Hi All,

I'm not a complete noob but looking to move up from NL2 to NL5 (6 max) and develop my postflop play. I'd like advice on this hand on which I lost nearly all my stack. Did I play this badly or did I make good decisions and I was just the victim of probability?

Pre-flop, I raised 3BB in an early position with Kd Qb. One limper in a late position called my raise and the SB also called leaving me in between two these two villains.

The flop comes down 3c 4d Qc leaving me with a pair of Queens and a King kicker so I am feeling strong though I prefer to be up against a single opponent. I bet about 2/3 of the pot. Both villains call my bet.

Then 4c comes down on the the turn. So we've got

3c 4d Qc 4c

So I realised with hindsight with three clubs on the table that I was potentially up against a potential flush and there was a potential set of 4s also.

I bet around 2/3 pot again. The SB folded and the late position villain called.

5h comes down on the river leaving 3c 4d Qc 4c 5h.

Again I bet 2/3 of the pot and the villain called.

At showdown the villain shows
Ks 4s and so beats my pair of Queens with a set of 4s and that was pretty much all of my stack gone.

It seems to me that at NL2 players are so loose so often that I get lots of small-medium pots from playing tight and betting hard. In these circumstances, did I still do the right thing betting hard. If I had checked after the turn OOP, surely I'm showing weakness and inviting the villain to bet and therefore take control of the hand. I'd almost certainly fold then and wonder if I was losing a pot because I was afraid of shadows.

Thanks for any advice,

BJ

For me, ar NL2 the hand was played well pre, on flop and turn, but with 5 on river completing some SD (67) and gutshots (A2, why not even 26 as we are at NL2) which LPs players love to call all the way, i would either bet smaller or even check TP in this spot after milking the max on the previous two streets.

Probably the worst 6 max player that will comment I don't play it a lot cause I'm not comfortable/confident or good at it. Commenting so I can follow along and learn something hopefully lol.

FWIW though I like it all up too the river. That river is just an awful card for you and really should have saved you money. Even though in this case it had no affect on the end result. It should have been a huge scare card at least saving you from betting so much. I'd probably end up checking and folding to any decent sized bet. In hind sight you would have got a check down on the river.


Cheers!!!

It's been so long since I played poker that they've introduced a new suit?

Moved to beginners where you might get some better answers.

I am not entirely following your hand description. How can there be a late position limper? You opened to 3bb from early position; villain had no opportunity to limp. I will assume that you just meant LP villain called your raise.

With two villains, you must be careful, even with seemingly strong hands like top pair good kicker. This especially is true on a draw-heavy flop like this one. It also is true since villains at 2NL will likely call PF with a wide range and often will call Cbets with marginal combos, like second or even bottom pairs. I am not saying your cbet was bad, but IMO an argument could be made for a check/call flop line, or at the very least a smaller cbet sizing, maybe about 1/3 pot. That turn card was terrible for you, though. It completes the flush draw and gives 4x combos trips (not a set, BTW; a set is when a board card matches a pocket pair. It is a milieu stronger holding than trips). Those combos will make up a large part of villainsÂ’ ranges, and it is much more likely with two villains that it improved one of their hands. Slow down; you have top pair.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking top pair is strong on this turn. You were strong PF, so you raised - fine. You had top pair otf, which was strong but vulnerable, so you bet — more questionable but certainly not terrible. You became weak on the turn, so you bet? Not good. As played, river completes even more draws. What hands that beat you will fold to your river bet? What hands that you beat will call? There may be some of the latter at 2NL, but if you have hopes of moving up, you should realize that most villains are just not calling down three barrels on draw heavy boards with hands that cannot beat top pair good kicker. There are almost certainly no better hands that fold this river. If villain was chasing a straight draw and thought you had a flush, your turn bet would have gotten him to fold. Check/fold for both turn and river here

The low stakes are tricky because people will pretty much show up with anything - crap, even at NL50 I get people calling me down with nothing but A high, or chasing guy shots for their entire stack.

Honestly I think you need to tone down the aggression a bit, consider ranges more, and think about your bet sizing and what you want to accomplish with it.

On the flop, I don’t mind the 2/3rd pot bet since there are draws on the board. But I don’t really get the turn bet - seems like you will just get weaker to fold and stronger to call, and the only weaker that is going to call you really is Q with a lower kicker, but there are not too many combos of that - you might get a call from Ax of clubs, especially A2 or A5. But the majority of what is going to call you here is a flush (many combos of that which you do not block), a set and trips.

I would be that there are more combos of hands that beat you here than you beat. I would have either checked the turn or bet 1/3rd pot and evaluate.

Remember as good as your hand is - it is still just one high pair with a good kicked - there are much better spots to get the money in!

Brief and to the point. Your river bet was nothing short of horrendous.
When he called your turn bet what are you puting him on ?
Alarm bells should have been going off that he held 33, 44, A3, A4, X4
worse yet you are out of position and he is probably not calling with anything you are beating.

First step is for you to figure out the difference between a set of 4s and trip 4s and why the difference matters.

In my experience, villains at 2NL, can bet stuff like QJo, QTs, basically weaker Qx. I do agree that c/f is not a bad line at all for either turn/river.

KQ, definitely isn't strong enough to 3 barrel. It might be against some villains, and you might get called by maybe 99-JJ with a club, ott, but river I'm definitely slowing down.

This is solid advice. AQ is much better. Also, sizing.