Villain Cold Calls with Strong Holding - I'm drawing thin.

[Thomas Newton]

I've lost several hands lately where, for example, I might raise with AQoff from MP1 in a full ring micro limit game and had someone cold call with AKoff from late position.

On an A high flop with enough texture to make me want to play it fast, I'm betting and being called by the villain. And so it goes, bet/call turn, bet/call river (on one occasion he raised, I called).

After the river I've been betting TPSK with nothing obvious having developed from the drawing potential in the flop. I'm expecting the pot to come my way only to find that I've been drawing very thin from the beginning.

As you may know, SSHE is very strict about cold calling a raise and recommends reraising with a strong holding such as AK (p.73). This allows you to maximise the pot when you are strong, charge the drawing hands, protect your hand, possibly take the lead on the next round, isolate the raiser, etc. All good and apparently standard things.

I tried to think of why a player would cold call with AK and what this action might say about their play in order to take useful notes on them after this kind of hand. I have some thoughts, it may be that a player simply doesn't know that the standard action is to raise for example, but I'm interested in your views on this.

[davelin]

[ QUOTE ]
I've lost several hands lately where, for example, I might raise with AQoff from MP1 in a full ring micro limit game and had someone cold call with AKoff from late position.

[/ QUOTE ]

This doesn't happen enough times for me to warrant losing sleep over it. It's like worrying about raising KK everytime and wondering if the Button is cold calling with Aces.

[kerowo]

"standard action?"

Why do you want your opponents to cost you money? Take your situation, what are you going to do different if villain 3-bets you pre-flop and you flop tpsk? You aren't going to fold, you are going to call him down, maybe even after c/ring the flop. You are still going to lose. Be thankful for these guys but don't get all mubs on them because they will do the same thing with AJ.

[bung]

I think its a decent play if villain has good post-flop skills. More importantly, I think villain may have a good read on the table, including you. If the blinds are tight and will fold to a raise from MP, he's probably right to just call. His hand is disguised, AND he still has position. At the same time, he could be a pretty crappy player....how did he play in previous hands? How about in later hands? Anything you can learn from him?

Also, the standard action is a template designed to help you become more of a thinking, acting player. When learning, most people stick to what they can relate to, what feels good, what they already know etc. I've noticed that when I really try to consider and investigate what offends me most, or makes me uncomfortable, I learn the most....maybe it will help you too.

[halpgr]

Don't assume all or most micros villians are playing by the SSHE book. Villian is just a passive player. He didn't 3bet preflop because he didn't want to have have to call a cap, and he doesn't want to have to fold to a flop bet if he missed.

He didn't raise postflop because he only has a pair and he doesn't want to have to face an uncomfortable 3bet, lots of stuff beats TPTK so he just wants to bring it to a friendly cheap showdown.

So villian is trading some aggression and long term profit for a more comfortable short term experience. That's fine with us, his mistakes will ultimately be more profit for others, especially the suckouts he'll take from failing to price out draws.

[kerowo]

[ QUOTE ]
I think its a decent play if villain has good post-flop skills.

[/ QUOTE ]

Only if the post-flop skills are good enough to bring kittens back from the dead. And really, who wants zombie kittens running around.

[Thomas Newton]

Davelin, Kerowo, I'm not worried about it and I guess my post may sound like a beat but it's not.

I know from reading here and elsewhere that I'm playing the hand 'correctly'. I'm not afraid of the hand behind.

I'm interested in the whys and wherefores of the play. I'm not criticising it because it's non-standard. I'm interested what virtues it might have and whether I can add them to my arsenal.

Currently, I'd be the first to say, I'm too predictable.

[fretelöo]

The why I would assume for it is that many don't like raising too much with hands that are not "made" yet. With AK, they still have to hit the board, so they don't like raising too much pf because they don't have a made hand yet.

[kerowo]

Most players are passive. Don't be like most players. Most players at the micros are not predicting your hand. If people are respecting your raises too much, do it more often. Adding slow playing to your bag is not the message to take from the situation you described. The message to take away is people lose money by playing passive poker.

[martybonus]

hrm, interesting. i don't know that I've considered the possibility that a weaker play might round out my play..

i had a couple thoughts about your post.

1) are you certain that the people you're playing with are really paying that much attention to your play style? i dunno what stakes you're playing, but i play .5/1.00 at bodog and there are so many players coming in and out it seems unlikely people are watching my style of play. also, i'm not sure many of 'em are good enough to twig on that sort of thing anyway. but you might be worrying about something you don't need to. i dunno, but if they're as bad as the players I play against, I'd not worry about it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

2) Maybe make sure you're playing SSHE-style really well before worrying about varying it up? dunno.