Live $4/8 at Aladdin - A8 suited

[michiganlaw]

Live $4/8 ring game at the Aladdin.

Hero (~$200)
UTG (~$220)
UTG + 1 (~$200)

Hero is the button with A /images/graemlins/spade.gif8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. UTG leads with a $4 raise, UTG + 1 cold calls, rest of the table folds to me, and I cold call on the button.

Flop: J /images/graemlins/heart.gif 2 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 6 /images/graemlins/club.gif
Checks around.

Turn: 8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
UTG leads with an $8 bet, UTG + 1 raises to $16, Hero ...

Results to come shortly.

[Clarkmeister]

Fold preflop, fold the turn.

[W. Deranged]

Pre-flop this is a very necessary fold, in my opinion. Without a read that the EP players are very loose and/or very aggressive, you are very likely to be dominated. An early position raise and an early cold-call suggests that you are likely to be up against a bigger ace or a medium/big pair, or possibly both (in which case your equity is tiny). You cannot play this for flush potential/implied odds given all the folds and the likelihood of a short-handed pot. You risk losing many bets if you hit a tenuous ace and will likely get paid fairly little for those times you do hit an ace and it is good.

So calling here is really very bad.

[Dan Rutter]

Folds, you should have folded PF as well.

[michiganlaw]

Quick results this time because I figure everyone would say fold the turn...and most would say fold pre-flop.

Hero folds the turn, UTG calls UTG + 1's $4 raise. The river checks around. UTG shows Q high, UTG + 1 shows only K high but enough to take down the pot. My A8 would have held up.

This hand was one of many this past weekend in Vegas that had my scratching my head. A lot of these Vegas players at the $4/8 limit and below are horrid...you never really know what hand to put them on, you find yourself overthinking seemingly easy poker strategy. The following hand is another example of this:

Live $3/$6 at the Imperial Palace

Hero has middle position with Q /images/graemlins/spade.gifQ /images/graemlins/heart.gif. UTG raises to $6, UTG +1 cold calls, Hero raises to $9, table folds to UTG who caps, UTG + 1 calls and Hero calls the cap.

Flop: 10 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif2 /images/graemlins/club.gif.
Beautiful flop for my ladies!
UTG leads for $3, UTG + 1 folds (no clue why after calling the pre-flop cap), Hero raises to $6, UTG raises to $9, Hero calls.

Turn: J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
UTG bets $6, Hero raises to $12, UTG re-raises to $18, Hero calls.

River: 6 /images/graemlins/club.gif.
UTG bets, Hero only calls fearing UTG has AA-KK or a set given his continuous raises.

RESULTS:
UTG shows pocket 3's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hero wins pot with pocket Q's!!!!!!!!!

UTG was the typical tourist player I ran into, could never tell if he had a monster or if he was just an idiot...I start overthinking hands (case in point above where I should have re-raised every opportunity instead of slowing down...what do you all think?)