$6 NLTRN: Preflop play at the 50/100 level

Somekid · #1 10-23-2007, 01:53 PM

I've had a lot of difficulty playing the 50/100 level, especially preflop. In this game, chips stacks started off pretty even when we reached 50/100, but my opponent just crushed me in this level. I know part of it was just terrible cards (I had a lot of hands where I folded trash like 92o, etc, to his raises), but it seemed like in other places he was just overwhelming me pre-flop. He was just min-raising a huge amount. Also, my read so far in the match was that he's fairly aggressive PF in position (minraising usually), but loose-passive OOP, going a bit too far with hands, but also doing things like calling on the flop with nothing, making me worried about things like raising PF here and continuation betting since I figured he could be calling with anything.

Anyways, are any of these plays really boneheaded?

Hand 1:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

BB (t1878)
Hero (t1122)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
Hero folds.

Final Pot: t150

Should I have raised in that spot? I'm worried that he'll just call me and call any bet on the flop.

Hand 2:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

Button (t2078)
Hero (t922)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
Button raises to t200, Hero raises to t922, Button calls t722.

Flop: (t1844) 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)

Turn: (t1844) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)

River: (t1844) 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)

Final Pot: t1844

Here I decided I had to make a stand. Is Q9s strong enough?

Hand 3:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

Button (t1356)
Hero (t1644)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
Button raises to t350, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t200

I feel like this fold may have been bad, but I really didn't want to play KJo OOP. But, after folding this and having to fold a lot of trash, I started to realize he was just taking all my blinds and quickly eating my stack.

Hand 4:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

BB (t1606)
Hero (t1394)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
Hero folds.

Final Pot: t150

Worth a raise? Again I was worried based on my read of my opponent.

Hand 5:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

BB (t1756)
Hero (t1244)

Preflop: Hero is Button with J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero raises to t275, 1 fold.

Final Pot: t200

I think I played this KJo hand correctly.

Hand 6:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

Button (t1656)
Hero (t1344)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
Button raises to t350, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t200

Should I mix in some pushes in spots like this?

Hand 7:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

BB (t1756)
Hero (t1244)

Preflop: Hero is Button with T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero raises to t275, BB raises to t600, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t550

Hand 8:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

BB (t2081)
Hero (t919)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero raises to t275, 1 fold.

Final Pot: t200

Hand 9:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (2 handed)

BB (t2381)
Hero (t619)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero raises to t619, BB calls t519.

Flop: (t1238) 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)

Turn: (t1238) 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)

River: (t1238) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)

Final Pot: t1238

I know this is a lot of hands in one post, but I thought I should show them together since most of the decisions were PF and I wanted to make sure they weren't part of some pattern of horrible PF play. Thanks in advance.

jay_shark · #2 10-23-2007, 03:15 PM

These are good questions .

1) In many instances when you have 10-12 bb's you would employ a raise or fold strategy . Although this sounds pretty good , it still has some holes . If your opponent is well versed in game theory , then he can do slightly better by calling or folding from the BB . Folding is out of the question . You're either raising or shoving all in depending on what you know about him .

2)I don't mind being aggressive with this hand , although my decision to shove primarily depends on villains pfr % .I'm certain the shove would be profitable against an habitual pre-flop raiser .

3)To weak imo to fold k-j here . I'm most definitely shoving all in here against many players .

4) At this stage in the game , you can safely raise and fold if shoved . So I'd probably continue my aggression by raising j-4 here . If he shoves all in , I fold .
Do you see a trend ?

5)Correct raise .

6) Fair enough . j-9 is close to my cut-off point . Perhaps I shove if I had j-10 or q-9 but I think the decision is still close .

7)You don't have any fold equity here if you shove . Your pot odds for shoving is 1519:969 which means you need to be ahead of his range at least 38.96% . I don't think you have that here so I don't mind the fold at all .

8) You should shove all in .
9) Correct play .

Somekid · #3 10-23-2007, 03:42 PM

Thanks for your thoughts!

Looks like the way to defend at the 50/100 level is mostly to push (like with the KJo hand), so that I can get some fold equity and avoid misplaying a big pot OOP.

Also, sounds like I need to be a bit more aggressive, raising hands like J4s.

My standard PFR at this level is 2.5bb, is that okay?

mjws00 · #4 10-23-2007, 04:38 PM

At 50/100 we should have a pretty good idea if he will let us limp, or will he punish every weak bet? I tend to tighten up my range a little bit and raise the hands that I won't mind shoving if it comes to that. There is very little postflop play going to happen, nothing tricky. I want to shove when I have him dominated or he calls my top pair with middle, bottom or a weak pp. With a strong hand I am trying to get him pot committed.

We are looking for hands with immediate odds, nothing speculative as we are barely outside SAGE range. If I have the lead in the match I am stealing a LOT and punishing any signs of weakness I see. We only have FE when we shove as a raise just pot commits us. But a flop or turn raise may well get him to commit when behind instead of chasing him out.

This is one level where serious aggression pays off if villain is weak. If they will let me limp and build pots in position there is a good chance it will be over soon.

Mike

ChicagoRy · #5 10-23-2007, 06:38 PM

Hand 2: Against the player you describe, yes.

Hand 3: Shove

Hand 5: You seem like you got stuck in between. This guy is floating you with air a lot of times, a minraise is probably better or even a limp since he'll pay you off so light if you hit a flop. You don't want to commit too much preflop here, you want to be able to play as much as you can postflop.

Hand 7: Probably limp.

Hand 8: Shove.

Hand 9: Shove (which you did).

Basically you don't want to raise like 20-25% of your stack on these strong but unpaired hands preflop, you'd be better off limping/minraise/shoving these hands, depending on stacks. Keep in mind, against a player that will call very light, you should be limping a lot of hands here so that you can value bet when you hit, that's where the largest portion of your edge likely is in this blind level vs these passive stations.