First Post and some confusing spots

[FMLwin422]

Hello Everyone!
So this is my first post here on FTR. I have been playing for about a month now, and I am really loving it. I have done pretty well with the $1 SNGs, hopefully I can build my BR and play cash soon as well. Anyways, I was hoping I could get some comments on these hands. Also, if you have any advice for me that would also be much appreciated!
All of the hands below happened very early in the tournament so I didn't have any reads. But please tell me what I did wrong or what your line might have been?
Thanks!


Full Tilt Poker Game #18130529447: $1 + $0.20 Sit & Go (137115357), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:48:37 ET - 2010/02/02
Seat 1: Bejhault (1,500)
Seat 2: Mattie27 (1,500)
Seat 3: McDoger20 (1,500)
Seat 4: LAOGrammy (1,500)
Seat 5: ji77 (1,500)
Seat 6: BadAce1972 (1,500)
Seat 7: Troy7819 (1,500)
Seat 8: Hero (1,500)
Seat 9: quentinroad (1,500)
Bejhault posts the small blind of 15
Mattie27 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to marie_422 [Kh Th]
McDoger20 has 15 seconds left to act
McDoger20 folds
LAOGrammy calls 30
quentinroad: gl all
ji77 folds
BadAce1972 calls 30
Troy7819 has 15 seconds left to act
BadAce1972: gl
Troy7819 has timed out
Troy7819 folds
Troy7819 is sitting out
quentinroad: ty
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to 110
quentinroad folds
Bejhault folds
Mattie27 calls 80
LAOGrammy calls 80
BadAce1972 calls 80
*** FLOP *** [7s Kd Js]
Mattie27 checks
LAOGrammy checks
BadAce1972 checks
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero bets 333
Mattie27 calls 333
LAOGrammy folds
BadAce1972 calls 333
*** TURN *** [7s Kd Js] [3c]
Mattie27 checks
BadAce1972 checks
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero checks
*** RIVER *** [7s Kd Js 3c] [3s]
Mattie27 bets 30
BadAce1972 calls 30
Hero calls 30
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mattie27 shows [5s As] a flush, Ace high
BadAce1972 mucks
Hero mucks
Mattie27 wins the pot (1,544) with a flush, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,544 | Rake 0
Board: [7s Kd Js 3c 3s]
Seat 1: Bejhault (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Mattie27 (big blind) showed [5s As] and won (1,544) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: McDoger20 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: LAOGrammy folded on the Flop
Seat 5: ji77 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: BadAce1972 mucked [Qh Jc] - two pair, Jacks and Threes
Seat 7: Troy7819 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Hero mucked [Kh Th] - two pair, Kings and Threes
Seat 9: quentinroad (button) didn't bet (folded)


Full Tilt Poker Game #18130766670: $1 + $0.20 Sit & Go (137115727), Table 3 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:58:31 ET - 2010/02/02
Seat 1: sandocan318 (675)
Seat 2: Plaski (1,320)
Seat 3: yura8a (1,395)
Seat 5: gilloolyd (1,230)
Seat 6: Hero (1,455)
Seat 7: Adabu (3,135)
Seat 8: mishapal (3,135)
Seat 9: Agrashnov (1,155)
Adabu posts the small blind of 20
mishapal posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ks Kd]
Agrashnov calls 40
sandocan318 has 15 seconds left to act
sandocan318 folds
Plaski folds
yura8a folds
gilloolyd calls 40
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to 130
Adabu has 15 seconds left to act
Adabu folds
mishapal calls 90
Agrashnov calls 90
gilloolyd has 15 seconds left to act
gilloolyd calls 90
*** FLOP *** [Ac Kc 7c]
mishapal bets 540
Agrashnov folds
gilloolyd folds
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero??




Full Tilt Poker Game #18131261194: $1 + $0.20 Sit & Go (137115727), Table 3 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:18:17 ET - 2010/02/02
Seat 2: Plaski (1,240)
Seat 3: yura8a (1,860)
Seat 4: alex92300 (1,325)
Seat 6: Hero (3,025)
Seat 7: Adabu (5,445)
Seat 9: Igotyourmonies (4,495)
yura8a posts the small blind of 40
alex92300 posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Kh As]
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to 240
Adabu folds
Igotyourmonies folds
Plaski calls 240
yura8a folds
alex92300 folds
*** FLOP *** [6s 9d 8c]
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero bets 444
Plaski raises to 1,000, and is all in
hero ??

[fulksy]

i think one thing you have to remember is at micro stakes you'll have no problem getting payed off with made hands, so don't worry about slow playing anything.

Hand 1: Personally i fold preflop, as played i'm betting turn, most players are reraising with any hand that beats K10 on the flop. you'll get called with tons of hands that you beat, inc FD obviously.

hand 2: raise more preflop i'd make it at least 200, don't worry you'll get calls 90% of the time. on flop shove over villian has Ace rag more times than not, plus i don't think a flopped flush bets that much.

hand 3: good raise pre, fold flop, again low stakes so any of those cards could be in his range, you have lots of chips wait tell you have a made hand and get payed off.

these are just my thoughts, i could be off base here, i like to comment to have my thoughts critiqued. hope it helps a bit though.

[taipan168]

Hi and welcome to FTR, it's great to have you here. Regarding useful posts to read, if you haven't already done so, read the FAQs and Tactics Digest stickied at the top of this forum. The Harrington series of books, whilst not specifically focused on SNGs, are also very good for the basics of tournament play.

Otherwise, you're doing the right thing by posting hands - discussing hands and understanding the suggestions that are made is one of the best ways to improve.

On your hands:

1. KTs - I would fold preflop, KTs is a hand that is very easily dominated and can have bad reverse implied odds (ie. if you hit a K or T high flop, you could easily have the second best hand but burn a lot of chips finding out). As played I would go all-in on the turn given your remaining stack size and the chips already in the pot.

2. KK - 200 preflop and shove over on the flop. Even if he has the flopped flush you have outs to make a full house on the turn and river. If you had the Kc I'd just call and wait for opp to bet again, but in this case a fourth club would be really bad for you.

3. AKo - I disagree with fulksy here, by the time it gets back to you after opp's shove there are 2044 chips in the pot and it is only 556 for you to call. That's 3.7 to 1 pot odds and you're about 3 to 1 against to spike an A or K on the river, so you have to call. There's also the outside chance that you already have the best hand if he's mistakenly trying to bluff you off your hand with missed overcards.

[Donachello]

Hand 1
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 1.2 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1500)
BB (t1500)
UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 (t1500)
MP1 (t1500)
MP2 (t1500)
MP3 (t1500)
CO (t1500)
Button (t1500)

Preflop:
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t30, 1 fold, MP2 calls t30, 1 fold, CO bets t110, 2 folds, BB calls t80, UTG+1 calls t80, MP2 calls t80

Flop: (t455) 7, K, J (4 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 checks, CO bets t333, BB calls t333, 1 fold, MP2 calls t333

Turn: (t1454) 3 (3 players)
BB checks, MP2 checks, CO checks

River: (t1454) 3 (3 players)
BB bets t30, MP2 calls t30, CO calls t30

Total pot: t1544

Hand 2

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 1.2 Tournament, 20/40 Blinds (8 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 (t675)
MP1 (t1320)
MP2 (t1395)
CO (t1230)
Hero (Button) (t1455)
SB (t3135)
BB (t3135)
UTG (t1155)

Hero's M: 24.25

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, K
UTG calls t40, 3 folds, CO calls t40, Hero bets t130, 1 fold, BB calls t90, UTG calls t90, CO calls t90

Flop: (t540) A, K, 7 (4 players)
BB bets t540, 2 folds

Total pot: t540

Hand 3

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 1.2 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1240)
SB (t1860)
BB (t1325)
Hero (UTG) (t3025)
MP (t5445)
CO (t4495)

Hero's M: 25.21

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, A
Hero bets t240, 2 folds, Button calls t240, 2 folds

Flop: (t600) 6, 9, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets t444, Button raises to t1000 (All-In)

Total pot: t1488

there ya go

[FMLwin422]

Thank for the replies and thank you Donachello for doing the hand converter for me.

On hand #1 yes i agree that was questionable. i must admit i play a lot of SNGs and i will sit there folding over and over forever and occasionally i get bored and play something marginal. Something i need to work on.

On hand #2 Shoving is what I ended up doing, but it did concern me with that flop. The villain ended up having a flush draw and not hitting it which was great.

on hand #3: I ended up folding that, so that is great advice.

Thank you for the welcome! I have been reading over the site for a while and it has been incredibly helpful.

[taipan168]

On hand #1 yes i agree that was questionable. i must admit i play a lot of SNGs and i will sit there folding over and over forever and occasionally i get bored and play something marginal. Something i need to work on.

Yes, patience is a real virtue in poker, I do understand the temptation to play some marginal spots because you've never seen two cards over 9 for the last 50 hands, but you need to fight the urge...

On hand #2 Shoving is what I ended up doing, but it did concern me with that flop. The villain ended up having a flush draw and not hitting it which was great.

It was great that he had a flush draw because it meant that he put his chips in bad and you put them in good. It doesn't matter whether he did or did not hit the flush, you made the right decision and that's all that counts. Learning not to focus on the results, rather focusing on good decisions is very important!

Thank you for the welcome! I have been reading over the site for a while and it has been incredibly helpful.

You're more than welcome. Glad to see you de-lurking, and hope you post lots more hands in the future!

[fulksy]

on hand 3: taipans absoulutly right. i miss read the hand i thought villian was first to act and open shoved the flop. thats defianetly a call with those odds. sorry...

[FMLwin422]

I absolutely will. At first, I was nervous because I didn't want to look like a complete donk. But hey, I am just learning so correcting my mistakes is certainly important!

[Poker Orifice]

When raising over limpers you want to typically raise 3bb +1bb for each limper (if out of position, ie. on SB, you might want to raise 4bb +1bb for each limper).

[ImMasBerTO]

i think betting pot size or over betting this early when the blinds are so micro low is a mistake cause most aggressive players like to play alot of hands at this stage of the game to build up their stacks early...best bet is to play trapping this early & not get too commited to 2 pairs...big pairs this early in the game are dangerous because unless u bet ridiculous or go all in 2 barely win anything, u really cant push plyrs out of the hand. so if by ur continuation bet they still call best bet is to slow down.

[fulksy]

i think betting pot size or over betting this early when the blinds are so micro low is a mistake cause most aggressive players like to play alot of hands at this stage of the game to build up their stacks early.

i think your thinking about this wrong. you want people to call a big bet preflop with your big hands (AA, KK, etc.) and the reason we size the bet bigger when the blinds are small is because at lower stakes if a player is going to call 120 they'll usually call 200. you shouldn't be afraid to play a big pot when you have a big hand, you'll usually stack a player who calls you and hits top pair at the lower stakes.

..best bet is to play trapping this early & not get too commited to 2 pairs...big pairs this early in the game are dangerous because unless u bet ridiculous or go all in 2 barely win anything, u really cant push plyrs out of the hand. so if by ur continuation bet they still call best bet is to slow down.

playing trappy at low stakes is usually always a mistake, because players call so wide it makes more sense just to bet for value when you have a hand.