Joined: Mar '13
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 40 (F)
Posts: 48
more micro stakes - should i be slow playing and not re-raising pre-flop? should i just call and see the flop?
alot of the time i dont get much pay off big hands - im talking aa, kk, qq,
on the one hand i know the way i play them - is correct and by limpin and not re-raising, im surely just developing bad habits, for when (i hopefully) move up in stakes - plus the numerous hands people can shaft you with - set mining for example
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while im here, is it wise to play flushes (and i dont mean chasing) from lower suited connectors, or say 10 8, i figure the likelihood of somebody else having 2 suited pocket cards as well must be quite slim?
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
The biggest problem people run into when limping or flat calling with monsters is that they often don't know when to lay them down. I am normally raising or re-raising heavily with them, as I know that preflop I am a big favourite and I want to keep it that way by knocking the trash out of the hand and having an overpair vs. a middle pair or big unpaired cards like AK. But if I limp in UTG and it is flat called by a few people, and then a coordinated flop comes down and people are raising or reraising I will fold - most of the time correctly but sometimes I still had the winning hand. That's the game, but even if all you get are the blinds with AA, better that then to limp in and bb flops a full house with 3-6o.
It's always a bad feeling when you get your monstr fold by everyone pre-flop whatever the stakes your playing but at the same time, usually, when your getting called your gonna face an other monster or some donks are taking a chance ( wich is what we always hope)
Limping those monster are still, at any stake, a big mistake you regret major part of time even if it get yourself a big pot once in a while
Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
bet, 3bet, raise, reraise- way to play monsters. If you have big hand only way to get paid is to build pot. If youre slowplaying you will never get max from your monster.
Joined: May '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 181
Posted by steffi500: i do play them with big raises, re raises pre-flop, guess youve got to accept people will fold on you
im suprised how many people play AK off as its the best hand, sayin that it a K on the river cost me dear yesterday!
People will fold quite often as raising and re-raising is obviously repping a big hand and so, if they believe you, they will fold (unless they like what they've got of course) but as someone else said i'd much prefer to just pick up a blind than suck out on the river because i limped in
Have to agree with you about how many people think AK is a monster, yes it's a good start but by the end you're still losing to a pair of 2's if the board is dead
I think a lot of people just get too attached to them and just hate folding any A!
Posted by Bigritefoot: Have to agree with you about how many people think AK is a monster, yes it's a good start but by the end you're still losing to a pair of 2's if the board is dead
I am one of them. Definitely firmly within my 3-betting range.
What makes it strong is that you are almost certain to have at least a coin flip, since being up against AA or KK is less likely, because there only 3 left of each. Also you dominate AQ and below (most opponents have quite a few of those in their calling range).
A lot of those low pairs don't stick around if you continuation bet them on the flop/turn.
If you get a lot of action on the flop and you did not hit your A or K, you can safely let it go without losing too much.
Joined: May '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 217
One thing I can say is ALWAYS RAISE, unless you have a great reason not too. (Super tight table or your sure someone will raise over the top.)
It sounds like your not doing much wrong tbh, I'd advise focusing on making reads on people your playing with. Try to think about their calling/folding ranges, once you get a good grasp on reading people you'll get a much better EV+.
Joined: Sep '11
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 3048
This is a very good topic. As stated already table selection can make a big difference but there are also other factors that come into play. A big part of getting value from big hands is when we choose to c bet and why we do it.
When you hit your TPTK do you just automatically c bet for value or do you look at what's on the flop, think about how this flop has hit villains range, check what draws could be there to make sure you size your c bet correctly and think about how villain perceives your range aand how hard your range has hit the flop?
Say we have a tight image and we raise from UTG. A competent laggy player calls us from the button. The flop comes A,K,6r and we c bet as we have hit this flop hard and want to get value from it. How often do you think this flop has hit villains range? Do you really think he will carry on in this hand given your tight range has hit this flop so hard?
This is just one example of a flop that we may want to check to induce a bluff or allow a free card for villain to improve on the turn!!
