Still Sorting This Out
liquid's YTD: $740.70
A hand from last night has been bugging me, and it took me most of today to figure out why. I'm new at this. It takes me a while.
Foe is a non-maniacal LAG whose apparent modus operandi in raised pots is to play them to steal them, having shown down two truly terrible starting hands in such situations.
I don't mind this flop, but I figure this is a good opportunity to push back at foe, so:
And sure enough:
At first I thought it was foe's call that bugged me. If he actually had a 2, or even a strong flush draw, I'd expect this foe to re-raise. I have trouble putting him on any kind of draw that would merit a call against the high pair he must put me on, especially since he should know what's coming from me on the turn. (And indeed he folded when I went all-in on a 9d turn, but that's beside the point.) Maybe he was just surprised by my reraise and made a mistake. Regardless, most hands are either way ahead of or way behind my overpair, so he should have a clear raise-or-fold decision.
Given this conclusion, maybe it's my play that is the problem here. Did I make a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't play? I was ready to call a re-reraise, so I wasn't betting for information. If I'm prepared to commit all my chips anyway, why not smooth call and let foe keep betting into me? I'd already determined that if he's behind now, he's not likely to catch up. But instead I bullied my way into a no-win situation -- either I lose all my chips, or I chase off a dominated foe before he's done betting out. (The fact that he mistakenly called my re-raise doesn't make my play better, as I genuinely did not expect a call.)
I may be overanalyzing here. Maybe he had kings and was ahead. Maybe he had a decent straight draw and could have caught up. And even if I did not maximize my profits for this one hand, I did (I think) accomplish what I un-analytically set out to do: make a deep-stacked aggressive foe hesitant to steal against me later in the session. Can a play be bad for a hand but good for a session?
A hand from last night has been bugging me, and it took me most of today to figure out why. I'm new at this. It takes me a while.
Omaha Hi $0.50-$1 PL (real money), hand #760,xxx,xxx
Table Bakersfield, 24 Mar 2005 10:30 PM
Seat 1: UTG+1 ($11.50 in chips)
Seat 2: hero [10C,JD,QC,QD] ($49.50 in chips)
Seat 3: MP2 ($9.25 in chips)
Seat 4: CO ($67.75 in chips)
Seat 5: foe ($152.25 in chips)
Seat 6: SB ($63.75 in chips)
Seat 8: BB ($45 in chips)
Seat 10: UTG ($68.25 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
SB posts blind ($0.25), BB posts blind ($0.50).
PRE-FLOP
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $0.50, hero bets $2.25, MP2 folds, CO folds, foe calls $2.25, SB folds, BB folds, UTG+1 calls $1.75.
Foe is a non-maniacal LAG whose apparent modus operandi in raised pots is to play them to steal them, having shown down two truly terrible starting hands in such situations.
FLOP [board cards 2H,2D,6D ]
UTG+1 checks
I don't mind this flop, but I figure this is a good opportunity to push back at foe, so:
hero checks
And sure enough:
foe bets $7, UTG+1 folds, hero bets $21, foe calls $14.
At first I thought it was foe's call that bugged me. If he actually had a 2, or even a strong flush draw, I'd expect this foe to re-raise. I have trouble putting him on any kind of draw that would merit a call against the high pair he must put me on, especially since he should know what's coming from me on the turn. (And indeed he folded when I went all-in on a 9d turn, but that's beside the point.) Maybe he was just surprised by my reraise and made a mistake. Regardless, most hands are either way ahead of or way behind my overpair, so he should have a clear raise-or-fold decision.
Given this conclusion, maybe it's my play that is the problem here. Did I make a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't play? I was ready to call a re-reraise, so I wasn't betting for information. If I'm prepared to commit all my chips anyway, why not smooth call and let foe keep betting into me? I'd already determined that if he's behind now, he's not likely to catch up. But instead I bullied my way into a no-win situation -- either I lose all my chips, or I chase off a dominated foe before he's done betting out. (The fact that he mistakenly called my re-raise doesn't make my play better, as I genuinely did not expect a call.)
I may be overanalyzing here. Maybe he had kings and was ahead. Maybe he had a decent straight draw and could have caught up. And even if I did not maximize my profits for this one hand, I did (I think) accomplish what I un-analytically set out to do: make a deep-stacked aggressive foe hesitant to steal against me later in the session. Can a play be bad for a hand but good for a session?
posted by liquid at 11:57 PM
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