Two Hands Which Prove I'm A Donkey

[TaoTe]

Firstly, I cannot get the hand converter to work if you paid me. If someone could help, I can PM the HH and see if you can have better luck. Second, I'm not posting this in the NL mirco forum because I believe I can get good advice here from posters I know and respect. Plus I like this board a lot more and feel comfortable here.

Texas Hold'em $0.10-$0.10 NL (real money),

Seat 1: JohnnySorrow ($9.05 in chips)
Seat 2: mrkennet ($11.20 in chips)
Seat 3: emilio02 ($37.30 in chips)
Seat 4: Poker_Joker. ($9.55 in chips)
Seat 6: sabla ($3 in chips)
Seat 7: dedsall ($3.30 in chips)
Seat 8: Unbeatable z ($0.85 in chips)
Seat 9: stlr ($19.10 in chips)
Seat 10: FubarDa5perm ($11.15 in chips)

ANTES/BLINDS
dedsall posts blind ($0.05), Unbeatable z posts blind ($0.10).

PRE-FLOP
stlr folds, FubarDa5perm folds, JohnnySorrow (K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]) bets $0.50, mrkennet folds, emilio02 folds, Poker_Joker. calls $0.50, sabla folds, dedsall folds, Unbeatable z folds.

FLOP [board cards 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ]
JohnnySorrow bets $1, Poker_Joker. calls $1.

TURN [8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]]
JohnnySorrow checks, Poker_Joker. checks.

RIVER [board cards 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img],Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] ]
JohnnySorrow checks, Poker_Joker. checks.

SHOWDOWN in white:
<font color="white"> JohnnySorrow shows [ KD,AD ]
Poker_Joker. mucks cards [ JS,KS ]
JohnnySorrow wins $3.05. </font>

Hand 2:

Texas Hold'em $0.10-$0.10 NL (real money)

Seat 1: JohnnySorrow ($10.45 in chips)
Seat 5: Kelley518 ($6.55 in chips)
Seat 6: harley911 ($9.70 in chips)
Seat 7: dedsall ($2.95 in chips)
Seat 9: stlr ($25.75 in chips)
Seat 10: FubarDa5perm ($11.50 in chips)

ANTES/BLINDS
dedsall posts blind ($0.05), stlr posts blind ($0.10).

PRE-FLOP
FubarDa5perm folds, JohnnySorrow bets $0.50, Kelley518 folds, harley911 calls $0.50, dedsall folds, stlr folds.

FLOP [board cards 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],10[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ]
JohnnySorrow bets $1, harley911 bets $2, JohnnySorrow bets $4, harley911 calls $3.

TURN [A:spade ]
JohnnySorrow checks, harley911 bets $4.20 and is all-in, JohnnySorrow (wants to puke) calls $4.20.

RIVER [board cards 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],10[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img],A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ]


SHOWDOWN: in white
<font color="white"> harley911 shows [ 10D,QC ]
JohnnySorrow shows [ Qheart,AD ]
JohnnySorrow wins $19.35.</font>

I didn't add my thoughts/reads of the play but will do so later/by request.

[Pov]

You have to delete the word "Texas" from the hand history and then it works for Party HH's. Bizarre, I know. I'll give your hands a read in a sec.

edit: I guess I've never tried it for a NL hand though - let me know if it works. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

On the hands:

I'm not really much of a NL player, but I don't see any problem with how you played the first hand. You made a continuation bet when the flop missed and got called. The only real reason to bet again on the turn would be if you knew you'd have been raised by a made hand and called by a draw. Once the river hits betting is of little value since you can't really call a raise and there aren't many worse hands that are likely to call you though I suppose there is some value in a "stop bet" here but I don't think the nut no-pair is the hand you do that with.

On the second hand I would prefer to see you bet this turn. You have a solid hand here and while you certainly fear the flush (and the straight possibly) it would seem your opponents have no problem calling a strong flop bet so you can't be sure you're beat. You were obviously going to call when the guy went all-in so you'd have been better off betting unless you thought your opponent would bluff at the flush without one.

That's my initial take anyway.

[SheridanCat]

You can try my converter if you want:
Here

It's still very much under development though.

Regards,

T

[TaoTe]

No luck with your converter, also, I'm on PR skin Hollywood poker.

The preflop raise is 5x the big blind, a bit much but neccessary because of the table. When I play .25/.25, I open with a 1$. At .50/.50 1.50 will work but the games are still played very loose and it's usually an instant call from the blinds. I like to make it 4x the BB if first in, and add an additional BB if they're two or more limpers in front of me. If on the button or in the blinds and their are a lot of limpers I'll be tempted to move all-in with a good hand if I'm not deep stacked. IE: if the in the BB five people and the SB calls, with KK

My thoughts on the first hand were that vilian had either a weak queen or the flush draw. When it went check/check on the river I was over 90% sure my ace high was good as I would expect someone to bet a queen but I'm amazed at how passively some people will play at this level.

Villian in hand two had me beat on the flop but I don't like calling bets. The thought that he may have QT ran through my head but when I reraised and he only called I didn't think I was beat. The fact that villian didn't push the flop shows either that he backs down when played back, was slowplaying, or had a huge amount of respect for my raise. I actually thought he may have flopped two pair with QT because the loose low limit players love to play any two broadway cards like they're gold. He would have had a better chance of winning the hand if he had bet less on the turn and another bet on the river. Many players think the all-in bluff is the only way to do it.

My reason for not betting the turn is simple. If he had a draw, it got there, if not, I was ahead of anything but a set. One of the big differences in cash and tourney NL is that in a tourney I may have folded this hand.

The preflop raise in both hands is 5x the big blind, a bit much but neccessary because of the table. When I play .25/.25, I open with a 1$. At .50/.50 1.50 will work but the games are still played very loose and it's usually an instant call from the blinds so standard opening raise is $2. I like to make it 4x the BB if first in, and add an additional BB if they're two or more limpers in front of me.

[Pov]

[ QUOTE ]
My reason for not betting the turn is simple. If he had a draw, it got there, if not, I was ahead of anything but a set.

[/ QUOTE ]

So why wouldn't you want to bet again? Since you're going to call if he hit his draw and you're ahead of most anything else, betting would seem to be your best play. Inducing a bluff doesn't seem likely against passive players. Make KQ or QJ (or whatever) pay. Especially if he has a lone spade you'd love to have him calling you getting only 3:1 on his 4:1 draw with zero implied odds.

[TaoTe]

Where are you getting 3:1? Oh, never mind I didn't think about stack size. What about if he was deeper stacked? You still think it correct to make a bet with the possibility of facing a big reraise?

If he held one spade and was willing to call a pot sized bet then it's true I should have bet the turn.

Actually, another point is that I surendered the betting lead on the turn because a scare card fell. If he doesn't have the flush than it's a scare card for him as well and I need to control the betting, making him think I made my hand on the turn. I think villian made the best play for the pot he had, and if I only had a bare ace on the turn I probably would have dumped it.

I'm learning (slowly) more and more about the game. Months ago I wouldn't even have thought about the hands after they were done but I thought I played both hands poorly even though I won. In both hands, betting the turn would have been correct. Funny thing is, I won both hands and still feel as though I didn't play them well.