A few 1/2 NL live hands for review

[iRoD]

Hey guys, I'm a fairly successful .25/.50 NL and relatively new 1/2 NL player. I played in a local game last night that I've played in once before with success. For the first three hours, I felt like I had never played poker before, I was playing very weakly and I grinded myself down to the felt... I was forced to rebuy after loisng my first $120 and I finally picked it up and left with over $500. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

I just wanted to see what people thought of a few hands that for some critiquing, and please be brutal...

Hand 1

An unknown player (stack 200 or so) raises to 10 from MP, MP+1 (a known aggressive player +150) calls, folded the hero (+120) who is on the button with 7/images/graemlins/heart.gif7/images/graemlins/diamond.gif and I call, the BB and the SB fold.

The flop comes Q/images/graemlins/spade.gifQ /images/graemlins/diamond.gif5/images/graemlins/club.gif.

MP checks, MP+1 fires out 20, hero calls, MP thinks and makes it 60 total. MP+1 folds, hero folds. I

Hand 2
Hero (+75) is UTG +1 with K/images/graemlins/spade.gifQ/images/graemlins/heart.gif and raises to 7 total, MP (know tight agressive player +400) makes it 12, CO calls, Button calls, SB calls and I call.

The flop is J/images/graemlins/spade.gifK/images/graemlins/club.gif6/images/graemlins/spade.gif

The SB checks, hero checks (woops!), MP+1 checks, CO checks, button checks.

Turn: 4/images/graemlins/spade.gif

The SB (who is a calling station) bets out 20, I push my last 50 or so in with Top pair and a flush draw, SB quickly calls with a flush and scoops the pot.

I was really hoping to check raise the flop all in, because I was confident that reraiser behind was going to fire at the pot on a flop like that to see where he was. I knew he did not have AK because his raises were always huge with AK and thus were very telegraphed. Is my check raising idea really poor?

Hand 3
Hero (+300) raises to 7 UTG with AA, folded to the CO (+800) who makes it 18, the button (+550) makes it 45 total, BB and SB fold, hero reraises to 120 total, both fold. Button says he folded JJ, I was sort of hoping he wouldnt be able to get the button committed and with QQ or KK, or make him make a terrible call with like TT or something, was my reraise too big?

Any feedback is extremely appreciated, positive or negative... I know I made some mistakes, I just want to clean up my game a bit.

Cheers Pat /images/graemlins/spade.gif

[DoubleDown]

hey- came across your post and didn't see any replies

i'll throw some possible lines i might have taken on the hands and hopefully they might help.

Buy-in
I personally would have bought-in for a larger amount than 60xBB. I don't think its a bad idea to buy in short sometimes, but your hand selection is different than when you are deeper stacked. I don't have much experience playing with a short buy-in but my opinion (FWIW)is that hands such as low pocket pairs (i.e. 77) should probably tried to be limped in, rather than called in after a raise of approx 10% of your stack size (hopefully others can comment on that). ... onto the hands ...

Hand 1
again since I'm short-stacked i would think twice about calling 77 after a PFR of $10- (I personally would call, but I'm really not sure if that is +EV -- hopefully others can comment).

post flop
if i think that MP+1 (the LAG) is bluffing to steal this pot ... I would raise here. I think calling is worst, because if he has a worse hand than you - there are many cards that can come out on the turn and river that will beat you. Also, you can't forget about MP ... he did check, and you thusfar havent seen any tricky (i.e. check-raising) plays from him. It may be safe to assume he's missed the flop, but then again - you haven't seen him play yet. I'd probably fold this hand after the flop bet... if i were heads up with MP+1, and was confident in my read that he did not have a made hand at this point ... I might raise his flop bet to take the pot down there.

Hand 2
Pre-flop
I would not raise KQo from such an early position. I would try to limp and see a flop cheaply. This hand is not great in its single pair value, as it does not come with a nut kicker. I play it more for twopair, straight value. Some won't even call KQ, unless it is suited (esp in early position).
Post-Flop
If I were planning on getting my money in on this flop, I'd push all-in on the flop. You only had ~$60 remaining and the pot at that point was $60. No draw (i.e. QT, or /images/graemlins/spade.gif's) would have folded to your check raise as they'd be getting closer to proper odds to draw out on you after they'd dumped their money in on their flop bet. If you bet pot on the flop you can hopefully chase out the draws, or at least give them improper odds to call (which is +EV).
In sum:
I would'nt raise KQo from early position. I'd much rather try to limp it, and fold it to nearly any raise.

Hand 3
I think your raise was of a good amount. In a similar situation I would probably raise to 120 total half of the time and cold call the re-raise of 45 the other half of the time. Assuming I got 2 callers and the flop brought draw heavy cards (i.e. 2 /images/graemlins/club.gif's or something similar), I would plan to bet the entire size of the pot on the flop and hope to get re-raised to get my entire stack in (likely vs. KK,QQ,maybe even JJ ... considering there were 2 raises after me pre-flop).

--
I really liked your play in Hand 3, as compared to Hand 2. It was simple, yet solid poker. I feel that if one hasn't had much experience yet playing a game they are new to (i.e. 1/2 NL), its probably a better idea to stick to solid poker rather than trying to get tricky or falling into the clutches of FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome). ... I dont mean to talk down to you in any way ... I am actually new to poker (<1 year) and just started playing the 1/2 Live NL game myself (<3 months; only ~15-20 sessions) - but the above-stated general strategy is one that I am trying to adhere to myself.

Hope it helps, and maybe others can comment.

[Apathy]

A few things:

If you cant afford to buy in full you probably should not playin the game. Try to make sure you have 100 BBs or more especially in a game where the pot is being raised pf a lot. On hand 1 I would just lay this down, calling puts you in a tough spot on the turn if facing a bet and raising commits too much of your stack with a marginal hand.

Hand 2 is a bad case of FPS in what sounds like a game you should be playing straight forward in, which is why I like the play in the third hand much more. Reserve tricky slowplays and check raises for heads up pots. Beware of checking vulnerable hands like #2 into a mutli way field.

Sounds like a great game... I wish I was there. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[kim2005]

hand 1) fold preflop or fold turn

hand 2) I fold KQ if I have a full buy in, for your short stake call is ok, but not a raise here on UTG +1 ......For your play, pot have already 70 and u only have 60 left so just push it and let them decide

hand 3) If u reraising like this u are telling them U have AA/KK and make them a easy fold for high PP. I prefer take a little risk and min raise button to make him call, then all in on flop coz he was already called 90 and may call your 200 all in.

[iRoD]

Hey everyone thanks for the responses, very constructive, I'm definetly going to buy-in for more the $200 at the next one... I know I should have pushed the second hand... as for the third hand Kim, don't you think his reraise I probably got a little too aggressive but we flopped it up and he woulda spike a Jack on the turn, not that it makes that much of a difference, just nice know that I avoided a possible bad situation.

Thanks again everyone, I'll report back on the next game and we'll see if I made any improvements! /images/graemlins/cool.gif

Pat /images/graemlins/spade.gif