Sorry gang, but will all the poker I’ve been playing, I haven’t been around at our usual recording times, and we don’t have a show for you this week. I will, however, present a few hands from yesterday’s $1500 NLHE event.
My original table was awesome, and I got off to a great start, chipping up from 7500 to over 10K in the first hour. Probably the most interesting hand from that level began with UTG, one of the better of my opponents, opening to 125. The CO and SB called, and I had an easy call with 88 in the BB.
The flop came K77r. We checked to the pre-flop raiser, who bet 250, about half of the pot. I again had an easy call.
The turn was another K, I bet 250, or about 1/4 pot, and he folded.
Think about our respective ranges at this point. Neither of us is particularly likely to have a full house, which means that while UTG will occasionally bluff or value bet this turn, he’s going to check behind very often. I can make a little bet like this with my relatively strong range. When I have a hand like 88, I don’t gain much from Villain’s calls, but I do keep him from cheaply realizing his equity when he has unpaired overcards. My stronger pairs do a little better when called but still gain when Villain folds QJ or whatever. And my full houses profit by not allowing Villain to pot control his big pairs.
Just before antes were introduced, my table broke. The next one was still pretty good, but I ended up having to make some big folds. I’m pretty sure they were correct, but they were costly.
At 100/200/25, I opened to 500 with AQo UTG, and only the BB, a recreational player, called. The flop came A65 with two hearts (I had no hearts in my hand). He checked, I bet 750, and he called.
The turn was the 9h. I know a lot of people like to pot control here, but I really don’t think that accomplishes much. If I check back here, it’s because I think I’m in such bad shape that I can’t profitably put another bet in. If I’m going to call or bet river anyway, I’d rather make that bet on the turn, when I can still either get value or at least fold equity from draws. I don’t think there’s much danger of getting check-raise bluffed, so the only thing you lose when raised is one bet, which you were going to put in on the river anyway. I bet 1600, he raised to 3500, and I folded.
Then at 150/300/50, I picked up AA on the Button. I opened to 600, and the BB called. He checked and called 800 on J87dd (I had the Ad). The turn was a K. He checked, I bet 1800, and he raised to 3800 with about 4000 behind. There’s a bit more of a case for pot controlling this turn, as there are a lot of runouts where I either won’t be able to value bet river at all or it will be very thin, but I think that even if you’re going to get just one more bet from this hand, the turn might well be the better time to do it. Anyway, I folded, and Villain showed a J. He approached me when the table broke and excitedly told me he had JJ there, which I believe (he was the sort who might not 3-bet it, and I didn’t ask him to show or anything, so he really had no incentive to just come up to me out of the blue and lie).
There was one a while later where a woman opened to 1200 at 250/500/50. The SB, who had only about 10BB, called, and I called getting a great price with Th6h in the BB. The flop came J98 with one heart, and the SB jammed for just about pot.
I thought the original raiser was pretty strong, which was sort of a plus and a minus. She only had about 8K, or a little over 2x the preflop pot, behind. If she overjams with KK or AA it barely affects my equity in the main pot, but I do put in another 5K or so in a dry side pot against her. I ultimately decided to fold largely because I thought SB might have hands like AT or JTs in his range. He had AJo, she had AA, and I would have drilled the river. Still not sure what to make of this, but I think folding is OK.
I ended up losing two coin flips in a row to bust. The first was a close call, as I opened 33 UTG to 1300 at 300/600/75, and UTG1 jammed a little over 8K. He had AKo and got there, even though the BB said he folded AK!
The other one I jammed 99 into a late position raise, and the big blind woke up with AJs to bust me.
I took today off and don’t have any more tournaments planned until the Monster Stack this weekend, gonna play cash for the next few days.
On your AQo hand at 100/200, what is your plan if villain flats the turn? I think you check fold unless you river an A or Q, and then you check call? I am asking because I see myself as that rec villain. I often just call when I turn the flush, but raise my two pairs or straights. Now I think that line is wrong, probably awful.
I’m in position, he called out of the big blind. As an UTG raiser, I’d check behind river. If I’d opened from late position and both of our ranges were wider, I might well try for a third street of value.
It’s tougher from OOP. Probably would be a check-fold.
On the AQ hand, do you think he would take this line with a hand like Ah8, or would the check-raise sizing be bigger?
On the 33 hand, was raising UTG table dependent? For example, if there were alot of reshove sized stacks at the table where you can’t call (like 10 or 12K) would you not raise?
I wouldn’t expect to see a check-raise from Ah8 at all.
You’re right that 33 would be a fold with more shoving stacks at the table. Villain from this hand was the only player with <12K, and he was in the worst possible position to jam on me, which is why I hadn't really thought about how I would respond to a shove from him prior to raising.
Thanks Andrew. Maybe if you don’t expect the check-raise, then Ah8 and Ah7 should be put in villain’s range, since your fold is very good for him for those hands and that raise size.
Yeah, it’s an exploitive (therefore exploitable) fold. Pretty much all weaker hands than Ah 8 benefit even more from raising, because Ah 8 is also going to be a profitable call.