Wednesday, February 20, 2008

When they throw a pot sized bet, it's a weak hand, huh?

Fuel always preaches that if a villain throws out a pot sized bet, it generally means it's weak. Hoy also had a post (click here where he talks about that) where if the villain all of a sudden comes out betting, it's very unlikely that their hand is strong. I agree with both of their observations. That's why when I have a chance, this is what I do...

(The only thing that I hate about posting this hand is the criticism that will come my way about how I don't have a full stack - so lucko, please, let it slide, ONE TIME - I still don't have AHK set up...)

Full Tilt Poker Game #5336890162: Table Garwood (6 max) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:54:05 ET - 2008/02/20
Seat 1: Luffy-san ($421.40)
Seat 2: madd skilzz ($151.30)
Seat 3: basiccourse ($652.50)
Seat 4: donkoz ($494.20)
Seat 5: RecessRampage ($374) <--- I just don't notice unless I'm a little shorter... I'm 4 tabling on a tiny laptop screen!
Seat 6: La Jolla Shores ($400)
RecessRampage posts the small blind of $2
La Jolla Shores posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qh Jh]
Luffy-san folds
madd skilzz calls $4
basiccourse calls $4
donkoz folds
RecessRampage calls $2
La Jolla Shores has 15 seconds left to act
La Jolla Shores checks

With bunch of limpers and a hand like QJs, I see no reason to raise since I feel like this plays well multiway. AND I hate raising OOP with mediocre hands.

*** FLOP *** [Js Jd 5h] <--- gin!
RecessRampage bets $16 <--- I instabet
La Jolla Shores has 15 seconds left to act
La Jolla Shores folds
madd skilzz folds
basiccourse calls $16

Naturally, after the first two folds, I thought I messed up. But I actually thought there might be a guy hanging in there with a pocket pair. With the big blind and two limpers, it's more likely that someone has a pocket pair or some middle cards. Basically, I was betting that one of them had a pocket pair. Me betting out screams of a 5 right? I mean it's impossible that I have a J. Right? Admittedly, this was dangerous in the sense that I almost took down this pot. But that's the risk I am willing to take to mix it up. Winning a pot is always good, even if it's a small one. Plus what am I gonna do? Check call screams of a monster. Check raise may be ok but most hands will go away anyways so I make an extra $16 if they do a pot sized bet and I raise to take it down. Instead, I get the $16 here and anything further will just be bonus.

*** TURN *** [Js Jd 5h] [8c]
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage bets $35
basiccourse calls $35

Well, since he called, the pot now has $48. I didn't want to bet too much to discourage the call. At this point, I'm putting him on like 66, 77, maybe 88, and maybe, very unlikely but 99 or A5.

*** RIVER *** [Js Jd 5h 8c] [Qs]
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage bets $97
basiccourse has 15 seconds left to act
basiccourse calls $97

The river bet was tough. I obviously made a boat and now I want to get max value. Based on what I had him on, only 88 would call a big bet. And I figured if he had 88, he will raise here so that won't be my concern. I want a guy with 77 or something to call me because he's convinced that I am trying to get him to fold. So I put in a fairly sizeable amount. I think the pot was about $115 and so I thought $97 was probably callable (it's the $9.99 is much cheaper than $10.00 mentality).

But what does he have to call 3 barrels from me?

*** SHOW DOWN ***
RecessRampage shows [Qh Jh] a full house, Jacks full of Queens
basiccourse mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot ($309) with a full house, Jacks full of Queens

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $312 | Rake $3
Board: [Js Jd 5h 8c Qs]

Seat 3: basiccourse mucked [8d 5d] - two pair, Jacks and Eights

Notice I got this guy to play a $300 pot with 8-5. And after this hand, I was able to bet out on safe looking flops where I didn't hit either and I got a lot more folds. Just another illustration of how mixing up your play is key.

3 comments:

Klopzi said...

Nice hand. I tend to overbet for value on the river. I'm sure this costs me a lot of value. I like the big bets, what can I say?

By the way, doesn't Full Tilt have the option to automatically rebuy for you built right into the GUI? Look under options and you should see something about the default buy-in that you'd like to bring to the tables (in BB). There is also a setting to have Full Tilt automatically top you up at the tables when your stack falls below a certain level.

Mind you, I haven't used either of these options yet. I'm not sure if they work as intended.

spritpot said...

the autorebuy feature in FT is the nuts. USE IT!

kurokitty said...

In his Little Green Book, Phil Gordon mentions that people who come out betting a paired flop usually doesn't have it. Combined with the Unabomber's theory of "Always bet your monsters," that makes for a pretty good pot. Well done.