For those who don’t know, LAGtard refers to a player who is loose and aggressive to a fault. He’s often a reasonably smart and tricky opponent who just gets too fancy and ends up making some fundamental mistakes such as playing too many pots out of position or calling too many 3-bets with weak hands.
I was really in the mood yesterday for a grinding session, where I just open like 8 tables of 5/10 NL and play until my eyes crust over. Unfortunately, the 5/10 games on FTP lately have been a real rock garden, and it was tough to find tables where I felt I had an appreciable edge. This opponent was the reason I was at this table. Here are all of the 3-bet pots we played, in order:
The Fake Overbet Check-Raise Bluff Representing a Draw
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
SB: $1,110
BB: $1,659
Hero (UTG): $1,000
MP: $985
CO: $1,000
BTN: $1,531.50
Pre-Flop: K
K
dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $35, 2 folds, BTN raises to $120, 2 folds, Hero calls $85
Flop: ($255) 3 4
5 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $180, Hero raises to $880 and is All-In, BTN folds
Results: $615 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero mucked K K and WON $612 (+$312 NET)
This was my first orbit at the table. Had we had a longer history of pre-flop aggression and had I not been UTG, I’d often 4-bet KK, particularly when out of position. This is a really nice flop to check-raise all in, though, since I could take the same line with something AK or Jh Th. I think I get called by a lot of pocket pairs here, but I guess that’s not what LAGtard had.
Bad Flop Worse Turn
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
BTN: $1,010
SB: $1,644
Hero (BB): $1,441
UTG: $977
MP: $1,000
CO: $1,216.50
Pre-Flop: Q Q
dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG calls $10, MP folds, CO raises to $45, BTN calls $45, SB folds, Hero raises to $201, UTG folds, CO calls $156, BTN folds
Flop: ($462) K 9 8 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $270, Hero calls $270
Turn: ($1,002) A (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $745.50 and is All-In, Hero folds
Results: $1,002 Pot ($3 Rake)
CO mucked and WON $999 (+$528 NET)
This is a rough spot. QQ is actually much stronger than what I need to have to make a squeeze play against a LAGtard who’s raising to isolate a limper. I fully expect LAGtard to know that and not give up easily, and I would have happily gotten my QQ all in pre-flop. In fact, given that he and I were 120 BB deep here, I think I should have made my re-raise size a little larger.
Nasty flop, too. I definitely think LAGtard is capable of calling something like KJ pre-flop, but I also expected him to make a move on the flop if he didn’t hit anything since he has good reason to think I’m FOS. I was hoping to let him bluff at it, but I then I get an awful turn, too, and I just felt his range was too wide for me to call a shove. It’s actually kind of close, but I reconciled myself with the thought that I’d take the same line with AK on this board and stack him.
You Bet My Hand
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
BTN: $1,000
SB: $1,846
Hero (BB): $1,250.75
UTG: $946
MP: $1,052
CO: $2,495.25
Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, CO raises to $35, 2 folds, Hero raises to $125, CO calls $90
Flop: ($255) Q J J (2 Players)
Hero bets $175, CO calls $175
Turn: ($605) 5 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $390, Hero calls $390
River: ($1,385) 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $1,385, Hero calls $560.75 and is All-In
Results: $2,506.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A A (two pair, Aces and Jacks) and WON $2,503.50 (+$1,252.75 NET)
CO showed A Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks) and LOST (-$1,250.75 NET)
Because he’s a smart LAGtard, I can play my hand like this without losing value against stuff like AQ. There’s no way I can avoid losing my ass to this guy if he outflopped me, so my only concern is keeping as many weaker hands as I can in his stack-off range. He’d seen me check medium strength hands for pot control before, so I think betting this flop actually suggests it might be a bad one for me, such that he can call with almost anything.
Especially with my club draw, turn is an easy check to let him bluff at the flush. I maybe should have just check-raised all in. This might be giving him too much credit, but I didn’t think he’d bet here with something like TT. I felt he’d have either a hand that would probably stack off to me on the river anyway (AQ, KK), a better hand than mine (again, doesn’t matter what I do), or a bluff. I was hoping that my check-call and then river check would give him a chance to bluff shove the river even though it would be only a half-pot bet since I might have something like AcK planning on folding. The important thing is that I didn’t think I was losing value against something like AQ because I fully expected him to “value bet” it for me. One can’t make the same assumption against more passive players.
The only thing that occurs to me now is that I probably do lose my action from AQ if a fourth club comes on the river. I probably should have just check-raised all in on the turn.
Of Course You Do
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
MP: $1,349
CO: $950
Hero (BTN): $2,433.50
SB: $1,127
BB: $1,052
UTG: $1,088.50
Pre-Flop: J J dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG raises to $35, 2 folds, Hero raises to $120, 2 folds, UTG calls $85
Flop: ($255) Q 8 9 (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero checks
Turn: ($255) 7 (2 Players)
UTG bets $170, Hero calls $170
River: ($595) K (2 Players)
UTG bets $420, Hero folds
Results: $595 Pot ($3 Rake)
UTG mucked and WON $592 (+$302 NET)
Such a gross spot. I really think I should just fold the turn without the Jd. Even with position, the board is just too ugly and my opponent too aggressive for me to expect an easy decision on the river. I think the flop check is fine and standard, but this is just too bad of a turn for me.