Any Suggestions for this stuff?

Poker Strategy
1

Just a few hands from like 2 different tournaments… Any Suggestions? Or is this simply how you bust?

  1. hand with one jack out there i would be worried a little, with 2 the chances of him having one are really slim, plus who calls a raise with this few chips with q/j isn’t he usually dominated?
    https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/231722939/four-of-a-kind-jacks

  2. hand is it somehow correct to call with a/j there?? i know im giving him an ok price but its a tournament, i don’t have much left and theres an overcard out there
    https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/232144578/pair-jacks

  3. hand immediately after hand 2 this bs happens and i bust
    https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/232144680/flush-king-high

  4. hand, oh right i nearly forgot about that one, same tournament as 2 and 3. The guy limps with aces, basically gets deservedly fucked for it on the flop and then hits these… im thinking im chopping it with a jack, i mean he could have an ace there but just the fact that he shows up with 2 aces lol…
    https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/232143277/four-of-a-kind-aces

  5. hand just to illustrate how i play aces in tournaments
    https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/231541329/straight-seven-to-jack

  6. hand just how do these things keep happening - donkey is like oh man I’ve got 2 overcards and i can afford it, the thought that he’s at something around 15% to win doesn’t even cross his mind but hey these guys get rewarded for bad play somehow
    https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/230748410/straight-ten-to-ace

I’ve got a few more but thats all for now. Just want some tips from some more experienced players as i haven’t been playing for too long. Are some of these plays good or rather somehow “reasonable” from the others? I can play better at certain spots 4sure. But is this how every1 busts in tourneys and i have to get used to it? I build stacks for a long time and then like 3 of those hands happen in a row aaaand im out lol.

2

1
I would call. Dont forget, he was in BB. Low stack, free chips, take the chance to triple up.
2
Sometime pp overvalue they hand, and like (love, fall love with it) it soo much , they hold to it. You forget to raise on fold. That loss on you. End of the day, its tour, you ment to play more agressive.
3
All in before flop with 77. Against 8 pp. Some will call, you play bingo there. Your winning chance, what? 14.43 % !

Ok, I stop here.
All due respect, without offensive.
You are play bad.

3

-1. You had 13,5BB and you opened with 4,5x => you were committed post flop so might as well go all in PF because :

a. you’ll get calls by a range you actually beat (Ax stuff, probably AT to AK, Kx stuff, lower pair from a donk/big stack; your equity against this type of calling range (plus obviously what beat you) is about 50% so that’s good given it’s early in the tourney and you have to win a 50/50 to have a chance to compete later on).
b. your fold equity is higher by going all in pf
c. at this stage 2,5BB with 99 is good for you

Since you chose to only raise 4,5x pf (I really don’t like that sizing, you’re committed without really scaring medium/bigger stacks) your shove on the flop was standard because there were two hearts out and a slight redraw chance with the Js pairing up. Yes his call pf with QJ is very bad but I wouldn’t have played 99 that way. Either shove pf or limp in order to set-mine (catch a set on the flop).

-2. you had 14-15BB so again raising pf between 3,5x and 4x commited you (less than hand #1 though)
The price pf is good for him to call with AJ chasing an A or a J (you gave him almost 3:1 so his call was OK mathematically though I would have shoved/fold if I were him depending on your image).
After the flop it’s a bad call mathematically but the board is really dry and your bet seemed weak so why not. The turn slowed you down both which was logical, he picked up SDV and you faced a second over card and a flush draw (oesd for you as well).
So as played you probably should have half poted the flop. I still think that when you have <15BB you should shove pf especially when the blinds are high.

4

-3. Contrary to what marcipan thinks I believe your shove pf was very good. Nothing you can do here. You want to get folds or face a 50/50 or better. That’s what you got and he sucked you out, happens all the time but doesn’t mean your play pf was bad.

-4. What was your hand? let’s say Jx x not being an A. I like your raise on the flop (and the size). I don’t like your very small bet on the turn. You should have poted there assuming he caught an A. If your J was very ugly you shouldn’t have entered the hand pf. His slow play was indeed really bad.

-5. 100% standard for you and 26rlss. judymm got lucky.

-6. pf OK
Why check raising in that spot? It might be good against certain players you have history with but otherwise play it simple.
You called pf with the hope of smashing the flop, you did. There’s a flush draw there, a straight draw maybe, some room for AT+ just bet for value. About 4k or something like that. He would have called maybe even raised you and your call would have been really good.
Here you check raised basically contorting his range to something you seldom beat. You were lucky to see AKo, I would have expected to get called by 33 or TT or AhKh a lot in that spot.

RP is a site where very few people bluff or semi-bluff late in MTT so check raising all-in in there meant that you were loaded, you represented exactly 2P+ or a very huge draw. Don’t over estimate opponents by putting some meta thoughts in it. Play abc poker and then you’ll get creative at higher stakes (or not).

I think with very small adjustments you can improve quickly. Be very agressive pf when you have less than 15BB (especially early in the tourney or before the bubble).

Play abc poker, bet hard for value, don’t semi-bluff or bluff too much.
Checking is OK when you have show down value and can be the best play for example checking the flop in hand #2 was better than betting 350 chips.

5

In play chips, deff won go all in before flop with a lausy pair. He got left 2 best outs.
In here, in playchips, I would prefer play same color 67 , rather then a pair. Even more if lots of raise and calls before flop. Tend to weekest hand win.
Even AA all in pre-flop give you, what? 3:1 avg? ( Well , at 9 seated, if you count online, free chips, lots other think similar, I say 1:10 )

I think you play good, judged by your comments, but sometime I feel its more real play , rather then free chips online speach.

I stand by the preflop 77 all in before flop, here, online, free chips, is a huge mistake.
I stand by it , he play bad. Well, wors then avg.
The bigger problem he thinks contrary. So, wont hurt if he come downt to mother earth.
Juist pls dont encourage him to think othervise.

6

Well first I’m just giving my opinion so it’s OK if you disagree :wink:

Hand #3 is not about free chips or real money it’s about tourney strategy. Yes in a pot that you know for sure will be multi way (and it has to be really multi like at least 3 other players) you’re better off equity wise with suited connectors than with medium pairs (not that much actually). Also a suited connector is really easier to play post flop if you’re not too committed because three things will happen:

  • you miss the flop and fold to any bet
  • you catch some kind of draw and play it agressively
  • you smash the flop and bet for value

I still don’t want to go all in pre-flop with suited connectors because you’ll smash the flop less than 5% of the time and get extra equity about 23% of the time. I’m not to crazy about it.

In a ring game deep stacked sure. In a tourney deep stacked probably not as well (depending on your position and the stacks before and after you). In a tourney where you only have less than 15BB, blinds getting high it is your duty to shove in that spot:

blob.jpg715×411 136 KB

Two limpers with a decent stack, a BB with a decent stack as well, you’re the small blind that means post flop you’ll be OOP so calling here is basically throwing out 75 chips. You have two choices : fold or shove. Folding makes no sense because you don’t know when you’ll catch another pair or a decent hand for that matter.

So you shove because you want to get folds (and you will 15BB is still big for the three other players and not worth taking a risk) or to get called by AT+, some KT+, a smaller pair (yes people will call with smaller pair here at times and that’s not stupid). If you happen to get called by an over pair so be it, otherwise you’ll be on the good side of the coin flip and that’s OK, you have to win coin flips in tourneys. Also a shove here takes position out of the equation and that’s good.

So my advice would be to repeat that kind of play in that type of spots. It is +EV so in the long run it will help him to cash out.

7

Hey Qu4l0, i really really appreciate your thoughts! Also highly disagree with marcipan, a) i don’t think I’m a bad player b) its not about free chips - either you play serious poker or not c) I’m also of the opinion that shoving there is the only choice - what kind of logic is it to say that your 14.43% against 8 players? thats everyone all the time even aces is bad against 8players thats why you raise/shove lol

To the other hands, yes i probably have to improve my bet sizing sometimes. In these situations I’ve just often had me going all in with something like 15bb like you said, and everyone folding and i get like 2 bb out of it - which of course isn’t bad at all. its just not great because the blinds go up really quickly and i might not pick up another shove/playable hand - which is why i was trying to somehow get more out of it. But yes just shoving would probably be best.

I think I’ve learned really quickly considering i just started a few months back, but bet sizing is really a good point thanks a lot for that! And in hindsight i don’t like my check-raise in that one spot either, no idea what i was thinking :smiley:
Anyway thanks a lot for the analysis and I’m open for more suggestions!

8

Firstly I’d like to say that I think that it being play chips is a big thing. You might have heard sayings such as ‘two steps ahead is one step behind’ or ‘you cant bluff a bluffer’ or whatever. The point is that you have to adapt to the fact that people on Replay are often very loose passive, calling rather than raising preflop and frequently making huge odds mistakes. Anyway, on with the hands (I’ll try to cover them all).

  1. Firstly, that raise size is pretty fishy. The problem is that it is now clear that you are pot committed with over 1/3 of your stack, so you have to call. The best play (at this stage of the tourney without antes) would usually be to raise to about 2-2.5x so you are not so pot commited. However, this is low stakes play money poker, so that often induces 3 or 4 callers, and 9s flop very poorly against multiple opponents. So the best play is to go all in, because opponents at the low stakes will often call you with worse and you will usually be in a flip or dominating (only 5 hands dominate 99.) By going all in rather than raising to a silly size, you get more fold equity and a better chance to win the 2.5BB in the pot, and you don’t have to see an awkward multi-way flop. Even with a skill edge on your opponents you will find it hard to know if you are ahead or not on most flops.

  2. Noo! The return of the silly raise sizes. Just go all in and win whats in the pot or get called and usually be in a flip or dominating, especially with the antes. Now you see a flop and you don’t know where you stand, so you have put yourself in a bad situation. As it is, I would check the flop against more bluffy opponents who will bet the turn quite often, and probably also against most decent opponents too, who will pay you off with a 9 on later streets. There are a few bad turns, especially a K or an A, but I think it is fine to check. Against stations I would probably shove. However, you have put yourself in a bad situation because of how you played preflop and the situation should have never come up. Villain played it badly all the way through, but what can you really expect? Once again, this is low stakes play money!

  3. Fine. Easy all in really. Nothing to talk about there. You got it in ahead- tough luck.

  4. Well you need to tell me what your hand was! You are right in saying that slowplaying aces at these stakes in a tourney is a big mistake, but I dunno what you had, so I can’t help.

  5. I like the wait, but really that was a very easy all in, and there’s nothing to talk about here. You got it in with 78%- great! Tough luck again on this one.

  6. I think the preflop call was okay, its a nice suited broadway and you (hope to) have a skill edge on those types of players. The size on of his bet on the flop makes it awkward, and so does the fact that he only limped. It’s also a very wet flop with so many flush and str8 draws. I think that check shove is probably against most players, and it makes your hand look quite convincingly like a draw, although the players at low stakes Replay might not realize that. I think that they will often call with other draws, and they do have quite a lot of queens in their range as well. The problem with check call is that there are a lot of scary cards for a lone queen, and there are also quite a lot of bad cards for you such as a heart, but I might ask a professional about this one later. I’m not really too sure. As it is, I think that the call with AK is pretty okay, because you have a draw very often in this spot, which AK is crushing, but I doubt that any such thought went into his decision. This is the one I’m least confident about though. And then there’s ICM pressure as well which I didn’t even factor into it. As I say, I’ll try to check this out with a pro.

Anyway, just keep going at it. Understand why you make every decision you do, make sure you get your raise sizes sorted out, make sure you understand how stack sizes work, and understand that poker is a very long term game. Swings and variance are just part of the game. I would really recommend checking out some poker youtube and twitch channels so that you can learn the concepts from proper professionals.

Good Luck!
-Flyinghigh-

9

Hello black mamba,

I’m glad you’re starting to play poker now that you’ve retired (couldn’t help it :smiley:).
On bet sizing:

This is a good place to start, SplitSuit videos are very educational and this channel is great (maybe you already know it, no clue).

If you share other hands I’ll try to comment on it :wink:
I shuffled through your replays but it’s hard to really help you since most of the time I don’t see your hand. However you seem to have a good VPIP/PFR and that tends to confirm that you play solid poker. Maybe you should play a bit looser in 6 max games. You seem to have the same VPIP/PFR in full ring and in 6max.

Also something that is true both in the real world and in RP is the fact that close to the bubble people will tighten their game. You have to abuse that by getting much more agressive at this very moment. Yes sometimes you’ll get called by the occasional nuts pf but overall it is very profitable to steal blinds and fairly easy on RP (easier than on real money sites where more people have a grasp of what poker is about).

Cheers

10

I didn’t say that you didn’t have to factor in the fact that it is a free chips online poker website, I said in that particular case (hand #3) it’s not about free chips or real money or even live/online it’s about playing solid poker.

Basically your sharing the exact same thoughts on each hand so I’m guessing we both factored in the free chips/micro stakes behavior :wink:

11

Yeah make sure you know your opening ranges and be aggressive preflop. Really though I can’t give you hardcore strategy advice myself though. In terms of free sites, The Poker Bank is good, and he goes over hands that people have submitted to him, which is very interesting. Channels like Doug Polk are also good for strategy, although I like people like xflixx and especially Pokerstaples because they really make the game interesting and they give very good strategy advice, as well as having personalities as well. It’s definately good to dedicate at least 20-30% or your poker time to studying the game (forums, videos, various strategy sites) to get better quicker and to learn from the pros.
Good luck!
-Flyinghigh-

12

Wow, thanks for all the help especially Qu4l0 :slight_smile: very helpful - you’re probably right on the 6max./ Full ring games

Im probably just going to study for a while as i can’t take playing at the moment lol.

https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/233569240/straight-ten-to-ace

I mean i probably could’ve shoved, but i didn’t expect anyone else to call as it was a really high all in compared to the blinds… once the flop hit ofc i know queen/10 has me beat, but who cold calls in that spot with queen/10 I’m more afraid of someone with a set of jacks. I don’t love calling there but i have to no? And of course some weird person plays queen/10 and other stuff. I had ace/king.

https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/233572236/two-pair-sevens-and-twos

10 Minutes after hand 1 i get aces at another table (the first one was too maniac for my liking)
well i reraise, get called and the flop looks really safe to me, the only thing I’m a little afraid of is him having a set of jacks, but because I’ve chased away a lot of action by just betting and because the flops look super safe with no draws i decide to check and maybe let him bluff/value bet his queens/kings into me. He checks back and the turn looks safe as well. i decide it’s time to get some value.
I call his raise a) because I’m not good enough to fold aces there and b) i don’t think it would be a profitable play.
The guy has 7/2 - welcome to my poker day. This post is more me sharing my frustrations than seeking advice i guess. I don’t remember the last time my pocket aces held up. The last time i had them is further up in this post lol.

13

upa and another one goes https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/233579134/straight-ace-to-five

I do know split suit, I’ve watched some of his videos but i might follow up on the rest :smiley:

14

Preflop (could be larger assuming opponents are all horrible) and flop are fine. I would just 3 bet the turn all in. There are a vastly larger amount of worse hands that will call (pair of kings, two pair, sets, flush draws, opponent is assumed to be a passive fish so they will never fold anything like that). As played river is fine.

15

hand #233569240

This is ring game 6max so keep that in mind. PF I think the only valid options here are shoving or folding. And I’d be inclined to shove instead of folding even though folding is very valid if :

  • the table is very passive and calls with pretty much anything pf regardless of the size
  • and/or one of the players still in the hand can shove pf aggressively

The problem with the call here is that it will attract other players if it’s a passive table and/or it will be an incentive for an aggro (tardish) player to try to steal the money in the middle. So you either have no clue what you are facing or you’ll have to fold to a shove hence your call pf is basically throwing out 30BB (that’s a lot even though you were deep stacked which btw would be a good reason for one of your competent opponent to set-mine you)

I’ll make my case for shoving now instead of folding/calling:

  • this is 6max so you can be more agressive profitably even on RP (by that I mean your AK has more value than on a full ring and you have a better fold equity)
  • the action pf is very weak:
  • min raise, call, call, shove by a small stack (I’ll get back to that later) so I don’t expect anybody to have better than a medium pair (including the small stack all-in)
  • There are two small stacks (<30BB) and usually it means fishes or people who don’t care about their chips (or people on tilt even better). This again tends to make your AK stronger.

blob.jpg713×406 129 KB

*At this stage nobody’s committed except the one who shoved. His range should be really broad here he can have 22+, Ax, some Kx (you’re crushing his range like at least 60/40 probably 65/35). His range should be this broad because nobody in its right mind shove pf a strong hand in this spot. So he probably got bored or annoyed (small stack no history here but maybe on tilt) and wanted to bingo.

So trying to isolate him is good, it’s risky because of GJ2000 but if he is bad enough to min raise UTG with KK+ so be it. I’d say most of the time you’ll get fold, fold, fold, maybe call (very small stack) but I wouldn’t be too shocked when seeing their cards (K6o and Q6s).

As played though I have to continue to the flop turn river :slight_smile:

This is a good flop for you and I don’t really understand your check here. You called pf, so I guess you did it to crush the flop and you did. You’re beat by combos of TQ and JJ and that’s it, TQ given the action pf is very unlikely but hey what do you know at times you’ll deal with it that’s poker.

So now would be the perfect time to shove for value since you can attract AQ, AJ, AT, KQ, KJ, KT, these hands are very plausible. Even a lone Q if you’ve got calling stations that overvalue their draws.
In that particular case you would have been called by the guy who flopped the nuts… happens but doesn’t mean betting that flop hard would be a bad idea.

Your bet on the turn is a good idea (even though I believe it would have been better on the flop) the sizing is really off here. You’re giving 6:1 that’s 14,5% so any decent draw can call here even a gutty for IO on the river. You should at least bet 30k so might as well go all-in.

Then you got raised but given the pot size you have to call so OK for the call but you shouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place.

To summarize that long post (sorry about that) I’d say:
Fold if you want to play it safe (that’s 0EV and that’s not too bad).
Shove if you feel you can be OK with the results (meaning at times you will get called by a pair and it will hold till the river, but most of the time you’ll be in a very favorable situation).
Calling here is -EV, you got bailed by a great flop (actually a deadly one but there’s no way to know that) but that won’t pop up enough of the time to be profitable in the long run.
Last remark, when the SPR is low in ring games and you hit 2P+ it should be a no-brainer, bet hard for value.

16

I agree i should’ve just shoved. I think the reason for me not shoving and then betting really small on the turn and not on the flop is that i was uncomfortable with that many players and that many chips in the middle. I know I’m giving a great price to the spade draw, i don’t think a str8 draw has any meaning there as it comes in very rarely.
Summary: i should’ve jammed preflop and maybe play a smaller game if shoving 80k isn’t in my comfort zone^^ Should i be comfortable with it? probably yes right? I probably should generally shove ace/king more often.
Again thanks a lot for all the advice bud!

17

https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/233877884/full-house-threes-full-of-fives

ima quit for a week at least i can’t win a thing

18

Preflop seems okay, but it really does depend on the table. If you have seen them to be as sticky and passive as they were in this hand then an even bigger raise is better to avoid a horrible multi-way pot with a hand that can flop pretty badly, especially this deep stacked with reverse implied odds (at this level it is okay to raise to different sizes with different hands, they will probably not even notice the difference). I reckon the bet on the flop has to be closer to the size of the pot against these opponents, because you can expect them to come along with much worse things such as this pair of 3s although I don’t mind a check depending on how fishy they are, because there are a load of things that do beat you and you don’t want to stack off so many BB with an okayish hand. I MIGHT have folded river against better opponents but these people aren’t polarized when they go all in and they might just have a 9 for no reason. Pretty unlucky for him to have what he had but at low stakes those random bad beats will just happen. If you want to take a break then that’s fine if you reckon you are playing worse.
Good luck!
-Flyinghigh-

19

Hum, about the comfort zone yes you should be playing tables that are within your bankroll. I guess most people use the 5% of your chips rule or 20x. And then if need be shove because you’re not risking all your bank by doing so.

I’m not sure that you should shove AK more often. It’s never in absolutes in poker and hand strength is very relative. But in that kind of spots yes you should shove, it won’t work sometimes but it will be profitable in the long run.

20

hand # 233572236

pf I think you could have sized it better.

Depends on the table but I think a 4x would have been OK to open maybe even 5x. Then he 3 bet, I like your 4 bet but again the sizing is off, I would have 3x for value there so probably around 8,5k. Notice that had you 4x, 5x you’d already have a 20-25k pot which was very committing for your opponent (even though he probably had no clue).

Post flop I’m not a huge fan of your check. It’s a safe board for QQ/KK as well and it’s a great part of his range given the action pf. Unless you knew he was agressive and bluffy it’s always better to lead and bet with AA here. Yeah he’ll fold sometimes (probably would have in that case) but you can only make money against good hands here and checking is just an invitation to get sucked out (which unfortunately happened).

On the turn you finally bet, the flush draw is unlikely but I think the bet is good anyway (since it’s consistant with your flop check thought that was making QQ+ comfy), probably should have been closer to the pot 12k or something like that because there are now several scary cards that could pop up on the river and slow down the action.

His raise is so weird now that I would think you’re beat 99% of the time. And it’s really hard to lay down AA here so I can understand why you shoved/called what I don’t like is your chat remark on the set. Basically you’re turning your cards face up with that remark. You’re denying the very small fold equity you have (representing a set probably won’t work but you never know) and worse you might scare off the 22,5BB he’s got left and that’s very bad. So yeah it’s not real money and we’re on replay to have fun but if you really want to play like it was real don’t give free information like that. Not that it would have changed anything in that case, the guy had 72o and obviously was nuts :slight_smile:

So maybe a little bit more agressive pf in order to build up a huge pot (4-5x to open, 3x to 4bet) and more straight forward post flop (bet that flop).