How's your SSNLHE?: TT

[ajmargarine]

Follow along in the hand. Take the poll as you go. Comments welcome.

NLHE .50/$1 Full Table, 10-handed. Hero's first hand at the table, no reads on anyone. Stacks of players involved:

SB ($77)
Hero ($100)
MP1 ($154)
MP2 ($11)
CO ($240)
Button ($38)

Here's how the hand starts:

Preflop: Hero is BB with T [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] . SB posts a blind of $0.50.
3 folds, MP1 calls $1, MP2 calls $1, 1 fold, CO calls $1, Button calls $1, SB completes, Action is on Hero...

[ajmargarine]

ANSWER RATINGS:










Answers are rated on a scale of 0-10. 0 being Donkorific. 10 being Kongo Totte-like excellence. Rating in parenthesis.

Question # 1 --

(7) Check- Reasonable. Play for set value, if overcards hit though, you're most likely done with the hand.
(0) Raise to $2- Call 1-800-DONKBUSTERS, get yourself some help.
(2) Raise to $7- Light on the 4xBB + 1BB per limper scale, plus not good because of the shortstack.
(9) Raise to $12- Best, IMO.

Right now, only 4 holdings beat your TT. It's not likely, given the action, that anyone holds one of these. The trouble with raising to $7 is if shorty pushes, the betting is closed as he doesn't have enough to make a real raise. You would like to be able to go over the top if you raise and shorty pushes and someone else calls, as your TT will be a better hand than anything caller will have. So a raise to $5 is superior to a raise to $7. The best play however, IMO, is raise to $12. You either take it down right there, or very often shorty calls and you are HU, all-in with the better hand.
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Question # 2 --

(4) Yes (c/r)- A c/r usually shuts down the hand in limped pots.
(8) No- You got the best hand, bet it.
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Question # 3 --

(0) planned c/r- ABC poker wins. Bet when you are best, avoid FPS.
(0) bet $6- too weak
(5) bet $12- better, but still too light.
(10) bet $20- best.
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Question # 4 --

(3) c/c psb
(5) c/c 1/2 psb
(8) bet $20
(1) bet $50

As has been discussed on this board, the blocking bet is usually superior to a c/c in situations like this.
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Question # 5 --

(6)Call- Usually when you make a blocking bet, you fold to a raise. However, this is only a minraise so you should consider calling getting 6:1 on the call. With CO calling a flop bet, but folding to a turn bet, there was a chance he was drawing to a flush, decreasing the chances (slightly) that MP1 has a flush. A call might be best here.
(5) Fold- It's reasonable to think that villian chased and hit a flush, and is now only minraising because he thinks it's a sure Hero call.
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Question # 6 --

(4) Value Bet- a VB happens when you are fairly certain you have the best hand. Here, we're not so sure.
(0) Continuation Bet- a CB happens after you make a PFR, and bet the flop when you miss.
(10) Blocking Bet- Correct. We aren't sure our hand is best anymore and make a bet that blocks the craziness that a check may induce.
(0) Semi-bluff- This is when you bet your draw, instead of just checking.
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Question #7 --
(0) ~8%- nope
(10) ~12%- you flop a set 11.76% of the time.
(0) ~15%- nope
(0) ~19%- you make a set 19.18% if you stay through the river.

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Hand results: Hero called the river minraise. MP1 shows Ah Jd for two pair, and Hero's set is goot.

[Roy__Batty]

thank you for this very good post aj
on turn i'd rather bet more than the pot, 2 players called on flop vs 2 players.
Too many dangerous cards for river, people can have hands like KcJc
And if somebody slowplayed 444 (weird but possible), you want to make the pot as big as possible to shove on river.

[GlobFunds]

hmm 51 points including a mistake on the river set. (Went with 8%)

Good post.

[z28dreams]

I agreed with the entire course of action except the flop bet.

Why not check raise here? There's 4 people to act after us, and someone will almost certainly bet with an Ace on the board. Very slim chance of it checking through.

Are we simply hoping for a 3-bet?

[nath]

Because check-raising does so much more to give away the strength of your hand and makes it much easier for someone who bet an ace to fold. You want to make the most money possible with your set, don't you?

[PrimogenitoX]

Why would the betting be closed if you raised to $7 and the $11 stack pushed? A raise to $7 is a $6 raise and the $11 push is a $4 reraise which is more than half the raise, thus allowing a reraise...

[Sweir]

Nice thread, I pretty much picked the same answers that you said apart from the blocking bet which i was a bit unsure about. I put, c/c Q4, though i see that bet $20 is probably a better play.

[wrkingtobegreat]

wow really cool format aj

[APatterson]

[ QUOTE ]

As has been discussed on this board, the blocking bet is usually superior to a c/c in situations like this.


[/ QUOTE ]

Score of 54 for me. I check-called the river here. Seems I need to read a lot more on the blocking bet. Any posts on here you can recommend?

On reflection,
I bet the turn to offer poor odds to the draw. When I'm called, I have to think that either 1) opponent is a poor player who has called without odds, or 2) opponent seems decent and wouldn't call the turn with a draw, therefore he doesn't have the draw, maybe two-pair, tptk etc. So the blocking bet seems like a great idea (or is it a value bet?)