Good Luck Bad Luck

Replay Poker Hand Review
1

we all have good luck and bad luck - contrary to some folks belief. : P But how do we play when luck plays with us? Here are a couple of hands. I will give my thought processes and I’m interested to know how others feel about how I played the hands, since I’m not 100% sure myself just how well I played them.

Buttlucky
Had a hot orbit with 3 monsters that netted me 5 knockouts and the tournament lead. This was the biggest.

Pre ~ QTdi from LJ. 2 limps and I raise it up to 5x. 1 call behind and 2 more from the SB and BB. Then it gets crazy. UtG limper shoves for about 16bbb. We all flat call except BB (fold), 5-way flop.
Flop ~ AK5 with 2 spade but the A is a di so I have broadway draw (need a J) and backdoor di. I’m 4th seat of 5 here and it checks to me. I have everyone covered and I bet just under 1/4-pot. Call behind and SB jams for slightly more than my bet. MP fold, and 2 calls, 4-way but 2 are all-in.
Turn ~ 8di, adds flush draw to my equity. I’m only playing against the guy on my left now and I have twice left behind than he does, so I rip it. He calls.
River ~ 6di for flush and I felt 3 Villains. (and collect 3 bounties!) Guy on my left had A-rag for top pair on flop (was ahead), SB had QTcl for broadway draw and UtG limp-jammer had Q4o (not sure what he was smoking).

If my di did not come in on river I would have lost big time. I really wonder about how I played pre. I could have raised or jammed for iso (after the UtG shove) or maybe they all call anyways, dunno. I think as played, my river shove was good, but perhaps could have avoided that spot with a better pre (second time around). Also, my flop bet, I wasn’t watching the stacks close enough or I would have bet enough to put SB all-in or maybe even shove there. Is there any point in this hand when I could have given up?

I don’t think I played it horribly - I definitely like my opening - but this might be one where the incredible result doesn’t really justify my play.

Unbuttlucky
This one is your regular every day bad beat.

Pre ~ Bullets on the big. 2 limps, SB folds. I kick it up to 3x and get 2 calls.

Flop ~ K77-rb. I like it. who has a 7 here with 3x pre on shortish stacks? Unless they have quads and if they do, god bless 'em. I lead approx 1/4-pot. Snap jam from UtG. Bit of a tank and call from CO (who has UtG just barely covered).

Turn ~ Brick 5 for all 4 suits. I min bet just to put CO all-in.

River ~ Up and over, UtG actually has 97s and CO actually has A7s!! I lose most of my stack and am left in survival mode the rest of the way (eventually squeak into 14th of 15 paid + my 6 total bounties).

I think I actually outplayed both of these guys here and they both buttlucked me. Certainly UtG was way too wide to call my pre. At least CO had a suited A and position but if he likes that hand so much he shouldn’t be limp-calling when he starts the deal with like 16bb. Personally I’m jamming that or folding. Obviously as played, both of their post play is fine, but their pre is questionable. What do you all think?

Also of note ~ The whole tourney got very freezy just before this and I thought it would shut down. I couldn’t re-open my table for about 5 mins, but then I saw the lobby jump and reorder so I tried and got back in. Several players were sitting out, so they must have been frozen or gave up trying to get back in and if it weren’t for many of them blinding out I would never have cashed. So this whole thing was quite a lottery today. Talk about luck, good and bad.

2

You were playing a 5k tournament first off, which goes back to the conversation we had previously about stakes and players that play in those stakes so that needs to be taken into account. You also only raised 3x bb when they were both already in for 1/3 before the raise. The limp call utg is wild for my style but it is far from some of the worst calls I see all day long. You are playing for low stakes on a free site. It happens. With how often I lose with AA I hammer that but the person with A7 most likely calls anyway. It’s tough, but patience and skill outlasts downright luck. Keep at it. You are doing fine bankroll wise and I’m sure you will continue to go in that direction.

3

In this case because there were only 2 villains I didn’t want them both to fold to 5x. That’s why I sized down. Suppose I could have gone 4x but I was okay with 3-way. 3 Villains and up I size up to get a fold or 2. That was my rationale anyways.

You know how it is. Sometimes you jam and everyone calls. Then sometimes you min bet and everyone folds. That’s just poker.

4

Allen Spielern viel Glück

5

OK, when you’re finished showing me how to program my dvr, can you explain what ‘di’, and ‘LJ’ are? Thx.

6

Di - diamonds
LJ - LoJack, the position at the table

I wasn’t a fan of how you played this hand. Facing interest from earlier positions, QTs is probably a fold. If not, I would have liked to see a slightly larger raise to 4-5BBs.

On the flop, the ace hits your range more than the others’, so I would have sized up a bit. Maybe to 40-50% pot.

As played, on the turn, I really don’t like your bet. Two players are all in, and the side pot is dry. What do you accomplish by bluffing?