16 replies to this topic

[iam5hashank]

Hi All,I am new here and hope to learn a lot along the way. Few issues i have had with my play lately is Playing Monsters.Every time i get AA or KK i run into confusion whether to slow play and trap or to be protective/aggressive. I am not sure how many of you will agree but 90% of the times or 9 out of 10 times i have tried to trap with monsters i have had bad beats. Its not that i keep checking and wait for villain to bet. This how i usually try to playSlow Play Trap:I would try to raise so much so that i can isolate to one or at max two callers if i am out of position. If i have the button i usually call the raise with one raiser and one limper or re-raise to isolate the limper. If the flop is scary (chances of Flush Draw or a Straight Draw) i would go super aggressive and would either bet pot size or may be higher if i have higher and more than 50BB. if I am short or less than 20BB i would push with all my stack after flop. If flop is rainbow and nothing more than bricks i would check and bet on turn and river.AggressiveI would re-raise 3 times the BB or original raise and if i am sure that the villain has not hit a set i would try to get all the chips in on turn. If the flop is scary i would go all in.Quite frankly i have had extreme bad luck with slow play. I have taken so many bad beats that i have started hating monsters. This was my recent bad beatTournament: 3.5$+R 180 Players MTTLast 19 Players remaining tournament is Hand for HandI had about 70K stack and was running 5th. Blinds were 3.5K/7KI was at cutoff and chip leader/tournament leader with a stack of around 140K raises to 15KI re-raised with AA (none of them was heart) to 31500 (I wanted to trap this maniac)He waits about 8 seconds and flat calls.Flop: Ac 2h 8hManiac moves all inI put my thinking hat onVillain has Ax and he hit his A or both A and xhe has been min raising every hand pre-flop for last 5 hands. All folded to him. He flat called me. He could have Ax but chances of him hitting an Ace and me hitting a set pretty low. Even if he had an ace and he hit two pair i am way ahead and he is not going to improve. I decided if i am right he is just trying to push me off the pot.Villain is on Ace High flush Draw or flush drawIf he has Ace high flush draw he could possibly push like this. With his stack similar thought would cross my mind on the bubble when first prize is 542$. With around 77K in the pot and his all in (Pot was now around 115K). There are chances that he has Ax flush draw as he just flat called pre-flop and is going all in now. He has a piece of flop and can really improve. Best piece was Ace. So i finally convinced myself that he has Ace high flush draw. But i have a set of Ace. He has 9 outs to make flush and i have six outs to make full house plus i am way ahead at this time. Also If i win the pot i will be the chip leader. So i decided to call.Turn comes Qd and the river is a 6h.I kept looking at the window for like 10 minutes. I just could not believe that happened to me yet again with aces and i was the bubble boy when i should have finished well within the money.I know i will get comments like bad beat and like forget and look forward. But this has happened to me so many Mfkin times that i cannot stop myself from noticing. I am so hit by such hands that i am scared to play Aces and Kings in pocket.Any words of wisdom or inspiration are most welcome. Please don't tell me my initial raise was bad.......I opened my hand description by saying i wanted to trap that maniac!--BestShashank

[iam5hashank]

Missed to mention.....maniac had Ah9h--BestShashank

[TrueAce13]

Cannot. Be. Real.

[donk4life]

I mean, online poker is rigged. There's your first problem, quit playing online.

[kobe2odom8]

Call him bad names in chat and move on to the next one #justbadluck

[iam5hashank]

donk4life, on 05 August 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

I mean, online poker is rigged. There's your first problem, quit playing online.

Seriously? I read this a lot but truly should i be laughing or start taking it seriously?

[donk4life]

It's an interesting dilemma. Personally, I believe each site has computer software to give some players the "Run Bad" as some young kids say. There's too many instances where you call go all in with your pocket cowboys only to be up against some donks ace rag and they hit an ace on the flop and you're walking out the door wondering what the **** just happened. Or, you go browse porn to cool down. Personally, I believe online sites grant players who play recklessly better luck since it generates more rake for them and it's all about $$$, always the $$$. I rarely get out of line with AA or KK anymore and accept an all in before the floop. I know I can get away from a flop no matter my chip stack with AA if the board isn't right.

[iam5hashank]

donk4life, on 05 August 2012 - 06:43 PM, said:

It's an interesting dilemma. Personally, I believe each site has computer software to give some players the "Run Bad" as some young kids say. There's too many instances where you call go all in with your pocket cowboys only to be up against some donks ace rag and they hit an ace on the flop and you're walking out the door wondering what the **** just happened. Or, you go browse porn to cool down. Personally, I believe online sites grant players who play recklessly better luck since it generates more rake for them and it's all about $$$, always the $$$. I rarely get out of line with AA or KK anymore and accept an all in before the floop. I know I can get away from a flop no matter my chip stack with AA if the board isn't right.

so let me ask u. if u were in my place....how wd u play this hand.....preflop and going forward.

[iam5hashank]

TrueAce13, on 05 August 2012 - 06:19 PM, said:

Cannot. Be. Real.

 Hand History.jpg   20.58K   14 downloadsIs that real now? although i messed up rags!

[donk4life]

Okay in all seriousness. You did nothing wrong on this hand. Online poker isn't rigged, you don't lose everytime you have AA or KK. You're just remembering the time where you bubbled a tournament with AA. There's literally not one thing you could have done differently.You have the ****ing nuts on the flop. Don't ever consider folding this even if you are on the bubble of any tournament, no matter the buy in.Sorry it didn't work out, but for god sakes this hand has no strat value whatsoever.

[TrueAce13]

uh oh, opening up pandora's box!

[iam5hashank]

donk4life, on 05 August 2012 - 07:23 PM, said:

Okay in all seriousness. You did nothing wrong on this hand. Online poker isn't rigged, you don't lose everytime you have AA or KK. You're just remembering the time where you bubbled a tournament with AA. There's literally not one thing you could have done differently.You have the ****ing nuts on the flop. Don't ever consider folding this even if you are on the bubble of any tournament, no matter the buy in.Sorry it didn't work out, but for god sakes this hand has no strat value whatsoever.

Got you. But still i would ask you one more time. Do you think if i went all in pre-flop maniac would have folded? Would you recommend that play?Shashank

[donk4life]

you have aces.you don't want your opponent to fold.

[iam5hashank]

Thanks, really appreciate ur time and input on this. hope i have good roll today. take care and good luck all.Shashank

[Nativehero]

10 BB just shove.......

[Mercury69]

I dunno, man. Sitting down at a table with Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman is a mixed bag of WTF. You get such a wide range of play, you never know who's playing what style. I think Dracula has the best overall talent but tends to be nitty, The Wolfman plays like a Russian, so he might call off his entire stack with T4s just as easily as AA. Frankenstein plays like a drunk college kid, but that doesn't mean he's not going to get a good hand or go on a rush once in a while.Just one thing: Do NOT get any of them angry.

[answer20]

I think you are really playing just fine. You may be giving off smoke signals when you play a bit and you are getting people to try and draw out on you ... YOU WANT THIS!! The run of bad cards will change. You need to try to remember that you were WAY ahead here with a re-draw, you are never folding ... even at the bubble. Unless you fold pre-Flop 'just cuz'.Biggest thing is don't try to do the things you are seeing be done against you unless you truly have your head in the right place. Make sure you mix up your play both in and out of position.Pot size (not control) seems to bite you ... my guess is that you win lots of small pots and lose the big ones (more often than you think) ... good luck