The fishtank part 22

Hooks, line and sinker

I was in a live MTT with about 200 runners when the following hand came up. The blinds were 200/400 and my stack was 8600.

A new player had come to the table and raised three hands in a row uncontested when I picked up Jacks. He raised again, to 1200, so I re-raised to 3000 on the button. He thought for a long time and flat-called. The flop came Q-7-2 rainbow and he immediately moved all-in. My thinking was that he didn’t have a big pair – Aces or Kings – as he would have re-raised me preflop.

Also, I discounted Queens, as the all-in move after flopping a set didn’t seem likely. I put him on 9-9, 10-10, or A-K, so I called and he flipped Kings. I had him covered so it was only another 3000 to call with 9000 in the pot, but I was left crippled and I’m not sure if I read/played the hand correctly. How would you have read it and what would you have done in this situation?

Darren Wilson

SF: I think you were unlucky. In this situation, against a seemingly loose/aggressive player, J-J looks pretty big. Personally, I might have moved in pre-flop. Obviously he’s not folding Kings, but most of the time that type of player will have nothing and fold. But it’s a good example of why a lot of players find the loose/aggressive style profitable, because when they do get a hand they often get paid off for the maximum number of chips.

Headaches

Often when I’m going into a heads-up confrontation against an aggressive player who has me out-chipped, I find myself being constantly worn down after surrendering too many big blinds to large raises. What hands should I be looking to call a raise with, and when should I move all-in to protect my blinds?

James Herbert

SF: There’s no exact list of hands I can give you that would answer your question. Heads-up poker is not a card game, it’s a mind game. The real key to being a good heads-up player is being a good storyteller. You need to lead your opponent’s thoughts and chips to you. Practise makes perfect; there’s a lot of feel involved so you must mentally log tons of hours of heads-up play. You also need to test yourself against various types of players in order to grasp the concept that the cards are irrelevant.

I hate fish

As a regular no-limit Hold’em cash game player I have a pretty good grounding in pot odds and make a lot of my plays based on this knowledge. Some of the friends that I play with in home games however, are less astute. When I figure them for a draw and make a bet that offers them incorrect pot odds, they often call where more experienced players would fold. How do I stop players like this from drawing out on me without putting my whole stack on the line and running the risk of them catching a monster?

Adam Willis

SF: It sounds like you’re doing everything right if you’re able to accurately judge the holding of your opponents and make a bet that gives them incorrect odds to draw. If they call, that is what you want. It’s very important to feed on these mistakes when playing a no-limit cash game. If you lose, so be it. You can’t start playing badly because you’re afraid of being sucked out on. However, by reading your question I get the sense that your main goal of any pot you play is to win that pot. It seems like you may be missing out on some value by keeping other players in the pot and manipulating the bets. It also seems like you’re afraid of losing your stack. If that’s the case, then you need to play at lower limits.

You must be comfortable getting all-in sometimes with only a slight advantage. It would be great if you could always get all-in when you’re an 80% favourite, but that’s just not realistic.