3 HU hands: optimal strategy?

First of all I just want to thank everyone for the help. I know I have been asking a lot of questions. I really appreciate the time you guys put into helping me.

Hand#1
Start of match. Would I be overplaying my hand to reraise this flop in a 3 bet pot? or is reraising the flop to get it in the best strategy? What about if there was no flush draw?

If the best strategy is just to call, did I play the turn correctly?
Submitted by : HerroRara

***** Hand History for Game 81761497173 ***** Poker Stars
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, June 10, 11:31:12 ET 2012
Table Eunomia VII Real Money
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: jose pipe $45.00 USD
Seat 2: Hero $50.00 USD
Hero posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
jose pipe posts big blind [$0.50 USD].

Holecards
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Hero raises [$1.25 USD]
jose pipe raises [$4.00 USD]
Hero calls [$3.00 USD]

Flop (Pot : $8.25)

   
jose pipe bets [$6.00 USD]
Hero calls [$6.00 USD]

Turn (Pot : $20.25)

   
jose pipe checks
Hero bets [$12.00 USD]
jose pipe raises [$34.50 USD]
Hero calls [$22.50 USD]

River (Pot : $89.25)

   
jose pipe shows
Hero shows
jose pipe wins $89.50 USD from main pot

***** Hand History for Game 81769713740 ***** Poker Stars
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, June 10, 02:39:55 ET 2012
Table Cetus IV Real Money
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: doekoemaken $62.06 USD
Seat 2: Hero $147.22 USD
Hero posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
doekoemaken posts big blind [$0.50 USD].

Holecards
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Hero raises [$1.25 USD]
doekoemaken raises [$4.50 USD]
Hero raises [$11.50 USD]
doekoemaken calls [$8.00 USD]

Flop (Pot : $24.00)

   
doekoemaken checks
Hero checks

Turn (Pot : $24.00)

   
doekoemaken checks
Hero checks

River (Pot : $24.00)

   
doekoemaken checks
Hero checks
doekoemaken shows
Hero shows
Hero wins $25.50 USD from main pot

***** Hand History for Game 81767841651 ***** Poker Stars
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, June 10, 02:04:38 ET 2012
Table Cetus IV Real Money
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: borets77 $46.18 USD
Seat 2: Hero $53.00 USD
Hero posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
borets77 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].

Holecards
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Hero raises [$1.25 USD]
borets77 raises [$4.00 USD]
Hero raises [$10.50 USD]
borets77 calls [$7.50 USD]

Flop (Pot : $22.00)

   
borets77 bets [$12.50 USD]
Hero raises [$41.00 USD]
borets77 calls [$21.68 USD]
Hero wins $6.82 USD

Turn (Pot : $90.36)

   

River (Pot : $90.36)

   
borets77 shows
Hero shows
Hero wins $91.86 USD from main pot

hand 1 check turn

hand 2 i bet the flop usually but sometimes play it like u did

hand 3 looks fine

you get WAY better discussions when you dont post results.. I was gonna post my thoughts, but it's difficult to look objective

1: looks good.

2: I'm not checking the flop unless I feel I know how to react to turn/river donks; if I have no idea I'd bet the flop rather than invite yourself into a guessing game where you can make a lot of mistakes.

3: It's a bit better to slowplay your hand and flat the flop vs someone donking 40% and snapcall all turns. It's not as if he's ever folding a pair when you shove.

edit: oops I thought (2) was a 3bet pot. I think it's much more ok to check the flop here, but you really really have to bet the turn - loads of worse to get called by.

Hand 1) I think you played it fine if this was at the beginning of the match except I'd tend to just give him credit for a flush or a better Ax with a club and just fold after he c/shoves

Hand 2) I think betting the flop, $14 or so makes the hand much easier to play and makes the turn/river much less of a guessing game

Hand 3) seems OK I guess. His bet/call with 3's is obv terrible. If I thought he had air though I'd prob just call/call and possibly shove turn if he checks or just try to get to showdown. I wouldn't shove the flop with an overpair, Qx, or TT either and would prob just call/call

hand #1 - I reraise flop as my default play, I think flatting looks too strong, I like reraising a lot of flops as a general strategy, this one is the top 10% of our range, so Im preety happy. As played I typically check the turn here and bet the river and or call a river bet he if leads

#2 - Checking flop is fine - I typically bet (since I bet most of my range here) and shove the turn. When u check flop I would typically lead this turn and shove most rivers (Ace not being one of them though)

#3 I also like jamming vs flatting - if we had Ac or Kc in our hand I would flat and flat a shove on most turns (including clubs), but without a club we are forced to fold club turns (which is a preety big deal esp with the pot being so infalted). Jamming makes the hand easier to play, and you get to realize your equity vs his range (which is almost never Qx)

I think you played every hand fine except for the JJ, you should bet flop or turn

i agree with most others
fine, bet flop, fine

raising flop in 1st hand is good ... most particularly at the start of the match. i like being very merged/thin for value at the start of HU matches cuz no one wants to believe you and they all think you are like super bluff happy. i prob would've folded the turn the way it went down, but after seeing what he has, it's pretty easy to determine he's a donk.

2nd one... bet the turn!!! (tom --- we in position--chk back i think is good here on flop)

3rd one is fine too. villain obv is a donk getting to this spot w/ 33 lol. you did fine there.

i think all these are mostly "ok". u just gotta realize ppl r gonna be donks and that u r profiting from their stupid mistakes.

For hand #2 to further clarify, when I say bet the flop, I'm betting $6-8 for many reasons, board texture, balance, induce shove etc.. (it's a 100% value play) if hes flatting my tiny flop bet, hes either floating or has a marginal made hand, in either case turn play is very trivial (on cards lower then jack). If hes flatting 4-bets with KQ/AQ, congratulations to him. However the EV from betting (and stacking weaker made hands / inducing bluff jams / floats) far exceeds the EV from the times we run into KQ/AQ (only 2.4% of possible hands). Furthermore from what I've seen, most people will jam AQ preflop these days in HU as a default

Agree with everyones hand 2 and 3, but why is checking turn best in hand 1? Do we honestly get c/raied here enough to make this not a pretty simple vbet? I could never give a new opponent credit for cbetting a draw and checking turn when it gets there, so I would bet to protect against letting him get to an ez 4 flush, control pot size in our favor, etc. I like check a lot more if we had the Tc

h1: i routinely bet/fld turn here and don't think too much about it. I don't think dudes randomly take this line in this spot as a spazzbluff enough.
I think checking simply misses value.

h2: I think what tom is saying is money. I usually bet turn but will bet flop more now.

h3: fine. you summed up your thought process well.

--- Nuked ---

hand 1 - looks good. if ur default play is to check turn or raise flop with hand good as this ur not playing tough game

hand 2 - looks fine. u can also bet small and re-evaluate most likely going with it

hand 3 - call and re-evaluate. punting all ur stack is definitely a mistake and it doesn't accomplish anything besides making ur hand easier to play. ur not folding any better hands nor having any worse hands call. If he had a fd, he's likely check raising to get the most fold equity. I think u can give him the least credit of knowing that his donk bet wont be folding any of ur range when there's this much money in the pot. Also, it's not like ur shipping aces or AQ

On August 29 2012 04:08 AndrewSong wrote: hand 1 - looks good. if ur default play is to check turn or raise flop with hand good as this ur not playing tough game hand 2 - looks fine. u can also bet small and re-evaluate most likely going with it hand 3 - call and re-evaluate. punting all ur stack is definitely a mistake and it doesn't accomplish anything besides making ur hand easier to play. ur not folding any better hands nor having any worse hands call. If he had a fd, he's likely check raising to get the most fold equity. I think u can give him the least credit of knowing that his donk bet wont be folding any of ur range when there's this much money in the pot. Also, it's not like ur shipping aces or AQ

most of this is true ... given we aren't playing 50nl.

On August 28 2012 18:08 Rapoza wrote: villain played perfectly all hands against you, especially number 2

prob a troll post but just in case, villain played everything terribly

On August 28 2012 04:05 SemPeR wrote: h1: i routinely bet/fld turn here and don't think too much about it. I don't think dudes randomly take this line in this spot as a spazzbluff enough. I think checking simply misses value.

This. He's calling with a one-pair type + club a lot but ur gonna need more info before you assume a 50NL player just ships it in so light.

H3 (to op): I like your reasoning but I don't think we should fall into the trap of assuming that (not strong) = (weak). We have to evaluate how our hand does against medium strength hands, all one pairs and flush draws, which is mostly just a propokertools problem. You'll find that we don't have odds to stack off vs that particular range, so the relevant read becomes how often villain donks with complete air. Even if it is a significant portion of the time, if we just ship flop we give villain the opportunity to fold it, in which case we won't be able to pick up value in snapping off a turn bluff. So I like either just folding flop, or just calling/re-evaluating depending on how often you read villain for air. Just shipping is still an OK aggressive play, but IMO its just a bit lazy.

On August 30 2012 11:22 NMcNasty wrote: Show nested quote + On August 28 2012 04:05 SemPeR wrote: h1: i routinely bet/fld turn here and don't think too much about it. I don't think dudes randomly take this line in this spot as a spazzbluff enough. I think checking simply misses value. This. He's calling with a one-pair type + club a lot but ur gonna need more info before you assume a 50NL player just ships it in so light. H3 (to op): I like your reasoning but I don't think we should fall into the trap of assuming that (not strong) = (weak). We have to evaluate how our hand does against medium strength hands, all one pairs and flush draws, which is mostly just a propokertools problem. You'll find that we don't have odds to stack off vs that particular range, so the relevant read becomes how often villain donks with complete air. Even if it is a significant portion of the time, if we just ship flop we give villain the opportunity to fold it, in which case we won't be able to pick up value in snapping off a turn bluff. So I like either just folding flop, or just calling/re-evaluating depending on how often you read villain for air. Just shipping is still an OK aggressive play, but IMO its just a bit lazy.

I actually really agree w your analysis of hand3 (and strangely a lot of good players seem to be giving pretty bad advice on a bunch of hands...maybe its just a 'being out of touch with playing fish hu' thing)

I tend to fold vs the lead ingame a high freq, but I feel its v v player dependant and hard to describe. So I just said 'its fine', b/c his thought process made sense and would probably be confusing if I typed out a whole paragraph.

basically just pay attention to the showdowns whenever u have valuehands and come to conclusions about how fish play (and don't play).
here you saw him lead a hand and put himself in a spot were he basically comitted himself in a 4b pot because he had a pair. what kind of player does this? what connection can you make between how he played other hands and how/why he played this hand this way?

eventually you'll see a few hands postflop and know whether or not putting more money in against this specific line is good based on the villain

On June 11 2012 12:50 TimDawg wrote: Hand 1) I think you played it fine if this was at the beginning of the match except I'd tend to just give him credit for a flush or a better Ax with a club and just fold after he c/shoves Hand 2) I think betting the flop, $14 or so makes the hand much easier to play and makes the turn/river much less of a guessing game Hand 3) seems OK I guess. His bet/call with 3's is obv terrible. If I thought he had air though I'd prob just call/call and possibly shove turn if he checks or just try to get to showdown. I wouldn't shove the flop with an overpair, Qx, or TT either and would prob just call/call

Everyones replies were really really good here in my opinion!! BUT Timdawg echo's my thoughts exactly! Esp hand1