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Andrew is in Montreal for the second half of the WCOOP, and he and Nate discuss some hands.
Strategy
Hand 1
2-4 PLO8 on Bovada. 4-handed.
I open to $12 with (AT)J7–I’m using Bill Chen’s notation where suited cards go in parentheses.
Only the BB calls. He’s playing $200ish, and I cover.
Flop KQ8 rainbow. BB checks; I bet half the pot ($13).
Turn pairs the 8 and puts up a flush draw (I have the 7 of the suit). BB checks.
Hand 2
1-2 NLHE 6max on Bovada. I have 220.98 (after posting BB). Folds to button who raises to $6. SB Calls
I raise to $24 (pot) with AA. Button calls
Flop ($54 in pot) Jh Qd 8s
I bet $54 and the button jams and covers me. So $307 in the pot and I have 145 giving me almost exactly 2:1.
Hand 3
PokerStars – $1000+$50|8000/16000 Ante 2000 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
UTG: 61.6 BB (VPIP: 26.46, PFR: 18.59, 3Bet Preflop: 11.72, Hands: 359)
CO: 60.1 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 27.50, 3Bet Preflop: 15.38, Hands: 40)
BTN: 90.5 BB (VPIP: 19.22, PFR: 15.56, 3Bet Preflop: 6.07, Hands: 591)
SB: 61.46 BB (VPIP: 19.31, PFR: 15.97, 3Bet Preflop: 10.32, Hands: 295)
Hero (BB): 63.17 BB
5 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.13 BB) Hero has 9c Jc
UTG raises to 2.19 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.19 BB
Flop : (5.51 BB, 2 players) Jd 3c Ks
Hero checks, UTG bets 2.41 BB, Hero calls 2.41 BB
Turn : (10.33 BB, 2 players) Ac
Hero checks, UTG checks
River : (10.33 BB, 2 players) 7s
Hero checks, UTG bets 4.65 BB, Hero?
Thanks for the great content guys! I learn a lot by listening to you talk through your thought process. Question about Hand 3. When you check-raise the river, what hand(s) are you representing? What’s in the value river check-raise bucket? Maybe it’s obvious, but I ask just because I don’t know how to differentiate between which hands I should bet out with and which hands I should check raise with on the river. Therefore I pretty much just bet out with nearly all of my value hands, and a few bluffs for balance. I check-call or check-fold my medium strength hands, probably calling overly often to compensate for what I perceive as an increased amount of river bluffs. Seems somewhat exploitable.
For hand number 3 I would have liked to hear more discussion about how Villain perceives Hero’s river range.
IMO Hero’s range is also capped. Villain is likely to be thinking similarly to Hero here. I would be surprised if Villain weren’t bluffing at least a bit too often on this river. I think a check/call on the river will be solidly profitable.
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Villain’s range for getting to the river like this is also somewhat wide. He’ll have most of the pairs under the jack and whatever connectors he plays 98s-
Villain can be value betting Kx, QJ, JT. I doubt he checks the turn with anything better than that.
It does seem very likely that Villain will fold his entire value range to your raise on the river so raising is probably best from an exploitative point of view. This seemed like a clear check/call to me at first. Thanks for the discussion!
Thanks for the comment. We actually discuss this spot further on the next episode, and I think address many of your questions, including the point about Hero being capped – IMO this is a very reasonable way for Hero to play QT. I think you’re off on a number of counts concerning Villain’s range: underpairs to the J are not necessarily betting the flop, a lot of Ax is checking the turn, and QJ/JT are definitely not value betting the river.
Speaking of experimental, I wonder if this is a spot where we could max out our bet size.
Villain would be calling about 50bb in a pot of 60 so would need to defend with 17%. If this is a spot where his range is sufficiently capped, it may be a cool way for us to play the nuts.
Not that J9 would necessarily be a good candidate, maybe Q9, T9 for block value and something else from the bottom of our range.
Regarding the end discussion on accepting mistakes being a part of poker: an acceptance of mistakes can also help with reducing tilt (perhaps particularly for recreational players).