At this level, I play a pretty straightforward game. And even though it's low stakes, I've run into some interesting situations that bear analysis, in my opinion, regardless of what stakes you play at.
Lately I've been playing 3 tables of 6-handed 25NL. Here are a few interesting hands:
Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
MP: $28
Hero (CO): $35.75
BTN: $21.60
SB: $26.30
BB: $10
UTG: $36.55
Pre-Flop: J
K
dealt to Hero (CO)2 folds, Hero raises to $0.85, BTN calls $0.85, 2 folds
Flop: ($2.05) 8
6
J (2 Players)Hero bets $1.50, BTN calls $1.50
[Floating? Could be any number of straight draws]
Turn: ($5.05) 2
(2 Players)Hero checks, BTN bets $2.25, Hero calls $2.25
[Check for pot control, now can I let it go when villain bets? This card certainly didn't hit any draws. I thought about a raise here, but I'm not sure how deep I want to go with top pair second-best kicker]
River: ($9.55) Q
(2 Players)Hero bets $4, BTN calls $4
[The Q is a little scary...completes a couple draws, makes 2 pair out of a couple other hands. So here's the tricky part. If I check, I have to expect a bet somewhere in the $5-$8 range. And if I called the turn, I don't see how I can fold here. So I make a blocking bet, and....]
Results: $17.55 Pot ($0.85 Rake)
Hero showed J
K (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-$8.60 NET)BTN showed J
A (a pair of Jacks) and WON $16.70 (+$8.10 NET)One of many hands that has me beat... not surprising. There are a lot of different ways I could have played this. Preflop fold? Could have, but KJ is pretty squarely in my raising range from the cutoff (with no one yet entering the pot).
On the turn, do I fire a second barrel, and then get away if a raise comes?
I initially felt good about the blocking bet, but later wondered if I hadn't gone ahead and value bet for my opponent.
I guess you can kind of chalk this one up to the inherent risk of aggressively playing borderline hands.
Here's another borderline hand, but the nice thing about those borderline hands is that they're usually pretty easy to get away from...
Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players
Hero (UTG): $49.70
BTN: $42.45
SB: $36.70
BB: $27.40
Pre-Flop: T
J dealt to Hero (UTG)Hero raises to $0.85, 2 folds, BB calls $0.60
[I always prefer to raise with speculative hands like this if I'm first in]
Flop: ($1.80) 7
9 5 (2 Players)BB checks, Hero bets $1.40, BB raises to $5, Hero calls $3.60
[Pretty nice flop, with tons of draws. Again, I like to bet my draws to disguise when I hit. In this case, I go from getting a free card to having to call a reasonably hefty reraise. At this point, I could probably have reraised, but I might have to go all the way with a push to get any fold equity. But I opt to call and see what the turn brings.]
Turn: ($11.80) 2
(2 Players)BB bets $9, Hero folds
[A total blank, and to boot, a pot committing bet from the villain. No fold equity at all, and I'm not even sure about some of my outs now. Could be 79, 55, 77, 99, even Ad7d. So I give up, but it's hard to fold a hand with that much potential.]
Results: $11.80 Pot ($0.55 Rake)
BB mucked and WON $11.25 (+$5.40 NET)
Should I have called here?
Well, those were the tough spots that didn't work out. Most everything else was good, and came about pretty easily. Doubled up with AA vs. JJ. Doubled up with A10 vs. AK with an A-10-x flop. Doubled up with 66 vs J9 on a J-9-6 flop.
Things going eerily smoothly. I expect this to come to screeching halt at some point.
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