Beginners' Questions With Dr Flopaset 6

By Dr Flopaset

22 Feb 2008

Poker is not a risk-free enterprise, my friend, so you must learn to lose and win with equal grace.

Poker Verdict guru Dr.Flopaset answers your strategy questions here...

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Dr Dr Flopaset,

I was playing online in $1-$2 NLH ring game last night and got dealt pocket rockets in the cut-off on a full table of nine players. There were four limpers so I raised it up to $6, or 3xBB. The button then re-raises to $12. I have no read on him as I am new to the table but am excited because he must be on a hand that I am dominating like pocket Kings or Queens. I was surprised when all the original limpers called the $12. Back round to me and I re-re-raise to $30, hoping that I get just one caller. But two of the original four limpers call as does the original button re-raiser. The flop comes 9-10-3 with two spades. As I only have $70 left behind I do the only thing I think I can do and push with my remaining chips. The button calls the $70 as does one of the limpers. As I’m all-in a side-pot develops between the other two. The turn comes a brick and the river is a Queen. I am somewhat mystified when the button moves all-in after the river (causing the other guy to fold) but the mystery is explained when he flips over J-8o for the nut straight, smashing my Aces to bits. I am left scratching my head at his original re-raise pre-flop with junk. I write a rude four-letter word in the chatbox. He writes “lol” in return. Could I have played this any differently or was I destined to go busto on this hand?

Slicker66

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Hi there Slicker66,

Well, it seems like you had a perfect situation for your Pocket Aces, but messed it up with your bet sizing. You don’t actually tell me how much money you were playing, but by my calculations it looked like around $100 which is not exactly a deep stack in this game (50 big blinds).

I believe raising to only $6.00 after four limpers was your first mistake. This is an easy call and now a nice pot is being built for a “snap-off” type hand like 6s7s. Of course, you do have the best hand so there is nothing wrong in building a pot for yourself too, but as I’m sure you know Aces tend to play better heads up than against four players. It’s only another $4.00 into a pot that has now swelled to $17.00 for the first limper; I don’t know about you, but that’s looking pretty juicy. Once the first limper calls it’s like a house of dominoes and you know the rest will follow suit. I think you should have made it at least $12.00 to go and punish them for limping. You want your opponents to make bad calls against you, not easy ones. Also you may well get lucky and find one of the first two limpers lying in the bushes with a big hand like Kings or Queens. They now spring the re-raise on you only to find themselves in a world of hurt.

Raising to $6.00 is not the worst mistake in the world anyway especially as now you have the dream scenario in which the player behind you puts in a minimum re-raise and all the limpers call. Wow, what a game! Like you said it looked like the re-raiser had a big hand like Queens or Kings so now would be a perfect spot to push all-in. The pot would have been $69.00 by the time it got back to you and you would have had $94.00 in your stack. There’s at least $40.00 of the limpers’ dead money out there which is very worth winning then and there. If the re-raiser does have one of the hands we have mentioned he’s quite likely to call which is great situation for you. I think your re-raise of $24.00 was a case of you trying to have your cake and eat it too. You got greedy not wanting to scare off the other players, but in doing so you created too big a pot for the money you had left in your stack. You will now only be able to bet on the flop and that will very likely be all-in. There is no threat of other betting on the turn or the river. That takes the pressure off your opponents.

So when you re-raised to $30.00 and got three callers and that flop came down I’m afraid you were destined to go, as you say, “busto”. For your opponent it was only $70.00 to win $211.00 (I have not taken the rake out as I don’t know what room you were playing at) which is an easy call with an up and down straight draw. You say there was a side pot so perhaps he made a mistake concerning the other player left in, but I have no details of that so I’m only really looking at this hand from your point of view.

As for typing in a rude word in the chatbox after losing I think that is a very poor show. Poker is not a risk-free enterprise, my friend, so you must learn to lose and win with equal grace. Poker is a bumpy ride and perhaps you should ask yourself whether you really have the temperament to stomach the highs and lows of this sometimes infuriating game.