Instructional Posts

Instructional Posts at Ship It, Fish!

• If you are a new player, start with this section of posts for new players.
• Advice for No-Limit Texas Hold'em (NL HE) Cash Games
• A series of posts about playing Ace-King in NL HE (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• Avoid playing short-stacked in NL HE cash games.
• Beating online tight-weak NL HE games.
• Semibluffing
• Don't overuse or abuse semibluffs.
• Example of a semibluff against a mixed field of players
• Some basic thoughts on O/8 for the experienced limit player.
• Keep track of the pot size, and have a bet ready, too.
• Be realistic about what you win, and analyze your results.
• You can still put bad players on hands!
• Call Yourself a Donkey Sometimes
• The games might not stay this good — the poker economy will eventually crash.
• Bad Beats are good for you.
• Running online poker clients on GNU/Linux systems.
• Psychology
• Trait Ascription Bias

It's Probably an Obvious Fold … If You Bet The Turn

While waiting for the complicated email indexing to run for this Real Life project that has taken much more time than I thought, I finished this markup on this old hand from this past May.

This hand is from a live game, $2/$5 blinds $500 maximum buy-in at Foxwoods on Friday afternoon; the weekend crowd has just begun to descend. I have just doubled up and have little more than a grand in front of me. I have a somewhat loose image, because I made what some at the table were arguing was a questionable call with a draw on the turn a few hands before, and the result had caused the double up when the draw hit and the other play paid off for his whole stack.

The game had mostly been tight, with a few loose players feeding the others, usually by overplaying one pair against stronger holdings.

I was on the button with Q Q, and a middle position player had limped. I made it $25 to go. The small blind — a tight player I'd seen raise preflop only twice in two hours, and whom I had never seen play past the flop (either by betting and winning right there, or check-folding) — made it $75 to go.

The BB and the limper folded, and I thought for a while. I didn't think he'd likely put me on a total steal, so I felt that his range couldn't be too much wider than AA, AK, or KK or maybe JJ. I didn't really see him playing any other hand this way, given how tight he'd been. I had not, in two hours, seen him reraise preflop at all. However, he had about $900 behind, and I decided to call, primarily feeling that my hand's primary value was implied odds for a set. If I flopped queens as an overpair, I'd have to be really careful.

The flop was in the top three of bad “set flops” in the deck: K Q J.

My opponent bet out $75 into a $162 pot relatively quickly. At that point, I mostly eliminated a set of KKK. In addition, the manner and speed in which he bet, and the way he reacted to the flop made me feel really strongly that he must have held the A in his hand. Meanwhile, I felt he would have check-raised or bet more strongly with top set. He'd want, in other words, to find a way to charge the spade draw as much as he could, and betting $75 wasn't it. He was either drawing himself trying to get a cheap price, or he had flopped a flush and was seeking action.

I thought and decided to call. I was pretty confident he held the A, but had virtually no clue what his other card was. There was some danger giving him a free chance to draw, but I also felt that with a dangerous flop like this, I couldn't stand a big reraise on the flop, anyway. I wanted to see a cheap turn card, to avoid being shut out, and then decide my commitment to the hand based on his reaction to it.

With $312 in the pot, a tough turn card came: A, and my opponent checked.

This is likely where I made the primary mistake of this hand. I began to feel at that point I must have the best hand, and he was probably drawing with A K or some such. I bet out $300, thinking that I was charging the spade draw with the naked A.

I was very surprised when he check-raised all in, for another $440 on top of the $300.

I was now getting about 2-to-1 to call, and I thought for a very long time. I eventually showed my hand, which is legal at Foxwoods to get a read in heads-up all-in situations in cash games. The fellow kept starting back at the stub in the dealer's hand, a tell that I often have seen, which usually indicates someone is drawing. However, I finally decided that this small tell wasn't enough to make the call — the action seemed to indicate he had aces with the A, or maybe even the set of KKK that I'd decided to eliminate earlier.

After the hand, W.D. (who was at the table) mentioned that most people at his side of the table were convinced he had a ten, possibly with or without the flush draw. I never really thought he could have a T in his hand. If I was beat, I was sure it was by a bigger set. I finally decided that the most likely hand was AA, because he probably would have just bet out again with AK or KK on the turn. I folded.

I was flabbergasted when he showed me the A J on the way to the muck. I was right; he did hold the A, but I couldn't put him on the J he had with it, because the preflop action was highly out of character for him with that holding.

After the hand, I simply joked that I knew the last spade was coming and therefore decided to fold.

Looking back now, I think the primary mistake was betting out the turn. Even if I think I have the best hand, there is no reason for the pot to get any bigger. Just as I felt on the flop that a check-raise was a problem, I can't really stand a check-raise on the turn, either, evidenced quite obviously by the fact that I folded when he did so (albeit perhaps incorrectly). If I just check the turn and the board pairs, I might win a huge pot against a strong flush (or occasionally lose one to a straight flush :), but if it doesn't pair, I can see what kind of defensive bet he makes on the river and reassess.

But, this remains the most complicated fold I've had to make all year, even if I'm pretty sure now I put myself in the bad spot by betting and/or betting too much on the turn.