The Texas Holdm Poker

I’m sitting in late position 2 seats off the button. Everyone before has folded and I’m holding QhJh. I call and the guy after me calls. Button folds…SB plays and BB checks. Flop comes up 10h4h9d. I jump for joy because I have an open ended straight with a queen high flush draw. Small blind checks, BB bets, I raise. The guy to my left folds.  SB calls. Turn card is an Ac. SB bets, BB raises. I re-raise.  SB calls, BB re-raises and caps. I call. SB calls. My guess at this point is that SB has hit two pair, and BB has a set. Both those guys don’t know what I have and they must think I’m on some draw. River card comes an 2s. SB bets, BB raises, I fold.  SB calls. SB shows A9, BB shows 44. Anyone care to comment on my play?  Did I play right?

Answer 1:

I don’t agree with the raise here. SB checking flop and calling 2 cold, then betting out on the turn card, an Ace that completes no draws, SCREAMS aces up. And unless the BB is an idiot (which may be the case, you didn’t offer an opinion), his raise here says “I’m not concerned about aces up” As you appraised, that is saying either top 2 pair or a set. It is also telling me that while a Q or J coming on the river is no good, if I catch the straight or flush, I’m golden. I would call here. I know that if I hit the hand on the river, I will get to raise, and will get paid off by at least the BB. If the river completes the draw and they were to both check to me, I suspect my bet would be paid off in both spots.

Answer 2:

I tend to disagree, but I’ll happily defer if you can prove otherwise. With two over cards, a big flush draw and the nut straight draw, I think our hero has flopped a monster here, and he should happy put in as many raises as he can, because he’s raising for value. (9 outs to the flush, 8 outs to the straight, 4 outs to top pair, but some of those overlap so: 19 outs?  Or 15 outs, if you make the SB’s hand a little better and assume it’s T9 for two pair.)

Answer 3:

The only mistake I can see here is that by just calling pre-flop instead of raising, which should have been the automatic play, you allowed the SB to play on for half a bet and the BB for free. Whether or not either or both would have folded remains to be seen but with your starting hand you definitely wanted as little company as possible around to see the flop.

The fact that most of the postings here agree with Renegade’s assessment that lower-limit games with a high rake can’t be beat puts me in a difficult situation. I’m a beginning player, and I just can’t afford to “learn” with the losses that a 10-20 game would impose. But if I can’t beat the lower-limit games, then just when, exactly, should I move up? When I’m breaking even? I have been winning lately, but the posts would lead me to believe that this is just a deviation that would correct itself in the long run. In the 3-6 game that I’ve been playing at, some of the hands that are being showed down fill me with confidence (3-5 suited from an early position, for example). I know that part of the reason I am winning is that I am not playing such hands. Could I expect these kinds of mistakes @ 10-20?

Answer 1:

Don’t let the rake scare you too much. I am very new to the game to. I played my first casino hold ‘em last fall. And I have only been playing intensively for a couple of weeks. I have only played 3-6 and 4-8 games so far, but I’m already making a modest profit playing at casinos in CT, AC and Vegas with rakes as high as 10% (max $4). The key is getting your hands on some good literature about the game and learning to play tight. I recommend Skalansky’s book, for a good introduction. That’s the only one I have read, but it has given me the tools to do quite well, so far. One thing to keep in mind is that to win money, you don’t necessarily have to win many pots. I end up folding around 65-75% of my hands before even seeing the flop. And I estimate that I win less than 10% of the pots and still make a profit. If you want a way to practice without losing money, I would suggest IRC poker. The games there are a bit looser than real games, since people are playing with fake money. However, they are the best fake money games I’ve found on the net. I played about 1000 hands there before going to Vegas and I’m sure that it helped me quite a bit.

Answer 2:

Not usually… I say that because occasionally a drunken guy, or a player on tilt, or maybe a drunk rich tilted guy might….It’s a sure recipe for disaster… How about having to call a double raise with it?? On the button maybe with no raise its playable as long as the texture of the games warrants…meaning 5 or more callers…

Answer 3:

How does a $4 max rake per hand of 10/20 mean that you can’t win?? Every once in a while you have to try to steal the antes from late position to help offset this. i like to raise with 1 or 2 others still in the pot like  if i have a king showing and am holding crap i like to raise every once in a while to pick up the 7 antes and $3 low bet. Plus if you win your share of big pots the rake and antes won’t kill you.

The hand rate in online casinos is generally significantly higher than in live games even if it seems like there are more long pauses by the players online. I wonder if anyone has ever considered having a shuffling machine that had the next deal ready to be dealt instead of using the same deck each time? It might also be possible to modify the tablecloth to have a means of keeping pots/sidepots clearer?

Answer 1:

I used to play in a private game that got about 50 hands an hour. We used two decks and came to play. It was a very loose game, btw, almost always going to a showdown. We just kept it moving. A good dealer could keep a card room game moving also, if most of the players want that. It’s just that there aren’t that many good dealers and many players don’t really want to play.

Answer 2:

Someone told me once that studies have shown that shuffling machines don’t save any time. The only part of the deal they handle is the shuffle, and they are not sufficiently faster to compensate for the time spent loading them.

Answer 3:

I think the dealers would appreciate it as well. A lot of the dealers suffer wrist problems. I think the time shuffling adds a lot to the slowness of the game. How about that pidgeon hole they put the drop down. Now this is 1892 model if I have seen it. In year 2000 something has to be done to fix the problem with the jammed hole.

A weak spot for me (novice) is how to play when I flop top pair. For example, last week I’m holding JcTc on the button. 3 callers. Flop is like Jx 7x 4h. With top pair, I raise to get players out. 2 fold and a good player and I are left. Turn 2h. I bet, he calls. Flop Ah. I check, he bets, I call and he shows me QhTh.

1.  I’m pretty sure I was right in raising on the flop.

2.  I’m unsure whether my opponent (a good player) had the odds to call my bet on the turn. He had 12 outs (3 for the queen and 9 for the hearts) for like around 3 to 1 odds of drawing out. The pot was about 4 to 1, so I assume he had the odds.

3.  Should I have called the final bet on the river? I’m always very reluctant to fold one bet from the showdown, because of folding the top hand in that situation before…

4.  How do I figure out when/if to fold top pair?

Answer 1:

You played the hand perfectly. Plenty of players will bluff at the pot sometimes when the flush card – or an ace – comes. If I had 65 and was drawing to the straight I would make this bluff almost every time. Never lay down here unless you know your opponent very well indeed. As for the turn, he had the odds to call, but your bet was right too (and more right than his call)

Answer 2:

Although bear in mind you have a pretty weak kicker. If you’d got re-raised you’d have been in trouble. However, he should have folded on the flop. The flop had missed him. You have to be exceedingly sure that he has you beat. In this situation it is a pretty good possibility since the only thing to call with after the turn is a flush draw. Still I’d have probably called the bet too. Raising is good to get the draws to make a mistake. In this case he did exactly that by betting and then calling you raise on the flop. You’d have won this hand, from the flop onwards more times than he would have done. However, be careful when you have a weak kicker, especially with a J as your top pair. Weak kickers are easier to play with an ace. For example if you had AJ and the flop was A72 then you can feel more comfortably raising if there hasn’t been a pre-flop raise, as AQ and AK are unlikely to be out there. But when you have JT and the flop comes J72 you have to be more careful. AJ, KJ, and QJ may all have called pre-flop in which case you’re drawing dead. Thus top pair is only as strong as your kicker, and so many times you will have to fold it.

Answer 3:

I am thinking outs here I have top pair (but it’s not the highest pair) so If I don’t get hit with something or, an over card or a suited card falls I may be in too deep already. And (I feel) I must consider folding. However Knowledge of your opponent and the number of outs you have must be considered here.