Building the pot...

Evening guys.

Is this better at building the pot? The right time to do it? Its a pretty new concept to me.

Should I check/call the turn?

Is the flop call real bad getting 8/1?

No reads, first ever venture into 5/10 (about my 4th hand)!!!




Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx (http://www.zerodivide.cx/converter)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 6/images/graemlins/club.gif. CO posts a blind of $5.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+1 raises</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP3 calls, CO (poster) calls, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, Hero calls.

Flop: (8.40 SB) 7/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 4/images/graemlins/spade.gif, T/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+1 raises</font>, MP3 folds, <font color="#CC3333">CO 3-bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero caps</font>, UTG+1 folds, CO calls.

Turn: (9.20 BB) 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, CO calls.

River: (11.20 BB) 3/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, CO calls.

Final Pot: 13.20 BB

[colgin]

Pre-flop: Fold. Yeah you're getting like 7.5:1 to call but what are you looking to flop; and you are out of position.

Flop: Betting into the preflop raiser is really bad here. Why do you want to knock others out for your big draw. You are not likely freeing up any outs by doing so and you open yourself up to being three-bet. The lastthing you want to do is put in a lot of flop bets here and find yopurself heads-up and out of position against a made hand.

Instead you should check and if everyone calls UTG+1's expected bet, you can checkraisethe field for value. Or if there are a few folds in between you can just call.

What was the point of the flop cap. It can't be for value now and it is pretty certain that CO has some kind of made hand, likely TPGK or better. Knocking out UTG+1 doesn't improve our winning chances. That equity is almost certainly going mostly to CO.

Turn: Check-call. Why bet. He isn't foldign a made hand here (and he might raise you) when a total blank falls (and probably never in any case). He is also not folding a draw (in the unlikely case he has one). The only benefit to a bet is that it will allow you to bluff the river if you miss AND CO was also on a draw thatmissed. Hardly worth risking 2BBs (if CO were to raise) IMO.

River: Plays itself. Bet, of course.

[callmedonnie]

On this flop I prefer to c/r. I want the players behind to face one bet to them, and then raise w/ equity. Building the pot is good only when your equity of the pot is greater than your contributions. In this instance, your equity is around 1/3 of the pot. So you want at least two other players in this hand. I am not capping there either, not after someone raised two bets cold.

On the turn you want to see your river card cheaply. I c/c. River is obvious.

The thing about building the pot is that the number of players in the pot and your equity is what is important, not just pot size and your odds. While these things are related, they are not exactly the same thing.

[Moneyline]

Preflop: I would fold this. Your cards aren't big enough to call with unsuited connectors, and even if they were bigger, you'd still have to be very careful if the EP raiser has decent raising standards. Id rather make this sort of call against 3 opponents if the open raise came from middle position and I had a hand like 98.

Flop: You should check. EP will probably bet, and if everyone calls you can check/raise for value. If fewer people stay in you can just call. You're worse than 2: 1 to make your hand, so you don't want to jamb with 2 or fewer players in. Betting out is bad because EP is likely to raise, thus reducing the likelyhood that other players will stay in without very strong hands themselves.

Turn: Not the time to bet. It seems unlikely that your opponents will fold, and there's a good chance that you'll get raised and have to put in an extra bet with your 8 outer.

River: Considering how you played it, a bet is automatic. If you hadn't been so aggressive earlier, you could probably get in a check raise.

Thanks guys - some excellent posts. What can i say...I have a lot to learn!!

Guess Im trying to up my aggression, but i need to be smarter with it.

In hindsight, I refer the flop checkraise.

[callmedonnie]

I do this too sometimes. SSHE does a great job w/ pot equity and building pots in hands where you can cap/raise/reraise in late position with suited connectors and such in multiway pots. Basically, if you'll hit your hand 1/3 of the time you want to be putting in less than 1/3 of the bets equity wise. Here you get it HU so you put in 1/2 the bets. Actually, you put in 40% of the bets because of the utg raiser who folded. But still, you were only about a 33% to hit. When you have the odds in a HU pot but this isn't necessarily a pot building opportunity. You need to think about equity too.

[silkyslim]

fold pf. Check/call the flop or raise if there are enough callers (3). CHeck/call the turn. C/r river or bet out if you think villian will check it through.