Stacked like a noob

I get raped 'deepstacked' again. I assume that since my non river bet sizing is always 1/2 pot (just a style I've been doing lately), once people start insisting the hand no longer be small ball I have to gtfo with mid strength hands like this? I always convince myself villain is semi bluffing in these sorts of situations then barreling river once he missed, and board wasn't even that drawy. This is 0.02/0.04 on Carbon, I have no info on my opponent. Like me, he is probably horrible. He is in highjack position at 6-ring table.


I have 150 BBs, and get AdAc in the small blind. UTG folds, villain raises to 3bbs, cutoff and button fold. I raise to 7bbs, he flats.

Pot 14bbs, I have 143 left in my stack.
Flop:
7c Kh 9h

I bet 7 bbs (I have been betting half-pot flop and river and varying my river betsize), he raises to 24 bbs, I call.

pot is 62bbs
Turn:
7c Kh 9h 7s

this doesn't seem like a dangerous river card. It lowers the probability of him holding 77, though increases the probability of being beat by 76 or 87 hearts.

I check, he bets 34bbs

I assume this is where I should have made the fold, as I have very little info on him. I decided that I would call this, and if the flush didn't complete I would call his river bet as I had about a 2/3s pot size stack on river.


River:
7c Kh 9h 7s 3s

A blank. I check, he jams for the last 2/3ish bet, I call it, and of course he has 99.



This is a normal bad poker player being stacked by a set situation I know, but what adjustments can be made? I could raise more PF to get a lower SPR and then getting stacked isn't quite as big of a mistake. Assuming I still want to keep my default betting and raise sizes small, should I have folded this on the turn or the river? Or perhaps I'm over-reacting and check-calling turn and river isn't as fishy of a line as I think it is. I can't imagine folding on the flop here against someone I have no info on.

you have AA, its micros, pot bet, pot bet, shove.

You want to have your money in quickly with hands like AA, or nuts, so why you half pot bet?

as played:

you can raise the flop.

on turn, you are thinking to call if flush doesnt hit, so you are not thinking that he may have a 7, you should have raised/shove.

and you may want to use the Hand tool on the right of the site to post hands instead of writting them.

3bet bigger pre, considering you're OOP n deep, last thing you want is to give him plenty of room to outplay you. I'd make it 11 or 12bb pre.
turn is best card ever for you actually, as it decreases the odds of him having a set + you counterfeit top2. from there you could call it a cooler, but your major mistake is making it that small pre.

tbh im not a fan of halfpotting it either postflop, most of the time youre just missing value like that (as your range when having the initiative pre is simply stronger than his)

bet 11-12 bbs flop, shove flop or shove turn I think its pretty bad to fold river.

wow
9-12x pre

pot pot pot

half pot isnt correct in almost all cash game situations, only time i like half pot really is on paired boards etc

Your preflop bet is way to small and gives this guy easy odds to call and set mine you.

lol i've played with you on merge. well played hand bro TBH

On April 06 2012 15:02 traxamillion wrote: lol i've played with you on merge. well played hand bro TBH

icwatudidthere

raise much bigger pre - 10-12bb

when you bet flop and he makes a big raise, its almost always 2p+ fold.

I run into spots like this rather frequently live. It takes a lot of discipline to be able to lay down hands like these and even I'm not sure I can do it. However lately I notice that I really dont think enough about hands and just kinda auto-pilot my way on level 1 and end up a marginal winner week after week. I've begun chanting to myself "what does he have, what does he put me on?" and ALWAYS taking time to make decisions, even if they're trivial. I feel it's helping my game. Basically it forces me to think on level 3, and in doing so really opens my eyes to a lot of obvious decisions.

So for instance you 3bet OOP and get called and hit a flop like this. Nothing much to do here, just bet, but then he raises. So I ask myself "he raised preflop, but only called a 3bet, then raises the flop. I showed a LOT of aggression, and he has to at least put me on a king, but he raises anyway." So I'll debate the likelihood that he semi-bluff's a flush draw or overplays top pair, and probably decide I have to at least call.

On the turn I check, and he comes right out swinging. I have showed TONS of strength, he simply HAS to put me on a king here, and STILL he doesnt care and bets anyway. No matter how bad I think he is, I have to put him on some hand that beats mine. I mean fuck all this "he cant have quads because quads are hard to make". This is a prime set-mining spot.

I honestly cant declare that I always fold here, especially for a mere 150BB's, but when I force myself to take 10 seconds on each street things tend to get a lot clearer.

stop betting so small.

play a strong tight value range and start 3/4 to pot sized betting your strong hands.

probably fold to raises unless you have a good reason to call/stack off or your hand is strong enough you don't give a shit AWWW INNN

...if this is for pennies, i would make it like 15 bb quite hoenstly

The problem is not that you got stacked 150bb deep, but that with your betsizing you make very little money here when you are good. If you bet bigger getting stacked in this kind of setup will be offset by all the times you make money on a situaton where this guy holds KQ or other shit and is unable to fold. Also, this half-pot style induces tons of weird spots were it may be very costly to find out how strong you opponent thinks he is with say TP, as you will play against tons of people who will flat all day and tons that will raise without regard to their kicker, making them pay for playing wacky hands earlier will make decisions in this spots much easier.

The only time I bet half pot is on a pure cbet/bluff. I isolate with something like ATo or K9s and completely whiff. If I'm in position I'll bet half pot since I know the fish arent really paying attention and have already made up their minds on the hand.