How could I have played differently?

Forgive me I don't have hand summary software, and this was a live game. And I'm on a phone


1/2 NL

Hero in cutoff Adiamonds J spades $86
Villain on button $200

It's folded to me and I raise to $10
Villain calls and the blinds fold.

Flop 6 spades 7 diamonds A clubs

I bet $10 Villain calls

Turn 10 hearts

I bet $25 and Villain raises to $50. I call

River 2 hearts

I check and Villain pushes. I call.


I know I should have made pot sized bet on flop and I knew I was ahead when he called.
Was it correct to call raise on turn?

There's no way to answer in a sensible way without a read on Villain.
Was he a reg? A fish? Capable of bluffing? Capable of folding to a bluff?



What's Villain's range to call Pre-Flop?
then
What's Villain's range to call a "tiny" (less than half-pot) bet on the flop?
then
What's Villain's range to min-raise your 2nd tiny bet this hand on the turn?


Is it possible he's responding to your weak bets with a bluff to steal?

Or is that totally out of character for this Villain, and any raise, no matter how small, probably means he can beat a pair of Aces?



Live poker is about beating each villain individually. You can see them. The game moves at a glacial pace. An orbit takes ~half hour or more and you fold more than half your hands pre-flop. You're there. You ain't doin' nothin' else. Watch the table. Adjust your play to suit the specific opponent(s) in the hands you play.



There's no right way to have played this hand. There's only how you play it against one villain or another.

He just sat down and was the third hand. I knew I was ahead when he called flop bet (live poker does have some advantages).
He raised me on the turn and I called too fast. The only hand that would have raised the turn and knowing was gonna get called was 89 or 10 10 I guess. He put me all in on the river and I said "show me your straight." Sure enough he turned over 8 9. The more I think about it, even if I bet the pot on the flop he would have called anyway, so I was destined to lose my stack. I'm just looking back and wonder if I should have folded the turn.

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The only hand that would have raised the turn and knowing was gonna get called was 89 or 10 10 I guess.

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There's no way he could have known he was gonna get called.

It sounds like your read on him is that he wouldn't raise unless he could beat a pair of aces. If so, then you look down at your pair of aces and your only choice is to lol fold. (and quietly thank this Villain for making so easy to make the best decision on each street.)

When you're behind and the odds to draw are not there, you fold. EZ game.

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The more I think about it, even if I bet the pot on the flop he would have called anyway

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If you'd have bet pot on the flop and he'd have called, then you should have bet pot on the flop. Not doing so is throwing money in the toilet.
If he'd have called an all-in shove on the flop, then you should have gone all in on the flop.

When you're ahead, you want as many of your opponents chips in the pot as they're willing to put there. EZ game.

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so I was destined to lose my stack.

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It's not a tournament and you're not all in. There's no destiny, only decisions.

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I'm just looking back and wonder if I should have folded the turn.

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Just 'cause he had hands in his range that beat you doesn't mean you shouldn't call. Just cause he happened to have one of those hands this time doesn't mean that's his whole range.
But your read is that in this spot, with this Villain, that's the case. So it's a fold.


Frankly, you should have bet more on the flop. AT LEAST 1/2 pot bet, but prob no less than ~2/3 - 3/4 pot at the 1/2 NL stakes. There are a lot of reasons. Villains calling bigger bets than they should when they're drawing is a big one. The ratio of the blinds to the rake is another big one.

In this hand, if you raise pot on flop, and he calls. Then you put him on a draw or another A, that could out-kick you... and you check when the scare card hits on the turn and call or fold when he bets into you.
Just ... try not to spend any mental effort thinking of reasons to donk off your stack when you're holding top pair, mid-kicker. Those reasons just wont come up at 1/2 NL often enough to hit your bottom line that much.
Focus on fundamentals. This hand was an easy fold, given your read. Just make it a habit to let those go with a sigh and a smile. That Villain did you a huge favor by playing in such an open and obvious way. Don't dissuade him from doing so in the future.

I can chalk tho whole thing up as a learning experience.

As a closing note: before this hand even began, either reach into your pockets and put another $100 on the table, or pat the rails and call it a night.
What if the tables were turned, you're the one who hit a straight and your opponent is about to call your all-in with top pair. If you have only $86, then that's all he can all. You can't get his whole $200 stack, 'cause you left your most important tools in your pockets.

Doing so would have cost you $114 dollars in this hypothetical scenario. Ah, but you say... actually it saved you $114 dollars in this actual hand.
That's a fair observation, but incorrect coupling of the cause and effect. The cause of your loss was a bad decision on the turn (no judgement. It happens to all of us.), not your stack size.

It just takes time and study to learn the best way to protect your stack is to make good folds. The best way to increase it is to win big pots.
You can have both!
At the end of the year, losing less is identical to winning more, as far as your bankroll is concerned.

I understand the concept of implied odds. I sat down with $100 and was up to 160, and was back down to 86 at the time of the hand. Cash games are tough and there were 3 sharks at the table vacuuming up chips (not this guy). I do very well in tournaments, but I plan to bring up my cash game this year.

Thanks for the tips! And happy New Year.

Lacking reads, I tend to assume a turn raise is strong, especially on a rainbow board where villain hasn't simply picked up a backdoor flush draw.

The preflop open is on the big side, but if people are calling x5 opens, it's fine. Flop bet is fine, it's rainbow and there's not many straight draws, so we want value from worse Ax and some 88/99/87s type hands, while also wanting to cbet our KQ hands without it being too expensive. Pot size flop bet would be bad, half pot is about right. If people are calling flop bets light, you can increase this, but don't default to pot size bets on relatively dry boards unless people are really bad.

Turn, sizing is fine, but we can check here too, hoping to induce bluffs from his floats. His 89s AT and TT get there, all in his range, and he could even have 89o, or a flopped set he slow played, while there isn't much worse he can call a second bet with. OK we choose to bet, and we're raised. This is now a clear fold unless we have good reason to think this guy is getting out of line. You decide to call a $25 raise into a $114 pot leaving $16 behind. This is terrible, if you're not folding this then shove it. But it's a fold.

River, well we're pot committed now, we have insane pot odds, we can't fold.

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Originally Posted by Ray Bones

I'm just looking back and wonder if I should have folded the turn.

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I responded before reading the replies, and the answer to this question is a resounding "yes".

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Originally Posted by mojo

Frankly, you should have bet more on the flop. AT LEAST 1/2 pot bet, but prob no less than ~2/3 - 3/4 pot at the 1/2 NL stakes. There are a lot of reasons. Villains calling bigger bets than they should when they're drawing is a big one. The ratio of the blinds to the rake is another big one.

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Can't say I agree here. We're trying to balance our own range as well as get value from his range. We want to bet the same with AK, AJ, KQ, 22, 23o, whatever we raised with pre, we're betting Axx 100% of the time and want the size to be the same. Half pot is about right, it doesn't put us in a horrible spot when we're raised.