Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Stupid poker

Six-max is hard!

It's especially hard when out of position against huge donks who I'm sure are profitable, but they're tough to play against because they could have anything.

If there's a raggy board, my opponent probably got a piece of it.

That causes problems for me because there are plenty of Ace-high hands that I raise preflop from one off the button. I'll get called by the loose-passive button player. Then when rags flop, what do I do?

I'm usually inclined to continuation bet for value. I'm not sure if this is correct, but my thinking is that my A-high is often the best hand against a mostly random holding. I know he probably won't fold even if he didn't catch part of the flop, but I want to get money in while I have the best of it.

But then comes a big problem: the turn. My value play on the flop works perfectly if I happen to catch one of my six outs to make a pair, but that's a 6.7:1 proposition. Those aren't very good odds.

Here's my question (and I think I already know the answer): Is there any value in my Ace-high flop bet, even when I do have the best hand, if I'll be forced to check and fold on the turn when a blank card falls?

I think the obvious answer is "it depends," and the other obvious answer is "no."

1 comment:

easyE said...

Take this for what it's worth because I am playing lower stakes than you (.5/1, 1/2 NL). But, I've had this same issue a LOT. As you say "it depends". But playing out of position, I found I lost a lot of money on continuation bets. If the hand went to showdown, I'd find that many times villian hit bottom or middle pair on the flop and was happy to call my continuation bets on the flop, turn and even river. So if I miss the flop, here is basically what I do right now: If the player's "Calls Coninuation Bet" is relatively high (I show this stat in PAHUD now), I'll check the flop and bet the turn. I've found that so many of these "floaters" can't stand the turn bet. It seems that many of them are willing to call a preflop raise and and a flop bet, hoping to hit big.

If an A hits on the flop, obviously I'll bet. Even if they've caught a piece of the flop, they seem to fold a lot, because now they "believe the continuation bet".

Depending on the player, I may continuation bet on the flop, but then shut down after that. I just hate playing out of position, and being called down by a small pocket pair, middle or bottom pair.

I know with 6max there is a lot of talk about aggression, aggression, aggression. But, I haven't necessarily found that to be true out of position.