Is this a bad play?

[ArchAngel71857]

I'm fairly new to Hold Em. Playing a .20-.40 game at home. I'm in the BB (actually we only had one blind) and get dealt K /forums/images/icons/spade.gif 10 /forums/images/icons/spade.gif . limped around to me, i raise. everyone calls.

Flop comes A /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif J /forums/images/icons/spade.gif 7 /forums/images/icons/club.gif . i check, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, EMP bets, MP calls, CO calls, button calls, I raise, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, EMP is surprised, then calls, MP folds, CO calls, button calls.

Turn 3 /forums/images/icons/heart.gif . I check, EMP waits, checks, CO checks, button checks. River Q /forums/images/icons/heart.gif . I bet, EMP calls, CO calls, button calls. I take it down.

I had been getting nothing but junk for 2 hours, so its hard for me to know whether I was on tilt because I got excited by the face card, or whether i made a brilliant play beyond my comprehension.

Comments welcome and don't be afraid to take me to town, but please give a thorough explanation on what I should have been thinking and what I missed. Thanks.

-AA

[Toro]

What was the purpose of your check raise? Two basic reasons for raising are obviously: 1)Value raises to make the pot bigger so we can win more money or 2)Bluff raises to try and make the field fold so we can win a pot without the best hand. Since it's unlikely that you're going to fold the field with this raise, you basically made yourself pay more to see if you could make your slim draw. You just happened to get lucky on the hand and got a great result from a bad play.

[Bob T.]

It probably isn't a good play because of your position. On the turn, you will have to act before the player you checkraised, and when you check, he may be able to value bet behind you. On the other hand, he seemed like he didn't want to get checkraised again, so he checked the turn, and you did get your free card from up front. If your opponents are this controllable, this might have been an OK play at best.

I would like this play a lot better, if you had the button, or maybe were second to last to act, so that you could benefit by getting a free card, and also by winning the button.

[Louie Landale]

"don't be afraid to take me to town". No problem for me.

"made a brilliant play beyond my comprehension?" No such thing. Blind squirrels that find acorns are still blind squirrels not "sleuths", but I digress...

"I had been getting nothing but junk for 2 hours, so its hard for me to know whether I was on tilt because I got excited by the face card". Bingo. I really think you DO know whether that was the case. Its important to ride these long stretches out with discipline and don't let "desperation" take hold.

Your raise before the flop was pretty weak, especially since you have no dominance right now. Your check-raise on the flop (with your 4 card out, plus about 1 for the back-door flush) against 4 opponent's was almost completley hopeless, unless you have good reason to believe you can steal it on the turn. Even if this raise WILL get you the "free card" on the turn (which it may have), it still isn't worth it. And it may get capped which costs bundles.

I think the problem here isn't how to play this hand, its how you handle the long periods of unplayable hands. After that you will no doubt need to figure out how to handle the long periods of good-enough losers you will play. Do yourself a favor and work on that while at home. What ARE you going to do next time you sit for 2 hours without a hand to play?

- Louie