Playing a monster hand

[johnzzz]

I've just got PT and after 5.5k hands it rates me as Semi-loose aggressive/passive. Should I be trying to change this?

Please comment on this example of my play.

Hold'em limit $0.05/$0.10 I'm in E2 and have [2d 2s].

UTG: raises
Hero: calls ( SSHE says, in a loose game, to call a raised pot with a pocket pair in early positon.)
E3: calls
M1: folds
M2: calls
M3: folds
E1: calls
Button: raises
SB: calls
BB: calls
UTG: calls
Hero: calls ( Is this right? I do it because the pot is getting big)
E3: calls
M2: calls
E1: calls
*** FLOP *** [3s 2c Td] Pot is 24 sb (I've hit my set and the pot is big!)
SB: checks
BB: checks
UTG: checks
Hero: bets
E3: calls
M2: folds
E1: raises
Button: calls
SB: folds
BB: calls
UTG: folds
Hero: calls
E3: raises
E1: calls
Button: folds
BB: folds
Hero: calls
*** TURN *** [3s 2c Td] [Th] Pot is 18.5 bb (Holy smoke!)
Hero: bets
E3: raises
E1: raises
Hero: calls
E3: raises
Betting is capped
E1: calls
Hero: calls (Should I have folded?)
*** RIVER *** [3s 2c Td Th] [4h] Pot is 30.5 bb
Hero: checks
E3: bets
E1: calls
Hero: calls (Not going to fold a big pot for 1 bet!)

Pot now 33.5bb

[AKQJ10]

No way you fold anywhere there, except arguably to the preflop raise in front of you. And SSHE is probably right, in a game that loose (what, 6 or 7 seeing the flop after an UTG raise?) 22 can indeed be profitable.

The board is slightly scary, but not enough to fold in a huge pot. Your deuces full is an "underboat", i.e. smaller than the pair on board, so someone playing a ridiculous hand (but one that gets played!) like T4s would beat you. Also A5 or 65 are real possibilities. Nevertheless, you pretty much did what you could.

I would cap the turn to charge something like A5 the maximum for their draw. You still probably have the best hand.

What on earth did E3 have to cap the turn?

[SheridanCat]

I think you're interpreting Ed Miller's advice in SSHE very loosely. If you were very, very sure of getting another 3-4 players for the two bets, then this is playable. However, you will rarely have that good a read from UTG+1. Fold the cheese preflop to a raise. But once you've called, you have to call the 3-bet.

The rest of the hand plays itself. Fortunately, the other players help you out tremendously.

As for what PT tells you about yourself, your sample size is too small. Semi-loose aggressive is not an ideal beginner's style because you may find yourself getting too fancy and leaking money. I would suggest you try to tighten it up a bit by not playing hands like the one you just described. I bet you can tighten up by dropping your cold calling frequency to 0% (Okay, maybe if you have middle suited connectors on the button with all players limping to you). This will also tend to make you less passive.

Regards,

T

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
If you were very, very sure of getting another 3-4 players for the two bets, then this is playable. However, you will rarely have that good a read from UTG+1.

[/ QUOTE ]

In fairness, my inference from the hand history was that this looked like a game where ANY PFR is going to get 4 callers. Maybe playing at Pacific and Foxwoods is playing tricks on my mind. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I agree that it's extremely marginal, though. It's certainly not wrong to fold here, in part because (as we saw) you may end up paying 4 bets to see the flop at an extremely wild table like this. Even if cold-calling in a game like this is slightly +EV, it's probably reinforcing bad habits that will be greatly -EV in games that are merely somewhat loose.

So I agree: Don't cold call a raise from UTG+1 with the ducks.*

*Unless you're very sure what you're doing.

[KeysrSoze]

Cold call with 22 in EP? Ordinarily meh, but the game seems loose enough.

[ QUOTE ]
(Should I have folded?)....


[/ QUOTE ]

Not if you like money.

[ QUOTE ]
(Not going to fold a big pot for 1 bet!)


[/ QUOTE ]

Right you are. RAISE. In this loose of a game I'd even cap (well, maybe I wouldnt go that far. He sure seemed to like his hand on the flop).

[johnzzz]

In my posting E1 should have been L1.

E3 had [Jd Tc] and showed three tens.

L1 had [Ts 3d] and showed tens full of threes!!!

I agree with this.

As a beginner, even at a loose table, I would play the tight table hands in SSHE - and for precisely this reason - you avoid situations like this one.

As for your play, once you were in, you were in. I would have re-raised the flop. Otherwise, you played this as you had to. Welcome to micro-stakes, where the only cards people don't play are the ones not dealt to them!