The struggle continues
Aug. 15th, 2005 08:25 amIt remains a serious struggle online at the moment. Once again this morning I made the mistake of granting the opposition too much credit. A typical example. I had AQ off in the big blind. Four limped in and the SB completed for three bucks. There's little point in me raising here. I am out of position and AQ off plays like rubbish in multi-wayers.
Flop comes J66 rainbow. It's checked round. Turn brings a Queen (two spades now on board). Small blind bets.
Well, I say to myself, the guy probably has either a worse queen or a Jack. If he had a six he would check again, because he must reckon that queen helps someone, so that would give him the check-raise.
I want to get rid of any straight or flush or gutshot players behind me (or at least make them pay for the privilege), so I raise. Remember, the important thing about limit is giving other players the opportunity to make a mistake. If I flat call here, then anyone behind me is getting pot odds to chase if they have either a straight draw or a flush draw. If I raise, they are not getting those odds, so if they then call, they are making a mistake. Whether or not they hit their card on the river is, in the long term, irrelevant.
Anyway, all pass back to the small blind (who only sat down two hands previously), who promptly reraises.
At this point I go into some kind of manic 100/200 thinking mode and say to myself "well, he must think that I am making a move. He must have a worse Queen and he thinks I am raising on a Jack, cursing the fact that I didn't bet the flop". So I call. And I call the river bet. And I lose to ten-six.
So, the guy just played it like a 2-4 player. Check the flop and, if no-one bets, then bet the turn. No matter that against nearly every other player at this level a second check on the turn (particularly with a queen appearing) is the better play. It just so happens that the guy was lucky enough to find me, who was thinking about it too deeply.
My raise on the turn is correct, but I can fold to that reraise without hesitation, unless I have strong knowledge that my opponent is good enough to make a semi-bluff reraise. At 5-10, very few of them have that in their armoury.
Luckily I stopped this deep thought, started playing as if my opponents really weren't all that bright, and folded hands where I had clearly been stiffed on the turn. Unfortunately, there were a lot of these... I crawled back to $100 down from a nadir of about $250 in the red, by which time the sequence of loosies all left -- some broke, some winning. So I quit the game. Self-discipline, or what?
Flop comes J66 rainbow. It's checked round. Turn brings a Queen (two spades now on board). Small blind bets.
Well, I say to myself, the guy probably has either a worse queen or a Jack. If he had a six he would check again, because he must reckon that queen helps someone, so that would give him the check-raise.
I want to get rid of any straight or flush or gutshot players behind me (or at least make them pay for the privilege), so I raise. Remember, the important thing about limit is giving other players the opportunity to make a mistake. If I flat call here, then anyone behind me is getting pot odds to chase if they have either a straight draw or a flush draw. If I raise, they are not getting those odds, so if they then call, they are making a mistake. Whether or not they hit their card on the river is, in the long term, irrelevant.
Anyway, all pass back to the small blind (who only sat down two hands previously), who promptly reraises.
At this point I go into some kind of manic 100/200 thinking mode and say to myself "well, he must think that I am making a move. He must have a worse Queen and he thinks I am raising on a Jack, cursing the fact that I didn't bet the flop". So I call. And I call the river bet. And I lose to ten-six.
So, the guy just played it like a 2-4 player. Check the flop and, if no-one bets, then bet the turn. No matter that against nearly every other player at this level a second check on the turn (particularly with a queen appearing) is the better play. It just so happens that the guy was lucky enough to find me, who was thinking about it too deeply.
My raise on the turn is correct, but I can fold to that reraise without hesitation, unless I have strong knowledge that my opponent is good enough to make a semi-bluff reraise. At 5-10, very few of them have that in their armoury.
Luckily I stopped this deep thought, started playing as if my opponents really weren't all that bright, and folded hands where I had clearly been stiffed on the turn. Unfortunately, there were a lot of these... I crawled back to $100 down from a nadir of about $250 in the red, by which time the sequence of loosies all left -- some broke, some winning. So I quit the game. Self-discipline, or what?