Tuesday, November 18, 2008

HU20: Sucking (and resucking) it up

In this heads-up hand against an aggressive player who was 3-betting 18 percent of his hands, I made a pretty awful raise on the flop with overcards and a gutshot draw:

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $412

BB: $879.50

Pre-Flop: J Q dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to $12, BB raises to $41, Hero calls $29

Flop: ($82) 7 T 8 (2 Players)
BB bets $68, Hero raises to $180, BB raises to $838.50 and is All-In, Hero calls $191 and is All-In

Upon reflection, my play is simply awful.

I'm not sure, but I think my call of his preflop reraise is OK because there are plenty of hands that I'll dominate against an opponent's wide range, and I could hit hard.

This flop is not one that I hit hard.

I'm not favored against hardly any hands that can call, and I'm not getting any better hands to fold. AA-77 is going to get it in. Overcards with flush draws are going to get it in. Many combinations of a 9 and an overcard are going to get it in. Any pair plus a draw is going to get it in. My equity against any of these hand types isn't great.

I discussed this hand with a friend who suggested that even calling this flop bet is questionable because there are few cards on the turn that I'll be happy with. What do I do if I make top pair? Can I make a move (probably not) if an Ace or a King falls, giving me an open-ended straight draw? What if I pick up a weak spade flush draw?

However, I don't think I'm good enough to fold this flop. In the future, I'm more likely to call the flop and think hard about what to do on the turn.

Turn: ($824) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

I suckout!

River: ($824) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

And villain resucks.

Results: $824 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed J Q (a straight, Queen high) and LOST (-$412 NET)
BB showed 9 9 (a full house, Nines full of Sevens) and WON $823.50 (+$411.50 NET)

2 comments:

Greylocks said...

You're right: your flop raise stunk up the place.

But it's probably pretty close between calling and folding.

The Js is probably big enough that if you float a call here and a spade comes on the turn, you have several options available that might win the pot on the turn or river.

A 9 hitting the board could also double you up if he has AJ, JJ, or JT (or any hand with a J and no Q.

A jack on the board might not be bad for you either. It looks scary to him if he doesn't have a 9, and he probably doesn't have one.

For that matter, a 6 might win the pot for you.

In other words, the texture of the board combined with your positional advantage and your ownership of the key ranks and suit gives you some room to maneuver here if you decide to just float a call. But you nullified your advantages by raising on the flop when, like you said, you didn't have a compelling argument for doing so.

Unknown said...

You also have to factor in that this is the exact type of flop that a person is going to be giving up on with air as long as he is not the type to auto cbet 100% of time considering that it hits your calling range SO hard.