KK @ CO

[SCfuji]

Just started venturing into the SS NLHE world. What do you do when you opponent stop-and-goes three times?

Full Tilt Poker .05/.1 NLHE, 9 handed (full table on ftp)

Hero has K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] on the CO
1 fold, UTG+1 calls 0.1, 3 folds, hero raises 0.4, 3 folds utg+1 calls 0.3

($0.95 pot) flop: 2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

utg+1 bets $0.1, hero raises to $0.60, utg+1 calls $0.50

($2.15 pot) turn: (2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]) 4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

utg+1 bets $0.1, hero raises to $1.0, utg+1 calls $0.90

($4.15 pot) river: (2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]) 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

utg+1 bets $1.70, hero should...

i think by the turn i have represented an overpair pretty well, yet the villain has led every street and increased the river bet from the usual 10cents to $1.70. should this be a sign of weakness usually or strength?

thanks,
fuji

[soah]

At the nano-limits with no read I would raise a little more on the flop and turn, and just call the river. You're usually ahead so you might as well charge him as much as possible to chase after a second pair or trips. On the river with one pair you'd like to just see the showdown cheaply unless your opponent is so bad that he'd call raises with ace high and stuff. So overall your play is pretty standard other than the raises needing to be just a little bigger on the flop and turn. Something like $.90 on the flop, then with $2.75 in the pot on the turn I'd maybe raise to about $2.00 or so. If you think a worse hand will even call more then that's even better. You want to find a price where your opponents don't have correct odds to chase even counting their implied odds, but it's cheap enough to tempt them into making a bad call. You are most likely up against top pair which has five outs so the 2/3 pot raise should earn you a nice profit against chasers.

[SCfuji]

thank you soah. ill raise larger amounts next time im in this situation. but the river call was still okay? i just figured that the villains bet was strange and opted not to throw in another raise.

[minkowski]

I would definitely have raised more on flop and turn. Calling the river might not have been an issue because one of you would probably be all-in by the time you got there.

[SCfuji]

have you found this triple stop and go to be a sign of weakness in your experience?

[soah]

Strange bets are usually either really strong or really weak hands. Although against fishy opponents it's sometimes just that they have no clue what they are doing. Knowing nothing about your opponent other than that he's playing .05/.10 I'd assume that folding here would be a disaster. I forget now how much he bet exactly, but it wasn't much more than 1/3 pot or something? You must be very sure you're beaten to fold there and at these limits that's pretty hard. Granted I've never played at FTP but I've got to assume that the play at .05/.10 can't be too great. The river is actually a pretty good card for your hand as you've just sucked out against anyone that had top two pair, and they most likely don't even realize it.

[minkowski]

I put in about 20000 hands at .05/.10 and I found that the average player really doesn't make much sense. Often scared money will behave like that with really strong hands and they will become more convinced of the strength as more cards become known. In general, I would have to say that the river bet is the most ominous aspect of this hand as it appears this person is representing at least a set of 2's.

At a higher limit, you have the perpetual slowplaying issue where individuals will bet miniscule amounts to trap the aggressive players and then nail you with the river bet. This is definitely not a sign of weakness, but of course it depends a lot on stack size. Sometimes when they are short stacked and called you down to the river and miss, they figure their only chance of winning is to go all-in with whatever they have left.

[minkowski]

I would also like to say I am going to respond to hand postings, so that I can learn from the give and take, but I have not been able to establish myself as a significant winning player at the .25/.50 level at PP despite 13000 hands. A little of this probably has to do with playing too many tables at once, but as a general rule you should take my advice with a grain of salt. I do have quite a bit of poker experience, just not NL hold-em.

[Leo Bello]

Do not play nano limits... the logic goes away just like in play money.
try to get a little more money in and play at least 0.10/0.25 NL25.

[ryanghall]

You have to call this river due to the odds the pot is laying you, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you're beat.

Ryan