Tuesday, September 7, 2010

what would you do? Jacks overpair vs. LAG picking on the the fish

Stuck between a rock and a hard place here.

Your converted hand, now with more cowbell.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em $0.10/$0.25 - 6 players

UTG: $17.79 No reads.
UTG+1: $30.22 39/26 after 23 hands. Has punished limpers once.
CO: $49.15
Button: $4.72
SB: $34.61
BB: $28.72 (Hero)

Preflop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with (6 players)
UTG raises to $0.50, UTG+1 raises to $1.85, CO calls $1.85, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.60, UTG calls $1.35
Minraise from an unknown player. The LAG raises it up right away. Then, for fun, the cutoff cold calls! Christ. I've got jacks and consider just shoving my chips in there. (maybe that's the best play). I call.


Flop: ($7.50) (4 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.25, UTG+1 raises to $3.37, CO folds,
UTG performs the dumbass donk move - he minbets. The LAG appropriately punishes him, which I expect him to do with his entire range. What do you do here? I've got only 23 hands on this guy, but I know he raises limpers, he has raised weak bets twice on this hand.


Hero does what.



Sure he could have a hand this time, but I've got evidence to the contrary
Hero raises to $26.87, and is all in
UTG folds
UTG+1 calls $23.50
Turn: ($61.49) (2 players)

River: ($61.49) (2 players)

UTG+1 showed , and won ($58.49) with three of a kind, Kings
Hero showed , and lost with a pair of Jacks
UTG+1 won $58.49
(Rake: $3)

Well kiss my ass. My read was wrong. LAGs can get kings too, I guess.

I felt really trapped on this hand - the donkey minbettor crouched down behind my legs and the LAG pushed me over backwards. They worked together to take my stack.



Another brutal night for me - I'm supposed to be better than going broke on one pair, but my HUD was telling me otherwise. Why have a HUD if you're not going to use it to refine your play?

This session was "taking a shot" at NL25. I'm not sure why I'm "taking a shot" when I'm in a huge variance/suckfest tailspin, but ok, I got stacked in 200 hands and then dropped back down to NL10. Things didn't go any better there either. AK top pair ran into a set which shouldn't have been there in a three bet pot (I don't call threebets to setmine - it's not profitable, but once again, if you're playing against me, it's apparently profitable).

The last straw on the night was my old friend pocket aces. Board came Kd 5h Kc. Since I lose every time I get aces, I checked this board behind. Then I checked a queen turn also. When a nine came on the river (final board Kd 5h Kc Qd 9s) and the villain shoved all his chips in the middle, I folded. I may have folded the best hand, or maybe he slowplayed KQ all the way to the river, I'll never know. The pot was tiny because nobody every bet after the flop. But by check/check/folding pocket aces, I told myself that I was not playing correctly, my mindset sucked, and it was time to come here and self-analyze my lousy play rather than keep playing.

Everything is backwards for me right now. If I play fast to protect a pair then I'm up against set. If I slow down and check a street for pot control, then someone catches up to me with a 6 outer. If I try and go with a read on my HUD to make a play, the crazian has a hand and I get burned that way.

1 comment:

The Poker Meister said...

Matt-

Why are you shoving the flop? What do you expect to accomplish by shoving? You need to think about what your bet is doing.

A few things to consider:

o If you think you're best, and you think UTG+1 is going to call with second-best or worse hands, then this is the correct play. Given 23 hands of history, I doubt you know enough about the player to say for certain that he will be calling a shove with A9, A3, A8, etc., or XX of clubs.

o Keep in mind that you're pretty close to a coin flip if he shows up with AQ,AK,KQ,JT of clubs (Stove says that you're a 45/55 DOG). Are you really getting value and/or forcing a fold from that range of hands? You're just going to be adding variance to your game.

o Maybe he actually has a legitimate hand. Remember: you only have 23 hands on him, and your hand is not the nuts.

Calling seems to be best here IMO. Re-evaluate on the turn. Can't say for certain that I'm folding when the Qh comes out on the turn, but I'm certainly not the one who's going to be putting my stack in the middle.

BTW: did you ever get coaching? I think I could help you with your online game. Let me know.