My Marginal Spots in the Irish Open

[NoflopsHomer]

Ok, my 3 hours and 40 minutes at the Irish Open wasn't exactly the greatest tournament experience of my life, though I am thankful to PaddyPower for getting the free entry. Most of the hands that I played though, were fairly difficult spots, so in retrospect, I thought I'd put up a few of them here.

My table seemed full of pretty solid players, I had one slightly crazy Swedish guy to my immediate left, and then John Duthie next to him. No-one seemed to be too weak, though there was one player three spots to my right who did stupid things like bet three times the pot when he had top set ("I was scared of the flush draw"), another time at the 75/150 level, John Duthie and one other player limped, fishy guy limps sb and bb checks. It comes , check to John Duthie who bets 600, other limper calls, fishy guy makes it 14k...all fold.

Anyway my spots,

Blinds 25/50

First hand I raise, all still playing around a 10k stack, (I was beyond card dead all day) was Jacks UTG+1 after about 15 minutes of play, I raise to 175, folds round to the button who has played a few hands but has only shown solid ones, re-raises to 500. Big blind thinks for a moment before deciding to flat-call. I call.

Flop is Q-7-3 rainbow, big blind checks, I check, button bets 1,000. Big blind folds, I think for a moment then fold.

Standard? (Button later says he has A-Q)

Blinds 75/150

I limp in small blind with K-8, crazy swede in big blind, who has been playing pretty loose, min-raises and I call.

Flop: K-9-5 rainbow.

I check, he bets 400, I call.

Turn: Q

I check, he checks behind.

River: 6

I check, he bets 700. I call, he shows . Pass the river?

Also 75/150

John Duthie raises to 450 from early position, he's already over 20k, I have Tens in the big blind with about 7k back, passed to me and I call.

Flop: Q-9-7

I check and he checks behind me.

Turn: 6

I check, he bets 1,000, I call.

River: 7

I check, he bets 1,600. I fold. Should I fold the turn after he bets qute big? Would leading the turn be better? (After I got knocked out, John told me he had A-Q).

100/200 level.

Passed to the button who limps. I make it 700 with A-Ko playing a 5.4k stack, crazy Swede with about 8k calls, button folds.

Flop: 8-6-3 two clubs.

I bet 1,100. He moves all-in. Gah. Fold. I had planned to move all-in on any turn if he had just flat-called for about a pot-sized bet.

Also 100/200 level.

UTG+1 raises to 600, I move all-in for 3,450 total with Jacks, passed back to him and he calls with Queens. Board comes J-T-x-8-Q. Seems pretty standard right? Best comment on this hand came from Ludovic Lacay when I said I didn't think OR was good enough to get away from the flop and he said, "So what you are saying is that because you had such a short stack, you managed to save yourself from a bad beat!"


All comments/thoughts appreciated.

[AndrewT]

Pretty standard for me apart from the John Duthie hand. You check call a bet on the turn on a Q-9-7-6 board - presumably you do this because you think you're ahead, right? Well, the river 7 is unlikely to put you behind if you were ahead on the turn. Folding to a river A, K or J I can understand (though indicative of being too passive earlier) but the 7 is a good card for you considering he's an EP raiser. If you call the turn bet you really should call the river bet. Though betting the turn is better.

[ChipRich]

Yeh pretty standard for me too.

Disagree with this though.

If you call the turn bet you really should call the river bet

He called when he thought his 10s were maybe good, then re-evaluated when Duthie bet again on river and by sounds of it, made a good fold imo.

[LeKnave]

The TT hand i probs lead into him on the turn.

As played i defo call the river.

[LuckyLloyd]

Pretty standard for me apart from the John Duthie hand. You check call a bet on the turn on a Q-9-7-6 board - presumably you do this because you think you're ahead, right? Well, the river 7 is unlikely to put you behind if you were ahead on the turn. Folding to a river A, K or J I can understand (though indicative of being too passive earlier) but the 7 is a good card for you considering he's an EP raiser. If you call the turn bet you really should call the river bet. Though betting the turn is better.

Disagree, the fact that he fires the river for that size puts everything in a different context. The turn fire can just be because we have checked twice, but that river bet is usually for value and we beat little that he value bets here.

I like the blind on blind hand with the K8 and I'm never, ever, never folding that river.

The AK hand is really awkward because of your stack size. I wouldn't c - bet and I'd be tempted to just make it 1k pre.

Everything else looks fine. You seemed to run bad. Unlucky.

[GlasgowBandit]

I re-raise with the Jacks making it another 1200 or so I don't think he can call with AQ in this position.

And against the crazy Swede I am never checking top pair when I his.  Presuming you limp to hit the King why check it once u hit?

Hand 1 may be a bit result driving knowing that you passed to a flop bet but I still think you got to re-raise with JJ in your position.  By just calling the initial raise you presumably already decided you would be checking OOP if any overcards hit the board?

[Horneris]

I re-raise with the Jacks making it another 1200 or so I don't think he can call with AQ in this position.

And against the crazy Swede I am never checking top pair when I his.  Presuming you limp to hit the King why check it once u hit?

To get the other guy to bet.

I was gona suggest a check-raise on the flop to 1200 or 1300 but then i realised we want him to bet again.

Top Pair is Golden Blind on Blind in reasonably small pots against crazy Swedes.

He played it good imo, got to call river 100%

[AndrewT]

Disagree with this though.

If you call the turn bet you really should call the river bet

He called when he thought his 10s were maybe good, then re-evaluated when Duthie bet again on river and by sounds of it, made a good fold imo.

Disagree, the fact that he fires the river for that size puts everything in a different context. The turn fire can just be because we have checked twice, but that river bet is usually for value and we beat little that he value bets here.

But that means that he is calling the turn to either a) hit a ten or b) rely on Duthie checking behind on the river. That seems horrible.

Admittedly the problem has been caused by the check call on the turn, which is why I prefer leading out.

[GlasgowBandit]

I re-raise with the Jacks making it another 1200 or so I don't think he can call with AQ in this position.

And against the crazy Swede I am never checking top pair when I his.  Presuming you limp to hit the King why check it once u hit?

To get the other guy to bet.

I was gona suggest a check-raise on the flop to 1200 or 1300 but then i realised we want him to bet again.

Top Pair is Golden Blind on Blind in reasonably small pots against crazy Swedes.

He played it good imo, got to call river 100%

I think crazy Swede plays it better by checking behind

I think sometimes blind on blind if you hit top pair you need to bet it unless you can guarantee action from the BB.  Crazy Swedes aren't as daft as we all think.

[ChipRich]

Disagree with this though.

If you call the turn bet you really should call the river bet

He called when he thought his 10s were maybe good, then re-evaluated when Duthie bet again on river and by sounds of it, made a good fold imo.

Disagree, the fact that he fires the river for that size puts everything in a different context. The turn fire can just be because we have checked twice, but that river bet is usually for value and we beat little that he value bets here.

But that means that he is calling the turn to either a) hit a ten or b) rely on Duthie checking behind on the river. That seems horrible.

Admittedly the problem has been caused by the check call on the turn, which is why I prefer leading out.

Thats standard though, he either checks on river or he bets. We are not calling to hit a 10, although it would be nice. Calling to see if our hand is good or not.

He could just be betting the turn with AK, as we've checked to him twice and he think we are weak.

What do you do if we bet out the turn and he flats it, then what do you do on the River OOP?

NoFlops played it fine imo.

[LuckyLloyd]

Disagree with this though.

If you call the turn bet you really should call the river bet

He called when he thought his 10s were maybe good, then re-evaluated when Duthie bet again on river and by sounds of it, made a good fold imo.

Disagree, the fact that he fires the river for that size puts everything in a different context. The turn fire can just be because we have checked twice, but that river bet is usually for value and we beat little that he value bets here.

But that means that he is calling the turn to either a) hit a ten or b) rely on Duthie checking behind on the river. That seems horrible.

Admittedly the problem has been caused by the check call on the turn, which is why I prefer leading out.

We don't need a plan for the river when we call; and we don't need to be sure that our hand is good anyway (you can never be 100% sure). Basically, we call the turn because our hand could be good and he could have decided to take a stab with like 100% of his opening range after we check to him twice. But when he follows through for half pot on the river it seems like he is betting for value and we should fold because:

- if we call the turn for that betsize we can't really have any draw because we're not a muppet and he will know this;
- when we call the turn he can't expect us to be folding the river 7 a lot and we never have a big hand when we check there. Our hand looks exactly like what it is, so he can value bet even stuff like JJ here for half pot;

You are allowed to make a decision on one street and then re - evaluate the next.

[TheChipPrince]

I really dont like playing the AK out of position, on a 'nothing' flop for us I'm content to check-fold and wait for a better spot...

Happy with your play elsewhere...

[Royal Flush]

Blinds 25/50

First hand I raise, all still playing around a 10k stack, (I was beyond card dead all day) was Jacks UTG+1 after about 15 minutes of play, I raise to 175, folds round to the button who has played a few hands but has only shown solid ones, re-raises to 500. Big blind thinks for a moment before deciding to flat-call. I call.

Flop is Q-7-3 rainbow, big blind checks, I check, button bets 1,000. Big blind folds, I think for a moment then fold.

Standard? (Button later says he has A-Q)

I prob lead for 1k on the flop, slow down if called obv. I hate the situation though.

I never 3 bet pre here, its just pointless, he either folds or you are getting re-popped by KK and flat called by AA.

Blinds 75/150

I limp in small blind with K-8, crazy swede in big blind, who has been playing pretty loose, min-raises and I call.

Flop: K-9-5 rainbow.

I check, he bets 400, I call.

Turn: Q

I check, he checks behind.

River: 6

I check, he bets 700. I call, he shows . Pass the river?

Played perfect imo, only debatable line is river, you can lead here because the Q is likely to be in his range. As played i might even check raise river min.

John Duthie raises to 450 from early position, he's already over 20k, I have Tens in the big blind with about 7k back, passed to me and I call.

Flop: Q-9-7

I check and he checks behind me.

Turn: 6

I check, he bets 1,000, I call.

River: 7

I check, he bets 1,600. I fold. Should I fold the turn after he bets qute big? Would leading the turn be better? (After I got knocked out, John told me he had A-Q).

I snap call Duthie is not the most conventional of players and will turn up with a bluff here a lot of the time, he may even be VB'ing worse hands.

UTG+1 raises to 600, I move all-in for 3,450 total with Jacks, passed back to him and he calls with Queens. Board comes J-T-x-8-Q. Seems pretty standard right? Best comment on this hand came from Ludovic Lacay when I said I didn't think OR was good enough to get away from the flop and he said, "So what you are saying is that because you had such a short stack, you managed to save yourself from a bad beat!"


All comments/thoughts appreciated.

lol @ spite "OR wasn't good enough to get away from flop" For arguments sake say you flat there is 1500 in the middle and you have 2800 back only the worlds worst players would fold QQ on JTx here.

[NoflopsHomer]

UTG+1 raises to 600, I move all-in for 3,450 total with Jacks, passed back to him and he calls with Queens. Board comes J-T-x-8-Q. Seems pretty standard right? Best comment on this hand came from Ludovic Lacay when I said I didn't think OR was good enough to get away from the flop and he said, "So what you are saying is that because you had such a short stack, you managed to save yourself from a bad beat!"


All comments/thoughts appreciated.

lol @ spite "OR wasn't good enough to get away from flop" For arguments sake say you flat there is 1500 in the middle and you have 2800 back only the worlds worst players would fold QQ on JTx here.

We were talking about if I was much deeper than I actually was. i.e still around starting chips.

[LuckyLloyd]

I snap call Duthie is not the most conventional of players and will turn up with a bluff here a lot of the time, he may even be VB'ing worse hands.

Surely we would hero call a bet of around 3 - 3.5k here rather than 1600?