The Diamond - i am not interested in bad beat stories. I was looking for help on playing AA/KK etc oop to avoid paying off sets. Losing a buy in is not the issue.

Totalise - i do add in reraising bluffs from the button to avoid always showing down a big hand/paying off sets. Do you recommend this strategy for reraising from the blinds? and if so, how do you proceed when they call? You have generally built a large pot oop with a marginal hand/bluff. A standard cont bet will therefore be a large and larger amount.

Doubleup - i agree that one of the requirements is to identify players willing to go broke with top pair not respecting your potential overpair. i feel the difficulty lies when your oppo has a high aggression factor in his post flop play. This can lead to a pot spiralling out of control (with no clear idea of what they hold) if your not very careful.

TightEnd - what kind of notes are you keeping on people always calling for sets? Do you note their general betting pattern when they hit or just that they are set mining a lot.

The subject is pretty self explanatory.

It is always said that you need 10/1 to call to hit a set profitably. Now, how do you defend against people calling to hit sets against you? is it simply good enough to get more than 10-15% of their stack in the pot preflop?

I feel this is an area of the game that causes me 'big' problems. My game is NLHE 6max

To get technical....Sklansky talks about "raising a small pot building amount or a large hand defining amount"...theory and practice. concept 28.

If we have given our opponents insufficient odds to call, is it ok to make more mistakes after the flop. i.e. we are sitting with $150 in a $50NL game. our oppo has $73.

after a couple of limper's our oppo raises to 2.75...it is folded button folds and o decide to play AA fast as i have been raising a lot. I thus make it 13 to go.  limper's fold and our oppo calls after not much thought.

flop come J72...looks good. i had put our opp on TT and up or AK...doubt he calls with AQ but maybe.

i bet 20 into 27ish pot. and my oppo insta pushes for 40 more. am i right to call here?? i fear the set but i think he could easily have QQ or KK.

I call and he shows me JJJ.

What can i do to prevent this?

You thoughts and comments are much appreciated. i know i could fold on the flop but too many people are nutters at this level!!

Regards,
MrSpeed

Surely its a jam preflop.

The SB may have reraised oop but he reraised the maniac, NOT your UTG raise. His raise of a maniac should surely be given less respect therefore?! ?

You have already deceived the table by limping in. If you see AA or KK everytime a tight player raises...esp raising a maniac then you are SCARED money. Jam the pot and head for you wallet. QQ is ahead of AK anyway plus with dead money/ fold equity you are only worried about 2 hands.

Regards,
MrSpeed.

PS. Its a lot easier to write this than it would be for me to do....but i still think jamming is the right play. I'd be scared money too.....lol

Note: i don't mean to call you dead money TightEnd. I respect your posts. Not trying to upset anyone.   

I go broke here 100% of the time. You are playing short stacked so you should be looking to get your money in here.

Only if you deepstaked can you start worrying about set over set. Too many people never fold TPTK or AA here, plus he may just be going nuts with QQ.

Just stick the money in and hit the reload button.

MrSpeed

Thanks Table Manners and Totalise. Good posts!

I can see the benefits in manipulating the size of your bets so you don't have to call off your chips - when on a large draw. Obv the opposite is true when you know/think u have the best hand - then you don't mind calling.

Not a problem for my bankroll TM, thats one thing i'm pretty good with. Lots of buy-ins spare to deal with variance. just wasn't sure of the 'correct' way to play this sort of hand.   

I do try to play a lot of my big hands as if draws - when a draw is there. I suppose again its a case of trying to sell the story with your bet sizes. and how you have played previous hands!

As for draws with 50% chance of winning when you know you are getting called. I'm beginning to think against true calling stations it can be best to lay these down. Against such players it can usually be best to wait for a better situation. However, sometimes you lose the race to get their chips that way!

Thanks again,
MrSpeed.

Tried to add some more information to my original post. Hope this helps.

Really shouldn't have written the post in work. 

spend most of the day thinking about poker anyway...lol. 

Thanks for the comments so far!

MrSpeed

I have a couple of hand history’s that I think could help myself and other members of the forum in how they should play monster draws on the flop/turn in no-limit holdem. I and I’m sure others would be grateful for any thoughts on this subject.

For all these examples, we shall assume a cash game (or early slow-structure tournament) situation, i.e. 100+BB’s.
 
Case 1: 
hand KdJd. 6-max NL holdem. $50 NL. Currently 2 stacks deep (200+BB’s = $110) after winning several large pots. I had been playing tight and have only shown down large (mostly winning) hands. The table is generally weak with pretty much ABC poker on display.

In this case I limped in second position. (As I said my table was weak with a lot of flops multi way, 70+% when I joined the table. Therefore I’m looking to flop big and get paid off.) The cutoff limps along with the button raising to 4xBB. The BB calls and so do myself and the button.
Now the flop. -Js-Td. I am now in the position of having a good ‘drawing’ hand out of position against the preflop raiser.

What is my best course of action?

In this instance I check raised, this lets me see the action of the other 2 limpers without putting in anymore money. I am most fearful of someone who has flopped the str8. The pfr makes a 2/3 pot bet, $5 into 8. I know he would do this with most hands and fold KK,QQ and any weak A to a check raise. I now raise to 15, with the result being he shoves leaving me 20 to call with. I am clearly getting good odds and call. He shows AcQc,. My check raise represents a bigger hand and I feel his all in with only top pair is bad against most hands I’d make this move with. 

Any suggestions on where I went wrong? If at all. Please ignore for the time being whether or not the preflop call was correct. 
Also, what is the best way to play str8 flush draws on A high flops against people you suspect will call all-in with any A? i.e. TsJs on Ad9s8s flop…



Case 2:
Similar situations to before. hand AhKh utg. $50 NL. Some time later in the session I am on a new ‘good’ table with a donator/fish 2 to my left. His play is weak/calling station, having doubled up thro him regaining back my earlier losses. The BB has just reloaded after being all in preflop with 88 against the tightest player at the table who had AA (raise, reraise, re-reraise, all in, called with 88).

In this case I raise to 4xBB=$2 and get 2 callers, the button (donator) and the BB (88 maniac). The flop comes -Qh-Th. Yip, I’ve flopped the royal flush draw again.

The BB leads out for ½ pot, $3 into 6. I raise to 8, the button goes all in for 2 more (he could have anything from KKK to lone J as he never raises preflop). The BB now min raises (this could be a sign of trouble however he did it twice against AA preflop and still called the allin). I am thus less likely to believe him. He may have anything from top pair with str8 draw, 2 pair or bad K…or of course the nuts.

What is my best course of action?

In this case I shove all in, in effect putting the BB all-in. The BB calls all-in for his last 35 and shows AsJs for the flopped nuts.  The button shows JJ for open-ended str8 draw.
Did I play this hand wrong on the flop. I feel if I call and miss the turn I may fold my top pair top kicker (which could be winning on its own) to his turn bet.

Any suggestions on where I went wrong? If at all.

Note: I lost both hands when the turn and river were blanks in both cases. However, I’d be interested to know if my play was correct irrespective of the outcome.
In retrospect I was 48% to win the 1st case and ?% to win the 2nd case.

I’d also be interested in the thoughts people had when playing even deeper. Say against another big stack with 200-300 BB’s.

thx,
Mr Speed.

Hi blondes,


i downloaded a torrent programme and have downloaded a few files. These files seem to be saved in a .rar format.

Anyone know i go about viewing these files? Do i need to install a new programme or something.

Regards
Mr Speed (an embarrassed torrent novice)

Any chance u can send them to me too ginger??

Please...... 

G

Thanks for all the help.

Ye, i think its to do with the line that i can only get 2meg. Never mind, if its good for poker thats me happy.

Off to get my rooter now. 

G

Thanks everyone,

I have a wireless enabled laptop so i should be ok with just a wireless router. ACE, you say you got yours for 25quid? where did you get this? i have been looking online at the large retailers and they all seem to be in the 50+ quid range.

these computers....they so complicated!

Thanks again.
G

HELP required.

I ordered broadband from Bulldog the other month but seem to have been given a completely different package than i originally intended. This is not the one i wanted.

It turns out its going to be 2Meg rather than 8 i ordered. Will this make a large diff to my online poker playing?

Also, i need to head out and buy a modem tonight as the package they have given me didn't come with a free one (20mins time when i finish work). Any tips on one to go with my wireless laptop???

Thanks
G

Totalise / others,

I was wondering what strategy's you use in cash games when away from table. What i mean is, when not at the table what statistics / records / practices do you use to better improve your game.

I currently only use pokertraker. I find this very useful for the obv stats it gives and to record hands. But how best do you go about analysing these. Do you go over certain hands in a particular session (big wins or loses) to see if they could have been played diff. I do this, however, this does nothing for the hands you folded too early / won without contest which were actually incorrectly played.

i appreciate that experience is the best learning tool. However, is there a certain way you analyse your play after a session to pick up any important lessons that may not have been obv at the time??

Thanks again for all your efforts, i hope your Dad and others find all this helpful. I certainly am.

regards,
G

Totalise,

I have heard some of the top pro's say that one of the main mistakes amateurs make is 'building a pot out of position'.

Do you have any thoughts on this? In effect, is there any strategy changes you make for playing the blinds with marginal hands. I play mainly multi table 6max online so playing the blinds is a main part of the game (2 out of 6 rather than 2 out of 9/10 is a big diff).  

Also, any tips on controlling pot size (esp out of pos) with semi strong hands (i.e. top pair on dangerous board etc).

G

[Tight is right.]

Best bit of advice......

Tight is right.

Think i basically got this from reading 'Play poker like the Pros' by our friend Phil Hellmuth. This was the first poker book i ever bought myself or read.

Playing tight for a beginner is a good starting point then you can learn to loosen up.....better than the other way round which will prob cost u too much cash!