Friday, June 29, 2007

A couple early hands

OK, so not technically July 1, but I'm not sure I'll be around anyway this weekend, so here are some hands:

Hand 1:
I don't have a big sample (75 hands), but villain was 31/3/1 over that time. Not sure how many hands I had on him at this hand's time. He only went to showdown 11%, and I don't have any notes.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $24.95
BB: $25.00
UTG: $19.15
MP: $56.55
CO: $30.40
Hero (BTN): $24.25

Preflop: Hero is dealt 5 5 (6 Players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.95, SB calls $0.85, BB folds

Flop: ($2.15) 6 A 8 (2 Players)
SB bets $2.15, Hero raises to $6.70, SB calls $4.55
Uncalled bet of $0.00 returned to Hero

Turn: ($15.55) 8 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $5.50, SB raises to $11.00, Hero folds
Uncalled bet of $5.50 returned to SB

Pot Size: $26.55 ($1.30 Rake)

Given his cool call preflop, I didn't figure him for a big ace so I raised trying to push him off a bigger PP than mine. When he just called the raise, I planned to double barrel, although I didn't like the middle flop card pairing at all. So, on the flop, what do you think? I will fold a good degree to donk bets on the flop if I miss completely, but sometimes I think that people will donk as a bluff when the ace hits, and I raise with air (like this) sometimes, and usually with a big ace as well (although sometimes in position, I wait for the turn as well). Is the second barrel pure spew? I assume the fold is clear, but the pot odds are OK, and villain cannot extract much more if I call.

Hands 2 & 3

I tangle with the same villain in these hands. I'm including hand #2 mainly as context for hand 3, although it's entirely possible I should not be getting it all in on hand 2. Villain later turned out to be more LAG than maniac, so perhaps he was just running hot, but at the time he was 40/25/3.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 3 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $40.00
Hero (BB): $30.30
BTN: $36.85

Preflop: Hero is dealt A K (3 Players)
BTN folds, SB raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $2.25, SB calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.50) 6 A J (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.50, SB calls $3.50

Turn: ($11.50) A (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $8.65, SB raises all-in to $34.25, Hero calls all-in for $15.90
Uncalled bet of $9.70 returned to SB

River: ($60.60) T (2 Players - 2 All-In)

Pot Size: $60.60 ($1 Rake)

I thought he could be doing this with a weaker ace or possibly a heart draw, so I called. I'm not sure I should be playing such a huge pot with TPTK, but he was pretty wild. If you want to give any thoughts, do so before I tell you the results (which will have a bearing on the next hand)
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So, he had Ad Td, getting there on the river. Good news is I got my money in way ahead, bad news is that he got there. That's poker, right? Anyway, like I said, this hand is only interesting as context for the next hand, which happened not too much later.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $30.80
BB: $74.65
Hero (UTG): $28.95
MP: $30.10
CO: $24.65
BTN: $13.00

Preflop: Hero is dealt Q Q (6 Players)
Hero raises to $0.95, 4 folds, BB raises to $2.95, Hero calls $2.00

Flop: ($6) 6 5 6 (2 Players)
BB bets $5.25, Hero raises to $21.75, BB raises to $38.25, Hero calls all-in for $4.25
Uncalled bet of $12.25 returned to BB

Turn: ($58) 3 (2 Players - 1 All-In)

River: ($58) 4 (2 Players - 1 All-In)

Pot Size: $58.00 ($2.90 Rake)

Normally, I would just call in position on the flop and re-evaluate the turn, but he was wild, and I was playing for the chance that he had big overcards or a lower PP (even though he 3-bet), and that he thought I was FOS/tilting. FWIW, I use a hot key to raise, and I should have just pushed the flop rather than the actual raise I made, but the question is really whether this is even any good.

OK, lemme have it :).

7 comments:

DWarrior said...

Hand 1
I like the flop play, but I'm not sure how effective double barreling on that flop is, I think once he calls the raise he'll basically be in calldown mode (unless he doesn't fold his PPs). This is especially true once the board double pairs, since now he has 2-pair, which for many people is auto-showdown.

Hand 2
Seems standard, if he's a thinking opponent I think he'll put you on the ace more readily if you check and bet riv than if you keep betting. Besides, you don't really want to slow down and give him a chance to catch up if he has the draw. Oh, and this is a blind battle (and 3-handed to start), so this would probably be a good play even if turn blanked.

Hand 3
I don't know, the Hand 2 doesn't really provide much context, as people go wild a lot in blind battles. I would personally prefer a call and re-evaluate line. Also I think shove or a smaller raise would be better. If you raise to like $15, he might call and then make a crying call on the turn. If you shove, he might get caught up in the moment and call with worse hands. Again, the 3-bet pot complicates it, and I don't see how Hand 2 changes anything. I'm guessing he had AA/KK here?

I think Hand 2 would have more context if it were a 6-handed game, he raised UTG and called your UTG+1 re-raise with ATo, that would be note-worthy.

chris said...

hand 1: Once he calls your flop raise i would be done with the hand.
hand 2: I think is pretty standard considering it is 3 handed. I would see him doing this with a weak ace.

DODGYKEN said...

Hand 1: I like to raise it up when opponents bet into me like this. I think I'd fold in this case though. He's bet the full pot and there isn't much chance for you to improve. If you had something like 97 I think raising the flop is great. Unless the guy has been doing things like this a lot though, I might just fold this flop.

Once he calls the flop you have to just give it up I think. The board is dry so he must have a piece of it and I think it's unlikely that another bet will get him to fold.


Hand 2: I'd call that all day every day. He'll show up with weaker aces here.


Hand 3: QQ is always a tricky hand to play when you've been 3-bet. Too much aggression and you scare off the hands that you want calling. Not enough aggression and you risk being outdrawn. In this case, given the low drawy board and the circumstances I think a shove is OK here. It's likely he'll call with 99-JJ and maybe even some other hands that you're ahead of. If this is the time he has AA or KK then that's going to happen against a LAG/maniac sometimes.

michaeyk said...

Hand 1:
I'm sure about the raise after he pots it. But it did worked out.

Hand 2:
Standard.

Hand 3:
No one else 4 bets preflop?

AppleSeed2082 said...

Hand 1

This guy is super nitty when it comes to to going to showdown when seeing the flop. So I don't mind the flop play at all. It is strange that he leads the flop because his agg factor is low.

Turn. I would check behind because of his low showdown % and low agg factor.

River. I would fold to a bet.

Hand 2. This is a standard cooler/bad beat.

Hand 3.

Preflop. you disguised your hand. He has no way of knowing your that strong because of your previous play with AKo.

Flop. This is a nice flop to get it all in because he could put you on a flush draw or str8 draw and pay off your hand with a huge range of hands.

I like the way you played it.

DODGYKEN said...

Michaeyk - I think it's a tricky spot with QQ when you get 3-bet. If you put in a 4-bet it's likely to fold out all hands except AA/KK and possibly AK (maybe QQ too) against reasonable players. At the same time, if you just flat call you can get into a mess on the flop if they do end up having an overpair, you can get bluffed off if and A or K comes and they don't have it, or you might let them hit some sort of 2 pair or a set and outdraw you on the flop.

I find QQ and JJ very tricky to play to 3-bets a lot of the time. A lot of it depends on the type of player and his aggression post-flop for me. Sometimes I'll play very passively and almost call down and sometimes I'll be looking to fold pretty early.

Marc said...

You guys confirmed my thoughts that the second barrel in Hand 1 is not the best play. I need to look through some other second barrels I fire to see if I'm leaking BB's with them...even if I end up winning the hands.

I was pretty comfortable with Hand 2, and mainly included it as background for Hand 3, but you guys didn't put as much weight behind it as I did at the time....I'll definitely be thinking about that.

For Hand 3, I think that most of the time, as Dodgyken said, you don't want to 4-bet preflop, as you are probably not getting called by that many hands you want to call you, but it does make it hard to play postflop (unless you spike a Q :) ). Does anyone have a good video reference where JJ or QQ get 3-bet, by any chance?