Posts Tagged ‘river check-raise’

 Thanks to everyone who commented on this week’s “What’s Your Play?” Sorry for the delay in getting results up; I’m currently visiting old friends and a new baby in New York, and the days have been busy.

We’ll start with the results:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t24118)
SB (t25330)
BB (t9032)
UTG (t8323)
UTG+1 (t25215)
MP1 (t13846)
Hero (MP2) (t16901)
CO (t31444)

Hero’s M: 16.90

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A♦, 4♥
3 folds, Hero bets t800, 1 fold, Button calls t800, 2 folds

Flop: (t2600) 4♦, 4♠, K♥ (2 players)
Hero bets t1666, Button raises to t3640, Hero calls t1974

Turn: (t9880) 10♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: (t9880) 7♦ (2 players)
Hero bets t12411 (All-In), Button calls t12411

Total pot: t34702

Results:
Button had K♦, Q♦ (two pair, Kings and fours).
Hero had A♦, 4♥ (three of a kind, fours).
Outcome: Hero won t34702

As many commenters identified, the crux of this hand is in recognizing that Hero’s hand looks reasonably strong after calling the flop raise. Many of you made compelling arguments for 3-betting the flop, which I’ll come back to in a moment.  Read the complete post...

This week’s WYP didn’t prove too controversial, but it generated some good discussion nonetheless. I must say that I’m a little disappointed more of you weren’t tempted to make the same mistake I did:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($2845.40)
BB ($1543.40)
UTG ($798.80)
Hero (MP) ($1573.80)
CO ($2739.30)
Button ($664.40)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q♥, K♥
UTG bets $18, Hero calls $18, 2 folds, SB calls $15, BB calls $12

Flop: ($79.20) K♠, Q♦, 7♥ (4 players)
SB bets $39, 1 fold, UTG calls $39, Hero raises to $159.90, SB calls $120.90, 1 fold

Turn: ($438) 9♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($438) 4♣ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $284.25, SB raises to $2666.30 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: $1006.50 | Rake: $3

Results:
SB didn’t show
Outcome: SB won $1003.50

I think the consensus among the commenters is correct and checking is better. Even at the time part of me was thinking it wouldn’t be easy to get called by worse and I could get raised by both better and worse. But, like Fuel55, I then told myself that checking top two would be too weak. Nate made the case for checking very well:  Read the complete post...

This hand occurred at a PokerStars deep table, meaning that the maximum buyin is $1500 and there’s an ante ($0.60 I believe) in addition to the blinds. I’ve never seen Villain before, but he seems both very aggressive and very good. He’s 36/21 with 8% 3-bet. I haven’t seen him take much to showdown (which is in itself an indication of skill), but he’s consistently bet and raised in what seem like good spots. I’ll be happy to answer questions about why I played the way I did before the river, but I’m going to wait until Friday when I post the results so as not to give away anything about my own thinking. You’ve got top two on the river: what’s your play?

No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) – Hold’em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($2845.40)
BB ($1543.40)
UTG ($798.80)
Hero (MP) ($1573.80)
CO ($2739.30)
Button ($664.40)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q♥, K♥
UTG bets $18, Hero calls $18, 2 folds, SB calls $15, BB calls $12

Flop: ($72) K♠, Q♦, 7♥ (4 players)
SB bets $39, 1 fold, UTG calls $39, Hero raises $159.90, SB calls $120.90, 1 fold

Turn: ($430.80) 9♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($430.80) 4♣ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero?

I’m blown away by the number of responses Monday’s What’s Your Play? post received. It produced some great discussion that was instructive even for me, so a big thanks to all of you who commented. I know I didn’t interact with your comments as much as I usually do, but truthfully you all were doing such a good job of asking and answering your own questions that I didn’t feel it was necessary. Really this sort of reader interaction is a blogger’s dream!

Hero has four real options here, all of which were thoroughly analyzed in the comments: check-raise all-in, bet small to induce a raise, bet 75-125% of pot, or open shove for 200% of pot. I’ll offer my thoughts on each here, but I strongly encourage you to go back and skim the comments if you haven’t, because there’s a lot of good material in there that I’m not going to address specifically.

Bet 75-125% of Pot- As a theoretical matter, I believe that when you have the nuts you should generally take a line that maximizes your chances of playing a large pot, even if this results in winning less from the bottom of your opponent’s range. It’s a fundamental principle of poker: big hand, big pot. For that reason, I don’t like this line. This is a much better card for Hero’s range than for Villain’s and not one on which he’s likely to bluff or bluff-catch aggressively. Even very strong hands like sets may just call a bet of this size, which is of course a disaster for us, so this is my least favorite option.  Read the complete post...

The next installment in the Thinking Poker Tournament Seminar series will be on Saturday, December 3rd, Noon-2 PM Eastern. The topic will be Playing Out of Position: Value Betting, Bluffing, and Getting to Showdown. Virtually all of the toughest spots in poker arise from playing out of position, and good players assume that they can get away with playing almost anything when they have position. Learn to punish them by giving them what they don’t expect: tough, creative opposition, even from out of position!

Thinking Poker Tournament Seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on the most common mistakes and skills gaps that I see in my NLHE tournament students. Each two-hour seminar costs $150 per person and is capped at five participants, to enable individualized attention and opportunities for everyone to ask questions and participate in discussions. The content is prepared and the discussion facilitated by me- it’s like an interactive poker video!

Participants will learn how to defend their blinds against late and early position raisers, how to deal with post-flop aggression, and how to pull-off the ever-vexing donk bet. In addition to the seminar itself, all participants receive a syllabus of recommended study materials to help prepare for the session and apply newly acquired skills in their future play.  Read the complete post...

This is from the PokerStars $150 6-max Sunday tournament. People are often surprised by calls that I make out of the big blind when I’m getting very good odds. I don’t know how helpful it is when I say things like, “The more you feel that you have a skill edge, the more you can get away with calling,” because everyone thinks he has a skill edge and besides that’s a hard thing to quantify. This is an extreme example, but the point is that you’ve got to be capable of getting pretty creative in terms of stealing pots from out of position. I’m not saying to attack every pot- far from it- but you can’t just call hoping to showdown your fair share of winning hands cheaply.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 162 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds 15 Ante (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t10373)
UTG (t9236)
MP (t5939)
CO (t6108)
Button (t8074)
SB (t4615)

Hero’s M: 38.42

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6♦, 3♦
3 folds, Button bets t280, 1 fold, Hero calls t160

Flop: (t710) 5♠, 5♥, 10♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: (t710) 4♣ (2 players)
Hero bets t472, Button calls t472

River: (t1654) A♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t550, Hero raises to t2444, 1 fold

Total pot: t2754  Read the complete post...

I suppose my main event was a fitting end to the series and a paradigmatic WCOOP experience. In the early stages I plundered the satellite qualifiers, going on an early rush that made me chipleader with 1400 players remaining. Over time the table got tougher and tougher, with 3-bet pots becoming the norm and 4-bets not uncommon. I went card dead for a few hours, with people coming over the top every time I tried to steal, except for the few times that I actually legitimate hands, when I either won the blinds or ended up having to make a big fold post-flop. I spent the last few hours of the day rocking a 20-40 BB stack and finding spots to pick up pots without showdown. Eventually I got into a coin flip, the first time I’d been all in for my tournament life, and won it to reach my high point for the tournament, which by that time was still just 75% of the average. Then it was back to card dead as I blinded down, finally getting all in with AK for my last 19 BBs. Villain had Aces, and I was eliminated with an hour to go in the day and about 10% of the remaining field needing to be eliminated before we made the money.  Read the complete post...

Sorry for the lack of posts on here. It’s just that I’ve been playing so much poker that when I’m finished I don’t feel like spending another half-hour at the computer putting together a blog post.

Also I haven’t done anything of great interest in any of the recent WCOOPs. In fact, this is going to be a bit of a whine post. I’ve lost a lot of big pots with set under set and similar “cooler” situations. In most cases, though, I think there’s at least a case to be made that I could have played the hand differently and lost less, so hopefully it will be a little interesting to look at these. I’m actually less likely to make hero folds when I know I’ve been getting coolered a lot recently, because I start to trust my judgment less. I question whether I’m really beat or just seeing monsters under the bed.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds 25 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 (t6562)
MP3 (t18842)
CO (t9399)
Button (t1569)
SB (t4358)
BB (t5425)
UTG (t8312)
UTG+1 (t1171)
Hero (MP1) (t14061)

Hero’s M: 34.72

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A♥, Q♥
2 folds, Hero bets t300, 1 fold, MP3 calls t300, 2 folds, SB calls t240, 1 fold  Read the complete post...