Since there seem to be a lot of poker players here, I thought it would be neat to post Hand Histories and have the players here critique how they were played. Sometimes you can win a lot with a hand you botched and sometimes you can lose on a hand you played perfectly, of course, but peer review and group discussion will help us all learn.
Here’s a hand I believe I played well. But actually the thing you learn here is that when you have a strong hand pre-flop, you have to bet it and not play games with minraises. When you see the hands I was up against, there was no way I should have even seen a flop but being in the blinds with a minraised pot and a lot of people in the pot, I felt that I had good odds to call provided I had the discipline to get away from the hand EVEN IF I connected on the flop (i.e. an Ace or a Ten-high) and thought I could get paid off if I spiked two pairs or trips.
Terrible pre-flop play by Button, for exactly the reason so brilliantly illustrated by the flop. KK is a monster hand but it’s vulnerable, especially online where too many people play any A-rag like it’s the immortal nuts (which I’m not saying you did, I’m talking in general).
Weak pre-flop play by CO with the AKos. Too many people in the pot, he should’ve raised pre-flop.
I like your play pre-flop. On the flop I probably would’ve moved all in, but that’s mostly because I have been sucked out on with some insane hands and my tendency now is to make it as expensive as possible for anyone on any sort of a draw. The only drawing hands that could be out there are KQ (possible) and a draw to the wheel (very unlikely but, again, online in a low stakes STT, not out of the question). I can’t really argue with your play, though, with top two pair.
I can’t really fault your play. I was thinking that one of them was chasing a straight for sure. I was wrong.
MP1 probably knew he was beat, and probably should have folded after the flop with a raise and a re-raise in front of him. Maybe he felt he was pot committed/short-stacked, but I don’t see that.
I think the Button played that poorly, IMO. I suppose he was playing pot odds that he might get a set, but he had to realize that with an Ace on the board that someone had almost certainly paired that. Especially in online play where folks play A6o even when they are first to act.
I think CO plays it fairly correctly, too, given the pot odds. I like to raise pre-flop with AK, but since he had a raise and a caller in front of him it is probably reasonable to just call pre-flop.
Just read Otto’s post and it looks like we agree mostly. I don’t necessarily agree the Button should have raised more pre-flop, although he reasonably could have no doubt. But what I feel happens is tat when folks slow play they will not recognize when theat slow play has probably cost them and get out. It’s almost like folks go on tilt mid-hand when they slow play. By God I am going to get the chips I deserve with these pockets. Etc. SO his pre-flop play is marginal but not horrible, his post-flop play is atrocious.
CO only had one caller, MP1, when it got to him. If he raises pre-flop 3-4xBB from the cutoff, Button calls, Hero folds (you better fold, Hero, with an ATos out of position facing a raise and a call), MP1 probably calls because he’s sOOOOOOted and people with suited cards are idiots. Post-flop I have no real gripe with his play, but CO’s passive pre-flop play cost him 80% of his stack when a pre-flop raise would’ve won him the hand.
I think the way it SHOULD have went down is MP1 either comes in with a raise to 90 or folds. I don’t like limping with AJ, especially in MP (middle position). Folding is preferable.
AK in the CO is interesting. I will always raise this in an unreaised pot, even in the blinds. The issue is would I have reraised with it had MP1 came in for 90? At this stage (only level 2 and a lot of chips) I probably just call a raise.
Of course the button needs to raise, and not a minraise. This isn’t limit. In an unraised pot, he needs to make it at least 180 to go with two limpers, maybe even more. If the pot was raised at any point, hje needs to reraise.
As for me, I would have bailed out had ANY of this happened, knowing AT was dominated. But since none of that happened, I could call the minraise. Sure, the MP1 and/or CO could have reraised, but I could have gotten away from it then. As it was, assuming they all called, I was putting 45 in to a pot that would become 270 preflop. A good gamble.
After I hit two pairs, I don’t play around. I am ahead of everything but AA, TT and 44. I don’t think anyone has AA because of the fact that people are betting and raising after an Ace dropped; Me having a ten makes pocket tens unlikely; I have redraws against 44. So I make a pot sized raise hoping that I can isolate.
When everyone calls and a blank hits on the turn, a push is easy enough. The river gave me second nuts, always a nice bonus.
I wish I could remember all the details, but here’s a quick recap.
$2/$4. I had A-K off-suit, raised before the flop, one caller.
The flop was A-K-7 rainbow. I bet, the other player raised, I re-raised. I don’t remember the details of the turn and the river; nothing special, no pairs, no serious straight or flush draws. I may have bet once more.
The other guy had pocket sevens.
Not enough to go on to really get advice. I’m just venting.
OK, here’s one I posted several months back. It got some interesting discussion but the last time I searched I couldn’t find the thread. It’s been too long, I don’t remember exact chip counts, but I can give you the gist.
Live action multi, down to the final table from a 100+ starting field. With seven left, I’m the chip leader with about 600,000 in chips. Next nearest stack is on my left, with about a third of my stack. Everyone else is short stacked to varying degrees, with no one over 50,000. Blinds IIRC are 5000/10,000.
I’m in the SB with A9os. A short stack pushes all in for about 30,000. It folds around to me and I push all in to get heads up. The BB also pushes all in. Uh oh.
Results:
The short stack pushed with AJos. The BB had pocket kings. An A came on the flop, but so did a K. 9 on the turn, blank on the river. Short stack is out with his Aces, BB makes a set of Kings and takes a third of my stack by beating my Aces up. He goes on to beat me when, after we clear the rest of the table, he gets pocket KK three more times heads up and wipes me out.
There was really no need to get head’s up here. Maybe if you have a strong but vulnerable hand such as Jacks where an overcard is probable before the river I can see it. But in that case I will just call it. In a perfect world, BB will call getting decent pot odds and then you can check it down to get rid of shorty. In an imperfect one, BB will come over the top which is his way of saying “I got this one” and you can get away unscathed.
The question for you is what do you do with Aces - Push or smooth call? I do the latter. Your Aces will be more vulnerable with a third hand but you’ll still be a prohibitive favorite and you could wind up stacking the BB.
I rarely slowplay Aces (or anything - the edges in HE are too damn small) but in that case, it’s a good idea, and I have been able to really take down big pots at the end of tourneys this way.
I feel ya. But remember that everytime someone hits the small set in that case and wins a big pot, there will be four times where the guy with AQ swears that he has you beat and bets accordingly. Or you have the hidden set. Or you get him ona redraw to a bigger boat. Is this sufficiently optimistic in the face of the crushing defeat?
At the same table, I had Kc-Kh. The table was cssss (and the last one was the ace), three other players had stayed in and when one of them bet I folded.
The best I could manage there was one split pot, and I lost about $70 in less than an hour.
Make the right play more often than not and you will eventually win more than you lose. I promise. You can’t fuck with the law of averages and the law of averages says that if you constantly are in a situation where you are 70% to win that you will win 70% of the time.
Four players. The flop is 9-9-9. Everybody checks.
The turn is the last 9.
SB: .50
BB: 1.00 (raise)
Me: 1.00 (call - I figure anybody who doesn’t have an ace kicker won’t be stupid enough to hang around and there’s no reason for the rest of us to throw money into a pot that we’re going to split anyway.)
P4: 1.50 (raise)
SB: 1.50 (raise)
BB: 1.00 (call - only three raises are allowed)
Me: 1.00 (call)
P4: .50 (call)
The river is 5d. The table shows 9-9-9-9-5d
Everybody bets and raises the maximum, including me. The pot is almost $18.00, which is ridiculous for these stakes. I figure we all have an ace kicker and will split the pot four ways.
SB: 6s-4h
BB: 8h-7d
Me: Ad-10d
P4: Ac-Qc
WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE TWO GUYS THINKING? Forget that they should have folded before the flop. There’s no chance for a straight flush, or a higher four-of-a-kind; this hand has to be decided by the kicker. Who throws four bucks into the pot when his high card is a 6?
Not that I’m complaining, exactly; but how am I supposed to learn to read my opponents when they’re insane?
(There is another possibility. I’m wondering if the two blinds were 'bots. They saw they had four-of-a-kind and bet the farm; just weren’t smart enough to see that everyone else had it too. I made a comment in the chat window that I’d never seen that before, and nobody said anything back.)
I actually think this is a fold. You’re just not getting your odds to flop 2-pair or better, especially with such horrible relative position (between the pre-flop raiser and the rest of the table, and first to act). You say that you won’t get involved if you just pair your Ace or Ten, but it’s easy to get sucked in on the flop and beyond if the price is small. Also, don’t discount the possibility of a reraise behind you.
If your hand was suited it would be a call, but as is it’s just too tough to play the hand profitably in that spot.
I’ll play any two cards getting those odds. If someone raised after me, I fold and still have a ton of chips. And I realize that this is dependent on not getting married to the hand, but I can promise you that I can avoid getting married to much better hands than AT.
Also, I’m no only hoping for two pairs. Trip tens works. If I flop open-ended or four to the flush on the Ace, that’s not horrible either depending on how the betting goes. Lotsa ways to hit even with a dominated hand. The question is whether the price is right.
You have to put villain on a hand - specifically the hands that beat yours. He could have limped with Aces in the hopes of doing the reraise. A nice way to play Aces.
Did he limp in early position with AQ or sixes? They do not seem likely. Most people won’t limp with AQ in early position, it’s a raise or fold proposition. People do limp with small pairs however that means the case six flopped which is also unlikely.
This is why I make a raise preflop. You have late enough position to do this effectively. You can get better Aces to fold. You can take it down with a continuation bet. And more importantly for this specific hand, if villain reraises preflop, you can get away.
As played, I think that villain’s range includes too many hands that you’re ahead of to lay it down. I will pay off cleverly-played Aces or a badly-played AQ and take notes. I will chalk up 66 to really bad luck and hope to spike an Ace on the redraw.
