A Donktastic No Limit Hand

[peterbirks]

A hand to illustrate the kind of thing that I occasionally come up against at this level. I'm going to giveit a month, but if this carries on I shall have to move to the $100 buy in. I suspect that the jump up in quality will be dramatic, but I won't get any better playing against opponents like this:

A preamble: I've been playing lots of raises in late, takin gpots down pre-flop, on the flop, or once, with gritted teeth, with a bit of a lumpy bet on the turn (I suspect that I could have taken one other pot down against top pair bad kicker with an al-in on the river, but I bottled it. My read was right (K6 suited he had) but I have no idea whether he would have folded to my all-in bet (which was about the size of the pot). I suspect that he would have.

Anyway, back to this hand:


buddha74 is at seat 1 with 36.42
sth11 is at seat 2 with 5.00
baba112 is at seat 3 with 0.00
kaasco is at seat 4 with 41.80
betiula777 is at seat 5 with 66.50
MAGIK HATT is at seat 6 with 74.55
JstGrindin is at seat 7 with 55.00
Birks is at seat 8 with 60.15
-Monni- is at seat 9 with 67.70
Donktastic is at seat 10 with 11.95

sth11 posts the large blind 0.50
buddha74 posts the small blind 0.25
-Monni- posts all blind 0.75

Birks: J♣, 9♠

Pre-flop:

MAGIK HATT: Call 0.50
Birks: Raise 1.50
Donktastic: Call 1.50
buddha74: Call 1.50
MAGIK HATT: Call 1.50

I'm two off the the button, there's a poster and just one limper. I had reraised this guy's raise the previous hand and he folded pre-flop (go figure), so I'm looking to bring him in for this hand and to hit him on the flop. I think that my 1.50 raise will likely push out the player in seat 9, who I know is tight, while seat 10, something of an unknown quantity, does not have a big stack, which usually also indicates tight play.

Flop (Board: 4◊, 6◊, J♠):

Well, I've hit top pair. This is worth a continuation. I've found about 80% to 90% of the pot works best here. If I'm called, I'm normally in trouble

buddha74: Check
MAGIK HATT: Check
Birks: Bet 6.00
Donktastic: All in for 10.45

Oh. Well, the logical assumption here, since he did not reraise me preflop, is that he either has AJ, a set, or an overpair. I'm really inclined to go with the overpair here, although I don't know why I thought that. I guess that I thought he would flat call with the set. Of course, since he can only put me in for an extra $4 into a $25 pot, I can't fold anything apart from (maybe) 7-2 off. With top pair, a call is automatic.

buddha74: Fold
MAGIK HATT: Fold
Birks: Call 4.45

Turn (Board: 4◊, 6◊, J♠, 9♣):


River (Board: 4◊, 6◊, J♠, 9♣, K♡):


Showdown:

Birks shows: J♣, 9♠ (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
Donktastic shows: 4♠, A♠ (a pair of Fours)

Mainpot:
Birks wins the pot of 26.05 with two pair, Jacks and Nines

Well, if anyone can explain the man's thought processes here, I'd be fascinated to know what they were. Presumably he thought he had some kind of fold equity, which is worrying.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's called tilt ... :-(

[(Anonymous)]

I dont really like this at all, especially at a full table. The hand is way to weak, and the preflop raise is way too small.

gl

bdd

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Indeed Dave. When I began I would have ditched this kind of hand without thought.

Then I started limping with it and stealing pots when a board such as Qxx rainbow was checked round to me. A near-pot size bet was taking it down.

Then I started the occasional raise to something like 8x the big blind, which tended to take down the pot pre-flop. So I started shrinking the level of the raise. The general aim was either to take down the hand pre-flop but, preferably, to get one caller and then to take down the pot with a bet on the flop. That way I win more money. Still experimenting here. Like you, I would have thought an 8xBB raise would be "about right", but (and you won't believe this) I've seen buttons raise three limpers to just 4x the BB, and for everyone (including the limpers) to fold pre-flop. How can that be right?

As I wrote earlier, they have a far greater tendency to fold inappropriately than they have to call inappropriately. There's little concept of pot odds and more a concept of absolute amounts, I think.

I was basically playing to win 50% of hands on the button, 1 off the button and two off the button, since I know that my OOP play is (at the moment) utterly abysmal). Hence the light raise (in terms of quality of hand). The light raise (in terms of it being only 5xBB) just came from experience of this particular table.

PJ

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

I've just noticed that my raise here was to $1.50. Yes, this is definitely too light. After playing around with various levels of raise, I think that $2.50 (5x the big blind) is about the right level.

PJ

[(Anonymous)]

Im on my hols so I cant comment as much as I would like. But I would say (a) the hand is just too light...J9s would just about fit the bill (b) the raise should be at least 5 if not 6x the blinds (c) if you want to make these kind of plays, short handed is much the better game for you

gl

dd