Folded three winners last night in fair size pots

[bernie]

around hand 3, id be getting involved...theyre pushing you around in the pots...and getting away with it. youre not even testing a bet to see how theyd react.

hand 1...

i may have bet out hoping the BB would raise here and scare some players out. the loose aggressive player may have had a good read on the BB...and decided to test him on the turn. his answer? the BB didnt have an overpair.

hand 2...

i may have bet out and called 1 bet coming back at me...

hand 3...

raise preflop..

the PFR bets out on the flop...i dont see him having a Q here...confirmed by his turn play...

i may have raised the turn bet or folded. its a scarier bet since many wait with trips on a board like this to the turn...but you can fold to a 3 bet and may get a HU free showdown...

get some metamucil and make a move....see what happens

b

[Kevin J]

It's hard not to notice your poor position in all of these hands. Of course, you gotta play the TT, but I probably fold the 55 and AK. But that doesn't mean I'm right. It just means I'm not good enough to play these hands well under the circumstances you gave.

[Rick Nebiolo]

skp,

Everyone says Los Angeles is poker paradise but your games seem better than 99% of the games I play in. Anyway:

First hand: Without looking at the other posts, I wonder if some will question your pre flop call but I’ll make it every time. I might bet the flop and see what happens. If memory serves me, you bet your trips in this spot so your regular opponents (if observant) have to respect this bet. The big blind will probably play on with overpairs and any three flush but if he raises and gets it head up this simplifies your downstream battle plan and there is a lot of dead money in there. Given the fact you checked, your flop call is automatic.

You didn’t make it clear but it sounds like MP had two players behind him when he raised the turn. If he had quads, he probably calls and hopes someone else comes in. The factor in favor of you calling is that the BB can’t make it three bets (he knows everyone knows he can’t have quads but he knows that his opponents (you and MP) could. But you are still getting short odds (by a lot) to make the big full, and when you don’t MP or the BB will show you the bigger overpair at least 90% of the time. Good fold IMO

When I’ve played the kill game at Oceanside I’ve noticed the same phenomena as you and can’t make sense of it. It just “is”.

Second Hand: The VAST majority of the time calling here is suicide. This time it wasn’t. If anyone thinks you had a play here, I’ll be surprised. Note that BB had the overcards, inside straight, and a possible unmentioned backdoor flush. His hand was a lot stronger for this situation.

Third Hand: For the reasons mentioned in the first hand, I like leading on the flop. Otherwise, you did what you had to do. I’d comment more but I’ve droned on too long.

Regards and Happy Holidays,

Rick

[andyfox]

"Everyone says Los Angeles is poker paradise but your games seem better than 99% of the games I play in"

Ditto.

[skp]

Re: the 55 hand

"If memory serves me, you bet your trips in this spot so your regular opponents (if observant) have to respect this bet."

True. Except that the preflop agggressor was to my immediate left. I would probably go for a checkraise on the flop with a 4 and this guy plays well enough to know it. That of course lends some strength to the argument that I should have checkraised and let him react to that.

"You didn’t make it clear but it sounds like MP had two players behind him when he raised the turn. If he had quads, he probably calls and hopes someone else comes in."

Exactly. After I folded and bb just called, I knew that I had blown it. I then knew that had I called, bb would only have had 6 outs and the loose goose may have had 3 or 6 outs. Probably 3 because I put him on a deuce when he raised as I am sure that he would have raised preflop or on the flop with a pocket pair.

Happy holidays to you as well, Rick. Say hi to Hero for me.

[andyfox]

First hand: I'd bet the flop. If BB is indeed an excellent player, he's less likely to have a big pocket pair when he 3-bets pre-flop. Besides, my 5s need protection. If he raises, fine. Anyway, not too many good things happen to me when my first 5 actions from the sb are call, call, check, call, check.

Second hand: I have no pair and there's a bet and a raise. If I hit an ace on the turn, I could run into Aces up and loose a bundle. I'd have folded too.

Third hand: limp, call, call, now what do I do? You made an excellent case against the Raise or Fold school in response to Tommy the other day. I offer this hand as a counter-argument.


Regards,
Andy

[skp]

"Third hand: limp, call, call, now what do I do? You made an excellent case against the Raise or Fold school in response to Tommy the other day. I offer this hand as a counter-argument."

On the turn, had I played on, I would have raised so I was following Tommy's school of thought except that I made the wrong choice...doh.

Preflop, I am pretty well convinced that limping with TT in EP is usually better in the loose games that I play in. It's certainly a raising hand in the games that I have played in down south or on the net.

[andyfox]

"I am pretty well convinced that limping with TT in EP is usually better in the loose games that I play in. It's certainly a raising hand in the games that I have played in down south or on the net."

Important point, I think. Cookie-cutter recipes can be dangerous and this emphasizes what I think is the key to winning at hold 'em. To paraphrase S & M, situations which appear the same to the non-skilled player, often are quite different from each other and therefore hold 'em offers numerous opportunities for SKP to make expert plays that extract addtional money from unsuspecting opponents.

I'm a card-carrying member of the Angelo pump or dump school, but I play "down south," and would have to adjust if I played elsewhere or on the net, lest I be one of the unsuspecting opponents.

[astroglide]

do you/tommy ONLY enter with a raise/reraise preflop, even after limpers?

i always open with a raise, but i will limp behind limpers.

[andyfox]

In the "typical" game I play in, I'll raise probably 95% of the time 1st in, and 80% of the time behind limpers.