Poker Hands and Strategy

Sports & Other Games
322

It’s possible to come up with a table where slowplaying KK while short-stacked makes sense. It’s probably not going to be a table where everyone agrees on slow-playing in this spot.

If you slowplay, you do have to be able to let a hand go on an unfavorable board. I can do it, so I can afford to slowplay more than most players. I probably slowplay more than other players with a similar win-rate. I don’t love doing it, but I have specific reasons for doing so to exploit specific players at the table, rather than people who are just trying something different because they didn’t win a big pot the last time they had a big hand.

323

You have 9BBs with 8 players left to act. You want them calling with PPs and Aces even KQ. Otherwise you’re happy to take the massive blinds and antes. Maybe you just complete in the SB as a trap or something. But UTG this is a shove all day.

324

How confident in somebody raising behind would you have to be in order to make limping optimal?

In other words, at an aggressive table, would this be a good chance to try and triple up instead of just winning the blinds?

(Disclaimer: haven’t played a tournament in years but contemplating it just based on your stories!)

325

LOL I am so bad, I repeat every corny poker cliche and phrase known to man at the table. People think I’m a huge fish probably. When I bust AK i always say “looks good never wins” type of jokes. I refer to aces as pocket rockets and kings as cowboys. I am probably the most obnoxious player you can find live. It makes me internally laugh really hard.

326

More than you could ever be at one of these. You’re live to see a 9-way flop.

327

600/1200 tournament level, $100 buy-inbuy-in

I open to 2500 with A9s in the CO and instantly realize I should have bet larger against bb, a loose Asian with a big stack who is going to interpret my bet size as weak. He makes it 5000. I ship it in for about 20K.

328

Seems fine given your read.

329

Lost fairly close to bubble last night in 300 player $175 buyin tourney (10k for $125 and 10k add-on for $50). Had around 85k at 2000/1000/2000 in about the 4th hour, pretty close to the money. Was feeling I needed to chip up to make the FT and not just min-cash. Early position pushes for 20k, mid position with 95k calls 20k, and I overpush on the button with AK.

Early has q10s, middle had 99, and I don’t improve. Would have had 10x starting stack if I won the hand. IMO, better to cash half as often for 3x as much.

Funny hand. Get table change at like 1000-500-1000 blinds and antes. Avg stack is like 45k and one guy has like 250k. Pretty clear he’s been running over people. I see like 6 hands of him reraising and call all the shortish all-ins with any 2. Well, it was probably going well for him previosuly, but now he’s losing a lot. Then he pushes all in over a tight player’s raise (she has like 65k) and she calls with AA and it holds. Now he’s down to like 60k.

He also clearly on tilt now. Early position (seat 4) raises 2.5bb, I call in late position (seat 9) with A9cc, and tilt guy he pushes from the bb (seat 2). Early guy tanks real hard, mainly worried about me. After what’s probably 1-1.5 mins, he folds. I have yet to act but my plan was to fold if early raiser calls the all in and call if he folds, because A9 is way ahead of tilt guy’s range.

Anyway, right after early raiser folds, tilt guy turns over his J4os to show, whereupon I announce call and turn over A9cc. (Don’t forget about the guy in seat 9 who still has cards). Flop comes ccc, everyone cheers, and I win a big hand. Him showing his cards didnt change anything, but I’m pretty sure he thought it did. As he was the table bully, everyone was happy. It was break time after that hand.

One hand that I tanked on. I raised 2.5x to like 4k in EP with KQhh, MP calls, and button calls. Flop is like 10 high with 2 hearts. I bet 10k, EP pushes for like 30k, and LP over pushes for like 90k. I have around 110k. I like my draw and two overs, but I talked myself into believing I didn’t have the best draw and eventually fold. EP shows like Q10 and LP shows down like A7hh, and EP won the hand because no other hearts hit. I had had a few beers but seemed to have a good read that hand.

330

Yeah it’s lighting money on fire to not shove your AK there. Limping into the money is no good imo - unless you just have no choice and you’re on like the stone bubble.

I always think of it like - do I have a playable stack for the upcoming level? (levels being bubble, then final table bubble, then final table money ladder) Playable stack means I can actually steal and push people around. It’s more a function of the other stacks at your table than average stack or anything else.

If I do have a playable stack I might play it a little tighter (still never folding AK in your spot), since I’m already in a good spot to chip up w/o having to take big risks. If I don’t have a playable stack I’m willing to take more risks within reason. In your case I suspect if you had won that hand you could start chipping up like crazy on the bubble.

Well played on the tilty guy hand and yeah I’m folding the KQ hand. I think you need to feel like your FD is good and your overs might be live there.

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331

Just to give you an idea how ownable people are on the bubbles/ladders - last night it was 12 handed - I shoved K7o from SB. BB, the smallest stack on the table who had like 12BBs, folds AJo face up and says “next time I’m calling”. Ok sir.

Next orbit in BB. SB with 15BBs completes. I shove T3o. He folds 22 face up.

For once people didn’t want to chop immediately at the FT. Well they did but one guy didn’t. So of course they all said they were going to get him and got really mad (AJo folder guy got maddest - he was ultra-scared money).

I was owning them so bad. Finally the one holdout relented at 7-handed after I shoved over his button raise from the BB and knocked him down to average stack. Scared money ladder poker, when you have a stack, is the most fun poker of all.

I should demand a premium but I’m doing this as much for fun as anything else and I don’t want them all mad at me. I got like $500 over 2nd place money ($1200 less than first - still not bad for maybe 1/4 of the chips in play).

Next time I have a dominating stack I’m going to demand a premium. Fuck it. But it’s never fun to bust 7th though when you could walk away with > 2nd place money. Then they all point and laugh and say stuff about karma.

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332

Totally agree about trying to bully a fair amount, but it’s still poker, and you can’t get too far out of line. Like 5 years ago (and like 6 poker tourneys ago for me) I was at the final table of like a $150 tourney at Commerce, probably mid-range stack. Folds around to me and I’m on the button with KQs. I push to make it seem kinda like a bluff, but also to get “good” bad hands to fold, maybe hoping for a call from a worse hand. BB calls the all-in with like A10, has about the same stack as me. He held and it’s gg, 8th place.

Probably like 8 tourneys, and 8 years ago, I got hit by the deck at a $180 or so tourney at Ceasers. Like JJ, QQ, KK, all getting called and holding. Also had a good 88 vs KK type suck out to start the run. I remember a hand where guy’s 44 lost to my AJ or whatever on the river when the board paired twice and my A played. He didn’t realize he had lost the hand for like a minute, after it was explained to him. Even among tons of online tourneys, that one stood out to me for getting good cards. Think I had half the chips at the start of the FT. May have chopped when it was heads up.

The thing I noticed at Gardens, at least on my two early tables, where various regs knew one another, and most of the players were “good” in the sense of being fairly tight and knowing the value of their hands, like folding worse kings and such, but weren’t playing aggressive. Saw 3 AA vs KK all ins (one where KK flopped quads), but definitely too many “good” ABC players playing too tight for a tourney, where they finally make a stand with AJ when the have 8x BB.

333

A few gnarly hands from last night:

Hand #1
Blinds 200/400-400, I have 13k chips to start the hand.
Loose passive lady limps UTG, I make it 1500 with AQo, button calls, splashy guy in BB calls, UTG calls

Flop A45r - BB checks, UTG checks, I make bet 2000 (1/3 pot), button folds, splashy guy in BB makes it 7000, UTG folds. I have about 10k behind, he has me covered.

This screams 2p to me since I think this guy is happy to just call with A2 or 56. Mayybe AJ or AT. Could be a set but that might just flat. If I continue I’m most likely putting up 10k more to win about 20k more. I feel like even though I am probably behind, I have at least a few outs against 2p and will have more by the river most times - which I think if it’s super close might tip the scales.

Hand #2
I have about 70k chips in MP. Blinds 600/1200-1200

UTG limps, UTG+2 limps, I decide to call AThh although maybe I should be reraising there. Button calls, SB calls, BB checks.

SB is drunk and pretty much bets any open pots he gets a chance to. He bets small when he has nothing or to see where he’s at. Bets big when he has it. Has been caught bluffing the river at least once and I suspect was bluffing a lot more.

Flop 8h7d4c. SB bets 2000 into 8400 pot, it folds to me, I call, button folds

Turn 7c - check, check

River 3d - he bets 4600

I feel like flop is an easy call since this guy could have anything, so I might have the best hand and I have some back door draws. River feels like a call too.

Hand #3
Same villain as hand 2, I have 55k chips, Blinds 500/1000-1000

UTG (villain has me covered) makes it 2400, MP calls, HJ calls, CO calls, I call A3cc on button, SB folds, button calls

Flop Tc6c4h - BB checks, UTG bets 14k for basically pot, folds to me

Maybe I should have shoved pre - but villain could snap me off pretty easily. Folding pre seems terrible. Obviously with my stack here I’m usually pretty willing to try to get it in on any flop with two clubs.

On the flop I know this means he has a piece - almost certainly a 10 or better. He bets small when he doesn’t have it. So I have roughly zero fold equity. If I call I probably have one card to hit my hand since he’s leading big or shoving basically any turn. I do have a pretty good chance to double up if I hit since he’s leading enough to commit himself most of the time.

334

I usually have some of these guys, but also at least 2 guys playing the early levels like it’s a wild cash game - 3-betting light, raising tons of stuff pre - bluffing each other. I think you might have gotten an unusually dead table.

335

Hand 1 feels like a fold, I mean I know these players are bad but “putting you in an A” is like the one thing they actually do. He could be bluffing or semi-bluffing but I’ll bet you’re usually in bad shape here.

Like a bluff call on hand 2

I feel like hand 3 you get it in, otherwise why are we calling a suited A preflop?

336

Hand 1 looks like a shove to me. You’re damn low on chips and this is what AQ is looking for. Too bad if you lose to a set. 2k bet is good idea to induce a bluff.

Your stack is big here. I’m fine with the call to try to win a big pot or a small pot with an A. I always fold this flop. I’ve lost the chance at a big pot. As played, I reluctantly call river because of the size of your stack and pot odds. You need like 25% chance to be good, and you’re prob like 35% to be good.

I prob just fold pre. You need a flush or 2 pair to call/raise bets. But your stack is ok, and you can afford to call every so often. The point of a semi-bluff si that you get a ton of equity from folds, and you don’t need to hit the 35% flush to make it a better than even money. (My rule of thumb is FD with 2 overs that would be good if they hit is a 50/50 vs a pair). However, when you know he’s not folding and had a real hand, I think you have to fold here.

337

Hand 1 - yeah maybe so - I felt like maybe 80% of the time he has it but I have outs. The rest of the time he has 56 or a worse ace or something stupid. I guess that’s a fold even getting 2-1.

Hand 3 - I almost always am getting it all in here. But given my read that I had zero fold equity and I know I’m not seeing two streets w/o a shove. I think this might be a rare time I have to fold.

338

Hand 2 I do feel like I have a decent chance to stack this guy if any of my back door draws come through. And that my overs are probably good and I could very easily have the best hand. The key for me was him getting everyone else to fold.

Hand 3 - I usually call this pre at this stack size where I’m normally happy to shove any good draw. However the way this hand played out it turned into a spot I didn’t feel great shoving with what I figure is zero fold equity.

339

Btw I inquired with Jonathan Little, who a bunch of us here know from the old STTF get togethers, about coaching. He’s already reviewed most of my previous hands from this thread. I sent him 13 hands, and he made me a 1-hour video of him reviewing them for $250. Totally worth it imo.

He said he didn’t think much over 50% ROI is possible at single day tourneys, which kinda bummed me out. But then I binked again last night so poker is still easy. I’m still fairly sure this one tourney is soft enough for at least 100%.

1 Like
340

I’m probably going o play the 7pm tourney at HP

341

I should say that for good or ill after the first 3 levels I’m almost never calling flop bets without pretty much knowing where I’m at. Maybe it’s a habit I got multitabling, but I hate being a caller after the flop. I don’t like decisions. I’ll often bet first with mid pair, draws, or a bad (or good) TP, but will only call with such hands situationally. I
fold or (rarely) raise. If I have a strong hand I try to punish TP bad kicker and draws. While hardly ideal, I don’t have to make crying calls, hero folds, or blocking bets on the river. Now, it’s obviously different if I’m really deep, but that’s rare, so I generally play in a way that minimizes hard decisions. If I remember right it’s kind of a Kill Phil approach.