$1/$2 NL

Hero: Mid-twenties, just moved to the table. Bought in for the minimum $40/20bb. Moved all in on a "live $8" for $40 with 89os. Live $8 calls $40. Hero hits two pair on the flop and doubles up.

Hero is UTG+1 raises $12 with AKdd. Folds around to SB who calls with ~$60/30bb.

Flop comes Justin Beiber: Xbaby, Xbaby, Xbaby OOH! two diamonds on the flop.

SB insta-all in for ~$48. Hero thinks for 5 seconds and calls. V flips over AJos. Turn blanks, river is a diamond. Hero takes it down. Stack is now ~$140.

Hero (~$140) in the cut-off with QQ raises to $12.

V1 on button (covers Hero+V2 with ~$350): Early 40's regular, winning player, calls $12.
V2 in the blinds (~$100): Mid 50's, somewhat fishy, losing rec player, calls $12.

Pot $32+$4rake
Flop: 6d Jc 7s (rainbow)

V2 checks, Hero bets $28, V1 calls, V2 folds.

At this point I put V1 on three jacks.

Pot is ~$88

Turn 5s

Hero announces all-in for ~$100.

Thoughts?

It's always interesting to put someone on a specific hand that they lose to and then proceed to jam it in anyways.

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this must be a level.

Wasn't that funny. I give it a C-

Not a level... Everytime I post a HH someone thinks I'm leveling. :sigh:

My first thought was that he had JJ. About the time V2 folded and the dealer was burning a card I no longer felt that way.

it's almost impossible to win at poker buying in for the minimum.

It's even more impossible not buying in at all. I just won ~$100 buying in for the minimum, remember?

I think you played the hand fine, for a couple of spesific reasons.

But i wont reveal exactly why i think you played it fine before you have told me whats your own thoughts about:

1)The C-bet on the flop.

2) Ship on the turn.

What kind of range do you put villain on when he calls the flop and what do you want to accomplish by shipping the turn?

Edit: Because IF you indeed put villain of set of jacks, its suicide to ship the turn.

I C-bet the flop for value because it's a pretty dry board and I'm hoping that someone hit the jack, preferably V2 who's less likely to fold TP than V1 might be, although I'm sure he would call the $28 with TPGK+ as well.

I shipped the turn because the board is getting heavier and I don't want JX or a PP to catch up to me. This is no longer a value bet but I'm still okay with a call from any JX hand.

Yeah, we share many of the same thoughts i can see.

When you get called on the flop, a big portion of villains callingrange is big J kind of hands like QJ or KJ- or even AJ.

The turn is also a bet mostly for value the way i see it, because a hand like AJ will have a big time folding on that board. +pot is big enough now that we are more than happy taking it down on the turn. Villain can level themself into thinking your trying once more to bluff at the pot with whiffed AQ/AK with your turn ship, thats another benefit with that kind of bet.

For his range at first I put him on a set and then I started to feel like I was up against a bigger PP and being trapped. I shipped the turn because if he flats my $12 raise pre-flop with KK+ then good for him. I honestly don't see him doing this very often.

Neither one of those lines made sense so I shipped it.

Hi there, and good luck in your poker journey.
I have a few questions for you to perhaps help you on your journey as a player.

What is your reason for buying in short? There are certainly reasons that it can be profitable, and if any of those were the reasons then it's one thing. But if you are buying in short because you are hoping to get lucky, then that's not really a good strategy. It is going to be hard in the long term to show a profit if you are short stacking and you are not familiar with the proper types of hands to be shoving in with pre flop and post flop.


This part confuses me a little bit.
You say that he has 3 jacks, but then you shove all of your money in.
That's clearly a bad idea.
He is never folding with 3 jacks. Also, we should really get out of the habit of trying to put people on one specific hand. We should try to get into the habit of putting people on a range of hands. Such as: he could have JJ, 77, 66, 89, 54, AJ, KJ, QJ, JT, 76, and a few other hands. Then we can decide what our best course of action really is.

It's important to not be worried about people out drawing us. That happens sometimes. What is important is making people pay an incorrect price to draw out, and realizing that we profit when they do. If we think that he has QJ for example, there are 5 cards that can come to give him the best hand. Out of the 45 unseen cards, he has a 1 in 9 chance to improve.

That means that if he gets less than 8:1 in combined implied odds and direct odds he will always make a mistake in calling. We an afford to make a half pot sized bet, let him call, and then shove the river.

Even if he calls the turn, and hits on the river and we pay him off, he still made a mistake. He still only gets ~5:1 on his money. This is an idea that will help us in the future, and will help us when we get drawn out on. When we recognize that they made a mistake, and just got lucky, we can just chuckle to our self, and remember that in the long run, we made money with our play and eventually we will get it all back and more.

Thank you for your post. I'll put more thought on hand ranges from now on. Your post kind of clarified that sort of thinking for me and I had an epiphany.

I have horrible BRM. I bought in short because I only had ~$300 at the time. (Figured 6 short buys were better than 1.5 full ones)

The reality is that if you have only $300 to play with you are going to have to get lucky at least 4 - 5 times for your entire stack before you will likely have a semi reasonable bank roll to play with.

Lucky can mean dodging a 12 out draw twice, having QQ hold against AKs aipf, flopping a set against a pre flop raise, not running KK into AA or a host of other things that are less pleasant and common.

Until you reach at least $2,000 it's all just a big game of 'can I run good for long enough before I run bad' because no matter how good you are, it's likely that you will go through a 10 Buy In down swing at some point in your journey. It's just a question of ' will it be now or later?'

I would recommend trying to do one of two things:
Get a few more buy ins if possible.
Buy in for $150 and pray.

Short stacking esp without the proper knowledge will only increase your variance and given your limited bankroll will likely result in certain busting.