A Couple of Limit Hands

[peterbirks]

A couple of boring hands that show the subtle differences that can lead you to make a different decision in superficially similar situations. What was interesting about this pair of hands is that one came immediately after the other.



$2/$4 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, January 07, 02:40:01 EDT 2006

Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: eaglebob ( $292 )
Seat 2 (Button): Flow_Joe ( $284.25 )
Seat 4 (Small Blind) mityarrow ( $59.75 )
Seat 6 (Big Blind) mohlaaja ( $97 )
Seat 7: iamzippin2 ( $97 )
Seat 8: joemcb2002 ( $110.92 )
Seat 9: Birks ( $160.16 )
Seat 10: bluelamp ( $200.50 )

Dealt to Birks [ Jh Ad ]

iamzippin2 folds.
joemcb2002 calls [$2].
Birks raises [$4].
bluelamp folds.
eaglebob folds.
Flow_Joe folds.
mityarrow folds.
mohlaaja calls [$2].
joemcb2002 calls [$2].

** Dealing Flop ** [ 2d, 6d, Tc ]

I’d prefer a rainbow, but, without me improving, this is still a reasonable flop for me.

mohlaaja checks.
joemcb2002 checks.
Birks bets [$2].
mohlaaja folds.
joemcb2002 folds.

Birks does not show cards.
Birks wins $15

I know some players who would dump AJ off in MP1, while others would, even worse, flat-call with it. However, there are only eight players in the hand and I had been fairly quiet for a while. I had no laggy reputation. The table had shown itself to be fairly conservative.


This was the very next hand.

$2/$4 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, January 07, 02:40:34 EDT 2006

Seat 1: eaglebob ( $292 )
Seat 2: Flow_Joe ( $284.25 )
Seat 3: (Posting) BIG_SLICK_CP ( $100 )
Seat 4 (Button): mityarrow ( $58.75 )
Seat 6: (Small Blind) mohlaaja ( $93 )
Seat 7: (Big Blind) iamzippin2 ( $97 )
Seat 8: joemcb2002 ( $106.92 )
Seat 9: Birks ( $169.16 )
Seat 10: bluelamp ( $200.50 )

Dealt to Birks [ Jh As ]

joemcb2002 folds.
Birks folds.
bluelamp raises [$4].
eaglebob folds.
Flow_Joe folds.
BIG_SLICK_CP calls [$2].
mityarrow folds.
mohlaaja folds.
iamzippin2 folds.

Why the immediate fold from me? Well, firstly I am in UTG+1 rather than MP1 in a nine-player game rather than an eight-player game. Secondly, there is a poster behind me, which makes it far more likely that I am going to end up in a multi-way contested pot, at which AJ off out-of-position is horrible. And, finally, I have raised the previous hand and taken down the pot uncontested. Whenever you do this, you need to have tighter raising standards for a couple of hands.

** Dealing Flop ** [ 5h, 8h, Kc ]

bluelamp bets [$2].
BIG_SLICK_CP folds.
bluelamp does not show cards.
bluelamp wins $13

Comments

boring hands

[(Anonymous)]

Brian Frew here.

Now I found that really interesting - for a boring pair of hands :-) It demonstrates a subtlety of play that I can only aspire to.

I suppose though that it depends on where and who you are playing. At the level and with the folk you are playing with, I am sure you are right. I am currently adjusting my game to .25/50 on Pacific, where things are terribly loose. I'd be interested to know if you would do the same thing in that sort of game?

I am about to move up to the 50/1.00 level where doubtless I will have to make another adjustment.

Re: boring hands

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Hi Brian: Glad you liked the hands.

I think that I have answered your question in my comments on the second hand. Ace-Jack off when you are going to get multiple opponents who have position on you (as, for example, in a .25/50 game on Pacific) is a horrible hand. You throw it away. However, if it was a loose-passive game, you might limp with something as weak as Ace-Seven suited.

In loose-passive games, the old Sklansky rankings hold together (they were, after all, compiled with the assumption that about 40% of players would see a flop, and that many of these players would be passive).

$2-$4 is a bit low for me these days, and I have to be careful not to be a calling station. But my funds on Party are still building up. With luck I'll be at $3-$6 from the start of February and at $5-$10 from the start of March. Now, once you start going above $5-$10, you do get levels of subtlety that are interesting. I called the above "boring" because I gave little thought to either hand while playing them -- all the plays were automatic. However, I was aware that they illustrated some interesting points for people learning about limit.

PJ

Re: boring hands

[(Anonymous)]

Cheers for that Pete - it confirmed my thinking. Brian