Horrible Plays – 2

Here is a very “nice” example of horrible plays – both by me and by the villain.

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Just to set some context, I didn’t have a lot of history with the villain before this hand, I had been playing pretty LAGgy at the table for a while, raising a lot pre-flop, entering a lot of pots, and generally very loose. I am sure my table image must have been pretty fishy, probably that of a maniac.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.15/$0.30 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BTN: $56.95

SB: $60

BB: $29.95

UTG: $28.10

Hero (MP): $38.85

CO: $64.30

Pre-Flop: 5 4 dealt to Hero (MP)

UTG calls $0.30, Hero raises to $1.05, 3 folds, BB raises to $3.60, UTG folds, Hero calls $2.55

Extremely loose pre-flop raise by me, about par for course for this session. This was the 3rd or 4th consecutive pre-flop raise that somebody was 3-betting me with, and given that villain had been quiet for a while plus me having position on him, I decided to call and see how I could take this away after the flop. In hindsight, a pretty bad call, I should have folded.

Flop: ($7.65) T J 6 (2 Players)

Dream flop for me! Hit the flush right out the door. I was trying to figure out how to get all the money into the middle before a fourth diamond hit the board and killed any action.
BB bets $26.35 and is All-In, Hero calls $26.35

The villain pushed all-in. It was highly improbable that he also had 2 diamonds, at worst, he might be doing this with one big diamond, and with a less than 40% chance for him to complete that draw, it was an easy call for me – Any pair was pretty much dead on this flop, if he had a set, the villain was drawing to 7 outs and would get the full house about 1 out of 3 times. I was only a big dog if he had a higher flush, and I decided it was worth the price.

Turn: ($60.35) A (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: ($60.35) A (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

I definitely didn’t like these two cards – if villain had even one diamond, I was dead, if villain had pushed all in with a set, I was dead.

Results: $60.35 Pot ($3 Rake)
BB showed K K (two pair, Aces and Kings) and LOST (-$29.95 NET)
Hero showed 5 4 (a flush, Ace high) and WON $57.35 (+$27.40 NET)

As it turns out, villain had panicked on the flop, and hoped that a massive overbet would scare me away and would chase me off of any draws. My bad play pre-flop was rewarded because of this mistake.

Here is why that was a bad play -

Pre-flop – villain could have estimated that he probably had the best hand especially given the range of hands I’d been raising and opening with. His re-raise was good.
Flop – this was a pretty bad flop for him, especially given that he had 2 black kings. Checking it down after re-raising pre-flop was too weak, and it was pretty bad for him that he was out of position against me. Apart from the flush draw, the T and J also would have hit my re-raise calling range pretty hard. He now had to worry about two-pairs, a set, and probably a straight draw as well! Given all of this, his focus should have been on getting to a showdown as cheaply as possible – he was at best a small favorite against a smaller pair or a bare flush draw, about even money against a pair with a flush or straight draw, and almost dead against a set or a  made flush. If he had just wanted to deny proper odds for me to draw to a flush or straight, he should just have bet about 2/3 to the pot.

By betting all-in, he effectively risked $26 to win $7, chased away all worse hands that he could have gotten some value from, and the only hands that beat him are going to call the bet!!

I was in a very similar phase some time back, convinced that betting strong would chase away most hands, I never used to think about why or with what types of hands anybody would be calling my bets – there are many scenarios where its much better to check or make a smaller “blocker” bet – these will help you figure out where you stand, if villain raises, you are probably beaten, throw away your hand and wait for a better time. If not,  you’ve gotten some value for your hand.

Even now, I am trying to figure out the borderline between getting to a cheap showdown in scenarios like this (where I have the pair versus a strong possible made hand or strong draw), and extract values from weaker hands and weaker players who don’t even recognize that a much stronger hand is actually possible from the board!

Classic Mistakes – 1 – Ignoring the commitment threshold

One of the classic mistakes we all make when we start playing is ignoring the relative stack sizes (your own as well as the villain’s) and the bets that could potentially commit either of you to the pot, sometimes regardless of any cards that might be dealt subsequently. This was one area that this book had helped me with. I am still trying to get to terms with differing commitment levels based on how good/bad the villain is, the type of hand you have, etc.

I don’t think I have understood the concept well enough to explain it as clearly as the authors of PNLHE, and strongly recommend that you get the book, but am going to use the hand below to try to walk thro’ the thought processes I am trying to develop to see if I, or the villain are committed during any hand.

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Full Tilt Poker, $0.15/$0.30 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $37

BTN: $64.05

SB: $30

BB: $82.45

UTG: $37.65

MP: $52.30

Pre-Flop: T T dealt to Hero (CO)

UTG folds, MP calls $0.30, Hero raises to $1.05, BTN calls $1.05, 2 folds, MP calls $0.75

Pocket 10s on the cutoff merit a raise, and with the one limper already in, I decide to raise to 3.5 BBs (I usually stick to a 2.5x + 1xBB per limper raise on 6-max tables)

Flop: ($3.60) 8 2 5 (3 Players)

MP checks, Hero bets $2, BTN calls $2, MP folds

This as a pretty decent flop for me, no obvious draws on the board, all lower cards to my pocket pair, so I bet just over 1/2 pot. Note – I started the pot with about $37. I have bet about $3, so I have about $34 after the flop bet. The villain had well over $60 when the pot started – for calculating pot-commitment thresholds, we should only worry about the lower stack (mine in this case).

Turn: ($7.60) 8 (2 Players)
Hero bets $6, BTN raises to $18.60, Hero calls $12.60

I had taken a couple of notes about the villain based on past hands that he’d showed down (mostly against other players) – he re-raised big a couple of times – once with the nut flush draw, and the second time with an inside straight draw. While it was quite possible that he’d hit the 8 and had trips, I didn’t think he’d re-raise it right here, rather, given the size of my bet (almost pot-sized), he might just have smooth-called and tried to extract more value on the river. I put him on either the flush draw or complete air (maybe an ace-high). When he raised the bet to $18, I had less than 16$ left on the river if I called, and that was just about 1/4th of what would be the pot size on the river. That effectively committed me to the pot. Whatever the river card, I would have to push all-in. In fact, I had made a mistake on the turn, if I was going to call that turn bet, I should just have pushed all-in, if I believed that I had a better hand, I should have tried to extract more value right then.

River: ($44.80) 7 (2 Players)
Hero bets $15.35 and is All-In, BTN folds

I did push all-in on the river, and villain folded! He just needed to be right once in 4 times to break even by calling this bet, and if he had thought that I might do this with something like an ace-high, he should have called this bet. This just makes it all the more probable that he was on a draw that didn’t fill. His mistake was – he must have realized that his raise on the turn pot-committed me; he should either have re-raised me all in, that move might have had some fold equity, or just smooth-called and raised on the river regardless of whether his draw filled up.

Results: $44.80 Pot ($2.20 Rake)
Hero mucked T T and WON $42.60 (+$20.95 NET)