Value Betting vs. Charging Draws
habit alert - i just realized this, i tend to play cards, review my session, think about my big/question hands, set them up in a replayer, blog about them, hit “save”, go to bed, sleep on them, and wake up having answered my own question so i never hit “publish”.
probably 35% of what i write never gets printed, including last night’s “what should i bet on the turn” hand. the rub being i’m not sure if i’ve attracted a flush draw to come along (less likely since i have the Ace of the suit), or a weaker Ace that i want two streets of value from.
i also highly question my flop play on this hand. i think if i just call, he’ll have no clue where he is, and i can get more action on later streets. i was scared of a diamond killing everything so i pushed the hand a bit.
i think something clicked in my brain on sunday morning poker-wise. i couldn’t wait to get to the tables saturday night, and i tilted, tossing off 2 buy-ins by the end of the session. so sunday i wake up bummed, hit the coffee, and sit down to grind back my losses.
i payed so much better attention and i was able to see opportunities that i usually couldn’t - double barrel spots, delay cBet spots, c/r bluff spots. and i know that that reads like “i got tricky”, but i wasn’t holding the hopes of using a c/r bluff looking for a chance to fire it, i sat there at the table and thought, “now that’s purely positional” - followed by “screw you, here’s my stab back”.
i started raising with speculative hands (SC’s) when i thought i’d be in a postion to take it down with aggression, and not as a habit.
i don’t know, i was doing the Gaffond thing of trying to sit there and figure out how i was going to take money off of each of my opponents. heh, and if the answer was “get a better full house” then i was going to leave.
oh, i did start opening from the button for a little less as this is something that rasputin mentioned. and come to think of it, i think Willie’s being doing this all along, and i saw verneer doing it on his latest series of vids as well. he didn’t mention it, he just did it.
and, also a nod to rasputin, and vili, i’ve stopped the ‘insta-decision’ habit. generally, my cBet success rate climbs dramatically when it looks like i’m betting for a reason, rather than out of habit. i think the button pushing is contagious, so when i insta cBet they just click call back at me.
ok, i’m off to make a day of it
Preface: I apparently chronically underbet the turn, though I’ve been working on it.
First hand: I think your turn bet size was fine (I’d put in $9, but basically the same thing). He’s getting less than 2.5:1 to chase OOP, he’d need to extract $18 when he hits just to break even, which I don’t think you call. So vs draws, your bet looks fine. On the other hand, a weak ace probably folds to a $10+ bet, so your bet size is good for keeping those in as well.
However, I think you missed value on the river (unless villain is TAG), I’d vb ~$18 and fold to check/shove.
Second hand: This board is too coordinated to flat. I’d raise it to $16 actually to make it easier to get stacks (or 80% of stacks) in on the turn. I so often see villains call PPs and stack off any overpair on flops like these, this is basically the situation they pray for after a set. If you flat, almost any card here is either an overcard, flush card, or weird straight card (you’re looking for a black 8 or 7
). I’m pretty sure others will suggest a bigger raise to commit (maybe $18 is even better?), but definitely don’t slowplay here.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:51 amwfqrjkmgx iflsq bnuvtak ehnxscmbo ywhveojxs bhnx qgkpifym
September 5th, 2008 at 9:04 am