what would aba do?
 

i've been playing full time for 2 years. NL since december of last year. i've always been a small winner and i've never been able to make enough to both pay bills and build a bankroll so that i can move up. i've been running horribly, so i spent a couple days reading this forum and got inspired by the aba well post. i decided to try a session of just 2-3 tables really trying to play my A game with the thought in mind "what would aba do"? lol

my normal game is very tight and pretty much predictable. from what i've seen, aba plays many more hands from pretty much all positions and plays them quite aggressively. he seems to be willing to put $ on the line to try to take pots from weak players who are likely to have weak holdings.

when trying to emulate this style, i want to try to make sure i'm not just spewing chips in inappropriate spots. in aba's well post he really emphasizes posting hands on here, so i guess i'll give that a shot.

the villain in this hand is 36/7/1 and sitting with 60BB = no reason to think he's anything other than a typical weak player. i've been raising quite a bit from the button and CO (23/20 or so overall), but although i probably have an aggressive image i haven't done anything crazy.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.50/$1 Blinds - 5 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $192.20
BB: $50.50
UTG: $62.35
Hero (CO): $107.45
BTN: $98.50

Preflop: Hero is dealt K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (5 Players)
UTG folds, <font color="red">Hero raises to $3.00</font>, 2 folds, BB calls $2.00

Flop: ($6.50) Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 Players)
BB checks, <font color="red">Hero bets $4.50</font>, <font color="red">BB raises to $9.00</font>, <font color="red">Hero raises to $38.50</font>

there's another thread in the sticky where someone recommends 3 betting min-raisers the first time they make that move and then taking notes on how they respond and accordingly what a min-raise from that player means. so i had that in mind here as well as the thought that it should be a pretty difficult call for any hand w/out a Q (other than 22).

so: is this aba-esque thinking and play? or is this spew?

Re: what would aba do?
 

fold preflop. with regards to this raise i think its bad. a smaller eaise will accomplish the same thing. if you make it 27 hes calling/folding with almost the same frequency as he does when you make it 38. lastly, people almost never fold any 2 on this board nor would they fold a flush draw. all in all, i hate your 3bet

Re: what would aba do?
 

thanks for the response.

folded to him in the CO i'm pretty sure aba raises this hand just about always... =)

and really, 33-JJ, let alone a hand without a pair, is going to check/min-raise and then stack off when i come over the top? i don't think that's true...

Re: what would aba do?
 

imo you should open your game step by step, a LAG game is much harder to play and its very easy to overdo it.

The 3bet is really transparent here, with a hand you would call and try to get it in on the turn, and with a flushdraw you would just call aswell(great potodds, not much FE). So your basicly representing air. If you have a read that he does this move weak, you could try to call and float. But since he is a shortstack he probably plays his strong hands like this alot. So yeah, dont 3bet here.

Re: what would aba do?
 

in my experience, this kind of player will just call here with a Q, and crai on the turn or call and push the river. the check/min-raise seems much more likely to be a weak pair that wants to fold out AK.

if this player has a pair but not a Q, shouldn't this play be very likely to get a fold?

Re: what would aba do?
 

OP, yes, Aba does raise this hand in the CO 90%+ of the time... But that's because he's playing higher stakes and he needs a wider range to get paid off... I don't think raising K9o is good or bad at the stakes, it depends who is in the blinds. You raise your marginal holdings to get action on your bigger hands... But often at these stakes you'll get action even if you played 10 / 10.

I hope that helps. As for the flop 3-bet... Just let it go, or cold call (just fold). Wait until your hand has some equity before you make a play. If you've got a decent draw and you get min raised stick it in to see what happens if you strongly think he's just making stupid bluffs.

Good luck.

Re: what would aba do?
 

Some players (who probably think they are good) will minraise the flop "for information" with lots of marginal/crappy hands. If you make a smallish reraise they will instafold, regardless of how transparent the reraise looks. If they were good enough to actually read hands they probably wouldn't c/minraise the flop anyway.

I would often make the reraise really small, like to $25. You don't need to raise large, any raise will give the other player the information that he was looking for, and he will fold. The first couple of times I'm minraised I'll probably just fold though.

Re: what would aba do?
 

Oh, and it's really important to learn what minraises generally means in your games. For example, flop minraises might mean crap a lot when playing $25nl at party but nuts when playing $100nl at paradise.

Re: what would aba do?
 

Preflop, meh, whatever. I think it's possible to play this hand profitably from the CO, but it is by no means necessary to be a winning player at 100NL.

As for the flop, if you're a cardrunners members and have been paying attention to aba's videos, you should have noticed he says something fairly frequently. "You can't win every pot", "Sometimes you just have to check-fold". I'm fairly certain he would just fold to the minraise.

Re: what would aba do?
 

Make it 27 on the flop and its fine. Also, aba is one of the best NL players in the world, and plays in high stakes games. So some of his plays won't work at .5/1 tables.