This last week or so I haven't got a chance to play a whole lot but when I have I am finding that I am leaking way too many chips away either raising preflop and cbet folding to raises, or checking to multiple late position callers and folding the flop. Either way my game is all out of whack and I am not sure if it is from not playing enough, raising too much in early position and thus having to play out of position or 3betting preflop and cbet bluffing and folding to raises.
I have found myself getting into too many situations where I don't know where I am. I have been trying to 3 and 4 bet more preflop and it has been working like a charm. Even early in tournaments a small 3 bet in position or on the flop has helped me take control so much easier. A play that seems so standard is becoming a stretch as I am trying to get a good idea on the skill level of those I am playing against.
I am loving to raise the flop with weak holdings when I know my opponent has something middling and re-evaluating the turn/ betting again when a scary card comes. What I have to be doing is putting the pressure on my opponent.
I played a hand very weakly against an aggressive yet successful pro who plays about 800 tourneys a month. He raised the button and I was in the bb with A9o mid multi (blinds 50-100, he had 6000, i had 2400) he raised to his standard 350 and I repopped to 825. What I thought this would do for a solid pro was make him draw a line in his range and either fold or stack almost everything. leaving his decision one way or the other, either way I was pretty happy to get it all-in if he took the button/sb/bb situation into account and narrowed his range. He had also shown down as little as J10off inthe same position and had raised utg wiht KJs the very first hand and 3 pronged a flopped flush draw to a late position caller. He hit the river and the other player gave him 1200chips with a flopped two-overs and a gutter and hit running two pair. Either way I know he plays very well postflop but I was blinded by the flat call he made of the 825. the flop came K49 and I didn't think I could fold the hand (this could very well be flawed thinking - My main thought against it is that one of the only hands that he would just call the preflop 3bet with is KQ) I bet 475 of my 1575 and he called. The turn was a brick and I thought for 10seconds and shoved. He insta called wiht KQ. I was hoping to narrow his range preflop, hit a decent flop for my hand but I am not sure if and how I should have gotten away from this postflop.
-Should I have just let him take the blinds again, he had done it several times and I had little to fight back with?
-Should I have just shoved preflop?
-Could I have check-folded at any point?
-Should I have just called preflop and decided from there? Still not a bad flop for my hand.
-should i have played it just the same?
I think of the five main ways of playing it the worst is a tie between a check fold and just call. At this stage of the tournament I cant be just calling, I think that with a strong player I will be in a very tough spot on so many flops and havent narrowed his range by just calling.
either way, Id like to know what people think about it. This hand is very indicative of the way I things have been going. I thought the preflop 3bet narrowed his range and all I think he will just call with is KQ.. I dunno, what do you think?
Maybe the fold and wait to play a weaker player in position is better
i like the smooth preflop or the shove preflop...given this flop you probably would have gotten it in on flop anyway. atleast you can get away from some ugly flops..like kj4 jt3 ...and you still have 2150 left (20 bb's). if you flop an ace your not folding obv...if you flop a 9 your probably shoving into his cbet unless its kq9 or something ugly like that...the argument for the shove is pretty simple..your way ahead of his range, andyou stand to increase your stack by 20% by shoving.no doubt that is a profitable move in the long run. the math play is obv though...lately i would lean the other way toward calling preflop...lots of times you are not facing a cbet either...you may get to check it down...a few reasons i hate the rerase...the obvious one is youre putting a 3rd of your stack in the pot....this now means that if you are considering a fold on the flop or at any point in the hand would be a definite mistake in my eyes..what do you really gain by rerasing. his range is wide and you know that, but you were planning on calling his shove anyway .the only way defining his range benefits you is if youre going to use that info to help you fold...but if youre folding with a 3rd of your stack in the pot that is not a winning play ...my play would be to shove 15 bb's or less....call 20bb's or more...even if i had 100bbs i wouldnt be rerasing to define my hand and his hand...why get more money in the pot when you dont know where you stand... you can win that hand a few differnet ways...you take the value out of that hand by rerasing it...i would 3bet bluff that with rags not with semi valuable hands...i fyou rerase preflop and he calls do you really know more about his hand...what if the flop comes ak10...now the pot is huge and you are not sure if he has 44 ak aq 89s.....i think its an awkward hand but only between shove and call....if you were deeper you could 3bet and fold to a 4bet....but even then you leave yourself open to a 4bet bluff from a decent pro who knows you can 3bet anything.when in doubt dont build the pot...i love the call...that low in chips though i would probably shove having like 10 tables going and he being loose....but if it was world series or some 10k buy in...im pretty sure id like the call better....then proceed to check raise shove good flops...check fold terrible ones. and wait with 20bb's...plus less value in shove before the antes.
ReplyDeletelet me know your thoughts
The reasoning I have the 3bet for 1/3 of my stack is not to define his hand at all, the goal was to get him to fold/shove but I want him to shove hands I can beat and fold everything else. The reason I had thought he would do one or the other is that I know he is a thinking player and pretty aggressive and I cannot see him flat calling preflop with near anything because of my appearance of being committed
ReplyDeleteif i 3bet a pos raiser and he shoved knowing i was commited i would very much doubt my a9 was ahead of his range. In his spot i would never shove a worse ace for 40% of my stack into a commited 3bettor. Thats my two sense and you are much better than i so what do i know.....anyway good luck man...ps i wrote about 3 pages more on this reply but my comp shut down and i lost it. hahha fml
ReplyDeletehaha don't be a baby, it makes sense what you are saying, perhaps just cause i have seen him shove people that are committed with decent odds. he had me covered and he is a maniac at times, perhaps not this earl. good comments though.much abliged, made me think i wasnt on the right track after you wrote fyl haha
ReplyDeletebaby??? wtf man?? i am never writing back on this ish...ppl get a little too sensitive when dealing with poker advice....i actually take time to think and write a big response, you dismiss my entire thoughts in a couple sentences. why even ask my opinion when your response is no no no he was like this and im right....im trying to give other ways to look at things instead of aggreeing with everything you say man
ReplyDeletehey man, im was just kidding about how you said i was so much better, as im sure i am not! wrong choice of words with baby. sarcasm gets lost on here. I wasn't trying to dismiss at all. i thought what you said made a lot of sense. sorry for saying baby, not my intention to upset you i was just talking like if we were face to face. that cool, with you? Def love the feedback..i havent done anything in the last 5 months so i need all i can get
ReplyDeletesounds like this rich guy is a baby so good comment ted, i would have said worse to him. sounds to me like he has never even played poker before in his life.imagine living with that guy?jeebas it would be the worst. in all honesty i like what rich is saying, i think shove or just call. hes got position and alot more chips then you making him more likely to just call there which isnt the spot you want to be in.he then has the obvious option there of letting you make mistakes where if you go all in and call your putting him to that same decision but in your favour. keep me in mind for a prom date. byeeee
ReplyDelete