Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Trapping

It only takes one or two hands to define a session.

Yesterday that hand was T6o from the big blind. I called a min raise from the utg player in a multiway pot. I flopped an open-ended straight draw, turned top pair, rivered two pair.

I push, AA calls. Ship it.

Today the big hand (possibly my biggest pot yet) was a set of 3s vs. AJ top pair, top kicker. He called my huge all-in bet on the river after I had check-raised the turn -- just as he was meant to. Good times.

Nothing out of the ordinary. Just big bets with big hands.

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I think check-fold is an acceptable line with TPTK in a raised multiway pot out of position. Or perhaps bet-fold.

Thoughts?

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I remember reading on some blog the story of the Happy Folder. I can't for the life of me find it again. (If anyone has a link, please post it in comments.)

The gist of it is that folding is OK. Folding is special. Folding is your friend.

I could get used to this folding thing.

3 comments:

Sean Keegan-Landis said...

On most stack sizes, I'm not a fan of checking TPTK in a raised multiway pot out of position, let alone check-folding. Betting for info is crucial here. What's nice is this info bet is often a value-bet as well.

Depending, again, on your stack size, you should just play carefully after your flop bet. TPTK is a good hand where you want to control the size of the pot, if possible (another good reason to lead out on the flop). A general willingness to let it go if the bets get out of control is good. Still, I think consistently bet-folding TPTK is too tight and exploitable.

kurokitty said...

The way I think of it is like in High Stakes Poker when they always say, "Protect Your Children," and so they try to protect what they have in the pot with a bet. But if it gets jacked up, you may have to bail.

Gnome said...

I agree that you should bet out TPTK most of the time, although there are certainly exceptions. I plan a more detailed look at these exceptions soon. Thanks for the comments!