I went to Foxwoods yesterday, and decided to try playing a short-stack ($100) at 1/2NL. Sadly, I didn't run well. A few key hands:
1. First orbit at table: 2 limps, I raise to $15 with AA, folds all around.
2. One limper, I raise to $10 with AT of clubs on the button, laggy limper calls. Flop comes AQ9, all spades. Limper checks, I bet $15, limper flats. Turn comes a 4 of spades, limper checks, I probe-bet another $15, limper comes over the top for $40. He flashes a 2 of spades, so presumably he had A2.
3. One limp, I raise to $10 with QT of spades in late position, tight button calls, BB and limper call. Flop comes AK8, 1 spade. Two checks, I bet $25, button calls, 2 folds. Turn comes a blank, I check, button bets $60, I fold.
4. New table: straddle is on; I'm down to $64. Super-lag raises to $12, ultra-loose player calls on my right. I wake up with AQs in the SB and move in. Super-lag snap calls with AK -- no help from the board. I rebuy to $100.
5. A few hands later... a few limps around, I wake up with Ac Ks in the SB, raise to $15, get 3 callers. Flop comes J58, 2 clubs. I check, super-aggro lady on my left bets $20 into $60 pot, 2 folds, I call getting 4-to-1 odds, with the plan to shove all-in on any A, K, or club (28% of turns). Sadly, turn comes a brick, and I check/fold. She claimed to have had AJ later, which I doubt, though truthfully 22 had me crushed!
Overall, I think these hands were fairly standard and I was just unfortunate to not win any big pots (biggest win was $20, I think). I also bled blinds like crazy (~$70 over 8 hours) because almost every hand was raised pre-flop, so I saw few flops (and couldn't call the raises with a short stack).
It also seems like the strategy of 2/3 of the players there is to see a flop with speculative hands for $15 or less and hope to bomb someone post-flop. This suggests two lessons:
1. I should wait to go back until I can afford to buy in deeper ($200 or more) and have 2 full rebuys in my back pocket, which would allow me to see more flops.
2. I should 3-bet people a little wider than QQ+ and AK, because it seems that people raise and call very wide pre-flop, but are also VERY uncomfortable with calling or 4-betting big 3-bets pre-flop themselves without a premium hand (i.e., AK or JJ+). Taking down a couple more raised pots with a 3-bet would add to my winrate enormously.
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5 comments:
Buying in deeper only makes sense if your opponents are worse players and they have deep stacks as well. Otherwise your deep stack is only as shallow as theirs.
I think the 3bet idea has merit, however realize that when people open raise to $15 and call a 3bet, remaining stacks will be VERY shallow.
Hey jmc,
Good points. First of all, I think most of my opponents were less than great. It was pretty easy to put them on hands and/or they were way too bluffy in their play. And yes, they had much deeper stacks than myself, for the most part. The shallow-stack players usually busted out fast.
As for 3-betting, I agree 100% the SPR will be quite low if you see a flop. The goal is to take down most of those pots pre-flop, since most players seemed quite uncomfortable with seeing a flop in a 3-bet pot with any non-premium holding. However, if they do see the flop, their holdings are almost face-up, and you can play accordingly.
The Horseman also had a couple of comments that I'd like to address:
1. I should have shoved the J58 flop with AK since I only had a little more than a pot-sized bet.
I felt like an open-shove was just begging to be picked off by AJ or KJ by 3 opponents yet to act (2 of them were quite loose and wouldn't necessarily fold to the overpair I would've been representing there).
2. A strong ace (like AQs) only has value in tournament play.
I think you have to 3-bet shove from the SB with AQs with so much dead money in the pot and so little left in your stack. What else are you going to do, fold? I agree that AQ is bleh for a deep stack calling a raise OOP, for example. However, this is a much different situation, and really was more like a tournament where a laggy big stack might raise with a wide range and I'm coming over the top to (hopefully) pick up the dead money. Even when called by AK or KK, I still have some (25-35%) equity with at least 3 pair outs plus straight + flush possibilities. And of course I'm flipping with JJ- with decent overlay (compared to my stack size).
If your opponents are really folding that much preflop, doesn't 3betting w/ a hand like TT/AQ or AJ essentially turn your hand into a bluff? That is, your opponents will fold most of their raising/calling range but won't fold hands that crush you. At this point, you might as well start calling w/ AQ and TT in position and reraising w/ JTo as a bluff.
Yah open-shoving AK on a J high board into 3 opponents is pretty suicidal. Personally, I prefer the check/fold because the J hits your opponents' range so much and nobody folds QJ+ ever.
Idk what the guy's EP opening range is. Let's say he opens like 20% and calls an all-in fairly tight, like TT+/AQ+ (5%). You get a fold 75% of the time and a call 25% of the time. When you get called, you're 37%.
pot is 24+1+2+4 = 31, and you shove 63 more.
.75*31 + .25*(.37*(31+63)-.63*63)
= +22
Seems like a good shove unless you've horribly overestimated his EP opening range. Even if the guy is opening 10% of his range and he calls you 5% (you get called 50%), it's still a profitable shove w/ AQs. (+13)
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