August 14, 2008

All or Nothing

Here's an interesting hand the villain berated me for in chat for a while...I like my line, but feel free to comment and tell me if I just got lucky this time or if this is a good play. Without further ado, the HH and my comments:

Seat 4: bruechips (UTG+1) ($222.60)
Seat 8: CO ($103.65)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bruechips [9d 9s]
bruechips raises to $4 (Standard open...but I'll note here that my image at the table was probably not so good since I had been playing a pretty LAG style)
CO calls $4 (My stats on him were 13/9, we have no history)

*** FLOP *** [3s Tc Th]
bruechips bets $6.50
CO calls $6.50 (This call means almost nothing. He could have Txs here, but I think he'd raise that pretty often. I raised UTG+1, I'm supposed to have a hand, I'm an aggressive player...I think if he had a T or threes full, or AA/KK had he slowplayed it preflop, he'd put in a small raise and hope I'd go nuts. But I'm not ruling out he'd slowplay those hands. However I felt like a monster part of his range were pocket pairs, both bigger (JJ, sometimes QQ), and, more often, smaller than mine, and random broadway cards.) 

*** TURN *** [3s Tc Th] [5h]
bruechips bets $14 (I have no reason to believe I don't have the best hand, and when I think I have the best hand, I usually bet. Check-folding would be way too weak. Check-raising is possible - it does get value out of his overcards-type hands, but I would almost be committing myself to call a shove, and he also won't bet some of the hands I want to get value out of by leading, such as 88-66. Check-calling kind of turns my hand face up, which is maybe not so terrible, but I don't think it's the best line, just because he knows exactly where I'm at.)
CO raises to $31 (OK, now the hand gets interesting. Turn raises are usually red flags that you are up against some sort of monster. But I said on the flop that I thought he was floating me a lot. If he's floating the flop, there's a good chance he'll try to make a move  when I make another small-ish bet. And there are really very few monster hands that he can rep here. 33, Txs, and 55...just not that many hands. Especially I have a couple of 9s, eliminating two of the T9s combos. The key is that I don't think he'd play anything in between a monster and air like this. The only other possibility would be some big hearts that he floated on the flop and then picked up a draw with on the turn. It would be VERY rare for someone to play QQ or JJ like this. When all you beat is bluffs and you think your opponent is bluffing a lot, calling is usually the way to go.)
bruechips calls $17

*** RIVER *** [3s Tc Th 5h] [5s]
bruechips checks
CO bets $62.15, and is all in
bruechips calls $62.15 (The 5s is pretty much the best card I could hope for that's not a 9 or a T. It makes 55 less probable. And I think when I check he'd be more likely to check down 33, since any T or 5 beats him. Also hearts miss, so if he had them, he'd have to bluff to win the pot. So his shove is either a T or nothing. Or maybe 66-88 which he's betting trying to make me fold a bigger pp. It's a situation where his betting represents a big hand but the board didn't give him very many big hands to represent.)

*** SHOW DOWN ***
CO shows [Qh Kc] two pair, Tens and Fives
bruechips wins the pot ($205.80) with two pair, Tens and Nines

Thoughts?

-BRUECHIPS


3 comments:

Gnome said...

I may have been more inclined to check-call the turn. That would have controlled the pot size in the event that you were beaten, and it would have given your opponent more room to bluff (although he chose to bluff anyway).
I don't think betting the turn is bad, but I don't think check-calling necessarily turns you hand face-up. There are many times when it's appropriate to check-call the turn on a paired board with Ax against an aggressive player because it figures to be best. As in this hand, Ax would have been the best hand as well as 99. Sure, you'll rarely or never be check-calling with a T, but your range of other hands is wide enough to compensate.
These paired-board situations come up a lot in heads-up play. Unless you flop trips, controlling the pot size is often wise. On the other hand, you maximized value in this case.

spritpot said...

Yea I think he might be more willing to bet the turn and river for value with QQ or JJ when I check/call the turn rather than when I lead it. Also if I check/call the turn I pretty much have to check/call the river again, and I give him an opportunity to check behind and get to showdown much cheaper with a lower pocket pair. I'm not sure what I would have done if he had just called the turn. I think I would have bet like 1/2 pot on the river and folded if he shoved.

Fuel55 said...

You are crushed once in a while here but more often its a villian-thinks-he-can-get-me-fold-66-99-spot here.

I'd do the same thing in a bigger game not so sure at these limits.

Villian shows some decent thinking.