Two more hands...
A reader mentions these two hands as interesting. I tend to agree.
The first one is from heads-up at my first table. I may have misplayed every single street. Anyone have a better line for this:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (2 handed)
Matt (t6805)
Trblcaling (t6695)
Preflop: Matt is Button with 6s, 6c.
Matt raises to t400, Trblcaling calls t200.
Flop: (t800) 6h, 2d, 7s (2 players)
Trblcaling checks, Matt checks.
Turn: (t800) 4d (2 players)
Trblcalling bets t600, Matt calls t600.
River: (t2000) 3d (2 players)
Trblcaling checks, Matt bets t1000, BB folds.
Final Pot: t3000.
The second hand is from the same heads-up match, just a few hands later. What range do you put him on after he folds this thing up? Do you play this big draw as aggressively as I do?
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (2 handed)
Matt (t6305)
Trblcaling (t7195)
Preflop: Matt is Button with 4h, 3h.
Matt calls t100, Trblcaling checks.
Flop: (t400) Jh, Ah, 2s (2 players)
Trblcalling bets t400, Matt raises to t1200, Trblcalling raises to t2000, Matt raises to t6105, Trblcalling folds.
Final Pot: t8505
posted by Matt @ 11:27 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Here are some of my thoughts on the first hand:
On the flop: I probably should have bet. I want to play a big pot here, and the check-check basically ruined my chance of stacking him if he doesn't make a big hand. If I can get a reasonable size bet in on the flop, I might tie him on to something like top pair, ace-kicker and get him to pay me off. Once we check the flop, though, he's going to need two pair (or at least an overpair) for me to get the money in, since it's going to have to involve some sort of raise. Stupid play by me, I think.
On the turn: Sarah and I got in a pretty good argument at the time about whether to call or raise.
The argument for calling is strong, and I made it: if he bets something like 1500 on the river, I can raise him all-in (or enough to make him go all-in) with a standard raise, but if I raise the turn, I might blow him off the hand or make him check-fold a big bet on the river. The argument for raising, of course, is that the board is getting scary and maybe winning the hand is now paramount.Plus, if he's on a draw, we want to both make him pay and not lose our market. Sarah wanted to raise to 2400 and try to end it, and call if he shoved. In retrospect, I think she's right.
On the river, here was my thinking: my post-flop action so far has been check-check, and check-call. That's not exactly strength. Is there any reason for him to believe that I'm going to play along if he goes for a check-raise? I don't think so. So I think he value bets here if he has the flush, and probably even if he has the straight. So I think that I
have the best hand here the vast majority of the time. Now, we both know from Theory of Poker and
common sense that the real question for us is how often are we beat IF he calls our bet. At the time, I reasoned that if I bet half the pot, he'll have to call with as little as Ace-seven, given the action. I still think that. But the reason I agree with you is because I'm going to have to fold to a raise here, and he might just raise with: a bluff, two pair, or a smaller set.
Point #2: If he has something like Ace-seven or two-pair, I think he would make a blocking bet on the river of about 1/3 of the pot, just to forestall me from making a big bluff. He didn't do that, so my
guess is that he really had nothing. So I think my bet was dumb, for slightly different reasons that I think you are suggesting.
At any rate, I'm pretty sure he had two big cards, like AT or KQ. That makes the most sense given his play. All the other possibilities seem to imply that he would have either made his draw or would have to pay off on the river getting the 3 to 1 I offered him.
And here are some thoughts on the second hand:
Again, Sarah and I had a debate about this one on the flop. I wanted to get so much money in we either got him to fold or we got it all in on the flop. SJC recommended just calling his 400. Those are two reasonable option. Where we got lucky is that he made that ridiculous mini-3rd bet, and then folded. That's really dumb on his part, and here's why: I'm obviously not folding for 800 more once there is almost 4000 in the pot, and he's just opening himself up to getting blown off the hand if he's going to fold to a reraise there. In fact, he played right into our hands,because if he just calls our raise to 1200 and we brick on the turn, what the hell I am going to do if he checks? Move in? That's risky for me with a hand that absolutely cannot be ahead with only one card to come. So I was happy he reraised.
Now, his raise was pretty scary, because it implied a monster. I was nervous because I thought there was no way in hell he was going to fold when I shoved. I really thought "this is it" and my tourney was going to come down to hitting the big draw. Now, a "monster" heads-up can be as little as top pair, good kicker, especially with an Ace on board, but I was totally psyched and totally surprised when he folded. I still have no idea what he had, maybe something like a bad draw(KQ) or a weak ace (A4)?
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