50NL - What should I be thinking & FIRST!!!
I timed out on this hand because I had a huge pot brewing on another table so sorry no results but that's not important anyway.
Only 10 hands on villain but he has played almost all of them.
Flop bet could have been a bit bigger but I felt he was a bit of a station so I might as well keep the pot manageable as I was expecting him to float.
Not really sure what his min raise was representing but it could easily be a response to my smallish lead and doesn't really narrow his range much considering how active he has been.
In usually would raise to like $21 here planning on folding to a shove or jamming the rest in on a blank turn but I feel like I have been overplaying some marginal hands so I just called.
Should I be check/calling him down here with this hand?
Is leading the turn better? Bet size?
What should my default play be here? I really want to protect my hand on the turn because I feel like I am ahead and about half the deck is leaves me with a tough river decision. I was sizing my check raise when I timed out.
Throw me a bone here people...
FullTiltPoker Game #5246669815: Table Hartke (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:58:38 ET - 2008/02/13
Seat 1: jrbick ($58.90)
Seat 2: jayholmes ($45.05)
Seat 3: bombtrack311 ($78.95)
Seat 4: lol4hand ($10) is sitting out
Seat 5: IJackit ($54.15)
Seat 6: tjkpokerking ($73.35)
jayholmes posts the small blind of $0.25
bombtrack311 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #1
Holecards:
Dealt to IJackit [
]
IJackit raises to $1.75
tjkpokerking calls $1.75
jrbick folds
jayholmes folds
bombtrack311 folds
Flop:
[
]
IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
IJackit bets $2.75
tjkpokerking has 15 seconds left to act
tjkpokerking raises to $5.50
IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
IJackit calls $2.75
Turn :
[ ] [ 
]
IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
lol4hand has returned
IJackit checks
tjkpokerking bets $7
IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
IJackit is sitting out
IJackit has timed out
IJackit folds
Uncalled bet of $7 returned to tjkpokerking
tjkpokerking mucks
tjkpokerking wins the pot ($14.50)
SUMMARY :
Total pot $15.25 | Rake $0.75
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: jrbick (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: jayholmes (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: bombtrack311 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: lol4hand is sitting out
Seat 5: IJackit folded on the Turn
Seat 6: tjkpokerking collected ($14.50), mucked
Only 10 hands on villain but he has played almost all of them.
Flop bet could have been a bit bigger but I felt he was a bit of a station so I might as well keep the pot manageable as I was expecting him to float.
Not really sure what his min raise was representing but it could easily be a response to my smallish lead and doesn't really narrow his range much considering how active he has been.
In usually would raise to like $21 here planning on folding to a shove or jamming the rest in on a blank turn but I feel like I have been overplaying some marginal hands so I just called.
Should I be check/calling him down here with this hand?
Is leading the turn better? Bet size?
What should my default play be here? I really want to protect my hand on the turn because I feel like I am ahead and about half the deck is leaves me with a tough river decision. I was sizing my check raise when I timed out.
Throw me a bone here people...
FullTiltPoker Game #5246669815: Table Hartke (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:58:38 ET - 2008/02/13
Seat 1: jrbick ($58.90)
Seat 2: jayholmes ($45.05)
Seat 3: bombtrack311 ($78.95)
Seat 4: lol4hand ($10) is sitting out
Seat 5: IJackit ($54.15)
Seat 6: tjkpokerking ($73.35)
jayholmes posts the small blind of $0.25
bombtrack311 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #1
Holecards:
Dealt to IJackit [
]IJackit raises to $1.75
tjkpokerking calls $1.75
jrbick folds
jayholmes folds
bombtrack311 folds
Flop:
[
]IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
IJackit bets $2.75
tjkpokerking has 15 seconds left to act
tjkpokerking raises to $5.50
IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
IJackit calls $2.75
Turn :
[
] [ ]IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
lol4hand has returned
IJackit checks
tjkpokerking bets $7
IJackit has 15 seconds left to act
IJackit is sitting out
IJackit has timed out
IJackit folds
Uncalled bet of $7 returned to tjkpokerking
tjkpokerking mucks
tjkpokerking wins the pot ($14.50)
SUMMARY :
Total pot $15.25 | Rake $0.75
Board:
[
]Seat 1: jrbick (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: jayholmes (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: bombtrack311 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: lol4hand is sitting out
Seat 5: IJackit folded on the Turn
Seat 6: tjkpokerking collected ($14.50), mucked
Comments
i would have been temped to call givin the info..
The min raise on the flop and then the half pot bet on the turn looks very suspicious.
I mean.... Who bets half the pot on a 8s7s4c3c board.
Half the pot doesn't protect your hand at all and the board is so draw heavy.
Part of me wants to check raise about 35 here but it's getting very close to a commitment threshold for all the chips... and I hate playing for stacks with 1 pair. Betting 35 here won't leave enough chips for a credible river bluff/bet/threat...
Has the villain who has played the last 10 hands been aggressive like this or passive?
IF this dude is playing every hand, and heard one time that "aggressive play wins", then your delay before betting on the flop suggested to him a "tell", and he didn't even consider that you were multi-tabling. He may therefore have got it in his head that he could push you off. Again, hard to say without being there....
I personally re-pop him on the flop. If he calls / re-raises, then there's something going on. You took 20 odd seconds to bet your AK / AQ is what he may be thinking, and a re-raise will make you go away.
Mark
pretty much any made hand is vulnerable here so i must conclude the guy is a fish and is either badly playing a made hand that beats you, trying to build the pot with a strong draw or on a total bluff. i'm leaning towards the strong draw. the donkey puncher in me wants to think he has something decent (TPTK, 99, TT) and puts you on a total bluff and doesn't want to risk his stack to find out if he is wrong.
i don't know which is more likely since you haven't given us much to work with here. he called UTG raise with many still to act. does this indicate a reasonable yet speculative hand or is he just an idiot who will play any 2 for any amount? for all we know he could be sitting here with AA or KK, hoping someone behind raises. he could also be playing Ace-rag soooooted, any pair, some kind of soooooooooooted connectors. the odds calculator in my head tells me you are most likely ahead on the flop but he has a decent chance to beat you by the river.
as played, i would reluctantly fold on the turn. your hand is unlikely to improve and you know the next bet will be 10+ and BAMMMMMMM there goes 40% of your stack. if you CR push here, he's looking at calling around 40 into a pot of about 70. i'm not sure you are sufficiently ahead for this to be profitable long-term. no other CR makes sense here.
in the mulligan world, i re-raise the flop to 13-15 and fold to a re-re-raise, which should be a push but will more likely be 25-30. (if he can make that play with 99, more power to him.) if he calls your re-raise, you decide if you want to push on the turn or check-fold because at that point you are playing for stacks anyway. check-calling past the flop is a great way to blow about 40% or more of your stack here to some lame-ass gambloooooooooooor who loves 87s.
JJ is a tough hand to play OOP. i would raise a bit more PF and hopefully that narrows your opponents' ranges. (as an alternative, sometimes i will just limp with JJ and see where it goes.) when you call the raise on the flop, you are dangerously close to the commitment point with a hand that could easily be second best or outdrawn 7 different ways. in general, i'd say play it fast and be ready to dump it just as fast.
seriously guys man-up, he played the parts he played fine. I'm at least check/calling a reasonable river most of the time.
This is my thought exactly. What it also means is that the turn card could not have helped him either so I am ahead here lots too. The hand has evolved to the point that I will be playing a large pot OOP with very vulnerable holdings.
I really discount QQ+ hands that beat me pre-flop. 50NL on Tilt plays really aggro pre-flop with lots of 3 betting. While it is possible that he sits on one of those hands the combination of him flatcalling my raise from MP and then the weak min-raise on this wettish flop makes it unlikely IMO. For that reason I think his min-raise on the flop polarizes his range into sets or draws with the most likely being spades to the nuts.
The more I think about it I am comfortable with the fold here because I feel like this hand is marginal against a virtual unknown but c/r on the flop to about $20 and shoving a blank turn can't be terrible either.
EDIT: Your point about raising more pre-flop is a strong one. I sometimes get lazy with the bet-pot button on tilt but there is nothing wrong with making most hands I raise from UTG $2 or even $2.25
4 or 4.5x utg is better? Yeah then we'll know 100% that they know 100% that you're huge.
good call guys, I posted an article in the limit section that will speak to your fears.
My range UTG is much narrower anyways so charging a higher price of admission play against it discourages some speculative calls from late position that can also price in the blinds to come along for the ride. If I always raise to this size UTG it does not help villains narrow my range in any way.
i hate playing a good but vulnerable hand OOP against many players. i'm raising UTG here so unless they think i'm an idiot or they are idiots too, they should already know i have a good hand. raising a bit more does little to tip your hand as long as you always raise a consistent amount UTG with any hand you want to play here.
and your link didn't work for me.
The turn bet in position usually decreases the chance that this is a draw, as somebody who minraises for a cheap draw will likely take the free card instead.
In terms of raising pf, I stick with the pot raise. You might think you're narrowing your oponents raise, but at the same time you're narrowing your own.
Why did you call the min raise on the flop if you are going to fold on the turn because nothing changed with the turn card?
Certain villains will min-raise a draw on the flop and then check behind on the turn. They get to set the price to draw at their hand.
If this was a situation where he had a draw like 9T or spades I would expect him to either check behind and take his river for free or bet bigger (his bet is under 1/2 pot) for more fold equity.
His smallish turn bet led me to believe that he likely had a big hand that he was looking for a call with or he was playing his draw poorly and if you look at stack sizes here if i call we are pretty much getting it all in on the river.
Based on lack of real reads on his postflop game I felt I was in a bad situation in the moment and bailed. In retrospect I don't think either pushing or folding here is particularly bad.