What am I afraid of?

SeattleJake · #1 03-03-2005, 05:20 PM

Any comments are appreciated, as I'm just starting out. Reads are represented quite well by stack sizes.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $25 (6 max, 6 handed) converter

MP (Villain) ($36.01)
CO ($5.4)
Button ($15.2)
SB ($76.55)
Hero ($25.2)
UTG ($25)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. SB posts a blind of $0.1. UTG posts a blind of $0.25.
UTG (poster) checks, MP (Villain)/ calls $0.25, 2 folds, SB (poster) completes, Hero checks.

Flop: ($1) K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1, UTG folds, Villain calls $1, SB folds.

Turn: ($3) 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero checks, Villain bets $3, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $6

SeattleJake · #2 03-03-2005, 09:13 PM

OK, I'll start myself off...

I bet the turn because I like my T, and am really just betting that UTG and MP don't have a K. If they don't they can't call it with good odds, right? And if they do they'd likely raise, and I can fold. Villain just calls, which means he doesn't like his kicker, right?

So the turn comes, I check, and now Villain fires at the pot. The turn was most likely a blank, right? But now it hangs the threat of a straight-flush draw over the hand, or possibly made him Kings up, or a set of 8s.

I'm thinking there's no way I could put more money in this pot. But should I bet the river? Should I not have bet the flop? Or should I not have gotten involved in the first place? Eh?

You'll see my biggest fault is not being able to put him on specific cards... So, what cards would you put him on?

Burno · #3 03-03-2005, 09:24 PM

Preflop fine

Flop is good.

Turn is no good. Your opponent has shown no strength thus far. Why would you check the turn? What makes you think you don't have the best hand? A King would've raised the flop more often than not with this board. You must lead this turn or you are begging for even a clueless donk to try and take this pot away from you.

This pot likely belongs to you, but the moment you forfeit the initiative, you are asking for trouble.

Bet $2 or $3 on the turn and around $4 if the river blanks. If the river completes a draw, I would still bet. There many hands besides a draw that villain could hold here.

I think the most likely hands are JT, QT, AJ, Kx, A9, AT, a set, or JQ. Obviously, you are ahead of most of these hands.

Burno

zaxx19 · #4 03-03-2005, 09:43 PM

Villain just calls, which means he doesn't like his kicker, right?

Could mean alot of things...How would yu play QJ on this board? A set? even KJ??

stealyourface · #5 03-03-2005, 10:46 PM

I like a raise before the flop here, to force small blind to fold his likely garbage, and possibly win the pot right there if villian folds as well.

Flop bet is fine but the turn check is just plain weak, push here and if he reraises fold.

TheWorstPlayer · #6 03-03-2005, 11:11 PM

Preflop, you are facing a motley crew. We've got some moron who posted a blind UTG. Another guy who limped after the poster (who provides dead money if he raises, so there aren't too many hands I would play there without raising them). And your last opponent is some SB who just completed against this pathetic group of limpers. Raise it up, my friend, raise it up. And the way you played it, I would probably bet the turn. But I would definitely prefer to raise it up preflop here.

SeattleJake · #7 03-04-2005, 02:05 AM

My pre-flop play definitely needs work. Not in hand selection necessarily, though. I'm just warming up to suited/connectors so it's in a little flux, but I'm much better at not overestimating my weakly hit flops now.

In betting though, I'm struggling a bit, though learning a lot. I'm still habitually limping in, unfortunately. When I do try to bet, I'm looking at how many callers I'll likely get to give my drawing hands proper odds -- that is, I like just around 4-5 callers, and if they're all limping then I'll limp as well. For pairs and high broadway cards, I'm trying to raise more often now, estimating how much it'd take to get the situation to 2 or 3 way, usually ~4BB. Correct?

A quick question... My understanding of the 3.5bb that's recommended for an opening bet, is that it really represents a pot sized bet, right? SB + BB + your call + your raise. Then I'm assuming you add a bet for each limper already in?

Post-flop, I usually bet pot if I like my hand, and half-pot if I'm not so sure -- but am starting to just make it a standard 2/3 as people start being able to read that bet pretty readily. Do others do the same kind of thing pre-flop, or just keep it ~4BB always?

TheWorstPlayer · #8 03-04-2005, 02:11 AM

Betting the pot preflop is fairly standard. On Party, since there is no 'bet pot' button, I just round to the nearest dollar or whatever. Sometimes I vary my preflop raises to shape my table image, too, but sometimes (read: when I am multi-tabling) I can't be bothered with that.

SeattleJake · #9 03-04-2005, 02:12 AM

That may be a hole in my game in general, as "the books" seem to recommend taking down the pot right there. If I flopped a straight, but there's two suited or paired cards, I'll bet pot or more. In this instance I'd let them take a free card, if I was acting first, since they need to catch up a bit. But after the pot sized bet, I would think it'd be correct to raise, no? How much should villain be looking to make on the hand, to make just calling worthwhile?

SeattleJake · #10 03-04-2005, 02:35 AM

I love this forum. It's so nice to see how stupid you can be when viewed through someone else's eyes. If I liked my play up to that point, then doing a 180 and wimping out was just wrong. I wasn't going all-in with the hand, but a bet was definitely in order.

Thanks all!