Starting over from "Square One"

mojobluesman · #1 07-21-2005, 04:51 PM

I'm back from a long vacation from the game. I was losing fairly regularly when I quit. I did some more reading and I'm ready to try again. Please be patient with the types of hands I will be posting in the beginning. I don't play well and obviously need help with even very basic hands.

No reads yet.

In this hand, I flopped Queens. They were the second pair (which always gives me trouble). The pot was relatively small, but given that there were only 2 opponents, I decided to bet because I figured that the chances I was ahead were probably over 60% with only 2 opponents and a single overcard K on the board. I wanted to protect my hand
and find out where I stood. (a raise would let me know)

I was called.

The Turn paired 3s, but there aren't many hands out there that would be improved by the 3 other than A3.

I bet and got raised.

Assuming that a turn raise means that my opponent has top pair beat, I folded given the relatively small pot.

Was my thinking OK?

Should I have just checked/folded the 2nd pair because the pot was small?

Ultimate Bet 0.50/1 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 5 folds, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (3 SB) K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (3 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (3 BB) 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (3 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, UTG+1 folds, Hero folds.

Final Pot: 6 BB

tiltaholic · #2 07-21-2005, 04:53 PM

this is ok imho.

gopnik · #3 07-21-2005, 05:00 PM

I like it, pots too small to get fancy.
I like your flop and turn bets too.

droolie · #4 07-21-2005, 05:03 PM

Ni han.

deception5 · #5 07-21-2005, 05:07 PM

You played it perfectly.

aces_dad · #6 07-21-2005, 05:10 PM

I agree you played this fine. The most likely hand which benefits from the 3 (besides having a 3 in hand) would be a TP bad kicker which just got improved to K's over 3's and Q kicker.

GrunchCan · #7 07-21-2005, 05:12 PM

This hand is fine.

But here's another line to consider. By the time the action gets to you PF, the pot is HU. Sometimes I'll raise PF in this spot, becasue it gives me additional fold equity when any face card flops. Opponents sometimes love to believe that you have the nuts.

cmwck · #8 07-21-2005, 05:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
This hand is fine.

But here's another line to consider. By the time the action gets to you PF, the pot is HU. Sometimes I'll raise PF in this spot, becasue it gives me additional fold equity when any face card flops. Opponents sometimes love to believe that you have the nuts.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was going to suggest this also. Ideally we want our raise to fold out BB to get it heads up with UTG, so I may or may not raise it depending on how loose the BB is.

Not paying off on the turn is good. You're in no danger of constantly getting bluffed off hands on the turn against typical players. If this guy likes to pull moves on the turn I would call and check the river.

mojobluesman · #9 07-21-2005, 06:24 PM

I understand the thinking.

Does that line make as much sense against an EP limper as it does against a middle or late position limper?

There are some players that limp hands from EP that beat or even dominate my QJ. Perhaps in some of those situations I'm actually better off with a 3rd player in.

aces_dad · #10 07-21-2005, 06:29 PM

If the first player in is a LP limper, you usually think they have a weakish hand, to not raise. Most TAG's don't play this way.

Limping EP with very good hands is usually only necessary in tight, tough games where preflop raises get too much respect and no action. I don't see this too often at .5/1 and if the table really does get that tight I'm looking for a new one. So I would not worry about that behavior too often, it is typically medium to weakish hands which limp first in at these lower limit games.