blonde poker forum

Probably both I hear you saying and who am I to disagree but one thing is for sure I'm having a poor run of cards.

In my last two tourneys at DTD which have been the £150 deepie and today's £150 involving about ten hours play (brag) I've had AK/AQ a few times but my biggest pp has been 99 in that period which doesn't help a tightish player like me to develop the laggy table-image which I seek to exploit. Anyway enough background and let's get on to today's tale.

I started okay today and increased my 10k starting stack to a fairly respectable 15k when the table broke and I was moved to the direct left of probably the tourney chippie with c50k who seemed intent on inflicting damage on my right eardrum for a few rounds before my chips were to become available. Perhaps it was a softening-up process.

Eventually at 200/400/25 my esteemed and verbose opponent opened in MP to 1k and I 3-bet to 2500 holding 88.

He peels, everyone else folds and the two of us go to this flop: 4,7,4.

He checks and I bet 4500 with 8k back which he c/r's to c10k, virtually putting me allin.

Do I have a choice here?

Probably fold, fwiw I think you can bet a lot less on the flop to widen his jamming range.

I'd be beating him in to the pot.

So what range are you putting him on and what would your action have been on the flop after it's been checked?

You're so far ahead!

have we called yet?


i would only make it 2.8-3k on flop though and still call

So you would call the 6.5k c/raise leaving 1.5k back planning to do what on the turn?

sorry misread i shove flop after he check raises

C-bet size is way way way too big, something more like 2k or 2.2k allows villain to check-raise fold here and generally sizing can be small on a dry board like this because generally if people flop nothing here they will make the same decision whether you bet 2k 3k or 4k. Generally just good to keep it balanced here to make the c-bet smaller for when you have air too. C-bet small and jam over a raise is what I would be doing, still getting it in here, even though your sizing otf cuts out a % of his bluffs and he is never folding now even if he does just have 2 overs or whatever he may have.

Fwiw, what was the plan pre here? Are we 3-bet calling? Folding to a 4-bet?

yeh i don't really like the 3b pre at all. i mean it's ok if you have a good plan like tom says, for example if you're 3b to induce villain to 4b shove then ok, but 88 isn't in great shape against the hands even a very reckless villain will 4b shove, especially if you have a tight image.

I'd always call with 88 here, it's too good a hand to turn into a bluff by reraising, but not quite good enough we want to get our stack in.

I'd love the 3b if you had something like A5ss or K9ss or QJo.

or, ideally, aces or kings!

This.

Cbet should be tiny too.

You've put yourself into a spot now that would be pretty gross, if you bet 2.1k it would be an easy call but now its pretty fml. He might think that you're bluffing because of the super large bet size and getting any pair in, you're getting ridic price. ergh, its tough.

Okay the consensus appears to be that my preflop action was fairly rubbish and that my c-bet was too big.

I was 90% going to fold to a 4-bet pre but having been peeled I was 90%+sure that I was in front.

The flop looked lovely when it came down 4,7,4 and it didn't take me long to shove over his c-raise.

He then produced 3h, 4h which held despite the 7 on the turn giving me a couple more outs.

The conclusion:

I reckon I'm definitely running bad at DTD and probably play pretty rubbish holdem compared to today's standard.

i dont think there was much wrong with the preflop just the flop bet needs to be alot smaller

Yeah cbet should be reaaaaaaally small on such a texture. I'd go 2300.

Followed by a 4-bet shove after villain raises or are you finding the fold button ?

2300 opens up his range to include more bluffs. The bet you made pretty much commits you and he should know this so he needs to be a bit tighter.

What fold button?

The fold button that floppy advocated of course.

I get it now, but....

I was wondering why everyone's insisting the c-bet should be so small because I'm quite happy to take this down here.

It's not as though I'm trapping with a monster.

But you've already decided that you're getting it in as you bet 4500 then shoved.

By betting smaller you allow him to c/r you with a few more hands that he may have otherwise folded because he thinks you're committed.

It's just to open up his range and allow him a few more bluffs. If we're snapping him off anyway we might as well tempt him in with a few more hands.

For example if he thinks he can get you to pass he's more likely to come in with semi bluffs such as 56 or 2 overs where he figures you'll probably pass but if you don't he has outs.

Your bet narrows his c/r range to 7x, 4x, over pairs and possibly 55 & 66. You only beat a few of these so you're likely to be behind. Unfortunately because you've bet so much you can't fold. By betting smaller you add a load of other hands to his range so suddenly you're 88 is ahead of what he might have and you can happily snap him off.

we want him to call w kq

plus we want standard riases on the flop so he doesnt know the times we have J9o here AKs 88 77 44 or 23
so always bet alot less on flop and it alows you to c-bet fold with the dross and c-bet jam with the nuts

2,500 does exactly the same as 4,500.

You talked about exploiting your image in op, so are you playing the current image well enough? In this hand you wake up & snap 3bet the CL from a conservative image, then cbet big on a dry board. You say you have a medium pp which you wouldn't mind taking the pot with and that's what your action looks like. Your image doesn't bluff and the cbet is too big for a monster. When you narrow your range of course it's bad poker because you are easier to play against. Calling pre with a genuine hand like 8-8 widens your range.

The cbet sizes people are suggesting continues this theme of maintaining a wide range and it costs less than narrowing your range. If we are going to trap this dufus for his chips there needs to be some kinda guile and smartness to our play. But here it seems you just decide to swing the big club at your oppo and then not sure what's best when it doesn't work. Maybe the fact you haven't had any cards in last few comps and mouthy big CL sits down next door means you push the action too much vs him out of frustration. If this is true it will undoubtedly be contributing to a bad run of form.