Overplaying Premium Hands
Hi guys,
Just had a few rough hands happen in a short space of time.
I've uploaded them to Boom if that's allowed, I think it will make it easier.
Hand 1:
https://www.boomplayer.com/32992936_CE7C3109CE
Hand 2:
https://www.boomplayer.com/32992956_490C258C14
Hand 3:
https://www.boomplayer.com/32993011_A60DF7DEBE
Hello there Jordansimo, thank you a ton for sharing with us!
Hand 1)
MP 3bets 3.62x vs UTG 4-bets to 2.7x - This is classic polarization. Your 3-bet sizing was ultra large, indicating you only do it when you are with AQ+ and TT+, or your sizing was ultra exploitative, which maybe had caused UTG to also polarize its 4-bet range and go for 2.7x 4-bet, which is a very salty price to be paying with AK, however folding seems not optimal as well.
What is that suppose to mean, is very simple, is the fact that UTG would never be 4-betting some A5s using a size of 2.7x. As long as UTG has a very polarized range, we are inclined to believe it is only for value, because these fishes are never doing it with weak hands, try to remember it, so we do expect here, at least KK+ and AK. QQ we believe these guys would not be 4-betting to 2.7x, polarizing gigantically their preflop ranges.
flop comes 5c9hAc, UTG c-bets 1/3 pot and MP raises to nearly 1/2 pot giving
excelent
odds for Villain to call. Besides, we can never, ever be raising here, and the reason is very simple, it is because UTG is holding all the AA and AK on its range, so in the best case scenario we are splitting. We are never raising for bluff, on this specific flop.
Needless to say that by doing it, you give a very easy fold for QQ, JJ, TT, you name it.
First, we do not raise when we don't have range advantage and we don't raise when we don't raise the same spot with bluffs.
Turn comes 4d and MP shoves all-in. I don't understand what is the intention of Hero/MP here, because if UTG has QQ, JJ, TT, only a very fishy whale would be defending versus jam, so here UTG can easily fold all of its bluffs and dominated hands and only pays you with hands that have you destroyed.
Hand 2)
MP 3-bets UTG for 3x and BB and UTG calls. The pot is bigger than usual, and
mostly very dry, so no reason to be bloating the pot, specially because
we are holding the blocker of the 2nd nut flush and many turns are not going
to be scary, but actually good for our range. So, if we want to c-bet here 1/2 pot is more than enough, given the fact the board is very dry, and players are going to either overfold or when they call, we might expect some strong hands. It is not the best idea in the world to be chasing a flush (on which we have the blocker) on a double paired board when the pot is bigger than usual and Hero c-bets for 2/3 pot 3/4 pot whatever: which bluffs do we have here that could be doing?
IF we are
bluffing our Flush Draws using 2/3 pot or 3/4 pot, our bluffs are way to expensive and will require much more fold
equity. We are polarizing/giving information here, and the information is simple, we do 3-bet flop and c-bet flop strong because we are holding monsters, and we are not going to leave them easily postflop.
UTG might have called you with AQ, QQ, 22, and the flush draws of hearts.
On the turn comes a 9c and, that doesn't complete anything, we bet and Villain
check-raises for a little less than pot.
Here it sucks but we can never be folding, we have so much equity, we are blocking
some flushes of hearts, and Villain could be doing it here for bluff, with SDs and Fds.
If it has us, good for it.
Hand 3)
Very standard preflop, we can be calling here with QQ in a frequency and 4-betting in another frequency depending on the opponent.
The flop comes ultra dry, as the last hand, and SB c-bets for 1/3 pot, and I don't like our raising here, for the same reasons I quoted on the hand 1, I guess: the board is very dry and we never do it with bluffs. Besides, because SB is the aggressor preflop, SB will more much more AA and KK on its range than us, and if we get re-raised OTF, we must be folding QQ+ almost always, because now we have no idea what is going on.
We have no bluffs in situation like this, plain and simple. If we do really had hands like 44 and 88 and we raise, we are praying for Villain to leave a lot of turns, it will be very hard to get 3 streets of value unless your opponent is a whale.
We do call 3-bet which means we don't have AA, KK and maybe a little AK on our range,
in a default manner we don't have many bluffs here, this is why we should be calling more than raising. Weak players will barely bluff in dry situations, think like this, they would never be doing the same for bluff, and if you look for its bluffs they are minimal.
Summarizing, this is not a cooler, you are overplaying your value range, as you did
in the first hand when you 3-bet AK vs UTG and raise the flop without range advantage.
The second hand I believe it was inevitable cooler.
Regards;
Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
