Aggression Advice

Poker Strategy
1

Looking for help with some of my aggression. I’m not completely comfortable with straight up aggression. I could use some advice.

Triple Barrel
First hand of the community freeroll. AJo on the BB. UtG limps, folds all around to me. I’ve been sizing up pre to 4x (+limpers) in freerolls lately (3x+ was getting too many calls) and went 5x here as a one-off just for extra oompf out of position. Villain calls. Board is all low but draw heavy. I lead. He calls again. Turn brings diamonds. I lead again. He calls yet again. River pairs the board. I’ve whiffed and this is wet as Niagra. I know that if I check, he bets me and I fold so I triple barrel it. He calls with weak made.

How much did I screw this up, and how much did Villain play badly and get lucky as hell? Obviously I didn’t bet large enough, especially on the river. Of course the rule is bet smaller out of position, but not this time.

Should I have even bothered barrelling air at all here? My reasoning was that he called 5x pre, so he shouldn’t have T7, or Tx or 7x here. It really was all about the diamonds (or pocket pair), which it turned out he did not have at all. Obviously if he has 2 diamonds, I lose this on the turn, but betting 40% pot on that turn could get him off of 1 diamond.

Still, knowing his cards in hindsight, I really don’t think he played this well at all. First he limp-called 5x pre (UtG!!) with Q9s, a so-so hand. Then called 30 and 40% pot on two streets chasing a backdoor gut? If I was playing a better player I would have won the hand despite not playing it perfectly myself (he never would have limped any hand let alone Q9s UtG on the very first hand of a tourney!!). That’s how things are going for me these days. : /

And no disrespect to Villain, btw. He’s a nice guy, friendly in chat.

Funky Jam
Okay, this one just flabbergasts the bejeezus out of me. I won big but after seeing Villain’s cards, just what the hell was he trying to do, give me free money? I feel stupid for not seeing what he was up to. Seriously trying to bluff me off with total air on a dry board after all of my continued aggression? I was the PFR. Sure, he came overtop pre, but I also led the flop. Just what is on that board that is supposed to scare me? Did he just decide to rep AA out of the blue? Is this a thing?

Busted Flush
43-hearts on the big. I close the limp action and flop a flush draw and a low pair catch. Out of position, I min bet but due to the small pot it’s quarter pot. Villain calls (there’s a 2nd Villain but he folds before river so he’s less important). Turn pairs the board. I’m still drawing. I open min bet. He calls. Q on the river busts my flush but I still have a catcher. I sense weakness and min bet. He folds.

I think I played it well except that my river bet should have been bigger, like half-pot even maybe. He could have come overtop, or even called thin with a better weak made. Weak Villain + brick river = value, but two issues here. I need something better than low pair no kick to bet value with, and that Q (the highest card on the board) isn’t all that bricky.

2

Aggression gets you nowhere. Patience and strategy goes much much further.

1 Like
3

Open-ended
I’ve got Jacks on the button. I open, get re-raised and call. I flop 9QT. To tell the truth I was scared as hell here probably because I’ve been running horribly badly this week. We check. He bets min on the turn. I smell flush draw and call. River busts clubs but pairs the board. He checks and now I really smell busted flush and jam.

I suppose I should have value bet that river but then the pot was slightly larger than what I had behind. How often does Villain slow play QQ here? or KJ for that matter? I know that I was the PFR, but he did come overtop me. Also, most of these freerollers don’t think back to the pre. They just see their cards and the board and act each street independently.

Big Mistake
Just had waaayy too much confidence in my K kicker here. What was I thinking?

2nd nut
This one is not aggressive other than coming overtop all-in on turn. I mean it could not have gone better (this one was from last week when I was running great) but especially with Villain 2 betting this hard, he could have easily had Kxdi. I suppose that I was trying to push him off Kdi-off.

4

Trips Aces
First, I think my open pre was a tad small but that’s not too important. My question is, with my weak kicker and clubs all over the board, was I too passive or was this the right amount of caution? Also consider that I have position on both Villains. I know that they are playing these streets weak but this board has slow play written all over it (not that there’s much slow playing in these freerolls). In hindsight I can tank that turn and count 19 combos of slow play - 43 x 6 + AK x 4 + Kx-clubs x 9 (which I would not have been able to count in game).

Got Away with This
This was from Bust the Staff. Set of 9s but Villain is obviously drawing a straight. First I bet too small pre as I mixed in a wider play from early position. Second, I was betting value for my set. I needed to get him the hell off of that straight draw. Not nearly aggro enough. And at showdown, yes he was definitely drawing.

Wtf?
Story of my whole week.

5

Srsly?
Story of my whole week Pt 2.

Ultimate Humiliation
Pt 3. Felting to a guy who sets his farts on fire as he bricks a low pocket pair.

Poker Gods Laughing at Me
Pt 4. Yes, I know that I should have jammed this pre, but he still would have called and won.

No, I’m not saving all of my bad beats and suckouts this week. Maybe only 10-15% of them. It’s been so bad I gave up keeping track.

6

I’m Out
The moment that I got raised I knew it was KK but I was pot committed and I just don’t care anymore. I just have to stop playing for a few days because this is stupid.

7

in freeroll dont be too aggressive they are very huge calling stations imo

1 Like
8

Triple Barrel AJo -

Preflop - good
Flop - this is one of the worst boards for your range; check-evaluate
Turn - it just got worse; check-fold
River - you are beating nothing; check-fold

If you want to steal this pot you have to go big at some point.

You should not expect Villain to fold to your flop cbet as you really shouldn’t be cbetting this board very much — which means when you do, it should be for a large size — which means when you cbet small size you are mostly just full of it, as you were here.

Turn bet makes no sense; you’re using a size that will get called by almost everything. You have no fold equity, so why bloat the pot with no made hand?

River bet is the worst of all. Villain has shown they are somewhat interested; they’re never folding to this size. You need to rep the straight or flush to get a fold. Bet full pot or bigger, or just give up.

2 Likes
9

Even if he calls 5x? I mean there are two big reasons to raise pre, 1 thin the herd, and 2 not fear small cards so much on flop. Yes there are diamonds, but you have been adamant to me in the past more than once, never fear 2-tone flop. A straight, he would need low cards to hit that and low cards generally aren’t in the range of 5x pre.

I agree, turn card is vomit. I also agree that I played the hand poorly, but I just want to dig into that flop more.

Also, am I wrong to assess Villain’s play as also very poor and very lucky? (not that it makes my play any better, but just to study)

10

The point is more that this rarely hits YOUR range, but it’s still true that Villain has more straights, 2pr and flopped pairs here than you do. Yeah you’ve got p much all the overpairs, but even those hands are not loving this flop.

You can definitely cbet 100% of flops on Replay and not really get punished overall, don’t get me wrong. But if you’re going to check any flops as the PFR, this is probably one of them.

Villain should neither be limping nor calling pre, that’s true. But once they reach this flop, I think they played every street better than you did. Q9 probably should not be folding to your sizing at any point: flop - gutshot and 2 overs, turn and river - top pair/top 2pr

11

Partially true and false. Pure, blind aggression, without anything else, etc, sometimes gets you somewhere good, and sometimes bad. Calculated, strategic, selective aggression, in good spots, whether have the goods or not almost always, often leads to something good. Calculated, strategic, selective Aggression in good spots, + patience, + discipline, + strategy,+ good positional poker play in position, according to good observation, situational nuances, etc, goes the furthest, almost always works, always works over the long term, ignoring short term results.

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12

When you think your opponent is min betting draw, an or, + bottom pair, etc, and you have JJ middle pair that’s probably good, and even if it were not to be good, such as if villain is min bet slowplaying 2 pair, set, trips, etc, then still have open ended straight draw equity to fall back on if wrong, and so you should RERAISE 3/5 to 2/3 to 3/4 to 4/5 pot, to either semi bluff, force a fold, or to make villain pay too much to see river, if on draw, to protect your hand, to extract value from worse, draw, to fold out a draw, take down a nice pot, at lower risk variance, so that you don’t get bluffed out of pot on river, etc.

If you flat call minbet: 1. It shows weakness, since you checked the flop. 2. Because of point 1, it can set you up to be bluffed out. 3. If opponent on draw, opponent can make draw a flush, straight for cheap, to beat you. 4. Related to point 3, if a 3 card possible flush or 3 card possible straight hits river, then even if they don’t have flush, or straight, they can now possibly bluff you out, for the cheap minbet cost on turn. 5. Their bottom to middle pair that you beat, might improve to trips, 2 pair, that beat you, for the cheap minbet cost on turn.

Don’t let them minbet for cheap. Yes they could be slowplaying. Yes they could have top pair of Q’s, 7 kicker, etc, that beat you, etc. But in case your read is wrong, in case they have you beat, you have your draw equity, hand equity to fall back on. But that said, they probably only have a draw, bottom to mid pair, probably dont have you beat on turn, so because of that, those things, the correct play in a tournament is to reraise them the sizes mentioned above. In a cash game, it would be ok to flat call, but in a tournament taking that risk of flat calling, not reraising, and thus possibly busting out before cashing, finishing top 4, winning tournament, etc, is not good in a tournament.

13

I think I’m getting better at this.

Slow Play

vs

Barrel

Of course it helped that the boards ran well in both. ; )

1 Like
14

Turn Jam
I really don’t think that I played this hand very well at all. Any thoughts?

15

re: Turn Jam

No thoughts, as you already know this was just a punt and you got really lucky no one connected! :slight_smile:

Just fold pre. As played, fold flop. Not much to talk about.