Session of Cold Decks - Thoughts Appreciated.

[aislephive]

I'm feeling pretty sick right now, it was another one of those sessions where nothing goes right and everybody is outflopping me when I hit something. Is this just variance or what?

Hand 1: Standard AQ raise, called in two spots. Flopped top pair good kicker, but I checked behind on the turn because I don't see too many hands I beat calling, and I also checked for pot-control reasons. He made an awful preflop call and an even worse call on the flop. I guess I gave him a free card to draw out but I really didn't want to play a big pot with just a pair and couldn't stand a raise. Should I have bet the turn? And as played this is an easy river call right?

***** Hand History for Game 3742992459 *****
$25 NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, March 14, 19:56:23 ET 2006
Table Table 97994 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: gedels ( $38.95 )
Seat 2: GSXRstunt18 ( $37.90 )
Seat 3: ikingc1016 ( $23.04 )
Seat 4: jonpysz ( $23 )
Seat 5: zqar3 ( $25 )
Seat 6: aisle5 ( $25 )
gedels posts small blind [$0.10].
GSXRstunt18 posts big blind [$0.25].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to aisle5 [ Ac Qs ]
ikingc1016 calls [$0.25].
jonpysz folds.
zqar3 folds.
aisle5 raises [$1.25].
gedels folds.
GSXRstunt18 calls [$1].
ikingc1016 calls [$1].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2d, 8s, Ah ]
GSXRstunt18 checks.
ikingc1016 checks.
aisle5 bets [$2].
GSXRstunt18 folds.
ikingc1016 calls [$2].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]
ikingc1016 checks.
aisle5 checks.
** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]
ikingc1016 bets [$5.83].
aisle5 calls [$5.83].
ikingc1016 shows [ 4h, 3c ] a straight, ace to five.
aisle5 doesn't show [ Ac, Qs ] a pair of aces.
ikingc1016 wins $18.56 from the main pot with a straight, ace to five.

Hand 2: The previous hand I had taken a decent pot off this guy and he was semi-shortstacked. I called from the BB with KQo, flopped top pair and went for the check raise. I figured a standard raise would commit me to calling if he came over the top so I just decided to put him all in. He ended up having the case two kings in the hole and I was drawing dead. Nothing I can really do here, right?

***** Hand History for Game 3743019497 *****
$25 NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, March 14, 19:59:38 ET 2006
Table Summertime (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: aisle5 ( $32.55 )
Seat 2: bfg115MD5 ( $14.85 )
Seat 3: ak1961 ( $12.40 )
Seat 4: omgdonuts ( $24.15 )
Seat 5: skankboy ( $37.04 )
Seat 6: Wongboy ( $24.20 )
Wongboy posts small blind [$0.10].
aisle5 posts big blind [$0.25].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to aisle5 [ Qc Kd ]
bfg115MD5 raises [$1].
ak1961 folds.
omgdonuts folds.
skankboy folds.
Wongboy folds.
aisle5 calls [$0.75].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kh, 2h, 7s ]
aisle5 checks.
bfg115MD5 bets [$2].
aisle5 raises [$14].
bfg115MD5 is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ac ]
aisle5 shows [ Qc, Kd ] a pair of kings.
bfg115MD5 shows [ Ks, Kc ] three of a kind, kings.
aisle5 wins $0.15 from side pot #1 with a pair of kings.
bfg115MD5 wins $28.35 from the main pot with three of a kind, kings.

Hand 3: Standard AK raise, and the BB defended. Good flop for AK, only worried about 8x, and I figured he was calling me down with Kx which was why I kept betting. His river bet is suspicious, but I looked him up and paid off his three eights. How was my line on every street? Anybody fold the river?

***** Hand History for Game 3742996120 *****
$25 NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, March 14, 19:56:50 ET 2006
Table Summertime (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: aisle5 ( $26.25 )
Seat 2: bfg115MD5 ( $22.85 )
Seat 3: ak1961 ( $12 )
Seat 4: omgdonuts ( $24.65 )
Seat 5: skankboy ( $28.94 )
Seat 6: Wongboy ( $24.45 )
ak1961 posts small blind [$0.10].
omgdonuts posts big blind [$0.25].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to aisle5 [ Ah Ks ]
skankboy calls [$0.25].
Wongboy folds.
aisle5 raises [$1].
bfg115MD5 folds.
ak1961 folds.
omgdonuts folds.
skankboy calls [$0.75].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, 8c, Kh ]
skankboy checks.
aisle5 bets [$1].
skankboy calls [$1].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ]
skankboy checks.
aisle5 bets [$2].
skankboy calls [$2].
** Dealing River ** [ Ad ]
skankboy bets [$5].
aisle5 calls [$5].
skankboy shows [ 8h, 9h ] three of a kind, eights.
aisle5 doesn't show [ Ah, Ks ] two pairs, aces and kings.
skankboy wins $17.45 from the main pot with three of a kind, eights.

Comments are certainly welcomed.

[biondino]

Why in the first hand are you so keen to give a bad player the chance to suck out on you? If you bet and he raises you, well, you'll either lose at showdown or have to fold at some point. I think the check on the turn is criminal - the board is about as nice as it could be and you refuse to take advantage of it.

[r8ed]

Why in the first hand are you so keen to give a bad player the chance to suck out on you? If you bet and he raises you, well, you'll either lose at showdown or have to fold at some point. I think the check on the turn is criminal - the board is about as nice as it could be and you refuse to take advantage of it.

Right. Remember, people will pay almost any price to see the turn in 6max. They feel like they let their family and country down by calling a raise and then folding on the flop. Fire out on the turn and you'll have better information of where you stand. Other two hands look fine. I would have lost more on the last one.

As for cold decks: It happens to everyone and the goal is to stick with your strategy unless the table texture gives you reason to adjust. You want to hang around and get reads. At some point, you will get some good hands and you may actually outflop somebody too. Don't try to get all the money back at once. That doesn't always work out. This exact scenario happened to me last night. I was outflopped and sucked out on for 2.5 hours straight and was down 2 buyins. I caught myself making a couple loose calls and then cut it out and focused. The last hour I played, I went on nice streak where everything seemed to go right. I made back the 2 buyins and on top of that made 2.5 more buyins. It's just variance and happens to me all the time.

[gabe]

Hand 1: Standard AQ raise, called in two spots. Flopped top pair good kicker, but I checked behind on the turn because I don't see too many hands I beat calling

you dont think AJ AT A9 are calling? i think they will

[alias2211]

Hand 1: Standard AQ raise, called in two spots. Flopped top pair good kicker, but I checked behind on the turn because I don't see too many hands I beat calling

you dont think AJ AT A9 are calling? i think they will

agreed, esp. w/ stack sizes around 100BB to start hand. and the same turn bet that a worse Ax was likely to call would be the one to get him to fold his gutshot.

[aislephive]

Yeah I definitely made a mistake by checking behind with AQ there, the only way to make any more money on the hand is to make draws or worse aces pay, and if he calls my turn bet and checks the river I can always check behind.

The AK hand I think I could've gotten away from. I mean, what hands would he bet out on the river that I beat? The ace is a definite scare card if he has just a K. I wouldn't see him betting out anything but an 8 here.

Thanks for the comments, I think I definitely could have played each hand better. In fact I think the KQ hand could have been avoided by simply folding preflop. He did raise UTG, which I assume means he has a strong hand. It just kinda sucked the case king hit the flop.