My blind defense sucks

[MicroBob]

Hi all. My losing streak continues into epic proportions (details in the BBV forum...I've dropped over 1k BB's now amazingly enough...Hooray for me!!)


I continually struggle with blind-defense and over-card situations so i'm going back over my last session and grabbing 3 hands I think I mis-played for your perusal.


FWIW - because of my losing I've been trying to call-down less when I'm pretty sure I'm beat. My previous leaks have included calling-down WAY too much...but it's possible I'm over-compensating a bit here.


Hand 1 -
2/4, 5 players
button is 44/2/1.5 and I haven't caught him in any bluff-raises or anything overly suspicious post-flop.

Hero is in BB with A9o
UTG and CO fold.
Button limps
SB folds
Hero raises
button calls

Flop: 872r
Hero bets, button calls

Turn: 2
Hero bets, button raises, hero folds

(too weak?? I'm trying to avoid major blind battles)



Hand 2 -

Opponent is 89/36/1
3/6, 6players

Hero has J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] in BB
(fold) MP calls (fold fold fold), Hero raises, MP calls

Flop:
T [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

hero bets, MP calls

Turn:
A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

hero checks (??? hmmmm), MP bets, hero calls


River:
T [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

hero c/c's

(probably indicative of my general fear of losing yet again....looked pretty bad to me)

hand 3:

this one isn't blind-defense but whatever.

villain is quite the maniac..but is still somewhat aware actually.
68/44/2.5


hero has A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] on the button.

3/6, 5 players

UTG folds, CO raises, Hero re-raises,
SB folds, BB folds, CO calls

Flop: 8 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

CO checks, hero bets, CO calls

Turn:
7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

CO checks, hero bets, CO raises, hero folds


I mean even against a maniac I don't think you can call-down with that...but there is a VERY real chance that he is C/R'ing with total air and if I 3-bet he might even lay-down right there (it's happened a couple times when I had hands worth 3-betting in that spot).

[gehrig]

hand one is okay. you can just c/c both big streets if you want to see a showdown here

bet the turn in hand two, your hand is way ahead here

you need to see a showdown in hand three. check the turn and call a river bet

[Wynton]

Hand 1 looks fine to me.
Hand 2. You have to bet that turn.
Hand 3. Tough one. I might actually be tempted to check behind the turn, and call most rivers.

[MicroBob]

yeah. these are all pretty obvious aren't they?


I'm just going through my BB hands (mostly) and just looking for hands where I lost.

Sorry if these are all pretty darned basic hands (which I think they are) but I'm kind of going back to basics here and trying to figure some stuff out from scratch as it were.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Hand 3. Tough one. I might actually be tempted to check behind the turn, and call most rivers.

[/ QUOTE ]


giving him a free draw with a spade?
If he only has a single low spade here then there's a reasonable chance that he folds right now but will still call it down if the 4th spade hits.

Checking through here just strikes me as a bad idea but I'm certainly listening.

[gehrig]

giving him a free draw with a spade isn't a concern because he's never folding a spade and youre not ahead of the range he calls the turn with. if you bet you'll also get bluffed off the best hand by this guy sometimes. the only problem with checking the turn is giving KJnospade a free draw

[pokerjunky]

Hand one looks OK. Small pot, let it go.

Hand two bet/fold the turn.

Hand three: At first I would have played it like you but after thinking about it checking behind the turn and calling most rivers is probably the best play against this type of opponent. The pot isn't all that big so free cards isn't as much of a concern, plus you'll snap off plenty of river bluffs by showing weakness on the run.

[MicroBob]

since there are straight draws all over the place I guess you're right that he's probably not likely to fold even a 5 or 4 of spades.

however, I'm also giving any 9, 5 or 4 (spade or not) a free draw to the inside-straight.

I'm trying to play more passively and am TRYING to find spots like this where i perhaps should be checking...but in this one I'm just not feeling it as there should be a whole range of hands that he could be folding here, couldn't there? (he'd been folding to a few of my turn bets which is obviously not reflected in the stats...most of the time I had top-pair or something and he had obviously whiffed...but sometimes I was just on a low-draw and his hand was probably still best...anyway, he IS capable of folding and doesn't ALWQAYS call down).

[Wynton]

The reason I suggested checking the turn on hand 3 is that you say your opponent is a "maniac," yet "very much aware." Looks like such an opponent may well be quite tempted to do some bluffing on this kind of board, particularly if you have not been playing back at him. Because I want to get to showdown against this villain, I thought checking could be reasonable.

But like I said, I think the turn decision is not easy.

[adsman]

Yeah, maniacs love check-bluff-raising the turn. I immediately thought bluff when I saw this. I think checking behind this turn is very valid here.