Two pair times three

Three times in yesterday's Pokerstars $20 NL tournament I flopped two pair and had to think about the best way to play. I am reasonably happy with how I played them but am interested to hear any alternative plays and reasoning. In each case, assume my opponent is a typical Pokerstars player who I don't know, unless otherwise specified. BTW simply because of the number of playable hands I have been dealt I may appear to be one of the looser players at the table, if anyone notices. In each case I have between 1200-1500 chips and my opponents about the same.


1) Blinds 10-20, 2 limpers, I have KQ in the SB and call, BB checks. Flop KQT 2 diamonds. I bet out and get 1 caller. Turn 2d making possible flush. I check, he bets 100 into pot of 225. This guy has already been caught bluffing on the turn once with a similar betting pattern. What to do ?


2) Blinds 15-30, 3 limpers, I have JT on the button and call, SB folds BB checks. Flop KJT 2 hearts. BB checks, original UTG bets 150 (pot). First decision point : I call, planning to bet if a rag turns and I am heads up, or play it by ear if I house up. BB then check-raises 150 more. UTG then reraises the absolute minimum. What to do here (I think this one is not difficult) ?


3) Blinds 15-30 again, no limpers, I flat call with 65 in the cut-off. Button folds, SB calls BB checks. Flop J65 2 hearts. SB bets 200, BB folds, I raise 500 and he calls. Turn Kh. He goes all-in and has me covered. ???


Andy.

OK, I'll give it a try ...


1) Tough one. You're out of position, the board is as scary as it can get and any meaningful raise would make you pot stuck. Even if he makes this play with just the Ad, it would be more like a pot-building raise, than a semi-bluff.


If I knew that this guy would be capable of cold bluffing here when checked to, I probably would have made a feeler-bet of about half the pot, and fold if reraised.


Given the situation, I would tend to fold. With the Kd, I might call if he wouldn't automatically bluff again if checked to on the river and there's some chance he would pay me off with a real hand if I fill up or make the nuts flush.


2) Fold. Even in the unlikely case that you are still ahead, chances are, you're up against at least 12 outs and a dog to win the hand.


3) Preflop, I would either raise or fold with 65o on the cutoff (more leaning toward folding here). On the flop, with less than T1500, I'd raise all-in on the flop as a pot sized raise would take more than 1/2 of my stack and I wouldn't want to give implied odds to a str8 or flush draw.


On turn, I would probably fold. His play is consistent with a flush draw and it would be very risky for him to run a bluff here with 1/3 of my stack already in.


cu


Ignatius

Hand 1: I wonder if you might have made a larger bet on the flop. The math doesn't quite work out, so I assume the pot was 220 instead of 225 and you bet $70 into an $80 pot. Anyone with a J or two diamonds WANTS to call, so what if you made it too expensive to chase and just took it right there. Someone calls your big bet, well, then I would be done with the hand if they play at me when an A, 9 or diamond comes. It's early - you have plenty of time to get your chips.


Hand 2: Fold. No thinking required (well, almost none).


Hand 3: I wouldn't limp with 65 in the cutoff. If you want to steal and/or take control of the hand, raise with it and then you'll definately be shoving it in if you get called and that flop comes. But I would fold 98% of the time unless I was almost certain that the SB/BB would fold to a raise. Once you're in, I don't like letting people draw at me with bottom two pair - if I've gotten myself into this, I'm going to bet huge and make them lay down right there.

Andy,


1) Raise him a 100 on the turn and see what he does? He may call, but will be afraid to bet into you on the river unless he has you beat or is brainless.


2) As long as my mind is clear I'd fold.


3) Depends on how brainless your opponent could be. What hand would he have in the blind. He could have J6 or J5 since he got a free play or maybe KJ. I think you are beat if this player is rational.


Good Luck


Mark

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Here is what happened.


1) Having seen this guy bluff before I called. I didn't raise him because I'm not too keen on putting money into the pot just to "find out where I am" and if I get reraised I have to pass and lose the chance to house up. Anyway the river was Ad - could it be any worse ? Apparently yes because we both checked and I won, his cards not shown.


2) Is a clear fold I think. One of them had Q9 for the made straight and the other had Qh8h for a straight+flush draw.


3) I think you are right, I could have gone all-in on the flop. A lot of the time I just fancy myself to make better decisions than my opponents on future rounds but maybe here I should have pushed it in. Mark is spot on he had KJ, so I was out. Oh well, tomorrow is another day !


Andy.

Andy,


I played at that site last year when they were running the freerolls. My impression of the site that it was impossible to win anything. Basically, at that time they were just awarding only for placing either 1st in some of the tournaments or 1st through 3rd. Since, I didn't win anything I thought it was a waste of time.


But, I decided to download the history to really see if I would be financially ahead if the payouts were real money events. So, I used the World Poker Open Hold'em and 7-Card Stud payout schedules for the $500+40 events as a model to see if it could be profitable. At that time the tournaments were between 200 to 400 entrants per event. I figured out that minus the entry and casino fees I would have finished with a 40% profit after I had played 30 events. I've have the data on a spread sheet if you are interested e-mail me.


Some things that I did notice is with the events that were only 200 players I finished much higher, than the events with 350 and 400. To my surprize I did better playing limit hold'em tournaments and limit 7-Card Stud. I actually did the best with 7-card stud placing 2nd once. I consider 7-card stud my worst game when playing live poker.


Anyway, two pair is a hard hand to get away from sometimes. But, I noticed on the internet, many of the players don't care what the size of the bet on the flop is if they have top pair. Maybe, adjusting your strategy to not try to bet them out of the pot until the turn comes might make a better play in some of these situations with weak and obvious players.


Good Luck


Mark