Let's talk Texas Holdem poker hands and how to play like a PRO?

[wwzsocki]

Just found this thread and let me share you what exactly I had in mind and how I moved forward as the hand was progressing...

I was waiting for your comment and haven't sent you a PM, because I thought that almost all members use @Loycev announcement service to check the post, threads they are mentioned/quoted.

If you don't use it and don't know what I am talking about, then here is the link: LoyceV's alternative for Piggy's @mention notification bot. And now I finally welcome you in this thread  .

...Seeing K3 I gone with my regular bet amount I think I called BB...

I understand that you have played only against this one opponent from the start of this hand?

If yes, then K3 is a good enough hand to play with indeed, because heads up play is very tricky and different hand rules have to be applied, but If you played on a full table of players, then K3 is a hand that I would fold, depending on position and betting. Of course, when on BB I will try to defend anything, even 2, 7 off suite   and to see the flop for the price, because the worst hand can always improve significantly post-flop. Also, I will sometimes bluff raise when on SB (small blind) or on the button with K something hand.

...Since I have now KK33 I gone with higher amount, I think half of the chips I had in the table. Two pairs with K so you do not doubt much of course. But the other guy called!...

That was your first mistake, with such a bad flop you should try to test the opponent first (if he doesn't have a flush draw) and bet small or even check to slow play this hand and try to keep the pot small because odds were not in your favor. I always prefer betting from calling, so I will try bet properly to keep the pot small and check how strong he is.

There were still 11 cards in the deck which could improve his hand, compared to only 4 cards on your site, it's like 3:1 on his favor.
Not mention, that if on the turn Jack or 10 would hit the deck, then he would have another draw to the straight and even more outs, but luckily there was a 6.

Slow play is the way to play such tricky hands.

...With such flop, I would try to keep the pot size small and control the action if possible...

...I gone ALL IN!... But I got shocked when he called that too. And I was feeling fucked as well. I was just hoping the best for me...

You finally realized your mistake, only a little too late. Anyways, this is the hard way to learn poker and I am sure you will never do such a mistake again.

Keep up and think positive, wish you luck further!!!


PS
I know that as a thread author, I should at least merit the best answers and I already see a couple of posts worth meriting, but lately to my big surprise, I run out of merits  .
Kindly want to ask merit sources and other posters to award the best comments in this thread if possible. Thank you very much.

Took care of some of the post and now I am out of merit.

Thank you very much.

I use search feature, I feel it convenient for me.

Just look at the service which @Loycev provides and believe me you will never use any other tool, because it is very easy to set up and use. Tooks only one post to write with settings.

You will know exactly when you were quoted, your username mentioned even with additional signs, and so much more. Check it is really worth it.

[1714791612]

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[1714791612]

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[1714791612]

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[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Took care of some of the post and now I am out of merit.

I use search feature, I feel it convenient for me.

I understand that you have played only against this one opponent from the start? If yes, then K3 is a good enough hand to play with indeed, because heads up play is very tricky and different hand rules have to be applied, but If you played on a full table of players, then K3 is a hand that I would fold.

It was a head to head and this is why I gone big in the flop round. If this was against a full table then I would not even play the hand except keep checking.

That was your first mistake, with such a bad flop you should try to test the opponent first (if he doesn't have a flush draw) and bet small or even check to slow play this hand and try to keep the pot small because odds were not in your favor. I always prefer betting from calling, so I will try bet properly to keep the pot small.

Once lost then felt it was a mistake coz at some stage I felt that I have too much money in the pot which will go away if I fold with a KK33 so I had to come up with the surprising ALL IN but at the end I was the one who got surprised.

The other guy was just taking advantage of having higher chips than me on the table. He bluffed and it worked.

[tokeweed]

Hey guys...  I think it's better to talk about poker hands in just one thread.  Steamy already made one and has a lot of good hand discussions in it.  And the hands are presented the right way too.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214582.0

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

That topic looks more logical and I moved my last post to there. Go there and give your fucking inputs. Wankers 😘

[wwzsocki]

Hey guys...  I think it's better to talk about poker hands in just one thread.  Steamy already made one and has a lot of good hand discussions in it.  And the hands are presented the right way too.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214582.0

That was already mentioned at least 2 times!!! I created this one because there was no active thread.

The thread you are linking was not active for 6 weeks and woke up yesterday, only because was mentioned here.

Of course, I would agree to merge these two threads or something, but as an OP, I would try to keep my thread alive or close after a few weeks of no activity.

There is a warning message when you post in older threads, not without a reason  .

Just like I said:

... to my surprise, there was no thread for this, at least an active one.

The thread... is not active from almost 6 weeks, so I wasn't able to find it on the first few pages of the gambling discussion board.

The last comment in this linked thread is from March 19. 2020.

Additionally, this thread has rules, so please be aware of them.
I would finally start to report such off-topic posts, especially if you repeat something already mentioned and discussed a few posts above.

PS
On such a big forum as Bitcointalk, I hope there is enough place even for 3 threads about the poker hands.
Please, let me try and maybe, just maybe, we can have an interesting discussion, because I have 15 years of experience in playing poker and like to discuss the hands and poker play.

[figmentofmyass]

Hey guys...  I think it's better to talk about poker hands in just one thread.  Steamy already made one and has a lot of good hand discussions in it.  And the hands are presented the right way too.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214582.0

the more the merrier IMO. i want to see less dice and more poker on bitcointalk! more exposure for our private league, which i'm hoping will eventually run more like large field MTTs than multi-table SNG.

+1 on the hand history format though. proper format:

Dealt to Hero [Kh 9h]
Hero raises to 1200.00
Villain calls 900.00

*** FLOP *** [3h Td 5h]
Main pot 3375.00
Villain checks
Hero bets 2531.00
Villain raises to 8859.00
Hero raises 19526.00 to 22057.00 and is all-in
Villain calls 3766.00 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (9432.00) returned to Hero
*** TURN *** [3h Td 5h] [7s]
Main pot 28625.00
*** RIVER *** [3h Td 5h 7s] [Qs]
Main pot 28625.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Main pot 28625.00
Villain shows [5s 3c] (two pair, Fives and Threes [5s 5h 3h 3c Qs])
Hero shows [Kh 9h] (a high card, King high [Kh Qs Td 9h 7s])
Villain collected 28625.00 from main pot

[Steamtyme]

That was already mentioned at least 2 times!!! I created this one because there was no active thread.

The thread you are linking was not active for 6 weeks and woke up yesterday, only because was mentioned here.

Of course, I would agree to merge these two threads or something, but as an OP, I would try to keep my thread alive or close after a few weeks of no activity.

There is a warning message when you post in older threads, not without a reason  .

Just like I said:

... to my surprise, there was no thread for this, at least an active one.

The thread... is not active from almost 6 weeks, so I wasn't able to find it on the first few pages of the gambling discussion board.

The last comment in this linked thread is from March 19. 2020.

Additionally, this thread has rules, so please be aware of them.
I would finally start to report such off-topic posts, especially if you repeat something already mentioned and discussed a few posts above.

PS
On such a big forum as Bitcointalk, I hope there is enough place even for 3 threads about the poker hands.
Please, let me try and maybe, just maybe, we can have an interesting discussion, because I have 15 years of experience in playing poker and like to discuss the hands and poker play.

Not to beat a dead thread lol. I don't think there were any warning messages for posting there, as you said 6 weeks give or take pretty sure the message is at 6 months or something. Not that I care if people choose to post in multiple threads or whatnot but there really isn't anything differing between the 2.

The reason it was stalled is I was waiting for engagement on the last hands posted, or for others to post their hands. Which is always welcome I like looking at the spots others find themselves in, helps me get a fresh perspective. I got no rules on what or how people want to post their formats, I have come up with a decent one for clarity sake, but images are great to - if you provide a backstory for people to follow. Now that I;ve posted here I'll keep[ an eye and chime in if this thread carries on, as I generally just check out threads I've posted in these days. Found this after it was linked over lol.

The only thing I report there are spammy low quality repetitive posts that add nothing to the discussion. Almost verbatim for my reports

the more the merrier IMO. i want to see less dice and more poker on bitcointalk!

Agreed. Make Poker Great Again lol

[wwzsocki]

...there really isn't anything differing between the 2...

I agree with you, but you have to believe me, that I have searched for such threads and wasn't able to find any, on a few first pages of the gambling discussion board.

So, I thought it will be wise to open a new one. Of course, I haven't used the search function because it never works for me  .

I will be very happy to see discussion in both threads TBH and will do my best to comment there also. Maybe finally we will merge them together or close one, but let it be, as it is for now, I guess.

...I got no rules on what or how people want to post their formats...

I have only introduced 3 minor rules to avoid spam and to have proper reasoning to report it because I forgot to make this thread self-moderated at the beginning (never created such one so far  ).

Also, don't have rules on hand history formats, but think that this one suggested by @Figmentofmyass is a good one and maybe worth implementing.

hand history format though. proper format:

Dealt to Hero [Kh 9h]
Hero raises to 1200.00
Villain calls 900.00

*** FLOP *** [3h Td 5h]
Main pot 3375.00
Villain checks
Hero bets 2531.00
Villain raises to 8859.00
Hero raises 19526.00 to 22057.00 and is all-in
Villain calls 3766.00 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (9432.00) returned to Hero
*** TURN *** [3h Td 5h] [7s]
Main pot 28625.00
*** RIVER *** [3h Td 5h 7s] [Qs]
Main pot 28625.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Main pot 28625.00
Villain shows [5s 3c] (two pair, Fives and Threes [5s 5h 3h 3c Qs])
Hero shows [Kh 9h] (a high card, King high [Kh Qs Td 9h 7s])
Villain collected 28625.00 from main pot

[Pffrt]

Just got ruined with AA on my hand. Other player played ALL-IN with AK without the flop was 10,J,8. The turn was 3, I went ALL-IN, the fucking river was Q, I was just ruined all of my fund in that board. Damn.

[Steamtyme]

Just got ruined with AA on my hand. Other player played ALL-IN with AK without the flop was 10,J,8. The turn was 3, I went ALL-IN, the fucking river was Q, I was just ruined all of my fund in that board. Damn.

These are shitty spots and something you will run into. What sort of betsizing did you use on the Flop and Turn?? Considering it wasn't all in pre-flop you might have been able to fold them off their AK with larger bets... some people just don't fold and it AA can't always win.

For me AA this past week has been shit. I am 1 for 7, and that 1 was just because it folded around pre.(77, QQ, T6s to name a few of the monsters that beat me) This morning with Coffee I sat down at SWC and would up just playing a heads-up match. They weren't very difficult an oponnent so I was raking in Blinds fairly well , and get a little value here and there. Then It comes AA so I RFI 2.5 BB, They then 3-bet me to 8BB, I make it 22BB and they Jam. I quickly call

I have AA opponent brings QQ, and the first card on the flop I shit you now it a Q. They win and I'm no longer enjoying poker with my coffee. I know it can't keep on like this but losing these massive pots and hands is really starting to suck. This is now my worst cash game hand of the week, replacing my Flush draw where I had J high flush lost to Q high flush.

[tyKiwanuka]

The problem with AA is: In your mind you expect to win that hand 100% In reality you have around 80% against any hand, so you will win 4/5 hands on average. When you get dealt AA, this is a must-win hand in your mind and that puts some pressure on yourself to get everything right. If you win that hand, all good, you played it "perfectly". If you lose that hand, you feel like a complete failure. Mentally this can be really tough, because you can only lose with AA, there is nothing to win in that regard.

I even tend to overbet AA, because I don't want to go into that mental downwards spirale (read:tilt) by losing with AA. Not going on tilt sometimes is worth more than winning X additional chips with a hand. I know that this is not the correct/value approach, but I am no pro and in Poker I don't thrive for perfection.

Another issue with AA is the devilish selective perception

[figmentofmyass]

The problem with AA is: In your mind you expect to win that hand 100% In reality you have around 80% against any hand, so you will win 4/5 hands on average.

and that's when you isolate one opponent. lots of people limp or min-raise preflop with AA and end up in family pots, then they have trouble laying them down.

i'm beginning to see a lot of upside in playing with a LAG (rather than TAG) style. you can get really aggressive with monsters like AA/KK and still often get someone to call you down light. 6max is a whole different animal than 9max though.

[Pffrt]

Just got ruined with AA on my hand. Other player played ALL-IN with AK without the flop was 10,J,8. The turn was 3, I went ALL-IN, the fucking river was Q, I was just ruined all of my fund in that board. Damn.

These are shitty spots and something you will run into. What sort of betsizing did you use on the Flop and Turn?? Considering it wasn't all in pre-flop you might have been able to fold them off their AK with larger bets... some people just don't fold and it AA can't always win.

Come on, I would have FOLD if I had to go through the flop and turn before ALL-IN. The other guy had ALL-IN with his AK in his first turn, it was before the flop. Since no flop is there, I followed him too and has gone ALL-IN, damn the card cheated with me 

[Latviand]

Fucking luck never been with me in this gambling game...

Poker is such a beautiful game because this is a game of skills and this hand, was very tricky to play.
I understand your frustration, but many times the river card would bring the nuts to the opponent, anyways this time the odds (luck  ) were on his site from the beginning.

You haven't said too much how this hand was played out exactly, but TBH just after the flop, your hand had fewer odds compared to his.
There were still 11 cards in the deck which could improve his hand, compared to only 4 cards on your site, it's like 3:1 on his favor.
Not mention, that if on the turn Jack or 10 would hit the deck, then he would have another draw to the straight and even more outs, but luckily there was a 6.
So, he was not blindly betting with a pair of queens, only had a flush draw with the possibility for an inside straight draw, which gives almost 14 outs that could make his hand better in the best scenario.

When you see such flop, then you have to play calm and be prepaid to throw away two pairs or even a straight, because there is a huge possibility for a flush.
So, in my opinion, you are not unlucky, only need to play more and gain more experience. With such flop, I would try to keep the pot size small and control the action if possible.
I don know how betting looked like pre and post-flop, so it is hard to discuss the play further.

Many times one will lose with 9, 8 suited when having AA, KK because this is the best hand (at least for me) to play against such type of nuts pre-flop, it gives such a massive amount of draws and possibilities when opponent end up having a pair of Aces on the river, against a flush draw, straight, three of kinds or two pairs at least, exactly like in your game. With two AA one has literally only two outs. Mostly stays at one pair of AA such as started pre-flop, but sometimes you will see such flop like here and have to adjust the play accordingly.

My suggestion: start counting outs, try to calculate odds when playing and of course play more not less   .

In playing Poker, your actions should not reflect on your cards instead you should know how to practice having no reactions or a poker face. There's a possibility that you can increase the risk of you losing just by making some facial expression. There are players or opponents that can read facial expression and can perform a bluff depending on your cards once he read it.

In your case, you're just not that lucky enough and you opponent is the real lucky in the hands. In that situation, I will just stop gambling and continue it on the next day because that day might be not for you. You have a very good hand but his hand is much better than yours that's why you've lost it.

If I have that kind of cards then I would be confident too. A 2 pair is just a beautiful card in gambling but the only mistake that you've made is that you don't consider any hint that maybe have a diamond card that can create a flushes. I think that's the only thing you lack of, consideration of the cards in the middle.

[swogerino]

Just got ruined with AA on my hand. Other player played ALL-IN with AK without the flop was 10,J,8. The turn was 3, I went ALL-IN, the fucking river was Q, I was just ruined all of my fund in that board. Damn.

That is the beauty of Poker.You should not assume and go all in before seeing all the cards or bad things will happen just like losing all of your balance in a short term.I hope you will recover and be more patient in the upcoming games.

I think this kind of topic is somewhat helpful but it does not replace video tutorials by any mean so if you are looking to improve your poker skills go and download or watch some lengthy video tutorials.

[figmentofmyass]

here's a cooler from earlier today, midway into a MTT:

9-handed, Blinds 125/250

UTG: Villain (9,015 in chips)
MP1: Hero (10,203 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qs Qd]

Villain calls 250
Hero raises 1,250 to 1,250
Villain raises 1,500 to 2,750
Hero calls 1,500

*** FLOP *** [td 5d 9h]

Villain bets 6,240 and is all-in
Hero calls 6,240

*** TURN *** [td 5d 9h] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [td 5d 9h 7d] [4s]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows [Qs Qd] (a pair of Queens)
Villain collected 18,555 from pot

was it possible to get away from this hand? could you have folded that flop? his limp-3bet suggested maybe he had a monster but i know this player to lean towards the aggressive side and assumed a wider range than just KK/AA.

i think this was just bad luck being dealt a cooler, but......thoughts?

[Debonaire217]

Just got ruined with AA on my hand. Other player played ALL-IN with AK without the flop was 10,J,8. The turn was 3, I went ALL-IN, the fucking river was Q, I was just ruined all of my fund in that board. Damn.

That is the beauty of Poker.You should not assume and go all in before seeing all the cards or bad things will happen just like losing all of your balance in a short term.I hope you will recover and be more patient in the upcoming games.

I think this kind of topic is somewhat helpful but it does not replace video tutorials by any mean so if you are looking to improve your poker skills go and download or watch some lengthy video tutorials.

Perhaps, before you go all in, you need to make sure that you somehow have a good feeling of understanding the cards or basically memorizing the entire deck to lessen the probability of losing. I have known some people provided some advice on how we could win on poker, here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHK1OjglQDs

It's Maria Ho, considered one of the best poker player, well with that impressive performance, she's probably memorized the entire deck of cards.

[Pffrt]

That is the beauty of Poker.You should not assume and go all in before seeing all the cards or bad things will happen just like losing all of your balance in a short term.I hope you will recover and be more patient in the upcoming games.

If you are not going with ALL-IN in such a situation, I thunk you will never get a big hand at all. I have been playing poker for a long time. Have never had profit but I can say that if I had a big amount on my hand, I would still not change my decision.

Perhaps, before you go all in, you need to make sure that you somehow have a good feeling of understanding the cards or basically memorizing the entire deck to lessen the probability of losing. I have known some people provided some advice on how we could win on poker, here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHK1OjglQDs

It's Maria Ho, considered one of the best poker player, well with that impressive performance, she's probably memorized the entire deck of cards.

None can save you if it's not your day, specially if it's poker or three cards game. I strongly believe anyone would go ALL-IN with a full house of AAAKK and guess what, there's four of a kind of KKKK which can ruin your party. Now if you don't go ALL-IN with the full house, I will take you as a very newbie.

[wwzsocki]

9-handed, Blinds 125/250

UTG: Villain (9,015 in chips)
MP1: Hero (10,203 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qs Qd]

Villain calls 250
Hero raises 1,250 to 1,250
Villain raises 1,500 to 2,750
Hero calls 1,500

*** FLOP *** [td 5d 9h]

Villain bets 6,240 and is all-in
Hero calls 6,240

*** TURN *** [td 5d 9h] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [td 5d 9h 7d] [4s]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows [Qs Qd] (a pair of Queens)
Villain collected 18,555 from pot

was it possible to get away from this hand? ...i think this was just bad luck being dealt a cooler, but......thoughts?

I think it was possible to get away from this hand, that is why I like to hold myself to certain ranges of hands when I play OP/OOP or against somebody OP/OOP.

In my opinion, all in was a mistake here, you should check or bet (but not much), especially OOP. Villian re-raised pre-flop and it shows a lot of strength, which indicates hand like (AA, KK, AKs, AQs).

Additionally, when you go all in it shows to Villain that you have almost nothing, taking into consideration the flop and pre-flop betting, even with a flush draw you would likely to be slow-playing this hand. If you got the nuts post-flop, you would never go all in, only value bet to not scare off the opponent.

The Villain played this AA hand very clever, he hasn't raised, to not scare anybody, only checked and waited for weaker hands (OOP) to make the pot, to punish them later.

My suggestion: look into poker hands ranges, which hand you should play from which position, especially in 9-handed Texas Holdem, I play only 6 hands tables.

[Steamtyme]

I disagree. The villain really just got lucky that figmentofmyass was dealt a QQ. We've discussed these spots before and after the limp-raise you are still pretty much flipping; sure maybe it's KK AA but it could be AK, JJ
So in that regard you can get away but if you fold out every time someone limp raises or 3-bets you with QQ you will lose a lot of value.
I think the villain played it terrible to be honest. Imagine only getting a call and not a raise from the hero. What do you do then, with this flop you again have to hope they hit a T or have an overpair. Long term it isn't a viable strategy unless it's done at a very low frequency. My AA looks the same as any other RFI I make, sometimes people fold around but when they don't I'm coming for them and not just when it's a cooler.

Just to note Hero called the all-in with an overpair to the board. It was the villain who jammed the flop.