2/24/05 hands of the night for me

[Siawyn]

I'm probably going to make this a semi-regular thing, posting some hands of mine from each night and getting some feed back on whether I played them perfectly, or if there's a better line given the cirumstances.

All of these are Pokerstars .10/.25 NL

Hand 1:

UTG limps, UTG-1 raises to .75. Folded to me in MP where I have A /images/graemlins/club.gifA /images/graemlins/diamond.gif and shoot it up to $3. Folded back to the limper who cold calls the raises and the initial raiser calls it as well. I had $26 at the start of this hand and have them both covered.

Flop is A /images/graemlins/spade.gifK /images/graemlins/spade.gifQ /images/graemlins/spade.gif
$9.35 in the pot.

They both check to me, and I bet $10 - enough to set the limper all-in and more than half of the initial raisers stack. The limper calls instantly, other guy folds.

Turn J /images/graemlins/heart.gif, river 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif

Thoughts: No sense in messing around on this flop even with a set of aces. It's highly likely someone has a spade, 2 pair or a gutshot. With it being multiway, making it clear that I'm playing for my entire stack is my foremost concern here. While I'm still a big favorite over any drawing hand, I'd like to charge them. I realize I'm pretty much shouting that I have AA/KK/AK here, but that's fine.

Hand 2:

9 handed again. UTG (very solid player with $30) raises to $1. 2 people behind him call the raise and it's on me with 8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif8 /images/graemlins/club.gif

I have $41 in my stack, and call the raise as well, getting excellant implied odds if I hit my set. The big blind also calls the raise and we see the flop 5 handed:

6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 3 /images/graemlins/club.gif 8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
$5.10 in the pot.

BB checks, and the PF raiser (UTG) bets out $1.75 which seems like a very strange bet. The 2 people between us fold and I teasingly raise to $4.50. BB folds and UTG calls my raise.

Turn K /images/graemlins/spade.gif
$14.10 in the pot

This is a bad card. It could have hit him for a set (longshot) or put an overcard to his overpair on the flop. I discounted AK because he would have had to lead out into a 5 person field with AK and to do that and then call a raise would have been out of character for him.

He bets $2. This is where I'm confused what my line should be here. I'm quite certain if I raise, I'll lose him if he now has an underpair, the only way I wouldn't is if he had AA.. but to raise him again might really set off red alarms for him.

I just call the $2 bet.

River 9 /images/graemlins/club.gif
$18.10 in the pot.

He bets out $2.50. I min-raise to $5. He calls.

Hand 3:

9 handed again, I open-limp UTG-1 with A /images/graemlins/club.gif T /images/graemlins/club.gif
We pick up another limper, then a MP person raises to .75. The small and big blinds both call this raise, I decide to call now getting multi-way action, and the limper behind me calls as well. 5 to the flop.

Flop: 6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif K /images/graemlins/club.gif 4 /images/graemlins/club.gif
$4.10 in the pot.
We all check to the PF raiser who is last to act. He bets $.50. We lose the small blind, but everyone else including me calls.

Turn J /images/graemlins/club.gif
$6.10 in the pot.

We all check to the PF raiser, he now bets $2. One fold, I raise him to $6 and the guy inbetween goes away. PF raiser calls my raise.

River 7 /images/graemlins/club.gif
$18 in the pot.

I bet $8, which was the remaining money in his stack. He folds instantly.

Hand 4:

9 handed again.

EP limper, next guy raises to $1. He's LAG, has a big stack, has me covered easily. I call right behind him with 8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 8 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif -- the small blind calls the raise and the limper calls as well. 4 to the flop.

Flop 8 /images/graemlins/club.gif 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 6 /images/graemlins/club.gif
$4.35 in the pot.

SB and first limper check, EP raiser bets out $4. I raise all-in to $36.75. SB/limper both fold in a flash, LAG calls instantly.

Hand 5:

This was 6 handed, and a tough table, in fact I was about to leave.

It's folded to me on the button with J /images/graemlins/spade.gif J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
I raise to $.75
Small blind calls, big blind folds. I have $23, SB has $21.

Flop 9 /images/graemlins/club.gif 7 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
$1.75 in the pot

SB bets $1 right into me. I raise him to $3. He re-raises all in for $20.80 total. I think for a while and finally decide to call. SB has been pushing me around a bit on this table.

[ZBTHorton]

Hand #1: I like this play. I actually hand a hand EXACTLY like this the other day. I pushed hard just like you did, he turned over 10J.

You have 7 outs on the turn and 10 outs on the river. Your still likely ahead at this point. Good play.

Hand #2: I don't like the call in the turn at all. You need to raise again. In fact, I would probably push depending on stack sizes. Why let him draw a spade? Why let him draw a higher set with 99,1010,JJ,QQ,AA? Make him pay for it.

Hand 3: I don't like the call from UTG+1, but in these stakes it's okay. The rest of the hand looks good.

Hand 4: This is a tricky play. It totally looks like a bluff to a crappy player, so if that was what you were going for..wonderful. I'm 99% sure he called you with an overpair, so unless he hit. Good job!

Hand 5: Tough to tell. If the SB has been pushing around this probably becomes 55% call 45% fold. But it's close. Totally a feel thing in my mind.

[Siawyn]

regarding hand 2, there's no way he could have A /images/graemlins/spade.gif Q /images/graemlins/spade.gif or the like here. I had him squarely on some kind of pair here, there's just no way he leads out into such a large field with that on the flop AND calls a raise. He's pretty solid and would have shut down to my action on the flop without an overpair.

The line I'm attempting here is to act scared of the K myself, to induce more money out of him. I know that he views me as solid.

[ZBTHorton]

If he's such a solid player, you aren't going to milk anything else out of him.

I still think the play is a raise.

[Siawyn]

Hand 1:

Villian turned over J /images/graemlins/spade.gif 7 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif /images/graemlins/confused.gif
Why on God's green earth he would call 2 raises cold with it is beyond me. Yet that's exactly why I played it so hard, when ever I flop a set on a board like this, someone who has a royal flush draw invariably has to take a shot at it.

Hand 2:

Villian mucks to my set of eights. I found out he mucked QQ. I pretty much had him dead to rights on JJ/QQ here and just was trying to figure out how to extract more money out of him. That's why I hated the turn card, if it had been another small one, I get more money.

Hand 3:

I'd muck this to the raise if 2 people already hadn't called it. 2 suited broadway cards warrant a look at the flop here... with the caveat that I'm not going to think my hand is worth something if the flop has an ace on it.

River was a rotten card, totally killed my chance of getting any more money out. This is why I check-raised the turn here, to get money in now in case of a card like that.. and also to charge on the off chance he had 2 pair or a set.

Hand 4:

Not only does this look like a bluff on a draw, but frankly, this board is so draw heavy that there are tons of cards that I would not want to see come off on the turn. Even though he was LAG, when he called instantly I wondered if he had flopped a set himself.

When the turn was a 6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif I inwardly groaned because I was already losing to 99, and 66 would have just 1 outer me. Then I just smiled as the river was a 8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif giving me the stone cold nuts with quads.

He showed K /images/graemlins/club.gifJ /images/graemlins/club.gif -- flush draw, backdoor straight and 2 overcards which weren't outsfor him. Worked well because LAGs will gamble it up and this was a rare chance for me to double up in deep stacks poker.

Hand 5:

I agonized over this one... I suppose a hand like 87 suited is possible here, or he could have been trapping me with an overpair himself. But I couldn't let him keep moving me off hands and my hand certainly rated as a much better hand than he would have given credit for me raising on the button with. Regardless of the fact that I personally don't blind steal, I find that most people naturally assume that I'm jacking their blinds when I raise on the button or the SB.

So after much deliberation I called.

Turn A /images/graemlins/heart.gif
River 5 /images/graemlins/club.gif

He turned up A /images/graemlins/spade.gif J /images/graemlins/heart.gif and took the pot.

Considering that was the only major pot I lost all night, I couldn't complain... unfortunately since I had planned on leaving the table (and defintely left now!) I couldn't use this against him in later pots to show that I would stand up to his constant pushing.

[Clemtown53]

[ QUOTE ]
unfortunately since I had planned on leaving the table (and defintely left now!)

[/ QUOTE ]

Amazing how those solid (yet potentially deadly) hands find you when you are getting ready to leave the table. I had a JJ hand last night on "my last hand" as my wife called from upstairs...I won't go into the disaster that ensued

[jdaddy]

"UTG (very solid player with $30)", "This was 6 handed, and a tough table, in fact I was about to leave" . . .
I am in agreement with your play on everything except #2 (not that it was horriably wrong IMHO). I believe others have addressed that, so I will get to my main question here.
Is the Pokerstars .10/.25 NL players really that impressive or are you giving these folks too much credit. I have played at most of the larger sites, except for Pokerstars. You are certainly a thinking low limit player, however do you think these other folks are?

[Siawyn]

I know! I would have felt a lot worse had he held a 7, or a bigger pair though. Right decision, just wrong result this time.

I have a friend who I watch play the $1/$2 game occasionaly at stars. He'll tell me he's about to leave and seems likehe always picks up KK right at his last hand or two. Worst part is this always psychologically alters your perception of the entire session, getting stacked off in your last hand of the night isn't something to feel good about.

[Siawyn]

Nah, most players there aren't that good. However, there are a group of regulars who are good, and it's not uncommon to find myself at some of their tables because they find the juicy tables as well. The hands I posted just happened to be some of the rare times I tangled with them. The one table had dropped to 6 handed as we lost 3 loose players and 3 of the remaining 5 were known good players to me. Not my idea of a good table!