Righting the Ship
Had another bad session yesterday. Actually I didn't play badly at all, I just took two horrible beats. I was taking a shot at NL $50 too. Lost to JJ twice. One hand I had 55 in a raised pot, I called from the BB, and flopped a set (9-6-5 flop I believe). Anyway, get it in with a half stack, he has JJ, river J. Great. Another hand I have KK and resolve to play a big pot with it. I raise to $3, SB calls. Flop comes 9 high, he checks, I bet pot, he calls. Turn is a blank, same action. River is a jack, he shoves for the remaining PSB, I call. He has JJ, sigh. Really wish I didn't keep getting two outed.
So tonight I decide to take a shot at $100 NL (6-max of course) after the Red Sox beat the Rockies 2-1 due to great pitching to take a 2-0 lead in the series. I sit in with $100, leaving me a measly $5.12 if I lose it. But I resolved to try and get up $45 and then leave. If I go broke I take a break or redeposit or whatever. Sick and tired of grinding it out at NL $25 just to get to break even when I know I can play and beat much higher. An orbit into it I get Q
J
in the SB and complete after one limper. BB checks. Flop comes K4J
. I check, BB checks, limper bets $2. I muck. I don't know anything about this player, the pot is small, and I'm out of position, so best to just play it safe.
I get AK
a little later and raise to $4 from MP. No callers and I drag the blinds. Then I get KQin the BB. CO minraises to $2, button calls, I put in an extra buck and call. CO has about $95, button about $27, and I a little more than $100. Flop KA7. I check, CO bets just $1, button calls, I call. Don't want to build a pot here when someone could be holding on to an ace or even better. Turn comes Q and I lead small for $3. In retrospect I should've bet more, but for some reason thought the CO might have 3 aces. CO folds, button calls. River is the harmless 4, I make a $7 value bet but he folds. I figured he might have a weak ace but he probably had a flush draw.
After that had AQ and TT back to back and raised to $4 with one caller on each. Won both pots with a c-bet on the flop. Little bit later I got JJ in the CO and raised to $4 after one limper. Button called behind me, limper called. We all have about $100. Flop came 62T and the limper checked. I bet $6.50, button folds, limper calls. Turn comes 3 and he checks again. I'm not worried about him, he could have a lot of hands here, even as weak as a gutterball, so I bet $13. He calls again. River is the 8 and I let him get to showdown. He mucks 64 and I was good the whole way.
A few hands later I get AK UTG and raise to $4. MP calls, CO calls. Yikes. MP player was loose/passive, but CO was somewhat solid. MP has $90, I have $140, button $174. Getting serious here. Flop comes Q9J. Not a good flop to c-bet, hits too many hands, so I just check. MP bets $3 into $13.5. Button folds. Getting 5.5:1 and closing the action I have to call. I have 4 outs to the nuts but my overcards might also be good. So I put the $3 in and see a beautiful T turn. Here's where I think I made a mistake. I checked. He bet $3 again. I made it $18 hoping he had two pair or a lower straight that he'd stick in it with. Unfortunately he typed "bull****" into the chat and folded. I played one more orbit and left a $54.52 winner. Not bad for 33 hands.
There are two things I need to work on against these players however. Here they are.
Value betting the river.
Previously I stated that I need to bet the turn more. Against better players I'd check behind on the turn with top pair hands to control the pot. Against these players I can just go ahead and bet again on the turn, knowing that a raise will almost certainly tell me that I am beat. Now I need to value bet the river. Half the pot should be sufficient. A lot of players are able to get rid of hands despite being loose/passive or having other flaws, but some won't. Also importantly I likely won't need to be worried about getting checkraised at the end. Most players will just bet out on the river if they have it. So it's not a big deal if I merely bet them off a missed draw. I'm checking too many hands behind on the end that are good.
Stop checkraising minbetting opponents.
I came to that realization tonight but I have been doing it quite a bit figuring they'll call because they're loose passive. An important thing to remember is that when you checkraise, you let your opponent set the price. If he overbets, that's good. If he underbets, that's bad (unless you're going for the coveted checkraise bluff, but that's a different topic). So if the pot is $20 on the turn and your opponent bets $5, a pot size raise is $30 on top. Even though it offers him 2:1 odds, that's too much of a raise. You're better off betting $15 yourself. Your opponent will probably be willing to call that since you haven't given away that you have a monster, and you can probably get away with a $35-$40 bet on the river.
That's it for poker this week. Actually heading out tomorrow to Happy Valley, going to see Ohio St./Penn St. Gonna miss game 3 of the World Series to see this but well worth it, as it's a big game with the Buckeyes coming in #1 and all. Hoping for an upset, we'll see.
So tonight I decide to take a shot at $100 NL (6-max of course) after the Red Sox beat the Rockies 2-1 due to great pitching to take a 2-0 lead in the series. I sit in with $100, leaving me a measly $5.12 if I lose it. But I resolved to try and get up $45 and then leave. If I go broke I take a break or redeposit or whatever. Sick and tired of grinding it out at NL $25 just to get to break even when I know I can play and beat much higher. An orbit into it I get Q
J in the SB and complete after one limper. BB checks. Flop comes K4J. I check, BB checks, limper bets $2. I muck. I don't know anything about this player, the pot is small, and I'm out of position, so best to just play it safe.I get A
K a little later and raise to $4 from MP. No callers and I drag the blinds. Then I get KQin the BB. CO minraises to $2, button calls, I put in an extra buck and call. CO has about $95, button about $27, and I a little more than $100. Flop KA7. I check, CO bets just $1, button calls, I call. Don't want to build a pot here when someone could be holding on to an ace or even better. Turn comes Q and I lead small for $3. In retrospect I should've bet more, but for some reason thought the CO might have 3 aces. CO folds, button calls. River is the harmless 4, I make a $7 value bet but he folds. I figured he might have a weak ace but he probably had a flush draw.After that had A
Q and TT back to back and raised to $4 with one caller on each. Won both pots with a c-bet on the flop. Little bit later I got JJ in the CO and raised to $4 after one limper. Button called behind me, limper called. We all have about $100. Flop came 62T and the limper checked. I bet $6.50, button folds, limper calls. Turn comes 3 and he checks again. I'm not worried about him, he could have a lot of hands here, even as weak as a gutterball, so I bet $13. He calls again. River is the 8 and I let him get to showdown. He mucks 64 and I was good the whole way.A few hands later I get A
K UTG and raise to $4. MP calls, CO calls. Yikes. MP player was loose/passive, but CO was somewhat solid. MP has $90, I have $140, button $174. Getting serious here. Flop comes Q9J. Not a good flop to c-bet, hits too many hands, so I just check. MP bets $3 into $13.5. Button folds. Getting 5.5:1 and closing the action I have to call. I have 4 outs to the nuts but my overcards might also be good. So I put the $3 in and see a beautiful T turn. Here's where I think I made a mistake. I checked. He bet $3 again. I made it $18 hoping he had two pair or a lower straight that he'd stick in it with. Unfortunately he typed "bull****" into the chat and folded. I played one more orbit and left a $54.52 winner. Not bad for 33 hands.There are two things I need to work on against these players however. Here they are.
Value betting the river.
Previously I stated that I need to bet the turn more. Against better players I'd check behind on the turn with top pair hands to control the pot. Against these players I can just go ahead and bet again on the turn, knowing that a raise will almost certainly tell me that I am beat. Now I need to value bet the river. Half the pot should be sufficient. A lot of players are able to get rid of hands despite being loose/passive or having other flaws, but some won't. Also importantly I likely won't need to be worried about getting checkraised at the end. Most players will just bet out on the river if they have it. So it's not a big deal if I merely bet them off a missed draw. I'm checking too many hands behind on the end that are good.
Stop checkraising minbetting opponents.
I came to that realization tonight but I have been doing it quite a bit figuring they'll call because they're loose passive. An important thing to remember is that when you checkraise, you let your opponent set the price. If he overbets, that's good. If he underbets, that's bad (unless you're going for the coveted checkraise bluff, but that's a different topic). So if the pot is $20 on the turn and your opponent bets $5, a pot size raise is $30 on top. Even though it offers him 2:1 odds, that's too much of a raise. You're better off betting $15 yourself. Your opponent will probably be willing to call that since you haven't given away that you have a monster, and you can probably get away with a $35-$40 bet on the river.
That's it for poker this week. Actually heading out tomorrow to Happy Valley, going to see Ohio St./Penn St. Gonna miss game 3 of the World Series to see this but well worth it, as it's a big game with the Buckeyes coming in #1 and all. Hoping for an upset, we'll see.
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