Commerce Casino 5/10 NLHE (8-handed)

Cobalt $1050
CO $650
Button $900

Cobalt is SB w/ J J . I've been playing TAG and have a good, well-respected table image. CO is competent and thinking. Button is loose and bad.

Pre-flop:
3 folds, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO raises to $40, Button calls, Cobalt calls, 2 folds

Flop ($140): Q T 9 (3 players)
Cobalt checks, CO bets $125, 1 fold, Cobalt raises to $300

way to price yourself in if he pushes

LOL. I thought the same thing. I've done the same thing.

Cobalt I really like the way you play No Limit. I bet you do really really well in these games.

I'd play the hand like this. You'd like the pot right here, as further streets will be tough to play out of position. If he shoves, you roll your eyes, say "Go ahead" and stick them in there.

What're your plans for the turn if he calls?

Oh and given COs stack size, did you give any thought to pushing? I usually don't, because this seems scarier, but I'm wondering if there's any merit to it. I am a bad NL player.

Re-evaluate then...but probably realize that he's not going anywhere at that point. Yeah, I can push here, but it looks more like I'm on a draw if I do that. It still may get the fold that I'm looking for, but sometimes making these "awkward" raises are as you said...scarier.

I'm curious as to whether your holding the Jd affected the way you chose to play out the hand. If you're evaluating the texture of the board, having that card blocks some of your opponent's potential holdings that could have you really crushed and might boost the value of a semi-bluff check-raise. Did you consider this, or would you have made the same play with JhJs?

well havin the jd does do something for us though not a huge amount...it helps us eliminate the oesfd which would have us in a huge hole while also making the villian have to deal with the possibility that we have that. It also means one less diamond left in the deck

Do you think you have the best hand on the flop, Cobalt?

I'm guessing absolutely not, but this isn't a hand played on hand strength, it's played on betting power and a draw as a backup plan.

Can villain call $300 (whatever) here with AQo?
Did villian stay with Q 10?
What about 10 10?
Of course, villain can re-pop all in with AQd.


I just lost a hand exactly like this Sat night.
Flush draw on the board.
I hold 10 10 for middle set and bet out UTG.
Get the call from pocket JJ and the flush draw in late position folds (?)
Of course, villain hits his two outer for a set of jacks on the river.
(I'm on a horrific historic horrific bad run).


Cobalt would make for an interesting game. That's for sure.

Reraising preflop here is my standard line. The reason i like 3 getting preflop here is to avoid these situation where we have a good hand but have no idea if its good and being OOP it costs us alot to find out.

As played and considering CO's stack i either fold or push based on any reads i may have and whether ot not i think he can fold KQ. I dont like these spots because you are forced to guess on a scary board OOP and to be honest this is why i hate just flat calling in the blinds with any hand. You have reduced your JJ to a hand like 44 where you can not safely continue unless you hit a set.

As played i don't see what your raise really achieves other than commiting you to call a push as a dog. The only hand that has you beat that may fold to a raise by you is KQ, and your raise is not enough to fold it.

I read some of your recent posts here, and you play a really odd brand of poker.

We're raising here because if we're ahead, letting him play for free is just a bad idea. Even if he's folding a 2 outer, we'd still rather him make a mistake and call, or fold. You'll feel like a total schmuck if you flat call, he spikes an ace on the turn, and shows us AK or A9 or AT or something.

Besides, lots of players make folds you can't even imagine. Give him a chance to fold AA/KK. Give him a chance to laydown AQ or KQ. This is a very scary board for AQ. Lots of cold-calling hands just flopped a monster here. What raises the villain besides a straight, a set, two pair, or Jx? He's got to commit the rest of his checks to the pot, and hope we have just a draw and don't get there.

Putting pressure on this flop is a good idea


EDIT- I see the diamond draw there, too. That could be raising as well, making our raise slightly less scary.

We usually raise for value or raise as a bluff. What are we raising for here? It seems to me that we fold out all hands we beat and we are called by all hands that beat us. Thats not a profitable way to play poker and i believe the reason we are in this terrible spot is because of the flat call preflop which i hate with JJ OOP against 2 villians.

You've actually homed in on something that struck me here at the time. We hold a couple of the "key" cards on this flop...basically cards that would be important to hold if you wanted to feel comfortable at all. It reduces the chances that he's on the same draw as us, and holding the Jd reduces the likelihood that he'd got any sort of good diamond draw he can come at us with. I might've made the same play without the Jd, but it was certainly a factor that I considered in my favor.


It's possible...though I could really only think of one or two hands that I was ahead of. Something about his manner, bet-size, and action to the point was screaming that he hated that flop. I know that I'd hate that flop in his shoes with AA/KK/AK/AQ/KQ.


That hand's not available to him. He could have AdTd...but again...I couldn't put him on that.


I don't disagree that this is an option, and I'd certainly take it at times. As it stood though, I felt we were deep enough that I could comfortably see a flop and make a decision then. Once I check the flop and the button folds, we're HU and I get a chance to make my decision on whether to continue or not. I didn't feel flat-calling the flop was much of an option.


We're raising as a semi-bluff here, and given my read, we fold out a lot of hands that we beat and even if we don't...we've got a decent chance to drawout.

I'd rather not reraise OOP with JJ here. I'm comfortable enough playing it after the flop and keeping pressure on. I'd rather not create a big pot when I'm in real trouble. It's a tricky hand to play, but I'd much rather call than bloat the pot by making a potsized reraise.

We're raising to protect our hand when we're ahead, but mostly because this flop is dangerous for most hands. It wouldn't be very difficult for the viallain to muck a Queen here at all. It's more than just a purebluff because we've got something like 9ish+ effective outs (given backdoor diamond draw and 2 jacks, taking into account the fact that a jack kills us if he has a king in his hand, and he may have a better diamond, etc.) By raising here we commit ourselves to the pot, but that's not a bad thing. We have a lot of fold equity here on a dangerous board, especially if Cobalt has stayed inline.

Wang

Exactly why this raise is a little iffy. We're not drawing to our set, we're drawing to the straight.

Wait, what? Well, of course we're not praying to spike a jack. But it's good some of the time. I don't care if you discount the jacks as outs altogether when we're behind. We're still ahead some of the time, make a winning hand with a straight or running diamonds some other portion, and fold out a better hand. Raising gives us a lot of ways to win this big pot.

I am going to go as far as to say that is you want to raise here then you have to push. The raise achieves nothing in my opinion as there is not 1 hand that ia ahead of you that will fold because it is too small. A semi bluff should be designed to fold hands that you beat as is profitable because you will have some fold equity. This raise does not fold 1 single hand that beats us and therefore achieving nothing. If the raise will not fold a hand like KQ then it is spew as far as i am concerned.

You're not thinking deeply enough. I wouldn't have made this play without a read that the guy's good enough to lay down top pair or even an overpair. Yeah, we can push, but we're actually much more likely to get called...because it'll look like we're drawing. With this raise, we've essentially "forced" him to play for the rest of his chips if he wants to continue. It's not like it was a min-raise...though it certainly wasn't overly large either. An effective bluff/semibluff says, "Hey...I really like my hand...do you like yours?"

I think we've gotten some good discussion on this thread, and I'm glad that most of y'all see this from my perspective. CO thought for a bit while I did my "stare at the felt...shake slightly from nervousness" routine (basically the same thing that happens when I have a huge hand). Finally, he resignedly said, "Well, I guess this can't be good," and mucked AQ face-up. Speculation was pretty rampant about what I had, though I declined to say more than "Good laydown" (I like having a solid image). He seemed to mostly settle on me having TT/99.

I prefer to bet out and 3-bet here. Since you are in one terrible spot if he calls your flop raise and you miss on the turn.
I'd be raising more on this flop as well. I'd rather raise to something like 400. Raising only 175 on top I think you'll be folding out a lot less then you think as people will call with the intention to see how things develop on the turn.

Also I reraise preflop. Rather try to take this down preflop with the dead money in between.

Very interesting hand Colbalt. You got skilzz brutha.

One day ...you'll be as good as me.

...maybe...