There's probably people better suited to helping you than I, but FWIW I worked in Coral for a year in '03/'04 and am happy to help if you want it.

Longy has nailed my assumptions. If it were Full Tilt boot camp or the like it would probably be worth going, but I really doubt Sky Poker will make it worth your £250.

I don't like your preflop raise. I would limp in, but if you have to raise then it's got to be bigger than that to get anyone out. Assuming of course that you aren't trying to build a big multiway pot with A9s, which you shouldn't be.

Without strong live tells there are only two choices that make any sense here, and they are a) push all in and b) check hoping opponent will push all in. They are probably pretty close and which one I choose would depend on the opponent.


If UTG+1 has Aces then he has made a perfect play, not a retard play. He probably got very lucky to see so much action after he limped, but once it gets back round to him flat calling 1800 is much much better than pushing all in.

Pretty sure I won't fold KK preflop for 100 Cash BBs in my entire life, least of all in a 6 handed 50/1 game where I already made a 20 BB raise. Insta-calling is the only option, don't let results affect your thinking.

Online it is difficult to get a read - but can I narrow down his holdings here to QQ, KK or AA, given the betting patterns? 

Obviously my Kings will only win 20% of the time against the AA, so if I can genuinely put him on only three hands (KK will probably split and I will beat QQ 80% of the time), does this make this a negative EV call or a break even one (or can I factor in a semi-bluff with A,Ks perhaps, or a loose re-raise from a poor player holding 10,10 or J,J and turn it into an imaginative positive EV call(!)) ?

I accept my call was a little hasty but do I need to feel bad about it (which is easy after the event)?

Your thoughts please folks.

Even if you knew his range was exactly QQ-AA this is still a +EV call because of the money already in the pot.

Well you have the benefit of knowing the result but no to me his hand doesn't feel like two pair, unless it's top 2. It feels a lot more like a set. Basically any time I see large overbets it's usually to get hands exactly like A4 to call because they are beat. It's the old Sklansky wisdom of maximizing EV by playing as if your opponent has a strong (but worse) hand, although I suspect 9 times out of 10 they don't reason it out in that way.

If you call the turn then you must call the river... whatever his hand is it is already made before the river* so if you're confident A4 was ahead before then it surely still is, and you had to know when you called the turn that this is exactly what would happen.



*Unless he's on an insane flush draw of course, but the only drawing hand that I'd put any stock in would be 5s6s... maybe picking up so many outs on the turn has caused his brain to short-circuit.

It's not super weak... You've shown a lot of strength pre- and post-flop so he has no reason to think you are weak when he leads the turn. If you call it must be with the intention of checking down or folding on the river, so even though you are getting 3.3-1 on your turn call I doubt you will reach a showdown and then win the pot often enough to make that line +EV, ergo folding looks good.

I like the flop bet. It's big enough to look like a strong hand and discourage bluffs, and probably saves you money against all the hands beating you whilst also avoiding giving free cards to those that don't.

My experience with these huge overbets says that Top and Bottom Pair is almost never winning, so if you know your opponent is good then the correct play is probably to fold the turn. If you think you are ahead then I like calling over raising on the turn, but I really doubt A4 is good here.

I'm surprised so many people suggest folding because for me this is a super easy all in. An unknown's 3-betting range is going to include at least AQ, probably AJ and A10, and pairs at least down to 9's, and occasionally a weaker hand like 910s. Against any range that isn't insanely tight this is a +chipEV push, and the only argument for folding would be if +chipEV didn't amount to +$$EV but that isn't the case here.

I am programmed to hate folding AK preflop but yeah I can't see many people making such a large raise with AQ, especially early in a Step 4, so folding is probably good. If folding is a mistake it can only be a very small one unless it's a very atypical villain.

Four handed this is an automatic push for me. "Waiting for paint" isn't a good idea. When you get called 22 has significantly more equity against likely calling ranges than most holdings with a single face card, especially when you're probably going to give up at least 1.5 BB's trying to find one.

If you are brand new to the game then you need to start with a beginner's book, of which there are many and I don't think it's particularly important which one you choose. Getting Started In Hold'em by Ed Miller is probably as good a place to start as any.

Next I would go straight for Theory of Poker by Sklansky. No other book comes close to explaining how to play the game as well as this one does, and the concepts you will learn in TOP will help you understand the advice of every other poker book in a much clearer way.

I would definitely read TOP before the Harrington series, and to be honest I don't think HOH should be near the top of your list of books to read. The HOH series is too specific to No Limit Hold'em tournaments, and is best suited to people who are already well grounded in general poker concepts and are looking to now improve on that specific area. There is certainly no need to read Volumes 2 or 3 until well into your poker career.

Besides books you will also find plenty of information on the internet, especially at twoplustwo.com, and you should definitely take advantage of the experienced players who will answer any questions you have here on blonde.

The fire appears to be out now but there is a live stream showing the damage here. (Edit: Link dead now.)

So what do you do if your the snooker player as mentioned in my earlier post and it's the deciding frame of the world championship 100k 1st prize 50k second, do you call the foul on yourself like 99.9% of pro snooker players or do you cheat and take the win at all costs attitude?

In snooker if you foul it is the referee's job to call it so by "cheating" in your example you are gaining from the referee's mistake, not your opponent's. The equivalent in poker is when a dealer flashes an opponents card as he is dealing, and I think you'll find that a lot of players who would exploit the QQ guy would point out the dealer's mistake.

I mean, really - would you feel that you were cheating if you knew a rock solid physical or betting tell? Because it's the same thing.

It's actually a very different thing. There is no such thing as a tell which conveys with 100% certainty a players hand. For example, it might happen that right before the hand a friend informed the tellbox of his tell and he is now using it against you. It is obviously not possible to convey misinformation when showing cards, and this is a very important difference.