Art of the Min Raise (Part 17)

Gotta rove the tasty pot odds:

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Hold'em - 4 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/330499

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $88.80

Hero (CO): $70.40

BTN: $33.80

SB: $52.15

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with 5h 4h

Hero raises to $1.75, BTN calls $1.75, 2 folds (From the cutoff I'll certainly raise up just about any suited connector unless some really good player is at the table punishing me a bunch. Get called by a donkey on the button.)

Flop: ($4.25) 2h Ah 8c (2 players)

Hero bets $3, BTN calls $3 (Frop a frush draw and a gutter, standard c-bet the ace-high board.)

Turn: ($10.25) 5s (2 players)

Hero bets $6, BTN raises to $12, Hero calls $6 (Turn a pair...certainly not expecting him to fold an ace, but folding a weak eight or a pocket pair sevens and below isn't out of the question. He could also call with a bigger heart draw that doesn't have a pair, which is obviously fine. In any case he instead min-raises, which tells me that he has some kind of pretty big hand. I'd be totally shocked if he ended up with a flush draw taking this line, so I can be pretty sure that my heart outs are good, with the possible exception of the 8h. I'd expect that a 3 would give me the best hand pretty much always as well. Those 11 outs alone are enough to allow me to profitably call this min raise, calling 6 to win the 28 in the pot, plus almost certainly the remaining 17 in his stack. The 8h and the other two fives in the deck are a little dicier, but I think I'm good enough of the time that they add to the profitability of calling, even if sometimes I will get stacked. A river four and I'd probably check/fold. I'd expect to get bluffed fairly rarely, although occasionally it will go check/check and I'll have the best hand.)

River: ($34.25) Jh (2 players)

Hero bets $34.25, BTN calls $17.05 all in (Just the card I was looking for...time for a trip to valuetown!)

Final Pot: $68.35

Hero shows 5h 4h (a flush, Ace high)

BTN mucks Ac 8h

Hero wins $66.35

(Rake: $2.00)

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise (Part 16)

I don't know whether donkeys have been reading spritpot or just trying to get more clever in general, but I have been running into WAY more min 3-betting from aggro donkeys recently than I ever remember before.

Just as with normal 3-betting, it's somewhat difficult to combat when the villain is doing it with a wider range than AA/KK (where the clear response is to call with implied odds to get paid off huge if you nail the frop, like here). Of course, some of these donkeys are still willing to stack off with any pair post-frop after they min 3-bet pre-frop (see here and here).

But I'm wondering if I should start again playing my AK/AQ type hands more aggressively in these situations against players that have a lot more than AA and KK in their range. Here's an example from yesterday:

CO: $42.00

BTN: $199.40

SB: $64.15

BB: $4.60

Hero (UTG): $50.00

UTG+1: $97.25

MP1: $33.60

MP2: $50.95

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with Ks Ah

Hero raises to $1.75, 3 folds, CO raises to $3, 3 folds, Hero calls $1.25 (Raise UTG, get min 3-bet...usually means strength...I had like 12 hands on this guy and he had been really aggro, but I chickened out and just called. Calling a 3-bet out of position with AK is pretty crappy, but I can't exactly fold given these odds and the aggro opponent, even over a small sample, and 4-betting seems fraught with peril as well. If I make a smallish 4-bet to say, $9, he's going to call with about anything, and never be folding a pair or decent draw on the frop. Since I'm OOP, I'm going to have to take a stab at it, say $12 or so. Then I've already put in $21, and I'll pretty much have to call off the final $21 with any equity at all. If I make a bigger 4-bet, to $12, I might deter a call from some of the weaker hands, making subsequent decisions less complicated, but of course I'm losing more money to his big pair hands. Suggestions, please...just insta-felt with AK vs. a guy that's this aggro, even over 15 hands?)

Flop: ($6.75) 8d 2s 3c (2 players)

Hero checks, CO checks (Whiff...preparing to check/fold...his check behind not indicative of the big pair he is representing...)

Turn: ($6.75) Th (2 players)

Hero checks, CO checks (Not much reason for me to bet...hoping to keep pot small...)

River: ($6.75) 2h (2 players)

Hero bets $4, CO calls $4 (I actually thought this was a value bet. I think he'd look me up with A-high. But instead he turned top pair...rame...)

Final Pot: $14.75

CO shows 9d Td (two pair, Tens and Twos)

Hero shows Ks Ah (a pair of Twos)

CO wins $14.05

So anyway he did run me down with T9 and got some minimal value...and I think I could get some decent value out of him if I did frop a pair...but I felt kinda lost on the hand in general and it made me wonder if I'm getting pwnd more than I think by donks min 3-betting prefrop and then continuing on the frop (if he bets the frop, I instaford). Have other players been seeing more of this as well?

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise (Part 15)

Sometimes I wonder how Full Tilt comes up with the names for its tables. Is a table named 'Finger (deep)' supposed to be a joke? Moving on...I was scrolling through such tables recently and noticed that the players/flop stats on the Pot Limit Hold 'Em looked particularly juicy. Unfortunately these games don't seem to run above .25/.50 but I tried a few out just for fun and...WOW is the action there juicy. It's like a NLHE table from 2 years ago. 

Here was a nice donk method of playing a big pocket pair for 200 bbs:

Seat 1: bruechips (UTG+1) ($116.90)

Seat 8: BB ($100)

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to bruechips [Qs Qc]

bruechips raises to $1.75

BB raises to $3 (Donk method berrs going off in my head. Recentry I have seen a rot more min 3-betting in position with weaker hands (like 77/AT type of hands that then 5-b shove to a re-raise), especially from shorter stacks, but min re-raising my UTG+1 raise from the BB...that is some serious strength being shown by this donkey. If it's arr rags on the frop I wourd probabry carr one bet or something, but I am mostry set-mining here, as retarded as that sounds with QQ.) 

bruechips calls $1.25

*** FLOP *** [6c Jc Qh]

BB checks

bruechips bets $6.25 (Bingo. It might be tempting to check here or bet smaller because, if he's a decent player with an overpair, what can he really beat when I bet other than a total bluff? Also him having clubs is unlikely since his range is probably AA, KK, and AK. But here are the factors that make this not only a must-bet situation, but a must-bet-full-pot situation: 1) He's not a good player, he's a donkey, who will have a lot of trouble getting away from an overpair, 2) this is pot limit, so if I want to get in 200 bbs, I need to start by betting full pot now, 3) there are a lot of cards that could kill my action, even if I still have the best hand, like a T, a club, an A, a K...)

BB raises to $12.50 (Joy to the world!!! His second min raise of the hand! For the same reasons I bet to begin with, I raise here. He has either an overpair or JJ and there's no way he's going anywhere with any of those hands given his min raising donkery)

bruechips raises to $30

BB raises to $96.25 (He insta-re-pots for almost his entire stack)

bruechips raises to $113.90, and is all in

BB calls $0.75, and is all in

bruechips shows [Qs Qc]

BB shows [Kd Kh] (Classic donk method of the big pocket pair. Hopefully I don't need to tell you loyal readers that going broke for 200 bbs, or even 100 bbs, on this flop after showing a lot of strength preflop is absolutely terrible. My range is pretty much QQ, JJ, 66, AcKc, and AcQc, against which he has 18% equity.)

*** TURN *** [6c Jc Qh] [8d]

*** RIVER *** [6c Jc Qh 8d] [9h]

bruechips wins the pot ($197.25) with three of a kind, Queens

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise (Part 14)

Usually this series is about ridiculing donkeys in cash games that either min check-raise sets on very drawy boards or min 3-bet AA and KK preflop. But I do occasionally use the min-raise myself, particularly in tourneys. You want to make bets smaller in general in tourneys because you have to be more conservative with your chips, as you can't buy any more. Whereas in a cash game 100 bbs deep usually the min-raise means a monster (or sometimes air on a dry board), in tourneys (and sometimes vs. shorties in a cash game), the min raise often means a weak made hand such as top pair-weak kicker or even A-high. For me personally, I most often use it when I call a pre-flop raise in position, usually in a blind battle, and want to min-raise a c-bet. Here are a couple of examples:

Seat 5: SB (1,455)
Seat 6: bruechips (BB) (1,500)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bruechips [Ad Jd]
7 folds...
SB raises to 90
BB calls 60 (I'm very tight early in tourneys so I don't want to re-raise here although I would often in a cash game, but AJs way too strong to fold to a SB open.)

*** FLOP *** [Kc 9d 2s]
SB bets 90
bruechips raises to 180 (This is a good spot to min-raise because it's a dry board that he'll be c-betting every time, and this is how I would play weak-ish made hands such as KJ as well as 99 and 22. I'm also just forcing him into a really tough spot. Even if he has a hand as strong as JJ, he's faced with the possibility of either re-raising and getting shoved on by all the hands that beat him and folding out all the hands that are behind, or calling and having potentially to face a couple of big turn and river bets. By putting in 180, I force him to make a decision for a much larger portion of his stack.)
SB folds

Just to prove that I don't have just bluffs there:

Seat 4: SB (5,420)
Seat 5: bruechips (BB) (5,345)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bruechips [Td Kd]
SB raises to 600
BB calls 300 (Deep enough to just call and use position here.)

*** FLOP *** [Tc Ks 6h]
SB bets 900 (c-bet he'd make every tiem)
bruechips raises to 1,800 (Now I'm hoping he has KQ, or that he has nothing and the min-raise just makes him go nuts, since he knows that I know he'd c-bet every time, and thinks I have AJ or J9 or something.)
SB raises to 2,700 (Sure enough he min 3-bets like a complete donkey)
bruechips raises to 4,720, and is all in (He looked committed enough to me, so I shoved...calling the 3-bet and just getting it all in on the turn is fine too, but just calling the 3-bet with 2,000 behind might set off alarm bells for him, whereas shoving might look bluffy)
SB calls 2,020
SB shows [8s 8d] (Sure enough, the min raise made this idiot go nuts)
*** TURN *** [Tc Ks 6h] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Tc Ks 6h 4c] [8c]

Unfortunately, this donkey nails a two-outter on the river to bounce me from this tourney. Fawking donkeys....

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise (Part 13)

As you may have noticed from the hand histories I've been posting, I've recently been playing a lot of .25/.50 6-max. While it may be kind of lame to play that low when I play 1/2 full ring and am well-rolled enough to play higher than that, I am playing pretty much exclusively deep tables, so I'm in for 200 bbs pretty much all the time, variance in 6-max is greater, players, on average, are better - or at least more aggressive - in 6-max games, and I have less experience playing 6-max. So it seems to make sense to kind of start low and work my way up. As I've mentioned before, I like to play for stakes where I'm able to go with my reads and make what I think is the right play, and not worry about the amount of money I'm putting in or giving up.

Anyway, this leads me to one of the differences I've noticed between 6-max and full ring. In full ring, we have chronicled here many times the "donk method of playing AA and KK", which entails min 3-betting preflop and then stacking off on any flop. In 6-max, you'll often see donks min re-raising preflop with much more marginal hands. They will still stack off if they hit anything on the flop though. I think their idea is that they're repping AA or KK by min re-raising preflop (whereas full ring donks think that min re-raising is repping a weak hand since they're not putting in much more money), so they should get credit for an overpair after the flop. Here's an example:

Seat 1: CO ($50)
Seat 4: BB ($71.20)
Seat 5: bruechips (UTG) ($111.25)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bruechips [Qh Ah]
bruechips raises to $1.75
CO calls $1.75
BB raises to $3 (Note the out of position min re-raise in a multi-way pot. Kind of your first clue that a: this player is a moron, and b: this could be something other than AA or KK)
bruechips calls $1.25
CO calls $1.25

*** FLOP *** [Jd 4c Qd]
BB bets $9.25
bruechips calls $9.25 (BB makes the obbligatory pot-sized continuation bet. I have no reason to fold or raise here. If the CO raises, I will probably be giving it up no matter what the BB does.)
CO folds

*** TURN *** [Jd 4c Qd] [8c]
BB bets $58.95, and is all in (Now an overbet shove when the 8c hits. In a full ring game, I might give this more credit as "I have an overpair and the board is starting to look gross, but I know I'm not going to fold so I might as well just shove". But in a 6-max game, where players make wild bluffs much more often, there's much more of a chance not only that this guy has some legit big draws, like AcKc or AdKd, but also some dogshit hands like JT or 89. He could even have me beat with J8. But in a 6-max game, I think this is really a call, even when this deep.)
bruechips calls $58.95
BB shows [Qs 9h]

*** RIVER *** [Jd 4c Qd 8c] [8d]
bruechips wins the pot ($142.65) with two pair, Queens and Eights

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise (Part 12)

As this guy shows, the donk method of AA isn't reserved for just pre-flop betting. You can definitely donk it up with min betting and raising post-flop:

Seat 2: SB ($115.45)
Seat 8: CO ($100)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Qc Td]
folds to me...HERO raises to $3.50 (standard...maybe a little on the loose side, but pretty standard from the CO)
SB calls $3

*** FLOP *** [4d Ks 9h]
SB bets $1 (Donks love these min lead bets into a pre-flop raiser. I pretty much treat them as a check and bet whatever I normally would bet.)
HERO raises to $6 (This is basically like my c-bet. I would definitely be c-betting this flop. When he bets $1, I'm assuming it's a check and betting $6 as I normally would, repping AK or KQ, which I could obviously have)
SB raises to $11 (MIN re-raise on this K-high dry board. This is rarely a bluff. When you raise pre-flop, people put you on AK, since it's the most common hand to raise with. The others are AA and KK, which hit this flop hard too. So I doubt his re-raise is a bluff. It's possible he knows that I'll be raising his min donk bet often and is testing me again, but usually in this spot he will have at least KJ. So since he HAS a hand, I can call to hit my gutshot, since it's only $5 and the pot is already $20, plus we have another $85 or so behind.)
HERO calls $5

*** TURN *** [4d Ks 9h] [Kc]
SB checks
HERO checks (Bad card because now I could be drawing dead. Again going with my read that he's strong, I check here. Of course he's never folding any K or a boat, and there's some chance he might now continue with a pair below the K ,like TT or A9, since the extra K on board makes it less likely I have one. If he checks again on the river, I might fire to try and take it away.)

*** RIVER *** [4d Ks 9h Kc] [Jd]
SB bets $30
HERO calls $30 (This is kind of close between calling and raising. His calling range is probably AA, AK, KQ,KJ,KT,K9, KK, 99, 44, and JJ. I beat 26 combos and lose to 22 combos. But some of the hands I'm beating like AA and AK he only plays this way on earlier streets sometimes, whereas I think he takes this line more consistently with 99, 44, and KJ.  Also I'm not positive he'd call a shove on the river with AA...so I decided to just call.)

*** SHOW DOWN ***
SB shows [As Ad] two pair, Aces and Kings
HERO wins the pot ($87) with a straight, King high

So I called $5 on the flop to buy the turn card, got the river for free, and ending up winning back the $15 I already had in there before my flop call, plus the $48 he put in during the hand. Definitely a good return for that investment, especially since if I had gotten there on the turn, I could have won his whole stack with betting on two streets.

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise (Part 11)

This was an extra-donkish method of playing AA since this villain got not 1, but 200 big blinds in drawing dead on the frop:

Seat 2: MP ($146.90)
Seat 6: HERO ($100)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Td 9d]
HERO raises to $1.75 (I think this is pretty standard in 6-max these days)
MP raises to $3
HERO calls $1.25

*** FLOP *** [8s 7c 6s] (Nuts!)
HERO bets $5 (I decided best way to build the pot this deep was to lead...he might get suspicious of a check-raise, but he was such a monster donk that it probably wouldn't have mattered)
MP raises to $10 (Note that he min-raises again here on the frop. On an 876 two-flushed board. I love donkeys!!!) 
HERO raises to $30 (Keep building the pot while he seems interested...200 bbs deep, you can't slowplay much if you want to get it all-in. Also a spade, 4, 5, or 9 could scare him.)
MP raises to $50 (Min raise #3!!!!)
HERO raises to $97, and is all in (Pretty clear he's not getting away now, ship it)
MP instacalls $47
HERO shows [Td 9d]
MP shows [Ad As]
*** TURN *** [8s 7c 6s] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [8s 7c 6s 5c] [4h]
HERO wins the pot ($197.75) with a straight, Ten high

-BRUECHIPS

Kind of a bad beat that you didn't have the DONK covered in this spot...cuz its obvious he is stacking off here. I wonder if there is a stack size where he would find a fold...doubtful. SHIP the 200bbs with 93% equity on the frop...VERY TASTYYYY!

-BRACKCHIPS

Yea there's no way he would have folded even if I had had him covered. Unfortunately this was like my 4th hand at the table so I hadn't accumulated a stack yet. I would estimate that I'd be able to get at least 400 bbs on the flop....if he had more than that...I might have had to wait till the turn. For all three streets of betting, I think I could get in 6-700 bbs total if we had been that deep. 

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise - Part 10

Aporogies for not posting the rast coupre of days. It has been a rough run at the tables for me recently, and I have been grinding really hard just to kind of stay even. Tonight was a nice sesh, so hopefully that's the start of a nice upswong :)

With all of the preflop min 3-betting ("the donk method of playing AA and KK"), you might think that's the only time donks use the min raise. You would be wrong. Here's one donk that put in the smallest raise possible with his set on this very draw-heavy board and then gave me all his chips when I hit on the turn:

Seat 7: MP1 ($285.25)
Seat 9 (CO): HERO ($201.75)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Ts Qd]
MP1 calls $2
HERO raises to $10 (This is definitely a little loose, but the limper is a donk, and when donks limp, I raise. Often. Even with Q-high unsuited.)
MP1 calls $8

*** FLOP *** [7s 9h Jc]
MP1 checks
HERO bets $18 (This is defintely not a great board to c-bet. Almost all his hands have either a pair or a straight draw or both. But I have a strong draw as well, and I don't think he'll raise a hand like JT, so the bet builds a pot so that if I hit my draw, I can stack him. I'll also fold out 22-66 as well as maybe some A4s type of hands.)
MP1 raises to $36 (Donk alert!! His min raise on this board usually means a pretty strong hand, one that he will stack off with. I guess he wants to raise just a little bit so that I'll call down with some hand like AA that's drawing almost dead? I don't know. But I am more than happy to pay just $18 more to draw to the nuts. I would love it if he had T8 or a set.)
HERO calls $18

*** TURN *** [7s 9h Jc] [8s] (Bingo!!!)
MP1 checks (He's worried, the board looks scary now.)
HERO bets $70 (Bet enough so that he won't be able to resist putting in the rest on the river)
MP1 calls $70 (He's not worried enough to fold)

*** RIVER *** [7s 9h Jc 8s] [2s]
MP1 checks
HERO bets $85.75, and is all in
MP1 calls $85.75 (He can't resist)

*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO shows [Ts Qd] a straight, Queen high
MP1 mucked [9s 9c] - three of a kind, Nines

The post-flop min-raise has all the same elements of its donkish cousin, the pre-flop min re-raise. First you put in as little money as possible with a very strong hand (in this case, the third nuts), and then give all your money to your opponent when it is obvious you have the worst hand. Now if I could just make nut straights more often....

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise - Part 9

Ok so as you can tell right now…this hand should technically fall under the Art of the Min Raise series. The 3b made by the villain was not a min raise…but it was in fact a VERY small raise…the standard here with full stax should be to 120ish. Nevertheless, let me get into this hand further.

Is my UTG preflop raise possibly a bit too aggro? Possibly, but I felt very in control at this particular table and opted to play this hand for an open raise. Open limping is pretty much exclusively for gheys and donkaments so if I’m going to play this hand, I’m raising…and if I get 3b, I wirr muck or proceed with caution.

So after opening to 35, superdonk makes it 94. I opted to make somewhat of a roose call here…but I definitely had my reasons.
a) this player had not 3b me so I figured his range to be polarized to a big pair
b) he had me covered for 100bbs
c) he was a donk

Ok when I flop pretty the best possible hand for my holdings (2 overs and a FD), he comes out and bets ¼ pot. Uhhhh, ok. Are you serious? I decided to CR here with no intention of fording...and virrain smooth carrs.

Turn compretes my frush and I decided to just ship the rest in for a pottish sized bet…no use in waiting for a scare card or allowing my hand to get beat. I end up getting INSTACARRED by a hand that is drawing STONE dead for 100bb’s on a grossly draw heavy board. Every POSSIBLE draw gets there on the turn. Diamonds, A5, 56…the works.

Hands like these (and the villains that play them) are what makes onrine poker so fawking juicy. Thank you poker gods!

Art of the Min Raise (Part 8)

In addition to the donk method of playing a big pocket pair that has been well detailed in this space, I am now beginning to see more and more the donk method of playing AK. Just as with the donk method of playing a big pocket pair, this involves min re-raising preflop and then going broke when you're outflopped. However, it almost always involves check-calling or betting small, rather than betting huge as with the donk method of playing the big pairs. Here's an example:

UTG ($80)
HERO (CO-1) ($424.90)
UTG posts $2 (First thing to note - guy buys in for $80 and posts UTG...I'm salivating)

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to HERO [Ac Jc]
UTG checks, folds to me...
HERO raises to $10 (As if I would need any extra encouragement to raise this donk's post, it's folded to me and I have AJs...no brainer raise)
folded back around to UTG....
UTG raises to $18 (Donk method alert! Could he have a big pp? Yes...but given that I have an A, it's more likely KK than AA...plus I have position and he's a moron. Still, it he had bought in for $40 rather than $80, I'd fold)
HERO calls $8

*** FLOP *** [Jh 3c 4d]

UTG checks (If he had made a big bet here, I'd have kind of a tough decision, since his play would be consistent with the donk method of AA-KK. But since he checks, it's gotta be the donk method of AK. I want to bet a small amount, so that he won't be able to resist, but enough so that I can get his stack in on the turn with a bet that again seems very small relative to the pot)
HERO bets $20
UTG calls $20 (When he just calls, I'm almost positive he has AK)

*** TURN *** [Jh 3c 4d] [8c]

UTG checks
HERO bets $42 (Great turn card, giving me more outs in case he does have AA-KK. I can now put him all-in with a bet that's only about half-pot)
UTG calls $42, and is all in
HERO shows [Ac Jc]
UTG shows [As Ks]

*** RIVER *** [Jh 3c 4d 8c] [6s]

Ship it over this way!!!

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise (Part 7)

I have been trying to get into 6-max games a little recently, donking around at NL50. I have found that these games are actually not that soft - I have sat at many many a table full of 25/20 types with 3bet percentages above 7. The level of aggression, especially preflop, is unreal.

This definitely increases your variance, and can be pretty annoying. But I think there is a lot of value in learning how to play best in these kinds of games. I think it's some combination of 1) being VERY tight out of position, 2) Betting and stacking off for value a little lighter - these players are so eager to try and "outplay" people that you can really get a lot of thin value. Top pair with any sort of kicker is often good for a stack. 3) 4-bet bruffing in some good spots. The light 3-bet is now completely standard in these games, but it doesn't seem like there's yet been an adjustment to a whole lot of light 4-betting, so your 4-bets usually get credit. 4) A little bit of slowplaying, especially "slowplaying" a draw in position. Semi-bluffing is so standard in these games that if you check a draw behind, or even flat-call a check-raise with it, you get no credit for it later on if it hits.

And that's the part that relates to this hand. This villain is obviously pretty donkish, so I don't know if he's actually thinking "he would have 3-bet the flop with KJ, so he's probably just got a one-pair hand". But when he (basically) min check-raises this flop, I decided to just call and try to hit a hand. As far as his play calling out of position with 92s (although of spades) and then check-raising THIS flop, I think it's absolutely terrible. I'm going to have at least a little piece of this flop that I'm willing to continue to a MIN check-raise with a very very large percentage of the time. He might fold out my pocket pairs 99-33 or my ace-rag hands with no flush draw, but many of those I might just peel one off with here and not c-bet this board, which hits a lot of what I think his calling range is from the bb. More importantly, if I call, he's out of position for the rest of the hand, and we're deep, so a lot of gross stuff could happen, like me hitting a beautiful turn card which gives me the nuts and him bottom two pair.

Also I want to note how much having position helped me get value on the turn and river. If I'm out of position on the river, do I bet or try and induce a bluff from the missed flush draw? Very good chance I miss a lot of value. In position, once he checks, I've got an easy decision to shove. On the turn as well, I think I would have to bet out of position because I wouldn't want to allow him a free card, but that allows him to just call and control pot size, unless I want to overbet and fold out all the draws I could have gotten value from.

-BRUECHIPS

Art of the Min Raise - Part 6

This hand speaks for itself...



I would like to thank the villain for the following...

-putting the least amount money in the pot preflop with the second best possible hand in position with deep stacks
-not narrowing down my distribution with his min 3b.

SHIP IT!

Art of the Min Raise - Part 5

Standard donk method of the min raise PF (an indication of strength) to my UTG raise. Granted my UTG raise is a bit roose, but there is nothing "tight" about my game, ROR!

Seriously though, how can you give me more than 4-1 odds to call the min raise PF? I'm a total luckbox...I'm going to get there like EVERYTIME.

-BRACKCHIPS

Art of the Min Raise - Part 4

VERY rare instance of THREE min raises is ONE hand. Spectacular. All min raises here are absolutely donktacular.



Pre-Frop: Standard UTG min raise from donk #1. Really hate this pray. I think the reason donks do it is they think by min-raising, they are deterring a rarger raise, and therefore get to see a frop cheapry, perhaps many ways, with a hand that could frop big, rike a mid pp. But in generar, good prayers are going to notice this and re-raise you pretty light, as well as with the hands that they would have raised you with anyway like AK and big pps, so you actually end up paying MORE to see the flop, or having to put in a min-raise and then fold without seeing the flop. And of course, you're guaranteeing that you're going to see a flop with a bunch of players out of position. As for my play, I don't think it's really bad to put in a big re-raise here to try and pick up the pot, because I think it would work. Or UTG would try and set mine with 77 or something like that and I can take away the pot on many frops. But there were a rot of comprete donks at this tabre, incruding the moron that carrs behind me, and my tabre image wasn't great, so I decided to just take a frop, given the great odds I'm getting to draw to a third five.

Frop: Again, at a tabre with tighter prayers, I'd consider stabbing at the pot here. But given this tabre, it's not a good idea. For instance, I don't think the drooler with 35o is fording if I bet at this frop.

Turn: Dream card. The strategy at tabres furr of morons such as this one is to varue bet rike crazy. I definitery have a hand worth varue betting, so I get the party started with a 3/4 size bet. Now I get a min raise from donk #2. His range here is massive, but if I want to stack him, I probably need to stick in another bet here. Plus if he's drawing to crubs or a straight, it wirr be difficurt to get money out of him on the turn when he misses. Also, since there are a lot of draws, there is a good amount of cards on the river that either give him a better hand, or kill the action even if my hand is still good. So I put in a decent-sized re-raise. What do I get? Yet another min-raise!! Time to shove it all in, there's no way he's fording now. Of course I'm happy to see that he is drawing compretery dead.

River: Inconsequential since the money went in on the turn, but note if I just carr his min raise on the turn and try to check-raise the river, there's no way I stack him (unress he's even worse than I thought), since the Q counterfeits his hand.

BRUECHIPS


Min raises are gold. This raising technique is more often than not a sign of strength for donks (most regulars do not have a min raise as part of their arsenal). The min raise is meant to say "hey, come along for the ride...its only x more dollars to you." In this case it was strenth as well, only you had your villain CRUSHED. It's a shame you didn't have a stack as surely the villain would have gone broke here.

BRACKCHIPS

Art of the Min Raise - Part 3

It's been a whire since we had a true min raise post, so I decided to try and revive the series with this dandy...note the donk method of praying the big pp. This virrain forrowed up the pre-frop donk method (min re-raising) with the post-frop donk method (stacking off on a gross board):