Three hands for discussion
From my current poker log... Please critique my thoughts.
Hand #1
Multi-table no-limit tournament. I am a BIG stack. I am in middle position with A-Qo. Blinds are $100-200. UTG raises to 400. This is a small raise. I re-raise to 2000. BB calls. UTG moves in for another 175. I call. BB calls. Flop is Q-J-8. I made a $4000 bet and and BB folded. I lost to the all-I player’s K-K.
Perfect play? Nope. The perfect play is to fold pre-flop against his K-K. Was that reasonably possible? No. I had a stack of $46,000 and he had $2,100. Under the circumstances I think he could have had a wide variety of hands. The only small mistake I made was not raising his whole stack. I left him with 175. To my credit, I didn’t over raise which is good because I don’t want to expose myself too much with A-Qo.
I am happy with this hand.
Hand #2
Same tournament. Now there is an ante of $25 and the blinds of $100-200. I still have a HUGE stack. Two limpers to me, I limp with 9s8h on the button. SB calls. BB checks.
Flop 7s-6s-3c
Checks to player on my right. He bets 200. I raise to 900. All fold. Original raiser calls.
Turn 9c
He checks. I bet 2,200. He calls.
River 7h
He checks. I checks. He shows 6c 5c for a pair sixes, I win 7650 pot.
Perfect play? No. Good play?
On the flop, I have a 44% chance of winning the pot. Strictly speaking, I have the odds to call, but not to raise. Will he fold? Maybe, but not for my relatively small raise. All in all, I am happy with my raise since I really wanted to freeze that action with my big draw. It is possible that a flat call would have induced some of the players behind me to call, but it will, I think, be too obvious on future streets and I may not get my straight paid off if I hit it. I am happy to define my hand and to get some chips in when I have A LOT of outs.
On the turn, I bet 2200 into a pot 0f 3250. This felt about right to me. I now think I have the best hand, and I want to offer him poor odds to draw. AAALLAAARRRAMMMM. I am only a 2-1 favourite and I gave him the proper odds to call. Grr… this bet should have been more. A little over the size of the pot would have been better, somewhere around 3500.
Should I have bet the river? Perfect play – yes, I should have. I should have bet the max amount that he would call. Correct play? I think, in retrospect I *should* have bet the river. Although I am worried that he may have a 7, he is also worried that I have one. It is a very difficult play for him to c/r bluff the river since I have given every indication that I have a “good hand.†I small bet might get paid off by an ace high broken flush draw. All in all, I should have made a river bet. I think about $2500 would have been ideal.
Hand #3
Same tournament. Still a BIG stack. Ante $25 Blinds $100-200. UTG makes it 400, a suspiciously small raise. One caller to me, I have AsKs and make it 1,600 to go. Called behind me and original raiser now moves in for 8,505 leaving me a call of 7305 into a pot of 13,000. The original caller folded and I moved in. The caller behind me folded and my AK lost to the original raiser’s KK.
Perfect play? No. A fold pre-flop would have been the ideal play. Correct play? I like my first raise. I am seeking to define my hand. But, when he re-raises, should I have folded? He had a reasonable stack so it seems likely that he had “a hand.†If we give him credit for making this all-in move with A-A to J-J, or A-K then I have 43% and it’s a good call. But, if I am going to call anyway, should I have moved him into the pot with a bigger raise? A-K cried out for “fold equity†and although I raised, it was probably not enough to fold the weaker end of his raising range. I think I should have made my original raise to about 3,000. That would have, I think, dropped off some of the more marginal hands he might have opened with – like 7-7, or A-J which is a good result for my A-K.
Hand #1
Multi-table no-limit tournament. I am a BIG stack. I am in middle position with A-Qo. Blinds are $100-200. UTG raises to 400. This is a small raise. I re-raise to 2000. BB calls. UTG moves in for another 175. I call. BB calls. Flop is Q-J-8. I made a $4000 bet and and BB folded. I lost to the all-I player’s K-K.
Perfect play? Nope. The perfect play is to fold pre-flop against his K-K. Was that reasonably possible? No. I had a stack of $46,000 and he had $2,100. Under the circumstances I think he could have had a wide variety of hands. The only small mistake I made was not raising his whole stack. I left him with 175. To my credit, I didn’t over raise which is good because I don’t want to expose myself too much with A-Qo.
I am happy with this hand.
Hand #2
Same tournament. Now there is an ante of $25 and the blinds of $100-200. I still have a HUGE stack. Two limpers to me, I limp with 9s8h on the button. SB calls. BB checks.
Flop 7s-6s-3c
Checks to player on my right. He bets 200. I raise to 900. All fold. Original raiser calls.
Turn 9c
He checks. I bet 2,200. He calls.
River 7h
He checks. I checks. He shows 6c 5c for a pair sixes, I win 7650 pot.
Perfect play? No. Good play?
On the flop, I have a 44% chance of winning the pot. Strictly speaking, I have the odds to call, but not to raise. Will he fold? Maybe, but not for my relatively small raise. All in all, I am happy with my raise since I really wanted to freeze that action with my big draw. It is possible that a flat call would have induced some of the players behind me to call, but it will, I think, be too obvious on future streets and I may not get my straight paid off if I hit it. I am happy to define my hand and to get some chips in when I have A LOT of outs.
On the turn, I bet 2200 into a pot 0f 3250. This felt about right to me. I now think I have the best hand, and I want to offer him poor odds to draw. AAALLAAARRRAMMMM. I am only a 2-1 favourite and I gave him the proper odds to call. Grr… this bet should have been more. A little over the size of the pot would have been better, somewhere around 3500.
Should I have bet the river? Perfect play – yes, I should have. I should have bet the max amount that he would call. Correct play? I think, in retrospect I *should* have bet the river. Although I am worried that he may have a 7, he is also worried that I have one. It is a very difficult play for him to c/r bluff the river since I have given every indication that I have a “good hand.†I small bet might get paid off by an ace high broken flush draw. All in all, I should have made a river bet. I think about $2500 would have been ideal.
Hand #3
Same tournament. Still a BIG stack. Ante $25 Blinds $100-200. UTG makes it 400, a suspiciously small raise. One caller to me, I have AsKs and make it 1,600 to go. Called behind me and original raiser now moves in for 8,505 leaving me a call of 7305 into a pot of 13,000. The original caller folded and I moved in. The caller behind me folded and my AK lost to the original raiser’s KK.
Perfect play? No. A fold pre-flop would have been the ideal play. Correct play? I like my first raise. I am seeking to define my hand. But, when he re-raises, should I have folded? He had a reasonable stack so it seems likely that he had “a hand.†If we give him credit for making this all-in move with A-A to J-J, or A-K then I have 43% and it’s a good call. But, if I am going to call anyway, should I have moved him into the pot with a bigger raise? A-K cried out for “fold equity†and although I raised, it was probably not enough to fold the weaker end of his raising range. I think I should have made my original raise to about 3,000. That would have, I think, dropped off some of the more marginal hands he might have opened with – like 7-7, or A-J which is a good result for my A-K.
Comments
On Hand #2, I again wonder why you raised, since you were on a drawing hand (albeit with lots of outs). Again, your book says "bet with the best, draw to invest", so wondering the logic here.
On Hand #3, I again wonder about the raise (common theme
I'm not trying to criticize (not good enough for that yet
Hand 2: I like the raise, especially being directly behind the flop bettor. I know a lot of players will try and pick up a pot from the CO with a small bet holding a small piece or no piece at all. I think 900 is a fine number, but if your read was that he had a piece, then probably too small to push him off.
I also like your idea of freezing the action. I hadnt really thought about that in a NL context. Ill do something similiar in a limit ring game when its bet and raised in front of me on the flop with me 3betting on the button with a flush draw.
I dont think you really have to worry about giving away your hand in this situation because with the board being so small, a scare card to top pair is likely going to come on the turn and your opponent wont necessarily think...oh hes semibluffing his draw...but will also have to think...oh hes scared of the overcard. Although, I would have to assume since you are making this play, that you feel the CO doesnt have a BIG piece of this flop, so shouldnt your plan have included a semibluff on the turn of some sorts?
I agree that a bigger turn bet was in order. Pot should have sufficed.
Depending on my opponents stack size I could see myself betting or checking. If hes got less then 5000...im probably betting with impunity...because I dont have to worry about being put to a decision. If hes got more then 20,000. left..i think I can get away with a nice pot underbet value bet because it wont make much of a dent in his stack to pay me off. Anything in between, and Im worried about committing him too much to his hand and this pot with a river value bet.
Hand 3: I think youve got it pretty much thought out. If you were going to invest that many chips, you might as well have been the agressor.
I know in this case you are probablly thinking that you are good on the flop and so you bet out to get rid of the BB. What about the times when you have this same situation when you think that the all-in player has a monster and you flop at least top pair.....will you ever try to soak a little out of the other opponent to make back some of the pre flop money?