2 hands - marginal hand, early position, head-up

[RobA]

Live 10-20 in AC.

Game is unremarkable - on average 4 to a flop, no one seems particularly good or bad.

Hand 1 - I'm in SB and complete with JTs. 5 see unraised flop. Flop is AJ7 rainbow (none of my suit). I bet. EP (solid old-guy regular) and MP (new to table) call. Turn is 4. I check. EP checks. MP bets, I fold. (EP folds. MP's hand not seen.)

Hand 2 (30 minutes later, I've played in no eventful hands in between). MP (same MP from before) limps (seen him do nothing out of line yet, so have nothing to judge him on other than hand above). SB completes. I raise in BB with black TT. Flop A44 (two spades, 1 heart). SB checks, I bet, MP calls, SB folds. Turn K club. I bet, MP calls. River 8 club. I bet (with a plan to call a raise).

Guys - i'm sure you've discussed such situations a lot. can you help me out with basic concepts i'm screwing up here. i'll explain later, just wanna see your opinions.

thank you, rob.

[jba]

hand 1 is fine. sometimes I bet the turn as the last bet I put in.

hand 2 I think you should check/call to induce a bluff from busted spades. calling a raise is suicide (although I think it happens very rarely).


ps: if you've played with this guy for 30 minutes and you have no read you're not paying enough attention. just a thought.

[danzasmack]

Hand 1 I would rather check/call the flop and quit on the turn.

Hand 2 - I don't like this at all. You're in a LP game. Bet/calling the river seems absurd. If you put him on spades then so be it. This is one of those hands where you post your hand and the reads and your action seems to not match up with it at all. Even if you bet, he raised, and you called and were good I don't like this hand. And if you do, you should say so in the post.

[private joker]

I think you mixed up the two hands. Hand 1 is when you should be betting the turn, and the hand where you have TT on an AK44 board is the one should think about check-folding.

[Smarty]

Hand 1 is fine, it's very likely he has an ace, given this board.

Hand 2 is fine up until the river, which is a disaster. Bet/calling is the worst play (aside from bet-3-betting). Check-calling is better, check-folding likely the best.

[danzasmack]

I don't think hand 1 is fine, I think you lose hand 1 every time if you play it like that. Your flop bet says "I have a pair", their calls say "me too", your turn check says "Not an ace, i don't like my hand that much anymore", his bet says "if you don't want it, I want it"

If you take a passive line you need the guy to fire the bets himself, which is difficult in live poker.

I like bet/bet here if you're going to bet at all. If you bet the flop expecting to take it down or quit on the pot, don't bet.

[Lunger]

Hand 1. This is usually a check/fold for me. If you check and someone bets and someone else calls, then I think you should fold. If it gets checked around or a late position player bets (and you have a read that they would try a bluff) then you could play on.

Hand 2
Since you don't hava a read on MP, I think the flop bet is fine, but once you get called and another overcard comes on the turn, I would slow down. I don't like the bet on the river.

[Justin A]

[ QUOTE ]
I bet (with a plan to call a raise).

[/ QUOTE ]

Calling a raise would be beyond awful.

[RobA]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I run into this stuff in AC all the time. If I bet out, they call. If I check, they bet. With middlin hands it gets confusing.

In hand 2 MP had A9o.

I agree I played hand 2 awful. The reason I did it is becuase I had played a hand weak vs. the same player before and I stubbornly decided I was getting to showdown this time. And as long as he wasn't raising, and there was a flush draw on the board, I thought I should contine betting.

It seems like you guys disagree a bit about hand 1. I see what you're saying Danzasmack, that if I decide to play it I should do so with more of a commitment. Next time, either bet flop/bet turn, or CR flop/bet out turn. Or call flop/fold turn (something I hardly ever do anymore).

[DUI]

[ QUOTE ]
I like bet/bet here if you're going to bet at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. On hand #1, either bet flop/bet turn/check and fold river or check-call flop/check fold the turn, with the play based on your read and your perceived image by the opposition at that time.

DUI