On Hiatus
I've been on hiatus since Thursday. Played some more NL $50 and for some reason got creamed again. Just getting into bad spots, like having TT on the button, raising, getting reraised, calling the reraise and then getting into trouble on the flop. This kind of thing happened to me at least 3 times. Here's one particular hand though:
Ultimate Bet No-Limit Hold'em, $.50 BB (4 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
SB ($107.90)
BB ($81.75)
UTG ($173.90)
Hero ($46.55)
Preflop: Hero is Button with T
, T
.
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.75, SB raises to $5.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $4.
I get a good hand on the button, that far exceeds my typical criteria for opening. (My range probably looks something like: 22+,A2s+,K8s+,Q8s+,J8s+,T8s+,97s+,86s+,75s+,64s+,53s+,43s,A2o+,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T8o+,97o+,86o+,75o+,65o,54o, though depending on the players in the blinds I will often limp with the "drawing" hands in case I get reraised so I can still play them). A solid player in the SB reraises me. I know he's not reraising with trash, but he's probably coming over the top of me with any hand he thinks is best. My estimate would be 77+,AQs+,KQs,AJo+,KQo. Since he still has a bit of a wide range, and the pot is laying me 2:1 odds, I can't fold my TT (according to PokerStove, I am a slight 52%-48% favorite with TT). I also don't want to 4-bet, because I'm only going to get called by a hand that has me buried (though sometimes I might get to "race it off" with AK, and I may get a better hand, such as jacks, to fold).
So what can I do but take a flop, even though I have no real plan for the hand unless I hit a T?
Flop: ($12) 5
, 5, Q (2 players)
SB bets $12, Hero raises to $24, SB raises to $84, Hero folds.
Now AQ and KQ have me beat but PokerStove states I'm only a 45%-55% dog against his range, despite the Q hitting. He of course comes out with a pot sized bet of $12, as would be expected. I really don't know what to do. I can fold and give up the pot. I can raise and try to take it down here, though he unlikely folds a better hand (perhaps JJ, as mentioned before), or I can call and see what happens on the turn. If I just call, he's going to be extremely tempted to double barrel bluff all-in with AK and AJ and I'm really not going to find out any more about his holding.
As you can see, I went with the minraise. I figured this is an effective raise all-in without having to commit all of my chips. My opponent now has to pretty much go all the way with this hand or just fold now. I figured I could get him off AK and AJ cheaply without giving him a chance to double barrel bluff with it or reraise all-in here since he probably figures I'm committed to this pot.
He does in fact move in and I muck. I save what little money I have left since I figure I'm drawing to 2 outs and move on to the next hand. But this kind of situation has been happening to me quite a bit. If I have A2 and get reraised by one of the blinds, no big deal, I can just fold. With something like AK or QQ, I can just 4-bet. With AQ and TT though, I'm stuck in limbo. Not good enough to 4-bet, not bad enough to fold. AQ though is the easier hand to play, if I hit my pair, I go with it (though sometimes I will lose to AA/KK/AK), but with TT I'm going to be stuck with an overpair or flop two unders and 1 broadway a lot of the time.
But anyway, after losing $90, I cashed out my remaining $425 on UB and I'm now waiting for my PayTru card to come so I can deposit on Stars. I'm probably going back to NL $25 for the time being, and I'm going to give 4-tabling a shot. It's also that time where I shall be giving some WSOP sats a try. I'd really like to go this year, even if it's only for a $1500 event.
Ultimate Bet No-Limit Hold'em, $.50 BB (4 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
SB ($107.90)
BB ($81.75)
UTG ($173.90)
Hero ($46.55)
Preflop: Hero is Button with T
, T. 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.75, SB raises to $5.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $4.
I get a good hand on the button, that far exceeds my typical criteria for opening. (My range probably looks something like: 22+,A2s+,K8s+,Q8s+,J8s+,T8s+,97s+,86s+,75s+,64s+,53s+,43s,A2o+,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T8o+,97o+,86o+,75o+,65o,54o, though depending on the players in the blinds I will often limp with the "drawing" hands in case I get reraised so I can still play them). A solid player in the SB reraises me. I know he's not reraising with trash, but he's probably coming over the top of me with any hand he thinks is best. My estimate would be 77+,AQs+,KQs,AJo+,KQo. Since he still has a bit of a wide range, and the pot is laying me 2:1 odds, I can't fold my TT (according to PokerStove, I am a slight 52%-48% favorite with TT). I also don't want to 4-bet, because I'm only going to get called by a hand that has me buried (though sometimes I might get to "race it off" with AK, and I may get a better hand, such as jacks, to fold).
So what can I do but take a flop, even though I have no real plan for the hand unless I hit a T?
Flop: ($12) 5
, 5, Q (2 players)SB bets $12, Hero raises to $24, SB raises to $84, Hero folds.
Now AQ and KQ have me beat but PokerStove states I'm only a 45%-55% dog against his range, despite the Q hitting. He of course comes out with a pot sized bet of $12, as would be expected. I really don't know what to do. I can fold and give up the pot. I can raise and try to take it down here, though he unlikely folds a better hand (perhaps JJ, as mentioned before), or I can call and see what happens on the turn. If I just call, he's going to be extremely tempted to double barrel bluff all-in with AK and AJ and I'm really not going to find out any more about his holding.
As you can see, I went with the minraise. I figured this is an effective raise all-in without having to commit all of my chips. My opponent now has to pretty much go all the way with this hand or just fold now. I figured I could get him off AK and AJ cheaply without giving him a chance to double barrel bluff with it or reraise all-in here since he probably figures I'm committed to this pot.
He does in fact move in and I muck. I save what little money I have left since I figure I'm drawing to 2 outs and move on to the next hand. But this kind of situation has been happening to me quite a bit. If I have A2 and get reraised by one of the blinds, no big deal, I can just fold. With something like A
K or QQ, I can just 4-bet. With AQ and TT though, I'm stuck in limbo. Not good enough to 4-bet, not bad enough to fold. AQ though is the easier hand to play, if I hit my pair, I go with it (though sometimes I will lose to AA/KK/AK), but with TT I'm going to be stuck with an overpair or flop two unders and 1 broadway a lot of the time.But anyway, after losing $90, I cashed out my remaining $425 on UB and I'm now waiting for my PayTru card to come so I can deposit on Stars. I'm probably going back to NL $25 for the time being, and I'm going to give 4-tabling a shot. It's also that time where I shall be giving some WSOP sats a try. I'd really like to go this year, even if it's only for a $1500 event.
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