Good fold? How about the rest?

[dalecooper]

I think I made the right fold here - what do you think about how the rest of the hand was played? (The weak pre-flop raise was to encourage a little action... $1 or more was getting all folds most of the time.)

***** Hand History for Game 1919158856 *****
$25 NL Hold'em - Tuesday, April 19, 16:00:20 EDT 2005
Table Table 36582 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: bpc009 ( $87.31 )
Seat 5: LabyrintWall ( $24.8 )
Seat 8: PlusEV ( $23.2 )
Seat 9: taughtyou ( $6.89 )
Seat 10: stressball10 ( $19.6 )
Seat 4: Pinot72 ( $30.35 )
Seat 3: TurdSndwch04 ( $8.4 )
Seat 7: Dstro ( $38.55 )
Seat 6: FACC1666 ( $3.39 )
Seat 1: Zieg30 ( $14.75 )
Dstro posts small blind [$0.1].
taughtyou posts big blind [$0.25].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to stressball10 [ Qs Qh ]
PlusEV has left the table.
taughtyou: nh
stressball10 raises [$0.75].
Zieg30 folds.
bpc009 folds.
TurdSndwch04 folds.
Pinot72 folds.
LabyrintWall calls [$0.75].
FACC1666 folds.
Dstro folds.
taughtyou folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9h, 6s, 4h ]
stressball10 bets [$2].
LabyrintWall raises [$4].
stressball10 calls [$2].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6c ]
stressball10 bets [$2].
cbologna has joined the table.
LabyrintWall is all-In [$20.05]
stressball10: damn, did you hit a set or what?
taughtyou: zzzzzzzzzz
stressball10 folds.
LabyrintWall does not show cards.
LabyrintWall wins $31.25

[stuck]

Tough. Either you're ahead or way behind. I'd consider re-raising him on the flop, or firing out a larger bet on the turn.

As to whether or not to fold that...

It's tough. I'd probably call it. It wouldn't surprise me if he had A9 or so.

[JeffreyGB]

That turn bet looks weak. To me it screams "I like my hand, but I'm worried that you have a 6. If you want the pot, rep and it's yours."

If he's good enough to pick up on this is another story. That's where his previous play comes into it for me.

I could see his play as being a set. I could also see it as he thinks you missed the flop, so he's playing aggressive just for that reason. If this is the case, he could have AK or really any hand. I think I like raising more on the turn, but that may tie you to the pot. One thing I'm fairly sure of: he doesn't have 6x.

[dsaxton]

He could have 10's or jacks and thinks any overpair is invincible. I doubt he flopped a set, since he wouldn't be inclined to move all-in on the turn with a full house or quads after you've shown weakness by checking (unless he's dumb). A flush draw is not unlikely.

There's almost no way of knowing whether or not you folded the best hand because you played a bit too passively on the flop. Plus I think that at this level players tend to make some "unique" plays with strange hands, which makes reading hands more difficult.

[dalecooper]

He could have 10's or jacks and thinks any overpair is invincible. I doubt he flopped a set, since he wouldn't be inclined to move all-in on the turn with a full house or quads after you've shown weakness by checking (unless he's dumb).

I didn't check, I did a favorite play of mine in that situation - mirrored my own flop bet as if on auto-pilot. It often confuses people and gives me a chance to find out for cheap how much he likes his hand.

There's almost no way of knowing whether or not you folded the best hand because you played a bit too passively on the flop.

My opening bet was pretty aggressive - you think I should have re-raised him on the flop? I thought the fact that he went out of his way to raise me there showed he could be on a set, and I didn't want to push the hand much farther than that. In those situations I usually like to call, then repeat my flop bet on the turn and see how he responds. A big raise on the turn means strength; a flat call means a draw or a hand that's not invulnerable. Or even overcards like AK.

I guess my question is, is it better to re-raise on the flop for further info, or do what I did (call/bet the turn), or ?? I'm comfortable with the fold... I read him for a set and he said after the hand that he had pocket 9s. I'm inclined to believe that.

[dsaxton]

I didn't check, I did a favorite play of mine in that situation - mirrored my own flop bet as if on auto-pilot. It often confuses people and gives me a chance to find out for cheap how much he likes his hand.

I guess my question is, is it better to re-raise on the flop for further info, or do what I did (call/bet the turn), or ?? I'm comfortable with the fold... I read him for a set and he said after the hand that he had pocket 9s. I'm inclined to believe that.

Sorry, misread the hand history. As far as the flop is concerned, his raise was weak and I think you should be reraising both for value and for information. That is, you probably have the best hand and should be charging him more for the turn, and if he has the best hand you'll find out immediately.

I don't think there's much value in confusing your opponent here when you don't even know where you stand. Do you really want a confused opponent to potentially play his hand in a peculiar way when you're trying to figure out what he's holding? Suppose he interprets your strange play as weakness, and opts to bluff you? You already don't know what he has, and now you're faced with a big decision with virtually no information to base a decision on.

So, you should not be trying to cause any confusion here. Be completely direct as to the nature of your hand by reraising on the flop and see how he responds.

[drmcboy]

Why in the world would he move in with 99? 44 maybe but even that would be iffy. Maybe (maybe) a re raise but this is a great slow play spot, several draws out you might hit and pay him off.

If you were beat I think it was AA KK.