Post Hands to Review

that is one of the reasons I enjoy MMT more than sit n go’s, but either way I just wait them out ♫♪♫ :heart::diamonds::clubs::spades:

Actually, that’s one of the reasons I play the 1-2 ring tables. If you look for the tables with the lower average pots, you’ll usually be able to find a game with calm, polite people rather than frenetic all-inners. They aren’t all wonderful poker players (at least, I’m not), but they are mostly nice ones. Or, you can jump to the highest average pots where its all in, all the time, by golly. You can probably find the same breakdown of players at most buy in levels just by looking at the average pot for each table at that level. The more aggressive players are simply betting more trying to prove who has the biggest, uh, brains. Or something. But, the games and the players are there, if you look for them. You can also try “spectating” at a few tables before getting involved. It will save you much aggravation.

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Thanks. I don’t mind action. In fact, I like action. The stakes don’t matter to me at all if I can find a decent game with decent people. Getting harder and harder to find.

Maybe do a search for me between 9:30 and midnight ET.
There are a few of us that wind up at the end of the night on a 5/10 table and treat each other with respect and sometimes the pots can build up nicely.
If a bingo player shows up we can usually collectively run them off within a round or 2…sometimes they even see their evil ways and start playing reasonably. :grin:

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Agree with you there Grandy!

Worst time to play seems to be from 3-7 pm when the kids get out of school and are just playing their free daily chips and going all in every hand.

I also get some good games early morning from 5-7 am and that seems to be more foreign players playing and and good players getting in a game before work.

ADDED: I mostly play 10/20 6 seat because I like the faster tempo but I will drop down to a 5/10 6 player if I want to be more social and big pots are not the objective.

This group I’m talking about that gets together all seem to have rather large bankrolls (1M and up) and are winding down for the night after playing big stakes earlier.
We always play 9 seat but I may play a 6 seater tonight and see if we attract the same crowd bc it can get a little slow sometimes.

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Here is a couple of nice hands tp review.

Decided to play a 9 seater for bigger pots but only play top cards.

Folded everything but 2 out of probably 30 hands and hit both.

AA and felted 3 players
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/444777417

Trip Qs. Didn’t get as big of a pot as I wanted but not bad.
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/444776270

This hand is honestly shocking to me. I do not like very much about how this hand was played. Let’s work through this.

The guy who opens has a huge stack, so it makes sense that he may be extra aggressive, but 4.5x is big and should get folds from most non-premium hands (at least in a realistic game, but it seems like an ok size for a Replay low/medium game). Once people start to call, each additional caller is getting a better price. K6s is still a fold here. You are in position and getting a good price, but you will often be dominated by a bigger king, so you will rarely win a big pot, you are not connected, and while you can hit strong flushes they are not the nuts. It is basically setting 4.5bbs on fire unless you have a lot of bluffs because you will rarely have the best hand at showdown. Playing loose passive is a major leak that I have fallen into, as have most players here (hence @love2eattacos post about it being the biggest weakness on Replay).

The flop crushes the callers’ range (QJ/KQ/QT/Q9), plus there are a lot of draws (diamonds/KT/T9/AT). You bet less than 1/5 pot, which gives you a good price to draw but is also ineffective at getting any folds. It is just too small to fold out a Jack or even some smaller pocket pairs. The two ATs are priced in to call (and they still beat you at showdown unless you improve). Plus, it is not a good board to semi-bluff with a flush draw because the board has paired and you block some of the straight draws that you want to continue because you have the king. The turn brings them a straight and you top pair. On this board, I think you have to check because you beat very few hands that can continue (AJ/JT/J9, 27-36 combos) and lose to a ton of hands that may be about to check-raise you, bearing in mind that the original raiser has an almost uncapped range because they can slow-play monsters on this flop. Your opponents can have AA/KK/QQ/JJ/AQ/KQ/KJ/QJ/QT/Q9/AT/T9 (~77 combos), which you have a total of 26% equity against, and with 3 opponents it is likely that at least 1 of them has trips or a boat.

The river gives you the flush, but facing that bet I am hating the spot and deciding between call or fold, never raising. Your opponents can have some trips, straights, or smaller flushes that you beat, but they should never be leading out with them like this in a multiway pot on a paired board that crushes a flat calling range. There are 17-21 combos of full houses that your opponents can have (KK/QQ/JJ/KQ/QJ/Q9), which is a ton, though they maybe should not have JJ-KK in their flatting range. They could also potentially make this play with the nut flush (7 combos), though it’s good that you block straight flushes. So, with a pot-sized bet and a call, I actually probably fold here because at least 1 of them should have a boat, though I may reluctantly call if I think they are big fish who might overvalue trips, a straight, or a baby flush. You got max value from worse hands, so well done, but I am generally confused.

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I mostly want to analyze the play of the original poster (so that I am not commenting on players who are not aware that they are being discussed), but obviously this hand does not make sense. This is a play chip site, and some people do not know or care what they are doing.

Min-raising J9o is not effective because you will rarely steal the pot and will usually end up playing out of position with a bad hand. Flatting 33 is fine. On this flop, betting the pot seems ok because you just want to get folds, though I typically do not bet that big for value or as a bluff because most players can make the right decision when facing a pot-sized bet, while they struggle to make good decisions against smaller bets because the math gets harder.

The guy with 33 goes all-in, which makes it seem like they know the guy with J9o can often have nothing and will be forced to fold. 33 is not a good hand to choose to make this play because it has showdown value and no blockers, so it is not necessary to turn it into a bluff and it performs very badly when called. The original raiser calls the all-in, which is the most inexplicable part of the hand. Even if he knows he has two live cards (which he never should), he is still getting a terrible price, so it seems like he just doesn’t care about losing his stack.

A post was merged into an existing topic: Post your proudest replay hand(s)

Looking for initial assessment(s) on how you (all/folks) feel I played this hand. Certainly willing to offer any additional information I may be able to provide if so requested: https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/448107148
Thank you.

Another hand to review in addition to the one above. Looking at this one in hindsight I see several areas (perhaps one very much in particular) where I may have done things differently; I definitely have an idea on where I would note some holes in the play, but I’m interested to receive feedback and initial assessments to see if what I’m thinking is similar to what I hear in any feedback…and to just receive some feedback in general…it was a bit of an interesting hand IMO. Thank you very much.
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/447969799

One area of my game where I am trying to improve is in picking off and calling bluffs. A few times recently I have won huge pots with rather moderate hands when something did not look right. Of course with only a few seconds to make a decision that can put you out of a tournament, it is never easy, but in the hand below, it was rather easy to spot the bluff. See if you can see why. I will not reveal my hand (you will see it at the showdown) so as not to spoil the story.

https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/448160310

Preflop:
KJo is not a very good starting hand. It’s sort of a trap hand because even when you do flop something it’s usually just top pair with a vulnerable kicker. From early position you should just fold it.

Happy to see you open-raise and not limp. Given that you decided to open, your size should be bigger because there are a couple of forced BB already in the pot. I would make it 7k to go.

When Villain 3bets, you can safely fold. Many people on this site only 3bet when they have a very strong hand (like maybe TT+, AQ+) so unless you had a specific read on this player I would put them on a range like that. KJo is in horrible shape against that range - you’re not ahead against anything, and in many cases you’re dominated. Fold.

Post-flop:
In general I like the idea of taking a stab at the pot when it checks to you. You might get folds from JJ, TT and AK. Most of the time those hands might call flop but fold to a turn barrel. However if you always bluff when it checks to you here then you’re bluffing too often and your opponent can just check-call you to death. KJo is probably not the best bluffing hand because you block some of the hands you would like your opponent to have.

If you are going to bluff this flop, you should go bigger - maybe 3/4 pot - with a plan to shove if you pick up any equity on the turn - so with KJ that’s any A, T or 9.

Your opponent check-called flop/turn then donked the river with just A-high. This certainly merits a note for future hands - they either think you are bluffing too much, or are just much too sticky. In future hands you could go after them with thin value bets and almost no bluffs.

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Preflop
Limping in the small blind here is fine. Your postflop plan should be to get chips in if you get a 3, check-fold if not.

Postflop
Great flop for you. Generally you should play flopped sets fast, especially when you’re multiway and there are a lot of potential draws available. Here you have to decide whether to lead out or go for a check-raise. Given that it was limped pre-flop it’s ok to lead yourself, but check-raising is good too.

Once you check and the main Villain bets on the flop, you have to pull the trigger and raise.

The turn card is bad for you since it completes any club flush draw, and anyone with a random 75 got there too. Check-call instead.

As played, when you get min-raised on the turn the alarm bells should be going off. Your opponent is basically saying that they have a very strong hand - most likely a flush. If you have a read that this opponent bluffs a lot then you might call, otherwise fold.

As played, the river card is good for you, you should be getting your chips in. Sometimes you will run into a bigger boat but it seems unlikely given the action on the previous streets.

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I really, really like what you said in the pre-flop section. Reading it back, it sounds so obvious to me. Sometimes you just need to break things down and slow everything down. It is great to have someone else see it for what it is. It’s great to have a reminder/refresher. Sometimes, you let these things just slip away on you, and you may not even realize it until afterwards. I like the way it’s worded, I like its honesty and bluntness. It makes it hit home to me and realize it more.

Post-flop:

This is my favorite thing in the post-flop part of your reply. Very true. And sometimes it’s so easy to forget those things in the heat of the moment or with inexperience. It’s funny - I actually am not one (typically), in general, to bluff often on the flop after being checked to. It’s almost a tiny bit relatively ironic it occurred here. As for anything else you said, I don’t have much to say in response, as I just flat out agree with and like what you had to say. My best response is that this was a bit of an eye opener on something it really shouldn’t have been. :slight_smile: Great to start somewhere, though and learn from mistakes. I really appreciate some of the replies on these forums. I truly believe it is what has caused me to improve (albeit slightlly lol) my play the most. Thank you.

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I think my biggest mistake in the entire hand was not check-raising against that min-raise on the flop; calling was definitely a bad route to take. I should have given a little more consideration to the possibility of an over-pair or a flush draw. It is funny, though. Not sure why, but when the club fell on the turn, I wasn’t worried about my opponent having it. I don’t know if it was an irrational hunch, or a subconcious read on his playing style - I really believed he didn’t have it…and those things are not typical of me. I was a little concerned leading out on the flop, even though I should have. I didn’t want it to seem like I had a 3…guess I just didn’t really have enough time to think about it. But I was in fact set mining by limping…so I should have known better to follow through. Second guessed myself on a momentary lapse of reason I’ll whine to the court, I guess. Tried to confuse my opponents a bit on this hand, as I am so paranoid (potentially/likley for good reason) I become very predictable. Didn’t work. Sometimes it pays to stick to the rational approach and win early or save some money in the long term, I guess! :slightly_smiling_face: Thanks again!

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Please forgive me if this sounds absurd . It could be completely obvious, incorrect/inaccurate, juvenile, or just plain asinine. I stress my beginner level and inexperience. This is my first attempt at analyzing someone else’s (and obviously a better player at that!) hand publicly, and it’s a little nerve wracking. Please let me know if it’s anywhere in the ballpark of reasonable…and if it is, I honestly don’t mean this sarcastically…I am at the level where I’m unsure and green about it all.

Here goes: You flopped so strongly that you can narrow his range to nothing but a bluff. You block a J and a 6. You’re a 3-1 favorite to win/split if he holds Jx higher than a 6. You beat/tie him if he holds Jx lower than a 6. Of course it’s ridiculously unlikely he holds J6. He needs something with which to continue. It is unlikely his hole cards are paired, good, or speculative because he clicked the check/fold option pre-flop! He was folding if he had to commit any additional chips to the pot. It’s very likely he doesn’t have a playable starting hand. He continues, so he must have a piece of it…a jack? So unlikely-you have one and there are 2 on the board. Also, he likely would not have bet so lightly or may have checked and tried to trap. Can’t put him on two pair other than J’s and 6’s because he would not have clicked the check/fold pre-flop with an overpair or even any pair for that matter. So you likely have to put him on 6x. When the J falls on the turn you know he is trying to rep a J or 66/another pair for the boat. He is repping everything he cannot have, hence a bluff.

Am I even close to right? (serious inquiry). I apologize in advance if it seems silly or sarcastic.

Thanks for hearing me out.

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I watched these @lad44 two hands before reading the comments, and @love2eattacos said just about everything I wanted to say about these hands.

I do not like the choice to open KJo here, but it needs to be bigger from EP with the 2 blinds posted; I like 6.5x or 7x,but generally I would just fold KJo. Facing the 3-bet, I would quickly fold. I like the idea to bet the flop, but you do not want to be bluffing too much, especially because it looks like your opponent has TT+, which will often easily call down on this dry board. @love2eattacos is spot on about flop and turn. You need to fold the river because you lose even to a lot of hands that your opponent would have turned into a bluff (like Ax and small pocket pairs).

In the 2nd hand, the flop is the real inflection point because you can raise and try to get value from flush draws or Qx. Once your opponent raises the turn, it looks like they have a flush, but you are getting a good price to continue, and it becomes a cooler after that.

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@MekonKing says he is trying to pick off bluffs, but this doesn’t seem like a bluff at all. The opponent picks up a boat, and given that MekonKing limped, his opponent probably thinks his hand is best because MekonKing should not be limping pocket pairs 77+, so only a jack beats them. The opponent overplays their hand because going all-in should fold out just about everything. In this case, MekonKing got lucky and hit the absolute nuts. It is just a cooler really, to hit quads versus a boat in a limped pot between blinds.

The only spot to analyze is preflop, where limping J6o is a mistake. You should either raise (if you think the BB folds too much) or fold because your hand is trash. Once you flop a boat, slowplaying makes sense because you block the board and your opponent could take a stab at it.

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