nl5 - KQo

Hello Philfox1985,

I don't like skipping the CB while even being in multiway pot. CB yourself the flop & turn while even being OOP and protect your hand.

Best Regards.

What am I protecting my hand against on this board?!

With top pair I can't really see 3 streets of value against worse, its not really a good enough hand to be committing most of my stack by showdown so if I bet flop & turn on river I'm block betting / checking hoping for a check back.

Originally posted by Philfox1985
What am I protecting my hand against on this board?!

With top pair I can't really see 3 streets of value against worse, its not really a good enough hand to be committing most of my stack by showdown so if I bet flop & turn on river I'm block betting / checking hoping for a check back.

1. JT/QJ/QT/78/76/68/Ax hands! Not enough?
2. BB is loose enough, we want to find out where we stand with our hand. The way you start to play it and if BU starts to Bet big time? What's your plan? You really planning to Call him down all the streets?

Agree with you, usually I would c-bet this flop and I think that I will again in the future.

Not sure on betting the turn though, I can't see a massive argument to be made on betting both, its one or the other for me, or drop the river bet. Ideally for me I would be happiest betting flop & river here to get value.

The reasoning is that there are not many hands in his range that can call two streets on the flop and turn. Those that can call will most likely beat us at showdown.

Since you asked though, on your questions:

1. Agree there are some hands, with some equity against us, but none of those has any more than 4 outs against us (unless I missed something).

2. I don't plan to bet or call all three streets, so ye I would have folded if he had pushed it hard enough with his hand.

By betting we also find that out where our hand stands. If the reg starts to raise big time on such a dry board then it's very likely that we are behind.

Agreed, it is certainly far harder to guage an opponents likely range without placing a bet or two yourself.

Been playing a bit less lately and taking some time to read a poker book or two. This is the first session I had played trying to incorporate some of the ideas / themes highlighted (most I was doing already but its good to be reminded why!).

One of the big themes is that its often a standard issue for new players, or maybe even fairly experienced that hands like AK / KQ that can hit top pair often win the small pots, but lose the bigger ones if / when all the chips go in. The key lesson being to attempt to control the pot size according to the strength of the holding.

Thoughts on this, I assume you see millions of AK hands where hero busts for their stack vs straight / set?!

Yep, people just overplay AK hands or any TP type of hands. That's why I am just securing the easiest way to play it. Maybe I am at some point harsh at you but don't be offended, I am taking it usually in good way. At least mostly trying to be friendly but if I see something really stupid then I take more aggressive approach. ♦ So far you have done really great job and I am pretty sure you have seen progress in your own game as well.

Ye its a big picture that is slowly starting to come together. Given I have now played 30,000 hands and probably had half of them reviewed by you, it should be the case ;-)

For most players (myself included) having 100 BB's is actually too many to play properly when they move to cash games. Too much scope to make a really big mistake, and very likely given many players are likely used to playing ashort stack style initially, or at least I was as I switched from playing SnG's.