First stab at stars $50 trouble with queens (and more)

shaunr · #1 07-14-2007, 02:28 PM

Hey all, first time poster, long time lurker here.

Last night I took my first stab at $50 NL on stars after doing well for some time at 25$, and things did not go well. I played about 2500 hands, and in this somewhat limited sample, the play seemed to have some significant differences which I am not used to:

1) Villians all over seemed to reraise pertty light. Lots of my steal attempts were being reraised big, and I had to fold those. Just as many of my premium hands were being reraised (A-K, Queens, etc) and I was folding those often enough on the flop to a huge bet. Do others see this also in these games or was I just having bad luck and was running into a lot of kings and aces?

2) It seemed to be much more difficult to get people off their hands on the flop. For example one person limps, I raise 5xbb from the button with A-Q, and they call - so I figure they likely have a pocket pair. I continuation bet 3/4 the pot when K-Q-X comes off, and they call. Checking the hand down reveals a pair of 3's. This situation seemed to be much more common than in the 25$ games.

Another variation is when the flop is say, jack high - a lot of villians would reraise the flop after missing with their pocket pair, knowing it's unlikely the jack hit me. I think they would fold to a big reraise - but is this profitable?

The biggest frustration for me though was with pocket queens. As mentioned above I was constantly being reraised preflop with queens, and really didnt konw how to react. Here are some hands:

Hand #1:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

Button ($45.85)
SB ($50.75)
BB ($57.80)
Hero ($52.20)
UTG+1 ($58.90)
MP1 ($17)
MP2 ($21.85)
CO ($24.20)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
Hero raises to $2, 3 folds, CO calls $2, 2 folds, BB raises to $6, Hero calls $4, CO folds.

Flop: ($-14) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB bets $7, Hero calls $7.

Turn: ($0) 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB bets $16, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $0

Hand #2:

POKERSTARS GAME #10929066557: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) - 2007/07/14 - 01:57:15 (ET)
Table 'Mimas II' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: sp333 ($47.30 in chips)
Seat 3: Itz_ ($53.70 in chips)
Seat 4: Happiegoluck ($50 in chips)
Seat 5: Jefe22 ($30.95 in chips)
Seat 6: ClayBay ($71.25 in chips)
Seat 7: alminfd ($29.95 in chips)
Seat 8: Sublime7777 ($30.70 in chips)
Seat 9: slickfadogy ($25 in chips)
wjlucky will be allowed to play after the button
Itz_: posts small blind $0.25
Happiegoluck: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Itz_ [Qc Qh]
Jefe22: folds
ClayBay: raises $1.50 to $2
alminfd: folds
Sublime7777: folds
slickfadogy: folds
sp333: folds
Itz_: raises $4 to $6
Happiegoluck: folds
ClayBay: raises $10 to $16
Itz_: calls $10
*** FLOP *** [9s Kd 3h]
Itz_: checks
ClayBay: bets $21
Itz_: folds
ClayBay collected $30.90 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $32.50 | Rake $1.60
Board [9s Kd 3h]
Seat 1: sp333 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Itz_ (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Happiegoluck (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Jefe22 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ClayBay collected ($30.90)
Seat 7: alminfd folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Sublime7777 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: slickfadogy folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Hand #3 (Relates to problem #2 listed above)

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

UTG+1 ($13.20)
MP1 ($26.05)
MP2 ($18.80)
MP3 ($49.25)
CO ($54.25)
Button ($73.20)
Hero ($48.45)
BB ($68.60)
UTG ($50.60)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, MP2 raises to $1.5, 3 folds, Hero raises to $4, 1 fold, UTG calls $3.50, MP2 folds.

Flop: ($-30) T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero bets $8, UTG calls $8.

Turn: ($-14) 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $7, Hero calls $7.

River: ($0) 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $21, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $0

Note: In this hand, my reasoning for calling the turn bet was because the bet was small, and after watching the villian for a while (he is a maniac) I was pretty certain any ace, king, or queen would be good and that i'd get paid off. I'm still not sure about the call though...

All in all it was a very frustrating night.

My aces and kings were also very stressful as villians were reraising my huge on the flop and turn with draws (and in this case hitting them). I have a hard time figuring out whether they've hit a set, or are semibluffing. At 25$ a set would almost always just call on the flop, and a semibluff would be a raise - but it was a mix of both on the $50 tables.

And with that I'm pretty sure I've stuck in more topics than any one thread should try to cover, but I guess what I'm really looking for is some advice on how to adjust my game to the differences between 25$ and 50$ at stars the next time I take a stab at it (or perhaps there really aren't that many differences and it was just a bad night?)

Thanks.
-Shaun