9 replies to this topic

[Wily]

I'm heads up in a cut-throat $50 tournament that started with a grand total of 3 players. I know my opponent, Player J, pretty well - he's usually a very loose aggressive, wily player who either has a huge stack or busts out, but he is playing tighter to some degree in the tournament. We decided to keep the blinds very low - 10/20 with 3000 chips in total, to play some deep stack poker.First situation:My stack is 2200. J has 800. J raises a standard 60, I look down at Q J and call. Flop comes K J 6 . He bets 60 and I call with second pair.Turn is A . He bets 100, and I call with an gutshot and flush draw.River is J . He goes all in ... what the heck, and what do I do?Second situation:My stack is 700, and his is 2300. I'm the dealer and SB, and I look down at AQo. I raise it a standard 60, J immediately raises to 200. He could be doing this with a big ace, mid to low pocket pair, or even T9s going for a steal. Should I fold, call and see a flop, or push all-in?

[Absolute]

I would raise the flop to see where you are at. His half the pot bet is kind of weak, and I think you could take it or get a free card here.If he bet the pot or more I would argue to call or fold depending on the bet size. But with this bet, I would send out a feeler raise, to take down the pot here or make him consider folding a weak king. If he re-raises you, it's an easy fold. Just calling is the last thing I would do here.His turn bet is weak. I would raise the pot with the broadway draw, the flush draw, and a pair.I think the villian MIGHT have AK here. Poorly played, no doubt, but Q10 doesn't seem likely given his bets. AJ is the only hand I could put him on that beats you.I would call his overbet. I think it is most likely a steal attempt.

[holman3rd]

Absolute said:

I would raise the flop to see where you are at. His half the pot bet is kind of weak, and I think you could take it or get a free card here.If he bet the pot or more I would argue to call or fold depending on the bet size. But with this bet, I would send out a feeler raise, to take down the pot here or make him consider folding a weak king. If he re-raises you, it's an easy fold. Just calling is the last thing I would do here.His turn bet is weak. I would raise the pot with the broadway draw, the flush draw, and a pair.I think the villian MIGHT have AK here. Poorly played, no doubt, but Q10 doesn't seem likely given his bets. AJ is the only hand I could put him on that beats you.I would call his overbet. I think it is most likely a steal attempt.

I'm glad you capitalized "MIGHT" regarding his possibly holding AK. As you obviously realize, his river bet would be just plain dumb if that was the case (meaning, he only gets called if he's beat).I call here, expeciting to be shown Jx, and hopefully the x did not fill him up.Btw...raise after the flop.In the second situation, I'd just call. His re-raise looks like it wants action. Probably looking at a pocket pair here, imo. I dunnoh, maybe pushing is right, but I prefer a stop-n-go here.

[Wily]

Just wondering if I could get a little more feedback on these two hands.Some more information about my opponent- as much as I hate to admit it, J was probably favored heavily against me in this heads up match. Having lost a heads up game with my opponent just before this one, and being mostly a limit player, I definitely didn't want to feed him any more chips. Also, the small blind structure and deep stacks favored him a lot, since he could play with any two cards and spring traps.In this first hand, I think I let his jackal-ish style get the better of me. Often when he bets big he actually has a fairly marginal hand, but his small bets made me think he had a legitimate hand. On the flop, I wanted to see how the hand progressed, and from my read on him I think he was sandbagging me. I felt that I had some decent draws, and if I raised and was reraised I would be faced with a lot tougher situation to call. So I smooth called for a cheap card, and the turn appeared to help my draws. On the turn, I definitely didn't think I was ahead, and again, I had the sneaking suspicion he would push all in if I raised, so again I called. I thought I most likely had 14 outs - a 10, a club, and a jack. The jack, however, was the weakest possible out, so it was a really tough call for all-in. I'll reveal what he had in a day if I get some more responses.For the second situation, I'm just curious if you all think that AQ is a hand that can be pushed all in on a heads up match. I felt that if J had AA or KK, he mightve slow played them and let me see a flop as that's usually his style with top premium hands. I usually would not push all in with AQ facing a reraise, but, as I said before, I felt that I was definitely not the better player of the two, and a possible coin flip situation to regain a large chip lead was probably better than my odds if I folded this and kept playing small hands. Thanks-Y

[Vade]

Wily said:

I'm heads up in a cut-throat $50 tournament that started with a grand total of 3 players. I know my opponent, Player J, pretty well - he's usually a very loose aggressive, wily player who either has a huge stack or busts out, but he is playing tighter to some degree in the tournament. We decided to keep the blinds very low - 10/20 with 3000 chips in total, to play some deep stack poker.First situation:My stack is 2200. J has 800. J raises a standard 60, I look down at Q J and call. Flop comes K J 6 . He bets 60 and I call with second pair.Turn is A . He bets 100, and I call with an gutshot and flush draw.River is J . He goes all in ... what the heck, and what do I do?CallYou should have raised before the flop and on the flop. Why? QJsuited is a very good hand heads upOn the river, presuming your raises don't have all the money in the pot already, it's an easy call I thin. Yes, he could have Q-10. It's possible, but more then likely he has a weaker J or an ace Second situation:My stack is 700, and his is 2300. I'm the dealer and SB, and I look down at AQo. I raise it a standard 60, J immediately raises to 200. He could be doing this with a big ace, mid to low pocket pair, or even T9s going for a steal. Should I fold, call and see a flop, or push all-in?All inAQo is a premium hand, even when it's not heads up. You badly need a double up, and this is a good spot to look for it You said yourself that there is a lot of possibilities. Folding isn't good-you might not see a better hand until you're done, and Calling leaves you close to pot committed already

Note: My heads up play isn't one of my strengths, if someone else has a stronger sounding argument, I'd go with them.

[akishore]

hey yang.since i know jim... er, player J :-) ... very well also, here are some thoughts.hand 1:from what i know of jim, small bets are strong, and big bets are weak. his flop bet screams pair or better. what possible hands?KxJx6xKJK6J6KKJJ66AAthe turn bet is also pretty strong (since it's small), so either the turn helped him a lot, his hand was extra-strong on the flop, or he just doesn't really worry about the ace since he reads you physically for not really reacting to the ace like you hit it. what possible hands now?AKAJA6KJK6J6KKJJ66AAKxJx6xfinally, the river is just weird. we'll ignore it for now.here's what the big question is to me: if he flopped a monster (set or two pair), would he bet out??i know that in multiway pots, jim does not hesitate to slowplay flopped monsters. if he raises 2-4 UTG and the flop comes 2-2-x, he will check it rather than follow through with aggression. however, he will sometimes also do this with just A-K on a missed flop--he mixes up his game nicely. he also did this similar strategy with a flopped flush in a three-way pot with me, when he raised from the small blind.based on these previous hands, i would think he didn't flop a monster (two pair or set), so he either has a pocket pair, or a pair. also, the turn either then helped him or he's ignoring the ace. based on this, i would think he has one of the following:AKAJA6KxJxyou beat more than half of those hands, so it's a call. but regardless...now, here's a second point which you might not know: jim waits to push until the river, regardless of what comes. here are two hands from memory i've played with him:three-handed, he's in SB, button raises, he calls, i call from BB. we both check, button bets, both of us call. turn gives me two pair, he checks, i bet out, button folds, he calls. river pairs the board (though i still have two pair), he pushes, i call and lose to his turned straight.heads-up, i flop top two pair, he checks, i bet, he calls. turn seems to be a blank, he checks, i bet, he raises, i reraise, he calls. river pairs the board (fills me up), he pushes, i call, he shows a flopped straight and loses.based on this, i think that the river did NOT help him. that is, i think he was strong before the river. combine this with the first read (he isn't very strong, but he is somewhat strong), and i think he has two pair, specifically, AK.based on this, i would call the first hand.even if you don't do all this math, i think it's an easy call on the river considering it's heads-up and that it's jim. just use those two reads, and i think that you're good. but maybe you're posting this because you lost the hand, maybe because you were up against AJ. i still think calling is correct, because i think he'd play AK, Kx, Ax QQ/TT/... the same way.hand 2:you nailed it on the head... he slowplays AA/KK/QQ to raises (he only calls a raise with them), but he reraises mid pocket pairs and AK. because of that, you reraise/push if you want a coinflip and just call if you want to play it out post-flop (which i wouldn't recommend doing against jim). i would take the gamble that the only hand which i'm worried about is AK, and i would push here. against a player who's equal to me or worse than me, i definitely call, but against jim, i push.hope this helps. let me know if you want any more information about jim. i have some extensive notes on him, and even though he's a tricky player, i think i'm starting to get a decent read on him.aseem

[Wily]

First hand:Jim had AA. Wow. I've never seen him happier than when I called his all-in on the river and he started scooping the pot, pausing in the middle to announce "aces full". You know what I'm talking about, when he's sure he's got the hand :PSecond hand:Absolutely correct about the mid pocket pairs. Jim had 99. He spiked a 9 on the flop and won the $150 purse. I don't think I played either hand incredibly incorrectly. The first hand, I really couldn't imagine him on AA, and AJ was very unlikely. Q 10 was a possibility, as he would've played it the same way, but I figured with my QJ it was also remote heads up. The second hand, I figured that with my chances against him, I had to push with AQ. Thoughts?

[Wily]

First hand:Jim had AA. Wow. I've never seen him happier than when I called his all-in on the river and he started scooping the pot, pausing in the middle to announce "aces full". You know what I'm talking about, when he's sure he's got the hand :PSecond hand:Absolutely correct about the mid pocket pairs. Jim had 99. He spiked a 9 on the flop and won the $150 purse. I don't think I played either hand incredibly incorrectly. The first hand, I really couldn't imagine him on AA, and AJ was very unlikely. Q 10 was a possibility, as he would've played it the same way, but I figured with my QJ it was also remote heads up. The second hand, I figured that with my chances against him, I had to push with AQ. Thoughts?

[akishore]

yeah, i think you played both hands correctly as well.just as a point, it helps to note jim's physical state when he's in a big hand with you. next time, when you're caught in this situation, take note of his posture, whether he's nervous (very uptight, not moving) or calm (relaxed, leg shaking), where his eyes are directed (you, your chips, the board, away from the table), and other general characteristics.i think that if you could get a decent physical read on him, it would help you out a lot in both marginal situations (albeit the second one wasn't exactly marginal).aseem

[Wily]

Do you think this is straight out of Mike Caro - weak (looking nervous) means very strong, big raises and overconfident look mean bluff? I know one clear tell - when he makes a large raise or an all-in raise to a preflop raiser's bet, and says "now you fold" - he has a strong but not invincible hand (2 pair or overpair). I've seen this a few times, and usually he has a great read, but sometimes if I spike a straight or set I make a small bet and get him to raise like this.

akishore said:

yeah, i think you played both hands correctly as well.just as a point, it helps to note jim's physical state when he's in a big hand with you. next time, when you're caught in this situation, take note of his posture, whether he's nervous (very uptight, not moving) or calm (relaxed, leg shaking), where his eyes are directed (you, your chips, the board, away from the table), and other general characteristics.i think that if you could get a decent physical read on him, it would help you out a lot in both marginal situations (albeit the second one wasn't exactly marginal).aseem