Do me a favor--help me explain to this guy that he's making a mistake

[Bigwig]

The following text is from another forum where we started discussing poker. This guy (a newer player) asked about this hand. I tried to explain the mistakes he was making, but he keeps defending himself. Please critique this hand and his thought process. Thanks.

His post:

OK. I am looking for guidance/comment/critique of a few things I have learned and few things I like to do.

I am generally a flop player. I like to stay in beyond the flop and then decide whether to continue or fold from there. I find the small blinds of $1/$2 no limit to be perfect for my style as the blinds I give away are easily made up by the odd win from what would have been a folded hand.

I am not talking about chasing 9/Q in an 11 player table raised table. I am talking about chasing 3/4 unsuited 3/6 suited or cards generally below 7 when it is checked around to me in late position.

I like these cards when I raise because the chance of others chasing k/9 or better might be high but a K/rag is much lower.

However I find there is an art to playing these low chasers.

You have to raise the BB by $5 to get rid of all other chasers who might chase on a $2 BB call only and hit a bigger bingo then you. With a $5 raise you are facing the Over Card chasers and maybe a MidPair player (although I think he would re-raise [more on that later]) and usually that is all.

So I raise up the BB if it is checked around to $7 and often face maybe 3-5 players.

Now I pray for a low flop and hope to hit 2 pair, or better-yet straight or flush up on the low end.

I had this hand hit in one of my good size wins.

I was dealt 2-4 suited and was two before the dealer and it was checked around to me so I raised it to $7. I had 4 callers and now had position on the table. The flop came 3/5/9 and its checked around. At the Turn a Q hits. The first guy checks and the next guy raised 15. One guy folded the other two and myself checked. I put the raiser on hitting his Queen and thought he bet to low to drive us out. the next card falls A. The guy who checked on the Q now bets 25 (caught his A) and surprisingly the Q better calls him and re-raises another 25 (had A/Q), the 4th guy folds and seeing the board 3/5/9/Q/A bet them All-In. The guy with AA QQ calls me but the guy with just the AA folds.

the guy with AA QQ says to me "which Trip were you slow playing 5's?" as he lays down his two pair. I lay down my straight. I got more then one gasp from people who could not believe I played a 2-4 and chased my straight and raised the blind.

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I luv this hand type of hand. I will play it all day and if a lay down 5 of them at $7 worth of betting it is worth it for the one I catch that can pay me upwards of $100.

If I hit the two pair low I would bet hard to try and steal the raised blinds after the flop to make sure no one else doubles up their Over Cards on the Turn and River.

Do many players play these low cards and is it considered good form because many of the regular players seemed shocked that I would chase something like that and they seem to fold every $2 BB if they don't have a fairly strong hand?

[amoeba]

with situations of these nature. Its impossible to tell whether his strategy works or not without knowing stacksize.

with the correct opponents and sufficient stack size, raising with low cards in position preflop can be very profitable.

I personally think his preflop raise is too low though.

[Bigwig]

[ QUOTE ]
with situations of these nature. Its impossible to tell whether his strategy works or not without knowing stacksize.

with the correct opponents and sufficient stack size, raising with low cards in position preflop can be very profitable.

I personally think his preflop raise is too low though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, that's one of things I'm trying to tell him. If you are going to raise, he must raise more than $5 with (as he claims) EVERYBODY limping in most pots. You can't possibly want 4-5 callers (again, as he claims) with 42s. Even with position.

[amoeba]

right. basically you want to limit other higher drawing hands and have the hands that call you be fairly predictable in range (big cards, pocket pairs).

also, the bigger raise allows your real preflop monsters to be easier played.

otherwise if you bet small with AA/KK preflop as well, you get those multiway and you don't want.

you can't vary preflop raise size based on hand strength because people will start catching on so if you are goign to steal, disguise with low cards, you should raise big.

also, the majority of the time, you miss the flop and will have to resort to bluffing to get out. you want to have it be headsup because bluffing multiway is much harder.

[Rockatansky]

Thanks for making me appreciate 2+2 all the more.

[fanmail]

I think his biggest mistake is how he describes the action. That was disgusting and pretty hard to understand. Especially the guy who folded and then went all in. Also, I wish I could check behind after a guy bets 1/2 pot to me.

[durron597]

This is truly an issue of stack depth and the looseness of his players. Though it sounds like he has a table where people limp call with AA and then stack off on coordinated boards, which is a great table for his strategy if the stacks are deep. When he risks 4xBB to win >100 it's not that bad.