Digital Thinkbox

This hand for example:

BB bets like 2.5 times the BB, but there were 2 limpers so his bet was a little small. 180-200 chips if he was going to raise that hand at all. Frankly it is trash this early. Even more astonishing is that UTG called this raise. K6s just isn’t that great of a hand especially to a raise ahead from you.

The flop shows two scare cards, not the least of which is an ace. They both check. I suppose you could argue that the pre-flop raiser should have put out a continuation bet in order to induce a fold, or at least gather information. On the turn this occurs to him with a little min-bet. Well by now UTG has a hand, although a small one. River brings another ace, and BB bets 100, he should have done this on the flop since now UTG isn’t going anywhere.

Here is another example, with more chips at stake:

MP1 puts out a 2.5x BB + limpers bet, sorta. Its a little weak, but some people like to vary their bets. Personally if I’m going to bet/raise I want them all to be the same. If the hand is worth betting, I just use a standard bet size in all cases. This has the advantage of disguising my hand. Do I have AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ? No one knows. Regardless, KQs isn’t something I’d play here, I’d probably fold this. Still it isn’t a horrible hand, and he did bet it strongly, and gets a caller; with A4s.

No doubt about this, calling 325 chips with A4s at this stage is a little loose. It sometimes makes you wonder if these players are even watching what is going on. MP1 c-bets the flop, he doesn’t have a hand yet, but he was the pre-flop raiser and he doesn’t have totally crap. He could be ahead. He sizes his bet a little low in my opinion because he is giving the CO 5 to 1 pots odds to call. CO calls, with nothing but A high, granted he is ahead now, but his hand sucks and he calls a rather large bet. Pot is getting pretty big now. MP1 is now pretty committed to this pot, and I doubt CO is going anywhere.

Turn is a 9, and MP1 throws out this weak bet. He might as well push it all-in here IMO, not that he has a hand. He has a flush draw with one card to come giving him 9 outs, but the same holds true for CO. In fact they both really only have 7 outs since they both hold clubs, AND CO has the Ace for the nut flush draw. CO calls of course, not that he knows this, but he is getting 10 to 1 pots odds with a 5 to 1 flush draw, calling is the clear choice here.

River brings the holy grail for MP1, his beloved king drops! His bet is small, he is already committed to this pot, might as well push the rest in there. Even more amazing, CO calls. With Ace high. He is clearly paying no attention to the MP2’s betting patterns. Oh well MP2 takes this pot down and now has a healthy stack.

Still neither hand is that great at this level, I would have folded BOTH of these hands and moved on. Both of these hands are dangerous. MP2 with KQs was behind the whole time until he got lucky on the river, spewing chips the whole time. Of course the same could be said of CO for calling down with A4s. This is why we play a very tight game early on. Let the loose player beat the heck out of themselves and pay us off when we get great hands.