2 first hands of $200+15 Party SnGs...

[cferejohn]

These were the first hands of two consecutive $200 SnGs. I don't know anything about the other players involved. For those who don't know: 1000 starting chips, blinds up every 10 hands, blinds start 10/15.

Hand 1:
I'm in MP with A/images/graemlins/heart.gif J/images/graemlins/club.gif.
UTG+1 limps, MP limps, I limp, button limps, SB completes.

6 see the flop of:
J/images/graemlins/heart.gif 4/images/graemlins/spade.gif 8/images/graemlins/diamond.gif
90 Chips in the pot.

MP bets 80. I raise to 180. Button calls, all others fold, MP folds.

Turn: 6/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
I bet 300. Button calls.

River: 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif
I check. Button bets 275 (leaving each of us with about 250 behind if I call). I call.

Hand 2:

Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif Q/images/graemlins/club.gif in MP.
UTG calls. I raise to 60. MP calls. BB calls. UTG reraises to 105 (minimum). I reraise to 300. All others fold. UTG calls.

Flop is: 5/images/graemlins/heart.gif 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif K/images/graemlins/heart.gif
UTG bets 225. I call.

Turn: 7/images/graemlins/diamond.gif
UTG goes all-in. I call.

How did I do?

[adanthar]

Whoa.

1: I hate button's flop coldcall. I think I check/call this the rest of the way and hope he has KJ and not a set. That river bet is a please call me bet...I don't know that I'm too fond of it but I guess you have to call and pray.

2: I suppose your reason for the reraise is to fold to an all in? Tough to say...a lot of people will coldcall aces rather than all in and let you hang yourself. I'm not sure that I like it much - until I know if he's retarded I'd rather just call and keep the pot smaller.

Anyway, the flop has a K in it, thereby sucking. AA and AK both play it exactly the same. That leaves the 'retard' option. If you call him down you're playing for your stack, getting effective 2:1 odds on him being a clown. Are the 200's soft enough for him to be a clown 1 time out of 3?

Meh. There's things to like and dislike about both. But hey, at least we get to have another fun thread about folding AJ preflop that I can snicker at.

[raptor517]

first off, with hand 1, i fold immediately before the flop. putting yourself in a marginal situation like that is never good. what kind of flop are you looking for with AJ? you got your tptk, and couldnt get away from it and busted out. save your chips for later

hand number 2. i dont like min raises. they make me more mad than anything else in the world. well, almost. when i get min raise and i have qq, i usually will just call and take a flop. reraising then getting pushed on just sucks, and reraising and getting called sucks too, because u still dont really know where your at. i like the call of the min raise, then playing it out on the flop. if that happened, you would have lost 105 chips and been on to the next hand. just my thoughts.

[adanthar]

[ QUOTE ]
first off, with hand 1, i fold immediately before the flop. putting yourself in a marginal situation like that is never good. what kind of flop are you looking for with AJ? you got your tptk, and couldnt get away from it and busted out. save your chips for later

[/ QUOTE ]

The main reason to play the $200's is when you have an edge playing marginal hands. They don't usually give you chips with no effort when you flop sets up there.

I'll also say this: He's ahead 1/3 of the time on the turn and 1/5 of the time on the river. I don't know if the turn bet is good but it's not horrific.

[cferejohn]

Hand 1: He had a set (8's), as a rather suspected after all the flat calls. I agree that I should have folded preflop, and if not folded, than raised. That said, raising here probably loses me my entire stack (I still had 250 left, which I doubled twice before going out 4th /images/graemlins/grin.gif).

Once I see that flop, I have a hard time getting away from it. Maybe I should have checked the turn (this is assuming I've seen a flop to begin with)?

Hand 2: He had A7o. <boggle>. I double up. I was looking for JJ or TT. I just couldn't imagine he would have bet out a K here. Also, while a limp reraise might normally broadcast a big hand, I thought that min-reraising after a raise and multiple callers on the first level was so fishy as to possibly be a medium pair trying to get QQ-AA to come out and admit it, so to speak (I've seen this play from time to time with hands like that). Once he just flat calls the 300, I feel pretty good about him not having an overpair.

I would have called a preflop all-in there. I figured that pushing might get TT or JJ to fold (as it turns out, probably not by this player, but I didn't know that at the time). I was most afraid of AK, but I thought AK would try to check raise me.

[adanthar]

Yeah, on second thought, I think a turn check is a must (a bet is not terrible but it's the amount...300 is too close to pot committed and a smaller one invites a KJ all in you can't call.) KJ and a set are going to bet very different amounts.

[Jason Strasser]

I check the turn in hand one because Im scared shitless of that cold call. In hand two I think you'll be shown enough BS hands or flush draws or medium pairs to make money. If this player has a king, its a king no kicker type hand.

[cferejohn]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, on second thought, I think a turn check is a must (a bet is not terrible but it's the amount...300 is too close to pot committed and a smaller one invites a KJ all in you can't call.) KJ and a set are going to bet very different amounts.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, and in any case, he's going to bluff (or maybe think he's value betting) more hands than he will call with, so I think checking makes more $ when I am ahead, and probably loses a bit less when I'm behind.

This is notwithstanding the fact that I almost certainly shouldn't have been there to begin with...

[adanthar]

Hah. That second hand just made me $95.

***** Hand History for Game 1369391218 *****
NL Hold'em $50 Buy-in + $5 Entry Fee Trny:8278931 Level:5 Blinds(100/200) - Thursday, December 30, 21:58:52 EDT 2004
Table Table 11738 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 7: domodio ( $1955 )
Seat 9: Hero ( $1650 )
Seat 6: George121 ( $3370 )
Seat 8: kidkerwin ( $1550 )
Seat 10: HarleyRider ( $1475 )
Trny:8278931 Level:5
Blinds(100/200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Qs Qd ]
domodio folds.
kidkerwin folds.
Hero raises [500].
HarleyRider calls [400].
George121 calls [300].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, Ks, 6d ]
HarleyRider is all-In.
kidkerwin: a 10?
George121 folds.
Hero calls [975].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
HarleyRider shows [ Js, Ah ] a pair of twos.
Hero shows [ Qs, Qd ] two pairs, queens and twos.
HarleyRider finished in fifth place.
Hero wins 3450 chips from the main pot with two pairs, queens and twos.
tremendous call
HarleyRider has left the table.

Prior to Hand 2 this would have been an autofold, but I had 2.5:1 odds or so...and the AT comment got me thinking what the odds were of him playing a king this way. Guess he wouldn't.