[Cash game hands]

Re: Cash game hands There is a ~17-20% chance that he will make the nuts on the turn, depending on what kicker he has with his Ace. If he has AJ he has a 20% chance of hitting it, whereas if it's Ax hearts then it's ~17% (since the Jh will make staffy his fullhouse). You can make the implied odds for him look really generous, but we're gonna have to give staffy the benefit of the doutb, that if he's called & a 3rd heart comes down that he'll be able to away from it. Whereas if an A or 2nd J come down, our caller with the nut flush, may feel he's in pretty good shape & the implied odds will work in our favour if he's chasing the nut flush. Now lets not forget, staffy is on the button so in position in this hand also, so if our opponent goes all in when a 3rd heart comes down then well we can smell something fishy. Whereas, if he tries to slowplay it and checks/makes it cheap, we now have a ~22% redraw to our fullhouse. I'll stick to my original opinion that a bit bigger than pot sized bet is the right move to make here.

[Monday ~ EW Fancies]

Re: Monday ~ EW Fancies

230 Stratford : Petit Turk (16/1) Interesting novice hurdle with the long odds on fav Spirit Of New York coming back after nearly 500 days off, this gives us a couple of reasons why this race is of interest, one because we get great value in some of the other runners and two we could possibly get it beat if its not 100%. Viper looks the solid EW bet and will no doubt be tipped up by our experts in that department, but apart from that it looks ordinary and one that has struck me lately for an improved run is Petit Turk. Front runner which suits Stratford, decent ground which will suit the horse, and may last home a bit better on this sharp 2 miles for a place at least. At 16/1 looks worth a nibble.

Unlucky mate, started off well, but wow :loon 50-1 2nd, 150-1 3rd???

[Cash game hands]

Re: Cash game hands There's $17.50 in the pot on the flop i believe, i like a $20 or $25 bet here, overbetting the flop since you have 3 other callers, with possible straight or flush draws. Not many people are gonna expect you to bet so much with the current nuts, if you get a call, and the next card isnt a scare card, there's enough in the pot to push all in.

[Keep the pot small or try and take it down?]

Re: Keep the pot small or try and take it down? Bugger off then :rollin

[Had a bad beat ? Come and have a moan here]

Re: Had a bad beat ? Come and have a moan here

I just couldn't catch an A, a Q or any diamond.

Could have caught a 10 as well :rollin Btw i just did the exact same thing to someone :D Was in a freeroll though...

[Keep the pot small or try and take it down?]

Re: Keep the pot small or try and take it down?

SO LONG as you are prepared to let the hand go after the flop if there are overcards and you have not hit your set

That quote pretty much sums up my thoughts on this subject.

Also, if I hit trips, not sure I'd check raise .... that SCREAMS "monster" to my opponents - I feel I can get paid more by raising straight out

Understand where you come from with this, but my main fear from betting out is, if you get 3 or 4 callers, you might have alot of scare cards to avoid. Now, its your turn to bet out... The reason i like the checkraise in this situation and why i use it more often is that i have the final say in the first round of betting, ill usually make this twice or thrice the bet (depending on how many callers & potential callers) to let them think they're getting value with their hand. One nice move i love doing though, is when it is raised preflop, and we have callers, and you call with your small pair and flop a set on an A, K or Q high board, when you check, and the raiser bets out, im putting him on top pair with a strong kicker, if you minraise him, alot of the time, they get quite "insulted" at your raise and come over the top of you, works more than you think :nana

I'm guessing that what you say would be more applicable/profitable in a Limit game ...... would I be right in guessing that you are more of a limit player than no limit?

I've read through limit sections on some books i have, and the game does seem to suit me, but i just dont go for it, not online at least (and i havent played it live yet). Basically main reason is if i want to protect my hand, i cant, i can minraise it, but whose going to fold with any half decent hand when theyre getting 10-1+ odds? My game is 7 card Stud High :) Edit: oops just realised you said "Limit Game" and not "Limit Hold'Em", yes you are correct lol. I do rather like PL & NL deepstacked games for the potential winnings though.

[Cash game hands]

Re: Cash game hands

:welcome to PL mate and thanks for your input. Its funny you talk about me being more aggressive I was only saying last night that is my aim for the next week or so to see how I fair.

Lol thanks, been a lurker since pretty much day one lol. Im not too sure on the new strategy so far, you seemed to have widened the range of raising hands from the hands posted so far. Quite a bit of bluffing too, think most of them were called. Thats the beauty of when your starting hand requirements are really tight, even if you get called down you're a pretty big favourite to take the pot.

[Cash game hands]

Re: Cash game hands Just read through this thread ere, staffy you're killing yourself on the turn. You are playing your hands very selectively, so you'll need to adopt a more aggressive mindframe postflop. In position on the turn is a great place to be (especially with some of the monsters youve been getting), a min or 2x raise on the turn will fill up a lot of those gaps and will probably add a few extra $$$ to the account. Good luck with the poker...

[Keep the pot small or try and take it down?]

Re: Keep the pot small or try and take it down? Why do you feel the need to put so many chips in? You're not committed, you're only in for the small blind, so it's costing you half the blind to try and catch a monster, and since you're checking first, you'll be overlooked for strength on the first round of betting. I think i recall with JJ, there is a 67% chance of an overcard on the flop. Now i believe JJ is a very good hand to raise with, but when talking about these more average hands that are more 50/50's or less, i tend to try other moves. My preferred strategy when out of position with a pocketpair, up to 99 (and at a push TT) ill just limp if the conditions are right. There must be 5 or more players (4 or less and ill raise) where preferably all of them have more than 10BB remaining behind them. There is just over 12% chance for you to flop a set with a pocket pair, so a check raise will snatch a lot of chips without much risk to losing the hand. Someone said above that TT is the 5th best hand preflop in poker, agreed yeah, but there's more than 4 hands capable of calling your raise and being in a virtual cointoss; AA KK QQ JJ AK AQ AJ KQ KJ QJ, thats 10 possible hands where it can go either way; now lets not forget this is online poker too, so you're getting donks calling your raises with A3 K7 Q9 etc..., so there will be a lot of cards to dodge to hold up as favourite if you dont hit that set when you raise. I do like to play quite cautious but in a sneaky way, get my chips in when i know i got some big %'s backing up my cards and play the game crafty. I think it's just too easy to burn away chips when you raise first off. This happens alot; raise oop with decent high pair - called - you think you have to follow through so another 1/2-2/3 pot bet followed by an all-in on the otherside and you've lost probably 10-20% of your chips.