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That’s one incredible feat! To get a blunt ceramic chip to draw blood. The poker gods must’ve received your sacrifice and blessed you with Run-Good!
Good luck and stay safe Brad!
X/c would’ve been ok. I honestly like the bet on the river. Villain in this hand is laying you a very good price to call here. We just need to be right 1 of 4 times. He could be doing this with 2 pairs as well. But I know, at these stakes, the river is underbluffed. I don’t fault you for x/c or bet/call here.
Raising on the turn would probably not recommended. We still got players to act, with a board they can continue on.
Hey Brad,
I was having a bad session one night, playing in what I believed to be an easy $1-3 game for me. My ego got involved a bit during the session as well. I study really hard and believed that I got it in my head that I was better than my player pool.
I played in the $1-3 game waiting to get into a soft $2-5 game. I kept getting crushed with suited connectors, that make 2pair on the flop, that don’t hold. It was getting very annoying. I began to get frustrated with suited connectors, and then I got moved to my $2-5 game.
I got my seat, got my chips, but did not take a hand. I left to cool-off a bit. I had a little pep talk with myself and after feeling a little better, I got back into the game.
I sat down and was dealt my first hand at the table. QJo in MP.
UTG opens, UTG2 calls, UTG3 calls, and I call. Everyone else folds.
Flop: Q J 9 with 2 spades, we don’t have a spade.
UTG bets, UTG2 folds, UTG3 calls, and I raise. I wanted to get value from UTG possible over-pair and deny equity from any draws. A lot of hands in the other villains calling range can continue.
To my surprise, UTG folds, and UTG3 shoves. I snap call. UTG3 flips over K10, and we don’t improve.
I’m still embarrassed about what I did, to this day. I cussed so lot, the whole room heard. I had a bit of terets! I pushed my stack into the pot angrily to let them sort it out and stormed off with my bag.
I did not like how I handled the session at all =(. That is a time I lost it at the poker table. Nothing remotely close has happened again as I worked on this part of my game diligently.
I’m gonna start off with the game. Are you usually an online player or live player? Live $1/2 is not the same level as online $1/2, if I recall. Your competition is said to be tougher for online. Last I heard, online $1/2 is equivalent to live $5-10. You’d have to confirm yourself if this is still true.
Preflop: Even though your short-handed, this hand has a lot of reverse implied odds. Playing heads-up, in position against a strong range, and having the right odds are working for you. Calling here should be fine, but we’ve gotta tread carefully.
Flop: This board favors the villain’s range. Honestly, the villain should be betting here, because your calling range can continue on this board.
I don’t like your “probe” bet on the flop. At least the current school of thought doesn’t agree on “betting to see where you are at.” When villain check-calls here, he could have a draw that’s trying to get there cheaply and likely to out-kick us. If villian had an Ace here, I’m sure he would’ve bet, for the board is fairly wet, and he should be betting for value and deny equity.
Turn: So we make our flush. I like the bet after it is checked to you. You can get value from Jacks or a weak ace still.
River: That overbet is definitely not warranted. Sure, some players aren’t able to fold trip aces, but on this board texture, you will only get called by better. Worst hands, even trip aces, would have a hard time calling this overbet on the river. We want our opponent to call with weaker hands, but it’s really tough to find a weaker hand than ours, that will call the overbet.
Honestly, given the board, the run-out, we didn’t make an optimal decision on the river. I think an appropriate 1/2 – 2/3 pot bet would’ve been fine, and easy to get away when check-raised. Our actual hand is just too vulnerable here.
This is just a cooler. This is one of the toughest things a low stakes player has to learn how to deal with.
I agree with David, that preflop can go either way. You’re less than 100BB, and the effective stack. Squeezing would be an option, but you should have a plan to play streets if you the PFR calls.
Flat is also fine as well. However, for less than 100BB, on this board, multi-way, it would be very difficult to give this hand up.I think you should try out the tournaments, if they have them at your casino at first. That should get your feet wet with live poker.
1/3 or 1/2 games are generally soft, and good starting grounds. Just be mentally prepared to pay “tuition” as you learn how to play live games, where some people can take it too seriously. Good luck out there
John S got this on all points.
I like the flop raise and the amount. We have top set, which makes it less likely the villain has top-pair here. The board is draw heavy and we need to deny-equity making it unprofitable for them.
When the obvious draw comes in, it becomes a math problem from there. It sucks to brick out on the river and lost a pot. However, given the river-odds, I’d be giving this villain a “Thank you” note for making it this cheap!
This looks to be a very nitty game.
Preflop, I think we can raise a bit higher with all the dead money in the middle.
I think how you played it from there is fine for the reasons you’ve given. We can’t always be scared of the set, we have a hand with reasonable equity on this board, and we have position.
The over-card came on the river, which is better for your range, and villain still shows strength. This is an easy exploitative fold in my opinion.
You lost the minimum here. Nice fold.
Nice John! I agree as well, the thinking process is so vital, it’s also the #1 thing Johnnie and I worked on as well. If we’re not thinking, we’re just gambling =)
Reading and sharing hands really does help. The average line-up at the casino or card-rooms don’t even record or review hands.
It’s great you’re in that frame of mind, even if a set or straight/flush came. It is one of the hardest things to deal with, “playing it right and still losing.” This was one of the first replies you sent to me. Really hard to accept at first, but when we understand the underlying math, it gets easier.
I like the opening preflop with this hand.
We’re less than 100BB effective to start the hand. We flopped big on this draw heavy board and out of position. Villains only value hands are 5 combos of hands at we are behind on the flop. I’d like a raise for two-reason:
1) we can get value from Qx, Jx, pair plus back-door draws
2) deny his equity from: flush draws, staright-draws, 89hh, 109hh, AKhh (let me know if I missed anyting)I think a raise to $300 would be a good sizing, and a pot-size-jam on a safe turn would be the optimal play here.
I think it more important to play good poker than to use false tells or other fancy plays at these stakes.
I can understand your reasons to over-limp here, but we all seem to agree that a raise preflop should’ve been made.
The flop, as played, the effective stack is less than 100BB. This board favors the 3bettors range and is very draw-heavy. We have a strong but vulnerable hand here and this is a board that the villain would continue with if we raise. We get value from an Ace, two-pair. If the ace was not a club, we can get value from pair plus flush draw. I think raising on the flop and putting the rest in by the turn would’ve been fine.
The turn card was an okay card for us. Villian has all the AK combinations in his range. I agree with John, we’re stacking off here 100% of the time.
the underlying math changes when we are playing short-handed. One thing I try to do is just pretend the early positions, UTG, UTG+1 are not there. So you can open your range a little wider.
I don’t think you did anything wrong post flop. It’s very difficult to get max value when the board pairs, and you have an unbeatable hand. I do agree that you could’ve raised the flop. It’s very likely we get called by and Ax, straight and flush draws here. Our hand is still vulnerable to the draws and we want to raise for value and deny their equity as well.
As played, the donk-lead and caller in-between have a lot of bluff and draws in their range against your hand. No on will fault you for calling the flop and turn.
The pot is $90 by the river. The SB lead for $25 looks like he is scared of the board pairing and UTG throws in a reluctant call, so they are approaching this board with caution and trying to get a cheap showdown.
So the pot is now $140.
Jamming for $350 is a polarizing bet. You either got it or your bluffing, and more often than not, you got it and our hand is very face-up. You’d have to know your opponent very well to jam, for instance, if he was a calling station and never folding the nut-flush.
Your $75 raise is just over 1/2 bet. I think that is fine since you got them both to call. I would’ve chosen 2/3 or 3/4 pot. ~$100 in this spot. The SB would call and the UTG has the pot odds to call as well. Always try to bet or raise in relation to the pot.
I agree with John about going bigger to get one opponent to call instead of two. I don’t think at these stakes, people are folding nut flush facing a river raise.
As played, you got them both to call, where they clearly made a crying call. Nice hand.
Hi William. I think we’ve all been there and are guilty of it. It is a good thing that you are aware of it, while others are not and continue to make the same leaks. It’s important to stay discipline, especially when you are card dead or bored.
Player tendencies are important, but I think it’s much more important to focus on playing optimally. It sounds like that is what happened in Vegas.
Study hard and get feedback on your plays if you can. Would love to see you post hands here and help you improve your game.
Good luck and run good out there
