Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Some Hold'em hands

I haven’t posted any NL Hold’em hands for a while. I’ve actually been doing pretty good in the last eight weeks or so at NL 50/100 and 100/200, which has improved my confidence after the miserable run I had at the start of 2007.

These three hands are all from a $100/$200 NL games.

- I have $29,000 stack. Game is six handed. I limp UTG with 89. UTG+1 calls. Cut off min raises it to $400 (he does this a lot). The button calls, and both blinds fold. The flop comes 89K. I check UTG+1 checks. Cut off (the min raiser) bets $200. Button folds. I raise the pot to $2500. Now UTG+1 (who I think is Ram Vaswani) makes it $9600 to play. He has me covered. What do you reckon is the best play?

- Heads Up game. I have a $37,000 stack, my opponent has a $34,000 stack. He has the button. He makes it $600. I reraise with QK to $1800. He calls. The flop comes 64Q. I bet $2450. My opponent calls. Turn is the K. I bet $4200. He calls again. River comes a 6.

I considered betting but decided to check to hopefully induce a bluff. The pot is $16900. He jams for $25550. This was the first time I have played this guy Heads Up, and only a couple of times in a ring game. What now?

- Last hand. Same guy on a new table. Both $20,000 stacks. Second hand in I raise with QQ to $750 on the button. He makes it $2200. I called. The flop comes K47. He checked. I checked. Turn K. He checked. I bet $3000. He called. River 4. He bets $10,000. What now?

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

All in
All in
All in

Anonymous said...

No way three all ins.

I think first and second ones i pass. Third one i call. They are all tough choices though

Anonymous said...

A) If the first one is Ram Vaswani, or he's just a random, I'd shove unless you know he's super-nit. I don't think flat, see what rolls off turn, and shove with these stack sizes would work, he's going to have to call turn anyway.

B) I'd call. I think a year or so ago this play means NUTS. But now I think we see alot of players do this with alot of odd holdings, it's become +EV alledgedly.

C) Depends on the outcome of the previous hand vs him, and his perception of you. I think I fold though based on the action.


Great hands posted tho. cheers.

Anonymous said...

1st hand i eliminate KK for certain, 88, 99 very unlikely not to have raised pre.

Obvious hands seem to be variations of 10h,Jh,Qh or 6h7h/10h7h, possibly KhQh. We are flipping against all these hands, i think i flat call and jam on a non heart,10,J or Q turn.

Very unpleasant decision though and i might just give up on it with a deep stack.

Hand 2,

With no read i think i call, especially after hoping to induce a bluff with the river check. It seems very fishy though, unless he's an idiot. That 6 missed every draw going so against a lot of players i fold.

Hand 3,

i fold, it just feels like a bad spot. I think he has KK. He might be an idiot but hes just so likely to get called on the end even Ace high might call, hence i think he makes an excellent sized bet that puts all kinds of doubt in your mind.

Anonymous said...

1st hand fold

2nd hand call as fast as you can in case you disconn

3rd hand call

ariston

F-Badger said...

lol - They are all fucking horrible. Reminds me why/how I dont/cant play holdem cash/

a, he has a draw but soething horrible that has you about 50/50. I say call

b, I hate this one the most as I would call. hopefully he shows nothing or AK.

c, Fold

Jonathan "JPK" Farrer said...

I think Ram has you beat with K9/K8

I'm scared of AA when the board pairs 6s

I'm for sure in on the last one, the 2nd K makes it a call for me.

I wouldn't for sure pass the first two, depends how the game's been going..

JPK

Godders said...

1) Pass, difficult as its a seemingly perfect spot for him to bluff especially if he thinks your picking up the pot from the other guy, but with too many hands that beat you I think its a standard pass unless u hav a read - even ram can have a hand every once in a while right?

2)Another insanely marginal decision, when I first saw it I thought 'insta call'. However, against an unknown opponent its really hard to get any sort of a read. It's one of those ones that I'd be 50/50 call/fold and I'd like to think I could pass, but for intrigue purposes I'd probably sway towards a call.

3) Your check behind on the flop would make me 90% certain u had 88-QQ. If you called the previous hand and he showed a bluff or a stupid value bet with AK or suchlike then I'd call in this scenario again. Seems like the only hands that beat you are quad Ks, 7s full and quad 4s, Id probably still call.

Anonymous said...

A. Probably a flip situation where you are ahead now. I favor call and shove safe turn, fold to scare card turn shove.

B. You induced bluff and got it...instacall.

C. Fold...think this is AK.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ben

Some tough choices there... think they are all so marginal there isn't really a correct decision. You have to go with your read at the time!

When can we expect to see you in the 200/400 PLO game? You must have the for it by now :-)

Anonymous said...

*bankroll* was the missing word in the last sentence.

Anonymous said...

I choose the exact opposite of Aristons answers.

The reason? He is such a twat and loses so much he is going to be wrong about most poker questions and it saves me thinking about the answers.

Anonymous said...

Good blog Ben - More of these NL Hand histories please. These are tough. Without big reads on the oppos I think I call the second one and fold the last one. I'm not sure about the first. The thing about cash is you can lose an hours grinding with one bad decision when two big hands clash. Nah, stuff it, it's not my money, jam the first one!

Cream Bun

Anonymous said...

1st, marginal between shove and fold, i shove.

Call
Call

Anonymous said...

Hand 1 - UTG+1(Vaswani ?) could be raising because you don't have to have a strong hand to make the play you did. And so he may not be that strong either (could have a K though). I'd raise all-in, you can't give him a chance to make 2 pair on the turn.

Other 2 hands - Don't know what I'd do. Call sometimes, fold sometimes !

Kevin

Anonymous said...

1. Very very easy. Fold.

2. All depends on who it is. Probably call.

3. Fold

Anonymous said...

1) I think unless this was a super nitty villain I prefer just shoving, I really can`t see K8,K9 being a big part of their range. Given that its likely Ram... I would def shove, so many combo draws out there.

2) I think this is very close & would depend on game flow, you checked to induce a bluff & then villain overbet.. I think its 50/50 between seeing 44, A6, 66, v AK, busted FD`s & air. With the extra cash in the pot I would call it.

3)I fold this one, his line seems quite strong, I really don`t think hes showing up with 99-JJ or air to often given his line, I expect to see AK quite often.

ISayuPay

Anonymous said...

hmmmm

- Call and shove non scare card turn
- Call
- Fold

Anonymous said...

Hi ben,

A) the old chestnut of `at best 50-50, or dominated,` springs to mind...

B) I think i pass until i get more information, i dont care what anyone says with no information on the guy you cant make a skillful call there....cos if it is a bluff u will find out soon enough that hes a numpty and get his money anyway. Its either a great shove by a good player or a panic shove by a donk IMO.

C) I think this is alot easier call than the above one because this is now the 2nd time he has done it. I might just toss a coin on this one hehe

Tough spots though, i think Prahlad Friedman plays a similar style to this....

AllanDuke said...

I'm a Pay Off Wizard.

Hand 1) All-In
Hand 2) Call
Hand 3) Call

Jude said...

Had a decent table and reached 14000 towards the end of level 4.

Then this hand happened. Tight ish player opened mid position for 650 (blinds 100/200). I decided to call with QQ. Flop QT7 rainbow. He checks. I bet 1000. He made it 2300. I pushed all in. He pondered for a while and called another 6000 with JK. 5 on turn, Ace on the river of course.

Got back up to 6500 and got all in preflop with TT v AK. Board 222K9.

If I can't win a big pot in the early stages with top set then its probably not going be my day!


==============================

Jude

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