QQ...

[george w of poker]

party 2/4 loose aggressive


i have Q /images/graemlins/spade.gif Q /images/graemlins/heart.gif
i open raise from emp, and everybody calls.

flop is Q /images/graemlins/club.gif 2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif T /images/graemlins/spade.gif

i bet, somebody calls, and a borderline maniac raises. everybody calls and i raise, everybody calls.

turn: 8 /images/graemlins/club.gif
i bet, maniac raises, small blind raises, i call, maniac caps. 3 see the river with a huge pot.

river: 6 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
i check maniac bets, small blind raises.

can i safely let this go? i've been getting beat up all week and i'm torn between throwing up, crying and calling. so, i do all three. it gets capped, and i do all three again.

i think the results are probobly obvious.

could i have kept my 4 bets on the river here?

i've played 10,000 hands at 2/4 and i think i must be horrible because i'm at a whopping .25 big bets/100 hands. i think my two biggest leaks are preflop looseness which i have fixed (i was 24% and now i'm closer to 20%) and calling down when i'm beat. my showdown win percentage is 52%. is that way to low?

i just don't understand. i was beating 1/2 and below easily. i guess i was just lucky or short handed play has screwed my game up beyond repair.

[Brian]

Hi patzer,

More information is needed than "I open raise from EMP, and everybody calls." Please include exactly how many players called, and it is also useful if you include how many small and/or big bets are in the pot before every round.

-Brian

[LetsRock]

I can't be worried about the maniac, he started raising when you still had the nuts on the flop. SB could be a factor (J9?) but might have just made a set of 8s which would bring him to life on the turn as well.

I think you have to call this down. Without better detail about the participants, I'm guessing there's about 37 BB in the pot (10 players?), after the turn. If the river gets 4 -bet by all of 3 of you, you'll be getting a little bettter then 10:1 (45:4) pot odds to make this call (even better odds if it doesn't get 4-bet).

I think you have to make this call with a set vs. 1 legitimate opponent.

(Sure the maniac may have been overplaying an open ended straight draw, but I just can't lay down top set based on that slight possibility)

[george w of poker]

they both had J9 for the straight and i got caught in the middle. talk about bad luck

[BigEndian]

Imo, one of the biggest keys at the low-limit tables is to understand that, while people are generally poker idiots by our standards, very rarely are they just flat-out stupid.

Respect most bets and especially respect re-raises, 3-bets and cappers - regardless of how much you look down on them as players.

By the by, this goes double when playing tournaments.

Without the board pairing up on the river, I think you need to fold to the re-raise or at least when it's capped when it comes back around to you.

Also, no way a solid player should be .25BB/100 hands after 10,000 hands at the 2/4. You should filter your hands to the last 5,000 to see if your BB/100 or BB/hr has improved dramatically. Either that, or you have major problems with your game aside from not respecting bets.

- Groove