$2 NLHE 6-max: should I have raises with 77 in SB

[stil370]

Hey Everybody,

After taking a look at the replay below, I think I misplayed this hand a few different ways. I won the pot, but sometimes its better to be lucky than good!
Please tell what you think.

https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/3qdtDam

 

[BentleyBoy]

hi Stil.

First, i think you should consider what the button has and why he has only come in with a min raise. What did you have him on that resulted in your limp to his raise? Are you showing weakness of hand here or weakness of player?

Secondly, when the BB raises twice the pot, what were your thoughts as to what he had?

This is interesting because you called both raises. The button folded to the BB raise, so maybe if you had raised, if BB hadn't, then button would have folded and you would have won the hand pre flop.

As it is, BB raises and you call him. Again, is this a sign of a weak player or a weak hand, or maybe you are trying to rep a string hand and trying to get some action from your opponents.

So, then when the flop arrives, why do you go all in?

This is where having view of what the BB may have is important, as you may well be behind here based on the raise of the BB. You don't have the equity to push him off calling as he is getting super odds for anything really. Maybe a shove pre flop rather than a call would have shown greater strength.

After the flop betting its down to crossing your fingers and hoping for the best from a beaten position. Luckily you won.

Some good thinking and learning points in this hand.

Would auto rebuy to the minimum buy in have given you a greater strength position in terms of stack size?

Good luck

BB

 

[0815am]

Don’t think calling the 3B OOP is a good idea. You are not deep enough to setmine.

You should have either jammed or folded. Given your hand, I would have folded to the squeeze.

Jamming the flop is bad. You didn’t even fold out TT. As played , I recommend XF

 

[xrhstos]

First of all you should always rebuy to 100 Big Blinds in a cash game.
I think that's the biggest mistake you made in the hand before it even started.

As for the hand if you thought you were ahead of the Big Blind's range you should have jammed when he 3bet squeezed.
Calling with half of you stack preflop will get you on a lot of difficult flops where you can't fold and be dominated, or have to fold because of an overcard.

 

[Aballinamion]

broken stack?

Hello there Stil370, thanks for sharing your hand with the Cardschat community.
Now, I agree with our friend xrhstos, when it says that first of all you should be playing a Big Stack Strategy at Cash Tables, which means, you will play always with the minimum of 100 BB.
Now, back to the game, we are not calling with low and mid pocket pairs from SB, even when the odds are good, as the example BTN raised 2.5x. I really do not believe you have the odds to be calling for setmining.
Second, when BB Squeezes is a clear fold (when we are 100 BB deep). But you had only a few chips left in your stack behind, I would strongly recomend that you shove BB's Squeeze right on the spot, with no guarantee that any of the moves (calling a raise from the BTN or calling/shoving a Squeeze from the BB) are profitable and plus EV moves in the Long Run.
First of all, try to play a deep stack strategy all the time in Cash Tables, with 100 BB of Stack Size as minimum.
Second of all, many players believe that because 2 NLHE is so simple and easy that anything we do is correct. Wrong! Players are very good these days playing 2 NLHE and 5 NLHE, so we must try to improve our skills everyday, and Cardschat Forum is awesome for studying and learning with the population of Poker.


Regards;

Good game and good luck at the tables always!

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

 

[fundiver199]

First of all I prefer to start with a full 100BB stack, when I play cash games. This boils back to your rationale for even playing, and for me cash games have two purposes:

1) To make money. If you are one of the better players, as you should always be in a cash game, you will win more, if you play as deep as possible.

2) To develop your skills in deep (100BB or more) stacked poker. This is obviously not possible, if you are not sitting deep yourself.

Surely shallow stacked poker is simpler, and new players will typically make less costly mistakes. But then play tournaments or even better SnGs, since these are a natural short stacked environment. With this out of the way lets get to the hand:

Preflop
Fold or 3-bet, when the action first get to you. This boils back to stack size, because you are not deep enough to call for the setmine, so if you are going to play the hand, you are better off turning it into a bluff and try to end the action right now. As played fold to the 3-bet of BB.

Flop
Check-fold. You are donk betting into a board, that strongly favour his range. You are turning your hand into a bluff, and if you wanted to bluff, you should have done it by 3-betting preflop.

 

[stil370]

$2 NLHE 6-max: should I have raises with 77 in SB

First I want to thank you all for your feedback. From what I could tell, everybody gave more or less the same answer which makes it pretty convincing what the right move would have been. fold, at the very least jam.

One thing quickly worth mentioning that nearly everyone suggested was to play with 100bb. Well noted! i get it and will start to incorporate. As fundiver touched upon, a player with my history would rather play with a smaller stack due to having a losing- fearful mentality. Better lose a little than alot was my thinking.

But I am getting better and therefore winning more often so perhaps it is now time to always re-up to 100bb.

I briefly want to address what my mindset was when playing the hand and I will use BentlyBoy's response as a framework for my thought process:

First, I thought the button was just trying to steal the blinds and therefore was playing a pretty wide range of cards.
I also believed the BB was thinking the same that I was about the button's small raise and also perceived me as being weak after my call.
Moving along, I was thinking the BB was trying to bluff me off with at best a pair less than 77 or a hand that ranged from k10-kq. I didnt think he had aces.
I went all in because of what i thought about his range. I didnt expect he would turn over a pr of 10's.
Anyway, thats what I was thinking.
But again thanks to everybody for giving me clarity here. This forum is truly an amazing place for education not to mention the other benefits.