Like other posters, I loved the section in the new book on reasons for betting. Best poker advice I have ever received.
I decided to check and see if the advice helped me understand a situation which has been troubling since I played the hand in Vegas this June. Here is the hand as posted in the Red Chip Poker forum.
"
Playing a 5/10 game at Aria today (June 24) and have :Ac :Tc on the Button. ESS=1600
Good European player opens under the gun for 30. 1 call ahead of me and I call. Three to the flop. Pot=90.
Flop is :Kh :Qc :7c . UTG bets 60. Fold. I raise to 210.
UTG reraised to 525. I shove. Comments on this line?
Reviewing on Flopzilla, I put his range after the 3bet as
AA, KK, QQ, 77, any AK, any KQs and :Kc :Jc .
Against this range, my hand has 40% equity. With about 1000 behind, none of my options are appealing.
very hard to fold this strong a draw
a call allows him to put pressure on me if I miss turn but allows me to get away if the board pairs (it did)
shove is only slightly+ EV
Seems best in retrospect to assume he has some weak bluffs in his range and shove.
Comments and opinions welcome"
The comments I received suggested that my line was high variance and I shouldn't make the post flop raise. I wondered about the implications of the high SPR.
However, it all seems very clear to me after reading Matt's betting advice; i.e.
when villain makes his c-bet of 60 into a pot of 90 with about 1600 behind, I definitely have good reasons to bet on both criteria:
- growing the pot in case I win is clearly appropriate since I have a lot of equity and remaining stacks are large
- there are a lot of hands which I can get to fold which have a lot of equity so this is definitely a good opportunity to get villain to surrender equity
Now when villain 3bets to 525, the situation changes dramatically:
- I no longer want to grow this pot in case I win as while I still have quite a bit of equity I am usually behind
- I also cannot really expect villaing to surrender his equity on any of his strong hands so there is no value in trying to get a fold. He will only fold his bluffs and I am ahaed of these
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So I should call. If the turn bricks, I am likely going to have to give up my equity (if villain bets) but this is better than gambling my whole stack. This line also has the advantage of allowing me to escape if the board pairs on the turn (as it did).
Thanks Matt
Comments welcome