This is me playing well

Playing some .05/.10.

Sitting behind 53 bb I see the utg, with 38 bb, open to 3-1/2 bb. Sitting utg+2, I look down at the cowboys. This is a position where I definitely want to isolate and go heads up, as Kings will not hold up against several callers. I re-raise to 12 bb and it is folded to the first raiser who merely calls.

I like that he just calls. He should have 7/7+, maybe a suited Ace or even some medium suited connectors. He would probably re-pop with Queens or better.
The flop is good and bad. 9d/7d/2h. He leads out for his last 26 blinds all-in. So I would need to call 26 bb to make 48. What hands could he have here to raise/call/all-in with?

Pocket 9s or pocket 7s are definitely in his range, maybe even pocket deuces if he is super loose. So are Aces and Queens, though unlikely, but any pocket 10s or pocket jacks could make that move, as could a suited diamond ace.

Even against a suited Ace, I am a favorite. The only hands he could reasonably hold that I am behind are pocket 2s, 7s, or 9s, or the bizarre 7/9s of some other suit. I think it is a pretty clear call.

He turns up the A/Qd. So he has 9 diamonds to complete the flush and 3 aces to hit a bigger pair, 12 outs twice for about 48%. The turn is the Ks which helps a bit as it counterfeits the 2d. Ultimately, the river is the Ac so my set of Kings holds up.

Going back over the hand, though, I am not sure the call is as automatic as I thought at the time. In fact, if he check-raised me all-in, I am less likely to call as I will put more emphasis on the set which I am drawing thin against. His leading into the pre-flop raiser screams more he has a weaker hand or is semi-bluffing…
Not that I am sure I thought that at the time, but in retrospect, it makes the way he played the hand make more sense. Certainly a lesson to tuck away in the back of my mind.

A while later I am sitting behind 70 big blinds in the cut-off. Utg, with 123 bb, limps. It comes to me, I decide my hockey sticks are worth seeing a cheap flop and limp behind. The big blind, with 381 bb, checks and we take the flop 3-handed.
The flop is the 6c/As/6d. Check, check, and now I have to see if my 7s are any good here. I bet half the pot. The big blind folds, the under the gun calls. Time to narrow his range of hands.

He open-limped, so an Ace is unlikely unless it is A/x suited. Medium pairs, medium suited connectors are the most likely holdings. If he check-raises the flop, I will figure him for a good pair, say Queens or better, and if he just calls, I am either way ahead of someone fishing or way behind and he is luring me in.

The turn is the innocuous 3c. That changed nothing. He checks. Now, what to do? If I check and he bets the river, it will be difficult to call. If I bet and he re-raises, I am done with the hand. If he check-calls I will fold to any bet on the river as I am beat. But there is a chance he called just to see if I was serious.
Check behind and hope to see a cheap show-down or raise to try and drive out a better hand? No way am I getting called by a worse hand here. I again bet half the pot and he folds.

Mindless aggression for the win…

A while later I have 76 bb and the button. When it is folded to me I decide to open to 3bb with Ac/Ts. The small blind, with 133bb, calls and the big blind folds.

I never like it when the small blind calls. He needs a stronger hand because A) he is getting a smaller discount and B) the big blind is yet to act. So anything except a limp that gets action is usually facing a big hand and is therefore dangerous.

The flop is 10d/qh/Qs. As expected, he checks, I bet half the pot, he calls. The good news is he did not raise. The bad news is…he called. A/Q, K/Q, J/Q, and J/10 are all reasonable, believable holdings and I am head of only the J/10. He could also have a medium pair and just be seeing if I am just making a continuation bet.

The turn is the 8c. He again checks. I raise half the pot. If he calls or re-raises, I am done with the hand. If he folds, I take down a nice little pot. He check-calls.
The river is the somewhat dangerous 9d. if he had J/10 he hit his straight.

Otherwise, it is pretty innocuous. I by no means think he has the j/10, but the possibility is there. All he has to do is breathe at this pot and I am folding. He checks.

Reviewing the hand, he called a dangerous flop, called again on an innocent card. I cannot imagine him calling any bet I make with a worse hand than the tens I hold, and cannot imagine him folding any better hand. I check behind expecting him to flip up a Queen or maybe even Jacks or something like that.

Instead he shows the Jh/Kh. Okay, so not really a hand I put in his range after the flop. And from strictly an odds perspective, he played very poorly, though from an implied odds stance…maybe not so much.

Of course, what could he think I had to keep raising on a dangerous board like that? If I raised with Q/10, Q/9 type hands…quite plausible from the button…he is bidding fair to get taken to the cleaners on the river when he pretty much has to call or raise after hitting his hand.

And the only hand I might call him with that he can beat with a straight would be precisely A/10 or A/q. I do not hate his pre-flop or flop calls…but the turn call feels pretty loose. Still, he made the call and took the pot.

The funny thing is, Sklansky and his basic theorem claim I won the hand. He would not call pre-flop, on the flop, or on the turn if he knew the cards I was holding, nor was he getting the correct odds to do so.

Maybe Sklansky feels like I won the hand…and in a sense I did, though dropping 14 BB to someone who hit their gut shot sure does not FEEL like a win…

For some inexplicable reason, I begin going the conservative route. In the small blind I pick up Big Slick suited with 59 big blinds. Utg raises to 3xbb, utg+1 and the hi-jack call. The correct play here is a re-raise to drive out hands like pairs of 9s, medium suited connectors, weak aces. The second best play is to fold, which I have done several times.

Not that A/K is not a good hand…it is. But it is a distinct dog to that much action. Add to that being out of position and for a player who sometimes refuses to release hands that clearly are no longer good…well, better to just ditch them pre-flop.

So I call because I am an idiot. The bb also calls and we take a flop 5-handed. I am out of position with a drawing hand. Any serious action on the flop means I am done with the hand barring a 10/J/Q rainbow flop or a stout flush draw.

The flop is all trash….7c/6s/3c. This hits right in the heart of the types of hands people are all but guaranteed to be holding. Seeing pockets 6s, 7s, and 3s would not surprise me, nor would 6/7 suited, 5/6 suited, 8/9 suited. This is the type of hand I need to train myself to get as far away from as possible unless I have a draw. This time, I have the draw...the nut flush draw.

Check to utg who leads out with 2/3rd the pot bet. One fold, one call. Okay, the first bet COULD be a blind continuation bet…and could easily represent pocket Kings or Aces which my flush draw will have an easy time getting paid off. I base this on the fact he fired into a dangerous flop with 3 people left to act.

It could also be a hand like A/K trying to protect itself from getting drawn out on.
There are a fold and call in front of me…the call indicating they have something worth seeing another step even with people behind to act. I obviously want as many people in the pot as possible here, so a re-raise is out of the question. I call as does the big blind.

The turn is the Jc, giving me the nut flush. In fact, unless someone is playing something goofy like a 5/6c, I have a lock on the hand unless, of course, the board pairs.

Worst thing I can do now is bet it. Too much interest in the hand to give away my strong holdings. I am really hoping for a second barrel from UTG and a couple “I have a set” type calls.

Unfortunately, it is checked around. The turn is the harmless 9h. Unless someone was playing the 8/10, nothing changed. I do not want to see it checked around, so I put in about a half-pot bet. BB calls, UTG folds, other guy calls. So lets check out the reads.

The big blind had pocket 9s…he was counting on first an over-pair, then got to take off a free card which meant he paid me off with a set. Costly river for him.
The middle position guy had pocket Jacks…over-pair that became a set when he turned the Jack.

So knowing what I know now, did I play it right? Well…maybe. If I knew the one guy had Jacks and nobody would bet, I raise here to keep him from drawing at his 10 outs with infinite odds…but probably drive off the pocket 9s and thus not get paid on the river.

Conversely, if I check the river, there is a good chance the Jacks check, the river raises and then I am faced with another decision to either call or re-raise. On the one hand, I have an excellent conundrum…the only way I lose this hand is if power goes out on my computer or I have the spack-out of all time and fold the nuts.

On the other hand…I am not sure the best way to build the pot here. If they are paying attention, the way the hand played out screams at least one flush and maybe two. I am guessing utg had a big over pair, knew he was beat and released his hand. There were two sets…just not the ones I expected, though certainly they both made sense when the end came.

After that hand I am up pretty well and I have noticed that stacks about 120 blinds deep or more get a lot more respect to their raises which I respond to by widening my raising hands. So from the hi-jack with 150 BB I open to 2xbb with a modest Ac/6s. Not a very good hand…but I actually expect to win the blinds.

Both blinds spoil my plan by calling. I have mentioned before how little I like it when the small blind calls…

Worse yet, he has me covered and the big blind is just a blip with 25 bb remaining.
The flop is the 10d/Ah/Qc that hits a lot of hands the blinds would be tempted to call with…2 face cards, any Ace, 10/J and of course big pocket pairs all love that flop. A/6…not so much.

But they check to me so I continuation bet half the pot. 3 blinds to win 6 is a cheap price that does not have to work all that often.

The small blind calls, big blind folds, and we see the Kc. Ouch. Now a humble jack beats me. He checks and I have to decide…bet again, probably with the worse hand…or check and hope to see a cheap river. I elect the latter course. The river is the 10c, just making it even tougher for an Ace to win.

I am beating almost nothing here. Q/K I am ahead of, any A/9 or worse is a chop, and every other conceivable hand…A/10+, 10/J, A/K, A/Q, A/J I am behind. I am extremely happy when he checks and I check behind. There is no possible holding he will call with if he is worse off than I am and I am ecstatic to get away from the hand cheaply.

For the record…he had K/Q, a hand I did not honestly think about when playing it and I drew out on him when the river spiked the 10. Turn-about is fair play as he had out-drawn me on the turn…but with a board that dangerous, we both wanted to keep it small.

That is a lesson I often struggle to keep in mind. There are times to play small pots, I do not always have to fire that second barrel into a dangerous board.
At the same time, I need to work on building bigger pots when I hit a big hand.

Sitting with just under 160 big blinds I am utg+ 3. UTG click-raises sitting behind 140 bb, I elect to call with pocket 3s and we get 3 more callers. Good. Makes the hand easy to play…I either hit it hard or go my merry way, having gotten pretty spectacular implied pot odds.

The flop is beautiful…4c/3c/8h. I am behind pocket 4s and pocket 8s…both believable hands…but way ahead of over-pairs which I am hoping people have. Good chance to stack someone…and then the big blind goes all in for his last 23 big blinds.

Well now…that changes things a bit. Suddenly that pocket 4/pocket 8 seems a bit more likely, doesn’t it? Also in the hunt are pocket 9s or better and A/x of clubs, betting the flush draw and over betting the pot to get us all to fold. Also very likely are bigger but vulnerable face pairs (jacks, queens).

The utg calls it. Oh, ouch. That makes it trickier. The first guy MIGHT have a set. The second guy…much more likely. It is still possible they both have over-pairs. Ideally I am against Aces and Kings or some such over pair. Regardless, I am not even close to being a good enough player to lay down a set in this situation. In fact, I am still trying to build a pot!

So with one player to act behind me, I have to choose between calling or raising yet again. Since I have position on the caller, I elect to just call and either check or raise the turn depending on what falls. The guy behind me folds and the turn brings the case three.

Great. Now I have a virtual lock on the hand. Even if the other guys both have sets, I have a hand that is a 96% favorite. I am ecstatic.

The guy who has been check-calling everything checks. Here is where I made a mistake. I should have checked. Even if he checks the river, I can bet then. Instead I put out about a half pot bet and he makes the prudent fold. Might have cost myself some chips there.

For the record, the guy who over-bet all in had pocket 10s. Over pair read for the win. Unfortunately, I was not patient and did not win as much as I could have. I need to be more willing to slow-play.

The problem is, from time to time I have slow-played stuff like nut flushes and gotten crushed on the river by a boat. Or flopped a straight and had someone runner-runner the flush when my turn bet could not get them off the hand. This has made me gun-shy about giving people “free” cards.

Later on, sitting behind 190 bb, everyone folds to the button who limps in with 111 bb. The small blind folds and I check my Ac/Jd. Wow. How many ways do I hate my play here? I have no idea if he is trapping with a big hand or succeeding in seeing a cheap flop with something like suited connectors.

That is a clear raise situation. The flop comes down 9c/Jh/2s. Up front I love this flop. I am hoping he floated something like J/10 and I am way ahead. I lead out with a pot based bet. He click-raises.

Now I am deeply troubled. Hands he could limp-raise with here include A/J, A/9, maybe A/2 suited…none of which bother me…J/10 which I am ahead of, J/9 which I am behind, or any variety of medium to low pocket pairs such as nines or even deuces. He could also be raising with air since many people consider a big blind leading out to be a fish move.

So my options are three-fold; fold, flat-call, or re-raise.

Folding in many ways makes the most sense. I checked my option instead of “defining the hand”/raising to drive out weak hands, etc.

At the same time, top pair top kicker against such a weak play as open-limping the button is pretty passive and does not seem wise. Better to see if he is serious about his even more fishy min-raise. No folding.

Calling is another option. Problem is, then I am pretty much locked into having no idea where I stand on the turn. Unless a Jack or Ace falls, I do not really like any card very much so most of the deck misses me and I will be hard-pressed to call another bet.

Re-raising is more my style; put heat on someone who seems marginally interested in the hand. I choose that option. Including pre-flop action and the raise/re-raise there is just over a buck in there, I repop to 2.05. I figure he will either A) fold (the more likely) or B)re-pop me in which case even with top pair, top kicker I know I am beat.

He surprises me by just calling.

Okay, so what is going on here? The most likely answer is one I see a lot in the micro-stakes level. People do not want to admit to bluff-raising, so they call any re-raise, then check-fold the next street. No matter what falls here, I am raising the turn.

And the turn is arguably the third worst card I could see. I had talked myself into believing he was most likely to have J/10. That would give him second pair, open ended straight draw. Q/J is also quite believable.

But I followed through with my plan and raised about half the pot. He folded.
I do not like my pre-flop play but I like my flop play. I had a good but not great hand and raised to protect it. I would rather have gone for the check-raise, but with his passive limp, I had no reason to believe he would raise so I needed to do so myself.

The re-raise is more questionable, but I was going with my read that his limp/min-raise indicated weakness and this time it paid off.

With 201 bb I was looking for places to put on pressure. I open from middle position with K/J off, a hand I routinely fold because it is trouble.

I am never happy to hit either card as I am all too likely to be dominated, and hitting both I am afraid of stuff like A/Q, A/10, Q/10 that have draws of varying quality. Very few flops are good for this hand. But I open click-raise from late middle.

The small blind calls, everyone else folds. I do not like this. Typically a small blind averages a better hand than anyone else as they are out of position, get a smaller discount, and still have one guy behind them. On the bright side, he just called instead of raising. Even brighter, he has just 40 bb, so I cannot get hurt TOO bad…

The flop is pure horror, 2h/Qc/8s. It hits A/Q, K/Q, J/Q type hands I see a lot of people play out of the blinds and I am drawing thin against all of those. He min-raises.

That screams weakness to me. A lot of guys will do that when they miss their hand, hoping to scare away better hands without having to call. So I did not hesitate to re-raise about the size of the pot, fully expecting him to fold. He called.

The turn was the mildly dangerous 2c if he was playing some random A/2 suited. He raised a bit more, 3 big blinds, into a pot of 12 big blinds, I re-popped to 10 big blinds, he folded and I won the pot, undoubtedly with a worse hand. He probably had something like A/K, maybe A/J.

I played a while longer, but these were some of the more interesting and memorable hands. There is a lot to think about on these.

I really need to key in on my reads again. I had gotten away from doing that and it was hurting. When I pay attention, I often can make some pretty solid plays.

I do need to work on the following parts of my game:

1) patience. The "check" option is better than raising sometimes when I have a chance to see a cheap showdown with a marginal hand.

2) building big pots with big hands and small pots with weaker hands