Hand Review

Steve M

Game = $1/$2 = 6 Players

Friday Night. High Hand Promotion Running.

Later on in the night. Playing with 3 semi regulars and a mix of players coming and going. Villain in this hand has been at the table for maybe 45-60 minutes.

Hero = ~$500 = Recently went up after calling a $100 river bet after tanking for about 2 minutes. I'm not a tanker and never 'hollywood' but this was a super tough decision (I may end up posting that hand too so spoiler). I did some talking in the hand about what I can beat, what he would bluff, etc. to see about a read but in reality, I had to do it for myself. I bring that up because villain in this hand was at the table for it. Being 6 handed, I'm probably the most active player along with another regular. Open raising a wider range now, defending a little wider, etc. but not at maniac levels.

Villain = $462 (Effective) = Older gentleman. Mid to late 50's. Casually dressed. Didn't recognize him but I got the feel he was a pseudo-regular. He was on my direct right and was straddling every button when I would be SB. He didn't do much raising from his straddle though after 1 or 2 limps. Playing a little splashy, limp calling a little too much but would then mix in a pre-flop raise. Somewhat typical 1/2 player with a degree of competence in his game.

Only one hand of note with me. He bought in for $200, lost it down to about $80. Won a pot to go up a little, then I doubled him up after I raised $12 from UTG with AKo, two callers, he raised to $32 out of the BB. I shoved effectively, 2 players folded, he called and doubled up his $132 after his pocket tens held. I mucked my hand and didn't show or tell what I had. He went on a little heater after that but I was away from the table but he was now sitting on the $460.

As always, my set-ups ramble but I try and give as much info as I can if I feel like it could effect anyone's thinking in the hand.

Onto the breakdown...

Hero = :2s :2c

3 Folds
Button (Stack = ~$500) = Raise $10 (Younger regular. Loves his button.)
SB (Villain) = Calls $10
BB (Hero) = Calls $10

All standard.

Flop = $30

:As :7s :2d

SB (Villain) = Checks
Hero = Checks
Button = Bets $10
SB = Calls $10
Hero = Raises $35
Button = Calls $35
SB = Raises $137

Action to Hero

Well that escalated quickly...

Pretty standard again. I'm going to check everything to the button because he will and should be betting a ton here. When the SB calls, I have a pretty easy checkraise targeting all A,X & flushdraw hands preparing to get it all in by the river. The button actually took some time and him calling was a bit of a surprise. I'm starting to wonder what he has when the hammer drops. The SB had exactly 1 black chip, 1 green chip and 1 blue chip on top of his stacks of red chips. He grabbed all 3 and threw them on top of the $10 he had out as a call, hence the $137 total bet now.

I'm going to stop here because I'm curious on other's thoughts right now. I don't want to influence anyone's thought process so hopefully after some discussion, I'll include my analysis and move forward with the action.

Hero = ???

ulysses27

So there are a couple possibilities. V flatted AA from SB, has 77, A7 or an insanely strong draw like 45s. I don't think I'm folding bottom set for this price. Also I would probably discount AA button might have an Ax hand. I don't think there's any point in shoving. I would call and evaluate turn. If the turn is a blank and v shoves I'd still find it hard to call off since A7 could play it exactly this way.

Koss

ulysses27 wrote: »

I don't think there's any point in shoving.

I think shoving has a lot of merit here. We can get called by all sorts of worse hands that don't know where a fold button is. Flush draws, big Ax, A7, A2. We're mostly worried about 77, but I don't think that's his only raising hand here.

You could call here, but there are a lot of ways we can make mistakes later in the hand. We're at a depth where we aren't super thrilled getting this in, but we're not really deep enough to maneuver or consider folding either.

Steve M

ulysses27 wrote: »

So there are a couple possibilities. V flatted AA from SB, has 77, A7 or an insanely strong draw like 45s.

Koss wrote: »

We can get called by all sorts of worse hands that don't know where a fold button is. Flush draws, big Ax, A7, A2. We're mostly worried about 77, but I don't think that's his only raising hand here.

At the time, and after throwing up into my mask, this is basically what I came down to in terms of range. The hands I gave him that he would play this way are A,7 suited & pocket 7's. The problem is...

A,7s = 3 Combos
Pocket 7's = 3 Combos

If he is only playing these hands this way, obviously we beat one and lose to one so I had to try and find some other hand to tip the scale one way or the other...

Flush Draw: I don't think he'll ever show up with just a flush draw here like :Ks :Qs or :Qs :Ts because after a checkraise and call, why not just take your equity and call my flop checkraise also? Along the same lines, if he HAS the draw, my hand (and to a smaller degree. the button's hand, are going to be HEAVILY weighted towards value and he's never getting a fold. Why take such a volatile line with a hand that has equity?

Pair & Flush Draw: I knew I had the :2s so a goofy pair and a flush draw type hand like :Ks :2s doesn't exist.

Strong Combo Draw: That leaves :3s :4s & :4s :5s
I'm not sure that these hands call pre-flop every time + same idea as the flush draw. Sure you have a ton of outs, but why not just take the equity?

A,X: threw them all out, should never be played this way

So in real time, I really didn't give him any of these hands putting me back down to 3 combos I beat, 3 combos I lose to so I started reaching...

A,A - 3 combos of A,A left. If he chooses to flat call 1 out of 3 times because in a 'short' handed game, end of the night, everyone playing smug, could he only flat call with 1 of the combos, scared that everyone would just fold and he wouldn't get action? I guess that's a possibility.

A,7o - I threw all these out. I may be wishing, but I just didn't think he would call pre-flop. He was not an 'every ace' type of player. He would play suited cards, and straddle but I wasn't seeing him show up with junky aces.

A,2s - One combo left. If I have him showing up with A,7s here, I should probably give him this too.

That means +1 more combo I lose to (A,A) & 1 more combo I beat (A,2s) putting me back to square 1.

Quick side note, I tried to think what the button could have to help but I could see him having a big ace or a flush draw, so I couldn't use him to help narrow anything down.


Thoughts on this reasoning?

ulysses27

To be fair, SB line is a bit weird but even with that your description of v is not loose aggressive or maniac so there should be some logic here. V flats then 3 bets and unless you feel v can be splashy then that narrows his range which you've done. Based on that you've reached the level of indifference. He really shouldn't be doing this with much but it's low stakes so there are going to hands you don't expect. Folding is not an option so the question is shove or call. Shoving is appealing because theoretically he could be doing this with 34s or 45s. Calling is lower variance and you could possibly keep button in the hand which means more dead money but then you have to make decisions later which could be tough. Btw I wouldn't rule out A7o if the button is raising a lot and I would keep in a couple other fd. My original post I think I had to narrow a range.

zaplin

I also think that folding is not an option but I don't like shoving a 230bb stack with bottom set. I lean towards a call.

What happened next?

Rojorrm

VERY INSIGHTFUL COMMENTS. It is my first time reviewing hands on forum and this is a tough one.

Steve M

ulysses27 wrote: »

So there are a couple possibilities. V flatted AA from SB, has 77, A7 or an insanely strong draw like 45s. I don't think I'm folding bottom set for this price. Also I would probably discount AA button might have an Ax hand. I don't think there's any point in shoving. I would call and evaluate turn.

So in the moment, this was basically the conclusion I came to on my own.

7,7 & A,7s were the only hands I knew, for sure, made sense here. I considered strong draws and I considered A,A but I couldn't shake 7,7 & A,7s.

With that in mind, I figured if he has 7,7, then I am dead to one out or 2% or whatever the hell the actual math is..

But, if he has the A,7s, then he still has 4 outs or a 15% chance or whatever...

So the times I get it in good, I'm still going to lose a small amount and the times I get it in bad, I'm really bad.

With that in mind, I decided I can call here and if an Ace or 7 rolls off and they shove, then I should be able to get away from it because now I'm behind everything. If a blank comes and they shove, well decision time...

Action:

Hero = Calls $127

Turn = $319

:Th

SB = All-In for $315

Hero = ???

Hero begins to question all of his life decisions at this point, cursing the day he discovered this stupid game... tanks for about 90 seconds and thinks...

"Don't pay them off" & "Never fold sets at 1-2"

In the end, the latter won out...

Hero = Calls $315

River = $949

:3d

Villain shows 7,7 and scoops the pot.