Beginners' Questions With Dr Flopaset 5

Part 1 of Dr Flopaset's strategy questions can be seen here

Part 2 of Dr Flopaset's strategy questions can be seen here

Part 3 of Dr Flopaset's strategy questions can be seen here

Part 4 of Dr Flopaset's strategy questions can be seen here

Hi Dr Flopaset,

Timmy Twopair here. I played a hand in an online no limit holdem cash game the other day and I’m not sure if I played it right or not. The blinds are $0.25/$0.50 and I’ve got $13.25 in front of me. Two players in front of me call and with Ks-Ts on the button I call too. The small blind folds and the big blind ($35 in front of him) checks. The flop comes Kh-Jc-3h. The big blind bets $1.50, the other two players fold and I raise it up to $4. The big blind now goes all-in for $33! I decided to fold. Do you think I did the right thing?

Timmy Twopair

Hi Timmy,

It looks like your opponent really knows how to push you around. When he back-raises you, you have to ask yourself what type of player are you up against? Is he a straightforward type who only bets his good hands and checks his draws? Is he tight? Is he a passive calling station? Is he aggressive and tricky? Specifically in this case, was your opponent one who would play a draw aggressively? If you think he would bet out and raise a draw the same way he would do with trips or top two pair then it is very possible your pair of Kings with a 10 kicker was the best hand. The key thing in this hand is that everybody limped into the pot. Never forget Doyle’s wise words – “Don’t go broke in an unraised pot”. Your opponent got a free ride in the Big Blind, so he could have anything. Jacks and 3s or maybe Kings and 3s, or what about a hand like Qh-Th? That’s a straight and a flush draw, which most people would play pretty fast, wouldn’t they? Or what about a hand like Jh-9h? That’s a pair and a flush draw – a lot of players get frisky with that type of holding too, don’t they?

If he has the open ended straight and flush draw then he is a 55% favourite. He is also favourite with a hand like Ah-Th (flush draw gutshot straight draw overcard). The hand is even money when he holds something like Jh-9h.

These are the hands you are currently beating – what are you losing to? As I have already mentioned there are all the two pair combinations and a set of 3s (let’s discount trip Kings and trip Jacks as it’s likely your foe would have raised pre-flop with those pocket pairs). There is also K-Q and A-K which you are in pretty bad shape against. I would say there’s really nothing wrong with folding your hand (it seems like there are more hands out there that you are in trouble against) and calling might be marginally wrong, but what the hell? You’ve only got about $9 left at that point (this is probably the wrong attitude by the way).

Did you consider just calling the big blind’s $1.50 bet on the flop? Perhaps he had a look at your stack and thought “this guy’s only got $13, I’m just gonna play my draw aggressively”. When you raised him you opened up the door to him raising again and being able to put the pressure on you. With your chipstack in this situation most players would be happy to gamble with you on the flop; they would feel like they are getting a cheap draw if they can get all your money in with two cards to come. If you just called his bet on the flop and he was just on a flush draw, say 7h-8h, or even the aforementioned Jh-9h, and the turn card is a total blank for him, he would be making a mistake calling you if you were to set yourself all-in on the turn. Players’ attitudes tend to be completely different when there is only one card to come as opposed to two cards. Remember, when you are low on chips, whether a cash game or a tournament, it’s hard to put pressure on your opponents.

Where I think you also went wrong was limping in on the button with this hand. Ks-Ts is not the greatest hand in the world, but it sounds like it was a passive game, so why not take control of the hand by raising pre-flop and punishing the limpers? You have the all-important button which makes up for the weakness of your holding. This should get rid of the blinds if they don’t have much (ie a raggedy hand like Jd-3s which suddenly looks quite good with the flop that came out). If the blinds do call and assuming they aren’t total any-two-cards merchants you can now assume they have some sort of a reasonable hand. When all that action takes place on the flop you will have a much better idea of where you are at hopefully, but once again that also comes down to what sort of player you think your opponent is.

I realise many of these questions concern low limit online poker games which tend to feature many different players dipping in and out of the games. Often you will not have had the time to size up your foes and vice versa, so most of the time these players are just playing their hands. These low limit games do not really offer the room to manoeuvre or get tricky and creative with your plays. Having said that I’m advising you to raise with a not particularly good hand, but the key thing I’m trying to say is that aggressive play is the way to go. You must keep the pressure on your opponents at all times. Make them be the ones doing the guessing games not you. Limping is for losers.

Dr Flopaset

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