REAL hand examples, insight into my play

[jasonv12]

In a PO game (or low stakes) just fold hands like Q10 is my advice. Hands like that are called reverse implied odds hands. This means even if you hit your Q or your 10, you will likely be beat by the same pair, but with a better kicker.

The trick to beat a field is often to play against the grain of the field. Playing fewer hands than everyone will put you on the flip side of these exact types of situations.

Q10 isn't a bad hand, but it is a trouble hand and being forced to raise 7x while already fairly short is a disaster waiting to happen. Remember, pots grow exponentially. 2 bets into a pot makes for less than half the size of the pot as 3 bets. This is only inflated when all the calling station fishes force you to raise 7x to play a hand. Just make a disciplined fold here imo.

[MovingFlea]

In a PO game (or low stakes) just fold hands like Q10 is my advice. Hands like that are called reverse implied odds hands. This means even if you hit your Q or your 10, you will likely be beat by the same pair, but with a better kicker.

The trick to beat a field is often to play against the grain of the field. Playing fewer hands than everyone will put you on the flip side of these exact types of situations.

Q10 isn't a bad hand, but it is a trouble hand and being forced to raise 7x while already fairly short is a disaster waiting to happen. Remember, pots grow exponentially. 2 bets into a pot makes for less than half the size of the pot as 3 bets. This is only inflated when all the calling station fishes force you to raise 7x to play a hand. Just make a disciplined fold here imo.

I don't always play QT, but when I do, I raise.

[MovingFlea]

Yea your right Jason, my mistake was raising pre flop, I should have just called it. I could have gotten away from it due to the kicker being bad and not having any chips invested in the pot anyhow.

[jasonv12]

Yea your right Jason, my mistake was raising pre flop, I should have just called it. I could have gotten away from it due to the kicker being bad and not having any chips invested in the pot anyhow.

I know it looks like a pretty hand, but just think about how happy you'll be when you hit top pair and get no action and think about how mad you'll be when you hit top pair and get stacked by AQ or something. Looking ahead can help you save a lot of chips in these spots.

[TacTownGOON253]

I know it looks like a pretty hand

really???? Q 10 off is a pretty hand to you lmao....this hand is the ugly duckling of the poker deck

[jasonv12]

really???? Q 10 off is a pretty hand to you lmao....this hand is the ugly duckling of the poker deck

I said it looks like a pretty hand, not that it is a pretty hand.

[TheHaversham]

Well, I see many problems here, tbh.

First off, your raise is ill-timed for the situation. If an early limper is trapping you, your raise will never get a fold. Additionally, many people limp with hands better than yours, such as AQ, KQ, and QJ, not to mention pairs lower than TT. Consider that QTo is a hand that plays very well in multi-handed pots, but loses value considerably against one or two opponents - assuming they are playing only somewhat correctly. So to raise to 7x here does very little to define opponents' hands, and puts you in the uncomfortable position of playing a bloated pot with a marginal hand.

The ONLY thing you have here, really, is position. Position is a powerful weapon, but unless you're in the blinds it's not likely to change in later streets. My point is that if you are going to wield the weapon of position, there is no need to swell the pot before doing so. If position is going to win a pot for you, your cards are irrelevant, but so is the need to make the pot larger.

Which leads to the issue you seem concerned with: pot size. In these freerolls, stack sizes dictate much of the action. For example, A8o is a weak hand with 100+ BB's, whereas if you only have 8 BB's, A8o can be a monster. A 7x raise, pre-flop, with Q-hi, is begging for trouble unless you feel there is a good chance you will take the pot down there. But in freerolls, that is incredibly unlikely. Most bad players make mistakes on later streets, but once they have committed much of their stack to the pot those mistakes are actually "less-bad." So when you have enough chips to overcome a small mistake, there is no need to exaggerate that mistake by swelling the pot and justifying even more bad play from your opponents. (For example, in limit poker almost ANY draw can be justified after the turn if the pot was capped pre-flop and/or on the flop.)

Keeping the pot size manageable is good advice for almost any player at any stage. Your hand strength and opponents are good barometers of how big you want a pot to be. Do you find yourself playing a lot of big pots with marginal holdings? Perhaps you are over-valuing position. If you're worried that some donkey is going to call a smaller bet and beat you, I would submit that there are plenty of donkeys who would also call a larger bet and beat you. Control what you can control. Is it better to lose 3-5 BBs to a donkey, or your whole stack?

Once you've put in 7x, what is your plan if someone behind you raises again? Or if one of those limpers re-ships? You've put yourself in a fairly uncomfortable position. In your description, you sound as if the pot swelled by itself, but the size of the pot is a direct result of your huge pre-flop raise. You can punish limpers AND still maintain a manageable pot.

The turn bet is not disastrous, altho since the pot is so large by that point any bet you make puts you in a vulnerable spot. When you et called there you should be praying to NOT hit the river so you can fold easier. But alas, when the river hits you (that's what's called a kill-card) you erase action til now from your memory and simply call on your hand strength, which is still pretty weak. Consider that you've indicated that you have a big hand pre-flop, but then checked a small-texture flop and bet another small turn card. What hand are you selling at that point? I would have likely played my QJ exactly as the Villain did here, since it is likely even my top pair is no good. But on the river, when I make a 2nd pair, I'm suddenly HOPING my opponent has AA or KK and cannot fold.

My advice? Until you get a better grasp on the concept of smallball (if not for yourself then for how to defend against it vs others), you should just be folding QTo pre-flop in this spot.

[TheHaversham]

Hand 2: I don't see folding any A in that spot, tbh, even if you know your opponent to be tight. The fact that he is loose is actually an argument for folding, except you are so short.

Just for fun, to see an interesting dynamic, the next time you have 15BBs, re-shove into ANY raiser with 30-40 BBs. You will likely be surprised at the weakness of their holdings as well as the success rate of this move.

Counter-intuitive to some, at the effective stacks in Hand 2, both yours and his plays are completely justifiable, as the cards become irrelevant.

[MovingFlea]

Hand 2: I don't see folding any A in that spot, tbh, even if you know your opponent to be tight. The fact that he is loose is actually an argument for folding, except you are so short.

Just for fun, to see an interesting dynamic, the next time you have 15BBs, re-shove into ANY raiser with 30-40 BBs. You will likely be surprised at the weakness of their holdings as well as the success rate of this move.

Counter-intuitive to some, at the effective stacks in Hand 2, both yours and his plays are completely justifiable, as the cards become irrelevant.

nah trust me ppl dont fold here in these games. i would need a hand to do this with.