$200 NLHE Full Ring: Cold Call Straddle with Pocket A's

Z

ZeroThirtySeven

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I had been Playing for a few hours and I think I had about $400 in front of me. A new player sits down and I know him to be very active, and very aggressive. Unfortunately he is sitting to my immediate left. After about 4 Orbits while in the big blind, I witness this player straddle, and in every hand he straddled, no matter how many calls, he got he would raise to $25. Usually he would win Pre-flop, he never tabled any of the straddle hands.

On the fifth Orbit I was in the Big blind and he straddled. Everyone folds to the button. The button calls the straddle. I look down at :ac4::ah4:. As Predicted the Straddle Raised to $25. The Button folds (I guess he wasn't paying attention) and I re-raise to $100.

"I guess you have a pretty good hand."

"Naw, I just saw you do this the last four times you straddle and I don't think you got it"

Straddle tanks for a bit and goes all in.

I snap call. He shows :9c4: :9s4:

My hand holds up.

Was this a bit reckless? Should I have played this in a more straight forward manor? I don't know what was on the board.
 
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c0rnBr34d

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Sounds fine to me. I'd be careful with the table talk as you may give away more info than you think but if you're good at that type of thing then I guess it's fine. 4 in a row is a pretty good indicator that he's not going to check behind. Making it $25 ourselves and getting flatted would leave us with an SPR 7ish pot and stacks would not be in play mostly so I think given the consistency that going for the limp/re-raise puts us in a better spot often enough to go for it.
 
Bozovicdj

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I had been Playing for a few hours and I think I had about $400 in front of me. A new player sits down and I know him to be very active, and very aggressive. Unfortunately he is sitting to my immediate left. After about 4 Orbits while in the big blind, I witness this player straddle, and in every hand he straddled, no matter how many calls, he got he would raise to $25. Usually he would win Pre-flop, he never tabled any of the straddle hands.

On the fifth Orbit I was in the Big blind and he straddled. Everyone folds to the button. The button calls the straddle. I look down at :ac4::ah4:. As Predicted the Straddle Raised to $25. The Button folds (I guess he wasn't paying attention) and I re-raise to $100.

"I guess you have a pretty good hand."

"Naw, I just saw you do this the last four times you straddle and I don't think you got it"

Straddle tanks for a bit and goes all in.

I snap call. He shows :9c4: :9s4:

My hand holds up.

Was this a bit reckless? Should I have played this in a more straight forward manor? I don't know what was on the board.



I really like how you explained it all, and I feel this is a good example on how to pay attention in live games, and also what are the important things to notice!

In similar manner, among my last sessions, there was a player to my left, whenever he is in the blinds and there were a lot of players calling someone's bet, he would re-raise huge, every time roughly the same size, and would usually take it down (did it like 10 times at least). I was about 4hours into the sessions and picked up on this, was waiting for the right hand to just shove my stack into his re-raise.

Eventually, it did happen, UTG bet, 3 calls, and action is on me on the BU with AKs and I made a re-raise!!??. Naturally, everyone folds and I take the pot. The player to my left said - if you hadn't raised, I would.

Same thing, but I missed my chance because of lack of focus after a long play. 10 hands after I quit the session, was profitable but pissed at myself for missing the spot to be in an even greater profit.
 
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ZeroThirtySeven

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I really like how you explained it all, and I feel this is a good example on how to pay attention in live games, and also what are the important things to notice!


Thnaks for the replys! As the first time posting a hand I was worried that I was doing something incorrect. Thanks for the feed back!
 
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fundiver199

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Limp-reraising is typically a very unbalanced play for most people, and I rarely do it. But if there ever was a time for it, it is certainly a situation like this, where someone is clearly out of line and attacking limped pots with almost anything. So well done :)
 
jgreenman18

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IMO playing people like this it is important to have a trapping range but still be somewhat balanced or you will be abused. Like what's ur plan with KQs here are you calling and then flatting a raise and folding when whiffing. Sometimes people get carried away with these lines of trapping vs wild opponents.
 
John A

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So effective stacks are 200$ and you raised $100 pre?

I don't understand your questions or why you'd raise half your opponents stack. What's your range going to be in that spot if this is someone who is a reg in your games?
 
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c0rnBr34d

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So effective stacks are 200$ and you raised $100 pre?

I don't understand your questions or why you'd raise half your opponents stack. What's your range going to be in that spot if this is someone who is a reg in your games?
Where does it say effective stacks were $200? It would be nice to know effective stacks but given that V has been successfully stealing 4 orbits in a row effective stacks could be much deeper. Hero may be effective here at $400. My local 1/2 games have a max buy of $300 and OP does not mention V's stack size. At any rate, without knowing effective stacks for certain sizing comes in to question but our 4x raise doesn't seem too out of line since we are out of position and can continue on most flops. I think results show that we don't need to be balanced much, especially the first time we run this exploit. I think even a range as narrow as QQ+, AK is printing with this line against said V.
 
TheDude6622

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I gotta say, the way you played and the way you talked to him was perfect. You let him know how you thought he played and let him think his mid pocket pair was a monster with your re-raise. You got absolute max value knowing his style and getting max value with your monsters is key when they are willing to pay.

Well done!
 
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If you really have seen him do exactly that on his last 4 straddles, well played. You were paying attention, you made the right decisions, and you ended up getting paid (which isn't always the case in this game).
 
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RakeMyLife

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Good play against this particular player at this particular table. Like others have mentioned, I would caution against making that play as a regular part of your game. You were practically screaming you had AA or KK, and he wasn’t smart enough to fold.
 
hackmeplz

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Playing the hand as you did is definitely good, the talk is super transparent though, I've literally folded kings in a similar spot because no one talks like that with a marginal hand so either you're limp/raise bluffing someone who's a straddling maniac or you have AA/KK. Either say nothing or just smile and be like "if you call you can find out" or something you trust yourself to say in all situations.
 
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