What was my opponent thinking?

fb90

Can someone please tell me why my opponent would play the hand why they did and why would they even play it in the first place?



Any guesses what the river was?

fb90

In Response to What was my opponent thinking?:

Can someone please tell me why my opponent would play the hand why they did and why would they even play it in the first place? Any guesses what the river was?
Posted by fb90

Sorry first time I've posted anything. Wasn't sure how to include hand IDs so I screen shot them. Hopefully they will/have loaded ok.

thicker11

Hi guys just wanted your views on a hand that just happened I'm still in shock I raise 3x the big blind in a cash game only 5p 10p get called by floppybob I have ak of clubs flop comes down q2q two clubs he bets half my stack so I shove over the top for another £1.66 and he calls with 4-5 no clubs I don't understand am I a moron or is that the worst call in history..... Obv he hits a 4 on the turn and wins.... Starting to think there's something funny goin on like he knew the 4 was coming how else could he call that....????? Very very very strange.... Would any body else ever make that call??? Answers greatly anticipated.....

F_Ivanovic

In Response to What was my opponent thinking?:

Can someone please tell me why my opponent would play the hand why they did and why would they even play it in the first place? Any guesses what the river was?
Posted by fb90

I could bet my life the river was a spade?

What were the blinds? If they were around the 75/150 or higher then the shove was completely standard. With only 10BB's left you want to be shoving or folding. When your opponent shoves, he increases his stack size by 15% if everyone folds - which most of the time is what will happen. Suppose he gets folds 80% of the time, then he increases his stack size by 225 80% of the time. If he gets called in 1 spot he has around 31-32% equity on average, and will have an expected loss of about 500 chips 20% of the time. 80% is equivalent to 4/5, so 4/5 times you shove you get a fold and win 225 chips - 225x4 = 900, total of 900 chips gained. 1 in 5 times you will get called and lose 500 chips. 900-500 = 400. What this means is that every time he shoves, his expected gain in chips is 400.

In poker, you can often shove with any 2 cards and it be profitable but you generally need a tighter range of cards to call a shove. This is because when you call a shove, you only have 1 way to win the hand - and that's by having the best hand by the river. When you are the one that's shoving, you have 2 ways of winning the hand - everyone folds, or someone calls and you win the hand by the river. 

F_Ivanovic

OK, so I missed the first photo (only clicked on the 2nd one which didn't show the stack sizes and previous action!) In that case, yes - the shove is a bit stranger. Maybe he had seen you opening lots of pots and decided that shoving would be a good action - there's a lot of money in the pot, and unless you have a high PP or AK/AQ it's going to be hard for you to call it off. And none of the other players look strong, so his shove could have a relatively high chance of success. Again, my previous post applies - if the shove has a high chance of success, then even though he's losing when called, he will make chips overall by making this play.

Of course the other possibility is that your opponent doesn't really know what he's doing and is overvaluing A7s. But that's poker

fb90

In Response to Re: What was my opponent thinking?:

OK, so I missed the first photo (only clicked on the 2nd one which didn't show the stack sizes and previous action!) In that case, yes - the shove is a bit stranger. Maybe he had seen you opening lots of pots and decided that shoving would be a good action - there's a lot of money in the pot, and unless you have a high PP or AK/AQ it's going to be hard for you to call it off. And none of the other players look strong, so his shove could have a relatively high chance of success. Again, my previous post applies - if the shove has a high chance of success, then even though he's losing when called, he will make chips overall by making this play. Of course the other possibility is that your opponent doesn't really know what he's doing and is overvaluing A7s. But that's poker
Posted by F_Ivanovic

Thanks for your response. Do you know how to post the hand ID to the thread? It might make it easier to explain? Cheers

fb90

In Response to Re: What was my opponent thinking?:

In Response to Re: What was my opponent thinking? : Thanks for your response. Do you know how to post the hand ID to the thread? It might make it easier to explain? Cheers
Posted by fb90

I think the blinds were only 25/50, I raised it x3 bb to 150.

hhyftrftdr

Without reading anything already, we shouldn't be concerned with how our opponents play. This is beyond our control. All we can and should do is play the hands and situations to the best of our ability. We can only influence our own game, don't worry how other play theirs.

Learning to adapt to some 'fruity' players/tables is a key element of poker.

hhyftrftdr

With regards to that specific hand, we should be over the moon. We've got someone to go all in pre flop with a dominated hand. This is good news. Essentially, the result doesn't matter.

Clearly you got unlucky this time, but if you get it in with AK vs A7 100 times then you will win the majority, chop a few and lose a few as well. You just happened to lose this time, but thems the breaks playing this game.

Need to look at the long term aspects of the game. This is a very profitable situation (to get it in whilst dominating), and you got your chips in ahead but just couldn't hold.

FWIW, this will happen many more times if you play the game frequently, so your best bet is to learn to take it on the chin, as you'll dish out a few bad beats along the way as well.

jdsallstar

Ivan and h have covered everything but i'd definitely be raising bigger preflop with ak in the small blind vs 3 limpers. I'd make it 250-300.

I want to get heads up with one of the limpers - i dont want to play ak first to act on the flop vs 3 or 4 players. We miss the flop 2 out 3 times and even if we do hit the flop against multiple oppos there's a greater chance they hit it harder. 

fb90

In Response to Re: What was my opponent thinking?:

Ivan and h have covered everything but i'd definitely be raising bigger preflop with ak in the small blind vs 3 limpers. I'd make it 250-300. I want to get heads up with one of the limpers - i dont want to play ak first to act on the flop vs 3 or 4 players. We miss the flop 2 out 3 times and even if we do hit the flop against multiple oppos there's a greater chance they hit it harder. 
Posted by jdsallstar

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I just can't understand why he would limp, then shove over the top of a 3xbb raise with nearly 55 bb. I didn't think he was strong at all hence the call. When I saw A7 spades I knew what would happen, even though I should have been happy to see that I had him dominated. If I'd raised much higher do you think he would have folded? It just seems that good play is never rewarded on online poker. But as people have said there's nothing you can do about your opponents decisions. Should I have put him on a stronger hand and folded in that situation?

jdsallstar

In Response to Re: What was my opponent thinking?:

In Response to Re: What was my opponent thinking? : Thanks for the feedback everyone. I just can't understand why he would limp, then shove over the top of a 3xbb raise with nearly 55 bb. I didn't think he was strong at all hence the call. When I saw A7 spades I knew what would happen, even though I should have been happy to see that I had him dominated. If I'd raised much higher do you think he would have folded? It just seems that good play is never rewarded on online poker. But as people have said there's nothing you can do about your opponents decisions. Should I have put him on a stronger hand and folded in that situation?
Posted by fb90

I didn't say to raise bigger

 to get him to fold. You want him to call. As i said the reason for the bigger raise preflop is to get rid of opponents to hopefully be heads up vs 1 player and to get value from those who want to call with weaker hands. Long term you gain value and they lose value. 

Remember with ak vs any hand you'll be at the most 70% fav.  So regardless of anything else you lose 1 in 3. But get a couple of these 70% favs to fall the right way for you and hey presto you get a nice cash. 

Given the stack sizes im certainly not folding here unless i had notes on the player that said he plays his monsters like that. I'd want to have seen him do this a few times before I'd even consider folding. 

All of thats just my opinion and thoughts there's much better players who might it play it different/better or explain it better.