first real question

[silvers11]

Please be easy on me, this is my first question other than what book to read first. I realize there is a beginner forum but I would prefer advice from you guys on how I played a hand last night.
I was heads up in a 1-table home tournament against a tight agressive player. I had about 1/3 of the chips and he had the other 2/3. I was in the bb and picked up pocket 4's and and just checked his call , trying to change up my play a little (I had been raising big with any PP). The flop came 9J4 rainbow. I bet 2x bb trying to keep him around and he called. The turn came 7. I didn't think this would help him and made a 4xbb bet and he called (the flat call scares me and I am thinking about T8 at this point, but he over and over again has called bets like that with top pair). At this point I am hoping he has a J and that he has or will pick up his 2nd pair and lose more money to me. The river comes Q. This scares me because of the additional straight possibility (KT), but I still bet pretty big and he raises. He is a type of player who will make a move like this on the river to try and buy the pot, he has done it to me several times. If I called I would only be left with 3xbb so I push and he calls. He is representing the straight when he raised and he very well may have it, but I thought I certainly had odds to call. The calling is not really what I am asking about. My question is, did I let him hang aroung too long trying to extract all I could from him.

I know you're not supposed to post results, but he had KT. Because he normally would have raised that preflop, I was suprised. If I was going to be beat by the straight, I thought it would be T8. Also, please let me know whether he should have been calling me with his KT when he only had the inside straight draw and an over card.

Now, if I shouldn't even be posting here because of my ignorance to the game, I apologize for wasting your time and please politely direct me to the beginner forum. (I have only been playing for about 4 months).
Thank you

[UMTerp]

How big were the blinds in relation to your stacks? Need to konw that before anyone can give you reasonable advice.

[silvers11]

I had about 25xbb and he had about double that. Blinds were doubling next hand.

[citanul]

How many bb were in the stacks to start with?

Not knowing this to start with, it seems like a) you played the hand fine and b) he played it crappy.

If it turns out that the action on the river was that he raised a WHOLE LOT, as opposed to say, you had short stacks, and he really was just raising a bit, then it's possible that you stunk it up.

But let's review:

(First off, try to work on your formatting of your hands, so that they are more easilly readable)

You bet the pot on the flop he called with a worse hand. (His call here may or may not have been quite fine. In your home game, do you have the button on the big blind, or were you first to act on all streets?

On the turn, you bet 2/3 pot, he called with crap.

On the river, he sucked out, and you lost. If you had a ton of chips in front of you, it's possible you got outplayed, but it sounds like there were short stacks. This is usually the case at the end of sngs at least...

You've got monsters under the bed syndrome. "I was afraid of ..." shows up far too often in this post. When playing with non-expert players, and even playing with expert players, start the following exercize. Whenever you think "Man, I could be in huge trouble if he has XX," force yourself to also think of two instances of "Man, this loony is going to pay me off old school with XX." Especially with hands like bottom set, these are the hands you get paid with! Stop trying to think of every way you could lose, and think of a few more ways you could win!!!

At least you didn't flat call on the end /images/graemlins/smile.gif

citanul

[citanul]

Was writing my post when this got posted:

with 25 bb, your play was fine. I might have bet a little more on the turn.

citanul

[silvers11]

First off, thanks for the advice. Second, I mis-stated something. The button was the bb so he was acting first. Evertime but the river, he was checking first and then calling my bets. On the river, he bet around 6 xbb. This tells me that I was wrong about my 25xbb stack size. It was smaller because if I would have called the 6xbb raise, I would have only had around 3xbb left. That is when I pushed and he called. But like I said, it was not at all uncommon for him to make a bet like that with nothing on the river. You are definitely right about playing scared, I far too often think of what could go wrong. Thank you for the advice. Oh, and it was the end of a sng and stack sizes were not that great compared to the blinds. And I did consider him slow-playing AA or KK at this point, but I certainly would not have minded that.

[microbet]

Heads up with the blinds catching up on me, and flopping trips I'm definately trying to extract the most money possible.

If you go online, sooner or later someone will call you an f*ing idiot whether you are one or not, so don't be such a f*ing pussy. (I'm just kidding - really, see --> /images/graemlins/smile.gif )