PDA

View Full Version : No Limit hand — looking for advice


antidan444
07-18-2003, 04:14 PM
I just started playing hold’em poker in April (well, besides that no fold’em family table kind, but that doesn’t really count) after getting hooked on the WPT. A few days ago I signed up at Ultimate Bet for the play money tables. I know they’re not the truest poker test, but as a sportswriter for a small-town paper who’s getting married in September, you can imagine I don’t have a whole lot of money to gamble with. I hope that changes soon, heh.

Anyway, playing no-limit I turned 1,000 in 50,000 in about six hours (and I thought I knew what “loose” meant!) and moved up to a 100-200 table with about five players who played reasonably well enough and the rest who played better than the newbies, but not by much.

After about 45 minutes at the new table, I’m in the big blind and I get KQ hearts. Everybody at the table calls, leaving it on me. Not sure what the correct play is here, but I figured my hand wouldn’t hold up against 10 people, so I bet the pot (2,200) to try to get it down to two or three. Three callers, and we all see a flop of 4-7-8 rainbow, one heart.

Since I had led out before the flop, I decided to show strength again and bet 5,000 (half the pot size). The next two players fold and it’s down to me and a guy who plays very loose before the flop but tightens up after it. He thinks for about 15 seconds, then raises to 10,000. This raise seemed very suspicious to me, I thought it was too small and that it was probably a scare tactic to get me to lay it down. He had about 15,000 more than me (I started with about 51,500).

I went all-in, thinking even if he had top pair or a straight draw, it’d be very difficult for him to call the bet. If he has trips, two pair or wired aces, kings or queens, I’m dead on a misread, but anything else and it’s tough for him. And if he does call with only a pair of sevens, I have some outs. I didn’t expect a call.

Anyway, he calls with J-4 offsuit. He called with the low pair! The turn and river fail to help either of us.

At this point, my main goal is simply to learn as much as I can. Any comments on this hand would be valuable and appreciated.

- Dan

1800GAMBLER
07-18-2003, 06:37 PM
You'll get better replies than i can give.

Fake money: A lot of people really put down fake money poker, i really don't. I played it for 3 months before moving to real money and low stakes are the same, loose, just a little more passive. Carry on there it's good for learning.

Hand: There's a post a made somewhere on here about raising with KQ KJ. It got pretty much negative replies because you probably don't have the best hand and you are trying to hit 6 outs, that's all the hand is. Just limp with confidence if you hit you are unlikely to run into AK AQ due to the no raise.

I like leading out on the flop but a pot bet would have been better and a fold to the raise. You're bluffing, you've been caught, give it up. Not many lower stakes NL players fold to a rereraise! So a fake money player isn't.

Sidenote:

1. Find somewhere that has fake money tournments, i know PokerStars does, people take them more seriously, play a little tighter and more realistic that will help.

2. When you move to real money expect swings, loosing sessions and running bad. Never play with anything you can't afford to lose, infact, never play with anything you'll be down/upset if you lose.

Learning: Buy TOP or a poker book before you move to real money then you have an edge over 90% of the players. I also like Psychology of poker because it drills into you how to be a winning player, how to aim for it and the importance of being a TAP (tight aggressive player) but you need to know the theory of poker before that.

Good luck.

Edited in: Some players like moving up stakes as they feel the bad beats will be less. Not true, if you are disheartened about your beat on that table, it is going to happen at real money too. KK gets beat by Q3s all the way upto 5/10 and probably more. You are making money from these beats but only long term and it's hard to think about that when this beat happens.

David Steele
07-18-2003, 08:20 PM
Study 2+2 Pot,no Limit forum where this post should
have been made. The one you used is for theory.

D.