Going all the way with the 2nd nuts..

[Snugwump]

Any comments on how I played this? I didn't really have a plan for handling villain's river push. Villan was about 40 VPIP, 20 PFR, and I'd stacked him a few hands earlier with his KK vs my AA. Obviously the only thing that beats me here is K/images/graemlins/heart.gif and the PFR could be something like AK, KQ, but the river re-raise just convinced me to fold; should I have? In retrospect I think that I should have called (losing with the 2nd nuts isn't something that I should complain too much about, right?)

As for the rest of the hand, I led out on the flop to see whether my jacks were good (didn't raise 'em cause I wanted to see the flop since I'd be out-of-position for the rest of the hand). Was a bit worried about being flat called. Put in a blocking bet on the turn (which of course would have been fine for him if he was in fact on the nut flush draw). My bet size on the river was supposed to be for value if he had a smaller flush (couldn't see a straight calling here).


Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.10/$0.25
6 players
Converter (http://www.neildewhurst.com/hand-converter)

Stack sizes:
UTG: $18.75
UTG+1: $13.25
CO: $25
Button: $32
Hero: $60.70
BB: $29.10

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is SB with J/images/graemlins/spade.gif J/images/graemlins/heart.gif
UTG folds, <font color="#cc0000">CO raises to $1</font>, Button folds, Hero calls $0.9 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $1.35)</font>.

Flop: A/images/graemlins/heart.gif 8/images/graemlins/club.gif Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif ($2.25, 3 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero bets $1.5</font>, CO calls.

Turn: 3/images/graemlins/heart.gif ($5.25, 3 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero bets $2</font>, CO calls.

River: T/images/graemlins/heart.gif ($9.25, 3 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero bets $6</font>, <font color="#cc0000">CO raises all-in $20.5</font>, Hero folds.
Uncalled bets: $14.5 returned to CO.

Results:
Final pot: $35.75

[corsakh]

Reraise preflop.
Why are you leading the flop?
If you are planning to fold out the queen, its better done with a turn float which also gives you an opportunity to catch a jack.
Why are you betting the turn now?
As played river is a must call. He may have a K of hearts, since most will not fold KQ, KJ and KT here. But he may also have a slowplayed flush and realised his 8 of hearts may not be the best hand here.

ps I reread you intro. Most people completely misunderstand the concept of 3betting preflop. The point of a reraise OOP is never to build up a pot. It is always to fold out your competition. You are not going to play a large pot OOP if he folds.

The point of a blocking bet is to gather information with a marginal holding. Say you have a TP on a coordinated board. If you get called your hand is probably good. If you get raised, time to get out. Here, you achieve nothing. You get called by ace, queen, flush draw, straight draw, and you still have no idea where you stand.

And lastly, a small bet on this river is easily called by sets and two pairs. Its often raised by straights. It is definitely raised by flushes.

[Snugwump]

[ QUOTE ]

Reraise preflop.
...
ps I reread you intro. Most people completely misunderstand the concept of 3betting preflop. The point of a reraise OOP is never to build up a pot. It is always to fold out your competition. You are not going to play a large pot OOP if he folds.


[/ QUOTE ]
Understood. My thinking at the time was that a raise wouldn't accomplish the goal of folding him out, because not only had I just recently stacked him, but I was catching a lot of good cards and reraised him a couple other times in the last few hands, and didn't think I'd fold him out unless I raised bigger than I wanted to OOP, with a hand that I find hard to play OOP. Next time I think that I'll be reraising to save me the trouble...

[ QUOTE ]

Why are you leading the flop?
If you are planning to fold out the queen, its better done with a turn float which also gives you an opportunity to catch a jack.


[/ QUOTE ]
Probe. It's about the worst flop that I can imagine, having not reraised preflop and being OOP. Check-call here might have presented an opportunity to float the turn, but I wanted to get some idea of where I was here. A bet would quite often fold out a lot of players without an ace, and if he reraised I'd fold. The call worried me more though, and I'd probably have shut down on the turn, had another heart not come.

[ QUOTE ]

Why are you betting the turn now?
...
The point of a blocking bet is to gather information with a marginal holding. Say you have a TP on a coordinated board. If you get called your hand is probably good. If you get raised, time to get out. Here, you achieve nothing. You get called by ace, queen, flush draw, straight draw, and you still have no idea where you stand.


[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm, not my definition of a blocking bet I guess. My goal with the turn was to draw out cheaply to the (1 card) 2nd nuts, since opponents flop call scared me and I figured I'd probably have to fold to a bet if I simply checked to him there. The bet is pretty transparent, but I don't generally find that most players at this level are paying that close attention...

[ QUOTE ]

As played river is a must call. He may have a K of hearts, since most will not fold KQ, KJ and KT here. But he may also have a slowplayed flush and realised his 8 of hearts may not be the best hand here.
...
And lastly, a small bet on this river is easily called by sets and two pairs. Its often raised by straights. It is definitely raised by flushes.

[/ QUOTE ]
So my bet size on the river (around 2/3 pot) was small? I did see the possibility of the K/images/graemlins/heart.gif being in his range of hands at this point. My thinking on the river wrt the bet size was that I'd get a call only from hands I beat; opponent's reraise was always a possibility, though it took me a bit by surprise.

So you think I'm giving my opponent too much credit there and that he'd put in a reraise on the river with a small flush on a 4-flush board or even a straight? Obviously I have my doubts about my fold there as well, given that I'm asking, and it wasn't how I normally would have played it (my normal line there would have been reraise from the blind against the LP raise, and CB the flop).