So I took the rest of Monday off, yesterday off, and today off, but decided to play a little at night since I was bored and also since I will be going away tomorrow for the rest of the week. I was thinking about going down to $1/2 for a few days but I wanted to motivate myself and felt 2/4 was the right stakes to play. I had a decent session and actually made some profit which was a nice confidence booster. [end of ramble that nobody cares about]

Anyway here are three hands that I thought were semi-interesting. Tell me what you think of my play and what you think my opponent has in each case.

EDIT: Reads: first hand villian seems to be somewhat laggy, he's raised ALOT preflop which means he most likely isn't doing it with just group 1 hands. I had a similar hand against him earlier where I had QQ in BB, that time I just called his raise and check-folded on a K73 flop. No real reads in second and third hands.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (7 handed)

MP2 ($1387.65)
CO ($265)
Button ($124.80)
SB ($396)
Hero ($400)
UTG ($852.20)
MP1 ($195.80)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
1 fold, MP1 calls $4, 1 fold, CO raises to $16, 2 folds, Hero raises to $48, MP1 folds, CO calls $32.

Flop: ($102) , , (2 players)
Hero bets $60, CO calls $60.

Turn: ($222) (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

River: ($222) (2 players)
Hero bets $60, CO calls $60.

Final Pot: $342




PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (8 handed)

Button ($667.45)
Hero ($565.70)
BB ($285.75)
UTG ($400)
UTG+1 ($396)
MP1 ($402.05)
MP2 ($223.30)
CO ($137)

Preflop: Hero is SB with , . CO posts a blind of $4.
2 folds, MP1 calls $4, 1 fold, CO (poster) checks, Button calls $4, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($20) , , (5 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP1 checks, CO bets $16, Button calls $16, Hero raises to $52, BB folds, MP1 folds, CO calls $36, Button folds.

Turn: ($140) (2 players)
Hero bets $509.7 (All-In), CO calls $81 (All-In).

River: ($730.70) (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $730.70




The last one the hh somehow won't convert so I will just copy/paste the actual hh.

PokerStars Game #1862387003: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2005/06/09 - 01:26:27 (ET)
Table 'Gaspra IV' Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Ivanovitch ($651 in chips)
Seat 2: Genius28 ($453.30 in chips)
Seat 3: DenverDWP ($291.75 in chips)
Seat 5: hammerrp ($613.15 in chips)
Seat 6: *JINX222* ($488.40 in chips)
Seat 7: stfu donny ($305.20 in chips)
Seat 8: bullseyead ($136.45 in chips)
*JINX222*: posts small blind $2
stfu donny: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Genius28 [Qs Ks]
bullseyead: calls $4
Ivanovitch: folds
Genius28: calls $4
DenverDWP: folds
hammerrp: folds
*JINX222*: folds
stfu donny: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd 7c Qc]
stfu donny: checks
bullseyead: checks
Genius28: bets $12
stfu donny: raises $24 to $36
bullseyead: folds
Genius28: raises $64 to $100
stfu donny: calls $64
*** TURN *** [Kd 7c Qc]
stfu donny: checks
Genius28: bets $349.30 and is all-in
stfu donny: folds
Genius28 collected $211 from pot
Genius28: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $214 | Rake $3
Board [Kd 7c Qc 9s]
Seat 1: Ivanovitch folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Genius28 collected ($211)
Seat 3: DenverDWP folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: hammerrp (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: *JINX222* (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: stfu donny (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 8: bullseyead folded on the Flop

hand 1: why did you cehck the turn? did you think you might have been behind, or were you looking to check raise? If he's really laggy, then i can't put him on KK or AA here.

i think this board is relatively safe after your reraise. it looks like he's on some sort of mid PP. if he flopped a boat, so be it. i would likely have bet roughly 150 on the turn and put him on on the river. if he's raising as often as you say i can't imagine you're behind after your reraise.

hand 2: i hate short stacks. i think this hand may have been easier to play if you had kept the pot smaller by leading out instead of check raising in the first place. my inital thought is that he can beat AJ on a draw free board after calling the check raise. but he's a short stack, and i swear to you, those guys at the 2/4 tables are as dumb as you get (well almost... that guy at my table that i tried to get you to sit at was worse). i don't think there's anything wrong with check folding to the all in. he *should* have you beat, but unfortantly i see them show AT so many times here that it's tough to do that. i think he's got A7 though.

hand 3: the pots big enough at this point to warrant an all in to try to take it down. i also like the size of your reraise on this flop. realistically, the only hand you fear against this guy ont he flop is 77. on the turn, becomes a scary possibility too. still, it looks like he's on x.Well played.

Hmmmm...

Hand 1: I don't exactly understand the half pot bet on the flop. I think you're ahead (and, as Stel said, if he flopped a boat, so be it), but I'd really like to end the drawing game or make him draw any further only at a horrific cost. I think you probably win this one, but, if it were me, I'd be upset if an A hit the turn and he turned over AK. Basically, once that much is in there, I'm not in the least upset about just taking it down rather than trying to milk. He might also have something like 99 and will probably call as well.

Hand 2: I don't really like the checkraise here. My main reason being that it gets too much money in on a hand that is good but not great. I think the guy could have pretty much any ace (including those making 2 pair), and it's about 50/50 whether yours is good after all that. I'd feel a lot more clear as to his holdings if I had bet out pot and then had this guy raise me (or flat call, or whatever).

Hand 3: I'm too lazy to read through it without the converter...

Hand #1, I like a little bigger flop bet and 1/2 pot at the turn. If no ace or king hits the river, I think you can check behind there instead if the turn. When you check the turn, you could be giving him a free shot at an ace or king and then he may fire out into you on the river and you wont know if he actually has the ace or king or not.

Hand #2 I like

Hand #3 I think you overdid it a bit on the turn.

lmao

I may have to start writing everything in caps and cussing everyone out now that ATE is missing in action...

Hand 1 and 2 are very different hands but in both hands the size of the pot on turn is bigger than what is left in your oppenents' stack. But in hand 1 where you probably have the best hand you check. And in hand 2 where there is a very good chance you are beat, you bet. I can understand the check in hand 1, but against this player (laggy, aggressive preflop, shortstack) I think you should bet (all in). I have seen what I thought was a good player call with TT in a hand like this. I think he has QQ-99 and I think there is a good chance he will call.
I like hand 3.

OK, so I like a bigger flop bet and an all in at the turn. I didnt look that closely at stack sizes.

People don't seem to like Hand 1 so I will offer some quick thoughts on that. First of all, yes, he was fairly short so the idea of betting big on the turn and getting the rest of it on the river doesn't apply. He had less than pot left on the turn. With that said, my reasons for playing the hand slow are that I felt like he had three likely hands - KK, JJ, and TT. Now I did mention that he seemed a bit laggy preflop but I had not really seen him go nuts postflop. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt and played him like I would play good players. Most guys WILL fold JJ and especially TT to a turn all-in. This is still 2/4NL we are talking about, not Party .25/.50. I've made it VERY clear preflop and on the flop that I have a higher pair than JJ, and just in case he thought I had AK those doubts would be removed when I go all-in on the turn. And I didn't put him on AK at all so I wasn't worried about giving a free card - after all it's 2/44 most likely for himself but possibly for me if he does have KK, which is definately not out of the question here. I thought the most I could get out of him if he had TT/JJ was bet the flop check the turn and make a small value bet on the river, which I know he would be forced to call. I'm not sure why people think it was THAT poorly played since he had $97 left after the hand is done - he needs to call my allin on the turn more than 40% of the time for me to be making more money and not only that when I check he will push allin enough times to make up for it even if he does call much more than 40% of the time. (which I don't think any player with half a brain will, but I guess people don't agree on that point).

As far as hand 2, I didn't feel like he flopped 2pr or better, because he only had $81 left after calling my raise and I don't doubt that the last $81 would have gone in on the flop if he did flop a big hand. There would be absolutely no reason for him to slowplay as I am pot-committed anyway, which told me he had an ace. Now this time I went allin on the turn because he has 50% of his stack committed and I didn't really see him folding an ace AT ALL. You will also notice that he came into the game this hand sitting with $140 - that tells me he is most likely a dumbass and in this case I was absolutely confident he was calling with whatever ace he had.

Hand 3, to people who didn't like my allin bet (slightly less than pot-size), how much do you suggest that I bet?