Few Bellagio hands

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

Good to play with some of you this weekend. Here are a couple hands. They're kind of meh but I never post hands anymore so here goes.

1. 60/120. Main opponent is George the doctor, he's an Indian/Pakistani guy who has a lot of money but is pretty terrible at hold 'em and was keeping a lot of the higher limit games running this weekend. He probably plays at about a 55/15 and is moody/weird/random on postflop streets, emphasis on moody, capable of bluffs and semibluffs and overplaying weak hands, especially when running well. At this time he was stuck pretty bad though and looked kind of sad.

Anyway George limps in EP, some other dude overlimps in MP, an Asian regular who is a little too laggy but tough and competent and probably views me the same calls in SB, I knuckle in the BB with Q8s.

Flop is 873 with a flush draw. SB bets, I raise, George cold calls, SB calls.

Turn is a Q giving me top two pair. SB checks, I bet and they both call.

River is a 9 no flush. I bet, George raises, SB tanks for a little bit and folds, I tank for a little bit and raise, George tanks for a little bit and 3-bets, I fold.

2. 100/200 game a couple of nights later. This is a really crazy, really great game. I open KTo from the hijack; I think my image is fairly strong as I've won a couple of big pots to make a nice comeback after being stuck a bit before. George calls in the SB, he's running better and much more jovial tonight. The BB calls -- I think his name is Rick -- friendly, clean-cut guy, looks like he's maybe 35 though I think he might look young for his age. We'd had a conversation earlier about players that come from live backgrounds versus Internet backgrounds; he recognizes that I'm a good example of the latter and he's certainly a good example of the former. He reads hands/people well, but is probably a hair tight/passive after the flop by hold'em v.2007 standards, not a lot but a little. He's stuck quite a bit tonight and that seems to be affecting his play some, though I'm sure he's still +EV against this lineup.

Anyway the flop is QJx rainbow, giving me an OESD. Checked around to me and I bet, they both call.

The turn is a blank putting two diamonds on the board. I check behind.

River is the 9 of diamonds giving me the nut straight although putting a backdoor flush on the board (I don't have any diamonds). SB bets into me and I just call.

3. 100/200 again, Villain is Terri, I hope I'm spelling that right. She's a regular's regular and has been talked about before on these boards. She's very tough/creative/aggressive in position and loves to raise flops or turns and then check behind. Anyway she raises from the cutoff and I 3-bet red 8's from the BB, she calls. Flop is like Q54 with a flush draw in something black, I bet and she raises. Of course what happened is that she checked behind the turn and didn't pay off when the river blanked off. Does anyone like a flop 3-bet or turn lead here? I'm not saying 100% of the time but some minority of the time for balancing purposes?

4. 100/200, folded around to me in the SB, I decide to compete with K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7x, bicyclekick raises in the BB, I call. Bike has been playing a lot of hands but for the most part has been strong at showdown. The only other time it had been folded around to me in the SB I folded and let him have the blinds and made some remark about how he was never going to let me see a cheap flop.

Anyway this time the flop is AQx, with a spade flush draw (my K is the backdoor nuts), I check he bets and I fold ... I should probably have hung around here, right?

[gehrig]

river 3bet in hand 1 doesnt look good. 56 and jt (and 99 i guess?) is a lot of combos. and even if folding to the 4bet is correct, it sounds like u still give up some equity in not seeing a showdown

hand 4 i would just about never fold flop. i would cc without much of a plan for turn/river. i would cc the turn always if i picked up a gutshot. im assuming bk is raising like 86o preflop though, which maybe hes not

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

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river 3bet in hand 1 doesnt look good. 56 and jt (and 99 i guess?) is a lot of combos.

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I guess I didn't think he was loose enough to cold call with JT on the flop with just a gutter unless he also had the flush draw, which is just one combo. I also didn't think he'd play 65o, though he's definitely playing the suited variants. 99 is possible though I'm 85% sure he raises that preflop. Could be wrong about any of these things.

[PokerBob]

hand 3: i'd rather just call preflop. i think i like a turn donk. once the turn checks through and the river blanks off, i don't see why you'd want to bet, especially given your preflop line. she can't call, but maybe she'll stab.

hand 4: i don't think you should open complete here. playing oop vs. an aggro monkey is gonna suck.

[DeathDonkey]

Hand 3 I just call preflop too but as played I like a flop 3 bet the majority of the time, not just for balance. It's a good board to pacify you, to feel confident with any pair, and she knows a Q high board is nice to make AK not be thrilled with life.

Hand 4 I'm raising BK with something that strong but as played I check/call flop at least and don't hate a checkraise.

-DeathDonkey

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

re: Preflop in Hand 3 -- I guess I feel that calling preflop just gives her too much control. I think being able to represent the big overpair/TPTK hands as part of your range keeps her more in line after the flop and tends to cut against her positional advantage. On that Q54 flop for example if you check-raise then she's still never ever folding a better hand but she can play back at you more liberally knowing that hands like AQ and KK are not likely to be part of your range.

[PokerBob]

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re: Preflop in Hand 3 -- I guess I feel that calling preflop just gives her too much control. I think being able to represent the big overpair/TPTK hands as part of your range keeps her more in line after the flop and tends to cut against her positional advantage. On that Q54 flop for example if you check-raise then she's still never ever folding a better hand but she can play back at you more liberally knowing that hands like AQ and KK are not likely to be part of your range.

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yeah, but you don't mind her playing back at you, as you are almost never folding. let her barrell away. plus, i don't really want to bloat the pot oop here. i'd much rather take a look at the flop and go from there.

[DeathDonkey]

Then just call with AQ and KK. (I never raise AQ here anyway and experimenting with trying this with the premiums)

-DeathDonkey

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

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re: Preflop in Hand 3 -- I guess I feel that calling preflop just gives her too much control. I think being able to represent the big overpair/TPTK hands as part of your range keeps her more in line after the flop and tends to cut against her positional advantage. On that Q54 flop for example if you check-raise then she's still never ever folding a better hand but she can play back at you more liberally knowing that hands like AQ and KK are not likely to be part of your range.

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yeah, but you don't mind her playing back at you, as you are almost never folding. let her barrell away. plus, i don't really want to bloat the pot oop here. i'd much rather take a look at the flop and go from there.

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I guess I'm in the camp that says Teri/Terri/Terry plays pretty damn well in position by that I mean she'll manage her bet/check frequencies fairly optimally. This is especially damaging with something like 88 because when ahead it's generally vulnerable to at least six outs, making free cards more costly (as opposed to something like AJ, which has about the same strength in the abstract but which may give her dominated outs, and which is more likely to benefit from free cards and cheap showdowns itself). I'd rather "just see a flop" with 88 against someone like sweeta from the old PartyPoker games who was relentlessly aggressive and more inclined to bluff off chips with a worse hand.

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

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Then just call with AQ and KK. (I never raise AQ here anyway and experimenting with trying this with the premiums)

-DeathDonkey

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I think my strategy achieves equal postflop balance without giving up nearly as much preflop equity.