It was a pretty interesting session with some sticky situations. A couple of hands:
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $2(BB) Replayer Game#21379242094
SB ($200)
BB ($294)
UTG ($200)
UTG+1 ($200)
CO ($200)
Hero ($227)
Dealt to Hero Q♣K♠
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $7, call, call,
FLOP ($21) K♦J♥7♦
check, check, Hero bets $16.50, SB calls $16.50, BB folds,
TURN ($54) K♦J♥7♦T♠
check, check,
RIVER ($54) K♦J♥7♦T♠3♥
check, Hero bets $35, SB calls $35,
Hero shows Q♣K♠
(Flop 79.8%, Turn 88.6%)
SB shows A♣J♠
(Flop 20.2%, Turn 11.4%)
Hero wins $121
Villain is 17/15 after 27k hands. The key decision is the turn here: do we bet for value and protection or do we check it behind for pot control? I think it’s close but probably a check, here’s why: we have a hand with decent but not great showdownvalue on this board, because the turn makes a lot of 2 pairs possible and completes some straight draws. Those will often go for a check/raise and put us off our hand, and there aren’t a lot of worse hands that would call a turnbarrel except for maybe K9, but those aren’t in his range a lot preflop. So we check it back and once he checks the river it’s probably close between valuebetting and checking, but I think we can squeeze out some value out of a QJ or AJ hand.
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $2(BB) Replayer Game#21379539666
SB ($204)
BB ($37.75)
Hero ($218)
CO ($358)
BTN ($292)
Dealt to Hero T♣T♥
Hero raises to $7, call, fold, fold, call,
FLOP ($22) 4♥3♠5♣
BB bets $10, Hero raises to $30, CO calls $30, BB raises to $30.75, Hero calls $0.75, CO calls $0.75,
TURN ($114) 4♥3♠5♣6♦
Hero bets $70, CO calls $70,
RIVER ($254) 4♥3♠5♣6♦6♣
Hero bets $110, CO folds,
BB shows 8♣7♥
(Flop 19.5%, Turn 100.0%)
Hero shows T♣T♥
(Flop 80.5%, Turn 0.0%)
BB wins $112
Hero wins $140
This one was tricky: BB is a donk, CO a good TAG (21/18/3) with whom we’ve been tangling a bit in the session, mostly preflop. The flop is a clear raise because the donkbet from the fish doesn’t mean a lot and we probably still have the best hand. Mostly we are looking to get CO out of the hand and get heads up to maximize our equity. To our discontent, he calls, which makes the pot quite big on the turn. At that point things get difficult: do we bet to protect our hand or check/call? After my raise on the flop, most one-pair hands on the flop would’ve probably gone out, those that would’ve made 2 pair on the flop already could’ve flatted to slowplay. A random float with A high is possible but not very likely. He probably 3-bets JJ+ preflop so 66-99 is possible too. But his range here is so confusing I actually had no idea what he had, especially after I decide to fire the turn again and to my surprise, he calls again. However, he second 6 on the river is actually a good card because it gives us a higher 2 pair if he had like 45 or the like. At that point, the pot is too big to fold my overpair and if your plan is to check/call then you might as well bet yourself anyhow. He tanks for a very long time and finally folds. I asked in the chat what he had but unfortunately no answer
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $2(BB) Replayer Game#21378677268
SB ($170)
BB ($230)
Hero ($203)
UTG+1 ($346)
CO ($210)
BTN ($324)
Dealt to Hero A♣K♠
Hero raises to $7, fold, fold, fold, call, fold,
FLOP ($16) 7♥2♦4♥
check, Hero bets $12, SB calls $12,
TURN ($40) 7♥2♦4♥4♦
check, check,
RIVER ($40) 7♥2♦4♥4♦Q♣
check, Hero bets $54, SB folds,
Hero shows A♣K♠
Hero wins $38.05
Nothing really interesting until the river. Villain likely has some showdownvalue but after he checks it 3 times to us he probably isn’t very strong. The Q is kind of a scare card and since there’s no history, I decide to go for an overbet. This makes it very expensive for him to call down and creates a lot more fold equity. I would do this with a Q as well and he has to fear that he’s beat since overbets are so “in” these days with a strong hand on the river. It requires that you have no extensive history with Villain though: if he sees you doing it multiple times he might think about calling, but since that wasn’t the case and Villain is readless on me (therefore, doesn’t know with which hands I’m doing this with), I think it’s a good play. Credits to Tribun for this one, he came up with this.
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $2(BB) Replayer Game#21380272099
Hero ($369)
BB ($200)
UTG ($203)
UTG+1 ($253)
CO ($504)
BTN ($203)
Dealt to Hero A♥J♥
fold, fold, CO raises to $6, fold, Hero raises to $22, fold, call,
FLOP ($46) Q♥9♣7♥
Hero bets $33, CO calls $33,
TURN ($112) Q♥9♣7♥3♠
check, CO bets $62, Hero raises to $152, CO calls $90,
RIVER ($416) Q♥9♣7♥3♠8♦
check, CO bets $222, Hero folds,
CO wins $413
Final hand, which happened near the end of the session, was also interesting. Villain is 19/14/2 after 24k hands, opens up 25% from the CO. Therefore, this is a clear 3-bet with AJs. His fold to 3-bet is 57% so it’s not a really big surprise that he calls. Flop gives us nutflushdraw and one overcard, so we make a standard contibet. There’s also the possibility to check/raise because we are 185BB deep, but since this looks too much like the exact hand that I have, namely a draw, I decide to go for the standard cbet. He calls, turn bricks off. At that point he could be on a pure float, AQ, a rarely slowplayed KK-AA (think those would’ve 4-betted preflop because of the stacks), or 77-QQ. The hands with some showdownvalue will most likely check back on the turn, giving us a free card to hit our 12-outer. The floats and KK-AA will probably bet, most likely AQ will bet as well. But check/calling for our draw kind of sucks because we are OOP if we hit and might not get paid off, and an A might or might not be good for us. Therefore, based on handreading, a check/raise would be better than a second barrel because he will fold all floats and perhaps even a hand like KK-AA thinking I hit a set of Q’s. On the other hand, this makes the potsize on the river somewhat awkward relative to the stacksizes. As we see on the river after he calls, we can’t really bluff because our stack is too small, and after he calls the turn he is committing himself anyway. It sucks but there’s really no other option but to check/fold.
All in all, due to the last hand, I was down 50$, not a whole lot, just standard variance I guess. I think I played pretty well and hopefully you guys will be back next week. Thanks Tribun for an informative addition to the coaching.
