Saturday, August 28, 2010

Butchered

Don't stack off on a pair, they say. Good idea. Tonight I had a good session with the exception of this hand (which was worse than a stacking off - 150 big blinds down the toilet). I'm fucking hopeless out of position.

Milked from the teat of a feral cow
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 6 players

CO: $15.41
Button: $11.11
SB: $5.50
BB: $15.10 (Hero)
UTG: $9.37
UTG+1: $8.99

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with (6 players)
2 folds, CO calls $0.10, Button calls $0.10, SB calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.60, CO calls $0.50, Button calls $0.50, SB folds
Punish those limpers. They must be masochists - they both call.

Flop: ($1.90) (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.60, Button calls $0.60, Hero raises to $2.50, CO calls $1.90, Button folds
I checkraise top/top, and get a customer. Dangerous territory. I have no reads for him, so once he calls, I've got him on a worse ace, a club draw, or a hand that beats me (sets and A7/A4).

Turn: ($7.50) (2 players)
Hero bets $4, CO calls $4
Protecting like hell against the flush draw, and/or getting value from a worse ace.

River: ($15.50) (2 players)
Hero bets $8, and is all in, CO calls $8
Well, here I am in no man's land, with half a pot sized bet left. Is there a worse spot in poker?

If I check, he'll put me all in anyway and I'll probably have to call with good odds. That's probably the best play - checking allows him to bet bluffs/busted clubs that wouldn't call a bet anyway, or worse aces that suddenly think they're good.

I'm not thinking that clearly at the moment, though. I decide to put the money in and hope for ace-queen or worse...

CO showed , and won ($29.50) with three of a kind, Sevens
Hero showed , and lost with two pair, Aces and Sevens
CO won $29.50
(Rake: $2)

The dreaded combo-draw - a pair AND a flush draw that tripped up on the river. I'm not nearly good enough to read a hand to get that specific. When I saw the seven on the river, I thought "can't be many sevens in his range, that looks like a blank". It wasn't.

Ace-king is killing me this month, (so is AA and QQ for that matter). But those are unlucky - this hand is just plain butchered. You don't want to stack off with one pair, but how do you pot control when you're out of position? Do you check/call, check/call, check/call all the way down like a pussy and let the flush get there at his price? His pair+draw was a small favorite on the flop, but my TPTK has to be a favorite against his entire range, doesn't it? So against his range, I'm value betting all the way down.

I would like some advice on fixing my play here, if you have any. How do you play this hand once the flop comes?

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