Okay, so here are today's questions.

Do you check or bet the flop? Why?

Do you check or bet the turn? Why?



Absolute Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $0.02/$0.04
4 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is SB with
UTG folds, Button calls, Hero raises, BB calls, Button calls.

Flop: (6SB, 3 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, Button calls.

Turn: (4.5BB, 3 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, Button folds.

River: (6.5BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.

Results:
Final pot: 8.5BB

Bet, bet, bet.

Straightforward play is usually best.

Also, when you convert, change the format to FCP. You can even save the changes so you don't have to do it every time.

Seriously though, checking either the flop or turn is FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome).

The reason for the flop bet is simple. Would you bet AK in this spot? AT, 99, etc? My style is to c-bet pretty relentlessly, so, in order for them to be effective, you have to bet your strong hands too.

The turn is a bit less cut and dry. If you have a read that he will bet when checked to, then by all means, c/r. I wouldn't do it very often though, as again, I like to keep it going on the turn as well, with some c-betting.

I actually c/r the river with quad queens once, and it was sexy, but I wouldn't do it very often. (ie once in my life).

I have a forum-related question to anyone who reads this...

Would you put potatoman's posts into SH or leave them in Micro?

They actually fall under the SH definition, but I don't want to be too quick to move them...

I don't play at Absolute (yet). Would it say 6 Max Limit if it was a short handed table? If this can be a full table, at this limit, I think you can leave it here. People may have left the table. Either way, I don't think players at this level would adjust their play to the shorthanded situation, unless they came to play specifically a shorthanded game.

If you disagree with this, then I think you should move it, since technically it is sh. Just let OP know it's moved and why. I'm sure you do this anyway.

It wouldn't say. His other post is (6 players) too. I was just curious.

IMO, the biggest issue is this forum even existing. FCP is too small to support both this Micro forum, and the main LHE forum. They should be combined, IMO.

Anyways, I'm working on that.

For now, you're right, these should be moved, so I will do it.

I say go ahead and combined them. I don't think there is a significant difference in strategy between a .50-1 or 1-2 game, and a 2-4 or 3-6 game.

Just because a hand posted is 10-20L doesn't mean someone couldn't apply the strategies learned in the post to a .25-.50L game, and vice versa.

I can't do it, or I would. I mean, I could mass move all the posts from Micro, but an Admin would have to delete the micro forum, redo the descriptions, etc.

Damn. Didn't realize it took that much work.

Oh well.

The biggest weakness that most poker players have is their loose calls.
The easiest way for us to make money in poker is to take advantage if this weakness.
Thus the most profitable decision in limit poker here is to always to bet out with your monsters.

The idea of checking is to disguise your hand.
But betting often disguises your hand even better.
Because villains likely assume you would slowplay your monsters.

Keep it simple.
Bet your monsters.
And collect profit from all the loose callers.

--CM

Eh... my gut feeling is it's a waste of time generally to ask a question which basically boils down to "how do I maximize value when I have quads?" Hands like this come around so infrequently that there's no sense gameplanning too heavily around them. Most of the time when the deck really hits you like this it comes at the expense of your opponents having nothing and you're just not going to win a very big pot. As it is, I probably would have played this hand as you did at .02-.04 or 60-120, and hope my opponent paid me off with a deuce or a hand like A-7.

It is always good to be prepared.

--cm