[Closed] .25/.50 Fr

1)
Use the preflop aggressor for your advantage. With an Ace of hearts i will go for value here: check and hope that BU bets and somebody else calls so you can raise but with your baby flush draw i prefer to win the hand without a showdown

So you bet and hope that BU will raise with his overcards so BB and MP will face 2 bets to call.

Try to isolate yourself against the preflop aggressor in this case. Often this play increases your outs from 9 to 15 (6 more for every 4 and 5) You see you get into a miserable situation on the turn you have your flushdraw but also a tiny pot and now you bet with your drawing hand into 3 opponents on a board that doesn't look very dangerous a lot of smaller pocket pairs and also medium overcards like QT or QJ/JT will call here. Plus MP1 is almost all in.

2)
Again you have a baby flush draw but this time on a complete different board.
Betting the flop here is excellent. Small to medium pocket pairs will often fold directly on the flop but almost every face card will call here. This board ofters so many draws that you will get a lot of callers. But our plan is not only to try to get someone to fold on the flop we also want to take a freecard on the turn.

I know that our default line for basic moves on the flop in an unraised pot is to bet the flop against 2 opponents and to bet the turn again if one of them folded but not with that board, someone who called the flop will often call the turn here, too.

Another advantage about a check behind is that it often induces a bluff from our opponent. So if we make our draw we get some extra value versus draws on the river but we also get some extra value versus made hands who will often play bet/call on the River.

3)
Preflop: A call with JT is no mistake. According to the SHC of course this is a fault but you made the right play here, defending your BB.

Side Note: We are working on some beginners/intermediates BB defence articles at the moment that will help you to defend your BB

Postflop: Excellent play - a good situation for a semi-bluff.

4)
Nice flop raise again - raise or fold here but i like the raise.
And then this strange turn. A typical example for a donk bet. His bet here makes no sense at all and by the way, i hate these situations.

Most of the time something like this will happen:
Secnario1: Villain plays check-fold
Scenario2: Villain playes check-raise and we have an easy fold.
Scenario3: Villain plays check/call and we can easly check behind or perhaps make thin value bet on the river.

Most of the time this could mean 3 different things:

1) "I am an idiot and i hope to win the pot here with this bet although you raised me on the flop" -> a bluff with overcards.

2) "I made my monster with my pocket eights and hope that you will raise me here with your A9 so that i can get 3bet the turn."

3) "I hit my A8" (althoug we can't put him on A8 according to the preflop action) only if we know he is a LAG.

So lets see what our options are:

Option1: raise the turn - fold to a 3bet - check behind on the river if he bets - fold to another donbet on the river.

Option2: just call the turn - check behind on the river - and fold to another bet on the river.

Option3: fold turn. (with a 7.5 BB pot at least a call should be one of our options, because we will face a bluff with overcards here often enough that we can easily call plus a subsequent check behind on the turn)

Perhaps i will hand in the exact mathematics later but by just looking at the hand option 2 would be the best option here. Although it seems a bit weak i don't want to invest 2 BB's into this hand but the donkbet is strange enough to call it and hope that he won't bluff the river again. Although Option2 could be interesting too.

5)
Its close but i would play bet/fold on the flop. No need to get trapped into a hand starting like this. The problem i see that we can't give us a lot of implied odds here. we could also play against KJ, QT, A9 so we don't have 6 clean outs. Plus the games at 0.25/0.5 are most of the time quite straight forward.

6)
nice one

Best regards,
Stefan

This is great feedback, Stefan. If this is the standard you guys are now going to deliver, we will all be experts very soon. ♦

1) Yes, I understand something about isolation play, but still need to know more. This and the next hand are great learning examples for me.

2) And here, as you say, my flop bet is good. I understood that if anyone was going to call here, they probably connected with the high cards, meaning a turn flush card would be a likely winner for me. I missed the other point, getting a free card, meaning a check fold on the unimproved river, saving me a bet. Also, a check/call on the river if I made my hand, the bluff induce, as you point out.

3) I was happy with this one. Winning a hand on potential alone, without having to show. It is quite possible it was not the best hand, which feels good. Regarding the point of protecting blinds, sometimes it is very obvious, but what are the general rules?

4) By the time I came to post this hand, I could no longer remember who won, which made it easier to analyse. I like my play here, but definitely confusing after the turn. In the end, I just wanted it to be done, because this kind of play can be very distracting, and break concentration, and ruin objectivity for other hands too.

5) Yes, I agree in hindsight, bet/fold the flop. Too much stress otherwise, for no return. It may be better even to check/call hands like this. Often the opponent will automatically raise even if they have nothing, meaning a lost bet every time under the bet/fold scenario. Check/call would get to see the turn, for the same cost.

6) Good.

2) check/call on the river? you are in position so often after you check behind on the turn they will bet and you can raise when you made your flush so bet/raise on the river with the made flush

5) a check/call on the flop never lets you win the pot especially not out of position. So bet this flop is a no brainer. This only has to work one out of four times.
But i am not so sure after reviewing this hand about the bet/fold. In shorthanded games on my limit this is a no brainer call on the flop and turn but i am always a bit confused with these low limit Full Ring games. When i played 0.25/0.5 i remember the plays where quite straight forward.
So lets say we are playing against top pair. We have 6 outs on the flop so we need 1 to 7 pot odds. But we only have 1 to 6.4 here. But if we make our hand on the flop most of the time we will get another bet on the turn so its close but i think we can call the flop raise. So but in a full ring game I fold the turn here because our pot odds are not ok anymore.