Microlimit Adventures

[jacobl]

Hey all... I'm new to poker and I've been lurking on and off for a while. I decided to dive into the exciting, high stakes world of the 0.5/1.0 online games and post some of my adventures. Here are three I played the other day that I'm curious about. Nothing special about the table texture that I can remember.

Hand 1:
I'm just ahead of the button and get dealt 6c6h. EP calls, new player who posted checks, I call, SB calls, BB checks. Flop comes 9hJsQh, I'm last to act and all check to me, I take the free card, turn is a 5c. Check, Check, Check, Bet by the new player, I raise. SB calls, all fold to the original bettor who calls. River is a 2s, everybody checks to me, I bet, the opener on the turn bets and I call with my measily pair of sixes.

Did I have any business being in the hand? More informatively... Is my turn raise obvious? Should I have just folded on the turn or is a raise on the flop something to consider if I plan such a raise on the turn? Should I have checked it down on the river? Why?

Hand 2:
I'm in LMP, all fold to me I look down and see 8s8h and raise. All fold to the BB who raises, I call. Flop comes 2dJs5s. BB bets out, I call. Turn is a Kd, BB bets out again, I fold.

I don't like my call on the flop. Figured I was for sure behind when the Kd came and so I left.

Hand 3:
I'm in EP and get QdQc, I open raise, folded to the button who raises, I re-reaise, button calls. Flop is 9hKd6c. We check it down. Ac hits.. I pretend and bet. He reraises me, I call. River is a 9s, I check, he bets, I call.

That's what I got for now. Thanks gang.

jacob

[rayrns]

Hand 1. Turn ok as you are saying you have the flush and get it heads up with original betting with about 19 outs to draw to. River. Check/call if you know the orig. bettor is likely to bluff. If not check/fold.
Hand 2. Fold on the flop. If you don't hit the set, Fold.
Hand 3. Again it would help to know your opponent. He could have AKs,AKo,AQs,AJs,AA,or KK that would be ahead of you that he would have reraised with pre-flop. Not likely the AQ. On the river you can check/fold or make a crying call. As he checked the flop I would think he had AKs or AKo.
Hope you had luck on all of them.
I am also new to the game so not sure if I have the above correct or not.

[pudley4]

Let's start with some terminology to make things easier to understand.

Bet = the first person to voluntarily put money in the pot on the flop, turn, or river has bet (not raised).

Raise = the first person to voluntarily put a second bet in the pot has raised (not bet or reraised).

Reraise = when a raiser (not a bettor) has been raised

Hand 1:

preflop, fine
flop, fine
turn and river - I'll combine these two for analysis. It's a good play if you know the bettor will lay down a pair of J's or 9's. Since this was a brand new player to the game, I think a fold on the turn is best. When he check-raises you on the river, you must fold.

Hand 2: Depending on how aggressive he is, the BB could be 3-betting with a wide range of hands. Just calling his 3-bet preflop is the right play. If he's a tight raiser, folding the turn is probably correct. There are very few hands he would have that you would be ahead of. Your other option is to raise the turn, representing AK. Only make this play if you think he'll fold a pair between 9's and Q's.

Hand 3: The check on the flop is ok, since there's only 1 overcard that can come that could hurt your hand. When the A comes on the turn, you have 2 choices: check and call him down, or bet and fold to a raise. Remember that you 4-bet him preflop, so when you bet out with an A and a K on board he's going to put you on at least top pair. When he raises he's telling you he's got AK, AA or KK. Fold to his turn raise.

Finally, you'll get the best results if you post hands in the Small Stakes forum. Many more people read/respond there than here.

[jacobl]

Thanks, guys. Yeah I transcribed them a little too quick apparently from the hand histories. On the first hand I was just called and wasn't raised on the river, which explains the confusion in terminology there.

Thanks again, I'll post to the small stakes when I get a chance to play some more. Appreciate it, both of ya.

[Louie Landale]

You misrepresented the who-bet-when mechanics for both hand 1 and hand 3. If you cannot recall the mechanics correctly you have little chance at discussing strategy and tactics effectively. Really. Its critical that you get the mechanics straight in your mind, and its better (and polite) to post it correctly.

[1] As a beginner you need to stay away from this sort of stone-cold-bluff: you have no idea when it MAY work even if you DID have some notion of the "table texture". When you bluff, be sure you have some outs.

[2] Against real-tight types you can fold on the flop. But folding the turn (especially when then K hits) is routine.

[3] Capping the flop is reasonable, but flat calling his 3-bet, hehehe, gains in the long run since you don't give away your hand. After the flop, I don't think you could have played this one any worse. You have no reason to check the flop. You have no reason to bet the turn (with the AK out there), since he's going to fold if you have him beat (he has JJ), and will either call or raise otherwise. When he raises the turn and bets the river, you can only beat a bluff after he chose NOT to bluff on the flop. That's VERY unlikely, especially since the ONLY hands he can successfully bluff is when he has JJ and you have QQ, or he has TT and you have JJ or QQ. You are dead meat on this one, probably losing to KsFull.

More experienced players can willingly step into the muck on occasion and not get too dirty. They can tell the difference between shallow muck and quick sand. Beginners cannot. Play by the book and step out only when you are SURE its the right thing to do, which won't happen often but that's OK.

Go out on a limb works best when you are pushing the other guy further out.

- Louie

[jacobl]

Ouch. Points taken, next time I'll proof read more effectively so as not to confuse readers and make myself look like such a jackass.

Regarding that bluff, I agree, and looking back the type of game was such that the bluff probably had no chance of working - considering the limits alone that's probably almost always true.

I appreciate the work on the last hand, it was very helpful.

Have a nice day.