Round One Loser - June 22, 2005
I played 7 $10 NL SNG's last night. You may be saying wow, that is a lot of poker, but I didn't get deep in the tournaments so the games didn't last as long as I would have liked. I made some very good plays, but I think my biggest pitfall was gambling too early. I like to play a lot of hands early to see if I can hit a big hand and trap someone who thinks top pair without a kicker is worth going all in. The idea is that I can get in and see the flop for cheap. If I hit a monster, I will be able to double up or win a big pot, but if I don't hit a big hand I will be able to muck the hand without losing much of my stack.
Problems: I limped in a lot from UTG (a.k.a - Under the Gun, left of the BB - Big Blind). Therefore, I was susceptible to a raise from LP - Late Position and was not seeing the flop for as cheaply as I would have liked. Sometimes it is better to wait for position or see how the table is going to play out before you start playing a lot of hands from EP - Early Position.
Positives: Below is an example of a hand that I thought I played well.
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (9 handed) converter
UTG (t1060)UTG+1 (t1435)MP1 (t790)MP2 (t680)MP3 (t640)CO (t755)Button (t1275)Hero (t710)BB (t655)
Preflop: Hero is SB with Qh, As. 5 folds, CO raises to t30, 1 fold, Hero calls t20, BB calls t15.
Flop: (t90) 9d, Ad, 3c (3 players)Hero checks, BB bets t15, CO raises to t45, Hero raises to t75, BB folds, CO folds.
Final Pot: t225
I am Hero and have 710 chips in the Small Blind. Blinds are only 10-15 in the first level and I would be playing out of position after the flop so I decided to call the initial min raise instead of reraising. My reasoning: AQ is a hand that will lose you a lot of big pots. You are dominated against AK and you feel compelled to play it very strongly if a Q hits. However, if a Q hits there are a lot of hands that could have you beat depending on the other two cards on the flop. For example, if the board is QJ5. There are a lot of players that will play QJ, or even KT and have an open ended straight draw.
So the flop comes A93 with two diamonds. I check it to the initial raiser because I want to get a read on his bet to see if I have the best hand. The big blind bets the minimum 15 into a 90 chip pot. This screams flush draw to me. The CO (Cut Off, Initial Raiser) is probably thinking the same thing so he raises it to 45. I don't like this bet because it is giving the BB proper pot odds to call. Now it is decision time for me.
First thing to ask yourself is... do I have the best hand? I suspect I have a better hand at this point than the big blind. I am still a bit worried that the CO may have AK, however I think he should have bet a bit more preflop and on the flop if he did. So my options are to Fold, Call or Raise. I don't want to fold because I think there is a good possibility that I have the best hand. If I call the big blind is definitely going to call to see if he can pick up a diamond on the turn. There is 150 chips in the pot, my call will make it 195 and all the BB will have to do is put 30 more in. Since he is putting in 30 to win 195, he is getting 6.5 to 1 odds and he has 9 outs so there is a 1-{(36/45)*(35/44)} or 36% chance of him hitting his flush and winning the hand. If he has a 3d in his hand he gets another 5 outs because he could draw three of a kind or two pair as well and he would have a 50% chance of winning the hand.
The final option is to raise. I chose to raise for a couple of reasons. First, I felt I could decrease the BB's pot odds to call and I could get him to fold. Not only does he have to worry about the additional money he has to put in the pot now, he knows that the CO has the option to raise so he may have to put in additional chips if it gets back to him. Secondly, I want to know where I stand with the CO. By raising a minimal amount I put the pressure on the Small Blind and I get some information out of the CO. I want to know if he has AK or better. By check raising the flop here I am showing strength. I think he will raise me if he has a big hand. If he was bluffing and just playing the position game he will fold which is fine with me and if he has a worse hand AT, AJ, I am probably going to get a call and will be ahead in the hand. As it turns out the BB and the CO folded and I was able to pick up just 120 chips.
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Please Note: I am going to try to showcase a hand or so and analyze it during these posts. I would love the feedback/criticism of how I could have played the hand differently, how I didn't calculate the odds correctly, how my logic was off.
Also, any suggestions to the site, please let me know. This is a work in progress so hopefully it will get better and better as I write more. FYI - I am going to try to post every couple days or so depending on how much time I have to play poker.
Problems: I limped in a lot from UTG (a.k.a - Under the Gun, left of the BB - Big Blind). Therefore, I was susceptible to a raise from LP - Late Position and was not seeing the flop for as cheaply as I would have liked. Sometimes it is better to wait for position or see how the table is going to play out before you start playing a lot of hands from EP - Early Position.
Positives: Below is an example of a hand that I thought I played well.
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (9 handed) converter
UTG (t1060)UTG+1 (t1435)MP1 (t790)MP2 (t680)MP3 (t640)CO (t755)Button (t1275)Hero (t710)BB (t655)
Preflop: Hero is SB with Qh, As. 5 folds, CO raises to t30, 1 fold, Hero calls t20, BB calls t15.
Flop: (t90) 9d, Ad, 3c (3 players)Hero checks, BB bets t15, CO raises to t45, Hero raises to t75, BB folds, CO folds.
Final Pot: t225
I am Hero and have 710 chips in the Small Blind. Blinds are only 10-15 in the first level and I would be playing out of position after the flop so I decided to call the initial min raise instead of reraising. My reasoning: AQ is a hand that will lose you a lot of big pots. You are dominated against AK and you feel compelled to play it very strongly if a Q hits. However, if a Q hits there are a lot of hands that could have you beat depending on the other two cards on the flop. For example, if the board is QJ5. There are a lot of players that will play QJ, or even KT and have an open ended straight draw.
So the flop comes A93 with two diamonds. I check it to the initial raiser because I want to get a read on his bet to see if I have the best hand. The big blind bets the minimum 15 into a 90 chip pot. This screams flush draw to me. The CO (Cut Off, Initial Raiser) is probably thinking the same thing so he raises it to 45. I don't like this bet because it is giving the BB proper pot odds to call. Now it is decision time for me.
First thing to ask yourself is... do I have the best hand? I suspect I have a better hand at this point than the big blind. I am still a bit worried that the CO may have AK, however I think he should have bet a bit more preflop and on the flop if he did. So my options are to Fold, Call or Raise. I don't want to fold because I think there is a good possibility that I have the best hand. If I call the big blind is definitely going to call to see if he can pick up a diamond on the turn. There is 150 chips in the pot, my call will make it 195 and all the BB will have to do is put 30 more in. Since he is putting in 30 to win 195, he is getting 6.5 to 1 odds and he has 9 outs so there is a 1-{(36/45)*(35/44)} or 36% chance of him hitting his flush and winning the hand. If he has a 3d in his hand he gets another 5 outs because he could draw three of a kind or two pair as well and he would have a 50% chance of winning the hand.
The final option is to raise. I chose to raise for a couple of reasons. First, I felt I could decrease the BB's pot odds to call and I could get him to fold. Not only does he have to worry about the additional money he has to put in the pot now, he knows that the CO has the option to raise so he may have to put in additional chips if it gets back to him. Secondly, I want to know where I stand with the CO. By raising a minimal amount I put the pressure on the Small Blind and I get some information out of the CO. I want to know if he has AK or better. By check raising the flop here I am showing strength. I think he will raise me if he has a big hand. If he was bluffing and just playing the position game he will fold which is fine with me and if he has a worse hand AT, AJ, I am probably going to get a call and will be ahead in the hand. As it turns out the BB and the CO folded and I was able to pick up just 120 chips.
***********************
Please Note: I am going to try to showcase a hand or so and analyze it during these posts. I would love the feedback/criticism of how I could have played the hand differently, how I didn't calculate the odds correctly, how my logic was off.
Also, any suggestions to the site, please let me know. This is a work in progress so hopefully it will get better and better as I write more. FYI - I am going to try to post every couple days or so depending on how much time I have to play poker.
posted by Steve K at 12:12 PM
5 Comments:
Here is an e-mail I received...
here's my comment. couldn't respond without signing up. (I THINK YOU CAN CLICK ON ANONYMOUS AND POST WITHOUT SIGNING UP, AT LEAST I COULD FOR Seth's Blog)
first round of a $10 SnG and you assume a min raiser even has ANY kind of a hand? I'll assume that was an academic decision to assign the flush draw. What the min raise said to me was "he's an idiot" bc that's the assumption I have of everyone in round 1 at a $10 SnG. if they show me over an orbit or two they can play, then I change that. but it has to be the starting assumption at that level.
I think if either of those guys had A2o even, they'd have been pushing, esp since you only called with AQ. at a $10 SnG, AQ is a very good hand (to the masses).
True, it is possible that in a low stakes SNG the betters could have anything. However, for that reason I still don't like to play too aggressive without position. I still like my preflop play because I want to see an A or Q before I get too deep, plus there is only three players so I can feel a bit more comfortable if I hit top pair.
Reraise PF. You almost certainly have the best hand right now, but it's not one you are going to relish playing out of position. You'd prefer to win without seeing a flop, but if you reraise, you have three ways to win: he folds PF, you hit your hand and win, or he misses the flop and your continuation bet takes it down.
I don't think AQ is an especially good hand for a 'trapping' play. 22-77 or AA/KK, maybe, but not AQ...
So lets say I should raise preflop, then how much? He raised the minimum in round one. Should I raise it up to 100? I'm not a big fan of playing out of position which is why I prefer the call. I also can check raise bluff with outs if the PF raiser puts a suspect position bet out on a rags board flop.
Pooh - I think you are right that I probably have the best hand preflop, but I don't want to dig myself a hole with a suspect hand. I most likely will get heads up with this guy with a raise but I can't see him not calling the bet either unless I go real high.
So I guess my question is (a) how much should I raise and (b) assuming he calls what bet should I throw out on the flop if (b1) an A hits, (b2) a Q hits, (b3) rags hits?
Re-raise to about 100-125ish, and then bet 125-150 regardless of what flops. If you flop and A or a Q (if not K on board) then you should prepared to go broke with it in a SNG, unless the board is monotone or has JJ on it or something, then it calls for judgment.
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