Play a Hand With the Masters #1 Pre-Flop

[Exitonly]

Eek, i was being sarcastic..

no way i'm pushing here.

[Lloyd]

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Eek, i was being sarcastic..

no way i'm pushing here.

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I know. But this thread is probably going to be around for awhile and I don't want some newbie reading a sarcastic response and taking it seriously.

[IHateKeithSmart]

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CO is either weak or trapping. It is very hard to put him on a narrow range without more information here, but he's most likely not on a big pocket pair. Small to medium pocket pair, suited connectors and one gappers, strong Aces slowplayed are all possible.

We don't want to let the blinds in for cheaps (free), and it's meaningful to gain information from CO, inclusive give him a chance to fold without looking too stupid.

Pot t375 when it reaches us. I suggest a raise to t650, reducing CO's pot odds to 2:1 (if none of the blinds join in). A raise of t500 is probably a little more than CO will call automatically, so if he calls he's most likely got a hand of some kind.

If he comes over the top (or if any of the blinds do) it's easy to let the hand go.

If he calls we must proceed with uttermost care. In this case the pot will hold t1,525, and a possible continuation bet will in no way pot commit us.

Best,

McMelchior (Johan)

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I like mcmelchior's line. I see some validity in limping, but if you do so you have 4 to the flop. I prefer taking the lead in the hand and bump it to 600. Too early to have a line on CO.

[MrMoo]

Raise to 600 so I can hopefully get a little more information about what UTG has. Can't put him on a small range as I think he could be doing this with any two playable cards.

[Kramer.]

never mind

[ononimo]

For me, it's close between limping and raising. Ordinarily, I'd be inclined to raise and would take a line very similar to McMelchior's. However, in this particular instance, I'd limp in hopes of flopping a big hand because the CO's limp appears very suspicious to me.

Given the CO's relative stack size and tight table image, one would think that he would win the blinds a high percentage of the time if he had raised w/ any 2 from his position ... and he most probably knows this. His limp seems like he's looking for action and I think it's more likely that he has a premium holding than a speculative one. While I admit his range for limping from the CO could be very wide and at the risk of seeming like I'm looking for monsters under the bed, my "gut" tells me he likely has AA-QQ or possibly AKs -- I just think that lesser pairs/suited connectors would be happy to win the blinds given the likelihood of overcards on the flop.

While limping with AJs on the button and allowing for a 4-way pot might appear weak, the pot is so small relative to the stack sizes that I see no immediate need to stick my neck out here ... but it's close. If CO's stack size was roughly equivalent to mine or had a looser table image, I'd be more inclined to take McMelchior's line and raise here.

[CardSharpCook]

I'm still in auto-mode right now. I make a standard raise to 600. See what happens. In general, I'm throwing out 1K on the flop. See what happens. But I may not. Depends on my mode and whether or not my opponent has white socks.

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Raise to 600 so I can hopefully get a little more information about what UTG has.

[/ QUOTE ] I'd really like to know what he mucked too, but unfortunately, I don't think raising is gonna tell us anything.

[2005]

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I don't know MJ's game at all so I'll just assume they're thinking solid players.

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Very good player. Well respected. If you google him you can see his history.

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This could mean alot of things, couldn't it? Daniel is a very good player and well respected, but his style is definitely different than Dan Harrington's who is also very good and well respected. From this perspective, MJ is Dan Harrington minus a few points of trickiness.

[curtains]

FWIW I have reading comprehension problems and despite looking at the details of the hand many times, I was under the impression that the cutoff had 11k chips and not 25k. This raises the frequency in which I will just call preflop.

[2005]

Post deleted by 2005