Hand by Hand 7: Be aggressive, B-E-Aggressive

Having taken the hit and gotten back up a little, I quit playing for a bit, then restart with 2.00. After hitting the bb, I have 1.95 and utg+1 pick up pocket queens. I open to .15, get called by the button with 3.81 and watch a flop of Jd/5h/9d. I lead out for .20 and he folds. I am not disappointed.

The cut-off opens to .20 with 2.49 and in the big blind I look down at Ac/Kc. The position and amount of the raise combine to lead me to believe he is hoping to get no call. Most people raise either .10, .15 or .17 cents. Click raise, 3 times the big blind, or pot. 4 times is often low pairs, dry Ace, maybe suited cards. I re-pop to .65 not really caring if he calls or not because if he calls, I will raise the flop, maybe even shove. He will fold unless he hits it…

Which kind of indicates I might be making a mistake. I will have to think about that. As it is, he folds as I expected.

The cutoff opens with a click –raise and 3.76. I am in the small blind with Kc/5c and 1.93, the type of garbage hand I have been adding to my repertoire more and more often. That needs to stop. I call and the big blind comes along with 4.07.

There are very few flops my trash hand likes. The 4s/10s/5s is not one of them. It is checked around. The 4d turn is no much better, but it gets checked around. The river is the 2d, I check and the big blind bets 20 cents. The cut-off folds.

Lets see…I have second pair, second kicker. It was pretty weak beginning to end. The big blind could have any two cards and coming to life on the river could have paired the two, absolutely nothing, or even something like the 10/2 full house.

If I am going to play trash hands and hit second pair, if people checkflop and a card like the 4 is turned, I need to raise there. Every time. Maybe even the flop. Now I am in a tough spot. I THINK I am ahead…and if so, I need to re-raise to get value.

But there are lots of hands that have me beat that he could call with. A/4, A/5, A/10, 4/5, suited cards like K/4 or hands like J/10, Q/10. If I re-raise into one of those, I lose my showdown value when I get re-raised.

I meekly check and take it down when he shows the Kd/7s bluff. So my poor play works out for me.

I pick up As/Js in the big blind and am debating to myself whether to flat it and try for a monster pot or re-riase and try to win pre-flop. The decision is taken away from me when everyone folds to me and I win without resistance.

After a while the hijack click-raises with 4.24, the cut-off calls with 1.58 and I make another poor decision with 2.22 and Kh/5h. The big blind refuses to be drawin into our stupidity and despite the 7-1 pot odds, he wisely folds.

The flop is the 6h/Jh/7d which hits lots of click-raise/cheap call type hands. I am not super excited about my second nut flush draw and check. But when the hijack raises .10 and gets a call, I am getting pretty good odds of 5.5-1 to call so I do.

The turn misses everything. If the 2c is not the epitome of a brick then that card does not exist. But it brings another round of .10 bet/call and I call again, now getting a ridiculous 8.5-1 on my draw. At least the odds are right. The river is the Qc.

Easy check-fold. There is no way one of them does not have medium pair, A/x, or something like J/9. But they both check behind and show 10h/9h…oh, how I wish that last heart had fallen…and 5c/9c. My King high is the best hand against a missed straight draw and a missed flush draw…

When it is folded to me in the small blind, I look at pocket Queens and decide to try and trap by over-raising to .20. It fails when he folds.

Two folds later, I am in middle position and again pick up Queens. This time, with 2.79, I make the standard open to .15. The cut-off calls with 5.04 and the big blind joins us with 8.74.
The flop is all low, but also all spades…6s/8s/3s. I hold no spades. The bb checks, I continuation bet .25, the cut-off calls and the big blind folds.

The turn is the 9d and decision time. Many people ignore the continuation bet. It is a move something like 100% of poker players know and understand, and as such it has lost much of its edge. Many people, myself included, call most continuation bets and then raise the turn if it is checked.

I choose not to check, but raise .45. If he calls I am done with the hand. There are straight draws, flush draws, potential sets…I am done putting chips in this pot. And a re-raise will garner a snap-fold. But he folds and I am happy.

I have been seeing a lot of folding to the big blinds, so with 3.23 I open to .15 from middle position with an atypically weak hand, the Ad/9c. This is a deliberate testing of the water to see if I should open more hands. It works as everyone folds.

At one point I fold a 4/7 which would have flopped top pair, open ended straight, turned the straight when the 8 hit, and seen a 7 on the river. I would have had the third best hand with one player having a 9 high straight and losing to a full house, 8s full of 7s. Glad I folded!

But when the button opens to .15 with 16.71 I have 3.23, Jh/9h and a wild hair. I call. This is one of those “sometimes I call, sometimes re-raise, usually I fold. And generally when I call I am glad I folded. Re-raises often see a fold, so is not a bad play. I think the call is the worst play, but I always convince myself I do not want to play a big pot out of position with a marginal hand…which is a good thought, but folding makes doing so less likely.

The flop is the 2c/Ah/3d, I check, he continuation bets, I fold.

From the cutoff I open with Kc/10s and everyone folds. Much better. Aggression > passivity.
MP opens to .15 with 5.80, I have the button, pocket deuces, and 3.10. Here is a place I call and think it is the better option. I am likely to have a worse hand, at best have an underdog, and want to invite the blinds to call with attractive pot odds.

They fail me and we take the flop heads up, Ks/Js/Kc.

This is a pretty good flop for me as it misses most hands but could scare him away. He checks, I bet .20, and he check-raises to .70. It misses most, but hits a few. A/J, A/K, K/J, Q/J, 10/J are all quite believable. He might fold to a re-raise…but with pocket deuces, a scary board, and someone who twice demonstrated strength…why? I fold.

MP limps with 16.38, the small blind click-raises with 4.75 and in the big blind with 2.71 I look at the Ad/8d. It seems likely the limper will call about 95% of the time if I call so my odds for the draw should be good. I call.

The flop is the unfortunate 7s/Kd/7S. SB leads out for .30. Pre-flop click-raise, post-flop pot raise. What changed? I give credit for a big hand and fold, the original limper calls. The turn is the Js which again sees a pot size bet and call.

There are no obvious draws so we SHOULD be looking at two made hands. I would not be surprised to see the sm with something like K/x suited, A/7, even something like K/10 type hands. Also possible are pairs higher than 7. Pretty much same set of hands for the limper.
The 9c river gets checked down and we see the sb with 4s/Jh for two pair and the original limper shows pocket queens.

Wow, how many ways did the play on this hand suck? The sb re-raise was horrible. No way is a click-raise going to work like…ever. So raising a J/4 off is a horrible, horrible, horrible play. The Queens got a raise and two callers. He really needs to re-raise big to isolate.

Just bad play pre-flop by both of them.

UTG+1 limps with 9.69, I am in the small blind with 2.61 and Qd/As. I either raise or fold here. If I limp and the big blind checks I am out of position against two players and a hand that never knows where it is. A fold is probably too weak. I raise to .25. BB folds, limper calls.

The flop is not exceptional…10d/8h/7d. This hits a large number of limp-call hands. J/10, 9/10, 9/8, 7/8, pockets 6 – 10 all like this. So do suited cards of the diamond variety. At the same time against a passive player if I am the pre-flop aggressor, I like to lead out again and do so for .35. He thinks for a while and calls. Either a draw or a set deciding best way to get paid.

The turn is the 3c. If I check I expect to face a raise. I doubt I win this hand at showdown. There is 1.20 in the pot now, I want to take one more stab at it. I fire .60 and he folds. I know the 3 did not scare him, so maybe a smaller pair now thinking I have a bigger pair?


A while later I am utg+1 with pocket 5s and 3.18. I elect to open with them. Sometimes I fold here when people are coming back at me with lots of re-raises, but this time they all fold.

I have said it before and will say it again. I can open raise pretty aggressively, but it is a real hole in my game how often I passively call. I could take down a lot of smaller pots with well-timed raises...and save a lot of chips by calling less.