Topic: Poker Strategies/Hand Analysis Discussion. (No low quality generic posts) (Read 552 times)

What about Texas hold 'em?

My poker strategy depends on the type of poker I play. For example, in my region, there are two types, one is turbo fast poker where you sit on tables and every next hand is played on a different table, so you have no time to learn the behaviour of your opponents and there is another type of Poker where you play on a regular table where the player can sit as long as they wish.

When I play the first mode of Poker, I try to play fair because I don't know the psychology of my opponent and I find it hard to risk in these situations, so I mostly depend on my luck but when I play the second mode of Poker, I try to analyze my opponents. At first, I bluff at random moments to know what kind of opponents I have. Once I learn their behaviour, I become very careful with bluffing and my play style.

To be fair, I was winning a lot when I first started playing poker, when I didn't know the rules and had no idea about the game. I know it sounds strange but it's really true.

"well deserved" was in regards to that you tried to steal almost every single big blind with whatever hand for several rounds (which of course is he right play at that time, not denying that). I always had to fold because I had 5-9 high offsuit all the time. When I had Q high and 4bb I had to call and I caught you stealing. 10 high is a pure steal and that's why I said well deserved, that's all. At some point you "deserved" to lose one of those.  

"gives the one who shoves almost a coin flip in about 90% of the time. Maybe 85%" is wrong. If I have 2 overcards to your hand I have 65% preflop. Hands like KQ, KJ, QJ, AK, AQ, AJ, every high pair obviously and even 99, 88, 77 are also ahead very well.
You only look ok against a hand like mine with a high and a low card (lower than 6, cause if it was 7,8 or 9 my % would also go up). Everything else doesn't call or kind of "dominates" 10 6 with 65% and up. Not really a coinflip anymore cause you only win 1 out of 3 times.
Anyway, I think we all played well and the order is also fine. You have to play with what you get or at some point the blinds will kill you.

But as I have stated before NLH really is testing my patience, that's why I never play it, only in freerolls. Omaha is and always will be my game of choice because it's not as boring as NLH. Folding for orbit after orbit is so sad, especially when it's past midnight, hahaha.

The 4BB argument AHOYBRAUSE is bringing up here is the only detail that makes sense both in the tone he chooses and the semantics.

"4BB, I barely had any choice", and "Q high gives me the chance to have the high card to start with". Both correct.

The rest of his post is funny.

6/10s against Q2 os is a coin flip, that is what poker players call it regardless of whether they are mathematical geniuses or not. 53%, that's what you get in a best case scenario with Q2 os unless the opponent shoves crap, but even then, Q2, if not blocking the opponent's kicker, really sucks.

A 6/10s, unless the opponent blocks one card with a higher kicker, gives the one who shoves almost a coin flip in about 90% of the time. Maybe 85%. When AHOYBRAUSE says it was "well deserved" to win the hand with Q2, where do you get the "well" from? 53% chance? When you toss a coin and it hits tails and you chose tails, do you say it was "well" deserved? Hm, sounds odd to me.

6/10 with dual kicker domination has you dead in the water when anything hits, or creates value because of suited or backdoors flush/straight.

But as I said, Q2 is the right decision here, not because you think you well deserve the win, but because the circumstances forced you into making this call.

A9 vs. A4, AHOYBRAUSE, once you win those hands, time to play the lottery the same day! I am sure you know that

Last thing: my setups sucked like the first 80% of the time, so did my cards although I can't complain, I had aces, kings, queens, everything. But nobody else had anything.

But I am a calm player, and in the end I ran like a 2000 horsepower Ferrari, I was laughing myself. But I wonder how many would have gotten kicked out before their ran started.

AHOYBRAUSE not as I respect his patience, played very well and I said to memehunter that it was very refreshing to see some great level of poker. Much more fun and would be happy to see you again at our tables.

I would never frame an answer to your question as a general rule of thumb while going into too much detail. I think as a very basic, reasonable approach, putting opponents under pressure as the bubble comes closer, or bubble game is already going on, makes sense in a lot of situations. BUT, if you already noticed one or more players who are willing to go crazy any time, it depends. There are so many tough spots against players who don't care about ICM or their buy in. You are on the button, have got A2, you push and get reraised all in. Yes you are the chip leader, but it might not be worth the money at all and the worst thing is that you know the guy might have Q2. You can pretty quickly figure out who is loose, like VPIP, but by the time the bubble comes close, dynamics change.

I would observe how players react in general to raises, calls, their understanding of positions at the table, etc. If you notice that you are like 4 players and the third gets paid, they are equal stacks and instantly folding to any raise you make, of course you would exploit that. But if there is one guy who you noticed as "I don't give a ***", then playing more defensively can make sense as they eliminate each other and you extract value from being patient and waiting for opponents' initiative while maybe once holding a monster.

In my opinion it is not like "this is your stack, there is the bubble and now you have to push no matter what".

Do you guys think that playing aggressively is good when approaching Bubble as a chip leader? Or do you think gone are the days when players were affected by this, nowadays almost everyone is aware of the fact that you will play any two near bubble so he can easily capitalize on that, either trapping you or bluffing you out.
I have personally encounter the later action more. I do not know if it is because of my overall aggressive image or something else. Recently, I have suffered a lot because of putting pressure on low stacks, which backfired badly almost every time. How do you navigate these waters as a chip leader? I mean, it is simple if you have a short stack, you have to move all in or fold.

Actually it was a full house, not 4 of a kind. 
Well to be fair, in the 1st hand I was favorite and I had 4 big blinds, of course I call with a queen when getting shoved into by the chip leader, and I was right because I was ahead. Getting the hit on the river was well deserved, I also had 7 outs by the way, just for the river.
The other hand was a no brainer as well since I only had 8 bb and that's an easy shove from the button. Sure the runout was crazy, after the flop I already wrote gg in the chat, haha. That's situations where it's out of the player's hands. Small stack and shoved into or an ace in hand, nothing you can do about it.
But that day it was impossible to beat mv anyway. The cards and setups he got were straight up insane, that's how it works sometimes. Fun game though, even though quite boring at times since I think I was the player with the most preflop folds because I straight up had so much garbage, couldn't even hunt 1 bounty.

Or you could have used your magical powers to change the turn and river to make four of a kind. I mean, you are quite good at it.

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True. Well said!


He was putting me on AK, AQ type of hands or draws. But when I foolishly checked the river, he capitalized on that. All credit to him for making that move against me as usually I DO NOT FOLD.
Fun fact: I managed to win that tournament.

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Well, in my opinion I see the preflop raise for a final table as wrong. You are the chip leader but you have hardly any difference over the second and by raising preflop you are fattening the pot unnecessarily which can end up with you commited with the pot with a marginal hand. As played, I see the rest as standard until the river, when your hand is worthless. As the opponent is an aggressive player there are more bluffs in his range but I would more likely make the call in cash table, than at the final table of a tournament. I have made a few hero calls in similar situations over the years after thinking but in general with that river you have an easy check fold that you would have easily done if you had not fattened the pot preflop, as you yourself recognize later.

By the way, the opponent is not aggressive, he is a deep retard, paying 5bb raise with that stack preflop, paying with third pair on the flop and with fourth pair on the turn is to be an imbecile and he only wins the hand because he was favored by the river but if I had observed a similar hand before I probably would have paid him although you simply said "was agressive" not a fucking retard.

Nah, like I said, I would have folded as well. He played it well and looks like he knew he can push you out. Like I said, his range includes many Jacks so you can lose that pot easy which then would you leave crippled. If you have a great read on the guy you COULD make that call, especially because diamonds missed but other than that it's also good to stay alive and fight another day. But hey, I am a tight player anyway, so I would definitely have cursed at the river and folded. 

Now that I am reflecting on my play, I realize that, indeed, raising pre-flop was a big mistake. Everything until River is all standard as I have to bet my hand in order to deny equity and charge draws/overpair. Regarding the block bet, it had to be on bigger side (risky as he might have it) as small size could easily be interpreted as weak, but yeah block betting was the better option.
I have a question, though: would you guys have called in that position?
 

AHOYBRAUSE the block bet is indeed the best advice you can give here. Sure the 5x pre flop rarely makes sense, but since he got called I think your block bet makes even more sense. The check on the river gives value to many opponent hands because let's assume memehunter held 66, the push is still tough to swallow because as you said the range can easily include a jack. But a decently sized block bet is very tough to attack with 33 in that situation. It could be a value bet and 33 80-90% of the time folds in that situation. The shove is so much harder for the opponent and the shove is actually the only thing that can be done there. 33 would never call it down because it's beaten by literally any hand. 6,7,8,9,10,j, any overpair beats 33. That's why 33 then has to consider whether it is possible to push out the bet that could either be an info/block bet or a value bet. The opponent clearly played the board and nothing else.

Even against an aggressive player, seeing a shove in this situation is a kind of easy fold, there are so many Jacks in his range, hands like AJ, KJ, QJ or even J10 that's calling a raise preflop.
Sure, most of those hands (unless they are suited in diamonds) should fold to your continuation bet on the flop but with some people you never know, they can be sticky.
Great flop for you but raising 5x pre with 10 7 was the first minor mistake, at least in my opinion. Mostly because you are out of position. U got lucky and hit the flop like best case scenario though.
The one thing I would have done is making a block bet on the river. Doesn't have to be much, like 5-7bb. Checking basically opens up his chance to take a stab on it and bluff you out of the pot.

I have an even more interesting hand.
Let me know if it is a good fold or a bad fold: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxQEODCl3A7b3rpF3d2ohFrhPFPoi3h1-S?si=JCb3-RI8TlXL_34K
The player in question was aggressive and we were all already into the money and there was no major prize jump. You can clearly see that it was a very tough and annoying spot for me.

What do you guys think of this bluff by me on Final table; https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxEfBZDIqFgG21eR1i_8GNi91YZjRBXZum?si=BHFzFTplDwLTImll

A couple of things to consider

1) Six players were left and there was a massive prize jump for 5th.
2) Players were playing ABC poker mostly. His sizings were resembling his hand strength.
3) I was playing kind of tight.

 

 
That happens (winning with the worst hand) all the time. There will always be one player on each table who will just play any two cards. These are the type of players (fishes) who beat me every time and send me on tilt mode. I mean, imagine waiting for hours, playing tight, just to get your AK cracked by garbage  .

 
Well said!
I just want to add that sometimes from an exploitative (Yeah I know I love this term ) perspective playing it (when you have to play any two cards) would make sense. And yes, you are not folding it on BB for sure.

That's true and this was the time when there was all that high stakes poker on TV, I guess you remember. With Gus Hansen those guys who had lots of fun playing the 7 2 game.

But I am still wondering how much of it was staged because it was a TV show and the last thing you want is low to no action and a boring time for those who watch it. There would in theory still be value considerations and at the very least it depends whether you are a damn multimillionaire and give more about the laugh than the money or not.

I don't think with not so much money would often go for the 7 2 just for the lolz.

However if it is a 7 2 suited, it can make sense to limp in during the tournament depending on your chip stack, but really not as a rule of thumb. Sometimes you feel like it, get a little value for the suited and if hand comes like K 7 2, 99% of the time a king that hit would not put you on 7 2. But again, mathematically it makes no sense. It's just an element of randomness that sometimes can have an impact because if you win that hand and the whole table sees the 7 2, then it did have value as you can rarely be put on a range.

When the 7 2 game is on it brings a whole different strategy/approach to the game. Some people raise/reraise hard with it just to (best case scenario) win the hand preflop, have a good laugh and then collect the penalty chips from each player. I have seen so many 7 2 bluffs because of this game and surely it makes the game more exciting. For me as a player I would not want this game to run on my table, I am not a fan of paying people because they won with the worst starting hand possible. But that's just me.

Thank you very much. Watching from reels makes me interested on the story behind since the hand itself is hopeless even for me as not a pro player but Pro Player like Daniel Negraneu which I think the one I keep seeing keep pushing this hand and manage to win out of bluffing.

It needs a great poker face just to successfully winning this hand especially if you are facing pro poker too.

I think I watch someone that play this card until the end as in until revealing the cards and actually win with pair of 7. 

Hand in question is called 7 2 off (means seven duce with different suits). It is considered the worst hand in NLHE  Poker as there are very lass chances of making a straight or a flush and you have one lowest card. With 2 3 straights are more possible as you already have two out five cards required to make a straight.
There is no history at all. Sometimes table decide that who ever will win the hand with 7 2, he will be getting extra chips from each players sitting on the table. It incentivizes players to bluff more which eventually leads to bigger pots, higher adrenaline and higher viewership.
It gives you bragging rights that I can win with lowest possible holdings against you fishes!

I’m always curious about this and I hope it’s allowed to ask here. I’m always watching highlights of poker table mostly poker star and I always wondering the story behind the 7 & 4 cards(I forgot the actual card combo) since this is always considered as the very bad hand which some pro players keeps playing for bluffing just for fun.

I’m not certain about the exact card combo but whenever I saw this being played as bluff, announcer keeps chuckling which I’m if there’s a history on this hand?