Posts Tagged ‘squeeze play’

A commenter on yesterday’s re-squeeze hand remarked that even at high stakes he felt like Villain would pretty much always have AK when he overcalled the first pre-flop raise and then shoved over a re-raise and a call. Having just played this hand, I couldn’t resist posting it:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($400)
BB ($400)
UTG ($385.80)
MP ($484.40)
CO ($515.90)
Hero (Button) ($421.90)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, 10
2 folds, CO bets $12, Hero calls $12, SB raises to $52, 1 fold, CO calls $40, Hero raises to $421.90 (All-In), 2 folds

Total pot: $160 | Rake: $0

Results:
Hero didn’t show K, 10.
Outcome: Hero won $160

Granted I wasn’t an overcaller, which means I can rep a monster more credibly, but then the pot’s also a lot smaller, meaning my risk: reward ratio is greater and I shouldn’t be light as often.

Villain, a decent reg, ridiculed my call here, but I think he was just tilted. I need less than 40% equity, and while he can maybe have QQ here, I’d say he has KK+ and AK pretty much never (note that he’s the second caller of the initial raise).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($2000)
Hero (BB) ($2000)
UTG ($1890)
MP ($1370)
CO ($2000)
Button ($2107)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, Q
UTG bets $60, MP calls $60, CO calls $60, 2 folds, Hero raises to $300, 1 fold, MP calls $240, CO raises to $2000 (All-In), Hero calls $1700 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: ($4370) Q, 6, 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($4370) 4 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($4370) 6 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $4370 | Rake: $3  Read the complete post...

75/150 I limp UTG with Ac Qc. Folds to the SB, who completes, and BB checks.

Flop Js Td 9s. Checks to me, I bet 300, SB calls. I think he can have any pair and even a few draws that I’m beating.

Turn 2d. He checks, I bet 900 expecting him to fold anything worse than a pair of Jacks that doesn’t also have a draw.

River 6h. He checks, I bet 1400 expecting him to fold most of his one pair hands. He calls with J9, which is fine.

75/150, I have been very tight but choose to raise to 450 with Jc9c in MP. Jon calls on my left, bad player calls on the CO, spazzy guy calls on the Button, blinds fold.

Flop Js Td 8s. Checks around to button, who bets 600. I call, the others fold.

Turn 6c, we both check.  Read the complete post...

The table started out pretty soft, with only two players I recognized at the table. Unfortunately, Jon “fatalerror” Aguiar and Bill Chen were on my immediate left. Bill didn’t get involved in too many pots, but Jon sure did.

Early on, I raised 55 on my CO and called a 3-bet from a fishy player in the BB. I made a questionable call on a 932 flop, then turned a 5 to stack his KK.

The table kept getting tougher, with Amnon Fillippi and a few other solid players (but also Dennis Phillips) filling empty seats. A tight-bad player open limped for 300, I made it 1300 with QQ, Jon called, and Amnon shoved 15K from the Button. I reshoved without much thought but ran into AA.  Read the complete post...

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (3 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($500)
Button ($2080)
Hero (SB) ($2060)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 3, 5
1 fold, Hero bets $40, BB raises to $100, Hero calls $60

Flop: ($200) 6, 7, 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $400 (All-In), Hero calls $400

Turn: ($1000) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($1000) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $1000 | Rake: $1

Results:
Hero had 3, 5 (flush, seven high).
BB had K, 4 (flush, King high).
Outcome: BB won $999

The next orbit, vs. same guy:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (4 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($1136)
Button ($1000)
SB ($1970)
Hero (BB) ($2000)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, Q
UTG bets $30, Button calls $30, 1 fold, Hero raises to $133, UTG calls $103, 1 fold  Read the complete post...

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the importance of understanding how much equity your hand has against your opponent’s range, and a lot of people have quite reasonably asked how to figure that out at the table, when Poker Stove is unavailable or impractical. Thus, my January article for 2+2 Magazine is an example of how to use rough estimates to make real-time decisions and in particular how to recognize the factors that cause your equity to be what it is in a given spot. Here’s an excerpt:

“Interestingly, if Villain has a one-pair hand, he barely affects our equity at all. If we assume that the big blind has 87, then letting the middle position player stay in the pot with 65 costs us only about 3.5% equity. This is because unless Villain’s kicker dominates one of Hero’s pair outs (i.e., unless Villain has something like T7 or A6 that kills one of our outs), then he will rarely affect the outcome of the hand. Either Hero draws out to a hand that beats both of his opponents, or he does not improve, in which case he would have lost to the big blind whether or not the third player was in the pot.”  Read the complete post...

Let me say up front that I don’t think I played this particularly well. Nevertheless, I think there’s some interesting discussion to be had here.

This hand was from the Poker Stars $500 weekly. Villain is Roothlus, a very successful MTT pro who teaches at Poker X Factor and is sponsored by Ultimate Bet (but let’s not go there right now). He’s smart but definitely on the TAG/nitty side. He knows and respects me and probably has a good idea of how I expect him to play. MP is a random fish.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t11755)
SB (t7968)
BB (t9775)
UTG (t28380)
UTG+1 (t7255)
Hero (MP1) (t21954)
MP2 (t8381)
MP3 (t11250)
CO (t6950)

Hero’s M: 73.18

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, K
2 folds, Hero bets t555, MP2 calls t555, MP3 raises to t2300, 4 folds, Hero calls t1745, 1 fold  Read the complete post...

This is a rare situation, so I can’t promise you’ll get a chance to use it, but it’s a fun brag:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($1000)
Hero (CO) ($1272)
Button ($1000)
SB ($1090.30)
BB ($1479)
UTG ($2129.15)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7, 6
2 folds, Hero bets $30, Button raises to $100, 1 fold, BB calls $90, Hero calls $70

Flop: ($305) 10, 3, 8 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($305) J (3 players)
BB bets $130, Hero calls $130, Button calls $130

River: ($695) 5 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $444, 2 folds

Total pot: $695 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero didn’t show 7, 6 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $692  Read the complete post...