Just Taking a Flop
Here's an interesting hand I played tonight that illustrates a point I've been harping on continuously since I started this blog.
NL $25 6-handed. Table has been pretty passive, with a mixture of tight and loose. Villain here has $8.77, I have him covered. Have yet to see him raise preflop.
UTG limps, 1 fold, villain raises to $1.80 in the CO, button folds, I call in the SB with J
J
. UTG calls as well. Flop comes 6T
7
. I check, UTG checks, villain bets $2, I raise him all-in, UTG folds, and villain calls for his final $4.97. He turns over AK. The turn and river are the 9 and 5, and my jacks hold up. Let's analyze the hand.
Preflop: After a limper villain raises to $1.80. That is just over 7 times the big blind. What does that tell you about his hand? It should tell you that he has something, but doesn't really care to see the flop. AK, AQ are two possibilities. A pocket pair that can flop an overcard could be in his range, perhaps JJ or TT (maybe QQ). A hand like AA or KK makes a smaller raise (and sometimes foolishly minraises) to lure people into the pot.
So given my read, what's the best play with the two jacks? Reraising gets you in a coinflip situation most of the time. He's not folding AK or AQ after putting $1.80 in the pot. Folding is too weak, I have jacks and there's no reason to think I'm beat. So that leaves one option, calling. I can close the preflop betting (well sort of, I'm not expecting UTG to reraise) and just take a flop. If it comes 3 babies, I get it all-in. If it comes with an A,K, or Q, I fold. So I call and unfortunately UTG comes along too. I thought he had been priced out, but he wanted to see the flop. Maybe if I had folded he would have as well.
Flop: I get a pretty good flop (6T7). I can almost be sure it missed villain, though UTG may have hit something. Either way, I'm going to let villain take the lead in the betting. I check, and UTG checks. Villain weak leads for $2. Now it looks more like villain doesn't have any piece of this (I suppose he could have TT, but more likely he is just sitting there with AK or AQ). I put him all-in, UTG (thankfully) folds, and he calls for the rest of his chips. He was getting almost 3:1, and he's about 3:1 to hit an A or K, so actually that was the only part of the hand he played reasonably.
The point is if you have a read on your opponent, you're so much better off waiting rather than pressing a small edge. If I reraise, I'm committed to calling an all-in and I'm going broke if he somehow has AA/KK/QQ regardless. Against AK and AQ though, I can save money when the overcard hits and get it in as a 3:1 favorite when it doesn't.
This is even true of post-flop play. I read a hand from a WSOP event where a player had AJ and raised preflop, and the BB called. The player was actually in a very good chip position, but his opponent had him covered. Flop came something like AJ4 to give him top two. BB checked, he bet something, and BB checkraised. At this point our hero figured that BB was most likely on a flush draw. So he 3-bet, BB shoved, and they got it all-in. BB did have hearts, 86 or some such hand. A comes on the turn to take hero from something like 5th in chips to out of the tournament.
If that's me I'm calling the checkraise there and letting a card roll off. The BB with a flush draw and no other outs still has 30% equity in that pot. That equals to a 30% chance of getting knocked out of the tournament. With the read, if a heart comes on the turn you can easily fold to any decent bet (calling might be worth it it's not too much and you think you have implied odds to hit your 4-outer). Hell, BB might even check and you'll get a free shot at hitting an A or J. If it's a blank, fire away. Get it in with him as over a 4:1 favorite. If the guy's not going to fold, let him bluff with less equity. If he's also willing to shove all-in on a missed draw, you could even wait until the river.
That's enough for now. Goodnight.
NL $25 6-handed. Table has been pretty passive, with a mixture of tight and loose. Villain here has $8.77, I have him covered. Have yet to see him raise preflop.
UTG limps, 1 fold, villain raises to $1.80 in the CO, button folds, I call in the SB with J
J. UTG calls as well. Flop comes 6T7. I check, UTG checks, villain bets $2, I raise him all-in, UTG folds, and villain calls for his final $4.97. He turns over AK. The turn and river are the 9 and 5, and my jacks hold up. Let's analyze the hand.Preflop: After a limper villain raises to $1.80. That is just over 7 times the big blind. What does that tell you about his hand? It should tell you that he has something, but doesn't really care to see the flop. AK, AQ are two possibilities. A pocket pair that can flop an overcard could be in his range, perhaps JJ or TT (maybe QQ). A hand like AA or KK makes a smaller raise (and sometimes foolishly minraises) to lure people into the pot.
So given my read, what's the best play with the two jacks? Reraising gets you in a coinflip situation most of the time. He's not folding AK or AQ after putting $1.80 in the pot. Folding is too weak, I have jacks and there's no reason to think I'm beat. So that leaves one option, calling. I can close the preflop betting (well sort of, I'm not expecting UTG to reraise) and just take a flop. If it comes 3 babies, I get it all-in. If it comes with an A,K, or Q, I fold. So I call and unfortunately UTG comes along too. I thought he had been priced out, but he wanted to see the flop. Maybe if I had folded he would have as well.
Flop: I get a pretty good flop (6
T7). I can almost be sure it missed villain, though UTG may have hit something. Either way, I'm going to let villain take the lead in the betting. I check, and UTG checks. Villain weak leads for $2. Now it looks more like villain doesn't have any piece of this (I suppose he could have TT, but more likely he is just sitting there with AK or AQ). I put him all-in, UTG (thankfully) folds, and he calls for the rest of his chips. He was getting almost 3:1, and he's about 3:1 to hit an A or K, so actually that was the only part of the hand he played reasonably.The point is if you have a read on your opponent, you're so much better off waiting rather than pressing a small edge. If I reraise, I'm committed to calling an all-in and I'm going broke if he somehow has AA/KK/QQ regardless. Against AK and AQ though, I can save money when the overcard hits and get it in as a 3:1 favorite when it doesn't.
This is even true of post-flop play. I read a hand from a WSOP event where a player had AJ and raised preflop, and the BB called. The player was actually in a very good chip position, but his opponent had him covered. Flop came something like A
J4 to give him top two. BB checked, he bet something, and BB checkraised. At this point our hero figured that BB was most likely on a flush draw. So he 3-bet, BB shoved, and they got it all-in. BB did have hearts, 86 or some such hand. A comes on the turn to take hero from something like 5th in chips to out of the tournament.If that's me I'm calling the checkraise there and letting a card roll off. The BB with a flush draw and no other outs still has 30% equity in that pot. That equals to a 30% chance of getting knocked out of the tournament. With the read, if a heart comes on the turn you can easily fold to any decent bet (calling might be worth it it's not too much and you think you have implied odds to hit your 4-outer). Hell, BB might even check and you'll get a free shot at hitting an A or J. If it's a blank, fire away. Get it in with him as over a 4:1 favorite. If the guy's not going to fold, let him bluff with less equity. If he's also willing to shove all-in on a missed draw, you could even wait until the river.
That's enough for now. Goodnight.
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