Limping with tens in the BB... .25/.50 NL

[Muisyle]

Elysium was dealt: http://www.rit.edu/~ajp2113/Poker/Ts.gif http://www.rit.edu/~ajp2113/Poker/Tc.gif
acesuppr posts small blind of $0.25, Elysium posts big blind of $0.50, Jinx17 calls $0.50, voltron folds, BatmanBowlr folds, kikirikio calls $0.50, Biggie folds, drhattigan folds, sjrichy folds, acesuppr calls $0.25, Elysium checks.

Flop:http://www.rit.edu/~ajp2113/Poker/As.gif http://www.rit.edu/~ajp2113/Poker/8s.gif http://www.rit.edu/~ajp2113/Poker/Th.gif
acesuppr checks, Elysium checks, Jinx17 bets $2, kikirikio folds, acesuppr calls $2, Elysium raises to $4, Jinx17 calls $2, acesuppr calls $2.

Turn:http://www.rit.edu/~ajp2113/Poker/Ad.gif
acesuppr checks, Elysium bets $4, Jinx17 raises to $8, acesuppr calls $8, Elysium raises to $12, Jinx17 calls $4, acesuppr calls $4.

River:http://www.rit.edu/~ajp2113/Poker/4c.gif
acesuppr checks, Elysium bets $34.25, and is all in, Jinx17 calls $34.25, acesuppr folds.

Results:
Elysium shows a full house, Tens full of Aces
Jinx17 shows a full house, Aces full of Eights

Jinx17 wins the pot of $115.50.

[Huskiez]

Hey Muisyle,

Preflop looks fine. Check and hope to get a set, and if you get an overpair, play cautiously.

Throughout the hand, why are you constantly min-raising? You should be playing your hand strongly. I think the best way to go about this would be check raise the flop, as you want to get people committed and putting money in on the hand, and don't want to give any free cards on this board which is flush and straight draw heavy.

The only problem with your check raise is that it was so small. Basically you're revealing you have a decent hand but you're not making anyone pay to draw out against it. I would make a much bigger check raise here as you have to make those draws pay to see the next card. The pot is around 6 when it gets to you, so I'd pot raise to 10, not 4. When you min check raise, you give away the strength of your hand.

On the turn, I don't know whether you were trying to get your opponents to raise such a timid bet, but it worked, and then what you have to do is reraise strong. The only hands that take you right now are AT, A8, and AA. It's much more likely someone has Ax. Once your bet is raised, you should probably put in a very heavy reraise. I probably would have bet out strongly though on the turn, as you did check raise on the flop.

I think the money should have been in before the river. Try to play your sets fast, especially when there is either an ace on board or draws out there.

That he had A8 sucks, but I would be more than happy to get my money in on this board.

Good luck, and welcome to the forum.

[SkippingGoat]

All the minraising is fishy. You might as well get all-in on the turn. If he has an ace he's going to call. On the flop you're letting a flush draw too cheaply. Also, I like betting out on the flop. If you can get an ace to raise you then you have him in big trouble whereas with a checkraise you can let him off cheaply.

As a side note, it would be nice if you could ask some questions or make some comments about your own play. This can make the whole process more instructive and ensure that I'm not wasting my breath responding to a bad beat story.

[Muisyle]

Well the reason I was min checkraising was because I thought they might be on flush or straight draws. I certainly wasn't fearing another full house and I was really surprised to see that A8.

I felt that checkraising the pot would lose both of them. It certainly would have lost acesuppr (who I'm sure was on a flush draw)... given that we know what the guy was holding he probably would have reraised me all in, and I would have certainlly called.

On the turn I made my full house. So at this point I wanted them to hit their flushes or straights, and if they're gonna call that original bet, they're gonna call a little more too. Value betting I guess. By the river I had less in the stack than was in the pot, so I just dropped the pretense and put it in. I figure Ax calls with his trips, and acesuppr folds his missed flush.

[SkippingGoat]

[ QUOTE ]
Well the reason I was min checkraising was because I thought they might be on flush or straight draws.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is why you must put in a bet bigger than a minraise. By giving them odds to call you are making a -EV MISTAKE. Not to mention, if they hit you'll be hard pressed to give up your set making it a situation with very negative implied odds. At low limit NL not making people pay a lot to draw is a giant leak.

[Muisyle]

I understand it's a mistake to give them odds for the flush. But knowing acesuppr, I don't think it would have been hard to get away from the hand. Having only put $4 in and assuming my read on acesuppr is good, I would just check/fold the spade turn.

But I can definitely see my mistake on the flop. What do you think about the turn though? I've got my full house why bet them off? I don't see how getting in on the turn helps me, it just pushes off the draws that are now drawing dead. The only thing I'm worried about on the river is Ax hitting his full house card, but it's not like he's going to fold his trip aces on the turn just because I bet out.