$5/$10 NL

#1) I limp in MP with 77, button limps and both blinds play. 4 to the flop.
Pot is $40. The flop comes AQ8. Checked to me and I fire out $35 but the button calls. Im done.

Pot is $110. The turn is a 7. Im not done . I bet $70 and button min raises me. Hmmm. I dont think he has AQ / AA/ or QQ. Could he have 88? Maybe A8s? I call with the intention of check raising the river.

Pot is $390. The river is a blank. I check and he bets $190. Im not sure why, but I just called. He had QJ so he wouldnt have called a check raise anyway, but Im not sure what caused me to check there. I actually maximized the hand by mistake (by not reraising the turn)

#2) UTG limps and I limp in MP with 77 again. Both blinds play again
Pot is $40. The flop comes QQ7. Checked around. I was last to act which is why I didnt bet the flop. I wanted someone to catch something.

Pot still $40. The turn is a 9. Checked to me and I bet $30. SB folds and BB min raises me. UTG folds. Hmm. I call.

Pot is $160. The river is an ace. He bets $90. I have a bad feeling and just call. He has Q9. Great read? Or playing scared? I dont feel like Im playing scared at all, but this hand isnt like me. I actually accidently saved money again. He wouldnt have folded Q9 to a pot bet on the flop and I probably wouldve gotten stacked. This still feels wrong to me, but Im glad this time.

#3) Button open raises to $30. I reraise to $100 in the BB with [9c]. He calls. I thought he was stealing, but if Im wrong, this a very tricky hand to be wrong with. I didnt want a call obviously.

Pot is $205. The flop comes [4c][Qc]. I bet $150 and he folds.

#4) I have KK UTG+1. UTG+2 has posted a blind. Normally I would raise here every time, but the button is a MANIAC. I cant believe what Im seeing and she is up to $5500. She will raise anything from 95s to A5 to K9 and will not give up. She will bet no matter what hits and will call raises with next to nothing but keeps hitting.

Anyway, MP limps, button folds (damn) and blinds play. 5 to the flop.

Pot is $50. The flop comes QT5. Checked to me and I bet $50. Folded to MP who calls and we're heads up. A few hands ago I bet the flop with nothing and he called. I checked/folded the turn. I decided to do the same here (but not fold the turn)

Pot is $150. The turn is a 6. I check and he bets $150. Hmm..Full pot. Last time he bet only 1/2 pot when I checked. I just call him.

Pot is $450. The river is another T. I check and he bets $200. I get a bad feeling again. He bets $200. I call and he has AT. He got lucky here, but I royally screwed that hand up. If I had check raised the turn like I planned, he shoud fold, although Ive seen him chase so he might not have folded anyway. BAD BAD BAD!

Not quite sure what you are looking for here. I like your flop play with 10-9s. I think you did good not to get too caught up with your K-K hand when too many people saw the flop. It feels really bad when someone sucks out on you like that, but had he not caught you likely would have called the river and again pondered the fact that you accidentally maximized the value on the hand. He was drawing to 5 outs, yeah you let him draw for psuedo-free but you were only trying to do the right thing by not overplaying your overpair (and he had shown that he wasn't just trying to push you off a hand with a half pot bet like he had bet in previous hands). You had reason to be cautious. Tough to play that situation out of position. The weirdest thing is your call on the first hand on the river as opposed to the raise. You might not be playing scared, but just a little more defensive than usual. The only situation here that wasn't really marginal was the set you turned. Otherwise your passiveness is defensible I think.

Don't worry about the past. The main reason I wanted to stake you was because I believe in your abilities. Don't go crazy without the nuts, it's not always necessary. You have the experience and know-how to make this project successful, keep plugging and the results will come!

Hand 1: I really liked your turn check. I do it all the tike with my big hands and most players are very confident that this is only a sign of weakness. He would have call a river all in I think. If there is no str8 or flush possible at the board, I am always pleased to put all my chips in with a set, if there is a higher set, well, I move on, but that doesnt happen very often. Dont you aggree with me on the all in part with sets, Ice? Make a note of this guy who is willing to play a stack with TPGK.


Hand 2: That is not YOU definetely! I wouldve been stacked! LOL.

Hand 3. Good read.

Hand 4. The check the turn part I was talking about is for little monsters or big monsters, not for overpairs. Besides, out of position you will induce a bluff from anything more than average playe, dont you think? I think the best move would be a 1/2pot bet and fold to a big raise maybe. Do you think he would have raised you with mid pair?

AlexMR.

Alex, your analysis is off somewhere

Hand #1...He had QJ....thats not TPGK..its middle pair..no way hes calling a river raise
Hand #4...I cant imagine he would raise my turn bet with middle pair, but I havent played with him very long. I was confident I had the best hand and wanted to let him bet it for me. I was going to check raise the turn but then decided to let him bet the river for me also. Not check raising cost me the hand but is it really wrong?

if I check raise fairly big he folds probably 90% of the time. If I just call, I think he will bet the river almost every time, but only 7 out of 8 times that he doesnt hit a 5 outer. He probably wouldve bet much more if he missed the 5 outer than he did when he hit, so Im not sure if my play is +EV or not. Do I really want him to fold? Anyone want to do the math? Lets say he best full pot if he doesnt hit the 5 outer and we already know he bet $200 when he did......Aisthesis, my man....do some math for me!