Keep it simple in limt play

Was at the casino last night playing 4-8 limit holdem. Was playing fairly tight but would burn through most of my stack win and nice pot then repeat afew times. So just as i was ready to go was dealt KK and thought I would not raise and try to get lots of callers. (first mistake) I K 10 7 came on the flop so now all i can see is $$$. I bet, there is 5 of us in on the pot eveyone calls but the last guy raises(8) so i reraise(12). Now there are 3 of us. The next card is a J. I bet (8), get raised (16) and then reraised agian (24) so if I wasnt so stupid I would have know that the straight was out there but oh know I thought one of them had KJ and the other who knows what i thought. the river didnt help anyone and I check. she bets, he calls I rasie (another bad move) both call and i lose. So the reason im telling you this is so hopfully I dont make the same bad plays as i have. Always raise with pocket KK this would have chased the winner out of the hand. PAY ATTENTION and dont make stupid bets. I did learn something from this hand and hopfully some of you did to. If cost me all my winnings and I looked like a chump as i left the table as people said how badly I played the hand.

:withstupi

It is always nice to learn lessons even though they may be harsh in the wallet. However you tried a trap play but instead of trapping others, you trapped yourself.

Similar situation happened to me last night. I was dealt JJ so I raised (not enough) and I had three callers. The flop went KJA. Nice, I hit my set. I raise but only one folded. The turn was a 10. One player makes ahuge bet and me and the othe rplayer called. I thought the pot was mine. The river card was a 4. Two players kept reraising and I kept calling. I watch the post build up not looking at the board to see what they mogiht have. Both of them had the Q so they spilt the pot and I was kicking myself for not seeing it. I was simply hypotizied by my set.:frown:

Don't let it happen to you!

Ah set of Jacks, same as sets of 10's, VERY DANGEROUS

H8POKER said:

So just as i was ready to go was dealt KK and thought I would not raise and try to get lots of callers.

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You were right, this was your first and biggest mistake. NEVER slow play in limit games, its amazing how often people do this. KK is a great hand in the pocket but with 5 callers it might as well be 72os. You could not have asked for a better flop either, yet still lost the pot.

The best time to slow play a nice PP is in two situations

1. You are at an aggressive table and are very likely to come into a raise if you are calling. This gives you an opportunity to re-raise, pick up the blinds and if you do get a call, you could easily double or triple up

2. You are in an early postion. This can be VERY dangerous when at a passive table, so you would have to consider this once you are used to the style of play. For instance AA v 9 callers, everyone seeing the flop - your hand is most likely beat on the flop, so chuck your cards away

Rememver, the reason people raise premiums hands is so lucky callers dont catch their cards.

As a practice, get a pack of cards, deal ten hands face up, give one hand AA. Deal a community and see how many times an AA or KK holds up, you will be surprised by the results

H8Poker's Hand: I'm assuming the winning straight had AQ (could be Q9 or 98). Either way, your opp was pretty ballsy (or foolish) staying in on the raised flop with a gutshot when top hand winners existed. Even if an A came up (instead of a J), KK or KT or AT or TT or AK would have beaten AQ. With only 4 true outs, the only justification for this play would be pot odds greater than 11 to 1.

Also, many (if not most) folks won't fold AQ to a pre-flop raise (but they would Q9 & 98). If it was AQ, I don't think you can fault yourself too much. You just had a lucky chaser on your hands.

limit is a diffrent bear than NL or PL, limit players are not easily forced out and they make alot of bad calls, trying to catch a/an overpair or catch their underpair (to make a set). I dont think playing kk without a raise is a bad play. Just cause you make it 8 to go does not mean the other players intend to fold preflop. Every black jack is gonna call, and alot of suited crap calls preflop (so i have noticed in my experiences). Playing Pocket Pairs in limit is hard. You had the best hand on flop and should have been aggressive, then on turn you should have slowed down, when you do not have the nuts. Unfortunately, if they do have the straight you just go into payoff mode unless the pot is popped by 2 other players.... Set is hard to throw away, limit is a very evil beast....

Definately

You need to keep your play simple in any game. The best advice I can give is to develop your own style and go for it. Gain knowledge as you go and figure out what works and does not work for you. This is the best way to develop as a poker player in both limit and no limit hold em