Two Folds

[naphand]

One thing I have noticed about my game is that I launch into games very aggressively, and am very willing to take people on straight away. This often leads to quite a lot of chip-splurging early on as I establish reads and, perhap, my image. I am not so sure that this is very productive, as players seem very willing to fight and some are certainly capable of trapping you (there are a lot of LAGs obviously).

To this end I have been "experimenting" with playing tighter and more passively for the first 20-30 hands, rope-a-doping a little before cranking up the aggro with some read-based plays. This seems the standard ploy, though it has not been for me previously.

Both hands are early in the game.


HAND 1

CO is a passive calling station.

Poker Room $2/$4 (5-max, 5 handed)

Preflop: Naphand is SB with 8 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
UTG folds, CO raises, Button folds, Naphand raises, BB calls, CO caps, Naphand calls, BB calls.

Flop: (12 SB) 2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 3 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 5 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (3 players)
Naphand checks, BB bets, CO raises, Naphand folds, BB raises, CO calls.


BB has hit the flop and he called 2 cold PF, could be a lot of things but I doubt he attacks a PF capper with top pair. CO raises again after capping PF, this looks very much like a big PP. 2 outs to improve, standard against a passive player?


HAND 2

CO is LAG and caps easily with draws and pairs of any description. Button is unknown. BB is tight.

Poker Room $2/$4 (5-max, 5 handed)

Preflop: Naphand is SB with A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]
UTG folds, CO raises, Button calls, Naphand calls, BB folds.

Flop: (7 SB) Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (3 players)
Naphand checks, CO bets, Button raises, Naphand calls, CO calls.

Turn: (6.5 BB) T [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (3 players)
Naphand checks, CO bets, Button raises, Naphand folds...


PF I am not reducing this field with a raise and I know I can CR LAG any time with a friendly board, best to let him bet it (he will auto-bet almost any board even after Button's raise). Button I know nothing about, if I knew his standards better I 3-bet and CO probably caps. Flop is very good for me; CO makes his auto-bet and Button raises again, I only call. I suspect Button is on a flush draw (possibly AA-99). The plan is to CR the Turn if no [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] falls or if it is only 1 bet to me. The Turn T [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] could mean a lot of things for LAG, but Button is certainly not afraid of the 3rd suit and me waiting behind. I am drawing to 3rd-nut and possibly dead already.

In hindsight I particularly don't like either of these cold-calls, I think I should 3-bet both times. Does anyone have anything to support this line, apart from the dubious "observational" aspect? What about the fold?

Results later.