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Ok, it’s time for another questions thread. Post any and all questions you have here. ...
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A check-raise into so many players when you have ace-high is, in most cases, extremely reckless. But it did work out here, so bank it and try not to do it again! ;)
Well, only rarely. 
Another thing I’ve been wondering about is about small blinds that are almost the size of big blind. I’ve been playing mostly a $0.15/$0.30 game where the big blind is $0.15 and small blind is $0.10.
If the game happens to be rather loose and passive, and especially if the player in the big blind is passive, it seems that with few limpers, the additional $0.05 is so little an investment that one could easily call it with a very wide range of hands.
With, say, three limpers to you, it’s $0.05 for a
a $0.90 pot, or, 1-to-17. It seems to me that one could play at least any suited hand. And some others.
The number one reason for not calling with trash hands would be one’s own bad play after flop. With semi-connected non-suited low cards, say T8o, you can only hope to flop a marginal hand.
Also, with trash hands, you don’t have any postflop strategic advances: no suitedness, little connectivity, not much informational advantage and a very bad position.
So, is the possibility of losing many bets with weak or marginal hands and aggressive play enough of a reason to just fold even if you’re quite certain that the big blind won’t raise after you? Or, what range of hands would you play with this kind of setting? (Ie. small blind is two-thirds of big blind, game is loose and passive and no one has raised yet.)
This hand is from a 5/10NL game.
4 limpers to me, I limp in the CO with Tc8s, Button folds, blinds come in.
Flop $70 - Jc Th 9c
Everyone checks to me, I bet $50, folds around to Villain two seats to my right, who calls. Heads up to the turn.
Turn $170 - Ts
Villain checks to me, I bet $100, Villain check-raises to $300, I call (Villain has about $1,200 left after this bet, I cover)
River $770 - Qs
Villain bets $200, I call
Villain seems like one of the best players in this game, and my read was that his turn was a semi-bluff combo draw, maybe something like QJ or A8cc. I just called the turn because we’re pretty deep and I wanted to let him bet into me again with hands I’m beating.
On the river, I feel like that Q was not a good card for me, but I’m getting over 5:1 to call, I think he’s making the bet with hands that I beat, and part of my calling the turn was to induce exactly this kind of bet.
Is that too fancy? Should I have moved in on the turn? Folded the turn? Folded the river? Folded preflop? 
Ah, also, should I have bet the turn, even though I’m expecting him to check-raise me a good percentage of the time?
Interesting spot. I would have to think you’re good on the turn, so I would’ve re-raised.
2/4 LHE at casino
6 limpers to me. I’m in small blind with AsAc, I raise. Big blind folds, 5 limpers call, button re-raises. I cap, 2 limpers call, button calls.
The pot is pretty big at 22.5 small bets.
Flop comes Ah Kc Ts
I bet. 2 callers, button raises. I re-raise.
2 callers again, button caps. I call as well as other two.
38.5 small bets.
Turn comes 6s
I bet. 2 callers, button raises. I re-raise, 2 fold. Button re-raises, I call.
29.5 big bets.
River comes Kh
I bet, button calls, I win showing Aces full of Kings to my opponent’s QJo.
Was I being overly aggressive this hand? Or was my re-raising correct having too callers behind me who could have outdrawn me by hitting a gutshot.
The player in the button was also a bit wild, and I had seen him 3 bet preflop in late position before with some marginal raising hands.
You did nothing wrong here. Nice pot.
kata,
You played this hand fine. The main point is that you have an excellent made hand that has plenty of outs even if someone does happen to have the straight. You don’t even have to win the majority of the time to make the raising right, as you are getting 3-to-1 (i.e., you have 3 opponents) on each raise.
The only raise that might be slightly out of line is your turn 3-bet. At that point in the hand after all that raising, many 2-4 B&M players would never raise the turn without the nuts. If you can be fairly certain the turn raise means your opponent has the nuts, then just calling the turn raise makes the most sense. But if you’re still in doubt about what the turn raiser might have, then 3-betting is best. Since you said the button was “wild,” that would tend to vindicate your turn 3-bet… though using a few preflop 3-bets as evidence of wildness, particularly when it comes to turn play in big pots, is very suspect.
Only final point I have is that you aren’t reraising because you’re concerned the callers have gutshots. Gutshots are, of course, more of a threat to you than someone with, say, just bottom pair. But the main point is that you’re clearly going to end up with the best hand by the showdown more than 25% of the time, so it’s right to jam it on the flop without worrying much about what your opponents might or might not have.
Ed,
This may have been asked before, but can you do an overview of the free showdown raise? Perhaps outline the key concepts and apply it to an example or two?
antonio,
I like that idea. I’ll try to do that soon.
This was a wild hand.
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $1/$2
9 players
Converter
Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is MP3 with 9♣ J♣
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, Hero calls, CO 3-bets, 3 folds, UTG+1 calls, MP2 calls, Hero calls.
Flop: 3♣ A♣ Q♣ (13.5SB, 4 players)
UTG+1 checks, MP2 checks, Hero bets, CO raises, UTG+1 calls, MP2 folds, Hero 3-bets, CO calls, UTG+1 calls.
Turn: 8♣ (11.25BB, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets, CO folds, UTG+1 raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG+1 caps, Hero calls.
River: T♣ (19.25BB, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 3-bets, Hero caps, UTG+1 calls.
Results:
Final pot: 27.25BB
Hero showed 9c Jc
UTG+1 mucks Qh Kc
Part of me wanted to slow down on the turn . . . really glad it worked out, but was my line of play defensible here? I didn’t want to succumb to MUD syndrome, but I realized my hand could well be counterfeited on the turn. So I end up rivering a one-outer and making my first straight flush in a long time … all’s well that ends well, I guess!
Shrike - I’m going to hazard a guess here that Ed will agree with your line of play after the flop. The only card villain can have, even on the turn, which can beat you is K of clubs. Sure he is pushing hard, but he could be doing that with AA, QQ, AK, AQ, or even Qx, all of which you can beat.
The only question I have is regarding your cold-calling pre-flop with J9s. This is a no-no if I understand Ed’s SSHE correctly.
Shrike, In a limit game in this posistion with a raise in front of me I fold this hand everytime.
I would call in lp in a nl game if there was no raise or raise in lp as a semi-bluff ( in unraised pot).
And I would play it in the blinds in various scenarios. I would maybe and try and steal the blinds in limit if they were weak and folded 2 much…otherwise, muck it. After entering the pot the rest of the hand looked fine.
I agree my cold call was questionable; I have a rule of thumb to allow myself one such cold call per session with a speculative hand that I want to play if I think the circumstances warrant it. (At this table I had observed that early raises were being made with a wide range of hands)
Shrike,
That’s fine if you like to make one cold-call a session to keep things fun. But it’s definitely not a “good” cold-call. It’s a pretty clear fold, especially from two off the button. On the button it’s closer to being ok.
On the turn, I think your 3-bet is very reckless. A turn check-raise on a 4-flush board is more likely than not to be the nuts. And if it’s not the nuts, then your opponent is essentially drawing dead, so 3-betting doesn’t help you that much. If your opponent is bluffing, he’ll probably just fold to your 3-bet, whereas if you just called, he might try to fire another barrel on the river. So 3-betting might actually cost you a bet if you’re ahead. You’re essentially hoping your opponent has precisely the T 
and won’t be able to let it go. But I think you’ll find very few players would checkraise the turn with just the T in that situation. It’s either the K (most likely), or it’s a bluff or some other wacky hand. The “in-between” hands will tend just to call down.
Honestly, I think you can fold after getting 4-bet on the turn, despite your one out. You are 99% facing the K at that point.
Finally, congrats on sucking out.
I’ve played a couple of fixed limit sit’n'go tournaments. I did manage to get to money places in my first and was close on the second, but I really did feel a bit confused. It was a nice exercise in limit skills, though, because the limits went up and everyone’s style shifted from tight to loose and passive to aggressive. You really did have to adjust your game all the time. Also, they’re much more exciting than the usual full table ring game.
I wondered if anyone here had any good tips and strategies for fixed limit sit’n'go tournaments?
I’ve bought Ed’s Getting Started in Hold’em and read its sit’n'go section, but it’s mostly about no-limit. I think some of it applies to fixed limit sit’n'gos, but there must be big differences in strategies of fixed limit vs. no-limit sit’n'go tournaments.
There’s, I think, an similar thing in fixed limit tournaments of the all-in rage in no-limit. It seems that, once in a while, couple of players put their finger on the raise button and don’t take it off until the pot is over.
Should I calculate combined odds of hitting my outs on the turn and river OR just the odds of hitting my outs on the turn alone?
Limit sit’n'gos can be pretty fun. I usually start off playing pretty tight aggressive, basically just like I would in a normal ring game, just trying to accumulate a good chip lead over my opponents.
The “fold equity” concept still applies here I think.
Try and figure out who the weaker players are and try to isolate them as often as possible.
As the blinds go up relative to the stack sizes, I think creative plays become more important, especially bluffs and semi-bluffs against the mid-low stacks. Try to put them in situations where calling down would cripple their stack size.
As the table gets more short-handed you need to get more aggressive, and limp trapping with big pair hands tends to be pretty powerful.
I’m definitely no pro, but these would be some of the strategies I would probably employ in limit sit’n'gos.
A few more ideas:
As the blinds get really big relative to the stack sizes, “rope a dope” strategies (letting the aggressive player keep betting into you thinking you are on a draw/weak hand) can accumulate a pretty sizable pot.
Blind steals can be pretty effective vs. weak mid-low stacks, but be careful about trying to steal blinds from aggressive defensive tricky players. A couple of unsuccessful blind steal attempts can quickly dwindle your stack in the later stages of a sit’n'go.
Keep notes on all the players and be willing to change gears depending on your stack size relative to other players at the table. You don’t want to take to many chances with a smallish stack that can’t afford it. If you do, you’re too likely to get crippled and blinded out of the tournament.
One last idea, in a lot of small stakes limit tourneys, a crippled small stack might essentially give up on winning the tourney and go into “all-in” mode, automatically betting/raising with anything. Be on the look out for this and if you have a very good hand/draw use these players to trap your opponents for a lot of chips.
Yeah, thanks for tips.
I don’t know if it’s the “all-in” mode you describe, but few players tend go wild with a middle/bottom pairs and capping with every round only ending up losing to a stronger hand. If they had stopped a bit earlier, they would have noticed that they’re already beaten.
But sit’n'gos are fun just because of that: you have to get strong reads on the opponents and adjust them as the tournament advances.
I know I got lucky in this hand, but I would like to know if my play was completely out of line.
The hand went like this (I apologize in advance if the formatting is screwed; that hand converter didn’t accept this format as input and your commenting doesn’t allow previewing):
ANTES/BLINDS
Snowpride posts blind ($0.10), HERO posts blind ($0.15).
Dealt to the HERO: [ KC,AC ]
PRE-FLOP
rikku18 bets $0.30, Finley007 calls $0.30, HighNRG folds, efrem616 calls $0.30, J.Sab.33 calls $0.30, trobadurix folds, eseldinho folds, Snowpride folds, HERO bets $0.30, rikku18 bets $0.30, Finley007 calls $0.30, efrem616 calls $0.30, J.Sab.33 calls $0.30, HERO calls $0.15.
FLOP [board cards 5S,9C,9S ]
HERO checks, rikku18 checks, Finley007 checks, efrem616 checks, J.Sab.33 bets $0.15, HERO bets $0.30, rikku18 folds, Finley007 folds, efrem616 folds, J.Sab.33 calls $0.15.
TURN [board cards 5S,9C,9S,JH ]
HERO checks, J.Sab.33 checks.
RIVER [board cards 5S,9C,9S,JH,6H ]
HERO checks, J.Sab.33 checks.
SHOWDOWN
HERO shows [ KC,AC ]
J.Sab.33 mucks cards [ 8S,KS ]
HERO wins $3.55.
It was 20 small bets on the flop (I guess that would qualify as a huge pot?) with five players and the button, correctly, bets with a flush draw. Now, I knew that my raise didn’t protect my hand in the sense that it gave everyone odds (around 11,5-to-1) to call with almost anything. But they did have to worry about getting reraised by the button and I guess they ultimately were convinced that either the button or me had at least trips.
I didn’t have much. Two overcards, albeit strong overcards. Plus a backdoor straight draw. But the pot was so big that I wasn’t going to give up just yet. I was ready to give up if someone reraised and turn wouldn’t have helped me. But I wasn’t too afraid.
Seeing all the other three players folding on the flop was a dream come true. I just assumed that maybe one, or in the luckiest scenario, two, of them folded. But all three folding and the button just calling was better than anyone could imagine.
I was planning to check-call on the turn, because I had nothing and I couldn’t narrow button’s hand range. I’m not sure about checking the river. I wasn’t going to fold, though, if the button would have bet. I figured there wasn’t a too many worse hands that my opponent could have had called with. But I was already too happy about how the flop came out.
So the my question is: was the check-raise in the flop reckless? Did I just get extremely lucky or was this one of those situations where you can “waste” couple of bets in order to (possibly saving the pot)?