letting myself get run down?

[dev]

I've been reading FTR for a while, but I'm still a break-even kinda player. I was doing very will in sngs and ring games on the weaker sites, but recently I moved to stars. It's a much tougher site, but it keeps my focus a lot better.

That said, I find myself getting run down a lot. I'm not talking about flopping the nuts necessarily. Two pair, a set, a straight... I used to always slow-play those hands. I played them straight for a while, and found that in live games, I was a rock... too easy to read.

So, now I'm back to slow playing, and this happened a few minutes ago:

Table '10485168 1' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: alex vincent (1480 in chips)
Seat 2: Spartacus37 (1710 in chips)
Seat 3: turboblast (1470 in chips)
Seat 4: duck_3986 (1310 in chips)
Seat 5: diskomp (1670 in chips)
Seat 6: devr (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: FmyZim (1440 in chips)
Seat 8: hellzsatan (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: DARTHTATER (1420 in chips)
diskomp: posts small blind 10
devr: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to devr [4h 2s]
FmyZim: folds
hellzsatan: folds
DARTHTATER: calls 20
alex vincent: folds
Spartacus37: calls 20
turboblast: folds
duck_3986: calls 20
diskomp: calls 10
devr: checks
*** FLOP *** [3h Ad 5s]
diskomp: checks
devr: checks
DARTHTATER: checks
Spartacus37: bets 20
duck_3986: calls 20
diskomp: folds
devr: calls 20
DARTHTATER: folds
*** TURN *** [3h Ad 5s] [9c]
devr: checks
Spartacus37: bets 20
duck_3986: calls 20
devr: raises 40 to 60
Spartacus37: calls 40
duck_3986: folds
*** RIVER *** [3h Ad 5s 9c] [4d]
devr: bets 200
Spartacus37: calls 200
*** SHOW DOWN ***
devr: shows [4h 2s] (a straight, Ace to Five)
Spartacus37: shows [2c Ac] (a straight, Ace to Five)
devr collected 350 from pot
Spartacus37 collected 350 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 700 | Rake 0
Board [3h Ad 5s 9c 4d]

Seat 2: Spartacus37 showed [2c Ac] and won (350) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 6: devr (big blind) showed [4h 2s] and won (350) with a straight, Ace to Five

Was I right in thinking that it was unlikely this hand would lose to a draw-out? It's the second or third hand of the sng, so I didn't have a read on anyone.

[Staresy]

That said, I find myself getting run down a lot. I'm not talking about flopping the nuts necessarily. Two pair, a set, a straight... I used to always slow-play those hands. I played them straight for a while, and found that in live games, I was a rock... too easy to read.

I think there is a time to slow-play hands, however, slow-playing hands like a straight and especially a set is often asking for trouble, especially at the lower level buy-ins.

Seat 2: Spartacus37 showed [2c Ac] and won (350) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 6: devr (big blind) showed [4h 2s] and won (350) with a straight, Ace to Five

Was I right in thinking that it was unlikely this hand would lose to a draw-out? It's the second or third hand of the sng, so I didn't have a read on anyone.

That said, I think you were right to slow-play here. The board isn't really that threatening and you would think someone with an A would bet out here, confident they have the best hand. Indeed, someone with A9 or A5 here might well like their two pair enough to pay you off handsomely on the turn. I think you played this ok, the other guy got lucky. It is a shame that retards call with A2 out of MP, but this is what you get.

[rubixstreub]

He had high pair with a gutshot for the straight. You're just checking it around and then you throw out a very weak reraise on the turn, which looks like you're trying to make a lame bluff. I think check/calling the flop was fine, but I would have come out swingin on the turn to send a bad bluff message to the rest of the table(no one would give you credit for a 9 helping your hand), and just hope someone with a stronger Ace or better is coming along for the ride. Too bad the usual maniacs sat this hand out.

[Staple Gun]

Bet that flop, you almost know someone has an ace, and if they have something like AQ or AJ you might even get a reraise. If you do get reraised then you can chose to just call, and check-raise the turn. If you get called then just try to milk the hand with medium sized bets.