Help Wanted

[Dylan Wade]

Have you ever read Theory of Poker by Sklansky? Basically, imagine your opponents turned up their cards face up to you... it's your turn to act: raise, call, fold? What's the best choice? AA is easy. We don't even need to turn over the cards to know that we have all the hands beat. We don't make money at poker by winning hands and making players fold (not suckout), rather, we make money at poker by profiting off our opponent's calls when we're a favorite. Only in a tournament is the actual result of a hand important.

[rusty pistol]

[ QUOTE ]
*beep* wrong answer!

You know what to do (raise with aces) but not why, yet.

I don't know if I want to give it away, but the right answer is you want everyone to call your raise.

[/ QUOTE ]

My thinking is that yes, I have the nuts pre-flop. Having the rest of the field call my raise increases the chances that my pre-flop nuts will be cracked. Don't misunderstand me, I do raise with AA, KK AK and most times QQ along with other hands. I didn't raise this time because I felt that the other 3 already in would chase to the river with the pot as large as it was. I've always thought that it's better to play against fewer opponents when I have a pocket pair. It would appear that my thinking has been wrong and that I need to adjust. Thanks.

[rusty pistol]

Under any condition I would raise AA pre-flop. However, in this hand I had QQ. I realize that there is only a slight difference in the two starting hands and YES I should have raised pre-flop. But could someone help me out with the other questions I asked. Given the way the hand was played, should I have 3 bet the CO's turn raise and then led out on the river? Should I have led out on the river and folded to a raise? Or should I have done exactly what I did: check, call and then kick myself for not raising pre-flop?

[JARID]

I have a few thoughts. You should raise pre-flop not to get people to fold, but because QQ is a great hand that you will win more than you fair share with it and thus you want more money in the pot.

Second, I don't think people that open limp on a kill with j4 are considering their pot odds when making their decisions. As I was reading your post I had in my head either 10-8 or J9 "sooted".

The guy is a moron who got lucky. Aside from not raising pre-flop I thought the rest of your play was fine.

Regards,
~J

[harboral]

You get the poker gift of finding a nice pocket pair on your kill, great deal. Too bad you didn't take advantage of the opportunity by raising. Don't worry about people getting tied to their hands..........Raise when you have a hand that is almost certainly best, and doesn't even need to improve to win at the river (alright, this time it did, but you have to rasie). AL

[rusty pistol]

Thanks to all of you who have responded so far. After reviewing your replies I can see that by the slimmest of margins you think I should have raised pre-flop. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]. I don't post here much but I do read them every day and all of you have certainly helped me improve my game. Thanks again.

[Dylan Wade]

I just ran accross this site a minute ago. This was created by Ed Miller, one of the best posters to come through this fourm. I thought you might find it interesting.

http://www.cgtv.com/games/column/index.shtml

[WarmonkEd]

[ QUOTE ]
I just ran accross this site a minute ago. This was created by Ed Miller, one of the best posters to come through this fourm. I thought you might find it interesting.

http://www.cgtv.com/games/column/index.shtml

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, finally a face to go with the name.