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fundiver199
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- #1
One of the most classic mistakes in poker is to overvalue a top pair bad kicker type hand. This might seem very fundamental to seasoned players, but you still see people making this mistake all the time. This hand was played today on ACR Poker, and even though the replay say "0+0", this is not a freeroll. Its a $11 PKO, do you dont see this kind of play at the very lowest stakes either.
Of course when the opponent flop top pair, he cant really fold to a small C-bet. But when he check-jam, nothing worse call except maybe the nut flushdraw, and that is basically a flip equity wise. And even if he play postflop better, he is just lighting chips on fire, which is why, these offsuit high-low hands are usually just a fold preflop and certainly a fold to a 3-bet. Even KQo and KJo are often trubblesome hands to give action to 3-bets with.
In the same session this hand happened in a $6.6 On Demand SnG.
KTo is one of the worst hands, I open from HJ, so normally it would be an easy fold to a 3-bet. However when the opponent min-click, I dont have any folds due to pot odds, so I stick in the extra blind and see a flop. I flop top pair, the opponent now hit the "pot" button, and I...... drumbeats.... fold. There are a few reasons for this fold. The first is, that I dont think, any hand worse than KT min-click preflop and then hit the pot button on the flop for value.
So I basically only beat a bluff, which mean, that calling here with KT is actually a little worse than calling with A7 or A6. This is because, the value hands, which the opponent represent, are mostly AA and AK, and A7 or A6 actually have more removal towards those hands than KT. If the opponent can also have KK or KQ for value, this will change the math. But the point is still, that we need to go deeper than "LOL I have top pair" and classify our hand correctly, and here I clearly have a bluff catcher.
If I had a read, that this opponent was overly aggressive, I could still make the call with the intention to then also call any turn except maybe an ace. But I did not have that read, and there were a few things, that made me not want to bluff catch here. The first was the fact, that if I call, there is less than a pot sized bet left for the turn, and more often than not the opponent will then jam the turn. And if I am going to fold to such a jam, then I might as well fold now and preserve my chips.
This is, why sizing better, and had he bet something more reasonable like half pot, I would have been much more inclined to make the call and see the turn. The other reason was ICM, since we were down to 17 players with 9 places paying, and in that situation its a real disaster for me as an above average stack to go broke against the only player on my table, who cover me.
So there you have it. Sometimes the best play with top pair bad kicker is to simply fold it on the flop, and other times you should check-call and play it as a bluff catcher. Rarely should you pile all the chips in, and especially not multiway, against early position opens or in 3-bet or 4-bet pots, where ranges are supposed to be stronger.
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Of course when the opponent flop top pair, he cant really fold to a small C-bet. But when he check-jam, nothing worse call except maybe the nut flushdraw, and that is basically a flip equity wise. And even if he play postflop better, he is just lighting chips on fire, which is why, these offsuit high-low hands are usually just a fold preflop and certainly a fold to a 3-bet. Even KQo and KJo are often trubblesome hands to give action to 3-bets with.
In the same session this hand happened in a $6.6 On Demand SnG.
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KTo is one of the worst hands, I open from HJ, so normally it would be an easy fold to a 3-bet. However when the opponent min-click, I dont have any folds due to pot odds, so I stick in the extra blind and see a flop. I flop top pair, the opponent now hit the "pot" button, and I...... drumbeats.... fold. There are a few reasons for this fold. The first is, that I dont think, any hand worse than KT min-click preflop and then hit the pot button on the flop for value.
So I basically only beat a bluff, which mean, that calling here with KT is actually a little worse than calling with A7 or A6. This is because, the value hands, which the opponent represent, are mostly AA and AK, and A7 or A6 actually have more removal towards those hands than KT. If the opponent can also have KK or KQ for value, this will change the math. But the point is still, that we need to go deeper than "LOL I have top pair" and classify our hand correctly, and here I clearly have a bluff catcher.
If I had a read, that this opponent was overly aggressive, I could still make the call with the intention to then also call any turn except maybe an ace. But I did not have that read, and there were a few things, that made me not want to bluff catch here. The first was the fact, that if I call, there is less than a pot sized bet left for the turn, and more often than not the opponent will then jam the turn. And if I am going to fold to such a jam, then I might as well fold now and preserve my chips.
This is, why sizing better, and had he bet something more reasonable like half pot, I would have been much more inclined to make the call and see the turn. The other reason was ICM, since we were down to 17 players with 9 places paying, and in that situation its a real disaster for me as an above average stack to go broke against the only player on my table, who cover me.
So there you have it. Sometimes the best play with top pair bad kicker is to simply fold it on the flop, and other times you should check-call and play it as a bluff catcher. Rarely should you pile all the chips in, and especially not multiway, against early position opens or in 3-bet or 4-bet pots, where ranges are supposed to be stronger.