Home game hand analysis

[jeffred1111]

Weekly, a couple of friends and I congregate in order to play a frendly 5$ buy-in winner takes all ring game. We are always shorthanded (6 players max), blinds start at 25/50 and double every 20 minutes. We each have 4000 chips at the start. Naturally, NL.

Now, as you might have guessed it, because of the format, this table is pretty-loose but also full of calling stations pushing their luck to get a bigger stack before the next level. They will also be very, very passive preflop, unless they think I'm trying to steal their blinds. I got stuck in a dilemna last night. Here's how it went :

Pre-flop (on the button) : Ks Kh (I'm the chip leader)
Everybody folds to me, I raise to 5xBB knowing that I have a solid hand and the image of a blind stealer thus trying to trap a weaker hand into playing into me. Small blind folds. Big blind min-raises back (villain will do this with two face cards, he will only reraise big with medium pair and go-all in with AA). I call for a total of 14 1/2 BB in pot.

Flop.
Qd 6d As

Opponent bets 3BB. I'm now stuck. If he holds any ace rag or ace queen, he dominates me and I have only two outs to make my hand and i have no good odds. Re-raising is not really an option since he is a call- station boredring on maniac if he has paired any face card on the flop. He might also be on a nut flush draw or straight if he has connectors (odds aren't in my favor the slightest with the flop texture). Decision: I called thinking that he made me see the turn for realtively cheap and that I would be the agressor whatever scare card turned.

Turn (you guessed it)
8d

Opponent goes all-in and is medium stack (around 2/3 of mine). I folded only to have him reveal a pair of queens with a jack kicker offsuit Now, how could I have played this hand differently ? In hinsight, raising to see where I was in the hand might have been a good idea, but his betting pattern was way-off what he usually does and I guess it payed-off in this hand (I later ousted him with trips after he got greedy and I finished in second place due to a suck-out heads-up).

I also played poorly pre-flop and din't protect my hand enough... What do you guys and gals think (I can take it, I'm still learning after all) I should've done ?

 

[alan1983]

If you knew he didnt have AA then raise him allin preflop. Youre ahead of everything else.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

3-bet preflop.

Would be useful if you posted stack sizes too.

 

[joeeagles]

Definitely reraise before the flop, since you felt sure he didn't have AA.

After the flop, in a case like this, don't give up to raising his flop bet just because he's a calling station. A raise in that spot, although it
might not give you enough information about his hand because he's likely to call and not reraise (in which case you would fold), it would certainly achieve slowing him down, leaving you in control of the betting. That was the mistake that probably made you lose this hand. If you would've raised after flop, I doubt he would've went all-in on the turn, even with 3rd diamond coming in. He likely would have checked.

Sometimes raising serves the purpose of slowing down an opponent, besides giving us vital information. Even if he's a calling station its worth it, unless he's very passive. That was not this case.

 

[jeffred1111]

Thanks all, after rereading, I realized that I played very weak and that even bad players know when to capitalize on the weaknesses they see.

So:
a) Should've reraised. Maybe not all-in because I don't want him out of the pot since he probably just wants to scare me into thinking he has something by miniraising.
b) With such an horrible flop and a weak bet, raising would've been advisable to get some info and cool him down by thinking that I might have something like A,K or A,Q myself.

Stack size were pretty even with me having around 1/3 more chips than him, thus crippling me if I made the call. We were also down to 5 by then.

 

[dj11]

I think u got to raise his 3x bet rather than calling. He likes the minraise, so that would have done it. At that point he would be worrying about YOU having the ace. If he had the Ace, he would let you know at that point.

 

[Refuse2Lose]

$5 home game, push pre-flop champ

 

[calibanboy]

If you knew he didnt have AA then raise him allin preflop. Youre ahead of everything else.

Good Answer

 

[Mojomax747]

The preflop raise of 5 times the bb seemed ok and when faced with a mini reraise when holding hands like kk or qq it is sometimes good to push all in to try and make your opponent fold. By doing this not only have you amassed at least 10 bbs you have also chased off a possible ace-x hand catching an ace on the flop. Even if they call your all in push you are only behind to pocket aces at this point. Also remember that you dont always need a caller when you push all in after a reraise to you, you have already amassed some nice chips if they fold.

 

[jeffred1111]

Thanks everyone, seems like I had put myself in a tricky situation by being results oriented and not thinking about how far ahead I was in the hand (barring any AA slowplaying, wich villain will never do).

Next time, time to shove.