Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): $2,330
BB: $1,770
UTG: $1,854
UTG+1: $2,227
MP: $2,000
CO: $2,018.25
BTN: $2,000
Pre-Flop: A
K
dealt to Hero (SB)
5 folds, Hero raises to $80, BB raises to $240, Hero raises to $2,330 and is All-In, BB folds
Results: $480 Pot
Hero mucked A K and WON $480 (+$240 NET)
Villain: your so easy to play against
Villain: u make decsions so easy
Yeah, ok, buddy. Here are the next two big pots we played, on different tables:
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
SB: $1,292
BB: $2,001
Hero (UTG): $2,257.50
CO: $780
BTN: $3,449
Pre-Flop: Q
A dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $70, CO folds, BTN calls $70, 2 folds
Flop: ($170) 2 3 9
(2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks
Turn: ($170) T (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $160, Hero calls $160
River: ($490) 8 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $220, Hero raises to $777, BTN folds
Results: $930 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero mucked Q A and WON $927 (+$477 NET)
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $2,048
UTG: $2,615
BTN: $2,334
SB: $1,878.50
Pre-Flop: A 6 dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, SB calls $10, Hero raises to $60, SB calls $40
Flop: ($120) 8 5 A (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $88, SB calls $88
Turn: ($296) 2 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $200, SB calls $200
River: ($696) 2 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks
Results: $696 Pot ($2 Rake)
Hero showed A 6 (two pair, Aces and Twos) and WON $694 (+$346 NET)
SB mucked T 8 (two pair, Eights and Twos) and LOST (-$348 NET)
Me: I make it so easy.
Villain: Way to miss a river bet. Want to play heads up?
It’s very rare for me to decline a heads up challenge from these guys, and in fact getting such challenges is the reason I engage in chat/trash-talk at all. But in this instance, I was in eight fairly good 10/20 and 25/50 games, so I wasn’t looking to cut all that out to play one or two heads up tables with this guy. Hopefully I can find him and take him up on it some other time.
I know from personal experience that you’re certainly not easy to play against and that guy was fortunate you declined to play him heads-up, but with that said, I do think you missed a bet on the river. Question: What kind of hand is checking to you on the river? Is he really going to check an Ace 7, Ace 8, or Ace 9? To my mind, 99%of players are not check-calling an Ace to the river. It’s def. on the marginal side, but I think long-term requires a bet there.
Forget the missed river bet in the third hand, let’s talk about your river bet in the second hand.
Did you think you were bluffing or razor thin value betting?
I’m guessing that you don’t knock him off any pair, and that he never calls with a worse hand.
Checking seems like the better play there.
Thanks anon, but why wouldn’t he check A9 on the river? I’m representing either a bluff or something beats A9, and if he led this river, I would not be calling with A6.
It’s not so much that I thought I was behind as that I didn’t think he would often call a river bet with worse, especially with the flush coming in. Even if he is willing to call occasionally with T8, that doesn’t mean his calling range in general doesn’t have me beat the majority of the time.
Darren- I assume you’re referring to the AQ hand? I check-raised the river, and I expected him to fold quite a lot of one pair hands. I’m either misunderstanding you or you misread the action.
I guess I find that players often are willing to call a river bet with less than an Ace a large majority of the time. Unless you’re playing a real cagey player (e.g. Darren or yourself), someone who you know is willing to check-raise on the river with complete air, a bet is in order because you’re simply giving up too much value long-term for players who are not capable of making those types of plays and will check-call with a marginal hand. In addition, if you bet you have two ways of winning the hand: the player folds or you win in a showdown. So, I just find that check-calling to the river with a hand bigger than Ace 6 an extremely weak play and one I just don’t find that often. But you def. have way more experience playing than I do, so I take your judgment seriously. This is Justin, btw.
Andrew,
I misread the action.
Hey, Justin.
Oh hi Justin, it’s great to see you here! The thing is that, having raised pre-flop and bet the flop and turn, I’m representing at least a pair of Aces. Maybe I have it, maybe I don’t, but that’s what I’m claiming with this betting line.
If my opponent leads into me on this river, I’m going to fold my bluffs, and probably I’m going to fold my weaker Aces as well. So although his A7 is in good shape, it can’t expect a worse hand to call if it bets the river. It gains more value by checking and calling, since that gives me the opportunity to bluff again.
My concern here is not that I’m going to get check-raise bluffed, only that my hand does not beat 50% of the hands that my opponent would call with. He claims he would have called another bet, but even if that’s true, T8 is one of the weakest hands he could have. If he has a pair of Aces, he probably has a better kicker. If he was calling with bottom pair, he just made trips. If he was calling with a flush draw, he just got there. I have to beat at least 50% of the hands that will call a bet to make a bet profitable. Even if I think I often have the best hand, that isn’t an automatically a reason to bet, if I don’t think enough worse hands will call.
That was my reasoning, anyway. Thanks again for commenting, it’s good to hear from you!
I am in general agreement with your reasoning Andrew. I just wanted to clarify that you have to beat his calling range 50% of the time if you bet the full pot.
Betting 3/4 of the pot means you only need to beat 3/7 of his calling range, or 2/5 of his range if you bet 2/3 of the pot, or 1/3 of his range if you bet 1/2 of the pot.
Of course his calling range fluctuates with the river bet size, and you have a limited time to go through all of your options, which is what makes the exercise interesting.
Yo, what’s up Darren? How’s life in NYC? Man, I miss our game. Tell Logan and Joe I said hello when you see them.
No, that’s well put Andrew. I guess the rub is whether one thinks an Ace 6 is better than 50% of his check-calling range on the river. I tend to think that an Ace 6 is going to be good in that spot more often than not, but your analysis is def. on point and something to consider.
I certainly think a bet there is on the thin side after two calls, but check-calling with hand that beats Ace 6 just seems weak. If he made a hand, then he would likely lead into you and you can fold accordingly becausee an Ace 6 is a relatively weak hand, but checking-calling with a hand that beats Ace 6 just strikes me as peculiar. Maybe I can see it with Ace 7 or Ace 8, but I still maintain that your Ace 6 would be good over 50% of the time and thus a bet is in order.
Anyway, how’s life? From your blog, it looks like you’re killing online poker out there. Hope you’re doing well.
Please just ignore everything poker related I have said in the comments to theis post. Not sure what I was thinking with the last one.
Justin, I am well. Our game was great, man. Not sure I’ll ever have a regular game I will enjoy as much again. Any good games up there these days?