Tag Archives: re-raised

Not Sure About My Call

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I was in a game of $10 buy-in last week. Earlier part of the game, I was the chip leader with pocket 6s and a flopped set. However, later on, my cards dried up, therefore I had to tighten up. Also, my stack decreased after I paid blinds.

Following rounds and I folded, also limped into hands with suited connectors. I was in the small blind when I was dealt AQ suited. A certain player called the blind while others folded without doubts.

Later, I had to raise 2,000 hoping to steal or else have some excitement and then win the pot. Unfortunately, I was re-raised by the big blind, the second-biggest stack. Others folded immediately while I called afterwards.

Few seconds passed and he flipped over Jacks.

Now I was thinking if I made the right call. What’s your thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Irwin
Irwin,

Both of you woke up with big hands in the blinds. A-Q against just the big blind is usually a favorite. He just happened to wake up with a pair. You still had over cards however.

I would like more information on your stack. If you were short stacked, then this call was fine. If you had a medium or larger stack, then this may have been a poor call as this was one of the stacks that could bust you.

Overall I think that it was a case of two reasonable hands going to war and you happened to be on the short end of the stick.

On Scary Flop

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Hello,

Just the other day, I joined no-limit tourney. From 1183 players, we were eventually trimmed down to 5. Unfortunately, I can’t exactly recall the stack sizes. But somehow, I believe they were 700K 500K 325K 297K 112K.

On the other hand, blinds were 8 to16K, and moving up to 10 to 20K in roughly 5 minutes or so.

In middle position, I have pocket AAs. Well the table was fine then but only with many limping and folding and all. At some point, I raised two times the blind to get me heads up. However, it was folded to the big blind, who eventually opted to call. Flop came and was 10-10-9 rainbow. I then placed 40K as my bet however my opponent re-raised me in an instant to 80K. Thinking that I’ll be more or less the underdog, I called. Turn then came and was a blank. My opponent placed 45K as his bet into a pot of 232K and so I folded. Afterwards, he showed J-9 off suit.

Now, as I look back, I know I misplayed the hand. Somehow, I’ve stumbled on these stuff:

  1. I know for a fact that raising with AA is always a balance between narrowing the field down to a heads up situation and determining the kind of hand range you are up to. Badly, because I have given him the chance to call, he was then obliged to do so.
  2. Supposedly, I should have placed more bet on the flop to better specify the situation. On the flip side, I was more into re-raising.
  3. I realize I should have called the turn, though it was a value bet. Also, I should have considered the odds which was 6-1 then, it was already so good actually.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Jon Jablonski
Jon,

My thought is that if you are going to call on the flop, you would be better off raising to make him either commit or to push him off the hand. If on the turn you thought you were behind, folding to his be is the right move. If you called his all in and he had trip 10’s or a full house, then you 5% to win. You would not have odds. I would have put him all-in on the flop.

At a Small Tournament

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Hello,

I joined a small tournament the other night. I admit it, I was actually out first hand. I believe we started with $4,000 in chips.

At some point, there was moderate betting pre-flop that trimmed us down to three. Just an information, I sat on snowmen -pocket 8s. Flop came and was K-8-A. Then I started making trips as well as placing bets. I remember there was a guy who has been raising significantly big amount of money while the next to him re-raised all in.

Later part, I called and so as the other guy. He then showed pocket king. I followed then with my 8s. Guy had pocket rockets. All of us flopped trips back then. By the way, the turn and river were J-3.

Any thoughts with regards to the tournament?

Thanks,
Powell
Powell,

You ran into a rare situation. Sometimes you have a situation where two players flop a set, but three is pretty rare. It does happen. You saw a flop with a pair and hoped to hit a set. In most cases, this hand would have won you a lot of money. Unfortunately you were against two better hands.

The only thing that I can comment on beyond this is whether you should have been in the hand. When you say that there was moderate betting, what do you mean? Do you mean there was a raise and two callers, or were there multiple raises. If there were multiple raises, you should have gotten out the hand as you were probably behind. You were hoping to get lucky. You did, but your opponents got lucky too.