hands like these...i just CANNOT detect them and this is a major leak in my game.

any tips or advice plz? anything i should try to look for?

Full Tilt Poker, $10 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Sit n' Go, 10/20 Blinds, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): 1,580
SB: 1,420

Pre-Flop: (30) 8 J dealt to Hero (BB)
SB calls 10, Hero raises to 60, SB calls 40

Flop: (120) 7 7 3 (2 Players)
Hero bets 80, SB calls 80

Turn: (280) J (2 Players)
Hero bets 190, SB raises to 850, Hero raises to 1,440 and is All-In, SB calls 430 and is All-In

River: (2,840) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 2,840 Pot
Hero showed 8 J (two pair, Jacks and Sevens) and LOST (-1,420 NET)
SB showed K 7 (three of a kind, Sevens) and WON 2,840 (+1,420 NET)

even if the board was not paired your play would be bad. you were beating a bluff and a bluff only.

the thing to remember about trips is that if flopped, then the board is paired (obviously), but the board being paired makes it unlikely the other person has flopped much. therefore most people slowplay them on the flop.

most people are also sensible enough to realise
1) trips are not unbeatable
2) they want some value
therefore most people stop slowplaying their trips as soon as they think they can get some action with them.

and so waking up on the turn is often slowplayed trips.

but all of that isnt really important. in poker hand strength is relative rather than absolute. instead of learning to detect trips, you need to learn to detect hands which are
1) stronger than yours
2) not folding to pressure

it makes little difference in the hand you mentioned if they had a full house or if they had trips, you really just need to learn if a hand is strong or not. hell most of the time its impossible to put villain on an exact hand, just a range.

a hopefully informative ramble.

Firstly on the flop, after you C-bet, you should be asking yourself "What could my opponent be calling with?" He would prob call with any 7,3z an over/under-pair in the hole,a flush draw, or even Ax. On the turn, u hit yr jack, and so u are ahead of MOST of his range, except trips or a jack with a better kicker. For him to raise to such a high amount, you have then to re-access what could he possibly have. This would be a 90% fold for me most of the time on the turn.

The key here is to be able to put your opponent on a hand.

"anything i should try to look for?"

The call on the flop.

Wow...talk about the basics. I've been going into more advance things and trying to do all these tricky maneuvers and calculations that i forgot to do one of the basics.

i think i'm going to create a list of things to be wary of and a list of things to think about and post a new thread so that people can critique it/add to it.


also...is there any other ways to see that he had trips?

though this is a clue, on paired boards opponents tend to also call with ace (or sometimes even king!) high or to try to take it away from you on the turn...so the call on the flop isn't always that informative. i definitely could have exercised better pot control even though i hit the jack.

"i definitely could have exercised better pot control even though i hit the jack."

cliche: big hand: big pot; small hand: small pot.

Basic, but ever so true.

This hand should have played itself. You would probably bet smallish on the turn and fold to the huge c/r, because you have a small hand that doesn't deserve a big pot.

If he called, you would check behind on the river, because a small hand deserves a small pot.

If you were called and rivered a jack, you would bet big, because a big hand deserves a big pot.

youre not going to get much better than clues. do you want a signpost?

there are other clues ie THE MASSIVE TURN RAISE. put all your clues together and you start getting a read.

Any reads yet? Standard for the most part except you should have probably chucked it to his turn raise unless you already had a read at this point that this guy is a total manaical spewmonkey. Also, do you always c-bet? Do you always raise preflop?

You are the BB?

Check pf, take a shot at the flop and shut down.

ciao.

even if he had J9 u'd lost the hand man. In this case I'd probably never wasted my time thinking about trips when I have a hand that J9+ beats I'm folding to big raises (obv u got what I mean).

His insta flat call on the flop scares me. You can't always assume your guy has trips, but more then not if they are going to put in a huge reraise on the turn, you can assume that your hand is beat. You can't lose what you don't put into the pot.

good advice all.

a huge leak of mine==on nonflushy/straighty boards, i assume top pair is good.