Pocket Pairs, TT-KK, Ace On Turn

[gambledrum]

I'm playing at Royal Vegas Poker, which is not supported by the hand converter, so I'll just need to explain what happened during the hand. I’m playing a 0.5-1 limit hold ‘em game. Average number of players to the flop is 3-5, and it’s not uncommon for a pre-flop raise to fold the blinds. So, I’m basically following the Tight Games guidelines in SSH.

I’m dealt Jd Jc in the small blind. Everyone folds to the button, who raises. I re-raise, the blinds both fold. The button caps, I call.
The flop is 2h 9c 9s. I check, the button bets, I call.
The turn is Ac. I check, the button bets, I call.
The river is 3s. I check, the button checks.
The button shows Th Tc.

Did I play the hand correctly? Should I have been more aggressive? Should I have folded?

SSH states: “The correct way to learn poker is to understand it theoretically, and make sure you made the correct play, regardless of the results.”

This type of hand happens scenario happens time and time again. Basically, I’m referring to a scare card hitting the board on the turn (or for that matter, the river). The way I see it I played correctly pre-flop. If I didn’t have JJ, I would have only cold called AQs, AJs, or KQs. And, I would have only raised with AA-TT, AKs, and AK. All other hands I would have folded. Basically, what I’m getting at is my hand could just as easily have been TT, QQ, or KK, and I would have played the hand the same way.

Should I have bet the flop first? Should I have bet first on the turn? If I would have bet on the flop or the turn and was raised, then what? Should I have folded after the button bet on the turn? Should I have folded if the button had bet again on the river?

[W. Deranged]

1. You should probably be reraising a bit more liberally out of the small blind against button open-raisers. These will often be steals and you should play pretty aggressively against them. I'll three-bet in that scenario with hands like ATo, A9s, KQo, 66, and so on.

2. You really need a read on your opponent here. What is his capping range. Is it only AA and KK? Will he cap QQ? JJ? TT? AK? etc...

3. I think check-calling this flop is probably fine, particularly as I'm likely to be behind and I'm not getting a hand that has any number of outs against me to fold. I also am happy to let a hand like TT or 88 stay around and make FTOP mistakes by betting.

4. My standard play thus would be to check-call the flop and then bet a ton of turns. I like betting any turn below my Js. I think that if an A or K comes, since most reasonable players capping range here would be pretty much big pairs, AK, and maybe (unlikely) AQ, if an A or K hits I'm almost certainly behind and drawing to 2 outs. In that case I'd just check-fold the turn.

5. As it happened, villain had the one hand he might legitimately have that you were beating. You won and got to showdown. I would have folded and cost myself the pot. It happens. I would have chalked it up to "bad beat"-type variance.

The way you played it you should probably have folded the turn. You got really lucky to win the hand, because thats just about the only hand you beat. I probably would have check raised the flop, led the turn and folded to a raise.

[UCLAseetoK]

On this flop vs a "standard" button player, I bet/3bet the flop and lead the turn and river.

If flop gets 4 bet, consider a c/c line.

If you lead turn, I'd probably take a c/c line if raised behind once the overcard hits. You dont want people seeing you're folding when an over hits (i.e. you dont want ppl taking shots at you).