S
SC Gurgeh
Enthusiast
Silver Level
$2 NLHE Full Ring: [Beginner] When to call off valuing Q high straight on a double paired board?
This is the first hand I've posted. Hello everyone! I’m a very new player, so please don’t laugh too hard at my mistakes
The hand: https://www.pokerschoolonline.com/r....jpg&language=en&gameEntity=0&hash=02271D07DF
Basically, I'm trying to follow these strategy guides on low stakes cash games:
http://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/texas-holdem-starting-hands-cheat-sheet
http://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/ultimate-guide-to-crushing-live-12
Feedback on my analysis of the hand, and how I could’ve acted better would be appreciated.
Note: I don’t have a read on table dynamics or this player because I’m a new player / didn’t have enough time at that table to form any opinions.
My thinking during the hand from pre-flop to river:
Initial limp and then comes my first decision. The villain raises me 5x. At the time I think it’s a bit of a tight spot if I want to be following the strategy guides, as I have an easily dominated hand. The guides say to be wary of suited hands because they don’t flop good draws / hands very often, and that hands like QJ are easily dominated. Also, the sizing worries me. However, it is a bit large, so I thought it could be a bluff. However, given that my hand is suited, the value of the suited cards is high, and I’m in position, this makes me think my hand is strong enough to at least see a flop. This is probably a mistake, given that 1.5:1 is probably not the odds I’m looking for facing an out of position raiser. Villain opens up on the flop with a 1/3 pot bet. I think “yippee, open ended straight draw” and call. Given that I have 3:1 odds vs my 2.1:1 chance of hitting one of my 8 outs by the river and I have a feeling they’re bluffing, I feel this is a good situation to continue. Then it checks through to the river, and the villain plants a pot sized bet in my face. My thought process is “I’ve hit a straight, so I’ma build the pot as much as possible.” So it gets raised and re-raised, until eventually they put me all in. [I’m new to these, so did I include too much info here about the hand, thus biasing the viewer of the replay?]
Post-hoc thoughts on the outcome of the hand [watch replay first]:
Overall problem: A key difficulty I have found overall with my play was that when I have a strong made hand, but the board leaves the possibility for stronger hands open, I tunnel-vision focus on my good hand and either raise a lot into their monster or call their raises. Of course, tunnel vision is something that can be trained away from practice, but the Q remains, how do I deal with opponents betting, raising, 3-betting me etc. without having a strong ability to read hand ranges on the fly? What is your advice for a new player who’s trying to follow a strategy but can’t read ranges too well? Is it better to not think too much about what they have given that it’s low stakes and they’re probably an even worse player than me who got lucky and had a cooler, or am I missing something?
Regarding the bluff pre-flop, isn’t raising QTs in a cash game actually a bluff of sorts? Regarding the final betting war. At that point I was tunneling my straight, so I called the all-in eagerly. Now I’m thinking, at that point something very fishy (no pun intended) must’ve been going on for them to just keep re-raising me. Surely a bluff or weaker hand would’ve folded by now, right? And given that the board is paired twice, all they need is a 9 or 10 for a full house. I’m pretty sure the right move was to just call at some point, but I’m not quite sure what that point is. What do you think? I could easily be overthinking this, given that it’s a microstakes game.
I welcome suggestions on the hand, general playing style and on my post itself.
Thanks for having a look everyone. xx
This is the first hand I've posted. Hello everyone! I’m a very new player, so please don’t laugh too hard at my mistakes
The hand: https://www.pokerschoolonline.com/r....jpg&language=en&gameEntity=0&hash=02271D07DF
Basically, I'm trying to follow these strategy guides on low stakes cash games:
http://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/texas-holdem-starting-hands-cheat-sheet
http://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/ultimate-guide-to-crushing-live-12
Feedback on my analysis of the hand, and how I could’ve acted better would be appreciated.
Note: I don’t have a read on table dynamics or this player because I’m a new player / didn’t have enough time at that table to form any opinions.
My thinking during the hand from pre-flop to river:
Initial limp and then comes my first decision. The villain raises me 5x. At the time I think it’s a bit of a tight spot if I want to be following the strategy guides, as I have an easily dominated hand. The guides say to be wary of suited hands because they don’t flop good draws / hands very often, and that hands like QJ are easily dominated. Also, the sizing worries me. However, it is a bit large, so I thought it could be a bluff. However, given that my hand is suited, the value of the suited cards is high, and I’m in position, this makes me think my hand is strong enough to at least see a flop. This is probably a mistake, given that 1.5:1 is probably not the odds I’m looking for facing an out of position raiser. Villain opens up on the flop with a 1/3 pot bet. I think “yippee, open ended straight draw” and call. Given that I have 3:1 odds vs my 2.1:1 chance of hitting one of my 8 outs by the river and I have a feeling they’re bluffing, I feel this is a good situation to continue. Then it checks through to the river, and the villain plants a pot sized bet in my face. My thought process is “I’ve hit a straight, so I’ma build the pot as much as possible.” So it gets raised and re-raised, until eventually they put me all in. [I’m new to these, so did I include too much info here about the hand, thus biasing the viewer of the replay?]
Post-hoc thoughts on the outcome of the hand [watch replay first]:
Overall problem: A key difficulty I have found overall with my play was that when I have a strong made hand, but the board leaves the possibility for stronger hands open, I tunnel-vision focus on my good hand and either raise a lot into their monster or call their raises. Of course, tunnel vision is something that can be trained away from practice, but the Q remains, how do I deal with opponents betting, raising, 3-betting me etc. without having a strong ability to read hand ranges on the fly? What is your advice for a new player who’s trying to follow a strategy but can’t read ranges too well? Is it better to not think too much about what they have given that it’s low stakes and they’re probably an even worse player than me who got lucky and had a cooler, or am I missing something?
Regarding the bluff pre-flop, isn’t raising QTs in a cash game actually a bluff of sorts? Regarding the final betting war. At that point I was tunneling my straight, so I called the all-in eagerly. Now I’m thinking, at that point something very fishy (no pun intended) must’ve been going on for them to just keep re-raising me. Surely a bluff or weaker hand would’ve folded by now, right? And given that the board is paired twice, all they need is a 9 or 10 for a full house. I’m pretty sure the right move was to just call at some point, but I’m not quite sure what that point is. What do you think? I could easily be overthinking this, given that it’s a microstakes game.
I welcome suggestions on the hand, general playing style and on my post itself.
Thanks for having a look everyone. xx
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