Did I play this right?

DietChips

Bearing in mind this player had previously been very passive, how should I have played this?

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
dax33	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£1.85
hohoho662	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£2.87
	Your hole cards	9 Q
_G_	Raise		£0.16	£0.22	£2.13
faceache	Fold
DietChips	Call		£0.16	£0.38	£3.68
bri49	Fold
dax33	Fold
hohoho662	Fold
Flop
		J Q 4
_G_	Bet		£0.68	£1.06	£1.45
DietChips	Call		£0.68	£1.74	£3.00
Turn
		K
_G_	All-in		£1.45	£3.19	£0.00
DietChips	?

I will reveal what I actually did after a few responses...

percival09

fold pre

ugh you have to call flop bet because you played 9Q to surely hit a Q so you can't fold now - you've already played the hand bad enough so imo cut your losses and fold to turn bet

KAM99

Pretty sure we coverd not playing marginal hands at this limit in another thread. This is easy fold preflop, as you don't want to be playing this junk even on the button, and more so not flatting preflop raise when you can be dominated quite easy. As played fold, as so little you are beating here other than him barreling with some sort of second pair, which is possible at this level, but I doubt it. Remember Q7 is about middle of pack in hand strength, so you are playing a very loose game calling with this type of hand.

GREGHOGG

100% fold pre

Dudeskin8

Very easy fold pre.

Flop he bets almost twice pot which is quite strong lol but you have hit one of the good flops for your hand so can't fold now.

Turn he shoves and tbh I would be quite surprised if you're good here.

Also even if you made the call and somehow won it doesn't make the pre flop play right and the fact the raiser pre has just over 50bbs makes it even more poor. 

EvilPingu

Fold pre.

At 4NL, don't do anything complicated, just keep it simple and play big hands strongly.

DietChips

I think this is where I've been going wrong at 4NL, playing marginal hands and eventually losing due to other people only playing monsters. But what should my range be pre, just top cards and pocket pairs 88 or above?

By the way, I folded in the end and accepted I was probably beat...

Turn
		K Spades (Image won't work)
_G_	All-in		£1.45	£3.19	£0.00
DietChips	Fold
_G_	Muck
_G_	Win		£1.60		£1.60
_G_	Return		£1.45	£0.14

Dudeskin8

In Response to Re: Did I play this right?:

I think this is where I've been going wrong at 4NL, playing marginal hands and eventually losing due to other people only playing monsters. But what should my range be pre, just top cards and pocket pairs 88 or above? By the way, I folded in the end and accepted I was probably beat... Turn     K Spades (Image won't work)       _G_ All-in   £1.45 £3.19 £0.00 DietChips Fold         _G_ Muck         _G_ Win   £1.60   £1.60 _G_ Return   £1.45 £0.14
Posted by DietChips

Only a VERY small percentage play monsters at NL4, the vast majority play any two cards. 

In terms of range it should be tight so high broadways, QT+/KT+/AT+ but the worse hands only play from later position, i.e raising QTo UTG on 6-handed table at NL4 would not be a great idea but on the CO/Btn it's fine. Also all pairs within reason by which I mean you can opt to open limp UTG w/22-55 instead of raising but depends how loose table is.

Overall though just cut out all types of flat calls like this hand as it'll never be profitable long term. 

DietChips

Okay, thanks a lot Dudeskin. Taken note and going to have a quick session now! 

KAM99

One extra note I didn't mention last night. If you come across someone playing 50bb, they are often using highly nitty shove poker. Not always at that level, but certainly at most others. Which means they are often playing a super tight range of hands and then playing them uber aggressive hoping to get it all in vs someone. So as a general rule I'm playing even tighter range against a shorty. I'm not bothering often to call them with small PP's or suited connectors (accept maybe if someone else calls them). More often than not its just not worth it.

One thing you can do is download something like Pokerstove, which is a useful equity tool, but also you can set say hands by percentages. So you could set yourself limits to play your hands by postion for a time. So maybe say only limit yourself to play the top 5% of hands from UTG. That way you have a guide of what those hands are.

Another good habit to get into is that you should really consider that your calling range often is better to be stronger than your opening range. Certainly while playing at loose low level limits its best to be tight, as you normally want to be playing opposite of what the table is, and so if people are playing garbage and lots in a pot, you want to be waiting to make them pay.

As you move up in skill and stakes you may start to break rules as your game hopefully is good enough to do so, and its needed to balance your game and not be to predictable, but at low limits 99% of the players there arent watching you, so no need to do anything other than ABC poker.

DietChips

Just lost 100BBs in a session, ended with AA v 99 which I bet/called all the way to see them find a 9 on the river. So annoying! Took a rather big chunk out of my declining bank roll...

I'll take a look at Pokerstove though and see if I can turn myself around

TINTIN

first thing i noticed about this hand was it was against an opponent that you had played previous in a hand you posted in the clinic, the advice then was dont call with raggy hands to a pre raise and im afraid its the same advice here, the king on the turn has stopped you going broke after hitting 1 of the few flops that your hand likes

KAM99

In Response to Re: Did I play this right?:

Just lost 100BBs in a session, ended with AA v 99 which I bet/called all the way to see them find a 9 on the river. So annoying! Took a rather big chunk out of my declining bank roll... I'll take a look a t Pokerstove though and see if I can turn myself around
Posted by DietChips

Yes annoying when looked at as a loss. But a positive that someone is willing to play that badly with 99. So this time he got lucky, but the next four times he does this (on average) he loses his stack. So you on average are going to be up when same situation happens five times (on average of course). Pokers is long term with results, so don't get to discouraged by when the odds go against you.