Am I just terrible or just running bad?

gazza127 · August 2013

Thoughts on the following hands please:

1) Is the 4 bet size big enough? I've got villain on an average hand as he likes to 3 bet in position.

Flop
stfc_1953	Small blind		£0.25	£0.25	£66.24
1267	Big blind		£0.50	£0.75	£42.80
	Your hole cards	Q Q
gokeithgo	Fold
gazza127	Raise		£1.50	£2.25	£100.33
XX	Raise		£4.50	£6.75	£92.70
ANY_2	Fold
stfc_1953	Fold
1267	Fold
gazza127	Raise		£9.50	£16.25	£90.83
XX	Call		£6.50	£22.75	£86.20
		7 K A
gazza127	Bet		£17.06	£39.81	£73.77
XX	Call		£17.06	£56.87	£69.14
Turn
		Q
gazza127	Bet		£42.65	£99.52	£31.12
XX	Call		£42.65	£142.17	£26.49
River
		6
gazza127	All-in		£31.12	£173.29	£0.00
XX	All-in		£26.49	£199.78	£0.00
gazza127	Unmatched bet		£4.63	£195.15	£4.63
gazza127	Show	Q Q
XX	Show	A 9
XX	Win	Flush to the Ace	£193.35		£193.35

2) I call the 3 bet as oppo has been 3 betting from blinds quite wide (A8os) when button raises. When the turn comes I think im definitely ahead but dont really want to see a scary river so think its best to jam here. All ok?

Flop
bet3pm_co	Small blind		£0.25	£0.25	£49.25
XX	Big blind		£0.50	£0.75	£106.80
	Your hole cards	J K
eagle05	Fold
coopah	Fold
gazza127	Raise		£1.50	£2.25	£54.70
bet3pm_co	Fold
XX	Raise		£5.00	£7.25	£101.80
gazza127	Call		£4.00	£11.25	£50.70
		9 J 8
XX	Bet		£6.50	£17.75	£95.30
gazza127	Call		£6.50	£24.25	£44.20
Turn
		J
XX	Bet		£13.00	£37.25	£82.30
gazza127	All-in		£44.20	£81.45	£0.00
XX	Call		£31.20	£112.65	£51.10
XX	Show	Q Q
gazza127	Show	J K
River
		Q
XX	Win	Full House, Queens and Jacks	£110.85		£161.95

3) Is this one just a cold deck?

Flop
XX	Small blind		£0.25	£0.25	£53.89
rocky62	Big blind		£0.50	£0.75	£54.00
	Your hole cards	2 2
gazza127	Raise		£1.50	£2.25	£41.73
UEA_pro	Fold
SR23	Fold
pebbleb	Fold
XX	Call		£1.25	£3.50	£52.64
rocky62	Call		£1.00	£4.50	£53.00
		J 2 4
XX	Check
rocky62	Check
gazza127	Bet		£2.50	£7.00	£39.23
XX	Call		£2.50	£9.50	£50.14
rocky62	Call		£2.50	£12.00	£50.50
Turn
		9
XX	Check
rocky62	Check
gazza127	Bet		£8.00	£20.00	£31.23
XX	Call		£8.00	£28.00	£42.14
rocky62	Fold
River
		K
XX	Check
gazza127	Bet		£19.00	£47.00	£12.23
XX	Raise		£38.00	£85.00	£4.14
gazza127	All-in		£12.23	£97.23	£0.00
XX	Unmatched bet		£6.77	£90.46	£10.91
XX	Show	4 4
gazza127	Show	2 2
XX	Win	Three 4s	£88.66		£99.57

4) Im calling wide on the button as I have position. I had debated 3 betting pre but decided I didnt really want to get 4 bet and its better to just play the hand in pos. After the flop am I ok just to get it all in?

Flop
buddha350	Small blind		£0.25	£0.25	£76.12
bolly580	Big blind		£0.50	£0.75	£72.55
Stuporman	Sit out
	Your hole cards	9 Q
launder	Fold
XX	Raise		£1.50	£2.25	£48.25
gazza127	Call		£1.50	£3.75	£112.75
buddha350	Call		£1.25	£5.00	£74.87
bolly580	Fold
		J 2 Q
buddha350	Check
XX	Bet		£3.25	£8.25	£45.00
gazza127	Raise		£10.00	£18.25	£102.75
buddha350	Fold
XX	Raise		£19.25	£37.50	£25.75
gazza127	Raise		£62.50	£100.00	£40.25
XX	All-in		£25.75	£125.75	£0.00
gazza127	Unmatched bet		£24.25	£101.50	£64.50
XX	Show	2 2
gazza127	Show	9 Q
Turn
		K
River
		8
XX	Win	Three 2s	£99.70		£99.70

5) Another one I had debated raising pre (probably should have in a limped pot), however I think oppo is raising very wide trying to squeeze. Again, after the flop I cant do anything else other than to put the chips in the middle?

Flop
gazza127	Small blind		£0.25	£0.25	£126.51
XX	Big blind		£0.50	£0.75	£49.00
	Your hole cards	10 K
Die_hard	Fold
zackattak	Call		£0.50	£1.25	£40.26
Jonno02	Fold
Ludacris	Fold
gazza127	Call		£0.25	£1.50	£126.26
XX	Raise		£1.50	£3.00	£47.50
zackattak	Fold
gazza127	Call		£1.50	£4.50	£124.76
		K J 10
gazza127	Check
XX	Bet		£2.25	£6.75	£45.25
gazza127	Raise		£8.50	£15.25	£116.26
XX	Raise		£17.00	£32.25	£28.25
gazza127	Raise		£53.75	£86.00	£62.51
XX	All-in		£28.25	£114.25	£0.00
gazza127	Unmatched bet		£14.75	£99.50	£77.26
gazza127	Show	10 K
XX	Show	A J
Turn
		8
River
		Q
XX	Win	Straight to the Ace	£97.70		£97.70

All over the last 24 hours. Am I too risk averse? Have I carried a lot of MTT play over to cash or are a lot of these just horrible spots?

Captian · August 2013

The first one was pretty horrendous play by XX, you showed enough aggression to suggest he gets out, probably shouldn't have even seen the flop to be honest, and although he hit an ace on the flop his kicker was weak and could still be behind, I think you played it about right and the runner runner flush was just bad luck

Captian · August 2013

In fact I think all of them are just attributed to running bad, there's not a lot you can do when you've hit the nicest obvious hand especially with draws and are beaten by subtle unforeseeable things like the set of twos. Only advice I could give is maybe narrow the range of hands you're willing to play pre flop? I used to have a very wide range and noticed that I felt I was being hard done by with genuine hands a lot and then tightened up a bit and the bad beats just seem to have narrowed themselves down a lot and my results in tournaments have consistently improved

IDONKCALLU · August 2013

hand 1 id raise to around £11

hand 2 i wouldnt of shoved the turn id just call as u wanna keep bluffs in sick river ul

hand 3 what can u do meh

id play exactly the same way gd to see ya betting ya gd hands instead of trapping

hand 4 i wouldnt of raised on the flop id call by raising ya bloating a pot and basically ya on a flush draw coz when u get called or raised ya q9 is never gd here so id just call on the flop play small ball poker pot control

hand 5 i would just call the raise on the flop and hope its a brick turn n get ya chips in then pretty much a cooler

all hands just unlucky coolers really not alot we can do

DOHHHHHHH · August 2013

The cbet size in hand 1 is huge on the worst possible flop for you.

Can just check/fold v some people, dunno what sorta things you expect him to flat 4bets with, and how he plays stuff like TT on this board?

Half pot bet max, if at all.

Turn bet is huge too, this time on the best card for us! Very easy to bet and set up a river shove on that turn with stack sizes, he never has AA/KK, we've got the best hand every time. 25 quiddish.

rancid · August 2013

1st hand, raise more - but no more than £12.50 - stop bashing 3/4 pot btn
ul that he backdoors, once you bet turn your not folding river - jc10c/AA/KK only worry
7's/AK/AQ your ahead of - bit of dead spot
i guess vill likes calling 4 bets with A9 sooooooooted and being a wizard

hand 2 - 4 bet pre
a/p tis fine, prob best to call turn

hand 3 what ya gonna do

hand 4 can't see a reason to raise, crushing the flop -

hand 5 when vill comes back over the top then it's puke time- but you do have 2 prs bvb :S

SJspanky1 · August 2013

You're running bad.

Hand 4, there is no need to raise on a very pretty flop for us but the others just pretty bleh IMO.

Way it rolls sometimes, UL

gazza127 · August 2013

Thank guys.

I definitely think hand 4 was played quite poorly. No need to raise the flop, however once I do and he comes over the top I think I have to stick him all in and hope my flush hits. I dont think I can just call after his reraise.

Think I played the other hands OK. Maybe not optimal but im just running so bad at the minute that im trying to be aggressive with my decent hands to get max value and charge for draws. They just arent holding

calcalfold · August 2013

Not all optimal, but your running bad.

Play this way and most of the time your very +ve

CraigSG1 · August 2013

On-line poker is rigged, obviously!

Unlucky, sir. When you play agg these things happen and I know it can dent your confidence when these results happen quickly together. The best thing you can do is this. Sit down and review and realise that you really only played one hand bad and to be fair it wasnt even that bad as you are still getting called by worse and never drawing dead.

BorinLoner · August 2013

It's definitely better to post each hand in a separate thread. That allows us to all talk in depth about the same thing.

Hand 1 - As DOHHHHHHHH says, no need to bet flop. AKx flops in 4-bet pots with QQ = bad news. Turn bet is way too big... Unless you know he's going to overvalue Ax hands, don't make bets he can't call with without a monster hand.

I don't have a problem with the 4-bet size pre-flop. We've made it £11 to go, yes? I wouldn't like it to be bigger than that.

Hand 2 - Are 11BB 3-bets the norm from this villain OOP? I'm not overly enamoured with the shove on the turn. Are we shoving here with many weaker hands than trip Jacks or is this the bottom of our shoving range? Do we expect oppo to call with his weaker one-pairs or just AA, KK, QQ or better? We're only playing this hand because we think his pre-flop 3-bet range is wide.

Hand 3 - Wha' ya gonna do? Maybe bet a little bigger on the turn and probably shove the river.

Hand 4 - I don't like raising the flop. Neither do you. No need to semi-bluff a draw when we have top-pair, nine kicker. Enough said.

Hand 5 - I think merits further consideration. I don't like making up the small blind. I'd either raise or, more likely, just fold. Once the big blind raises I'm folding. It's tough to see that this call will be profitable OOP in the long run. Our range is already capped and we're going to struggle post-flop. Do we need to get involved?

Post flop, I think we're lucky to see AdJd when it all goes in. I don't hate check-raising if we think we can rep some weaker hands or semi-bluffs but I think we've raised too big. We want to give him a chance to call with his AK's, KQ's, etc and not make it easy for him to get it in when we're beat. What does our line of pre-flop limp-call, check-raise this flop look like? If it's just KT, KJ and JT, then check-calling the flop is better. (+Q9)

What range do we think villain is happy 3-betting? I think flatting the 3-bet is best. If he's 3-betting air or semi-bluffs we can let him continue. If he's 3-betting value hands we're likely in trouble. Does he 3-bet AA on this flop?

gazza127 · August 2013

In Response to Re: Am I just terrible or just running bad?:

It's definitely better to post each hand in a separate thread. That allows us to all talk in depth about the same thing. Hand 1 - As DOHHHHHHHH says, no need to bet flop. AKx flops in 4-bet pots with QQ = bad news. Turn bet is way too big... Unless you know he's going to overvalue Ax hands, don't make bets he can't call with without a monster hand. I don't have a problem with the 4-bet size pre-flop. We've made it £11 to go, yes? I wouldn't like it to be bigger than that. Hand 2 - Are 11BB 3-bets the norm from this villain OOP? I'm not overly enamoured with the shove on the turn. Are we shoving here with many weaker hands than trip Jacks or is this the bottom of our shoving range? Do we expect oppo to call with his weaker one-pairs or just AA, KK, QQ or better? We're only playing this hand because we think his pre-flop 3-bet range is wide. Hand 3 - Wha' ya gonna do? Maybe bet a little bigger on the turn and probably shove the river. Hand 4 - I don't like raising the flop. Neither do you. No need to semi-bluff a draw when we have top-pair, nine kicker. Enough said. Hand 5 - I think merits further consideration. I don't like making up the small blind. I'd either raise or, more likely, just fold. Once the big blind raises I'm folding. It's tough to see that this call will be profitable OOP in the long run. Our range is already capped and we're going to struggle post-flop. Do we need to get involved? Post flop, I think we're lucky to see AdJd when it all goes in. I don't hate check-raising if we think we can rep some weaker hands or semi-bluffs but I think we've raised too big. We want to give him a chance to call with his AK's, KQ's, etc and not make it easy for him to get it in when we're beat. What does our line of pre-flop limp-call, check-raise this flop look like? If it's just KT, KJ and JT, then check-calling the flop is better. (+Q9) What range do we think villain is happy 3-betting? I think flatting the 3-bet is best. If he's 3-betting air or semi-bluffs we can let him continue. If he's 3-betting value hands we're likely in trouble. Does he 3-bet AA on this flop?
Posted by BorinLoner

1) Im betting the AKx flop cause 4 four bet range includes AA,KK and AK. His 4 bet call is much wider including JJ, 1010. KQ etc. I see it as a chance to take down the flop there and then. Yes I maybe should have only bet half pot - maybe i was partly irritated that I had 4 bet my hand and had hit the worst flop. If he calls or raises I shut down. As it happens the turn is my perfect card, however it brings into play 2 flushes and the straight... so the turn raise is big as I still expect him to call with AK, AQ, KQ and possibly even AJ and other straight/flush draws. I want to make him pay. He's called a big bet on the flop. Theres no reason to assume he wont on the turn.

2) The 3 bet is the norm for the villain so I have no issue with calling in pos with KJs. Im shoving the turn as I see many of his hands could include a 10. Again, he's not all that tight and is happy to call for a draw. I can't really raise from my stack without shoving. I want him to make a mistake and call off light... which he does.

3) Hate looking at this hand.

4) Yep. Agree.

5) I know that my range has been narrowed by the limp, but I didnt want villain to just buy the pot - perhaps thats my tournament play coming into cash - bit of a leak. Although I definitely think I should have raised myself pre. That was a mistake. When the flop hits and I check raise, I could be raising into so many draws that I can see villain calling worse, such as AK. The three bet threw me a bit... I didn't really know what to make of it. I guess I saw two pair on the flop and thought 'if he has it, he has it'.

Thanks for the input as always borin.

screwy27 · August 2013

just variance mate it happens so im told

IDONKCALLU · August 2013

yeah just see hand 1 again ya bet on the flop is nearly full pot going half pot still gets the same job done coulda saved yaself some ££££ there

grantorino · August 2013

1. Not sure i auto 4b this nearly 200bb deep. Readless I prob flat the 3b. Sizing seems fine pre, I might go a little bigger as we are pretty deep. Flop ugh, I might c/f sometimes, otherwise I turn my hand into a bluff and b/f. 1/2 pot is plenty to bet here, you could argue for less. Less on turn river is obv fine

2 pre I prefer 4b or fold unless you have really good reads on villains postflop play. Prob just flat turn

3 fine, I might bet slightly bigger every street once I flop my set to try set up river jam

4. Pre ok, but I don't like a plan of calling wide on btn unless there's more substance to that plan. Flop raise is spew, you have not great equity v the hands that continue, clear flat call imo. Obv once you raise you have to get it in

5 raise pre, dont hate just folding preif you over limp fold to the bb raise. Getting it in fine imo, c/r smaller though

Am I just terrible or just running bad?

Comments