Opening Betting Too Frequently?

[Samba_SamPa]

Just following from GaF's comment in the Ladies thread...

Chato and Samba were by far the most active players at the table in the early stages of this tournament - a significant proportion of their plays must have been bluffs. Was this hand a bluff? I dont know' date=' but I do expect that chato read Samba as weak.[/quote'] ... I have another question for you all - other than the K9o raise from mid position, do I have a case for these pre-flop raises from the position I was? Have been through the HH for the tournament, and these are the occasions I opened the betting pre-flop. UTG - never UTG +1 - 99; AKo Early - QQ Mid - AJo; AQo; K9o Cutoff - ATs; ATo Button - J8o SB - KJo BB - A8o I had bet with ATo then AQo two hands in a row, then the next hand I got KJs, and just folded as I didn't want to seem like I raised with anything. I played a total of 86 hands, and opened the betting on those 11 occasions... would you say this is too frequent? Just so you know GaF I haven't taken offence in the slightest at your comments, all comments are noted and taken on board, I just like to pick your brains and hope it helps me improve as a player. Cheers all

[GaF]

Re: Opening Betting Too Frequently?

Just so you know GaF I haven't taken offence in the slightest at your comments' date=' all comments are noted and taken on board, I just like to pick your brains and hope it helps me improve as a player.[/quote'] For me, this attitude (as opposed to "I'm great, I had a great hand and some nemo beat me!!) is the difference between someone who is or will become a good player and someone who will never improve :ok It's tough to say generally, without more and specific information. Most importantly blind sizes and stack sizes. Why dont you pick out what you view to be the two most marginal open raises and put those hand histories up for review?

[Mr Intensity]

Re: Opening Betting Too Frequently? In the first hour of MTTs I often get comments in the chat box that I'm loose, raising/stealing too much or "will get caught soon" and I don't get it. Recently I've been in tournaments with people limping in most of the time which I think is weird, and if I've got anything reasonable no way are they getting to see a flop that cheap! I'd be raising with all of the hands you've shown there in an MTT or STT. I think in the early stages post flop play is much more important, especially when you don't hit picking your spots to bluff and not doing it all the time.

[Samba_SamPa]

Re: Opening Betting Too Frequently?

It's tough to say generally, without more and specific information. Most importantly blind sizes and stack sizes. Why dont you pick out what you view to be the two most marginal open raises and put those hand histories up for review?

It's hard to determine which were most marginal to be honest, as there was only twice I didn't take the pot. Once was my QQ hand, and the other was this hand - where I've just realised I didn't open raise. My thought process when raising Fenners was that I had position, I had a good hand with straight and flush possibilities. If Fenners had called my bet then I had position post-flop with which to decide on my actions. However your bet from the BB I read as a sign of strength, and had no hesitation in laying it down. ***** Hand 1131821040 ***** 10.00/20.00 Texas Hold'em (No Limit ) - 22 June 2008 15:12:22 Punterslounge RR Sp (Real /Tournament ) Seat 1: PLtheDodge (1500.00) Seat 2: PLRIVRD (1490.00) Seat 3: plSamba (1470.00) Seat 4: Arkadiusz3 (1460.00) Seat 5: PL-Fonzie (1510.00) Seat 6: PLTelepee (1504.00) Seat 7: PLdobbin (1500.00) Seat 8: PLkip6 (1530.00) Seat 9: fenners1 (1533.00) Seat 10: KingChato (1503.00) PLTelepee post SB 10.00 PLdobbin post BB 20.00 ** Deal ** PLtheDodge [N/A, N/A] PLRIVRD [N/A, N/A] plSamba [Ah, 10h] Arkadiusz3 [N/A, N/A] PL-Fonzie [N/A, N/A] PLTelepee [N/A, N/A] PLdobbin [N/A, N/A] PLkip6 [N/A, N/A] fenners1 [N/A, N/A] KingChato [N/A, N/A] *** Bet Round 1 *** PLkip6 Fold fenners1 Raise to 80.00 KingChato Fold PLtheDodge Fold PLRIVRD Fold plSamba Raise to 150.00 Arkadiusz3 Fold PL-Fonzie Fold PLTelepee Raise to 550.00 PLdobbin Fold fenners1 Fold plSamba Fold That hand and the QQ hand with Chato were the only times I lost a pot having VPIP other than my final hand when blinds were 200/400 plus the antes and I was BB with 1405 chips. That's not to say of course that I was correct in open raising on the other occasions, it's just hard for me to pinpoint the marginal ones.

[GaF]

Re: Opening Betting Too Frequently? I'm not keen on a reraise with ATs from mid position with the blinds so low :unsure Only thing going for it was you were up against fenner (who probably has a wide range)

[GaF]

Re: Opening Betting Too Frequently? PS IIRC I had KK

[chatoman]

Re: Opening Betting Too Frequently? To be honest... i open a pot with ATC (thats my darkest secret), cause im kind of an action man (but never before the 3rd or 4th level), besides, when i get the big hands, they built monster pots because people normally try to slowplay me when they dont know theyre drawing dead. The bad thing about it.. is that if i get a badbeat or if im in a table full of calling stations... im doomed Regards Lets take todays game as an example (Plz dont think im a maniak!!!! :lol) PLtheDodge [N/A, N/A] PLRIVRD [N/A, N/A] plSamba [N/A, N/A] Arkadiusz3 [N/A, N/A] PLTelepee [N/A, N/A] PLdobbin [N/A, N/A] PLkip6 [N/A, N/A] fenners1 [N/A, N/A] KingChato [2d, 2s] *** Bet Round 1 *** PLTelepee Fold PLdobbin Fold PLkip6 Fold fenners1 Call 50.00 KingChato Raise to 200.00 PLtheDodge Fold PLRIVRD Fold plSamba Fold Arkadiusz3 Fold fenners1 Call 200.00 *** Flop(Board): *** : [Qh, 2c, 9c] *** Bet Round 2 *** fenners1 Check KingChato Bet 300.00 fenners1 Call 300.00 *** Turn(Board): *** : [Qh, 2c, 9c, 7d] *** Bet Round 3 *** fenners1 Check KingChato Bet 700.00 fenners1 Call 700.00 *** River(Board): *** : [Qh, 2c, 9c, 7d, 9h] *** Bet Round 4 *** fenners1 All-in 308.00 KingChato Call 308.00 *** Showdown *** : Rake: 0.00 Total Pot: 3091.00 PLtheDodge Fold Win: 0.00 PLRIVRD Fold Win: 0.00 plSamba Fold Win: 0.00 Arkadiusz3 Fold Win: 0.00 PLTelepee Fold Win: 0.00 PLdobbin Fold Win: 0.00 PLkip6 Fold Win: 0.00 fenners1 [8h, 8d] Two pair nines and eights Win: 0.00 PLtheDodge [N/A, N/A] PLRIVRD [N/A, N/A] plSamba [N/A, N/A] PLTelepee [N/A, N/A] PLdobbin [N/A, N/A] PLkip6 [N/A, N/A] KingChato [8s, 9d] *** Bet Round 1 *** KingChato Raise to 650.00 PLtheDodge Fold PLRIVRD Fold plSamba Fold PLTelepee Fold PLdobbin Fold PLkip6 Fold PLtheDodge [N/A, N/A] plSamba [N/A, N/A] PLTelepee [N/A, N/A] PLdobbin [N/A, N/A] KingChato [7c, 6c] *** Bet Round 1 *** PLTelepee Fold PLdobbin Fold KingChato Raise to 800.00 PLtheDodge Fold plSamba Fold PLtheDodge [N/A, N/A] plSamba [N/A, N/A] PLTelepee [N/A, N/A] PLdobbin [N/A, N/A] KingChato [Qs, Qd] *** Bet Round 1 *** PLdobbin Fold KingChato Raise to 800.00 PLtheDodge Fold plSamba Fold PLTelepee Fold PLtheDodge [N/A, N/A] PLdobbin [N/A, N/A] KingChato [Kc, Jd] *** Bet Round 1 *** KingChato Raise to 1000.00 PLtheDodge Fold PLdobbin Fold Those were some hands with an opening raise that i could find in the Boss Media history (it is actually pretty annoying searching through that HH, the best one i guess is the ipoker HH)

[SteveO]

Re: Opening Betting Too Frequently? It's all about which style you are comfortable with. I prefer position far more than the cards. For instance if a player like Gaf has position on me I would alter my style accordingly. I find in tournaments if good players have position on you it's going to be far tougher than normal and puts you in a far more uncomfortable position.