Hi guys,

I just finished a 6 hour session at a local casino. While my memory is still fresh, I thought it might be a good idea to post some hands I played today which I was unsure about.

Some of the hands may be simple to you all experts but I am just a beginner so I really would appreciate any feedback. Thanks in advance.

ALL THE HANDS BELOW ARE PLAYED AT THE LIMIT OF $2/$4.


Hand 1:

Position & Stack Size: MP $250; Villain (SB) $175; Hero (BB) $300

SB is an OK regular who has a tight-aggressive style.

Pre-flop:
MP limps, SB completes and I check with A2o

Should I raise here?

Pot: $12
Flop: A75

SB checks, Hero bets $7 (I think the bet sizing is OK, just over half the pot with top pair weak kicker), MP folds and SB calls. (Maybe he is on a flush draw or hit middle pair? I don't think he has an Ace here as he didn't raise pre-flop)

Pot: $26
Turn: A752

SB leads out for $20, I call the $20 (I was feeling pretty good about hitting top & bottom pair but just call for pot control.)

Pot: $66
River: A7529

SB checks. Should I check behind or bet half pot for value?


Hand 2:

Position & Stack Size: Villain (MP) $150; Hero (MP+1) $480.

MP is a very tight passive player, I have seen him limps with KK pre-flop twice.

Pre-flop: MP limps for $4 I raise to $16 with A9 Folded to villain who makes the call.

Pot: $38
Flop: A68

MP checks, I bet $20 and he re-raises to $50 with around $80 behind.

(I was really happy with the flop, top pair medium kicker and nut flush draw, at this point, I put him on at least an Ace with a strong kicker if not he must have flopped a set, pretty sure he doesn't have 68 for two pairs)

Should I call his raise and re-evaluate on the Turn or just move in? I ended up shoving on the flop and he snap called. The reason I chose to shove was because I didn't want a spade to hit the turn or river and that will kill the action.


Hand 3:

Position & Stack Size: Villain (CO) $200; Hero (BB) has him covered.

CO is a regular at the casino who has a tight aggressive style.

CO raises to $15 and I re-raise to $40 with QQ (Is my bet sizing reasonable?)

CO calls.

Flop: A 7 2 rainbow. I didn't know what to do. Should I C bet here or check to see what villain does?


Hand 4:

Stack Size & Position: Hero (Lojack) $250; Villain (Button) has me covered.

Villain is a regular who has a pretty loose passive style.

I raise to $16 with KK & villain calls from the button.

Flop: 1084

I bet $25 and villain min-raise to $50.

I call (Not sure if I should have raised, he could have easily hit a set and was trying to extract value or he could have hit top pair with a good kicker. Not very likely that he will have two pairs or a straight draw, flush draw is possible i think)

Turn: 10849
I check as I didn't want to build a big pot with just an overpair. He bets $75. I only have two options here: to go all in or fold.

What do you think I should do?


Hand 5:

Stack Size & Position: Villain (UTG) $500; Hero (CO) $450; another player is in MP with $85

Villain in UTG position is very tight, hasn't played a hand in the past hour and plays quite straightforward.

Villain raises to $25 (this is considered a very big raise at this table, I put him on AA, KK, QQ & maybe AK, not eliminating JJ or TT but I thought the big raise from him represents really big hand)

Player in MP raises all in to $85. This player sits down not long ago and I do not have much information on him.

I have QQ. What should I do here? Re-raise or just call? I was really concerned about villain in UTG who raised so big pre-flop. With the range I put him on, the only time I will be ahead would be when he had AK.

HELP???

I am pretty new to this forum and not sure if it is OK to included five hands in one thread. I will do it anyway. If you think it is better to separate the hands in different threads please let me know for future.


Cheers.

Yes, please. You'll get few responses to this, and the won't be in-depth.

Checking your option pre is correct.
I probably check flop, but betting seems fine since the flop is so wet.
River I probably bet/fold for thin value: ~$25

Well-played imo.

check/evaluate

Fold to the described villain

This one is actually pretty close if UTG really is that tight. Can see arguments for all of raise/call/fold

Thanks Garick. One hand a thread?

Deffo put one hand per post.

Hand 1:

Villain's play is strange on the turn. He doesn't represent much strength since he check/called flop. If he had two-pair or a set he'd have bet the drawy flop, probably Ace-rag should bet flop too. Check/call looks like he is drawing at a straight or flush on flop. When he leads the turn for 20 into 26 it seems too big for a blocking bet to keep the street cheap with a draw.

I'm going to make quite a narrow read and put villain on A2 Axcc 22 and 43s. Not much else makes sense of his flop and turn play. I'm interested to see what others think this V's turn leading range is...

I'm not sure what to do vs the turn bet to be honest. If my range for V is correct I should fold my 2-pair but that seems ludicrously nitty. I just can't think what other hands do this unless V messed up A7/A5 big AX or a set on the flop.

Can he have any bluffs in his range? I guess he could miscount the pot and bet a bit big with a bare flush draw while intending to bet half pot or less.

In game I probably call the turn. When the river brings the flush and V checks I'm just going to check behind and find out what he's got because I don't think I get called by a lot worse, he could be setting a weird trap and, basically he's weird and I don't like it!


Hand 2:

Pot is 108 and villain has 80 behind. All V's value hands are favourites against which you have between 9 and 12 outs. 9 outs vs sets (though they have redraws to fill up). 12 outs vs AK/AQ. V has 7 combos sets and 8-16 of AK/AQ. That averages out around 42% equity.

If you shove you risk 30+80=110 to win 108+80=188. Pot odds + implied odds are less than 2 to 1 (1.7 to 1), you need considerably better than 50% equity to call, nearly 59% (from 110/188) just to break even. You will only win around 42% (assuming V never folds which is almost certain given his stack and his minraise). You cannot shove profitably.

However, it is only 30 to call into a pot of 108. You need to win more frequently than 30/(30+108) to profit from your call. That is 22% of the time. Your odds of drawing to a flush on the next card are around 20% so you nearly have the direct pot odds to draw.

It gets complicated if you assume you have 3 nines as outs vs his AK/AQ. Trouble is you won't know if you're ahead or not with two-pair so I'd be conservative and ignore those outs when calling.

With direct odds so close to being profitable and position I'd call and evaluate turn. If villain has a strong hand he will struggle to fold even if the flush comes on turn.


Hand 3:

Open is to 15 so just under 4bb. Doesn't tell us much but it is not over big so we don't immediately need to worry he has too strong a range, particularly given he's in a steal position. I 3bet here every time with QQ and only 50bb stacks.

Being OOP I'd 3bet to at least 3x, often 4x so 45 to 60. Smaller is better when you are IP and have a big edge postflop - it keeps more dominated hands in and gives you a better chance of winning a big pot. OOP and <= 100bb deep I just want to build a big enough pot I can get it in on favourable flops/turns. You have to consider how tight V 4bets before you decide whether you are 3bet/5bet shoving when <= 100bb deep. I usually think KK+ for 4bets IP so I'd fold to a tight player's 4bet with 100bb but at 50bb I'd shove my QQ and cross my fingers.

On the flop you get the worst card, an Ace. Betting turns your hand into a bluff, villain continues AX and folds everything else.

This is weird because it is a bluff that can't actually make better hands fold (except maybe an ultra conservatively played KK, I.e. almost never folds better!). Can you check and get a good outcome for the hand? Probably not. Villain is IP and will realise you don't have an Ace. Therefore if he bets you are open to making either calling or folding mistakes and basically you can't win except against a totally ABC player who just checks down with all his pairs < Aces. That or you have some ridic read on a bluffy opponent so you can x/c to showdown and be profitable.

Therefore I suggest you consider betting even though you cant be calmed by worse and can't fold better. I suggest this because players often play very fit/fold vs cbets in 3bet pots. Thus you can possibly cbet just to pick up the pot. It depends on his preflop calling range and whether he obliges us by fit/folding the flop.

If his calling range vs a 3bet contains a lot of AX your cbet will be unprofitable. If he has hardly any AX your cbet might work often enough to be profitable.

IP villain can call a 3bet wider but at 50bb effective stacks he should be pretty tight since you have to be tight. V doesn't have odds to set mine you so, if he's tight he probably calls QQ-99 AK maybe AQ/AJs/KQs and maybe KK. That gives him 19-25 combos of pairs and 12 to 27 combos AX. Let's assume he has roughly half AX and half pocket pairs or suited Broadway. If he folds all non AX hands on flop then you can expect folds half the time you cbet.

If you bet 1/2 pot you have to get folds 1/(1+2)% to profit from your bluff. I.e. Villain has to fold > 1/3 of the time for a 1/2 pot bluff to be profitable.

I would bet/fold just under half pot and then x/f, x/f if called.


Hand 4:

Tough hand. Villain is loose and passive so he has a wide range going to the flop but his raising range is pretty narrow. It will depend a lot on exactly how passive he really is and it doesn't sound like we have that exact info.

If he flats QQ/JJ preflop he can decide to raise the flop with them. Maybe some strong TX. I assume he raises sets and 2-pair. Surely if he is passive he is not raising draws.

I put V on QQ JJ AT T8 44 88 and TT and a handful of nut flush draws. That's 24 combos you crush, 9 2-pair combos you have some equity against (6 outs twice and 3 outs once for 30% equity) and 9 sets against which you have 2 outs and 8% equity.

You are ahead a little of that range now but if he narrows his betting range over turn and river you may not be ahead that often by showdown if he keeps betting. However you are definitely getting good odds to call now so I call flop.

We're not so far ahead of V's range that I want to build a bug pot though so I'm thinking on turn I may lead small to try and keep the pot under control. Downside is V may interpret it as a blocking bet with a draw and shove on us. Therefore on balance I think I like to check and see what he bets on turn.

75 on turn isn't a crazy big bet by comparison to his 50 on flop. I start to feel like we may be up against only a 1-pair hand quite a lot here. Id really expect 2-pair+ to go a bit bigger and get value before the flush draw comes in on turn. I think you went for the shove at this point and got called by AT or QQ/JJ or the nut flush draw (though I expect that to mainly check back the turn to make use of his free card). Probably not a bad move if you put him on the same range as I do.


Hand 5:

I'd be kind of happy to make a tight fold here with a known nitty UTG opening to 6bb still to act after you.

I wouldn't call because UTG could raise you off your hand to isolate the allin shortstack. He could do this with AK, your hand or even JJ as well as KK+. You'd have to fold and it could be a mistake. If I did continue I'd minraise and fold to a shove from UTG.

^ that was a bit tedious on my phone and shows why 1-hand per thread is best.

Hope some of that helps. Don't take it as gospel though - I'm no expert and you likely won't get many others analysing what I said and pointing out where I've been stupid!

Let me know if you spot any errors or have any questions though.

YOU ARE AWESOME! I am sorry to have crammed all hands in one thread but I do appreciate you taking the time to type your reply. It must have been a mission trying to do that on a phone.

It already help me heaps after the first read. I will carefully analyze what is in your post and post any questions I have here. To get more responses from others, I will spread those hands into a few threads.

Thanks again and I hope you have a great day.

Hi Ragequit99,

I finally got time to sit down to re-read your post. Really love your analysis. Very thorough.

I ended up calling his turn bet. A third flush card on the river and he checked. I bet $35 and he called. He showed 34o for a made straight on the turn.

I think my turn call was OK but definitely should have checked behind on the river. I realize my error immediately when I put out the river bet. =(

Anyway, lesson learned and definitely learned heaps from your reply.


Cheers.

Another great analysis. I ended up shoving on the flop. He snap call and showed AKo. I missed.

**** happens but really like your suggested play.

What is the best approach to learn how to calculate hand combos quickly? Is there any tools I can use?

Great read. I did shove on the turn and villain showed A9 Another diamond card on the river.

Hand 2 is complicated by the fact that villain will limp even his strongest hands so we can't be sure what they have. The flush draw adds value so it's a tough situation. I normally like getting it in with this hand, but facing a check raise from a tight player I'd likely call and re-evaluate. Another play if they are really tight is to call flop and shove turn even if you miss as some scare cards may come out on the turn even if you don't improve... I rarely bluff but maybe possible here?