$10NL: playing middle set

[SDSilverA4]

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.05/$0.10
9 players
Converter (http://www.neildewhurst.com/hand-converter)

Stack sizes:
UTG: $9.90
UTG+1: $1.20
MP1: $9.55
MP2: $12.65
MP3: $4.50
CO: $5
Hero: $5.55
SB: $23.20
BB: $13.95

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is Button with 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif
<font color="#cc0000">UTG raises to $0.2</font>, <font color="#cc0000">UTG+1 raises to $0.3</font>, 3 folds, CO calls $0.3 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $0.65)</font>, Hero calls $0.3 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $0.95)</font>, SB calls $0.25 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $1.25)</font>, BB calls $0.2 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $1.5)</font>, UTG calls $0.1 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $1.7)</font>.

Flop: Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif 4/images/graemlins/heart.gif 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif ($1.8, 6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, <font color="#cc0000">UTG bets $0.4</font>, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.4 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $2.2)</font>, SB folds, BB calls $0.4 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $2.6)</font>.

Turn: J/images/graemlins/spade.gif ($3, 3 players)
BB checks, <font color="#cc0000">UTG bets $0.5</font>, <font color="#cc0000">Hero raises all-in $4.85</font>,

[Jigsaws]

Don't talk about the results in your title, and don't show the action after your last action.

Preflop: buy in full.

Raise the flop to about $2.

As played, pushing the turn is fine.

[SDSilverA4]

Edited to reflect Jigsaws suggestions (did I edit it to how it should be posted?)

[Jigsaws]

Just remove the bit about BB raising all-in, and the 'uncalled bets' bit, and it's perfect. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[SDSilverA4]

Done. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Question, why remove the BB re-raising all-in part? Is it because I'm already AI so it really doesn't matter what anyone else does after that point (and thus sticking to a results don't matter mindset)?

[Jigsaws]

It's not because you're all-in. It's because you've acted. If you'd bet $3 on the turn there, you shouldn't show the rest of the action either.

But yes, basically it comes down to not caring about the results.

[SDSilverA4]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I understand. Let's say I had more money and thus bet $3 on the turn. Wouldn't I also include what happens on the river and how I bet that?

Sorry for the questions. But if I don't really understand why I'm doing something then I'll just do it again and be the even more annoying newb /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Jigsaws]

No worries about the questions.

If you had more money behind, then it would be fine to include the river action. However, in this case, if you bet $3 (really bad given stacks, btw), your money's always going in on the river, because you'll have so little left.

Basically, post up to where you got lost. If you were lost on the turn/river, by all means, post turn/river.

[SDSilverA4]

OK, that makes sense now. Thanks!

I posted up a couple other hands I played the same session as this hand that I thought were interesting. Would you mind taking a look?

[bgoalie35]

[ QUOTE ]
Done. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Question, why remove the BB re-raising all-in part? Is it because I'm already AI so it really doesn't matter what anyone else does after that point (and thus sticking to a results don't matter mindset)?

[/ QUOTE ]

You want to stop the hand where people can evaluate your actions without worrying about anything that happened after your action. Any idiot can tell you a bluff was bad if he can see that Villain called after a bluff, but you will get real, honest, unbiased commentary if you stop the hand with the action in question.

As for this hand, definitely raise that flop. You almost undoubtedly have the best hand now, and you want to get as much money in the pot as possible.

[SDSilverA4]

[ QUOTE ]
As for this hand, definitely raise that flop. You almost undoubtedly have the best hand now, and you want to get as much money in the pot as possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was my thought process:
I'm in position, great!
I am fairly certain I have the best hand (no PF re-raises so pretty sure no one has QQ)
There's no flush draw so I'm not worried about that.
If I call, I maybe bring in SB to call and get more money in the pot.
There are only a few cards that beat me while I absolutely crush most people who think they are good with top pair or even middle pair (lots of loose players would have come in with Q9 too). My plan during the flop was to try to get as much $$ as I could before putting in a big raise on the turn and driving everyone else out. So why not try to extract more value playing the hand this way?

[bgoalie35]

You're right that you don't want to raise and push everyone out of the pot. If your opponents have anything though, at least one is likely to stick around in the face of a medium size raise (maybe $1.5 to $2, giving good odds to anyone who has anything here).

Think of it this way: You can just call here, and get another .40 call from SB. Or, you could raise to get another $2 in from any of your opponents. Your raise on this street then builds the pot for the next street, so your turn raise is bigger, but still not an overbet of the pot. After enough of this, you have slowly but surely compelled Villain to come along with you and play for stacks. This is where you really needed to rebuy and have a full stack, so you have $10 to put in the middle, instead of $5.55.

If a Villain at this level has TP or better, its all kind of irrelevant anyway, because he's coming along no matter what. But you can build a pot better in this situation by raising instead of calling along and trying to "lure" villains that are probably folding or coming along regardless of what you do.

[SDSilverA4]

Ahhh, ok. That makes sense.

As for re-buy. Is that a consensus to basically rebuy to the max after every hand then?

[ActionStan]

With so many people in the pot and some cards that fit broadway holding on the board (or any of the T9, J9, QT ratty hands that people love to play at this level), there are almost certainly draws out there. With 6 people in the pot, it's easy to see where there's a JT open ender lurking around. Stick in a good sized raise and let the TPTK hands call you or the draws semi-bluff over the top. In my opinion, this isn't really a sneaky sort of hand, this is a bash them around sort of hand. If there were only 1 or 2 people in the pot, I would consider a slower play.

[bgoalie35]

[ QUOTE ]
Ahhh, ok. That makes sense.

As for re-buy. Is that a consensus to basically rebuy to the max after every hand then?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, there was a thread about that here recently. Many of the people here rebuy even if they've only posted the blind. If I'm at a $10 table, I would probably rebuy any time I got below $9.50 or so. You want that full stack so you can gain the maximum when stacking off an opponent.