Hand by Hand part 1

I want to try a slightly different tack for a bit. I want to go through a session hand by hand in Gus Hansen’s Every Hand Revealed style…a book, by the way, I found highly entertaining.

I have dropped down to 2/5 for a bit since I had gone through a long losing streak, then worked my way back towards respectability. But I wanted the swings to be less in dollar volume.

Starting with 2 bucks, I have 40BB…enough room to play some poker, but I am not going to take any big losses.

The first hand of course I am the big blind and pick up the rather modest 8s/kh. This is a hand I hope gets raised before it gets to me so I can fold. Instead I get one limper from middle position with 1.85 and it is an easy check.

Actually, I should probably raise here just because I am likely to win the hand outright. The flop is the 4h/Qc/Ah. I missed completely, he bets the pot. I have no hand, no draw, am out of position and have no idea what he has. Easy fold.

I pick up the Ah/4d in middle position, utg limps with 9.09. I have a weak, easily dominated hand with no kicker. Easy fold.

Kh/5h in middle position faces standard raise and folds. I see a lot of players get involved with these type hands. If the flush hits, it is the second nuts. The problem is, all too often someone playing the Ace also hits. There was a brief period where I had some weird reasoning that the K/x was a better suited selection than A/x because people would believe it less.

The problem was…if the flush hit but did not have the Ace, how far do I want to take the hand? It is a poor idea that I got enthused about for a while. Had a couple nice wins…and a couple big losses. So I more or less came to my senses and stopped playing for that.

With a limp and raise ahead of me, it is another easy fold.

Middle postion Ac/5h with a limper ahead is another easy fold. I can think of no reason to get involved with a hand that will lose almost every time and win very little when it does. Yet another easy fold.

6d/10s, I open fold from middle position. Bad hand, marginal position, best result I can imagine is to win the blinds. Not all that interested in risking .15 to win .07.

Open fold Ad/7c from the hi-jack. This is a more debatable hand. In a passive game, this is probably one I raise. If anyone calls, it is probably the big blind who then check-folds most flops. At the same time, it is a hand beating very few other hands…I am counting on the Ace to see me through. Not a place I want to be in.

If I had a larger stack, say…6 bucks or so, I might take a flier here. But I do not. Better to fold and see the next hand.

Kh/9h is another utg+1 fold. If I am in the cut-off again, I raise this. Of course, since the button DID raise and got re-raised, it would probably have met the same fate and I would have folded it as he did.

In the hi-jack I pick up the 10d/Ah and am considering raising, but when early mp raises, it is a clear fold. Too easy to hit a dominated Ace or a 10 on a board like 4/10/Q and lose a bunch to a K/Q type hand. Not a good situation, so the fold is easy.

4c/Kh utg+1 hits the muck. MP raises to 5 times the big blind, very much a non-standard raise. He has 2.40 behind and sees the button call with 3.35 and the big blind comes along with 2.00 even.

Right there is a powerful argument to make standard size raises with anything less than Aces. Already they have .75 cents in a 5 cent big blind game…and that means the bets, to make sense, need to be larger on later streets.

*** FLOP *** [Qd Jc 5c]
The big blind leads out for .20…which makes no sense. Even less sense…the guy who made the initial over-raise FOLDS to a raise that is A) smaller than his and B) roughly a quarter of the pot. It leads me to believe he had exactly the sort of hand I suspect when I see those raises…small pockets that cannot stand much action unless they hit a set.

The button flat calls. Could mean he has something, could mean he is making my favorite play.
The turn is the As, the big blind checks and the button…bets .20.

Now, at this point it is almost impossible for a poor player like me to put them on a hand. If he bets half the pot I think he takes it down. As is, I think one has a Queen or Ace, the other maybe add Jack to that…or maybe some sort of draw, straight or flush. Even a lower pair is possible but who knows?

The Qh on the river then sees the worst bet yet….05 into a pot that has 1.57 in it. The min-bet is called. The button shows Qc/Kd. The big blind shows pocket 8s. I am left speechless.

Qs/3c in the middle with a limper ahead is yet another easy fold. Even if I were wild enough to get involved with hands like this, seeing bizarre, almost uninterpretable behavior like the weird betting in reverse on the prior hand means it is too difficult to play.

Unless, of course, I pick up the 3d/10c in the big blind and win the hand when everyone folds. This is actually something I watch for because it is often a sign I can widen my opening hands and have a good steal percentage when attacking the blinds. Plus it is nice to pick up the small blind with a trash hand…

The first three spots limp, in the small blind I look at 5s/3c and meekly fold. This is a place a lot of other people will call here trying to hit the odd straight in which case they will almost certainly stack someone with that unlikely hit. But I just do not have what it takes to make that play.

Yet.

On the button with 8d/3s facing a standard raise there is no hesitation…fold.

UTG+1 makes a wild opening raise of .30 or 6x the big blind. In the hijack with Jh/8h I briefly ponder calling…then my brain starts functioning and I fold. I figure he PROBABLY has a low pocket pair…5s or below? But still, the BEST I can hope for is a race. Calling 1/6th of my stack for a long-shot draw just is not something I like to do.

An early position limper says 10c/6d is a bad idea. Fold.

So now I have seen 15 hands. 13 were clear folds, one I checked my option in the big blind and another big blind everyone folded to me. So I am not exactly action Jackson here. But that is sometimes a good thing. On Rush nobody can see how often you play so you can get away with that.

On the button with Kd/8h I would open raise, but with a click-raise and call in front of me, it becomes fold #14.

Early middle position, sitting on 1.95, I have 10h/10s and open to .15. The button re-pops to .52. It is .37 to call which would build a pot of .81 including the blinds. I put him on Jacks or better, A/K, maybe A/Qs. So at best I am a coin flip, and really I am playing for a set here.

That means I need 8-1. 37x8, I short-hand it, 3.20 is needed…and I only started with 1.95. The odds are wrong and I make what I believe is the correct fold.

All too often I see people call here, then check-fold the flop. When I have better hands…say, queens or better, I call, if the board is not particularly dangerous I then lead out on the flop. But with 10s…better stick around with 1.80 which will be enough to let me still play than take a long-shot that will make it so I have little to no wiggle room.

An early position 2h/7c is an easy fold.

6c/jc sees one limp ahead of me. I briefly consider calling, having seen just one flop so far, but good sense prevails. Unless the flop holds the A/K/Q of clubs I do not want to get involved…so why not save a nickel? Another fold.

Oh, for the record? The flop had the 5c/Ac/Qc. The turn had the 10c.But I still like the fold because I did not know that at the time.

UTG+1 Ac/5h. We have seen this before. Call it laundry because it is time to fold.

UTG opens a standard raise, folded to me in the big blind with 7c/Kd. Out of position with a bad hand that is easily dominated…fold.

In the hi-jack I pick up the Ad/Qs. It is folded to me, I make the standard raise and pick up the blinds. My 22nd hand, Ihave my first win. It is small, but I will take it.

UTG+2 with 2s/4h seems like a good time to open fold. I do not want to get too excited about people having folded to my prior raise, get involved in a hand with bad cards and give up a big chunk. Fold #20.

UTG open limps with 17.73. On the button I have 6h/7h. It looks like I can see a cheap flop in position with suited connectors. Low risk, high reward, I call. And the small blind then takes their time and raises to .30 with 4 even. Folded to me.

I have position, it is .25 to win .35…not very good odds, it would leave me only 1.47 to play after the flop so flopping a draw would pretty much stack me…better to toss off the nickel and move on. Fold #21.

Early middle with 6h/Ac is an easy fold.

Early with 2h/7h, I almost raise trying to be funny by winning with deuce-seven. Then I remember nobody would see it, the humor factor lessens as the thought of throwing off 3 blinds for a joke nobody knows seems downright silly and fold #23 ensues.

In the hi-jack with 5h/4s, I briefly consider raising. When I have 150ish big blinds, knowing people will fold quite often. However, with less than 40…I am not as frightening and cannot afford getting called. I fold.

With one limper, I weakly fold the qs/jd on the button.

The small blind limps with 6.27 and I check with 7h/Kd. I probably have the best hand, but no reason to get excited and get involved with a big pot with it. The flop is 8h/6d/4s. SB leads out for a nickel. I have a gut shot straight draw where I can probably get a fair bit out of him but more importantly, I have position and the belief he will fold the turn.

Speaking of turns, that miracle 5d hits, giving me the straight. He bets another nickel. I can either call or charge him if he is drawing to the backdoor flush. Also, if he is on a draw, he probably puts no more in on the river. If he has an over pair or set, it is probably all going in.
I re-pop to .20 and he obliges me with a call. The only hand I am nervous about is 7/9 and it is unlikely. The river is the 2h.

He comes out firing .30, his biggest bet yet. I do not want to scare him away so I just re-raise to .85 and he calls. He had the 3h/4h…the smaller straight. How did I not double up here? Good play on his part, I think there is a good chance I would have gotten stacked here if the situation was reversed.

Cutoff limps with 4.69, in the small blind I have the Jh/5h. I briefly consider playing it. Assuming the big blind checks I am getting 4-1. But I am out of position hoping to flop the 4th nut flush…I fold.

With a raise, call, and re-raise ahead of me, folding the 6s/4s in the small blind is easy for me. If I am not playing for the Jack high flush, I am definitely not playing a suited one-gapper out of position. Maybe if I were a better player…or calling would not take 16% of my stack.

Furthermore, I would not have called the re-re-raise all in, so I saved .42 cents.

Early position 7h-10h sees a raise and is an easy fold.

In the hi-jack with 8d/4d I am considering a raise, but when the guy before me limps I fold again. I like raising with hands like this which can either A) win the blinds or B) have solid position and a possibility..slim, but possibility…of flopping a decent draw. I do not like calling with weak hands and it is certainly not worthy of a re-raise.If someone calls, I certainly have a weaker hand than they do and am not going to like very many flops. Now I am involved in a raised pot with a trash hand. If someone reraises, I have to fold. So cutting out the middle man and folding now seems wise.

So the stats so far:
I open folded 10 times.
I folded when limped to 9 times.
I folded to a raise 8 times.
I open raised and folded to a reraise once.
I called a limp and folded to a re-raise once.
29 pre-flop folds.

I open raised twice and had everyone fold to me, so 3 open raises total.

Twice I was limped to in the big blind and checked.

Once it was folded to me in the big blind.

34 hands so far. Good start. A little behind, but I think I am playing well.