A Few Sample Hands

[ActionFalko 0]

Hi folks, as always the "Hero" is "Daniel Negreanu" I play poker now a few months, but really have nobody who can tell me about my weaknesses. So please could some one of you critizise my play. I played a short session right now, and made a plus of 30BB/hr. I think this is very good but normal for this low level. But I really didnt feel good about some hands I played, please could somebody of you tell me, what I could have made better, that would be soooooo nice from you. TX for all your help...Hand #1Poker StarsNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.05/$0.105 playersConverterStack sizes:Daniel Negreanu: $12.05CO: $6.40Button: $9.95SB: $14.85BB: $6.45Pre-flop: (5 players) Daniel Negreanu is UTG with K K Daniel Negreanu raises to $0.3, 3 folds, BB calls.Flop: J J A ($0.65, 2 players)BB bets $0.2, Daniel Negreanu calls.Turn: T ($1.05, 2 players)BB bets $0.5, Daniel Negreanu folds.Uncalled bets: $0.5 returned to BB.Results:Final pot: $1.05Hand #2Poker StarsNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.05/$0.106 playersConverterStack sizes:UTG: $1.60UTG+1: $10.10CO: $12.30Button: $8.90Daniel Negreanu: $10.20BB: $8.25Pre-flop: (6 players) Daniel Negreanu is SB with 7 T UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, Button folds, Daniel Negreanu calls, BB checks.Flop: 9 5 8 ($0.4, 4 players)Daniel Negreanu checks, BB checks, UTG bets $0.2, CO calls, Daniel Negreanu calls, BB calls.Turn: K ($1.2, 4 players)Daniel Negreanu checks, BB checks, UTG bets $0.3, CO raises to $0.8, Daniel Negreanu calls, BB folds, UTG calls.River: 6 ($3.6, 3 players)Daniel Negreanu bets $1.9, UTG folds, CO calls.Results:Final pot: $7.4Hand #3Poker StarsNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.05/$0.105 playersConverterStack sizes:UTG: $10.35CO: $14.70Button: $6.85Daniel Negreanu: $11.45BB: $6.30Pre-flop: (5 players) Daniel Negreanu is SB with A T 3 folds, Daniel Negreanu raises to $0.3, BB calls.Flop: A J 8 ($0.6, 2 players)Daniel Negreanu checks, BB checks.Turn: 5 ($0.6, 2 players)Daniel Negreanu checks, BB bets $0.4, Daniel Negreanu calls.River: 2 ($1.4, 2 players)Daniel Negreanu checks, BB bets $0.85, Daniel Negreanu calls.Results:Final pot: $3.1Hand #4Poker StarsNo Limit Holdem Ring gameBlinds: $0.05/$0.106 playersConverterStack sizes:Daniel Negreanu: $14.05UTG+1: $8.80CO: $2.10Button: $9.90SB: $4.15BB: $10.50Pre-flop: (6 players) Daniel Negreanu is UTG with A K Daniel Negreanu raises to $0.3, UTG+1 calls, 4 folds.Flop: Q 7 Q ($0.75, 2 players)Daniel Negreanu checks, UTG+1 checks.Turn: 2 ($0.75, 2 players)Daniel Negreanu bets $0.4, UTG+1 calls.River: 8 ($1.55, 2 players)Daniel Negreanu checks, UTG+1 bets $0.75, Daniel Negreanu folds.Uncalled bets: $0.75 returned to UTG+1.Results:Final pot: $1.55And please be hard to me, but not too... (I know I played it not really like the real Daniel Negreanu )

[irishguy 14]

Hand 1: At this level you likely should be raising a little more preflop like 5xbb. As played I raise the the flop to .70ish and then shut down. His lead out is weak and you should find out pretty quickly whether you're behind or not.Hand 2: Awful. I don't mind the flop call all that much but with a bet and a raise in front on the turn this a no brainer fold.Hand 3: C-bet this flop. You raised ideally to hit the flop like this c-bet it. With drawing possibilities out there there is no need to give off a free card. The rest of the hand isn't horrid from a pot control standpoint but I just don't get what kind of hand you were hoping to hit if you were going to play it this scared.Hand 4: Again you should be c-betting this flop. I don't mind the turn stab. Not sure if your preflop raise was the table standard but it seem really small for that level and you really should work on continuation betting the flop it will win you a ton of small pots when you hit nothing.

[ActionFalko 0]

Hand #2, I call the turn raise, becuase I was sure that the first bettor would call this as well giving the pott odds. So my pott odds increased and I had the right price to call (I thought)Hand #3, I dont know the word in horrid (Im German) but it sounds good, ty I played it that scared because I thought that my bets would only get called by a bettor Ace. I hoped to induce a bluff.Hand #4, I thought with this kind of flop, he calls anyway, if he called preflop, so I wanted to see what he does. As checked back to me, I tried a conti on the turn. It didnt worked, and I was gone.

[ActionFalko 0]

Something more:Hand #1: I only call, because my raise gets only called if he has me beat. So I wanted to see another action from him on the turn. Het bet again, so my Kings didnt look good. i thought.Hand#2: And i called as well, becuase of the huge implied odds, giving this level plus someone seems to have a real hand, which could pay me off, If I hit.

[Sefaje 0]

Something more:Hand #1: I only call, because my raise gets only called if he has me beat. So I wanted to see another action from him on the turn. Het bet again, so my Kings didnt look good. i thought.Hand#2: And i called as well, becuase of the huge implied odds, giving this level plus someone seems to have a real hand, which could pay me off, If I hit.

you've gotta bet more than $1.9 there then. 1/2 the pot isn't enough. i'd have bet like $3. an amount high enough to more than cover the large percent of the time you brick your draw.

[irishguy 14]

Hand #2, I call the turn raise, becuase I was sure that the first bettor would call this as well giving the pott odds. So my pott odds increased and I had the right price to call (I thought)Hand #3, I dont know the word in horrid (Im German) but it sounds good, ty I played it that scared because I thought that my bets would only get called by a bettor Ace. I hoped to induce a bluff.Hand #4, I thought with this kind of flop, he calls anyway, if he called preflop, so I wanted to see what he does. As checked back to me, I tried a conti on the turn. It didnt worked, and I was gone.

Hand 2: Edit I read the hand wrong last night: So yes based on original bettor calling you are getting good odds my first response was due to me seeing a lot of people calling bets in the hopes that "x" happens then giving them the correct odds.. As for your follow up post regarding implied odds yes but you need to make it worthwhile ie:90% of the pot.Hand #4: What would make you think he hit this flop just because he called preflop? As villain I'm playing the turn and the river the same way with any 7, any under pair, AK etc.Hand 1: One yes your raise only gets called if you are beat. But there are a lot of hands that will fold to a raise here but will continue betting the turn of you simply call the flop.ie: soft aces or under pair. His flop bet is incredibly weak, I would try to take find out whats going on here instead of just assuming I'm behind.Hand 3: Horrid wasn't a complement. At this level I think you find a ton of hands you beat call you down. Check calling is good from a pot control standpoint but I don't think you raise with A10 only to be worried when an A hits...I mean what else are you waiting for?

[danau 0]

Hand 1:Flop: Raise or fold, don't call. Turn: Why fold when the card only gave you more outs? If you are calling that flop you are saying "I dont think you have an ace or a jack", so to fold that turn you must put him exactly on KQ, a rather conservative range given you have 2 of the kingsHand 2:Turn call is a maybe for me.. if you get into the habit of calling 2 bets cold with a draw every time (even with correct pot odds) you are going to find yourself being forced to fold after committing money when the aggressors keep firing with their sets/2pair/combo draws that have you drawing dead. Read dependant reallyHand 3:If you are raising with ATo in sb, you have to be willing to bet it when you hit your ace. I can't think you aren't good here (Any jack seems a likely candidate after your 2nd check). Your hand is fairly under repped so, as played I think you would get value from a raise on the river from a worse hand. Still, bet that flopHand 4:I cbet this like 99.99999% of the time

[Zach6668 513]

OP, just a suggestion... you'll find you will probably get a bit more in depth discussion if you post each hand in a seperate thread.

[potatoman 0]

Hand 1 - preflop raise is fine. You want a caller and even open up the possibility that some nob will reraise you so you can stack him. Flop - raise or fold. Calling in the hope that you hit a K is just giving your money away. It's scary board, scary enough that I'm betting it if I'm your opponent if I missed, hoping you'll fold. I'm for raising in this situation, but folding isn't terrible, just bad, calling is terrible.Hand 2 - Preflop - You fold this hand and I'll tell you why. You're in the sb which is a crappy position to play after the flop. You'll act first on the flop and like 98 per cent of the time (made up stat, but seriously not often), you'll hit nothing worth continuing with, you'll check and fold. Even if you hit something like a pair or tens, there could be overs or you could be out kicked. You'll hit your two pair 1/49 tries and even when you do, you're not even 100 per cent to win from there. When facing multiple limpers in the SB you want to either have a small pair to limp along or a big hand to raise and eliminate some of your competition. Otherwise your terrible position and you're sub standard hand should compel you to fold. But lets say you hit the call button by accident.Flop- Well a miracle flop for 107 offsuit and you're still faced with hard decisions on the flop and turn. On the turn, with that betting action I'm probably folding and cursing myself for playing such a dumb hand. On the river, I'd bet a lot more and hope to get my stupid hand paid off. Like $3.Hand 3 - Preflop is fine.Flop - Horrible. Bet the flop - half to pot size bet depending on your opponent. A little more than half the pot should be fine. Not only did you hit the card you wanted, but there's a flush draw to worry about. Why let him see a free card. He might even pick up two pair or three of a kind because of your error. BET!!Turn - Horrible. Do you think the turned helped him? If it did you only have yourself to blame for check the flop. When that card comes out, you bet, possibly fooling him to believe you only checked the flop so you could check raise some monster hand like trip aces. By checking the turn even the worst player will bet out at you with pair of 2s. When he did bet you should have check raised him.River- Any bet you make in the river is getting called the way you're playd the hand and by this time we have no information about where we're at in the hand. Check calling is probably our best bet, but we could have taken control of this hand much sooner.Hand 4- Preflop fine - Flop - bet!!! Turn - betting good, but since we checked the turn we really don't know where we are in the hand, but probably beat.River- At this point we have ace high and our opponent has no reason to believe we have a serious hand. Meanwhile, we have no reason to believe our opponent is weak. So we check fold and promise ourselves to bet out at flops like this.

[ActionFalko 0]

OK first of all, I leraned a lot. And I want to thank you all for your comments. I think one of you could be a little bit more polite (words as HORRIBLE) but ok, I said be hard to me :-(No really tx to everyone who posted a comment, I am a pretty new player and relly want to improve my game...I leraned some things which I want to summarize:1) I am not that good as I thought (just kidding, I knew this before...) 2) I still dont know the word horrid, but I do know that it was no compliment (shame)and now getting serious...3) My preflop action is all in al pretty ok4) But I do have to be more aggressiv on the flop (contunuation bets)To Hand #1 with KKI should have raised the flop. I will do next time in similar situations. BUT STILL I have a problem with.Heres why:The reason I should raise is, your are saying to get someone to fold a worse hand and to define my hand.But why should I want to someone fold a worse hand. I want a worse hand to call. And I dont see how a worse hand calls my raise here.BUT I KNOW, that the problem by calling is, that a worse hand could fire again on the turn, because of my flop-call, showing weakness (as happend here, probably)So I thought if I just call the flop-bet, he must be afaid of me having an A or J and I will learn a lot more about the strength of his hand by his turn action.Imagine I hit AAA or had AJ in the hole. Then I would have only called his flop bet. And his weak bet could mean he hits a monster and WANTS me to raise him. So all in all I felt like keeping this pot small, I only have ONE PAIR...But his flop bet was really weak, so I should have raised and I will do next time. But if he would have bet more, say 1/2-1/1 pot I think you can just call here, dont you?To Hand #2 with T7To the Turn, where I called the turn-raise. If I thought (which I know, you cannot know) the first bettor calls as well (he doesnt fold and he doesnt raise) then I get 3,5:1 odds for my OESD. I think (plus implied odds) I cann call this.BUT I KNOW, the first bettor could raise again and I am caught in a sandwich.AND as I hit my miracle card I should have bet more, I understood this point. If I calculate with implied odds, I must get paid of in a big way. So I should have bet the pot or maybe should have pushed All-In at this low level. I got this point. TYTo Hand #3 with AT in SBYes I understand know, that I should have bet the flop, because I hit the flop and secondly there was a draw out there. I got this point as well. TYBUT ONLY for arguments sake: If he raises me on the flop. What do I do then?Lets imagine, he hits the flop in some way and raises to look where hes at?Can I call this raise with a T-Kicker??? Lets say we got to the turn. I must check, because I think I could be beat, he fires again. Now he raised or called my flop-bet, and fires the turn again. Isnt this a signal of a really strong hand?I mean what do you guys do in similiar situatins:You hit the flop and there is a draw out there. You bet and get raised. What is your action with you weakish hand. Ok not weakish but not really strong either. Please HELP...By the way he had A8 and had me beat all the way...To Hand #4 with AKI didnt c-bet this flop, because I couldnt imagine he could lay down a hand which was a callable hand preflop. Lets say you call a raise in position. The Flop comes Q7Q. Your opponent c-bets the flop. Isnt this a great opportuntie to raise him, because you know, this flop isnt likely to helped him.And thats what I didnt want to happen, to get bluff-raised. So I checked to see what he does. As he chekced behind, I tried the c-bet on the turn. I think this hand wasnt such a blunder at all.Maybe someone of you could say something to my question in Hand#3.What is your action...?TY TY TY TY everybody. This forum is so nice. TY all.

[irishguy 14]

Meh, maybe horrid was a little harsh. Forums like this and your willingness to openly discuss your hands and accept others opinions will go a long way in improving your game.Hand 1: While a big objective in poker is to have weaker hands pay you off a board like this isn't condusive to that notion. We raise on this flop not as a way to define our hand but as a way to define villains. Also with the benefit of postion and being the preflop raiser we are still able to represent more than what we have. We can't automatically assume that just based on the fact that villain called our raise he has an ace or a jack. If I'm villain I'm leading out on this flop with a lot less hoping to find an opponent to scared of the boad to play back. Again as villain if you've just called the flop lead I'll likely bet out the turn expecting that if I'm behind I would've gotten raised on the flop or I'll certainly be raised now. I agree with you in that if he bets closer to pot size I likely flat call that.Hand 2: Yes you should've bet more. Villains actions through out the hand show how much he likes his hand and this 6 isn't likely to be a scare card.Hand 3: If you bet the flop and get raised I have no problem going into check call mode of reasonable sized bets. The fact that villain out flopped you has no baring at all on this hand. While you may feel as though you saved some money you will win this hand approx 70% of the time and playing it like this you are losing a ton of value.Hand 4: While this flop isn't likely to have helped you it also isn''t likely to have helped villain. Yes it would be an ideal spot for him to bluff raise you you still have the beniefit of being the pre flop aggressor so again by c-betting the flop you are reping a larger hand. When you check the flop it pretty much tells him you are scared. betting the turn, in his spot I'm calling your turn bet a lot with nothing and hoping you give up the river. Esentially you gave him control of the hand.

[linkwood 0]

To Hand #4 with AKI didnt c-bet this flop, because I couldnt imagine he could lay down a hand which was a callable hand preflop. Lets say you call a raise in position. The Flop comes Q7Q. Your opponent c-bets the flop. Isnt this a great opportuntie to raise him, because you know, this flop isnt likely to helped him.And thats what I didnt want to happen, to get bluff-raised. So I checked to see what he does. As he chekced behind, I tried the c-bet on the turn. I think this hand wasnt such a blunder at all.

There are a ton of hands that might call preflop but won't be willing to call a bet from an UTG raiser on that flop. By betting the flop you are representing a big pair, AQ, or 77. Villian could easily have AJ+, KJ, KQ, a suited connector, or a small pair that he's not willing to go to war with. Notice that most of those holdings you are beating, but by checking you gave up control of the hand and allowed yourself to bluffed off the best hand. Against some opponents I might call your turn bet with a weak hand thinking you have an AK type hand and I can take it away from you on the turn if you check to me. You have to keep control of the pot here.

[Snamuh 0]

You played the hands very passive in general.Hand 1: Raise more preflop and raise his tiny flop donkbet.Hand 2: Flop preflop. Fold turn.Hand 3: Again, the preflop raise was a bit small. Need to C-bet this on the flop (though the rest of the action is fine).Hand 4: C-bet this and give up to resistance.

[Ricer98 0]

To Hand #4 with AKI didnt c-bet this flop, because I couldnt imagine he could lay down a hand which was a callable hand preflop. Lets say you call a raise in position. The Flop comes Q7Q. Your opponent c-bets the flop. Isnt this a great opportuntie to raise him, because you know, this flop isnt likely to helped him.And thats what I didnt want to happen, to get bluff-raised. So I checked to see what he does. As he chekced behind, I tried the c-bet on the turn. I think this hand wasnt such a blunder at all.Maybe someone of you could say something to my question in Hand#3.What is your action...?TY TY TY TY everybody. This forum is so nice. TY all.

You will run into maybe 1 player in 1000 at .05/.10 that is going to bluff raise you in that spot. If he doesn't have any pair, which most of the hands he calls you with don't, hes not gonna call. Your getting called by so many Ax or Kx suited hands, actually pretty much any suited cards depending on the player. Unless hes got a Q, 7 or a pocket pair you probably take it down. The only time I would check this flop is if I have a really bad table image, or am trying to tighten up my image. As far as the turn, everyone seems to like betting out here but I think otherwise. He checked behind on the flop so we figure to have the best hand here. But, we can't stand to call a reraise and we don't like it if he calls. If he calls we then have to assume we are behind since there are no draws present. If your going to check that flop I try to just show the hand down. If the villian checks behind on the turn, I might call a small bet on the river, but if he bets big just let it go. For hand number 3 you could take a couple different lines if you bet the flop and get raised. First option simply reraise, not a huge amount, maybe 2.5 times his bet. If the villian reraises this bet, easy laydown. If he calls, I probably check the turn just to keep the pot smaller becuase we are out of position. If you don't reraise the flop you would have to alteast call his raise. I'd probably lay it down to a big bet on the turn though, for no other reason than I can find a better spot to put money into a pot. This all depends on the player though, if I've seen him play big pots with Ax after flopping top pair then I'd be more inclined to call. If he's been playing fairly tight or I don't have a read on him yet then just give it up and find a better spot.

[ActionFalko 0]

OK first of all. TY TO EVRYBODY. I think I learned a lot. Lets see whether I improved my game a bit. I will now play a short session and will post some of the hands. Maybe some of you look for it andtell me whether or not they see some improvement.TY EVREYBODY SO FAR.