Running Good in Cash Games These Days

[spain]

I have been running really really well in NL Holdem cash games lately. I have been slipping down to Tunica the past few weeks to play in the $2/$5 games and have just been on fire. Last night I went to the Grand and got on the list. Finally, a spot opened up on a $1/$2 table so I took it. I much prefer the $2/$5 NL game because the pots get ALOT bigger and there is more money on the table to win, but the casino was packed and I figured I just wanted to play. Bought in for $500 and cashed out for over $1k. I lost a few hands and got completely bluffed out of a $150 pot with top pair bad kicker, to a guy who had 7 high. But I have really been in the zone for a while now.

 

Here is a hand for you to critique my play. I am BB and have KQo. 4 limpers. I consider popping it up but this table is wild and people will limp/re-raise all in with big pockets. Anyway, I check. Flop comes 9s 10s Jd. I flop the nuts but have no part of the flush draw. First player, fairly solid but a little tilted after being felted twice in 2 hours, bets $20(standard post flop bet at this table). 2nd player, the calling station who bluffed me out of the above referenced pot, smooth calls. 3rd player who is VERY AGRESSIVE and the guy I have been targeting for a while pops it to $50. SB folds, leaving the action to me. Here is the question: How much do you raise this hand to protect your hand, but also to get maximum value? Again there was ~$10 in the pot preflop and now there is another $90 on this round for a total of ~$100 in the middle when its your turn. What do you bet and why?

[Sam]

I'd probably just call and slow play the hand....but I'm not really that good of a poker player.

[Scourge]

Pop it up to $150. If someone chases the flush with those pot odds, so be it. If you get a caller and the turn is anything but a spade. Push.. I am not the best poker player, but that is how I would play it. With that much action, I would think the chances of someone having spades are decent.

[Easy n Dirty]

Here is a hand for you to critique my play. I am BB and have KQo. 4 limpers. I consider popping it up but this table is wild and people will limp/re-raise all in with big pockets. Anyway, I check. Flop comes 9s 10s Jd. I flop the nuts but have no part of the flush draw. First player, fairly solid but a little tilted after being felted twice in 2 hours, bets $20(standard post flop bet at this table). 2nd player, the calling station who bluffed me out of the above referenced pot, smooth calls. 3rd player who is VERY AGRESSIVE and the guy I have been targeting for a while pops it to $50. SB folds, leaving the action to me. Here is the question: How much do you raise this hand to protect your hand, but also to get maximum value? Again there was ~$10 in the pot preflop and now there is another $90 on this round for a total of ~$100 in the middle when its your turn. What do you bet and why?

 

 

You didn't say it, but I'm assuming you checked after the flop and now the action has come back around to you. There's $100 in the pot, it's $50 to you, and there are still 2 callers yet to act, as well as the raiser himself.

 

I think it's reasonable to assume that one of the other three is on a spade draw, so I think you need to bet enough to make it a bad call for that player, this pot is big enough to take down right now IMO (50 big blinds). The flush draw is 4-to-1 against to hit their flush on the next card. I'm ignoring their chances of hitting it on the river because we're gonna' make it plenty expensive for them if they miss the turn...though I must say that I'm not certain if that's the right way to look at this situation.

 

A raise to $150 would raise the pot to $250 total. The initial bettor and the smooth caller would then need to call $130, so they'd be getting about 2-to-1, not nearly enough to justify calling with a flush draw. If those two fold, then the raiser now needs to call $100 into a pot of $250, so he's getting 5-to-2, still not enough. So $150 makes it a bad call for anyone on a flush draw, but might be too high ($125 accomplishes the same thing, giving the raiser 3-to-1 assuming 2 folds in front of him). On the other hand, if one of the first two were to make a bad call (maybe with J-Q, or worse yet trips, although trips seems very unlikely here, as does an overpair), and if the raiser is the one on the flush draw, he'd be just about priced in at that point (calling $100 into a pot of $380, very close to his required 4-to-1 odds). So while the $150 seems a little high on the one hand, it's not outrageously so I don't think.

 

Alot depends on how the table has been playing, and especially on how the super aggressive player has been playing - what's the likelihood that he's raising with garbage, or with a straight draw as opposed to the spade draw? Our worst case scenario is that the raiser is the one on the spade draw - but given that you've told us that he's super aggressive (meaning that raise on a spade draw fits), and given that the pot is already reasonably large, I think you play this hand as if it's the worst case scenario, and bet enough to price out that guy. I raise to $150, maybe even $175 if the super aggressive guy has also shown a tendency to chase.

 

'Course these questions are alot easier when you have the luxury of time and a paper and pencil.

[TimC]

This exact hand happened to me. Guy before me called with A-Q and hit the K on the turn.

 

With a 3-card straight like (9-10-J) on the board, I'm trying to get rid of any open-end straight draws quickly. I pop it to at least $100 now.

 

You can get cute and call with more hidden straights (you have 6-8 and the board is 5-7-9 for example) to extract the maximum, but I don't with a board like you have.

[wildcat2334]

Spain

 

I think you should bail on yer redneck lifestyle down in Nashville. Take a hiatus from yer job and give the World Series a go............ Seriously- have the ole lady watch yer kids and go give Vegas a shot next year for a few months-

 

If yer as quick in person as in da Huddle- you can make a name for yerself, get on tv with some classic comments- who knows........ the next Hachem? DN? Hellmuth??maybe Norman Chad?

 

I think you missed yer calling.............

[Big Country]

Point of clarification.

 

You state you are the BB, but on the flop you state that the first player bets $20. Does this mean that the SB and you both checked and then the first player that called preflop is the opener here?

 

But, skipping that for now, there is $100 in the pot, with it being 50 to you to call with two playters behind already in for $20 and another in for $50. I think a pot sized raise is neccessary here. Your call brings the pot to 150, so a raise of an additional 100-150 is in order (making it 150-200) total. Depends how big your stack is though.. if you only have 300 or so left, then I probably push because anyone that calls your raise here will have odds to call when you push on the turn.. and you wouldn't be left with enough to not push on the turn.

 

If you have a big stack and the opponents do to, then definitely the raise to 150-200, with the intention of betting 3/4 of the pot to the pot on the turn if it is not a spade or does not pair the board, as you are hoping to stack your opponent at that point if they are still on a draw or have a set or two pair.

[spain]

Ok, here was my thought process. First, both the SB and I checked. I knew for a fact that at least 1 of the 3 folks behind me would bet out. But I got a bettor, caller, and a raiser behind me and then the SB folded. I go into the tank for a bit, knowing I am going to raise this bad boy up, but not sure just how much. I put Player 1, the initial bettor, on just trying for a steal attempt of maybe having a small piece of the flop. More likely he has a piece of it since this is a dangerous board, so an outright steal attempt is unlikely. Player 2 is a typical calling station and he just called Player 1's bet. I cant put him on anything but am not concerned about him and basically ignore him in my thought process. Player 3 is the guy I have been targeting and I believe that I have found my spot. He is a LAG and will raise with any 2 cards. I actually was impressed by some of his plays, yet this is the type player who is typically vulnerable to my style.

 

So, to put him on a hand I go through my normal process of elimination. I know he doesnt have a set or the ass end of the straight or else he would have raised it alot more than essentially a minimum raise. His bet tells me that he wouldnt mind a caller or two behind him but wants more money in the pot if he wins it. His bet is screaming to me that he is drawing to the flush(although he could be drawing to the straight as well although that would not be a good way to play a straight draw imo). I convince myself now that he has the flush draw. Good! I have his hand pegged, now how much too bet. There is $100 out there. I have ~$500 chips and he has ~$350. He likes to gamble and will definitely take risks to see if he can hit. But I want him to make a big mistake here and pay too much for the pot odds to justify a call. I dont think he will call off all of his chips as an all in bet by me will let him know that I have the nuts and it could scare him off.

I finally settle on a number and announce my raise, "I'll make it $200 to go" and push out 2 red stacks. He will need another $150 to make the call, only giving him 2 to 1 on his money, when the odds of hitting his flush are 38 to 9. That is a clear fold situation for me, but not for a LAG. The other two players fold. And now he goes into the tank.

 

After a couple minutes of him stacking and re-stacking chips, he reluctantly calls me. But as he was thinking I let him see that I had him covered. And wanted him to make the connection that if he called this bet now, he would have to call off all of his chips on the turn if his flush didnt get there. I dont think he got that far in his thinking process to be real honest. The turn pairs the board with another 10. I immediately push all in and he folds. Then he flips over the Q8o. He had flopped a weaker straight than mine and was drawing to a 3 outter! I have no idea why he played his hand that way. If I had the ass end of the straight in his position, I would have raised to $100 to see where I was at. if I got raised then I probably muck. That board was dangerous. He told me that he thought I had a set! I said, "if you thought I flopped a set, why didnt you push all in?" With his hand I think his only options were to fold or to go all in. You simply cant call in that spot. Personally, if I were him, I would have gone over the top all in. But he smooth called and the 10 on the turn saved him $150 because he thought I had filled up my boat. Fun hand and a decent pot but it reminded me that you can never know what somebody elses thought processes are. And I obviously not only had him on the wrong hand, but had misjudged his call completely. I do think that if he had played the hand correctly, he would have either lost $100 or he would have gotten stacked!

Edited April 6, 2007 by spain

[spain]

Spain

 

I think you should bail on yer redneck lifestyle down in Nashville. Take a hiatus from yer job and give the World Series a go............ Seriously- have the ole lady watch yer kids and go give Vegas a shot next year for a few months-

 

If yer as quick in person as in da Huddle- you can make a name for yerself, get on tv with some classic comments- who knows........ the next Hachem? DN? Hellmuth??maybe Norman Chad?

 

I think you missed yer calling.............

 

Funny you should say that. My wife loves me to play poker because I split my winnings with her. She actually suggested that I try to make a career of playing cards I am clearly not good or experienced enough to do this for a living. But I can successfully grind out decent hourly earnings at a $2/$5 cash game. But I dont want it to be a job as I enjoy doing it. And I am always the one person at the table who keeps everything stirred up!

[rocknrobn26]

Funny you should say that. My wife loves me to play poker because I split my winnings with her. She actually suggested that I try to make a career of playing cards I am clearly not good or experienced enough to do this for a living. But I can successfully grind out decent hourly earnings at a $2/$5 cash game. But I dont want it to be a job as I enjoy doing it. And I am always the one person at the table who keeps everything stirred up!

 

 

Good points! As an OLD GAMBLER I know that the cards (luck, dice, numbers,etc) WILL change and usually for the worse! Unlike Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, etc., there is no house advantage in Poker. But there is luck! If you get crappy cards, you may be able to play them for awhile, but you will be doomed. Sure some people have this aura around them, but most just ride a wave and then eventually get killed.

A friend of mines son is "SOOOOOO GOOD" that he wants to become a professional poker player! Someone aught to slap him back to reality.

Bottom line:

Keep your day job! If you can score a few hondos...GREAT! But bank it, don't rely on it. Eventually the tides will turn. I speak from experience. And if I had a credo it would be......

"Gamble what you can afford to lose!". No more or less. Protect the mortgage, gas bill, etc..

:getsoffpedestalandiscontrite:

rr26

 

PS: This is NOT aimed at you Spain, but more or less the younger crowd. Easy money could happen, but just workin' for it works better.