Spot the (Many) Mistakes
Saturday, 30 December 2006 08:48This is an online hand that I played very poorly. (Maybe I should post the good hands once in a while, but what's the point of talking about the right things one does? Focus on the mistakes to get better, right?) There are so many mistakes in this hand, I'm not sure which one to focus on. I will just lay them all out to you.
In a six-handed NL HE $.50/$1 game. I am in the $.50 small blind with $218, Jagsmith84 (with $42) is is in middle position, followed by BigGross ($99), followed by rotncotn ($473).
Jagsmith84 limps, BigGross min-raises, rotncotn calls, and I call with
A K
.
I usually call with AK out of position rather than raise, as I
don't want to build a big pot preflop.
The flop was T 9
A
. Checked to BigGross, who
bets $9, and
everyone calls. Perhaps I should have bet out. I know there is
a heart draw out, but I don't know where, and check-raising is going
to built the pot too big if aces-up are out (people on this site
generally overvalue weak aces). I decided to take a turn and see if
it's a safe card. Probably a mistake.
The turn was K with a pot of $47. Something
possessed me to check-raise. I figured that if I had one bettor
into me, and only callers behind, a check-raise would clear the
field of draws and isolate me with a weaker two pair most of the
time. I'd learn quick if something better than that was out.
Again, probably a mistake.
This time, BigGross gives up, rotncotn bets $24, and I make it $60 to
go. Obviously, I have to put more in there, but rotcotn is deep,
I think, so I figure even a small raise will put him off most hands.
He calls relatively quickly. Ok, a flush draw is his most likely
holding, right? Other possibilities are AT and T9, and he want to see
the river too without committing too much more. The river falls
9, pairing the board and getting
the flush draw there. I bet $50 into $167, hoping that I can get
called by AT. He check raises all-in (another $97 to me), and I
fold.
I probably should have led for the pot size on the turn, but given that I didn't, I should have considered seriously check-folding the river. But, I probably made more mistakes too. I figure some will say reraising from SB with AK is correct, but I really don't like that play most of the time. Any other things I did wrong? (There have got to be tons; I am really unhappy with my play here.)