$200 NLHE Full Ring: First time in live game. Basic hand review question.

Hi all,

I played my first $1/3 live game today at a casino. There is one hand in particular that I think I played poorly and wanted to check. (I’m sure this is an obvious one but I’m relatively new).

Folds to me in middle position with AQo. I raise to $15 (5 BB). Button calls and blinds fold.

Flop comes A22. I don’t like this flop really — my thought process at the time was that we beat a decent number of hands he would have called with preflop (probably mid-high pairs) and it seemed unlikely he would have called preflop with many hands containing a 2, so I bet $30 (~pot). Button calls.

Turn is a 6. Nothing had really changed from my perspective, so I put in another $50. In hindsight, I don’t like this move since if he had nothing he would have folded on the flop.

Big blind pushes all in. I think the right move was for me to fold even though his all in was only $75 (giving me about 3:1 odds).

What do you think? Would appreciate any advice. Again, total beginner, so sorry if my thought process seems dumb or obvious here.

In either case my first live game was a great time and I came out about even.

Button's range is very wide. Was it a wet board? You don't show the suits of the cards..

I think you bloated the pot too much here. However, you're still beating a substantial part of button's range. Yes, sometimes he will be holding AK or hitting quads or a boat here. But he may also play lower Ax like this if he thinks you are a donk that's overplaying some lower overpair between TT and KK. You may also improve on the river, although the chances are slim. I don't think you would fold here..

You are playing fairly short stacked poker here, since from your information the effective stack was only 170$, which is less than 60 BB. And when you also open very large, which is normal for small stakes live games, this created a situation, where this is almost like a cap stack (40 BB) hand in an online cash game. The stack to pot ratio on the flop was only around 5.

And in such a spot, I am just never folding top pair second kicker on a board like this. I assume no flush was possible (you did not mention the suits), and in that case what does he even have, that you lose to? If he called you preflop with a 2 in his hand, then god bless him. This will happen from time to time against bad players, but if he can have a 2, then he can also have any AX, and you beat nearly all of them. So if he somehow had you beat here, this was just a cooler, and it would be a mistake for you long term to not go broke.

However you did make a sizing mistake on the flop. This was a very dry board, where you were either way ahead or way behind. And on such a board you want to bet a size, where he peel off at least one street with all his pocket pairs, and where he might even deside to float you with hands like KQ or KJ. All these hands were drawing nearly dead against you, so you gain very little by forcing them to fold by betting the size of the pot.

Thanks for the input, this is helpful. (I didn’t mention suits as there were no flush draws).

I agree in hindsight the bet on the flop was too big. I like the way ahead/way behind idea and I’ll have to be sure to think about it more often.

As it turns out I didn’t fold and called his all in, and he turned over 6-2 (I believe suited), so he flopped a set and finished his full house on the turn. Oh well.

Seeing a hand like 62 obviously puts more 2X in his range, but there was probably no way for you to know in advance, he was this bad. If he was any sort of reasonable, he should have a lot more AX than 2X in his range. Also if he is going to call with 62, he kind of need to get paid, when he flop trips. So I would still not worry about this one.

I think that the best way to win or not loose a lot of money in this hand is cbet 30% in flop, cbet 30% in turn and if the button goes all in CALL. If I can see the river the decision will be check or value bet.

I think your commiting yourself when you bet the turn,it's not really a 3 street hand you can play for stacks multi way.So check at some point for some deception and pot controll and get 2 smaller streets of value.

Fvendal said:

I think your commiting yourself when you bet the turn,it's not really a 3 street hand you can play for stacks multi way.So check at some point for some deception and pot controll and get 2 smaller streets of value.

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For me its totally standard to go for 3 streets in a situation like this with top pair second kicker against a bad player. It was a heads up pot also.

Y bet flop

Sdfsgf said:

Hi all,

I played my first $1/3 live game today at a casino. There is one hand in particular that I think I played poorly and wanted to check. (I’m sure this is an obvious one but I’m relatively new).

Folds to me in middle position with AQo. I raise to $15 (5 BB). Button calls and blinds fold.

Flop comes A22. I don’t like this flop really — my thought process at the time was that we beat a decent number of hands he would have called with preflop (probably mid-high pairs) and it seemed unlikely he would have called preflop with many hands containing a 2, so I bet $30 (~pot). Button calls.

Turn is a 6. Nothing had really changed from my perspective, so I put in another $50. In hindsight, I don’t like this move since if he had nothing he would have folded on the flop.

Big blind pushes all in. I think the right move was for me to fold even though his all in was only $75 (giving me about 3:1 odds).

What do you think? Would appreciate any advice. Again, total beginner, so sorry if my thought process seems dumb or obvious here.

In either case my first live game was a great time and I came out about even.

Click to expand...

Thank you for posting

You are crushing that flop most of the time you will get no action. If the villain has an ace and that stack size we get their stack turn -river. If they have 77 maybe they call it off thinking we bluffed turn- river. We are more likely to bluff turn river than flop turn.

The button has 75 more y would he not shove AJ?

We do not want to fold thinking we can only be beat. If you were thinking of folding maybe the villain saw that and thought steal.

Y would you not like A22 when you have AQ? Vs villains that play any ace and chase that flop is glorious. Just know you have to coax the chips away from them they won't just give them to you. Unless they will then just shove all in and get called by A6 whoops suckout moving on!

Use the cardschat odds calculator put in some hands notice how you are just crushing that flop and learn to be more confident. That will help your game, know the math let it guide you.

Hope this helps

Congrats

Sdfsgf said:

Hi all,

I played my first $1/3 live game today at a casino. There is one hand in particular that I think I played poorly and wanted to check. (I’m sure this is an obvious one but I’m relatively new).

Folds to me in middle position with AQo. I raise to $15 (5 BB). Button calls and blinds fold.

Flop comes A22. I don’t like this flop really — my thought process at the time was that we beat a decent number of hands he would have called with preflop (probably mid-high pairs) and it seemed unlikely he would have called preflop with many hands containing a 2, so I bet $30 (~pot). Button calls.

Turn is a 6. Nothing had really changed from my perspective, so I put in another $50. In hindsight, I don’t like this move since if he had nothing he would have folded on the flop.

Big blind pushes all in. I think the right move was for me to fold even though his all in was only $75 (giving me about 3:1 odds).

What do you think? Would appreciate any advice. Again, total beginner, so sorry if my thought process seems dumb or obvious here.

In either case my first live game was a great time and I came out about even.

Click to expand...

Good job playing your first live game.

My first post was a little rough but meant to help. the pot odds tip is the best.

Keep fighting and learning