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Having played another couple of $5 with mixed results, I tried another $10. It was a 1500 starting stack, I had played it nice & tight, & earned a few chips. Shane_Hamilton plays a lot of hands.

Full Tilt Poker Game #1351663013: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (9519631), Table 1 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:12:30 ET - 2006/12/04
Seat 1: theok12 (2,990)
Seat 3: Shane_Hamilton (3,425)
Seat 5: Muahahahaha (2,330)
Seat 7: red_piranha (1,390)
Seat 8: Local_Fish (1,125)
Seat 9: matheus_bra (2,240)
red_piranha posts the small blind of 40
Local_Fish posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Muahahahaha  Kd Qh
matheus_bra folds
theok12 folds
Shane_Hamilton calls 80
Muahahahaha raises to 240
red_piranha folds
Local_Fish folds
Shane_Hamilton calls 160
*** FLOP ***  Jc Qs 2d
Shane_Hamilton checks
Muahahahaha bets 320
Shane_Hamilton calls 320
*** TURN *** [Jc Qs 2d] 3h
Shane_Hamilton checks
Muahahahaha bets 720
Shane_Hamilton calls 720
*** RIVER *** [Jc Qs 2d 3h]  8s
Shane_Hamilton bets 720
Muahahahaha calls 720
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Shane_Hamilton shows [Tc 9s] (a straight, Queen high)
Muahahahaha mucks
Shane_Hamilton wins the pot (4,120) with a straight, Queen high
The blinds are now 50/100

The problem I had wth his hand was that I started off nice & confidant where I stood & got more & more confused as the hand went on.  In the end I thought I had to be beaten, but there was still a good chance he was bluffing at me, so with the pot already so high, I felt I had to call.

This guy didn't seem the type to slowplay AA/KK like this.  But should I be reading his betting as weak ( which I did ), or mega-strong. 

When the Q came on the flop I didn't have him as having AA/KK/AQ/JJ as I think hewould have raised preflop with them.  He came across as busy, but not very subtle.  So he might have 22.  Or he's drawing.  I couldn't really see much there that he'd want to call a preflop raise with that is helping him here.

So I bet out  320 into a 600 pot.  Continuation bet.  I expected him to fold, & I'd take it down, nice & simple.  The call was when I started to get confused.  The turn couln't possibly have helped him, and as I was so confidant I was in front before, I still had to be winning, didn't I.  Unless I'd missed something.  So should this be a half pot bet, pot sized, or overbet the pot. I don't want to give him a free card, so a 'slightly bigger than 50 % pot' bet is my when in doubt size bet, because apparantly that's big enough to make a call with a drawing hand a mistake ( most times anyway, so I'm told ).

Once he bets out I know he's hit something, coz that's more like the way he plays, but I have to bet that last 720 into 3400, just in case it's a bluff.

I feel a 5 fishy play coming on

 ;flushy; ;flushy; ;flushy; ;flushy;

Bring it on.  What did I miss , that I should have seen ?

Raise more preflop for a start, you're giving him odds to call. If you do that, then the hand becomes a lot easier to play, since you can bet the flop and then push the turn. Incidentally, he should really move in on the river.

I have to agree with noflops here. by betting what you do you're giving him pot odds.

Having said that..this is exactly why open enders can be soo nice to flop. You're not letting him pay too much to hit and he knows you can't pass for his final bet.

I am an idiot and misread this hand

You say that Shane_Hamilton is playing a lot of hands, so what are you trying to achieve with your raise? and your hand?

He will most likely to call you there with any two anyway.

I personally thing that against cs - no point raising with hands like KQ/JK and so on as you need to hit your flop hard in order to get your money.  You either raise them more so they will pay for playing their connectors, or sometimes they might fold it or try to see a cheap flop and get the money post flop.

On the flop you have a top pair with ok kicker but there is a straight draw and 1/2 pot bet for those players is a weak bet, and they won't fold here if they are on a draw, so you either bet pot to make him pay for his draw, and on turn when the blank comes you should push it or pot it again, and he either calls without odds or folds.

No place for fancy game against cs IMO

With 6 still left in i wouldn't be raising with KQ, someone said the other day the idea here is to preserve chips, get them later on.

sure, no doubt about it, but if he is FTA, and the small stack/blinds are tight, a steal is possible, but re-raising with KQ- at STT against cs=suicide

Great response again -cheers.  If you lot don't help me improve my game, there's no hope.

Looking at them one step at a time

1)  Why not take a free card on the turn? then just fold the river.  Well TBH I thought I was winning, & I wanted him to go away & let me have my chips ( I do have a habit of getting possessive too early sometimes ).  But like I said, his postflop call did puzzle me, so I was slightly indecisive about the correct bet size, in case he had 22, or something I'd missed.

2) Raise more preflop for a start, you're giving him odds to call  I thought the preflop raise was about right.  How big would you make it then ? 

3)  what are you trying to achieve with your raise? and your hand?  This sounds incredibly simplistic, but I like KQ in late position.  I watch PNL & James Browning is a great fan of KQ in an unraised pot.  I assumed Shaneyboy had nothing, so I though I'd take it off him & stick a few more chips in my pile.  By raising I wanted to isolate, then I assumed ( wrongly ), unless a scary flop came, I'd bet out & just clean it up.  If I had nothing on the flop & I couldn't shake him off, then I'd give up & let him have it.

,


James has a point, why not limp and then play it strong on flop and esp the turn?

Ok i get that but you need to be thinking what you want to hit here.
If i am raising (with any 2 cards at times) i have a clear idea of what i'm aiming for, a hand like KQ is easily dominated so top pair is not enough, i want an open ended straight draw or 2 pairs minimum to continue putting chips in AFTER the continuation bet.
The hardest thing to learn (i believe) is to let go of a hand, once mastered results improve.

With 6 still left in i wouldn't be raising with KQ, someone said the other day the idea here is to preserve chips, get them later on.  If I hadn't been on the button, I wouldn't have raised.  I think I'm playing pretty well up to now ( well, we can all dream, can't we ), so I expected my raise to have the respect it deserved  ::)

sure, no doubt about it, but if he is FTA, and the small stack/blinds are tight, a steal is possible, but re-raising with KQ- at STT against cs=suicide FTA ?  Something tight aggressive ?  I tried to be.  I'd earned those chips over a couple of small pots, not one big hand.  I raised with the KQ, not  a reraise, so I'm not sure what this bit means.  Explain, please ? ( Pretty please )

I would have passed pre-flop.....

sry mis-type, raising the limpers with KQ at this level, esp the calling station who will call you 90% of the time.

I am basically saying KQ=fold at this stage, unless you are first to act, as you have 2 smaller stacks to your left you can try to steal their blinds, but the blinds are still small so fold really.

For one player raising 3xbb will make them fold, for others you have to bet 6-10bb in order to fold their junk.

on the flop, look at the texture of it and think what the other player can have, are they chasers or rocks, and so on.


You say that your opponent calls a lot, so 1. he won't fold to your 3xbb raise, 2. he likes to chase, 3, he is likely to call you to the river unless you bet hard.


If you want to take the pot down against cs- over bet it as - 1/2 pot is nth.

Wardonkey wrote excellent series of articles what are here on the forum about STT strategy, great read good helpful info.

GL

Just to explain FTA is first to act.

cs= calling station

why not limp and then play it strong on flop and esp the turn?    Umm, because I'm not as good as I think I am ?  8).  I normally ( at my nice comfy $5 tables ) play it the way I did here, & it either works, or I let it go.  I don't play tp strongly as such, I just expect people to do as they're told & only bet back at me if they've got something I should worry about.  This is why Shaneyboy confused me.  I expect people at a higher level to play better/more subtle stuff, so I was worried about what he could have that I missed.

i want an open ended straight draw or 2 pairs minimum to continue putting chips in AFTER the continuation bet  Yes, I see.  So maybe I should have just given up on it after the 320 didn't work, irrespective of whether I was winning or not.

If I'd put in the larger bet ( pot size, or even slightly overpot ) it would have been harder for him to call, but if he had called, I'd have been more confidant that he had trips or something decent.

 :dontask:

There's  so much stuff here I'll have to reread it all, before I try to implement it.

But I really appreciate the time you guys ( of whatever sex ) take to help.  I'm not a total newbie, But because I play for fun, I've always kept well within my comfort zone.

My total profit for the first year I've been playing ( to end Oct ) was just over $150.  Which is all I was trying to do, break even & have some cheap fun.

Now's the time I'm trying to up the ante, & improve.  This last few weeks I'm showing a bit of a loss, coz I'm trying new stuff ( & getting it wrong, would you believe ).  But my knowledge has already increased incrementally.

Thanks again. 

If I keep asking stupid questions, will you keep answering them ?

A good tip that has been mentioned before is to go thru the hands you play out loud, "right i've got top pair and i'll bet the pot", "what has he called that with?" etc. etc.
You look mad in the library but it can help the thought process.

The hardest thing to learn (i believe) is to let go of a hand, once mastered results improve.

That alone would have saved me 1400 chips

Yet more things to put in the file marked 'learn this you git'.

If I get to play game on the works computer, not a problem with the talking to myself bit, they all know I'm a bit strange.  But at home I don't want to give the mrs any more excuse to get me put away.

OK kicker, pmsl

Me too.

Full Tilt structure doesn't really suit that game though.

Interesting comment.  I play these stts at the moment coz the blinds go up so slowly ( I used to play prima  rotflmfao ).

Is there a better place to play ( & make money ) for someone at my level.  I've played a few games on tribeca recently, but I've been getting out aggressioned at the ordinary games.  The Extended games don't seem so bad, but what do you think ?

You can make money with any structure but you have to adjust your game accordingly.

FT, stars 'normal' and tribeca 'extended' are all fairly slow. I suggest you pick one and stick with it. 

Tank and I both play fairly fast structured games and our tactics are based on that. If we were playing slower structured games we would have to play more hands early or we would just bleed to death.

Was me trying to say that although my first instinct tells me to pass KQ in this spot, it wasn't necessary such a bad thing playing it in a Full Tilt SNG.

I know, I hadn't even noticed it was FT when I made the 'I pass' comment.

So what sort of structure do you guys play ?  I find the prima 1000 chip ones sooooo fast & I tried some ( Paradise ? ) where you start with 800 chips, which is far too few chips for me to make an early error with

All number of chips are relative to the blind levels.

The normal structure on Tribecca, there are 2000 starting chips, but the blinds are 150/300 after just 32 mnutes.  This is the point where we're usually on or very near the bubble. The whole tournament rarely lasts any longer than 50 minutes.

For me, the point of the tourney is more relevant. It's still quite early and you have an ok stack. KQ is probably better as a call at this stage, keep the pot small. The cs will call most bets unless their very significant, and then they will only call with a strong hand, no need to risk large % of your chips with KQ at this stage.
As has been mentioned already, most bets are getting a call, once cs gets a draw he's not letting go of it. You only have 1 pair. You have already acknowledged how many chips you could have saved yourself in this situation.

With regards to which sites to play on, find a structure you are comfortable with and stick to it. You'll soon recognise the times to make moves or hold back.
You're already in profit so probably on the right track.
Last point - read Wardonkeys articles on STTs.

Good luck

I find at the lower levels ( $5 & $10 ) on tribeca ordinary, that these games are so aggressive that if I play squeezy cheek tight, I'm invariably shorty with 5 left.  Is that the same 'Ooop there' at the higher levels?  If so is that necessarly a bad thing ?

Not really

for example the $100 normals on Stars are the tightest games around, the $50s are looser. the $100s are more beatable I find

Being short at that stage is not that important. As long as you have enough chips to make people pass. It's nice to have a lot of chips but it's more important to be in the game.

exactly..as long as you have a fair amount of chips you have power at the table.

If you have been very tight until then your pushes will also have more respect