A5o utg and KTs button 20-40

[mike l.]

wait before you type what you know you want to type you nitty nellys! it was temporarily 4 handed. and even better i had been folding and folding and folding my blinds and my utg hands (but open raising my button). so i raised utg w/ As5h and only the bb called. bb since it became short has been playing much more loose and aggressive than before. but i know that he's recognized me playing tighter. i also know he thinks im fishy. so he probably sees my tightness as me not knowing how to adjust to shorthanded play. at least that's my read.

now onto the hand. flop is Jh5s4s. he bets and i call.

the turn is 9c. he bets and i call.

the river is Qh. he bets and i raise.

hand 2: i have KhTh on the button same set up (im against the LA bb from above). LA raises utg (he's been raising almost every single hand preflop even from his blinds, especially from his sb), i 3 bet, blinds fold. he calls.

the flop is Qs4s4c. he checks, i bet, he calls.

the turn is 7h. he checks, i check.

the river is 9h. he bets, i call.

comments?

[elysium]

hi mike
mike you have got to learn to lose more blind money. the major defect in your play, and it's a serious one, is that you don't lose enough from the blinds.

when i say lose it, i mean lose it. do not try to recover it. when you try to recover lost blind money, it is no longer lost. it is now recoverable blind money. and that status never changes. and it becomes recoverable as soon as you say it is.

in fact, i don't think you have ever lost a blind! but you have a treasure chest of recoverable blinds. no. when you lose your blind, lose it. recovering blinds mike is a huge leak in your game. soon, you are betting blind type holdings when not in the blind. so recovering a blind often means you pay three or more blinds per round since you wouldn't be playing a blind type holding if you hadn't lost the blind. the A5o is the third blind in hand 1.

keep your blind risk down to only 2 blinds per round, not 3 or more. and you do that by losing the blinds.

in hand 2, if you're going to call a river bet, then you must bet the turn. this is an aggressive mike. you must know that he's on a draw. so fold this guy on the turn especially if your going to call. you won both hands. but you're not posting the all the third blind hands you got into during this session. but at least these are real hands so, don't go looking for reasons to losen back to where you were. sooner or later some poster trying to make a point about some irrelevent matter will sure enough say something that indicates to you that he's too tight. if that poster is addressing someone making a bad call with weak cards, it's very likely he will sound too tight. or the guy sitting next to you will be playing too tight. then, as soon as he gets bluffed off the winner, that's your signal. and you find justification to start a one night recovery effort, forgetting about the long view toughing it out grind, that is very boring.

get a head set and listen to hfap and top on tapes. or make your own recordings and listen. but don't start up again 3 and 4 blinding every round. you know how to play. and if the guy next to you is too tight, don't jump in on your big, big, big blind and take on the guy sitting next to him just to prove a point. wait until you get the tight HU with a strong powerhouse pre-flop. you have enough loose equity to tide you over till sukkas. you are home free on that one. you must tighten like a knot. forget about everything except tightening. i see the slide. trying to stop it. tighten now. you can do it. played good last week first time on the tight side. lets follow it up this tiome by putting two tight weeks together back to back. 2 blinds only. you know the routine. tight.

[rtrombone]

Taken together, the two hands seem to contradict one another. I have to admit I'm thoroughly confused by hand 1. The way you played it, I thought you were going to snap off a bluff. At the river, did you raise for value or as a bluff of your own? It seems like it must be the latter, as I don't know what he can call with that you beat. Perhaps ace high, but isn't this the type of hand one would induce a bluff with, shorthanded (rather than bet the river)?

Hand 2 makes more sense. Going by the above logic, your opponent is more likely betting with some sheit rather than ace high if ace high is a hand with which he would check and call with. You induced a bluff, then made the necessary call. Hopefully it worked.

[mike l.]

"in hand 2, if you're going to call a river bet, then you must bet the turn. this is an aggressive mike. you must know that he's on a draw. so fold this guy on the turn especially if your going to call."

the reason i didnt bet the turn was i sensed he was going to make a move and checkraise me on that street. i liked my read that my hand was good and could hold up on the river so i didnt want to mess that up by investing 3 bets in a scenario where if im wrong im drawing dead.

"the A5o is the third blind in hand 1."

dont be silly. we were 4 handed.

"played good last week first time on the tight side."

youre definitely high. i just posted two strong starting hands for a change.

[mike l.]

"At the river, did you raise for value or as a bluff of your own?"

both! mainly as a bluff of sorts. i figured i might be able to get him to laydown a pair of 9s or call w/ a smaller pair or worse kicker. a lot of hands better than mine i felt could be eliminated because he didnt reraise preflop, for instance he wouldve done that w/ 88, 77, or 66. i think he actually had a no pair spade draw or straight draw or pair of 4s or 5s when all was said and done. oh btw he folded on the river that's why im guessing.

"I don't know what he can call with that you beat."

a worse pair of fives, a pair of 4s, 3s, or 2s.

hand 2 worked out fine as well. he had Ks6s for the K high flush draw. i outkicked him.

ill go post a hand i lost now.

[Diplomat]

Hi Mike,

don't be so scary. When I first read your posts on 2+2, I thought you were a rediculiously loose cannon, but could read cards and people so well that you were able to more than made up for it.

Now you are playing good cards, and it looks like your card reading and confidence is returning.

That's scary.

As for the hands, I'd play A5 in almost the same way, but maybe raise on the turn instead of the river. I don't like playing a hand like this slow the whole way, because if he -is- on a pure bluff, I don't want him to catch an out and call on the river. Raising the turn gives him six cards to make a hand instead of seven.

I don't think I'd have the guts to call the river with KTs. I bet he [censored] himself when he saw your hand. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

-Diplomat