A tale of 2 hands

[Gar Pike]

1st hand

Party Super Qualifier, I have about 750, blinds are 15/30, I have T8o in BB, UTG limps, 2 more limpers, I check

Flop is T 5 5 rainbow

I bet 75, UTG calls, 2 folds

Turn is 8, I check, UTG bets 125

I have him out-chipped by 300 or so, and reraise enough to put him all in.

2nd hand, I've been moved to a new table. I have about 350, blinds are 25/50, I have A8o UTG and push.

Good? Bad? Ugly?

Regards,

Gar

[Meatmaw]

1) My first guess is he's detecting weakness and you have him beat with high confidence. Although, maybe you would want to place a bet you think he'd call. Then again, I suppose he could be trying to extract from you with trips. With no further info, I'd probably raise and then leave if he goes all in.

2) UTG at a new table of 9 players with 7BB I'd probably fold and wait for a better hand or better position.

[schwza]

hand 1: i don't like checking the turn. if you're going to play it this way you're guaranteeing that you pay off a 5 or an overpair. worse, you're giving a free card when the free card could kill you (although to be fair, it would be a pretty loose call if he called a bet with something like QJ).

by my count there's 270 in the pot and he has 355 in front of him. i say push and expect to get called by a T, a 5, or a pocket pair. hope it's a T or small pocket.

A8 is a pretty mediocre hand and utg is not the place to push it. if you get called it'll probably be a semi-dominating pair (99-KK) or a dominating ace (A9-AK), giving you a slim chance of winning. fold it and wait for a better chance.

(edit: forgot to answer 2nd hand)

[woodguy]

[ QUOTE ]
Turn is 8, I check, UTG bets 125

[/ QUOTE ]

You have to bet here.
You are getting no info from checking as many hands will bet.
If you bet and he raises, its probably a 5. If you bet and he calls you might have to check/fold the river depending on the size of your turn bet and your read. A 5 will probably raise here in order to keep you from seeing the river cheap.
This is the problem with playing this type of hand out of position, it can cost too much to get to a showdown, which is where you want this hand to go as cheaply as possible.

I would probably check raise the flop to see if a 5 is out, as (probably) only a 5 will call the check raise, or play back at you.
If you want to shoot at the pot on the flop to take it down there, you have to make a pot sized bet. 75 into a 120 pot is too small to drive out other draws, and you can be more sure that a smooth call on a pot sized bet is a 5.

Hand 2.
You have 7BB's. This hand is too weak to push UTG, as it has to be folded to by the entire table and chances are someone has a hand. If you were CO,button, or SB this would be a better play.
At 7 BB's you are in all-in mode, but you have enough chips relative to the blinds to wait for a better spot.

All that being said, both hands can win, but why risk chips in bad spots?

regards,
woodguy

[Gar Pike]

1st hand

I thought there was a decent chance I was ahead here. I put him on overcards, AK/AQ, KQ, something like that. I didn't think he would have limped UTG with any hand with a 5 in it; although 55 is a remote possibility, it wasn't likely. Possibly A5s...again, possible but not probable. AT was what I was most afraid of. AA/KK/QQ I thought he'd play a little stronger than limping UTG.

I thought that If I checked, he'd bet the turn, I would check raise and he would have to fold. Probably would have worked, except that he had QQ. /images/graemlins/blush.gif

2nd hand wasn't my idea of a good hand, but there was less than 5 minutes left at that level, blinds were coming and I thought it was possible that a push would get folded around. I had seen one EP raise in the 3 or 4 hands I'd seen at this table, and it was folded around.

Fortunately, the board wound up 3 5 8 T 2, and I tripled up. And of course, the callers had AK, AJ.

So, I wasn't very happy with my play of these 2 hands; my read on the 1st guy was way off, and I got really lucky on the 2nd hand.

I played a lot better after that and won a freeroll to a Super Weekday Tourney, so there will be some dead money waiting for you guys next week... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks for the feedback.

Regards,

Gar

[Jason Strasser]

GP,

I disagree with some stuff that has been said here with regards to hand one. I've posted in the one-table tourneys how I like to play this hand with low blinds.

Basically, I feel like you get more information about this hand by checking then betting. If you check, and a solid player bets from any position, I fold. If a LAG bets on the button, or anything else suspicious happens, I raise.

If the flop checks around, and a card under ten comes, I'd bet the pot on the turn. I really think this line is superior. The hand is to multi-way, and there are so many hands that will flat call you on the turn, giving you no indication where you are. I hate betting here and getting called. I feel lost.

-Jason