Home Tourney - Getting Better from 2+2 Help
 

I have to say thanks to everyone at 2+2 who has been involved in the discussions about how to play bad players in my home games, I have been getting good results.

The first few tourneys (no limit holdem) we played, I was bluffing/semi bluffing a lot and losing because of calling stations who would get lucky on the river, or call with low pair when there were lots of high cards on the board. Since then, I have switched up the tournament style (using all the info from www.homepokertourney.com), read up on how to play poor players, and in the 5 tournaments we have played, I have placed 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, and finally 1st in my tourney last night!

In the first 3 tourneys, I really had crappy cards, but I still placed in the money.

In the 4th tourney, I had great cards (including 4 sevens), but got taken out in 2nd place when my heads-up opponent called my all-in high pair bet and caught a King on the river.

In the last Tourney that I won, I had great cards again. I did make one questionable bluff though - on a 3 4 off suit against a calling station who ended up beating me with an Ace high. I think this helped me win later on though as I was betting really big into this hand after the flop, turn, and river - so my opponents knew there was a good chance I was bluffing as I had done it before.

Here's how I played the best hand I was dealt last night - pocket 10's on the button.

I raised 3x the BB and had two callers for a $1800 pot. The flop came up 10, 10, and lower card (does it get any better than this!!!). I managed to control myself and quickly check after the other two players checked. The turn card was an ace. The SB checked, and the player to my right bet in 500. At this point I started acting - I looked at my cards a few times, looked at all the money in the pot, really took my time, and finally called. The SB dropped out, and the river card was a Queen. The player to my right bet big - about 4000. I took my time again, looking at my cards etc., and went all in (at this point he was pretty much pot committed). Then I got up real close to the table and looked right at my opponent until he called - I was trying to "show weakness" but I'm not really sure if he was experienced enough to know what I was doing. My 4 10's beat his pair of Aces.

Now, I'm always playing with the same group of guys, so how do you all think I should play a post-flop nut hand next time??

Thx!

Re: Home Tourney - Getting Better from 2+2 Help
 

In that situation, play it the same way and just hope he has aces full of tens.

If the position were reversed I could make a stong case for checkraising when the A comes out, you'll probably get all of his money in right there if he has a good ace. A minimum checkraise would be good as you sure don't want him folding. Then you fire out the size of his turn bet on the river, he can't fold to that and will probabably (I'd guess 75%) raise you at which point you can push. Only do this against bad players, I would probably just call your bet on the river if I didn't improve to at least two pair of my own (and in this case, it has to be AJ AQ or AK). If you're playing a strong player go ahead and bet 1/2 the pot on the river, it's a reasonable "sale". I would not fold to your checkraise (this is why it's a min checkraise on your part) as you MUST have a T or a better A to beat me at this point (discounting flushes and the occasional flopped boat)