Hand play advise needed

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dhandhana

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I am a regular reader of this forum and have been frustrated the way poker is played by players. So i eagerly joined to hear what you guys say about this hand.

Its a cash game blinds are $0.5- $1

I am at UTG with pocket 99s, and i limped coz most of the players are passive players, they hardly raise.

One loose passive player raises from middle position to $12 and button and small blind calls.

I raise it to $45 and everybody calls,I never expected that all three would call preflop, button is a loose aggresive player and i knew button would call, raiser also called and
small blind calls by saying its a value call for him.
Flop comes 952 all spades

I hit my top set on the flop and have a stack of about $250 behind in to a $180 pot.

Small blind checks immediately
I checked back (i know i should bet my set but for some reason i didnt like the way small blind checked instantly)

Raiser checked
Button checked

Turn card comes a brick with no spade no paired board

Small blind now leads out $90 in to a pot of $180 and i called after thinking for few seconds. (I still have a doubt why he is raising here)
Ciuld not kept him on a hand, its a loose table, he can even bet a pair of 5 in this board, or ace high flush draw. So i flat called to get more value, he was out of position for me.

Everybody else folds

River is a ace of diamonds and now villain checks

I am thinking for 10 seconds why he checked now so based on how he played i kept him on ace of spades (but why he checked on river, i could not wait. )
Could not let this value bet go in vain by checking behind, so i went all in with $160 in to a pot of $360 and villain snap calls

Villain shows Q5 of spades


So my question here is what i did wrong and how can i improve my play in this hand?

How else this hand could have been played?

Tryst me i really appreciate you reading this post and responding to it.

It will help me playing better with this villain in future!

Thanks
 
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Dorugremon

Dorugremon

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Where to begin? This hand is so screwed up.

Its a cash game blinds are $0.5- $1

I am at UTG with pocket 99s, and i limped coz most of the players are passive players, they hardly raise.

Mistake #1) Why are you open limping out of the #1 hole in a game filled with passive, cally players who seldom raise? Here, I would have popped it for whatever is the game standard open. You can take down the dead money uncontested, and that's always a good thing. You also force them into straight forward play: get called and you can be pretty sure you're the best. Get 3-bet and it's an easy fold. Not sacrificing my fold equity here, especially out of the #1 hole.

One loose passive player raises from middle position to $12 and button and small blind calls.

I raise it to $45 and everybody calls,I never expected that all three would call preflop, button is a loose aggresive player and i knew button would call, raiser also called and
small blind calls by saying its a value call for him.
You said it's a loose, passive game with very little raising, and now MP opens pretty stiff, obviously trying to punish an open limper (you) the BTN and SB come along for the ride. Given the nature of the players, I'd be highly inclined to drop it. It looks all too likely someone finally picked up a hand.

You repop and get called in two places. Now, I would really start worrying: limp-repop just screams aces or kings, and yet these weak passives are still calling.

Flop comes 952 all spades

I hit my top set on the flop and have a stack of about $250 behind in to a $180 pot.

Small blind checks immediately
I checked back (i know i should bet my set but for some reason i didnt like the way small blind checked instantly)

Raiser checked
Button checked
Normally, I would bang in a pot-sized or near pot-sized bet OTF. All too many players freeze up when they see a monotone board and they don't have any of it. There are 13 spades in the deck, and three of them are on board, leaving 10 left over.

10C2= 45

There are just 45 combinations that will give someone a flopped flush. In practice, there are even less than that since the 45 include such things like (Ts,2s) (Js,3s) (5s,2s) etc -- lots of trash hands that should be thrown away without a second thought even for one BB.

Given the profile of this game, how the action went pre, I would try to play this one out as cheaply as possible. Maybe you lose some value to an overpair, but you also avoid getting stacked if one of them has spades in the hole.

Turn card comes a brick with no spade no paired board. Small blind now leads out $90 in to a pot of $180 and i called after thinking for few seconds. (I still have a doubt why he is raising here)
Ciuld not kept him on a hand, its a loose table, he can even bet a pair of 5 in this board, or ace high flush draw. So i flat called to get more value, he was out of position for me.
This doesn't make any sense at all. Previously, you said you were suspicious of SB's lightening check OTF. Now, he's leading out despite the brick that just rolled off. If SB's planned c/r failed, now he's trying to make up for that lost value. If his check was a slow play, then mission accomplished! If I was planning on calling his turn lead, it would depend on how much he left behind, and whether he could stuff it in despite a paired board.

"...he can even bet a pair of 5 in this board, or ace high flush draw".

Then why didn't you jam it right then and there? If he can bet a pair of fives, he can call with a pair of fives. If he's pulling to the As, then why did you allow him to realize his equity? You've given him a relatively cheap draw to the nuts here. That point is moot since you should have folded a long ways back.

Everybody else folds

River is a ace of diamonds and now villain checks

I am thinking for 10 seconds why he checked now so based on how he played i kept him on ace of spades (but why he checked on river, i could not wait. )
Could not let this value bet go in vain by checking behind, so i went all in with $160 in to a pot of $360 and villain snap calls

Villain shows Q5 [What did he really show? You said the 5s was on the board. If the vill really had (Qs,5s) call the floor and get the hand nullified.] of spades
Of course he did. You got to the river without any further improvement. Check back: that's the only thing to do at this point, especially against a weak/passive who suddenly wakes up. That's always a danger sign.
 
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golferguy09

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Never limp with 99 UTG and how does he have Q5 spaded when the flop was 952 all spades?
 
Vilgeoforc

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It is very hard to parse only the text. Judging from what you wrote, you made a mistake when
1. 9-9 limp with UTG. 2.
3-bet against a passive player who shows activity
3. Didn't read the player who provoked you to bet on the river.
 
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Sidetracked

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I'm with Dorugremon. It seems that you misplayed every street.

You should have instantly rebought to cover the guy who called 45x pf with Q5s, though.
 
MattRyder

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99 just isn't that great a starting hand. In fact, out of position I'd say it's a pretty miserable starting hand. I'm usually looking to get into a hand very cheaply with that kind of hand from UTG. A 12X raise by a "passive" player to my right does not constitute 'cheaply'.

Where do I think that you went wrong? By not folding to that 12X raise. 2nd mistake was raising that BIG unexpected bet to almost 4X.

With three spades on board and a villain who's not going away, I wouldn't call your river bet a 'value' bet. At this point you were almost for sure toast. It was a suicide bet.

You always have to ask yourself, why is villain playing this way. If you don't have an answer, and he's not on the National Registry of Idiotic Players (the NRIP), then maybe you should fold this one (early) and wait for a more understandable scenario.
 
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