Went to the Vay-gas this weekend, but was only able to get about 8 or 9 hours of very slow-moving poker in at the 10/20 Bellagio NL. Not many hands of consequence, in fact only 2 really. The game there is so soft. Most everyone is very readable, and their hand selection, especially calling big-raises, is mediocre at best.

Hand 1

Get in the BB. EP open-raises to 60. The last hand he open-raised to 100 and looked real confident doing so. The flop came AJx and he hemmed and hawwed for about 30 seconds, including the "chin-stroke", before betting about the pot. Everyone folded. He looked disappointed.

2 callers, and I put in the extra 40 and call.

Flop . Pot = $240. I check, he bets 100, folds to me. I call.

Turn Pot = $440. I check, he bets $200. I call

River Pot = $840. I check, he bets $400, I call.

He says "what you got?" Translation: I ain't got shit. Nonetheless, I make him show first. He rolls QJs, I show my pair of 8's and scoop. "How could you possible make that call?," he asks. "I went with my gut."

Hand 2 - maybe 15 min later.

I get AKo in the SB. 2 limpers, and it Folds around to shortie on the button who raises to 80. I call. Total freakin mistake. I was playing with about $5300 behind and didnt want to get into a huge pot OOP. But, I failed to realize that this guy was the only player that had less than 3k at the table, as he was in the 9 seat and I was in the 1 - I couldnt see his stack. He only had about $600. I should have re-raised.

Nonetheless, one of the limpers calls, And we see a flop of A57, rainbow. The limper is 1/2 players at the game who I respect. He is good, although he plays too many hands preflop IMO - which is easily forgivable at this game though. Solid post flop.

I check, and limper checks to button, who bets $120. Hmmm....how to get him to put all his money in....I decide to go with a check-and-call strategy. But the limper overcalls!

Turn A578. Pot = 600 What to do? I liked the check and call against button HU, but limper could be coming along with a variety of hands that I dont want him seeing the river with. Also, now button is much less likely to bluff without an Ace. I decide to lead out now for $400. The limper thinks and calls! The button goes into the tank (this would put him all-in) and folds.

River A578K. Pot = $1400. I have about $4700 behind, limper has me covered. I'll finish the story later, after some discussion from you guys about what I should do / what limper could have.

Enjoy!

D

The limper could very easily have a set. Most people would raise the turn with a set, but this guy wouldnt have wanted to lose the preflop raiser so he might flat call.

Because of this I wouldnt bet because oif he has a set, he'll raise you now, but he could also raise you with a smaller 2 pair.

I check / call unless anything up to pot sized.


By the way, I dont like hand #1and not just because there are 2 's

I think I would check-call upto pot size unless you have a read on what the limper would play like this, which it seems like you don't. I'm afraid of a set or a weird straight with 64, although that's less likely.

If you bet half pot or so and he raises big, what do you do? I really hate to face a decision like that with top 2 pair. By checking, you should induce a bet from small 2 pair or other hands that you beat.

You have two options that I can see, bet 700ish and fold to a raise around or over 2100.

Check and call a reasonable bet.

Either are fine, but I think the second is cheaper the times you are ahead as your opponent will want to get value out of his hand after playing so passively. Worse case scenario he checks behind, best case he bets 1k to 1.5k with AQ AJ which seems very likely given the passive way he has played his hand.

If you respect his calls, betting is probably not best the play of the two even though it is reasonable and inducing a bluff or bet with worse A is the better play.

so what was your line on the AK hand Droqqa?

I go for the check/call route. Induce a bluff with a straight draw (unlikely but still possible), and save money if he has a set. He might have AK/AQ/AJ, but I really think a set is the most likely contender.

Cloutier says a call is stronger then a raise because it means he doesn't have to protect the hand. I think this is one of those situations.

I went ahead and bet $600, planning on folding to a raise. The nice thing about live games is that a 1/3-ish pot bet looks a lot stronger than it actually is - Online, you'd get popped with a worse hand too much to make this bet. People just see the stack and 1/2 of $20 chips and freeze. Not a lot of bluffing in this game. I felt betting/folding was better than check/calling b/c it would cost me a lot less - I think he would have bet like 1k if I checked, but I figured I could lock him up with 600 if I bet.

Anyway, he called and I showed. He rolled over 55 and scooped. Not sure how I feel about how he played the hand - I'm very curious to know what he would have done if I checked the turn. Would he have checked too? Perhaps.

I was planning on check-folding any river other than a K. At worst I figured him for 2 pair once he called the turn. That river gave me just enough to "value bet" / stick around.

Meh.

D

Your point droqqa is very good. He has the lowest set on the board and I'm not sure you can raise the river with that. The only reasonable hand that would call him is AK with 2 pair. Any other A will fold, higher set or the straight would get his money... With these stack sizes, I guess bottom set is not the hand you want to get all your money in with. Learned something there.

Yeah but he doesn't neccessarily know droqqa is a player that will fold AK. I like a raise on that river, many people will call a raise with droqqa's hand.