Crushing Live Poker With Twitter

May 3 — Sometime you can call with a draw because your opponent will make bet-sizing mistakes on future streets.

Right before the World Series of Poker this past summer I decided to play two long sessions of $5-$5 $1,000 cap no-limit to gather content for my series, 100 hands of $5-$5 on CrushLivePoker.com. The hands were played across one weekend at the Hustler and Bicycle Casino.

It has been a long time since I have put in full sessions at $5-$5 no-limit and right before these sessions I had actually played two, five-hour $25-$50 no-limit shows on Live at the Bike. The level of play was obviously hugely different from the higher levels that I am accustomed to and the games reminded me a lot of the old $5-$10 game I used to play at Commerce in the late 2000’s.

Some of the largest mistakes that I saw during the weekend were bet-sizing errors and the inability to fold hands. About an hour into my session on Sunday afternoon I got into a situation that demonstrated these types of blunders. The table was generally tight and surprisingly, I was the youngest one playing, at 37 years old. I opened J 9 from MP1 with seven other players dealt in. An older gentleman made it $50, with about an $800 stack from the button. I was not sure how to interpret this three-bet as it was so small, but the price he gave me, even from out of position, was just too good to pass up and I made the call.

The flop came out 6 5 4 giving me a flush draw. I checked and my opponent bet $75. Usually at these levels a three-bet preflop represents a hand like 10-10+ or A-K but players will almost always continuation bet headsup. So I was not sure if he had A-K or an overpair and I elected to call. Another pattern that is quite common at these levels is the fact that the strength of the three-bettor’s hand really reveals itself on blank turns. People just do not double barrel that much as a bluff and will bomb to protect overpairs.

The turn brought in a 5, pairing the board. This certainly was a blank and I would expect an overpair to continue betting. I checked once again and my opponent now bet $100. Again this bet was fairly peculiar is it was not very large in comparison to the pot size. However, I reasoned that this particular player might be making a sort of “reverse block bet” on the turn, that is betting so that he will not have to face a large bet on the river if he checked back. He could do this with hands like 9-9, 10-10 or even Q-Q.

So, knowing that it was unlikely that he just had A-K I assumed that I was beat and examined the math. He bet $100 into a $250 pot so I had to call $100 to win $350 or 3.5:1 in pot odds. With a flush draw I only needed 4:1 in immediate pot odds and thought I would get paid something if I made my hand, so I called. I also recognized that one of my clubs might not be good if he had an overpair (giving him a full house) and that other clubs might bring in very scary boards like a 3 or an 8.

The river brought out the K completing my flush. With the pot being $450 I bet $220 fully prepared to fold if I was raised. If my opponent raised he would almost always have kings full or the nut flush and there would be no way a call to his shove would be profitable given the pot odds. After I bet my opponent went into the tank, and I now knew that I had the best hand. After about two minutes he said, “flush is good”, called and turned over A A and I scooped in a nice size pot.

Even though he did get some value from me on the turn, his bet sizing and his payoff on the river clearly made the way that he played the hand unprofitable. There are a couple of other interesting things to note with the K falling on the river. Although it was a “blank” club (not putting out a straight) I did not think it was necessarily the best club for me as if my opponent held 9-9 – Q-Q he might be scared of the king. For that reason I actually decided to size down a bit on the river. Really good clubs for me would have been a nine, ten, jack or deuce and I probably would have bet larger.

Whenever you go for a flush draw on a paired board and you think your opponent has an overpair you do have to be hyper aware of the fact that you have reverse implied odds if you hit (losing more money when you make your draw). But at this $5-$5 level people are going to mostly play their hands straight forward and if you bet when the obvious draw completes and get raised you are almost always beaten.

May 12 — Four-bet pot hand reading reveals I must have the best hand.

About two hours into my session at the Bicycle Casino, gathering hands for my 100 hands at $5-$5 series I played a rare four-bet pot preflop at $5-$5. The hand was strange due to my opponent’s very small three-bet sizing out of the blind.

We were paying five-handed and I opened K K from under the gun $20. It got folded around to a guy in his 50s, totally unknown to me in the big blind sitting with $1,000, which I covered. He three-bet extremely small to $35. Immediately before this hand I had been somewhat active at the table so I was not sure if this was his counter to me being aggressive. Obviously I never thought that this sizing was A-A preflop so I decided to put in a four bet to $110 for pure value, never expecting him to fold, and he did call.

The flop came out A 8 3 which I was not happy about. I thought that his three-bet preflop might represent a hand like A-J – A-K that he was getting a bit stubborn with so I felt that there was no reason for me to bet when he checked to me. The turn brought the J putting out a backdoor club draw and he lead out for $75 into a $220 pot. This bet did not please me but I was getting about 4:1 in pot odds and did not feel that it was correct to just release then and there. It is also interesting to note that when you hold K-K it is less likely that your opponent has A-K and a lot of players will not call a four-bet from out of position with A-Q or A-J. His line was almost more consistent with J-J, if it were not for the small three-bet sizing preflop.

The river fell a very interesting card, the K giving me second set and completing the backdoor club draw. My opponent now paused and bet $175. One of the things that comes from experience, and I have been playing no-limit cash for over 10 years, is pausing and playing the hand back from the start. The most glaring thing that was evident in this hand was that it was almost impossible for my opponent to have a flush. It would be different if the ace on the flop was not a club, making A X possible. But here the A was on the board. I also had already dismissed A-A from my opponents’ range due to preflop and thought Q-10 was extremely unlikely. So I put everything together and concluded that I must have the best hand.

But it is not enough for me to arrive here with the best hand I have to go one step further and figure out the sizing on my obvious river raise to come. A couple of things crossed my mind. My opponent bet the turn AND the river which indicated a fair amount of strength. I thought that he might play J-J this way, A-J or A-K. It was unlikely that at the 5-5 level someone would go for sizing like this with A-Q, as they would be scared of K-K and A-K. It’s also interesting to note that at a higher level a bet should not be made with A-Q here either for the same reasons unless an opponent thinks I may have four bet bluffed preflop with Ax and would call down on this run out for two streets.

Once I concluded that my opponent’s value range should be strong given his line (and the fact that we don’t care about his bluffing range as those hands will just fold) I thought my only play here was to move all-in. Unfortunately for me my opponent folded rather quickly and latter in the session I realized that he was very “splashy” and was most likely just bluffing versus my check back flop weakness. However that still does not make the all-in bad at the end if I thought that he would call with his entire value range, which I did. ♠