$2 NL HE 6-max: 2NL I thought he had the Ax but should I have seen the flush coming?

[Bluebottle88]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Stakes

$.01/$.02

Table Format

6-max (6 seats)

Currency

$

pokerstars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $5.49 (275 bb)
MP: $2.61 (131 bb)
CO (Hero): $4.28 (214 bb)
BU: $2.28 (114 bb)
SB: $2.92 (146 bb)
BB: $2.27 (114 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is CO with 6♦ 6♣
UTG raises to $0.06, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to $0.18, 3 players fold, UTG calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.39) 2♦ 5♠ 4♠ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.23, UTG calls $0.23

Turn: ($0.85) 3♠ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.51, UTG raises to $1.32, Hero calls $0.81

River: ($3.49) J♦ (2 players)
UTG bets $3.76 (all-in), Hero calls $2.55 (all-in)

Total pot: $8.59 (Rake: $0.30)

Showdown:
UTG shows K♠ A♠ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 48%, Flop: 52%, Turn: 100%, River: 100%)

CO (Hero) shows 6♦ 6♣ (a straight, Two to Six)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 52%, Flop: 48%, Turn: 0%, River: 0%)

UTG wins $8.29

 

[Gary_Heart]

@ turn hero hits st8 to 6 with his small pair -
However hero is shut out to any higher hand such as the looming ♠ flush
(Not to mention a possible higher st8 including a st8 ♠ flush) -

Warning - This is where UTG raises appx 25% of his stack -
*(Also note that a st8 or a boat is no longer a problem for UTG)

IMHO: Yes on any double suited flop (or to a lesser degree double suited turn) you must consider the flush possibility.
Certainly that turn ♠ card and UTG 25% raise should have been an alarm of a possible filled flush draw.

But here is where aggression (or caution) and knowing your opponents tendencies comes in handy .
*20/20 hindsight = Was that $1.32 / 25% raise of UTG's stack a bluff or bait?

Good Luck, Gary.

 

[Station_Master]

I dont think Ax would play this aggressively when a flush is available, I would expect to be shown a flush alot here

 

[300HPGOD]

Pre: When we raise pre here are we expecting to get a fold from UTG? If we are expecting the hand to continue mostly and not wind up a fold (which 3x is small is for a 3 bet here online so I think we will get called at the least often) then I think its very marginal at best to do this with 66 especially when effective stacks are so large. Your 3 bet may prevent a squeeze by someone behind but I dont think that outweighs the situation we are putting ourselves in against UTG. UTG 6 max is quite different, I understand that, but I think I just call here instead of 3 betting unless I know that my 3 bet has the ability to generate some folds.

Flop: A flop with all lower cards which is great for 66 because not only do we have an overpair but we also have a gutter. I like betting here as you did and I would go on the bigger side as well thinking any two spades and a lot of Ax will call our bet here. We still could be up against a 77-99 type hand so I would not go off the deep end and go really big. I like the sizing you used here.

Turn: Interesting card as it brings the straight for us, a straight for an Ace and also the flush. I think we should be betting for value here but I would not go as big as you did. The 77-99 probably wont call as often although still could but now we still dont know how good we are (before any betting anyway). We could easily have villain crushed straight over straight but flushes are present with how this hand has played. I would definitely bet here based on the 3 to a flush out there and value from Ax but I would not be acting like I have the nuts. So with that said, I would bet more like 40-45 cents here. Enough where I am still getting decent value from Ax, still (by far) charging for any one spade hands that want to continue, but not very very large in case I am up against it here. When we get raised, we have to go what we know about villain. What is their UTG opening range? Would they check raise here with Ax when there is a larger straight possible and also a flush possibility? Would they really want to play for stacks over 200 BBs deep without a flush much less the Ace high flush? I wouldnt think so and the problem is we are drawing dead to a flush so if we call, it would be a bluff catcher call and not one with any equity besides that. In game I would probably call turn but then fold river to the jam as villain should not want to go in that deep without the nuts.

River: Slight overbet jam to the pot, I think we have to fold unless we know something about villain that would point to them knowingly bluffing here or over valuing Ax. Without that, this deep, we have to fold the river and if we really got outplayed here then we did but I doubt that is the case at 2NL.

 

[Aballinamion]

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $5.49 (275 bb)
MP: $2.61 (131 bb)
CO (Hero): $4.28 (214 bb)
BU: $2.28 (114 bb)
SB: $2.92 (146 bb)
BB: $2.27 (114 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is CO with 6♦ 6♣
UTG raises to $0.06, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to $0.18, 3 players fold, UTG calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.39) 2♦ 5♠ 4♠ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.23, UTG calls $0.23

Turn: ($0.85) 3♠ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.51, UTG raises to $1.32, Hero calls $0.81

River: ($3.49) J♦ (2 players)
UTG bets $3.76 (all-in), Hero calls $2.55 (all-in)

Total pot: $8.59 (Rake: $0.30)

Showdown:
UTG shows K♠ A♠ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 48%, Flop: 52%, Turn: 100%, River: 100%)

CO (Hero) shows 6♦ 6♣ (a straight, Two to Six)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 52%, Flop: 48%, Turn: 0%, River: 0%)

UTG wins $8.29

At NLHE 2 I’m never 3-betting low-medium pocket pairs from any position (22-88). The reason is that I prefer to 3-bet a 65s that I believe has more equity than a pocket pair, specially a baby pocket pair that will face hard flops most of times and will hardly hit a set on it.
As played, this flop is half good to us because it’s low and we are drawing to a straight so we can c-bet bluff.
OTT although we had completed a nice hand, a flush of spades also got there and we have no removal (no 6 of spades). So here after UTG checks, we can check or bet small. When we bet more than 1/2 pot and UTG raises that much, also considering that this is a deep stacked pot, we can easily find the fold button:
We are risking + 200 BB in a doubtful situation. Be honest, do you believe that at NLHE 2 there are good players enough to put up a bluff having just one combo of spades, risking that much? Yes, we are calling down OTT because we are overthinking and giving way too much credit and merit to our opponent, we are calling here because we think villain has just one card of spades, such as As, Ks, Qs, and it is trying to bluff because it has good equity to the river: big mistake, at NLHE 2 and even higher stakes, players aren’t that good.
OTR when UTG shoves we must find the fold button. This isn’t a MTT hand or a spectacle with super bluffy Joe: this is a stake where players are too obvious.
This is a deep stack pot. One note: we shouldn’t play deep stack pots the same way we play normal 100 BB pots, as bigger the stack, more we are going in only with nutted hands, this is not the case.
There’s a total different science to play deep stack pots in cash tables, and I confess that I don’t own this ability yet. When I reach 150 BB I close the table and open another one where I have only 100 BB ES.
You will find your own reasons to have done what you just did, but this is a huge mistake.
Not calling you a bad player, I already made this mistake several times until I learned. Study more and continue playing, don’t you ever give up for these things will happen sooner than later.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
3-betting a small pair against an UTG open is pretty aggressive, and typically I would prefer to call, unless I had some sort of read, that the opponent was opening to wide and folding to much to 3-bets. Having small pairs in your 3-betting range keeps you more balanced, but then dont block any of the range, that continue, so they are pretty bad bluffing hands.

Flop
As played C-betting is fine. You dont want to check behind here and allow random overcards to get there for free.

Turn
I would also bet now, and once again its partly for protection, since you dont want to allow hands with a random spade to get there for free. Like if he have 99 with 9 of spades, then you want him to either fold or pay to draw. And you can also get paid by AX, which turned the dummy end of the straight. When he check-raise, you are in a tough spot, since he could obviously have a flush. But you are getting decent odds, and you have position. So I think, you have to call and see, what happen on the river. If the river is another spade, and he still bomb it, you have an easy fold. Or if he check on any card, you have an easy check back.

River
Unfortunately the river was a brick and he did not check. He moved you all-in for more than a full buyin. I dont think, the low end of the straight does that for value. Or at least not if he has any clue, what he is doing. So you are really only beating a bluff. And the issue is, its difficult to come up with natural bluffs, given how the board ran out. On a 3 flush board the most common bluffing hand is the nut flush blocker. But on this particular board As turned a straight, which is enough showdown value to call down rather than raise.

And did he really call your 3-bet and then also call your C-bet out of position with random overcards like KQ offsuit? Probably not. So he cant really have the naked K or Q of spades either. Finally all the spades on the board are low cards, which mean, he can easily have the nut flush and also all the broadway flushes like KQ, KJ, QJ etc. And you dont even block any of these with your hand. So while its difficult to not be results oriented, when the results are shared, I think, a case can be made for folding here and saving that extra 127,5BB at the end.

 

[Sopt]

Pre flop: 3-betting UTG with such a small pair is very aggressive.. but I'd say acceptable. If you get 4 bet you can easily call and then fold if you don't manage to hit a set or you can just straight out fold, putting your opponent on higher pair. Personally I'd be just calling there however as the odds of us hitting the board is thin and our opponent is most likely calling or re-raising our 3 bet there anyways.

Flop continuation bet is completely fine, especially since you also got a chance to hit a straight with a 3. You also don't want to see over cards post flop, but I doubt you are convincing your opponent to give up with just one bet.

Turn you complete a straight and to bet it after UTG checks it's completely natural. I also don't see us folding to his re-raise, especially on those limits (if we don't know the players). I've seen to many a times people check calling flop and then check re-raising turn with nothing and the goal to steal the pot.
This should however trigger some alarms, especially since board made a flush option and we also don't have the best possible straight.

River the card completely missed but our opponent is going all in. Here it's either he's trying to bluff us out of the pot or he most likely has us beat. On micro limits it's extremely hard to guess correctly what he actually has, especially if we have no clue how he plays. I'm personally still folding more often in that position than calling, but I don't blame you to call there as you were already quite committed to the pot. Still you were bluff catching most of the times.

 

[fundiver199]

Still you were bluff catching most of the times.

Exactly. Its been some years, since I grinded cash games and especially 2NL. But my memory from these games is, that people make a lot of bad calls. But when they pile in more than 100BB on the river, it tend to be the nuts and almost never a bluff. So unless we have a very specific reason to call, usually we can just fold our bluff catcher and save a lot of emotional pain

 

[Saul2025]

My only thought is about your 3-bet.
Without there was a chance to play it not so deep lose less money.