Party 100NL. Villain is a slightly loose player seeing about 40% of flops. He's also very tricky - he had a Gus Hanson feel to him where he'd see more hands than seemed healthy but would rely on his ability to outplay his opponent post-flop. It seemed to work as he was doing quite well the session I saw him. Also, this was the first time we'd played against each other.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (9 handed)

SB = Villain ($148.5)
BB ($54.84)
UTG ($93)
UTG+1 ($46)
MP1 ($237.4)
MP2 ($43.45)
MP3 ($63)
Hero ($96.5)
Button ($215.5)

Preflop: Hero is CO with , . SB (Villain) posts a blind of $0.5.
3 folds, MP2 raises to $4, 1 fold, Hero calls $4, 1 fold, SB =#A500AF(Villain)/ (poster) calls $3.50, 1 fold.

Flop: ($13) , , (3 players)
Villain bets $3, MP2 calls $3, Hero calls $3.

Turn: ($22) (3 players)
Villain bets $8, MP2 folds, Hero calls $8.

River: ($38) (2 players)
Villain checks (after long pause), Hero bets $15, Villain raises to $95, Hero calls $66.50 (All-In).

Final Pot: $214.50

Results in white below:
Villain has 7d 7s (full house, sevens full of threes).
Hero has Jh Ah (flush, ace high).
Outcome: Villain wins $214.50.


It gets better. Fast forward an hour later. I was two-tabling, and the villain from above was at my other table as well. The following hand happened at my other table, against the SAME PERSON.


Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (9 handed)

MP2 ($230.8)
MP3 ($46)
CO ($104.35)
Button = Villain ($291.7)
Hero ($170.78)
BB ($107.75)
UTG ($95.5)
UTG+1 ($115)
MP1 ($75.2)

Preflop: Hero is SB with , . Hero posts a blind of $0.5.
2 folds, MP1 calls $1, MP2 calls $1, 2 folds, Button (Villain) raises to $6, Hero (poster) calls $5.50, BB calls $5, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $5.

Flop: ($25) , , (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP2 checks, Villain bets $9, Hero calls $9, BB calls $9, MP2 folds.

Turn: ($52) (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, Villain bets $7, Hero calls $7, BB calls $7.

River: ($73) (3 players)
Hero bets $50, BB folds, Villain (immediately) raises $269.70 (All-In), Hero folds.

Final Pot: $392.70



Thanks to the results on the these two hands and bankroll considerations, I have headed back to the 50 tables for the moment. Thankfully last night I had a nice $200 session 3 tabling the 50s and got some of my confidence back.

My own self analysis is that I probly slowplayed my flush a bit too much on first hand, giving trips odds to get their boat. I think I felt I wouldn't be up against trips that often and it was worth it to wait until river to make a move and try to make some money off my nut flush. It seems too often if I raise on the turn here, all fold and I get no more money because it's too obvious as to what I have. After the first hand I felt maybe I could have saved the money from the last call, because he had to know I had a solid flush, and he's saying "I'm fine with that."

On the second hand, make note that the villain's preflop raise ($6), was 6x the BB, a fairly substantial raise ($4 was avg for this table, $5 rare and normally tops). I interpreted the higher pre-flop raise to mean likely Ts or Js, possibly Qs, which led to my fold on the river. I also just couldn't believe he would bluff here, knowing I had called him down the previous time.

Would appreciate any comments. Am I a complete idiot for calling the first hand? Am I a complete idiot for not calling the second hand? Am I a complete idiot for any other reason you can think of? (You can see how these two hands boosted my ego).

Despite other errors I might have made, my main question is: How hard can you push your nut flush if the board is paired? Can you put someone all-in? Can you call an all-in? Is it like KK vs AA where you're probly going to pay the other guy off and you just hope it doesn't happen that often?

Cheers,

Schro

Schro... I would've played the 1st hand pretty much the same as you, but would've folded to the checkraise allin... Sure, he could've had the , but I don't think he would've reraised that much w/ anything but a boat... 2nd hand, seems like you learned from the initial mistake, and that was a good fold... again, theres 4 to a flush on the board, and you have the A and the K... the best diamond he could have is a 10... I DEFINITELY think boat or quads... I MAY have led out w/ a smaller, blocking type bet on the river (maybe 1/2 pot), hoping he would call and folding the same way to a significant reraise...
MVP

edit... I think in both hands, if you had reraised the turn, you would've known where you stood, like Fateagle said, and possibly saved a bunch of money... I disagree w/ eagle that you called the flop too much. I don't mind most of the calls on the flop because on one, you flopped the nuts, and the other, you were drawing w/ the nuts...

No, you are not an idiot for calling the first hand. Idiots in poker are the guys who bet with abandon, irrelevant of their cards or situation and looking at your post it is clear you are thinking about what you are doing. You did make some mistakes though.

First off, you could fold AJ suited for a raise, even if you have position on your opponent your hand needs to hit hard for you to be sure you are ahead.
Your second mistake was not raising on the turn with the paired board and the nut flush. It feels like a little bit "monster under the bed" syndrome. Just because the board is paired dosent mean he's full, especially based on the info given. I would almost always raise the turn with the nut flush and a paired board, unless my opponent has showed my that he is extremelly cautious and wouldnt bet unless he had the nut flush beat. Sure, you gave a free card on the turn there but his outs were not too many and he did need to get quite lucky to fill up.

Your third mistake was not checking the river here. Based on the info given I would just check it down most of the time here. I think he made a bad play by going for the check-raise IMO.

>>>Can you put someone all-in? Can you call an all-in? <<<

It depends on how many chips you have. There may be merit behind calling the turn instead of raising if the stacks are very deep. If the stacks are moderate, than you would push hard on the turn, not being afraid to pot commit yourself.

>>>Is it like KK vs AA where you're probly going to pay the other guy off and you just hope it doesn't happen that often? <<<

It's a similiar situation but the longer your play the better you will get at folding when you think you are second best. These situations dont come up that often anyway and against these type of loose opponents you are making most of your money just by better pre-flop starting hands and making better decisions on the later streets.

good luck

YD




Would appreciate any comments. Am I a complete idiot for calling the first hand? Am I a complete idiot for not calling the second hand? Am I a complete idiot for any other reason you can think of? (You can see how these two hands boosted my ego).

Is it like KK vs AA where you're probly going to pay the other guy off and you just hope it doesn't happen that often?

You need to start RAISING with your good hands. Remember, you want the money to go in on earlier streets too, not just on the river. When you flop a nut flush, as you did in hand 2, you either need to bet out, raise the flop, or at least raise the turn. Same goes for hand 1 - you almost definately need to raise the turn. Remember, there are a hell of a lot of calling stations in these games and to take advantage of it, you need to be getting the money in when you know you are ahead. Also, if you keep check-calling, you'll never know if you are ahead or not, which is what happened in Hand2. I suspect you were beat by Queens full, but you never know because you didn't put in the proper raises to get the information. Hand 1, I would have trouble getting away from and would probably end up caling, although the money would have gone in on the turn.

Thanks for the responses.

I think you're right Mad Genius. I'm always a bit afraid I'll scare potential contributors out, but at the same time I might be missing out on money as well by not raising my strong hands often enough.