Friday, August 17, 2007

Learn from my mistakes (Part 2)

Be careful when you try to get tricky with big pocket pairs because it could come back to haunt you...

FullTiltPoker Game #3273542762: Table Mission Point - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:04:08 ET - 2007/08/16
Seat 1: ThisHowIGetDown ($307.60)
Seat 2: fishy27 ($206.50)
Seat 3: RogueRaider ($969.95)
Seat 4: RecessRampage ($400)
Seat 5: rowenazolekker ($62.80)
Seat 6: Chapter XI ($551.40)
Seat 7: Garbally ($460.30)
Seat 8: DrawingSlim ($0), is sitting out
Seat 9: Jdiddy01 ($207.40)
RogueRaider posts the small blind of $2
RecessRampage posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Qs]
rowenazolekker folds
Chapter XI folds
Garbally folds
Jdiddy01 calls $4
DrawingSlim has returned
ThisHowIGetDown folds
fishy27 folds
RogueRaider raises to $16
RecessRampage calls $12
Jdiddy01 calls $12

I'm not the type to play a certain type of hand the same way so I would obviously sometimes reraise here to isolate or price out the other limper in case he is trying to see a flop cheap with a small/mid pocket pair. However, the key here to do that when you know your opponents. In other words, there's not much value in doing something that you usually don't do against opponents that don't know you. In that case, you can play straightforward poker for a little while to establish your image. Well, I guess I was feeling frisky so I wanted to switch it up.

*** FLOP *** [5c 9s 7c]
RogueRaider has 15 seconds left to act
RogueRaider bets $20

Personally, I'm not crazy about this flop. Bunch of mid/low cards. It's right up the alley of the limper in MP. I'm also not too crazy about the fact that the big stack bets out. Since I don't know anything about my opponents, I'd have to assume that he's got a big stack because he is better than others. Of course, maybe he got lucky but we don't know that at this point. So, I need to define my hand here.

RecessRampage raises to $70
Jdiddy01 folds
RogueRaider has 15 seconds left to act
RogueRaider raises to $258

This is where things get interesting. The big stack initially puts out a probe bet, I raise 3.5x his bet and now he comes over the top. At this point, you have to believe that you are behind with the QQ. How far behind? That's hard to tell because it's hard to see if he's overbetting for value with a set or a straight or now trying to protect his two pair? The only questionable thing is that he's the one who raised preflop from the SB so he could have AA-TT, of which I only beat two of them. And if he had JJ or TT, it's hard to see him come over the top here...

But as you can imagine, since this is the "learn from my mistakes" series, here's where I donk it up.

RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
RecessRampage raises to $384, and is all in <--- HEEEE HAAAAW
RogueRaider calls $126
RecessRampage shows [Qc Qs]
RogueRaider shows [5d 7d]

*** TURN *** [5c 9s 7c] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [5c 9s 7c 4d] [3d]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Queens
RogueRaider shows two pair, Sevens and Fives
RogueRaider wins the pot ($813) with two pair, Sevens and Fives

If you are going to get tricky with an overpair, you have to be willing to let the hand go on a dangerous board. Limiting leaks like this will lead to more profitable cash game play.

3 comments:

Fuel55 said...

When you dont reraise QQ I would prefer to play a small pot to showdown by just calling postflop.

smokkee said...

yo Alan,

re:bodog rakeback

not sure why Bodog isn't listed on their front page. but once you create an acct at rakebreak.com, you can use their link to create your Bodog acct and get 25% rakeback.

smokkee said...

oh and don't forget to use my link to rakebreak. :)