Originally dated February 3, 2008
(Because I haven't played any poker since I set up this profile/blog, I decided to include a hand that I played and wrote about a few months ago.)
In a $0.10-$0.20 cash game, the following hand came up: We were four-handed at the time, and effective stack sizes for myself and my opponents were about $40. I was on the small blind, and it folded to me. My opponent, Marc, who was on the big blind, definitely qualified as a loose/aggressive player who liked to raise, especially because he knows me to be a tighter player, so I flat-call for $0.10 more with the two kings. Marc raises it up to $0.70. I call, continuing the slowplay (I don't just want to win $0.70 with this hand!). The pot is now $1.40. The flop comes 9-7-2 rainbow.
Since this is a near-perfect flop for my hand, I check, hoping to get a bet out of him. Marc obliges and bets $0.85. I raise to $2.25 (is this too soon to raise in this spot?). He calls. At this point, the pot contains $5.90, and we each have about $37 left. The turn is a trey.
I think that maybe Marc has something like nines, sevens, eights, tens, jacks, or queens. I bet $4. He raises to $10 (pot now $19.90, I have $33.15 left). I reraise all-in, and he folds.
In retrospect, there is a lot to analyze about this hand. This is what I've come up with so far, in particular with reference to the play on the turn:
On 4th street, I reraised Marc all of my chips ($27.15 on top of his raise), giving him about 2:1 pot odds to call. Should I have played it differently, just calling Marc's raise, or reraising a smaller amount, such as $10 more (giving him 3.5:1)? If I call, we go to the river with effective stacks of $27 and a pot of nearly the same, at $25.90. If I raise to $20 and Marc calls me, we see the river with stacks of $17 and a $45.90 pot - a virtual guarantee that the money will go in (but does he make the call on 4th with a hand my kings beat?).
A lot of what decides the best play on the turn is what kind of bet Marc could call. He's somewhat of a maniac-style player, which makes it a bit tough to put him on a hand, but I did feel my kings were good. After all, it was nearly an ideal board for my hand, and if he flopped a set, he'd probably reraise me right there on the flop after I made it $2.25.
I suppose that the biggest reason I opted to raise all-in on 4th street was the size of the pot. After all, "Win the big pots right away" is the name of Chapter 9 of The Theory of Poker. Among other things, it advises that it is "almost never correct to give a free card" in a big pot.
An added bonus of the all-in reraise is that, since I know him to be a loose and reckless player, there's an outside chance I'll get a call from the kind of one-pair hand I suspected he held after the flop action. And I'm a huge favorite over those hands, since Marc would be drawing to 5 outs or less with one card coming.
If he was on a crazy bluff, he may have fired a fourth shell on the river, but that's not too likely.
Currently reading : Professional No-Limit Hold ’em: Volume I By Matt Flynn
Release date: 20 July, 2007
(Because I haven't played any poker since I set up this profile/blog, I decided to include a hand that I played and wrote about a few months ago.)
In a $0.10-$0.20 cash game, the following hand came up: We were four-handed at the time, and effective stack sizes for myself and my opponents were about $40. I was on the small blind, and it folded to me. My opponent, Marc, who was on the big blind, definitely qualified as a loose/aggressive player who liked to raise, especially because he knows me to be a tighter player, so I flat-call for $0.10 more with the two kings. Marc raises it up to $0.70. I call, continuing the slowplay (I don't just want to win $0.70 with this hand!). The pot is now $1.40. The flop comes 9-7-2 rainbow.
Since this is a near-perfect flop for my hand, I check, hoping to get a bet out of him. Marc obliges and bets $0.85. I raise to $2.25 (is this too soon to raise in this spot?). He calls. At this point, the pot contains $5.90, and we each have about $37 left. The turn is a trey.
I think that maybe Marc has something like nines, sevens, eights, tens, jacks, or queens. I bet $4. He raises to $10 (pot now $19.90, I have $33.15 left). I reraise all-in, and he folds.
In retrospect, there is a lot to analyze about this hand. This is what I've come up with so far, in particular with reference to the play on the turn:
On 4th street, I reraised Marc all of my chips ($27.15 on top of his raise), giving him about 2:1 pot odds to call. Should I have played it differently, just calling Marc's raise, or reraising a smaller amount, such as $10 more (giving him 3.5:1)? If I call, we go to the river with effective stacks of $27 and a pot of nearly the same, at $25.90. If I raise to $20 and Marc calls me, we see the river with stacks of $17 and a $45.90 pot - a virtual guarantee that the money will go in (but does he make the call on 4th with a hand my kings beat?).
A lot of what decides the best play on the turn is what kind of bet Marc could call. He's somewhat of a maniac-style player, which makes it a bit tough to put him on a hand, but I did feel my kings were good. After all, it was nearly an ideal board for my hand, and if he flopped a set, he'd probably reraise me right there on the flop after I made it $2.25.
I suppose that the biggest reason I opted to raise all-in on 4th street was the size of the pot. After all, "Win the big pots right away" is the name of Chapter 9 of The Theory of Poker. Among other things, it advises that it is "almost never correct to give a free card" in a big pot.
An added bonus of the all-in reraise is that, since I know him to be a loose and reckless player, there's an outside chance I'll get a call from the kind of one-pair hand I suspected he held after the flop action. And I'm a huge favorite over those hands, since Marc would be drawing to 5 outs or less with one card coming.
If he was on a crazy bluff, he may have fired a fourth shell on the river, but that's not too likely.
Currently reading : Professional No-Limit Hold ’em: Volume I By Matt Flynn
Release date: 20 July, 2007
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