Couple of hands from tonight

[Siawyn]

All of these Stars .10/.25

Hand 1:

UTG (has me covered) who doesn't seem like a maniac raises to .75. I'm next to act and call with 4 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif -- shockingly the rest of the table folds and we see the flop heads up:
3 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 4 /images/graemlins/club.gif

$1.85 in the pot.
He bets out $2. I raise to $5.50 and he calls.

Turn 7 /images/graemlins/club.gif
$12.85 in the pot.
He checks, I bet $6, he calls.

River T /images/graemlins/club.gif
$24.85 in the pot.
He goes all-in. I call with my last $12.50.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hand 2:

9 handed, 2 limpers to me in MP with K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif K /images/graemlins/spade.gif
I shoot it up to $1.25. Folded to the big blind who reraises to $2.25. I immediately give him credit for a real big hand - have not seen him get out of line at all. The 2 limpers inbetween fold and I call the raise. I have about $25 in my stack, he has about $18.

Flop comes 6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
$5.35 in the pot.

He leads out for $4. I call.

Turn 8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
$13.35 in the pot.

He checks, I bet $6 and he calls.

River 5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif
$25.35 in the pot.

He goes all-in for his last $6.15, and I call.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hand 3:

9 handed again. 3 limpers to me in the SB with T /images/graemlins/club.gif T /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
I complete, BB checks.

5 to the flop of J /images/graemlins/club.gif A /images/graemlins/spade.gif 5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
$1.50 in the pot

I check, it gets checked all the way around.

Turn T /images/graemlins/spade.gif
$1.50 in the pot.
I bet $.75, BB folds, first limper min raises to $1.50, cut-off calls, and I call. I have both these guys covered, in fact they both only have about $8 left.

River 7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif
$6 in the pot.

We both check to the cutoff, who bets $2. I call, other guy calls.

Thought process on all hands to follow later. For metagame considerations, I've been moved off hands quite a bit up to this point. My image to the more attentive people may come across as weak-tight.

[Reef]

hand 1: I bet 2/3 - 3/4 pot on turn. The pots already big- you don't mind winning it now. If he has something like AK /images/graemlins/club.gif, he'll have odds *I think* to call that half pot bet.

hand 2: Reraise to $6 preflop, raise the flop.

hand 3: Reraise to around $5 on the turn. Some may have picked up a flush draw or gutshot.

[Siawyn]

On hand 1, I figured it pretty unlikely he had specifically that hand. Even if he did, he had less outs than he thought he had. (his ace and king were no good, and 2 of his clubs would fill me up)

On hand 2 the big debate was whether to re-reraise. However with him specifically reraising me out of the big blind, putting in the 3rd raise with KK here seems to be counterproductive.. he will certainly go all-in on me if he has aces, and might muck AK.

My first raise: "Hey I have a good hand and I'd like to make these limpers pay"
His reraise: "Hey even though I'm in the big blind, have sucky position and no money invested, I have a REALLY big hand that I want to play"
Me if I re-raise: "I have kings or aces, bring it on"

If he had been on the button, I think I reraise. But the narrow range of hands he could have to me would be AA/KK/QQ/AK, maybe JJ. This influenced me greately on later streets.

Hand 3:

I hate this type of hand, that's why I posted it. Limping out of position, miss my set, can I go to the next hand please, and then I hit it in the turn which fills in a gutshot and oh by the way it was an unraised pot.

[Siawyn]

Hand 1:

Given the flop action, I squarely put him on an overpair. I also figured he put ME on an overpair. The only question was (in his mind) whose was bigger? So the turn changed very little and I was not concerned about a flush draw here at all. The river brought the 3rd club and he went all-in to presumably make it look like he hit the flush, but I just couldn't buy that at all. I wouldn't have been surprised to see TT, but certainly not 3 times in 4 so it's an easy call. He showed QQ and MHIG for $48.

It was an absolutely perfect flop for me. Any overpair is going to be raising on that flop so he cannot really put me on a set from that alone. The turn bet looked weakish but one of two things could happen - he could come over the top all-in which I would appreciate, or he just calls and tries to bluff on a "scare card" which from what I had put him on, no scare cards could help him.

Hand 2:

I had position here, so I didn't want to define my hand as KK/AA. A call here looks more like a medium pair/AK type of hand.

The flop is very interesting. Given that the narrow range of hands I put him on were JJ(maybe)/QQ/KK/AA/AK, either I continued to be way behind, or I was crushing him. This was one of those cases where I wanted him to be the driver, figuring that if it really was KK vs AA, then I was bound to get stacked off here.. but if it was QQ or AK, I wanted to extract maximum value. I was not concerned about the flush draw since I held the K /images/graemlins/spade.gif -- that ruled out a possible A /images/graemlins/spade.gif K /images/graemlins/spade.gif for him.

The turn almost cinched it that he had QQ or AK.. I don't see a set of jacks checking here, and I don't see AA checking here either. I wanted to bet an amount that would entice QQ to call, and a straight push all-in might make him fold QQ fearing I had JJ or 99. If he had AK, well, doubtful he calls but I got the extra $4 out of him already.

The river was a "scare card" which I knew could not help him, but he didn't know that so he just pushed right in and it was an easy call for me. He had QQ and MHIG.

For hands 1 and 2 they illustrate something I've been using lately.. the concept of knowing when scare cards don't help your opponents but they don't know that. Instead of pushing on the turn, which as we know increases fold equity, I don't really WANT them to fold here so I bet an amount that clearly pot committs me to call an all-in bluff on the river. I'm finding a lot of times I get called, and they then bluff on the river, not really realizing I have to call them. Does anyone else wonder if the concept of "fold equity" can occasionally be -EV, such as in these situations?

In the 2nd hand also, again, I felt I'd get stacked off no matter what if he had AA, so my goal was to try to play it in a manner to get as many chips from a hand outside of AA.

3rd hand:

As I said in a previous post, I hate hands like these. In that position I want to flop a set, or just move to the next hand. When 2 overs flop, I'm done. Then it gets checked around and I do hit my set, yet it fills in a gutshot on a very reasonable hand for one of the limpers to have (KQ). I really didn't want to put too much money into an unraised pot here, and then the min-raise was puzzling coming from the big blind. So I just called hoping to fill up on the river.

When he then checked behind me on the river I realized my hand was better than his, but I had no idea about the last guy. He could have been calling on the flush draw, or calling with a gutshot and then taking a stab at it. I hadn't really noticed the flush draw until now (stupid!), so after some considering I figured the big blind would overcall if I called so I was getting 5:1 or something like that.

cutoff shows 3 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif and wins the pot. big blind mucked T /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 5 /images/graemlins/club.gif for a turned 2 pair. Oh if only a ten or a five (of spades!) had come on the river!