Thursday, July 23, 2009

tokens, cash, and betting

Monday night i used one of my $26 tokens that i won on Sunday. I decided to play a satt to a $216 ftops event that was paying 5 of 22 when i entered which included 2 seats, an 80 dollar prize, and a 50 dollar prize. After reg was done it ended up paying out 3 sets and 22 dollars to 4th. Unfortunately I came in 6th.

I managed to double up early on by sneakily checking top 2 pair on the flop and getting someone to commit with AT on a AK3 board. When i got down to the final table i lost 2k of my 4.5k stack jamming 77 into KK in a bvb battle. A little later i jammed A7o over a limp w/ like 7bbs and ran into 99 who limped utg. Nothing i could really do but it was kinda annoying to come so close.

This morning at work i fired up some deuces cracked vids and was watching hand histories from 25nl. I got the itch and decided to open up a table. Listening to the vids's suggestion, i opened up a fresh table and waited for fish to join. They did, buying in for 40bb stacks of 10 bucks and a couple interesting hands came up which id like to share.


Im very happy with how i played this hand. Cbetting on a board this wet is dangerous but i really want to bloat the pot should one of my draws come. Him raising me on the flop could mean a hand like QT AQ, a better draw like KJ or clubs. Its pretty open. I cold call because half the deck hits me in the face.

I turn the effective nuts, unless he was raising AJ on the flop and consider raising the turn. His bet puts the pot at 16 bucks with 12 behind. I think that he will jam the river with all hands that would call my jam on the turn, plus he might bluff with a busted club draw. I think that calling here lets me play the river close to perfectly. If i was out of position i might jam the turn but in position i think calling is much better, it obviously worked out well in the end.

This second hand comes from the beginning of a table being created. The villain here turned out to be a fish who ran real well. he would also overbet/get it in on the turn whenever he had a strong hand.


TBH I was really confused during this hand. I liked my cbet, and knowing what i know now about this villain i would not have bet the turn. He loves c/ring turn bets w/ a made hand. I definitely managed to put myself in a really gross spot with this hand and paid the price on the river. Please comment on where exactly i fucked up on this hand.

All in all in my first cash excursion since my 100dollar loss today started off great as i built up a solid 60 dollar stack for +$35. i then donked off $10 to a shortstacker, and this pot and one more to end the session at +$7 respectable.

Now, i would like to talk about raising in microstakes cash and id love to hear some views in the comments.

I have always been under the impression since i learned poker that you should always raise the same amount, 3bb 3.5bb or whatever to prevent people from being able to gain info off your betsizing. Then i learned that raising pot (3.5bb) was generally the best option and if someone limped and i wanted to raise i should bet 4.5bbs. Well, since ive been watching deuces cracked vids ive been hearing a different story.

First, they say that when betting, cbetting etc i should be betting less with worse hands and more w/ strong hands . For instance: betting 1.5 vs 2 in a 2.25 pot. this is because players at these stakes will not realize the difference. Thats not really what i want to talk about right here though, i want to touch on opening. DC coaches have been stressing that i should open to more im in early position or the hijack and less if im on the button.

Their idea is that if im on the button i should raise to $.75(at 25nl) and if im in the hijack (UTG+1) i should raise to $1. The reasoning is that i want to buy position with my raises. If i raise early i need to fold out the cutoff and button so i should raise more. However, if im on the button i already have position locked up so i can bet less and just outplay people postflop.

This seems sort of counterintuitive to me. I feel like if im on the button i should be raising larger and trying to bloat the pot since i will win the pot on the flop so often. Im not really sure which is the best option. The DC reasoning does make sense too, but idk where i stand right now. Please comment with opinions.

1 comment:

  1. Hand 1: I think you played the hand really well. The only thing I might change is 3betting and getting it in on the flop. If we call the c/r and miss on the turn, we lose alot of our equity. I think its a close spot and your route definitely works well (especially when you run g00t)

    Hand 2: The hand is standard until the turn. I dont think we should almost ever bet here. We dont usually have the best hand here and hes giving us a free card to our good draw. Id just check it back and reevaluate on the river.

    As for your question about preflop betsizing, I almost always bet pot just cause its easier and quicker. This, in my opinion, is not the optimal strategy however.

    I think the DC coaches are correct. When we bet big in early position it makes it easier to steal the blinds since they are less inclined to call. Since we only have to get through 2 or 3 people in the BTN or CO respectively, we can risk less when trying to steal. The issue of bloating the pot when on the button is not actually as crucial as it initially seems. We have great opportunities to bloat the pots on later streets. money that goes in preflop represents a tiny portion of a normal pot.

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