Nice hand - not sure if I played it right.

[troysteelerfan]

Down to heads up in a tourney - he had been raising or raising all in most times if I limped.  I usually / always raise preflop - especially with my hole cards in this but only called preflop with the intention of calling if he raised all in or reraising him if he only raised me some other amount...

Comments please..on the preflop decision and post flop play.

*********** # 61 **************
PokerStars Game #54171999037: Tournament #341157371, $6.00+$0.60 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2010/12/12 20:31:04 ET
Table '341157371 1' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 4: TSF68 (4610 in chips)
Seat 6: Maarruuss (4390 in chips)
TSF68: posts small blind 100
Maarruuss: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TSF68 [Kc Ac]
TSF68: calls 100
Maarruuss: checks
*** FLOP *** [Tc Qc Jc]
Maarruuss: checks
TSF68: checks
*** TURN *** [Tc Qc Jc] [8s]
Maarruuss: bets 200
TSF68: calls 200
*** RIVER *** [Tc Qc Jc 8s] [6h]
Maarruuss: bets 200
TSF68: raises 200 to 400
Maarruuss: calls 200
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TSF68: shows [Kc Ac] (a Royal Flush)
Maarruuss: mucks hand
TSF68 collected 1600 from pot
Maarruuss said, "nh"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1600 | Rake 0
Board [Tc Qc Jc 8s 6h]
Seat 4: TSF68 (button) (small blind) showed [Kc Ac] and won (1600) with a Royal Flush
Seat 6: Maarruuss (big blind) mucked [8d Th]

[Martini]

I stopped reading after you just limped in with AK suited.

[holdemholmes]

I stopped reading after you just limped in with AK suited.

This. But if you do limp, I think you have to atleast put in some sort of raise on the turn...like 3x, this way you can set up for a bet on the river. Min raise is way too small.

[William]

I stopped reading after you just limped in with AK suited.

LOL

[troysteelerfan]

I stopped reading after you just limped in with AK suited.

I get that - but about 80% of the hands heads up - he raised any limp - as I said I was hoping to set him up - I normally raise most hands - especially one this strong - heads up - he had folded to most of my raises from the button - and had not RR any raises by me from the button - but had raised a lot when I limped - I was hoping to RR him preflop when that happened but he didn't - post flop I was just trying to figure out how to get any chips from him

[Martini]

I stopped reading after you just limped in with AK suited.

I get that - but about 80% of the hands heads up - he raised any limp - as I said I was hoping to set him up - I normally raise most hands - especially one this strong - heads up - he had folded to most of my raises from the button - and had not RR any raises by me from the button - but had raised a lot when I limped - I was hoping to RR him preflop when that happened but he didn't - post flop I was just trying to figure out how to get any chips from him

I hope my comment wasn't taken the wrong way. It was a half joke but I actually was on the way out the door and did not fully read the whole post. Now that I review it more detail I see that you did include the information about having your limps raised which has me wondering why you are ever limping from the SB in the first place. If it folds to you in the SB I would either raise with a good hand or else fold.

I know that you are looking for commentary on the post-flop play but pre-flop play is the foundation that post flop play is built on. Since it is a limped pot you have absolutely zero to go on as to villain's holdings. You also have started the hand off with the smallest pot possible so it is going to be difficult to get a lot of chips out of him unless it's a cooler hand. Not only that but you are out of position for the whole hand as well.

That said, I think you just have to just slow play, hope he catches up, then make an overbet on the end if you want to get a lot of chips.

[Nerre]

What Martinis says is important: To be able to get a big pot (and god pot odds) you have to bet pre flop.

[stooks99]

I think the problem with looking at a hand history is that as critics, we want to look at the hand in a vacuum.  This is a pretty near-sighted point of view, especially in a game like poker where there are so many intangibles. 

I think a better way of looking at this hand is to look at it compared to all the other hands you've played in this tournament, specifically with this player.  There is a reason that most good head-up players raise almost every button.  Well, actually, there are several, but one big one is that if you are taking the same action with your good and not-so-good hands, then you become very hard to read.  If you have been limping every button, then I don't hate a limp here.  But, if you've limped a lot and suddenly come out and 2.5x it, then it's going to throw flags up.  The same goes conversely for limping when you normally raise.

As far as your post flop play, it's really hard to give advice on how to play a flopped Royal.  Over a lifetime, Royals aren't going to be big moneymakers for you anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it.  When you have the deck crippled, it's going to take an incredible cold deck to get some big time value.  I think it was David Sklansky or Ed Miller that said if you folded every royal flush in your life, the money you lost would be almost unnoticeable.

Nice Hand, either way.

[NotFadeAway]

I agree with stooks that it's hard to talk about the hand in a vacuum.  Still, I hate the river raise.  He won't 3 bet, so go for more value on the river, imo.  Actually, I'd much prefer going for more value on the turn (and maybe on the flop) as well.  You might draw a fold, but it's better to try to win a big pot here than settling for a small one, at least in my opinion.
Still, nh.

[holdemholmes]

I agree with stooks that it's hard to talk about the hand in a vacuum.  Still, I hate the river raise.  He won't 3 bet, so go for more value on the river, imo.  Actually, I'd much prefer going for more value on the turn (and maybe on the flop) as well.  You might draw a fold, but it's better to try to win a big pot here than settling for a small one, at least in my opinion.
Still, nh.

This is another good point. You know you're not likely to get 3bet, but you should push it a little bit more than the small raise. Get as much value as you can out of it.

[Martini]

So after reading the OP even more carefully I see that this was HU and I hate the limp even more now. If I'm HU then I'm almost always going to raise or fold from the SB, usually raise.

[Jaxen]

Amazes me that nobody's mentioned that the dude FLOPPED A ROYAL.

isn't that like a 625,000-to-1 shot?

Online poker's rigged.

 

[Martini]

Amazes me that nobody's mentioned that the dude FLOPPED A ROYAL.

isn't that like a 625,000-to-1 shot?

Online poker's rigged.

 

It's only rigged if villain ends up making Quads.

[stooks99]

Amazes me that nobody's mentioned that the dude FLOPPED A ROYAL.

isn't that like a 625,000-to-1 shot?

Online poker's rigged.

 

I think we were all intentionally not giving the guy props because thats why he posted the hand to begin with.

[FSL009]

nh sir

I dont hate the limp although my own game is to min raise HU pretty much every hand and give them the opportunity to min three bet me in with pretty much any two cards after they fold the first few.

your limp seems consistent with what you had done todate.  although if you more likely were raising most of your hands and only limp-folding some hands it might have been better to raise per normal.  especially if he was calling all your raises anyway.  not enough info to know all of this at mo.

so accept pre-flop.

given no raise i probably at least min bet the flop again if you have consistently been doing such an action post flop where your either showing down air or bet folding to post flop aggresion abit  but in HU it is all about deception so whatever action needs to be consistent with what you have done before with your weaker ranges that you have shown down.

slow playing it is fine, if you think you can get significant action on the turn or river if he improves.

the fact is your likley not makeing any money with the flop so anything above the pre-flop pot is a win now with just a howler of a flop for most of his range.

on that basis if the check is consistent then the turnr i am prone to call like you did if you are inclinded to call with air in that spot.  So you can try and over bet the pot at the end or hope he puts out a pot like bet to take what looks like a hand that is going to be checked down

Again on the river you might want to overbet the pot - but as stooks says its got to look consistent so if you have not over bet the pot with bluffs and holdings along the way then it does nothing.  so i the over bet is not there that leaves us with raising - my recommendation is 2x at least on the river as anyone inclinded to call a min raise will call a 2x raise in the most part. 

Hope that helps but the point to get out of the comments and as stooks as mentioned HU is all about deception via balance.

be all over the place consistently or be exactly the same consistently. which ever works for you.

[Killingbird]

def min raise pre.  i actualyl dont mind the way you played the rest of the hand.