Just looking for some advice on some of these spots. Some of them aren’t that exciting. Some are.
1 ~ Calling jam
I open QTdi and get jammed. So my notes on this guy is that he likes to bet big on draws. I have him covered but not by much. There’s also a guy behind me that has me covered but not by much. I don’t know if this was the smartest call. Any wisdom for this type of spot?
2 ~ Bluff
I overlimp J7s and flop a gut draw. Villain bets pot. I jam (semi)-bluff and take it (betting to protect equity is called semi-bluff, right?). Should I really be doing this? I need help with bluffs.
3 ~ Raise
I open K9di (lots of diamonds today) 4x from the BT. Heads-up. Flop a K. Villain bets about 30% pot. I come over top with almost half my stack. Should I have done this without a kicker?
4 ~ Overlimp
A7o from the BT. 3-handed. Whiff the flop my A over K. It checks to me. I bet, they fold. I think this went well.
5 ~ Check River
KJo, button again. I open to 1 limper. 3-way pot. Whiff the entire board and check 3 streets. My reasoning is that big stack Villain has come over top of me big a couple of times in recent hands so best to just close it off with 2 overcards air.
6 ~ Fold
Q7o from the BB. I start the hand with 10bb and we are close to the bubble (8 left I think and top 5 pay). I flop open-ended and check because I don’t like being out of position here with the smallest stack at the table. Villain bets half-pot. I make a terrible call. I should have either jammed the flop or check-folded. I turn a Q for top pair weak kick. This smells like the second best hand here. We check it. River pairs the board. I check, Villain bets half-pot again and I lay down. JT? Probably. I think the river is a great fold, but I screwed myself on that flop.
Easily my worst played hand of the morning, probably in a few days. A couple of things. First, like I said. I should have made a clear decision to jam that flop or gtfo. My reasoning in the moment is that with good equity I will often give myself ONE street to call something larger. So my second point is that defaulting to this, I forgot about my stack size. My third point is, that one street rule that I’ve been using fairly often is probably just not a good rule.
Hand 1 is a fold, it is a straight math exercise you are not getting the right pot odds to call, also we are blocking his bluffs. btw you have good table awareness for noticing someone behind
Hand 2 a semi bluff is not protection of equity, it is a bluff that has a lot equity. Ideally when you bluff you want to do it with weak hands that have alot of equity to improve to the best hand in case it fails and we get called. such as Straight draws and Flush draws.
I recommend you take a day and study this concept fully because it goes really deep and it is a really strong tool to have in your arsenal.
AA
MP. Action to me is limp, open 4.5x. I 3-bet to 8x. Villain on my left calls. Limper and opener also call. Flop 298 2-tone, 2 draws there. Checks to me. I bet approx 30%. Villain on left shoves. Folds to me. I have him covered. I call. He has 76s for open-ended. It bricks. I felt him.
Question: How much consideration do I give to folding to that jam given the wet board?
Q8s
Pure evil runout (in my favor). God it’s nice to run well for a change. A few hands before this I jammed JJ into AA and rivered a flush. (whew!) Anyways, the key of this hand (as I see it) was jamming the river. I have nut and I don’t want him to fold so technically I should value bet, but 2 flushes just busted so it’s only a question of whether or not I have the 8, so I decide to shove it thinking that it will look bluffy. He bites with a baby boat and I felt him.
Question: Do you like the jam or should I have value bet? Obviously with his specific hand I could have slow played a check-call/raise and he would have almost certainly bet into me, but if he had less than FH would I have gotten any money either way? I think so since I was aggro on all 3 streets and he kept calling so he had something that he liked and on that board it had to be a made hand.
KK
CO opens 2x, BT calls. I’m in SB and raise to 5x. Both call, 3-handed. Flop is T6J 2-tone. I do not block the flush draw. I shove my overpair. I have them both covered. CO is micro, I’m not worried but BT has just a bit less than me. CO calls and BT folds. CO has AQ, needs a K for straight but luckily for me I have 2 of them. I actually didn’t see the end of this hand as the table broke as the river came down, but at the new table I had 2500 chips so figured that I won.
Question: I think I got away with one here. That flop was a bit too wet. If BT had anything and called I could have been in serious trouble. Do you agree?
AA
It’s a big raise. I think you have to consider folding. It might be one of those spots where it’s a call without the Ad and a fold with it. Not sure if they’d jam the nut flush draw though - Ad8d maybe. Shallower it’s always a call, but it’s got to be getting close at this depth.
Q8s
People are bad at folding boats, and what’s going to bluff here? You will get called by A high from time to time, so I really like the jam.
KK
I’m not sure what you’re worried about here. Sure, BTN can have plenty of draws, but what’s the difference between that and the AA hand where that’s what you’re hoping for?
I finished 2nd in the tournament today and these 2 hands (with one fold in between) stacked me right up to let me coast to the money.
A2o
First time that I’ve hit a monotone board in forever. Bet small on flop because I didn’t want him to fold. Then slow played the turn. It worked out. Good thing he had a high spade.
He jammed the next hand (with KQs so pretty good jam) but got caught.
QQ
Was ready to open but the CO beat me to it. Was unsure on the flop but once the CO folded it was an easy call having the BB waaayy outstacked with an overpair.
AA
I’m the PFR and have position. I whiff the board but lead flop and turn and get flatted both times (turn was 1/3rd). 7sp on river brings in flush, J8 and 86. Villain checks to me. I check it back. I win.
Question: Was I too tentative here or is avoiding the check-raise wise?
AJs
Lotsa limpers, I open large and end up heads-up out-of-position with the BB. I flop a nut draw hearts and lead into him with 1/3rd. He calls. Turn brings diamond draw as well plus T9. I barrel another 1/3rd. He flats again. I river nut flush. Time for the check-raise. He jams me with a whiffed 66 and I felt him.
Question: I think my river move was great but on the first two streets I think I got lucky that this unknown Villain happened to be a major call station. I was betting pretty large oop on a draw. Do you agree?
K4o
Overlimp the BT. Beautiful monotone spade flop for my K. Min bet for a feeler and to build a little bit of a pot (limp pot after all). He flats. Flush comes in on turn. Min bet again. He flats. J on river pairs the board. Be bets large into me. I call. He had a flush on the flop. My K kicks his Q.
Question: Should I have jammed river overtop or was I correct to respect the pair on the board? Before the hand I had him covered approx half again.
TT
I open from the +1 but get 3 jams and all of them have more than half my stack. I fold. Nuuuuuuuuu!!! (cries)
Full disclosure. I find it very difficult to follow the board in all-in situations and the board deals out so quickly, so lately I’ve been challenging myself to try to keep up with the fast dealt cards and see who is ahead, you know just as a brain practice thing. With 3 Villains all-in here it was very tricky and so I had completely forgotten my own folded hand. Then afterwards I thought, “Wait a minute, did I just hit that?” I replayed the hand and contemplated seppukku (or whatever they call it). I would have been tournament chip leader by a fair margin had I called. (weeps melancholy)
J8s
Table broke and I sit down with J8di in my face. “Don’t limp UtG, don’t limp UtG,” I keep telling myself. “Can’t … re-sist … too strong …” I limp. 3-way. I flop a straight - the top of it too! AND a rainbow! - (I’m crying like Beaches here). I’m not sure about my bet sizing on any of these streets. Backdoor clubs comes in on the river and now it’s impossible to strat this. It doesn’t really matter what I do. If he has flush he’s coming for my chips. If he doesn’t I take him down (or he folds). He didn’t have it.
Question: Help me fix this mess. Yes, I shoudln’t have limped, but assuming that I opened 4x or something, how should those later streets play? How does backdoor flush affect this as opposed to normal flush draw? I should have bet bigger turn maybe?
AA
Late stages, I think the bubble may have popped already, can’t remember. Stacks are getting shorter. I have 12 or 13bbish. I decide to jam, then change my mind. Perhaps I can trap with this. I look around to see the other stacks to figure out a sizing but my tank runs to red so I panic and jam it. I get 1 call. I have him dominated and covered. It bricks all the way but Villain came damn close to a flush.
Question: What’s a good trap size here? I’m on SB (great position to see the weak table before acting). Only the BT limped. Our stacks are all between 10bb and 16bb. My error was trying to look at all the stacks when I should have been aware that I only had to see the BT and BB, then ran out of time. Maybe if I bet 3x, I could have got them both in? If I call bb then they all stay in but they can easily fold a flop. A 3x call could pot commit them even if they whiff. Yes, if 3x is pot committed then they should come overtop jam pre but these guys (especially BB) were pretty fishy (BB had spent a long stretch on a previous table with me). Iunno I’m just thinking this out loud.
You did almost perfect for being in the small blind with the cards you had!!! You lucked out big time with your flop! Once you had made the hand, your bet sizing should be relative to your stack size and what you’re willing to risk.
I think what helped here is that Villain may not have been seeing the board clearly. I am a strong believer that weak players always see a flush draw on the board, but often will miss straight draws as they are harder to see. Obviously if the flop is 567 it will scare everyone at the table who doesn’t hit it. But 57J and turn of 6 not everyone will see it. Even a flop of 586, many weak players will not realize that 97 just came in. That is why I will seldom bluff a straight unless it looks obvious on the board, however bluffing a flush works much better.
In my case with this particular hand, couple that semi-disguised turn with the fact that it is limp pot and Villain probably did not give me credit for having 84s in a limp range, he was overconfident.
Massive Pot for Me!
I open QQ 4.5x from CO. Flop is 67Q two-tone spade. SB donks with pot. Well, he has a Q here, no? I’m ahead of AA or anything else prime. He can’t chop me since there’s only 1 Q left. He can only win with spades, straight or AA/KK or 2-pair and hit. I shove. He calls. Cha-ching!
I think Villain donked too large. Half-pot would have been plenty. In any event, he shouldn’t be calling my all-in. First, his kicker sucks. I has expecting KQ, AQ, QJ (probably suited). Second, I’m the PFR. The only way that he should call that is if he has me as a LaG bluffer but we’ve only been playing each other for 5 mins and I have not been LaGgy. What do you all think?
Also, was my jam too large? It was instinct. I saw the pot bet and my gut said “this guy thinks he has it with a Q. Imma take him down.” He could have folded.
You did just what you were supposed to do you won the pot never think twice after that. The only thing you should be thinking about is going over your hand in a solver.
I posted on the page what I thought about your hand so it’s private I will do that from now on as long as my notes work if you like here is the link to the hand where I posted the notes. I’ve never posted notes for another user so I’m not sure if my notes will show on your page. I’ve only been on replay since August.
How are you going to run a 4-way spot through a solver? You won’t even find a heads up spot where someone donks for pot. (Also, I can’t see either of the links you posted, Replay is very particular about how you need to post those into the forums for them to work. I normally just copy the entire URL from the browser, but there is a better way to do it that hopefully someone else will point out)
I wouldn’t expect so normally, given you are holding two of them. 66, 77, 67 seem much more likely. Your shove is only good against those hands, because they’re probably never folding on the flop, but it might be harder to get all the money in if Spades roll off. They’re likely not folding a spade draw either (although they should, except for combo draws),
Like you say though, they should never be calling with the hand they have, or any single pair, so the jam is not great if you think that’s a big part of their range.
I don’t think jam is anywhere near as bad as it would be in theory - although this is probably the one spot where real money games do play a bit different to Replay. A bigger percentage of the field is more price elastic and will find folds with good hands against huge raises, so you can’t always get away with this. If you can’t shove for value though, then that means you can as a bluff.
Thanks man. I’ll figure out a way to post hands. I’ll talk to @Rain about it. You make a good point about the solver, what I do is LUCID POKER APP has a cash game solver as well as every other scenario that you can imagine; from multi table tournaments to heads up and everything in between. This is one app that I know that does this easily. All you do is pop the hand in and it gives you every range possible and what are the correct game theory optimal strategies. You make an excellent point about cash games. I play them all day and it is a whole different scene… When someone comes and shoves on you and your decision depends on whether or not your kids braces are going to be paid off or not not; it makes the decision quite difficult. It’s not like in replay where you can just go and spend five dollars and top off your stack and get a better rating, etc. You can literally destroy your life by saying call!
I only really play micro and some low stakes poker online, so it’s not much different to replay. I would say the population on average is a bit less averse to putting all the money in and a bit less likely to blindly call it all off, but it’s not massively different. The level of play can vary pretty dramatically both here and for “real” money though, so that doesn’t always apply.
Re: solver. I wasn’t talking about a heads up game, but a heads up spot. ie There’s still 4 people in the hand when the villain donks and 3 left when napkin_holder shoves, which is going to change the GTO strategy a lot. Most of the accessible solvers just don’t handle anything that’s multi-way post flop.
It’s actually something I overlooked in my analysis too, because I actually think the third player definitely shifts things toward just calling. It’s great if we can get them to come along as well.
Yeah, the lucid solver is on sale for this weekend until Sunday 25% off. If anyone’s interested I can give you the promo code. I am in with UpswingPoker and they have shown me and given me access to LucidPoker. There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube that Doug Polk does on LUCID. If you just watch those videos you will catch on very fast on what I’m talking about with handling multi-way pots.