Hand of the Week: 15th October

[totalise]

Hi All,

Back into the fore we go, this time it’s a 10/20 NL hand from a while ago

Relevant Notes:

The table has been playing very very aggressive, its 5 handed, and the lineup was us, H@££INGGOL, 2 other solid regulars, and a very loose losing player that had an enormous stack. There was plenty of re-raising preflop and some huge pots. You are only playing the 1 table, you know Hall is playing at least 4, and the other regs are on 2. The “target” is playing only one table


Reads:

H@££INGGOL : $5,900


He is playing his usual style, mixing it up with passive and aggressive play based on both his opposition in the hand and his position against the aforementioned opposition. He randomizes his play sufficiently that its not easy to figure out a likely holding, especially given the depth of his stack. He is a tough player and has been playing well this session.

Loosey Goosey : $11,500

He is probably the main reason the game is running,  everytime he raises preflop he has either called or re-raised if someone has raised his opening bet, he overplays draws and weak made hands, and has tried some horrendous bluffs that have miraculously got there on the river. Most of his stack came from someone that recently left the table, so none of the other players would have much reason to be on tilt/playing a different style then they would generally play. You are hopeful that you can win a big pot against this person

Hero :  $,3,900

You have been playing pretty aggressively in position, and have defended your BB religiously for the last 30 minutes, as the bad player is in the SB and has been attacking your blind. You have played position well, mixing it up between calling and raising when your bb gets attacked, and have steadily chipped up mostly at the expense of the losing player.

Onto the Hand:


Hero gets dealt in the BB

Hallinggol opens for $70 on the button, and the loose losing player in the small blind makes a small raise to $200, action is on you:


Given the reads, what are the pros and cons with regards to re-raising vs calling? Most importantly, you haven’t put in the third raise once this session, so how worried are we with exposing the strength of our hand vs getting more money in the pot against the bad players likely wide range at the risk of playing OOP vs Hallinggol for the rest of the hand.  Finally, what do you do?

Action: Hero just called, and so did H@ll:

Flop comes down , and the loose player surprisingly checks:

Given your read of the player, what do you make of this check? Be aware that H@ll on the button will be as aware if not more so of the players image,  so what would you be thinking about his likely hands in this spot, and what would you do?

More to come on Wednesday!

[Newmanseye]

Fold, I smell pocket 2's

[lazaroonie]

Fold, I smell pocket 2's

hand on heart, you would fold ?

I have got you figured out all wrong then....

 

[Newmanseye]

ok Well i would assume it plays out like so, you pop the pot for your jacks, Now if H@££INGGOL calls you are in trouble, so fold at the first chance you get, but i think after you pot bet it, loosey goosey will reraise. hence fold.

I dont like the check from the loose guy given the info we have.

[snoopy1239]

I would re-re-raise pre-flop and try and take it down there and then. Sandwiched between two players with a good chance of overcards, you're going to make it difficult for yourself by just calling. The button will probably fold, but the small blind is likely to call, leaving you in position with a strong hand against a weak player.

Given that you smooth called, I'd check the flop and re-raise when the button makes his inevitable continuation bet.

[byronkincaid]

I would re-re-raise pre-flop and try and isolate the fish and give myself relatively easy decisions for the rest of the hand.

Given that you smooth called, I'd check the flop and re-raise when the button makes his inevitable continuation bet.

I am not disagreeing just trying to clarify in my mind why are you raising here? For value? If so are you looking to get all in if Hall raises you? To get info? You are folding if Hall raises you? If Hall calls you are checking or betting turn both with and without an overcard or a 7 being turned over? 

You raise here if SB calls as well? With him in the hand as well....

This seems like a complicated hand to me. Totalise told me ages ago to try to know what line you are gonna take for the rest of the hand, it is boggling my tiny mind thinking about all the different things that could happen in this hand.

When my mind is boggled I tend to go all check/cally instead of bet/raisey but I am a pretty passive fish.

[AlexMartin]

Im isolating preflop. A small raise purely to get this hu and get rid of H@l.

[ifm]

I would try to isolate pre too, we want to avoid h@l if at all possible even moreso OOP against him.
That said this is indeed a tough spot, if we bet we are likely to face a reraise from a good player in position (with a bankroll to die for lol), especially as he is probably not interested in us too much at this point.
I say check call, horribly passive i know but i am fearful of being outplayed later in the hand if the pot becomes too big.

[snoopy1239]

I would re-re-raise pre-flop and try and isolate the fish and give myself relatively easy decisions for the rest of the hand.

Given that you smooth called, I'd check the flop and re-raise when the button makes his inevitable continuation bet.

I am not disagreeing just trying to clarify in my mind why are you raising here? For value? If so are you looking to get all in if Hall raises you? To get info? You are folding if Hall raises you? If Hall calls you are checking or betting turn both with and without an overcard or a 7 being turned over? 

You raise here if SB calls as well? With him in the hand as well....

This seems like a complicated hand to me. Totalise told me ages ago to try to know what line you are gonna take for the rest of the hand, it is boggling my tiny mind thinking about all the different things that could happen in this hand.

When my mind is boggled I tend to go all check/cally instead of bet/raisey but I am a pretty passive fish.

I'm raising to win the pot pre-flop. If Hall calls then we can take it from there, but if he raises again, then I'm releasing as we have a tight/solid image and are facing a re-re-re-raise.

It's very difficult to know what line you are going to take for the rest of the hand as there are some many different variants.

[byronkincaid]

I would re-re-raise pre-flop and try and isolate the fish and give myself relatively easy decisions for the rest of the hand.

Given that you smooth called, I'd check the flop and re-raise when the button makes his inevitable continuation bet.

I am not disagreeing just trying to clarify in my mind why are you raising here? For value? If so are you looking to get all in if Hall raises you? To get info? You are folding if Hall raises you? If Hall calls you are checking or betting turn both with and without an overcard or a 7 being turned over? 

You raise here if SB calls as well? With him in the hand as well....

This seems like a complicated hand to me. Totalise told me ages ago to try to know what line you are gonna take for the rest of the hand, it is boggling my tiny mind thinking about all the different things that could happen in this hand.

When my mind is boggled I tend to go all check/cally instead of bet/raisey but I am a pretty passive fish.

I'm raising to win the pot pre-flop. If Hall calls then we can take it from there, but if he raises again, then I'm releasing as we have a tight/solid image and are facing a re-re-re-raise.

It's very difficult to know what line you are going to take for the rest of the hand as there are some many different variants.

sorry man, I write bad, I meant on the flop.

[doubleup]

From what I know of H@££s play he is quite capable of calling a reasonable raise here as we are signalling our hand (actually overplaying it a touch) and OOP - so raising unless huge will just create a big pot oop and we will have to c-bet any flop (which works a lot until it doesn't and usually chooses to doesn't when we are doublestacked).  Calling limits any info and all 3 players go to the flop with undefined hands - this is prob a better situation for us than setting ourselves up as the target for the other two.

So we have a flop where no one really has much idea what anyone else has, but we are likely to have the best hand.  The good news is that there aren't many draws, so we are probably behind if we get significant action from H@££.  I assume that the sb has checked because he has cunningly observed that you cold called a 10bb raise, so he realises that your range includes a big pair.  Checking seems a bit weak and if H@££ bets and the sb raises we have a predicament, if the sb calls we still have no idea where we stand.  So I'm for betting half the pot after a short pause.  If H@££ raises I think I can find a fold, probably outplayed but its what I deserve for playing JJ OOP with 200bbs.  Incidentally I would probably play the same way with a set (but obv wouldn't fold).
   

[snoopy1239]

I would re-re-raise pre-flop and try and isolate the fish and give myself relatively easy decisions for the rest of the hand.

Given that you smooth called, I'd check the flop and re-raise when the button makes his inevitable continuation bet.

I am not disagreeing just trying to clarify in my mind why are you raising here? For value? If so are you looking to get all in if Hall raises you? To get info? You are folding if Hall raises you? If Hall calls you are checking or betting turn both with and without an overcard or a 7 being turned over? 

You raise here if SB calls as well? With him in the hand as well....

This seems like a complicated hand to me. Totalise told me ages ago to try to know what line you are gonna take for the rest of the hand, it is boggling my tiny mind thinking about all the different things that could happen in this hand.

When my mind is boggled I tend to go all check/cally instead of bet/raisey but I am a pretty passive fish.

I'm raising to win the pot pre-flop. If Hall calls then we can take it from there, but if he raises again, then I'm releasing as we have a tight/solid image and are facing a re-re-re-raise.

It's very difficult to know what line you are going to take for the rest of the hand as there are some many different variants.

sorry man, I write bad, I meant on the flop.

My answer is still relatively the same, I'd be check-raising the pot to show strength and to try and take the pot down there and then. Jacks are very vulnerable, especially out of position to a strong player, so I'm happy to win what's currently in the pot. If he sticks in another raise, then I'll probably pass knowing my opponent is playing back at someone with a good solid image, although time taken to play, size of bet and the actions of Loosey Goosey could all sway my decision.

[Dubai]

I hate 4 betting pre but if the reason you are playing is because the sb is the Mark of the table then 4 betting to around 600-700 given you said he doesnt ever pass is the best play here. You isolate the value at the table, shut out a decent opponent (ive played Frederik a fair bit and he wont call here v often) and you have position over the Mark.

You dont wanna be re-raising pre and hoping to win it there or you might as well do this with J2os. You wanna swell a pot wth position against an opponent who overplays weak made hands as you have said.

[totalise]

I hate 4 betting pre but if the reason you are playing is because the sb is the Mark of the table then 4 betting to around 600-700 given you said he doesnt ever pass is the best play here. You isolate the value at the table, shut out a decent opponent (ive played Frederik a fair bit and he wont call here v often) and you have position over the Mark.

You dont wanna be re-raising pre and hoping to win it there or you might as well do this with J2os. You wanna swell a pot wth position against an opponent who overplays weak made hands as you have said.

I know you wouldn't get to the flop like this very often, but given how u got to the flop, what would you do from here? and whats ur thinking of the SB's range? at the time after he checked i thought it was kinda polorized to a hand he thinks is the nuts, or nothing, but of course the problem is that you donno what kinda hand this guy will think is the nuts. I think your preflop comments are spot on, I try not to play good players and having hall behind kinda froze me.

[snoopy1239]

I hate 4 betting pre but if the reason you are playing is because the sb is the Mark of the table then 4 betting to around 600-700 given you said he doesnt ever pass is the best play here. You isolate the value at the table, shut out a decent opponent (ive played Frederik a fair bit and he wont call here v often) and you have position over the Mark.

You dont wanna be re-raising pre and hoping to win it there or you might as well do this with J2os. You wanna swell a pot wth position against an opponent who overplays weak made hands as you have said.

That makes sense. My main prerogative of raising pre-flop is to rid the hand of Hall so we're not playing a three-way pot out of position against a tough, tricky player.