Daily Hand Quiz

Sorry about the recent errors with quizzes – we moved the site and scheduled posts didn’t go off the way they were meant to.

You can always forward feedback on the site to info@parttimepoker.com.

[Reply]

thank you for fixing the errors, the quizzes are my favorite part of the site.

I want to thank all the people who take the time to analyze the hands and put forth intelligent thought so we all can stimulate our minds with good poker strategy, Thanks. With a special shout out to the General, who I mostly find myself agreeing with, but strangely try to figure out whats wrong with his argument lol.

happy holidays

[Reply]

general johnson jameson Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 3:48 am

thank you for the kind words. everyone who contributes helps keep it alive. the more discussion the better, and I think there are a lot of valuable trains of thought for players of all types from contributors. I benefit from the generosity of others, so I hope someone benefits from my ideas too in some way. arrr-in!

[Reply]

Here we go again. Limped trying to be funny with plan A and it failed. Now we re-raise a BB lead with an over pair plan B. It fails, we get completely pied and now we’re going to hope that calling all-in plan C is still good? Come on.

When blinds are 25/50, TT isn’t too important to me, and after seeing all of this, I’m content with forgetting it and moving on. He got a free ride, so he could easily have some kind of goofy 2 pair. He bet the flop, against 2 players with a limped range draw heavy board, and now is all in. Our best case scenario would be that he has T9o, 89o, and possibly X2s. The point is, he either has us drawing to a few outs, or we’re slightly ahead. And seeing nothing but a 9 here is going to be very very rare.

Also, what range can V fairly give us after we’ve taken this story? What can we limp/re-raise with on that flop? Small pair turned set, Top pair with 89, 9T, or over pairs if he notices the table is aggro and it could have been a failed trap attempt. Either way, he has to shove thinking he has most if not all of these beat, which is another thing making me hesitant. If this is the one time this guy shoves this early on nothing but a draw, well then so be it. But he has any two cards, took the initiative on a draw nasty flop, and responded to resistance with arrr-in. Woops!

I fold. Though I have a part of me that wants to call, just to prove to myself that I was right. But I think we have a pretty safe idea of where we’re at in this hand, so no need to do that. Discipline on this one. Its 25/50, just forget it and move on, no need to banana peel this one just because its an over pair and because we’d like to try and milk value after our initial plans failed miserably.

[Reply]

Agreed that we need to fold here. No point throwing good money after bad. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Etc. Etc. Listen to your parents on this one.

Welcome back dhq staff.

[Reply]

Thanks DHQ staff.

This early in the t, I am folding pretty quickly. Hero is likely facing 2-pr or a set imo.

I believe a draw is more likely to c-c rather than lead and then 3-bet. Slim possibility that a big 9 is being overplayed, but at this stage prefer to fold to an opponent we have no read on. Don’t lose stack (or most of it) in a limped pot.

[Reply]

I hate preflop. You don’t fight aggression with passivity unless your opponents are *badly* aggressive. If they’re good and aggressive then playing passive is bad, bad, bad.

I’m not crazy about folding to the re-raise. We tried to trap and I think we have to continue with our plan and call the shove. The flush draw means the BB can be protecting a TP hand from a flush draw, or he could have an unlikely 2sXs.

We could also be beat, but I strongly dislike combining a trap raise with a scared fold. If we’re really going to be so wishy washy postflop then limping pre is that much bigger a mistake. I am either raising and calling a shove (not happily, but calling anyways), or calling the bet and reevaluating on the turn. Raise/fold? No thanks.

[Reply]

general johnson jameson Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 10:03 am

You hate the limp and you don’t like the r/r, so your logic says call because you don’t like those decisions? This is pretty poor and silly. Explain why you’d really call!

[Reply]

John Kugelman Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 11:50 am

Let me be clear: I’m not in love with calling, and I am okay with folding. Folding is fine, I just lean towards calling. Maybe I’m a calling station, or a spew monkey, I don’t know.

In my opinion, limping preflop, raising a rag flop and then folding to a 3-bet is butchering this hand in the worst possible way. The hero seems to have no concept of planning ahead.

I don’t like to make decisions in isolation. If I were to raise the flop I would have a plan for what to do when re-raised–and that would be to make a crying call. If I weren’t willing to make that call I would rather flat call and see the turn than raise and push myself off of a good hand.

TT is too strong to “bluff raise” with, IMO. I would likely raise weaker hands like a FD or FD+overs here, and so folding to a re-shove only makes my raising range that much weaker. We should either have a polarized raising range (raise weak and strong hands, call medium ones like TT), or if we’re making thinnish value raises with hands like TT we should also probably suck it up and make thin calldowns too.

Again, though, I completely understand folding. We will be ahead sometimes and we will be behind and drawing thin a good percentage of the time. I just believe that calling is losing is the proper punishment for misplaying the hand up to this point, and next time the hero needs to find a better line.

[Reply]

Major Dude Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 10:32 am

If we had done anything pre-flop to narrow Villain’s range, then maybe we could make a case that the center of his range includes a lot of top-pair/good-kicker hands that we can beat.

But Villain got into this hand with, literally, any two cards. That includes 32, 92, 93, 22 and 33. We can’t rule out any of them. His play is totally consistent with a skanky two-pair hand. In that case, his PF limp is correct; his opening probe bet on the flop is correct, and his hesitation/c-r on the reraise makes total sense (we’ve now defined our hand nicely for him, so he’s got to think about how to scale his bet if we’re on a flush draw, a slow-played overpair or playing TP/+good kicker.)

We’ve let Villain abduct 400 of our chips, which is annoying. But it’s less than 20% of our stack. It’s time to turn off the engine, open the garage door, and let some fresh air rescue us.

[Reply]

Like most people, I’d probably fold. But like the general said, I’d almost want to call just to see that I was right. There are so many ways we are beating what they might have here – A9, K9, Q9, J9, 10/9, A2, A3, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. And I think we’ve all seen PLENTY of players that would play exactly like this with these types of hands. But it is early, and who was it – (Doyle maybe?) who said – NEVER go broke in a limped pot. Plenty of time left in the tourny to calm down after folding what is probably the best hand here.

[Reply]

I call. I don’t believe v has an overpair. I’m up against a 9 with a decent kicker or a flush draw or air.

[Reply]

Waste_of_Paint Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 8:59 am

How can you completely discount the possibility that villain has two pair or a baby set here?

[Reply]

general johnson jameson Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 10:14 am

I think he’s saying that because of the bet size. A set probably wouldn’t shove out this quick, and a 2 pair maybe would see a turn card before arr-in, to proportionally charge draws again, and also to see if the dreaded board pairs, since our story just wreeks of over pair.

Here’s a question though: would people still be calling if the 3 bet was more like 950 or so, leaving V about 1k behind. Do people think this would be way more alarming? Or would this make people more likely to call actually. It seems surprising to me the number of people that are willing to go completely broke on such a horribly played hand.

[Reply]

T Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 6:10 pm

I should’ve clarified maybe but I was in a rush to leave…
Yes I think a baby set or silly 2pr would not likely shove this flop (and they aren’t likely holdings in themselves). Sure it’s possible they want to protect against a flush draw – if the pot is a multiway! It is now HU, villain is rather shortstacked and if he has flopped something nifty here, he will carefully build a pot to maximize his chances of doubling up on us.

Villain is in a great spot to do this with a flush draw or 9X since we have represented little strength and we are one of the two players he still has decent fold equity against.

I’m really not opposed to folding here, but I would indeed be more likely to fold to a min-raise or something like that.

And yes the pf was awful. I generally frown on pf slowplay but with TT? Completely stupid.

VeniceStu Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 12:49 pm

You cant, but is it more likely than not? The low chip stack tells me he likes to gamble. If he had a set, 2pr, etc, he would check to get hero or SB to bet out. 2/3 pot bet is std/no info, although pausing/thinking can be a reverse tell to make you believe he’s shoving light, while holding a Monster.

[Reply]

Major Dude Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 1:31 pm

Hmmn. Suppose this is a tourney with 3,000 starting chips. Villain starts this hand with 2,067. I don’t see that as telling us that “he likes to gamble.” That’s a better read for the guy who get 10,000 chips in a hurry. All we really know is that Villain has lost a hand or two, and that he got away with much of his chip stack intact.

Your argument is that Villain is maybe annoyed and looking to double up or go home – so he is shoving light. Perhaps. But I think it’s just as likely that he’s a grinder/nit, looking to rebuild his stack as patiently as he can.

Also I don’t think Villain checks 2-pair right away on this draw-friendly board. The argument for betting is as follows:
- too many free cards and two pair may not hold up by the river
- if a third spade comes on the turn or river, the only action he will get is action that he doesn’t want. (ie hands that he beats will give up right away – no hope any more of getting them to put in more $$)
- if anyone else has a piece of this hand, let’s start building a pot now.

samo Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 2:06 pm

If it were a raised pot perhaps, but it isn’t. I think a set or 2-pr lead here with SD and FD present.

I know it’s off topic but I was involved in a hand in a cash game earlier that was by far the craziest hand I have ever seen in my life and I feel I just have to share it (when I say I was involved, I folded pre flop but I witnessed what ensued).

It was a six-max cash table, everyone with 200+BBs, and this was a five-way limped pot (myself being the only folder). Both UTG and UTG+1 had limped.

Flop, A J T all hearts. Checks around.

Turn, K diamonds. Checks around again.

River, J. Suddenly UTG and UTG+1 explode into action and end up all in. UTG has TT for a boat and UTG+1 has JJ for quads!!

I literally could not believe it and had to replay it in hand history about five times to be sure I had seen it right. UTG had limped pre flop in six max with TT and UTG+1 limped behind him with JJ. Then they both flopped a set on an all-hearts board and both checked (I am assuming both trying to check-raise). Then they were obviously scared of a Q when the turn put out four-to-a-straight. Finally, they needed a boat/quads to get some action going. Utterly bonkers.

I suppose there is a relevance in that players can never cease to defy me with their stupidity. I’d been sat down with these guys for over an hour and hadn’t seen them step out of line once.

In the actual quiz, the range of hands we’re behind are crushing, and the range of hands we’re ahead aren’t that far behind us. With that in mind, coupled with the fact it’s so early on and we have no read, I’m folding.

[Reply]

My first mistake was limping,the flop looks to be a perfect BB special with low cards & two spades. BB bets & we raise to protect our hand and/or take down the pot. I forgot where I read it but you never put all your chips into a limped pot unless, you have the stone cold nuts, and we don’t, BUT, $50 tournament, BB low on chips, spade draw, I,m calling because raise folding is just so wrong. If we lose were out early, if we win we have a reasonable stack to play. I know it’s early but sometimes you just have to gamble, it looks like the BB & hero have been gambling it up already so lets get it on.

[Reply]