100 Poker Hands

It is of course part and parcel of the game.  Having a strong hand, or maybe even the nuts on that street, and someone coming along and hitting the one card that they need to make the hand that beats you. What do you do?  Swear and curse? Vow to get your vengenace?  Shrug it off like you know you should. Make a note and hope you play them in lots more hands yet. Of course I know that there have been times when I have had no right to be in the hand, or been too aggressive, and Lady Luck has shone on me and somebody else has the bad beat. Welll yesterday in one of my microstakes hands I felt the bad beat good and proper.  Here's the details. I'm fully stacked on  table full of unknowns and I find myself with AQ spades.  UTG bets 3bb and I make it a 3 bet.  The big blind calls and the player UTG folds.  The flop comes 5, 10, 2 all spades.  I've got the nut flush in position.  Just need to make sure I make some money. What does...

So in this hand I am happy with the play preflop and flop.  The flop is pretty good I think since I will get calls from lower pairs and flush draws. Betting the turn seems a good move too when the Jd hits.  The flush draw is still there, but weaker, and no overcards.  I am still going to bet out looking for value from lower pairs and charging the draws. I am sure that if the button has hit a set he would be raising the flop and if he hasn't done that he would almost certainly be raising the turn.  He doesn't so I think that I am still good. Then the river card comes. The cooler.  There is a big question as to whether the villain has got right the way to the river with just an over card, or possibly A2, A4, A8 or AJ I suppose.  Of course he might need to bluff the river with a busted flush draw. So I check on the river and see what he does..and he shoves.  Should I call or fold? PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players Hand conve...

When I first started playing poker online I couldn't understand what a HuD was or why I might ever want one. Over time I was persuaded and invested in PokerTracker and now find that it can help me follow a game.  Added to this of course is that the statistics are there staring me in the face if I try and convince myself that I am winning if I'm not really winning at all. This hand was a great example of why a HuD is valuable in online poker. I'd been sat at the table only a very short amount of time and this villain seemed to be super aggressive.  He'd been 3 betting a lot and defended his blinds endlessly.  I started taking a bit of interest. Over 50 hands in this session he had 3 bet 20% of them (I know that 50 hands is nothing) but my notes told me that he had 3 bet with T8s, 32s and had called with 98s all from the blinds.  He also relentlessly made a continuation bet following his 3 bet. So in an unraised pot on the button and holding T7s I wanted to see h...

Sometimes you feel its worth defending your small blind, sometimes you don't. 3 betting with a pair of 5s when the big blind is still in the game can be a risk. But sometimes the flop is good to you. Of course sometimes you might think you could have made a bit more money.

What sort of hand raises an under the gun raise in online microstakes poker?  How far will they push their hand?  How would you play this one?

Should you 3 bet the UTG raiser in a microstakes 6 max game?  If he calls should you bluff the plot? Which flops should you bluff? The villain is an unknown to us.  We have only played 6 hands against him.

Perceived wisdom certainly suggests that playing suited connectors should be reserved for late positions, ideally against multiple opponents. Certainly limping with 67s from mid position in 6 max is probably not the best idea. And when you get raised you should probably fold and cut your losses. In this hand there is certainly one player who is going to play every hand (he has put in to 97% of hands and not yet folded to a 3bet. Villain 4 has only 3 bet 11% of all hands. The equity calculations say that the raiser probablt has about 50% equity with our 67s on about 24% equity and the loosest, most passive player around with about 26% equity. Having played the loose player we know that he will make very small bets with nothing, probably call any bet with an ace in his hand, but any real big bet from him tells us that he has a big hand. If we call we need to hit the flop and then our implied odds will work for us. We've also been tight at the table, playing around 14% of ha...

Should you call a 3 bet with a small pair?  What about in a 3 way pot?  Do you fold the flop if you don't hit your sit?  Wait for the turn card?  One of the villians is completely new to you. The other is VP 33 and PF 17% of hands.