Question about Poker etiquette.

[The Holy Roller]

How do you figure. pocket aces, and one on the flop. I call that trips.

 

 

A set is when you have pocket pair and hit. Someplaces it's called a ninja cause you can't see it coming. Trips is when you have one card in your hand and two of the same come on the board. It's just semantics.

 

I still enjoy poker on-line but don't put nearly the hours/$$ into it. Too many players who play anything.

[The Holy Roller]

Though I'm enjoying the play on Bogdog, some of these idiots and their comments are laughable. Last night, I'm playing head to head with some guy ($30). Early in the game, I have a Str8 after the turn and there are two hearts on the board, I make a decent size bet of $400 (You start with $1,500), he ponders a bit and then calls. I notice that immediately AFTER the river is overturned (it is a 3rd heart), the guy writes in the chat window "C'mon heart !!!!" I've never seen someone do this, and I got immediately suspicious. He makes a big $500 bet, and I immediately raise, as I smell a rat. He folds, and writes "I'm so sick of playing with you f'n fish"

 

 

 

 

[Menudo]

I'm finding that when I play intelligently (i.e. sober), and patiently (i.e. watch something on t.v. or something while playing), I'm making some good money.

[Big Country]

How do you figure. pocket aces, and one on the flop. I call that trips.

 

 

To elaborate on Holy Roller's correct answer, a set is when you have the pocket pair and hit one on the flop, trips is when yo only hold one of the cards and two come on the board.

 

A set is considered much stronger as it is more of a hidden hand than trips. It is easier to get paid off with a set.

 

As Holy Roller said, it is semantics, and many people do use the terms interchangeably as three of a kind is three of a kind, but, when discussing the play of a hand, etc., it is an important distinction as the relative value of the hand is extremely different (a set, as noted, is a lot stronger than trips)

[Big Country]

SO, adding to my night on Bodog from the other day, was playing in a 6-max tourney. I've done well in these, winning it a couple times and final tabling quite a few.

 

Down to the final 9 players. I'm sitting on a stack of about $27K. The big stack, which was at the other table was at like 60K. At my table was a stack at 29K, one in the mid 30s, one around 10K and one at like 7K.

 

Blinds are at 1k/2k with a 100 ante I believe. The stack with 29K is the big blind, mid 30s is in small blind. I am on button. The 7K stack folds UTG, and the 9k stack pushes all in. I am on the button with JJ, with the two big stacks yet to act from the blinds. Average stack was right around the 30K mark.

 

Decision Point 1 - Do I call the 9K, or do I raise it?

 

I chose to raise and pushed all in. If this were a full 10 handed table, I may have just called, but we were playing a 6-handed tourney, and we had 5 at our table. The money bubble was at 18th place, so, as this was a $10 tourney, If I bust here I am looking at a $30 or so payday, not much, but 1st place pays over $250. My though process was that I don't want one of the larger stacks to call with a weak ace or two overcards getting 2 to 1. If they happen to have a pair bigger than me, that is just poor luck on my part, and if they call with a weaker hand than mine I am happy to do that. Right at the money bubble I had a rush of cards and had been raising a lot, and the short stack, the guy that folded UTG, had made a comment there about me raising a lot, thinking I wa ssimply doing it as we were at the bubble. Other than that, I had pretty much played this tourney striaght forward, rarely making any stone cold bluffs and actually only showing down maybe 10 hands to this point (4 or 5 of which were when I called or had pushed an opponent all-in, and in which I had been ahead every time)

 

The SB folds quickly, and the BB (with a 29K stack) uses up almost all of his time. He finally calls the 27K reraise by me. He had AK offsuit.

 

Question 2 - Given the action (small stack push for 5 BB, My reraise), would you call with an AK offsuit?

 

Turns out the 5BB guy had KK. So, main pot has 27K in it and I need to outrun KK and fend off an A to win it, side pot has 36K in it and I am in a race wit hthe AK for that.

 

Flop comes down something like 983 rainbow. Turn is the dreaded Ace. River is a blank. I got 7th place (guess the other table had knocked someone out as this hand went on, and, as I had a larger stack, I get the higher finish).

 

Had I won that hand, or, at least taken the side pot, I probably make the final table with a decent stack.

 

I'm interested to hear if any thoughts on other ways for me to play this hand. Should I have tried a stop n go? If I did try that, do I call preflop if the BB goes all-in?

 

I'm really interested in thoughts on this.

[Menudo]

SO, adding to my night on Bodog from the other day, was playing in a 6-max tourney. I've done well in these, winning it a couple times and final tabling quite a few.

 

Down to the final 9 players. I'm sitting on a stack of about $27K. The big stack, which was at the other table was at like 60K. At my table was a stack at 29K, one in the mid 30s, one around 10K and one at like 7K.

 

Blinds are at 1k/2k with a 100 ante I believe. The stack with 29K is the big blind, mid 30s is in small blind. I am on button. The 7K stack folds UTG, and the 9k stack pushes all in. I am on the button with JJ, with the two big stacks yet to act from the blinds. Average stack was right around the 30K mark.

 

Decision Point 1 - Do I call the 9K, or do I raise it?

 

I chose to raise and pushed all in. If this were a full 10 handed table, I may have just called, but we were playing a 6-handed tourney, and we had 5 at our table. The money bubble was at 18th place, so, as this was a $10 tourney, If I bust here I am looking at a $30 or so payday, not much, but 1st place pays over $250. My though process was that I don't want one of the larger stacks to call with a weak ace or two overcards getting 2 to 1. If they happen to have a pair bigger than me, that is just poor luck on my part, and if they call with a weaker hand than mine I am happy to do that. Right at the money bubble I had a rush of cards and had been raising a lot, and the short stack, the guy that folded UTG, had made a comment there about me raising a lot, thinking I wa ssimply doing it as we were at the bubble. Other than that, I had pretty much played this tourney striaght forward, rarely making any stone cold bluffs and actually only showing down maybe 10 hands to this point (4 or 5 of which were when I called or had pushed an opponent all-in, and in which I had been ahead every time)

 

The SB folds quickly, and the BB (with a 29K stack) uses up almost all of his time. He finally calls the 27K reraise by me. He had AK offsuit.

 

Question 2 - Given the action (small stack push for 5 BB, My reraise), would you call with an AK offsuit?

 

Turns out the 5BB guy had KK. So, main pot has 27K in it and I need to outrun KK and fend off an A to win it, side pot has 36K in it and I am in a race wit hthe AK for that.

 

Flop comes down something like 983 rainbow. Turn is the dreaded Ace. River is a blank. I got 7th place (guess the other table had knocked someone out as this hand went on, and, as I had a larger stack, I get the higher finish).

 

Had I won that hand, or, at least taken the side pot, I probably make the final table with a decent stack.

 

I'm interested to hear if any thoughts on other ways for me to play this hand. Should I have tried a stop n go? If I did try that, do I call preflop if the BB goes all-in?

 

I'm really interested in thoughts on this.

 

 

I have no real issue with how you played this and your explanation makes sense. However, I would have probably called the 9K all-in and waited to see what the blinds wanted to do. Depending how they played all game of course, you might have gotten a read on their hands based on what they did at that point. The A-K probably would have put out a solid raise, then you could have decided if you wanted to butt heads with him at that point. Those are my thoughts.

[alexgaddis]

I'm finding that when I play intelligently (i.e. sober), and patiently (i.e. watch something on t.v. or something while playing), I'm making some good money.

 

This was my downfall from online poker...

[Easy n Dirty]

On Decision Point #1, I agree with you 100%, I woulda' pushed all my chips there.

 

Decision Point #2 is much trickier - I'm in BB with A-K off, a small stack has gone all-in for 9k, and the button has gone all in over-the-top for 27k, which is essentially my entire stack, right? Sounds like his 29k was an average stack at this point in the tournament.

 

Man, that's a tough one. Alot depends on how you've been playing so far (the first guy is almost irrelevant to this decision IMO, he could be playing anything), and also on the prize structure. You've given us some info on both. You've been playing fairly solid in your estimation, but the table, or at least one guy at the table, thinks you've been stealing lately. And the reraise all-in after the first all-in looks like an attempt to isolate the small stack and therefore may not signify as strong a hand as an all-in might in other circumstances. That's pretty meaningful to me - you went all-in for 27k, but it's reasonable to think that you did so in the hopes that you're exposure was really only 9k. The two hands I really fear here are A-A and K-K of course - would you have played either of them the same way? Probably not, but not definitely.

 

I think I make a nervous call here with A-K, but it's very close, IMO.

[wildcat2334]

On Decision Point #1, I agree with you 100%, I woulda' pushed all my chips there.

 

Decision Point #2 is much trickier - I'm in BB with A-K off, a small stack has gone all-in for 9k, and the button has gone all in over-the-top for 27k, which is essentially my entire stack, right? Sounds like his 29k was an average stack at this point in the tournament.

 

Man, that's a tough one. Alot depends on how you've been playing so far (the first guy is almost irrelevant to this decision IMO, he could be playing anything), and also on the prize structure. You've given us some info on both. You've been playing fairly solid in your estimation, but the table, or at least one guy at the table, thinks you've been stealing lately. And the reraise all-in after the first all-in looks like an attempt to isolate the small stack and therefore may not signify as strong a hand as an all-in might in other circumstances. That's pretty meaningful to me - you went all-in for 27k, but it's reasonable to think that you did so in the hopes that you're exposure was really only 9k. The two hands I really fear here are A-A and K-K of course - would you have played either of them the same way? Probably not, but not definitely.

 

I think I make a nervous call here with A-K, but it's very close, IMO.

 

 

 

edit: plus it is BoDog, so you know that A will spike on the river.

 

 

 

 

agreed- I push all in with hooks on the button to try and isolate, no question.

 

2nd part- is tough, but in a short handed game, I call with the AK for a few reasons..... the 5k push is irrelevant, pretty good chance your move could be a position play, and short handed guys go all in with A(Q,J,10) as well as A rag all the frickin time. 5 handed, strong move by the button, dam right I am pushing all in with my AK from the BB.

Edited June 18, 2007 by wildcat2334