Here are 2 hands hands from this morning.

#1) 4 limpers and then the button raises to $60. I call in the SB with QQ. MP limper calls. Its 3 way to the flop.

Pot is $220 I believe. The flop comes AQ9 rainbow. I check, and MP leads $110 into the raiser. If there is a poker god, let him smile on me and allow the MP to have 99.

Preflop raiser folds and I call.

Pot is $440. The turn is a 4. I check and he bets $220. He has $640 left and I have him covered by a tad.

The only think I know about him is that about 5 hands ago he flopped a set and let the flop check around and the BB caught a straight and busted him. I think the flop in that hand was 865 or something like that.

There is $660 in the pot. If he has 99, then it doesnt matter what I do. I ll get all his money know or on the river, but how do I get the most from his other possible holdings? I doubt he has AK. Could be AQ but most people would raise AQ after 2 limpers. I think its AJ or maybe A9s.

Would you check raise now? Flat call and lead the river? Check raise the river?



Hand #2) I open limp just before the cutoff with AT. The cutoff has posted an out of turn blind (his 1st hand). He min raises. This means absoulutely nothing. Ive seen him min raise preflop with 65, K5, J8. He stinks but he plays very unorthodox so I hate to play big pots against him since I cant figure out what he has. He also likes to slowplay and is more likely to have something if he doesne bet than if he does. But he never makes huge bets.

Blinds fold and I call.

Pot is $55. The flop comes K64. I check and he checks.
Pot $55. turn is an ace. I check and he checks.
Pot $55. River is another ace. I check, he bets $30, I check raise to $80....he reraises min to $130......Whats your play?

Hand 2 since you say he is so unorthodox I would call because of the fact that your pot odds are great here and for future information. I would have bet out on the river rather than checkraise, though.

1) Call and lead the river for $400.


2) What Mad Genius said

Hand 1: Check raise him all in now. If he is drawing with something like JTs he might not let go, if he has AJ he might not let go, if he has 99 he will have you on AQ and call.

Hand 2: Just call. I think you are good here, but I wouldn't want to push this pot any further against a loose cannon.

I just call on hand 2.

I will say that I don't care much for this check-calling and check-raising. Against a loose raiser, I would have made a probe bet on the QQ set and then moved in to a raise.

And on hand 2, I would have bet out as soon as the A hit on the turn.

P.S.: Just an addition to my skepticism regarding these slowplays.

If these players aren't calling you, I really think it's much better to continue pounding good hands but also to throw in some pounding on weaker ones.

Here's an example from last night: I have 64s in LP, limp, then call a raise to $15 from SB (fairly tight player with whom I've played a lot). We get one more caller and a flop pot of $45. Flop comes J62 (something like that) and raiser bets out $15, with one caller before me. So, I bump it to $80 and all fold. I have no idea whether I had the best hand or not--it's obviously very weak.

But in any case, I really prefer continuing to bet strongly every time I have a good hand, and when they stop calling, I just do the same (within reason) on weak ones (looking for moderately attractive pots, possible weakness, a few outs if they call, etc.).

Ok, even if ice said how he played it, I was thinking:

Hand 1

I would have called and bet tentatively on the river, expecting him to raise. I wouldn't have check-raised because he would know I've got a powerhouse and most likely he would fold. As he did. A check-raise on the river, I don't think would work here, either. I know I play at a way different level against incredibly bad players, but that's what I was thinking I would have done. I would have wanted to get the most money out of him, as I couldn't put him on a hand that would damage me to much, unless he hit the incredible two-out A with A9 or another 9 with 999.

Hand 2

The same. I can't see him having the hand to beat me, but stranger things have happened, recently and often. Loose guys to my left always concern me. I'm weak.

ice, how is the check-raise on the river working for you at this level and when do you do it? Why do you think it works at this level and not lower?

Thanks for the hand discussions. I'm learning so much.

CJ

It might work at lower levels, but I never really tried it hardly at all. People are less aggressive at lower levels I think and alot of times they check behind because theyre just glad they got to the river with their KJ on a Kxx flop. I played several hands at 5/10 where I reaaly need to check the river and the guy bet and i folded.

I started noticing that they do it alot, so Ive taken to letting them think Im weak and letting them try to take it from me on the end sometimes.