Unlucky or did I play this badly....

unknown_username

Hand History #693230364 (09:48 24/09/2013)PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceb123nSmall blind £0.50£0.50£50.42watto84Big blind £0.50£1.00£27.43 Your hole cards44   Simmy4kRaise £1.00£2.00£65.04b123nFold    watto84Raise £2.00£4.00£25.43Simmy4kCall £1.50£5.50£63.54Flop  J4Q   watto84Bet £2.75£8.25£22.68Simmy4kCall £2.75£11.00£60.79Turn  7   watto84Check    Simmy4kBet £6.00£17.00£54.79watto84All-in £22.68£39.68£0.00Simmy4kCall £16.68£56.36£38.11watto84Show44   Simmy4kShow5A   River  8   Simmy4kWinFlush to the Ace£54.56 £92.67

BorinLoner

First thing: Why are we playing a 55BB stack? If we're playing a relatively short stack, it should be with a specific strategy in mind. We're doing it because we think there's a better way to exploit our opponents at the table with 55BB than with 100BB.

I imagine that the reality is we're just playing 55BB because we either pulled-up to less than 100BB in the first place or we've lost some and haven't topped-up. Those aren't good reasons to be playing a half-stack.


Pre-flop, it would be good if you could explain your reasoning behind 3-betting. I'm not saying it's bad but it's important to know why you did it and what your plan was for later streets. What did you think the button's raising range was? What range would he flat your 3-bet with? What range would he 4-bet with? Does he play predictably post-flop?

On the flop, I don't mind your bet size. Since it's a 3-bet pot and we're not playing a full stack, we don't need to bet very big to get stacks in by the river. The stack to pot ratio is very low. I do take issue with the exact sizing of half-pot, though, because it looks as though you're not giving a huge amount of thought to the sizing yourself; you're just clicking the half-pot button because it's easy.


Anyway, we got the call on the flop and the turn's a relative blank. Why are we not betting again? It's unlikely he was calling us on a flop with this texture with no hand, so give him the chance to call again. Don't give him a free card. You can't necessarily expect him to bet, so a plan to check-raise is not something that's in your hands. Also, when we check-raise it makes it really easy for him to just fold his Jx or even some of his Qx hands. We're basically giving him a really good chance to get away from weaker hands. If we just keep betting ourselves, he can keep calling with those hands, though.

We did actually give him a tough decision with his exact hand. He's getting pot odds of 29% on the call, and his flush draw and one overcard don't give him that equity, especially as his Ace may not be live. However, he may believe you can have a weaker draw some of the time...

In the end, you were a tad unlucky but that's irrelevant because variance evens out over time. Just focus on your decision-making and whether you made the best choices you could have made.