roadtorobusto

I noticed something today while I was talking about a pretty simple hand today with a friend. The hand really isn’t all that important but the discussion we had — or at least the process behind the question — was.

The hand itself was pretty boring and would’ve gotten a one word response had I posted it in the forums: bet the flop. Somehow instead though, we got sidetracked on the hypothetical questions that surround a hand, the what ifs, and it turned into something pretty interesting (I think) rather than some simple question/answer format.

• What if I bet the flop, and he raised? What range do I put him on then? How should I play against that?
• What if he’s loose? What should I do on the river? How much should I bet? How about if he’s aggressive?

What was a pretty simple question turned into a 30 minute discussion. About one hand.

Poker’s often a pretty simple game but it gets interesting when you think about the simple changes that can make an interesting hand boring or a boring hand interesting. I think that’s the area where those who are willing to practice hypotheticals really begin to stand out from the crowd. Give it a try the next time you post something in the forums.

See the hand here at Deucescracked.com.

I’m still thinking over my river play, but I think my flop and turn play don’t really leave a lot to be discussed. Basically, what I’m trying to do is maximize any profit I can get vs flush draws and bluffs, and in the very rare event that I’m behind, not lose a ton of bets. In addition — and this is the reason I played the river as I did — I’m trying to avoid losing money to a chopping hand by increasing the rake. At Full Tilt, where I played this hand, the $1/2 6m game rakes $.25 out of every $5 in the pot up to $20 (a 10BB pot). As you’ll notice, even by playing the hand passively, the rake has inreased to $.75 by the time we reach the river. If I were able to say, for certain, that my opponent were donkish in one way or another (too aggressive, too showdown-happy, etc.) then I’d definitely put in more bets on the river — but on this particular board, I feel like his hand range is somewhat polarized.

Here’s what I guess I mean. He could have a pocket pair, but that’s fairly rare. He’d 3bet me, IMO, with 88+ and in these games, I see more and more players 3betting any pair in blind battles vs a SB opener. So on the flop, his handrange is mostly air, some pocket pairs (but not many), and Ax and 6x hands waiting to pop the turn. I think air is believable as many aggressive opponents call flops very lightly intending to either fold or raise the turn as a bluff. I could sometimes see him having King high or Queen high here as well, but below that I tend to categorize as “air.”

Back to the potsize and the small, but still somewhat important, question of rake. If I checkraise and he 3bets, I have to call even though I’m chopping a large % of the time (duh). Once the pot reaches 10BB, then another $.25 (1/8BB) is taken from the pot. The impact of this wouldn’t be large if it weren’t likely that my opponent were doing one of the following things:

1) 3betting a chopping hand.

2) Folding a bluff.

3) 3betting a winning hand.

I’m not particularly concerned about being behind on this board, but at the same time, the board is A6668. There aren’t a huge range of hands that, without villain having stood out yet, he could have here that are going to bet-call the river that I beat. That isn’t to say that 55 won’t occasionally play this way, as it certainly will, but it’s mitigated by the large % of the time that I lose 1/16 of a BB to a chop + am up against a bluff + have to call vs a 3bet.

I’m still not completely sold that check-calling the river here is better than checkraising. Having no rake would lead me to checkraise, and the impact of the rake on this isolated hand is not huge, but I felt at the time that it was big enough to not give my opponent the ability to put in more bets on the river.

Once all of that is said, I think that given the dynamic above, and the fact that I don’t have a great read yet (and I always want a strong read on the players immediately to my right and left) gives me an additional reason to play my hand passively: seeing a showdown here allows me to gauge my opponent’s tendencies in blind battles, and in spots where I’m not going to flop this well nearly this often, it’s nice to be able to play a little better vs. them in the future. So since there isn’t a ton of upside to raising, as I’ve spelled out, and there is a lot of upside to calling, I elected to call here.

My opponent showed T4o, and I dragged the pot my way. Later in the session, I tried to incorporate that read into how he would play vs me, especially given how passively I had played the hand. Having a read was nice, for sure — but who knows, maybe he would have bluff-3bet my river checkraise and I would have missed a lot of bets.

Played for the first time today in what feels like ages. Video is coming — 80 minutes of me 2-tabling $1/2 6m.

I’ll post one hand, real quicklike. I’m working on taking reads since I have no real “poker” software and am trying to get a good grip on the table by 2-tabling and paying lots of attention.

I open in the SB with As8s. The BB calls. I don’t have much on him at all; he seems a bit aggressive but my reads are fairly limited. His stack is shorter than average but not short enough for me to believe he’s a stackoffmonkey.

The flop is Ac6c6s. I bet, and he calls. The turn is the 6d. I check, he bets, and I call. The river is the 5c. I check, he bets, and I call.

10/20 game a few days ago. I open with 6s6d in LMP, the SB 3bets. He’s a tough aggressive player, but seems to spew a bit at times. Is certainly capable of moves. I call.

The flop is Qc8c5c. He bets, and I call quickly. My RIO aren’t all that great on this sort of board if I intend to showdown a lot but I feel comfortable that I can sometimes bluffraise clubs and sometimes showdown and sometimes fold the turn or the river, just depending on what comes. If a T-A comes on the turn and he bets I’m mucking, if a 4, 7, or 9 comes I’m making him bet both the turn and the river.

The turn is the 7c, putting a 4flush on board. He checks after thinking for a few seconds (we were multitabling together, so this could be a timing tell or could just be multitabling whatever). I bet pretty quickly, and he thinks again — not very long but long enough to notice that it wasn’t automatic for him — and raises.

I 3bet without hesitation.

I know this isn’t quite in line with other posts that I make here (microlimit hands), but a lot of my hands that I’ve been playing at the FT games have been vs. very aggressive opponents who have flaws in their game, but still can play quite well. I’m hesitant to advise anyone to try a play like this without realizing the consequences and how spewy it will be often, but at the same time, I do think it’s important to be able to take your reads on your opponents to the next level and act accordingly. Sometimes that means entering that zone where you either fuck a hand up royally or do something that feels brilliant. Sometimes it’s right on that thin line. I dunno. I’ll try to post more of these sorts of hands in the future as they happen for RoadtoRobusto videos (I’m uploading a new one right now!), but for the time being, you’ll have to settle for this.

I posted a new RoadtoRobusto video over at Deucescracked. Sample this time is only 2 minutes but still has a few interesting spots…

One, two horrible players limp and I complete A4o. The BB who seems loose passive (this is only 20 minutes into a session) raises, the limper call, and I fold.

The next, it’s folded to a TAG who raises OTB. I 3bet with ATo, the SB and BB both call (whoops), and the TAG caps (double that). We all call. The flop is 554r — or 544r, I can’t remember exactly — he bets and I call. I think this one is boring but maybe worth some discussion.

Other than that, the session was largely uneventful even though I dropped a lot of bets. I made a lot of turn folds vs loosepassive raises/checkraises and got to showdown less often than I normally do, winning at showdown even less often. Here’s the main reason for this:

MP openlimps, and he’s bad. Horrible. Not good at all. I raise K9o OTB early in the session with a read on the BB but no read on the SB. They both call. 4-ways for 8SB. The flop is T67r and it’s checked to me. I check. Same action on a 2 turn, and on a 4 river the BB (chronic slowplayer; I’ve never seen him bluff) bets out, MP folds and obviously I fold. I think preflop and the flop are pretty close and maybe merit a bit of discussion because they’re certainly not standard.