millarski
Rock Star
Silver Level
I played this hand last night and I'm curious about what you guys think. I'll include all the action right up until my bet on the flop, I won't post the outcome of the hand till after you tell me what you think.
A bit of background. This is my 6th hand at this table, I had only seen 1 flop and that was in my 1st hand when I was the BB and no-one raised. When I sat down, bosnwhale & crmay were about level on chips with about $3.50. brother flea was up nearer $16. You can see from the totals below that bosnwhale had won a few pots and in that time not a single hand was shown. This meant I had no reads on any of the players. DoubleJJ770 sat at the table after me and bought in for the max, this hand is the 1st time he had put money in the pot(other than the blinds).
pokerstars Game #5509434580: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2006/07/09 - 22:50:02 (ET)
Table 'Panopaea III' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DoubleJJ770 ($24.75 in chips)
Seat 2: 138Misfit ($14.65 in chips)
Seat 3: bosnwhale ($6.50 in chips)
Seat 4: brother flea ($14.30 in chips)
Seat 6: crmay ($2.95 in chips)
DoubleJJ770: posts small blind $0.10
138Misfit: posts big blind $0.25
beargood: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 138Misfit [Ah Ad]
Even though I've lost more money than I've won with pocket Aces, I always get excited when I see them.
bosnwhale: folds
brother flea: calls $0.25
I'm not surprised by this guy limping in, he had dwindled away about $2 by doing the same thing.
crmay: folds
DoubleJJ770: raises $0.75 to $1
I was pleased when I saw this guy raise. He's the big stack and the fact there is only 1 limper and the BB suggests to me that he's trying to take control of the table. I haven't put him on any particular hand yet but it's still going to be a strong one.
138Misfit: raises $2 to $3
Raising here was going to do one of two things. One, win the pot right here or Two, force brother flea out of the pot and get my Aces heads up with DoubleJJ770, who I'd have position over.
brother flea: calls $2.75
I didn't expect this call. I instantly put him on either KK or QQ as I can't imagine him calling a raise then a re-raise with anything else.
DoubleJJ770: calls $2
I think this is a pretty standard call for him as he's getting 3.5 to 1 on his money. He could have also have a hand like KK or QQ but now I'm considering hands like AK and JJ, maybe even AQ and TT.
The plan was to get my Aces heads up against DoubleJJ770 but I got an unexpected caller in brother flea. I still feel pretty comfortable with my Aces as we wait to see a flop.
*** FLOP *** [Kc Kh 5s]
Not the kind of flop you want to see with pocket Aces and with 2 callers of a substantial pre-flop raise. My Aces suddenly look very ordinary.
DoubleJJ770: checks
I was a bit surprised by this check but very pleased as I was about 90% certain he'd missed the flop. There were two reasons that helped me arrive at that conclusion. Firstly, his preflop raise was re-raised and then called by another so unless he has a K he is going to get away from the hand. Secondly, the way he checked was a big clue. In the micro limits you can tell how strong someone's hand is by how they check on a flop like this when they're first to act. If they make their hand they're either really excited and because they've seen check raising all the time on tv they check very quickly. If they take a long time to check its because they're trying to work out how to get the most money from the situation*. This guys check was neither of those two, it wasn't really quick and there was no significant pause, it was just like he knew he was beat.
138Misfit: bets $5
I'm pretty sure DoubleJJ770 is done with the hand so this bet was to put brother flea to the test. Remember, I had put him on 1 of 2 hands, either KK or QQ.
This was a difficult situation because I'd only been at the table a short amount of time and had no reads on anybody. The only information I had to go on was the way my opponents were betting in this hand. It usually takes me quite a bit of time to be able to judge what my opponents bets mean.
I'd appreciate any comments on how I played the hand and how you feel I read the situation, I'll post the outcome later.
*This is just a general rule I use, I've been burned a few times but more often than not it works out for me. I tend to use it more when I don't have reads on my opponents, like in the situation above. If i've been at a table for a while with the same people I'm less likely to use it as i have more information on them.
A bit of background. This is my 6th hand at this table, I had only seen 1 flop and that was in my 1st hand when I was the BB and no-one raised. When I sat down, bosnwhale & crmay were about level on chips with about $3.50. brother flea was up nearer $16. You can see from the totals below that bosnwhale had won a few pots and in that time not a single hand was shown. This meant I had no reads on any of the players. DoubleJJ770 sat at the table after me and bought in for the max, this hand is the 1st time he had put money in the pot(other than the blinds).
pokerstars Game #5509434580: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2006/07/09 - 22:50:02 (ET)
Table 'Panopaea III' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DoubleJJ770 ($24.75 in chips)
Seat 2: 138Misfit ($14.65 in chips)
Seat 3: bosnwhale ($6.50 in chips)
Seat 4: brother flea ($14.30 in chips)
Seat 6: crmay ($2.95 in chips)
DoubleJJ770: posts small blind $0.10
138Misfit: posts big blind $0.25
beargood: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 138Misfit [Ah Ad]
Even though I've lost more money than I've won with pocket Aces, I always get excited when I see them.
bosnwhale: folds
brother flea: calls $0.25
I'm not surprised by this guy limping in, he had dwindled away about $2 by doing the same thing.
crmay: folds
DoubleJJ770: raises $0.75 to $1
I was pleased when I saw this guy raise. He's the big stack and the fact there is only 1 limper and the BB suggests to me that he's trying to take control of the table. I haven't put him on any particular hand yet but it's still going to be a strong one.
138Misfit: raises $2 to $3
Raising here was going to do one of two things. One, win the pot right here or Two, force brother flea out of the pot and get my Aces heads up with DoubleJJ770, who I'd have position over.
brother flea: calls $2.75
I didn't expect this call. I instantly put him on either KK or QQ as I can't imagine him calling a raise then a re-raise with anything else.
DoubleJJ770: calls $2
I think this is a pretty standard call for him as he's getting 3.5 to 1 on his money. He could have also have a hand like KK or QQ but now I'm considering hands like AK and JJ, maybe even AQ and TT.
The plan was to get my Aces heads up against DoubleJJ770 but I got an unexpected caller in brother flea. I still feel pretty comfortable with my Aces as we wait to see a flop.
*** FLOP *** [Kc Kh 5s]
Not the kind of flop you want to see with pocket Aces and with 2 callers of a substantial pre-flop raise. My Aces suddenly look very ordinary.
DoubleJJ770: checks
I was a bit surprised by this check but very pleased as I was about 90% certain he'd missed the flop. There were two reasons that helped me arrive at that conclusion. Firstly, his preflop raise was re-raised and then called by another so unless he has a K he is going to get away from the hand. Secondly, the way he checked was a big clue. In the micro limits you can tell how strong someone's hand is by how they check on a flop like this when they're first to act. If they make their hand they're either really excited and because they've seen check raising all the time on tv they check very quickly. If they take a long time to check its because they're trying to work out how to get the most money from the situation*. This guys check was neither of those two, it wasn't really quick and there was no significant pause, it was just like he knew he was beat.
138Misfit: bets $5
I'm pretty sure DoubleJJ770 is done with the hand so this bet was to put brother flea to the test. Remember, I had put him on 1 of 2 hands, either KK or QQ.
This was a difficult situation because I'd only been at the table a short amount of time and had no reads on anybody. The only information I had to go on was the way my opponents were betting in this hand. It usually takes me quite a bit of time to be able to judge what my opponents bets mean.
I'd appreciate any comments on how I played the hand and how you feel I read the situation, I'll post the outcome later.
*This is just a general rule I use, I've been burned a few times but more often than not it works out for me. I tend to use it more when I don't have reads on my opponents, like in the situation above. If i've been at a table for a while with the same people I'm less likely to use it as i have more information on them.
