Originally Posted by CardWarfare  Here's an interesting hand from a little home game tonight with some friends.
.10c-.20c NL
Hero has about $35
Villian has about $30
Villian min-raises (.40c) UTG, Hero in LP re-raises to $2
Flop: A-K-6 rainbow
Villian checks, Hero bets $3, Villian raises to $9
Hero???
Now, before you all start bashing me, here's some background information on this player.
If you were to classify my style, and this player's styles into two well known players in NL cash games, you would have have Daniel Negreanu (me) and Sammy Farha (villian). We're both gamblers, play a wide range of hands, and are likely to have any two cards at any time (in most cases).
This player generally plays very fast preflop, and slows down on the flop if he flops a hand like top pair or so. However, he also LOVES to raise on draws, and mix up his play.
Here's my thinking, the min raise UTG doesn't mean anything, except that it's a min raise. I know that sounds overly simple, but here's what I mean.
The min raise, does not necessarily mean a very strong hand like AA, KK, QQ, or AK, like it often does on the internet. In fact, with this player, and the way he was playing tonight, he was playing big hands pretty fast preflop, usually raising to at least 5x the BB with two big cards or a pair. This made me think that he had some sort of suited connectors, or drawing hand. Obviously, he also could have a hand like AA or AK because of the check-raise, but it's debatable.
With most other players in this game, this is an easy fold. However, because I know this guy so well, and he knows me very well, it becomes a contest to see who can out think the other. Here's my line of thinking in this hand, let's see what you guys think.
-He min raised pre, which means next to nothing, and doesn't define his hand really in anyway.
-He didn't re-raise after I raised, almost invariably eliminating AA, KK, and probably QQ from his range
-He checked the flop, as he often does with top pair, of any sort.
-He made a larger than usual check/raise. Most times with big hands, hes' calling the flop and check raising the turn
-He had check/raised on a draw on two separate occasions during this session. Once he had a straight and flush draw, the other time, a gutshot.
Here's his range, in my mind at the time.
Bad for me:
-AK
-A6
-K6 (yes, it's possible)
-66
Good for me:
- AJ through A7
- A5 through A2
- KJ
- KQ
- KT
- QJs
- JTs
- any pocket pair between QQ and 44 (excluding 66, for obvious reasons)
Or simply a stone cold bluff.
We talk all the time about the all the headaches we give each other when we play, because we are, by far, the loosest and most aggressive players in our home games. Most times the tighter players tend to stay out of the way unless they have a big hand, and me and Juan (villian) go to war for the "nothing" pots that no one wants.
Like I said earlier, against a predictable player this is an easy fold, but for this opponent, there's a lot of strategy involved. |