me to commit all of my chips? I had the nut flush draw, a set, and a gutshot for Broadway - all of these outs probably would've killed the action on t

Hey, stop insulting my hand selection! It was 9 3 - sooted!

Ed Miller may be cursing at me from down the street, and in retrospect I think this was weak tight. I hate it when I make folding errors.2/4 LOOSE game at FTP-Dealt Q Q in BB4 calls, SB (a bit of a maniac, and losing) completes, and I raise. 5 callsFlop: 7 6 4 I bet, 4 callers.Turn:7 6 4 8 SB bets, I fold, everyone folds (!) Should I have called down to the river with 4 to an obvious straight and players to act behind me? I wasn't particularly worried about SB, but with 4 behind me I was sure there would be a raise from a made straight. I'm not sure if it's just hindsight 20/20 (

Chief, Aseem and I were playing together yesterday when this beauty of a hand came up between Chief and me. Just wondering what you guys think of how both of us played it, and if it was just guaranteed that all the chips would end up in the middle at the end.It was a single blind (.25) deep stack NL game. Chief was dealer with about $60, I was the blind with about $100. Aseem folds, Chief raises to $1 (his standard) with a softshell Krablar K 3 .I look down at A J , and call.Flop is: J 7 3 .I check, Chief bets out $1, I raise to $3, he reraises me to $8. I decide to call and see a t

Curious if I played this too passively or about right-.05/.1 PL O8 on FTP (sorry about hand history)I have everyone at the table covered -Dealt A J 8 5 in the SB.4 callers, I complete, BB checks.Flop: 7 7 4 .I check, it's checked all around.Turn: 7 7 4 5 I bet out $.35, half the pot, looking for some value but also fearing a big reraise. UTG, MP1, and Button call.River: 7 7 4 5 Q .I half pot it again, $1.05. UTG calls, Mp1 min-raises to $2.1, Button calls, I call, UTG calls..Final pot: $10.Just wondering if I played this too weak, or correct for a paired board and a river ra

NL at FTP is pretty tight preflop, but still soft if you play smart and try to bust some of the players who won't fold premium hands after the flop. Probably the best strategy on the lower but not lowest limits (.25/50 to 1/2) is to actually loosen up a bit preflop, and go after the tight/passive players who raise only a little preflop with AA and won't fold it after the flop no matter how you bet. The loose players in NL there are probably the winning ones, IMO.-Yang

Haven't been free for the last few days due to finals period, but I'll throw in my thoughts. Thinking about what I was saying before, I believe that how your playing style deals with AK/AQ/etc. determines what you should be doing here. If you're reraising to $50 with AK , I just don't think you can be laying your hand down on a safe K high board here - there's no other broadway cards for a likely two-pair, and no possible straights/flushes or likely draws to them. If you're going to be living in fear of an underset on even a perfect looking board like this, I don't think you should rerais

Hand 1 :I was big blind. I started with 88XXX, drew three, got 88AAx. Was thinking Aseem had a two pair (and hence only about 1/12 or so chance of filling up) and wanted to extract value from him with my first raise of $4. When he went over the top with $12 more, I think I had to fold, realizing that I was up against a made full house/flush/straight. I was only getting 1:1.2 or so on my call, and I'm probably not good here more than 10 or 20% of the time.I guess what fooled me was that Aseem asked before he raised how many cards I drew, and I told him 3. He then made the raise; I became in

Nice guesses everyone - you guys pretty much hit it perfectly. MP had pocket jacks for a set on the turn, and CO had pocket fives for a better set on the flop (!). I was new at the table, so I didn't have much of reads on these guys; if I had known some of them were tight and non-maniacs, I suppose I wouldn't have raised the turn. I have no idea what UTG had (AK?), but whatever it was he shouldn't have stayed in the hand.I guess the question is, on a fairly drawless and unpaired board, when do you stop raising your sets and beginning worrying about bigger sets? I think the flop being cappe

Probably the biggest limit pot I've seen in a while ... thanks to me! Is anyone not ramming and jamming as much as I did?Loose $.5/$1 game on FTP.I'm on the button with 3 3 UTG raises, MP calls, CO calls, I call (normally I wouldn't, but the table is loose enough that I know it may be worth my while).Flop: 3 5 9 UTG bets, MP raises, CO three-bets, I call thinking I'm still best, UTG caps, all 4 call.Turn: 3 5 9 J UTG bets, MP raises, CO calls, I three-bet, UTG calls, MP caps, all 4 call.River: Turn: 3 5 9 J 4 UTG checks, MP bets, CO calls, I raise, UTG folds, MP calls, CO call