Some leaks I think that need fixing. *WVBilly**HINT*

Ok guys this may be quite a longish post so I would really appreciate it if you could read answer them all in as easy as I have listed them.

The hands may well be straight forward to you guys but I tend to struggle sometimes folding pre-flop because of the limits I'm at and the massive range you can expect to be raised from.

I'm struggling with several hands which may be classed as marginal. A,Q os/A,J os,/K,Q os/ K,J os A,10os and so on. You get what I'm getting at and I'll give you some examples. Also the same applies if they are suited and maybe gives the hand more value.

1: So, for early position the standard raise PF with any of the Ace above, correct? Now, when I'm re-raised are you always putting the hand down in early position? Would you keep hold of these hands if you have position?

2: I think I'm losing a lot of money with these hands although most are showing profit, if I'm re-raised and it's not by much I tend to call then If my top pair hits and there s action I'm sometimes dropping my hand due to the kicker and assuming they have a better kicker. Is this the correct thing to do and shouldn't I have called to start with? If you're wondering why I'm calling it is because in many cases you are raised with sometimes even worse hands. I guess if it's suited I SHOULD be calling, or again not?

3:Is the theory correct just play as tight as possible? I see most "winning" players not just plays standard tight poker and limping or raising with suited connectors and sometimes hitting the nuts or just out playing their opponent. I've tried this with some success sometimes but any scared card and I'm always assuming they have it!

4: Kings!!! The dreaded kings and so on. If I raise or am raised first and then I fire again most often or not they will flat call. Now this leads me to the conclusion they don't have Aces but again if the scary ace falls most often or not I'm thinking most people wouldn't call a re-raise with garbage (I say most times ) So if this dreaded Ace drops, I still bet out and If I'm being called I have to slow down because I'm guessing they have anything from Ace/King to Ace/Rag. Is this the correct approach? Because I will then get bet at and its like arrrrg what do I do??

5:Queens!!! Again another not so nice hand. If I raise and flat called most of the time I'm expecting Ace/King or some order and rag. Now if any flop, am I just betting out again and aggresively? The problem is most people don't even think of Kicker at this level so if they catch their Ace/King and I'm betting they won't think "ok he has the highest card and probarly highest kicker so I'm letting the hand go" How do you approach this ??

6: Pocket middle pairs from early/mid/late position. I've read different ways on playing these and I tend to raise from late position if there are several limpers but just limp in early position, am I doing this correctly? Or should I raise like I have a top pair?

Finally, I think I've missed some stuff but there's that much going through I can't think of what they are. I think this is where my most flaws are coming from. I hate raising, then flat calling a re-raise. I feel dominated and often fold even if I hit top pair in fear of a higher kicker as I've stated but I don't see how I can win consistently not playing these rather "good" hands which they are good compared to the other junk. I like to be the aggressor and sometimes it works, however a lot of the time I'm losing big pots with these cards but I can't play a game of poker and just playing pocket pairs all day long.

EDIT I forgot to ask. middle pairs I most often call a raise if it isn't much, should I be doing this hoping to hit those trips or overtime am I losing money to these for the times I'm folding postflop? If so then surely there are some pocket pairs that I should be playing apart from Aces/Kings/Queens/Jacks if raised.

Is this FR or 6-max?

and your playing 5NL right?

sorry, but youre probably going to get a lot of "it depends"

Just read through quickly and will post later but one piece of advice I will give you while starting out. NEVER call a 3 bet out of position!! If you think you are ahead of his range, 4 bet. If you think you are behind fold.

Sorry. This is FR, I was playing 6 max but I'm trying FR now! Just playing between the both.

Yeah 5NL mainly.

I know it sounds ridiculous to call a 3bet. The thing is, I tend to notice that a lot of a hands are raised anyway and it means I'd only be playing Aces/Kings..I'm sure a lot of the time they will call a 3bet with J,Q or 10,J for example just because they are holding a picture card. Thats why I think I'm calling a lot just to "see".

EDIT: If I'm 3bet I'm never calling with those hands by the way..

At FR without knowing that a villain is 3betting way too much, you should be folding all those hands you asked about.

Really? Where is the money then? What I mean with this is that you can't just win playing your aces/kings etc. You see people who are winning and doing well playing alsorts, like the hands I mentioned. What do you play Billy? FR or 6max? Also, what about middle pairs? Are you calling raises with them? Here is one example of a hand just now. How would you of played this? (I folded by the way with postion) For all I knew this could of just been A/K...I really don't know. Sometimes I just call down just to see which is daft I know but some people play their middle pairs like their top pairs so its so difficult to put them on anything. Was this hand played wrong from the go? How do I approach these situations, unless I'm hitting a set then most of the time I'm folding meaning I'm probarly losing lots of money! Meaning, what the hell, how on earth do you play middle pairs? It's like hit a set or nothing.


PokerStars Game #54375435920: Hold'em No Limit ($0.02/$0.05 USD) - 2010/12/16 23:59:39 WET [2010/12/16 18:59:39 ET]
Table 'Binomi III' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: ramdeebam ($5 in chips)
Seat 3: gorguita07 ($5 in chips)
Seat 4: dominicmn ($2.44 in chips)
Seat 5: XoXa%7 ($3.64 in chips)
Seat 6: Shogunmarkus ($12.37 in chips)
Seat 7: vitya100 ($3.31 in chips)
Seat 8: kkh0r ($5 in chips)
Seat 9: andres358 ($8.73 in chips)
Shogunmarkus: posts small blind $0.02
vitya100: posts big blind $0.05
fabianeys: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ramdeebam [Ts Td]
kkh0r: raises $0.10 to $0.15
andres358: folds
ramdeebam: calls $0.15
gorguita07: folds
dominicmn: folds
XoXa%7: folds
Shogunmarkus: folds
vitya100: folds
*** FLOP *** [6h 2c 6s]
kkh0r: bets $0.20
ramdeebam: calls $0.20
*** TURN *** [6h 2c 6s] Q♣
kkh0r: bets $0.55
ramdeebam: folds
Uncalled bet ($0.55) returned to kkh0r
kkh0r collected $0.74 from pot
kkh0r: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $0.77 | Rake $0.03
Board [6h 2c 6s Qc]
Seat 2: ramdeebam folded on the Turn
Seat 3: gorguita07 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: dominicmn folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: XoXa%7 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Shogunmarkus (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: vitya100 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: kkh0r collected ($0.74)
Seat 9: andres358 folded before Flop (didn't bet)


EDIT: Ok. I want your opinions on high pocket pairs too please Billy. I promise I'll stop harassing you soon.lol.If you hold Kings/Queens/Jacks and the board isn't dangerous and there's no overcards yet they are betting heavy. Either they have higher pair or set, how would you determine this?

I don't think you understand what I mean. If you open say AQo from MP that's good. But if someone behind you 3bets you need to fold basically 100% of the time.

So flat calling in poker is basically a no no even with a rather good hand? I know and understand what you're saying BUT you always most of the time get action between at least 2 players. Therefore one is cold calling incorrectly all the time even if they are winning players? Or is that if they have reads or something. so very confusing this stuff..

What about middle pocket pairs how do you play them agaisnt raises?

Flat calling when out of position is a bad thing because you cannot control the pot size and have to act first on each street. Players who do this routinely don't understand the concept of position in NLHE. It is the potential threat of an opponent raising or re-raising OR taking a free card to draw out on you if you check that puts an OOP player at a disadvantage. That is why I advocate only playing the very best opening hands from Early Position.

You can sometimes call in position, one example would be against a nitty player who has a narrow opening range and who will stack off with overpairs and TPTK. In that case you can call a reasonable raise with a small pp for set value. Another example of calling in position would be a very loose Aggressive player who open raises a very wide range and stacks off with top pair and 2nd or 3rd kicker. Against these players calling with small pps would be worthless but calling with AK and some suited connectors you could easily stack your opponent. One other example would be a maniac/bully who tries to steamroller anyone who doesn't fight back but folds to 3bets easily and looks for easier victims. Against these players you would be better off flat calling with AA KK QQ and letting them hang themselves instead of allowing them to fold and not pay the price for opening wide and hammering each street regardless of board texture or their hole cards.

There is a big difference between calling a raise and calling a 3 bet. At these stakes some people do raise with crap but 95% of the time if they 3 bet they are doing it with JJ+ AK. Against such a tight range the hands that you mentioned are absolute rubbish and if we do hit our top pair they can get us into a lot of trouble as the pot is already quite large and our villain will quite often want to get stacks in asap.

For both of these, when you FR cash with 100BB buy-ins you usually want to treat these as WA/WB situations.

When you have position, don't cbet, and check call your way to the river, depending on the opponent and the bet sizes.

The reasoning is that you'll be able to extract cash from bluffs, but it's very unlikely you'll get an A to fold, especially in a 3bet pot where you range mostly consists of big pairs, though possibly AK. When you cBet the flop, you get called by Ax hands, but fold out all smaller pairs you have beat.

If you watch the pros on TV, you'll notice the typical line with KK on a A-high flop is check flop, call a turn bet, call or fold (those usually fold) to a large river bet.