Some 2/4 hands:

Verneer sent me an email asking me about my play on the following hands. These are some really interesting hands. I'm gonna analyze them here and would love to hear what people think about them. I'm always trying to think my play through and learn as much as possible. Let's get to the hands.


Hand 1:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?667567

I open-raised Td8d from 2nd position - which is a marginal raise since I am giving up position to 2 players if they call behind me. But I had been fairly tight so far, and felt I would get some respect from my 2nd position preflop raise. My numbers were something like 14/14 (V$PIP/PFR) when I raised this hand. I think I had been playing 3-5 orbits, taking down pots with continuation bets, and hadn't shown down a hand yet. MisterMorbid's numbers were 35/21 with a total Agression Factor of 21.5. Everyone folds behind, the sb (MisterMorbid) calls, and the bb folds.

Flop: 2h 8h 2d

I c-bet like normal, and he check-raises me from $22 to $78 in a $30 pot. At this point, there is a lot going on in my mind. I have a concealed hand. Most 2-8-2 flops don't hit the orginal raisor. So I could see how he would think that I didn't have a hand at all. At this point, I am putting him on a pretty decent range of hands. Most likely being: 1.) small pp - he would check raise 33-77 here, thinking that he is ahead. I beat those hands. 2.) medium pp - this only includes 99 in my mind. I dont think he has 88 for the 2 case 8's. I dont put him on TT because I have a T and that I think he would have reraised TT or higher preflop (so i don't think TT-AA is a likely holding either). I think 99 is likely - more importantly, I think that 99 has to fold if I reraise him here. If he doesn't fold 99, then I have 2 more 8's and 3 more T's in the deck as outs. 3.) Flush draw - could include overs, could include unders. Who knows, the guy is playing 35% of his hands. But a flush draw is a likely possibility. 4.) Nothing at all - He could easily be check raising air thinking that I didn't hit this flop at all.

I definitely can't call. It's either fold or raise. With top pair of 8's, there are way too many cards that can come that could potentially hurt my hand. Given what I think his range is, I think its best to reraise - and let him know that I am committed to the pot if he wants to play. I am trying to represent an overpair, but if he doesn't respect that, then I still have a decent hand with showdown value.

I reraise to $258, committing myself to the pot. He shoves all in, I call the additional $128. When he shoved I expected him to turn over 99, which would be an overpair to the board, not believing what I was representing with my bets. He showed AJhh which was a small favorite over my hand. The turn was the 8c, which locked up the hand for me.


Hand 2:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?667589

p5erssuck open-raises to $14 (standard pot-raise preflop) and I am on the button with Kd8c. In this case, he had been raising a lot of hands lately, and this was one of my tables where my PFR was pretty low. I think it was 12-13%, and I felt that I had a good image and could take it down either preflop or with a c-bet against p5ers. I reraised pot to $48. Very much to my surprise, mistermoore cold calls from the small blind. This confused the hell out of me. I had to put him on AK/AQ at this point. It gets back to p5ers, and he folds.

Flop: Tc Js 3h

mistermoore checks, I c-bet $76 into a $114 pot - a standard 2/3 pot c-bet in a reraised pot. mistermoore calls. At this point, his range has grown. I think he could have AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, 99 or any smaller pp that just puts me on AK.

Turn is a 6d, which is a blank on that board. mistermoore checks, and I check behind. I didn't want to fire another barrel into this guy - he cold called $48 prelfop, called my $76 flop bet, and now he has $210 left behind and the pot is $266. So by me checking here I pretty much am giving up the pot... Unless the river gives me additional information. I checked behind.

River is a 8h. He checks again. When he checks here, I am 90% sure he has KQ. It makes sense - he would have had an open ended draw with overs. I reserved the other 10% for his range to be what I had orinally put him on. Most likely being AK or AQ - these hands would have a gutshot with overcards.

Since the river was an 8, I made a pair. So now my hand has some value. If the river were a 2 or some other blank, I would have fired in a big bet on a bluff and hope to get him to fold KQ (or the other range of hands). I honestly expected him to turn up KQ. I felt that AJ would have value bet, and didnt think AT was necessarily as likely. Since he checked, I was pretty sure he didnt have AJ. I would have bluffed the river were it not for the 8 coming which game me a hand that beats KQ/AK/AQ.

I checked the river and he mucked 8s9s. I was surprised to see this hand. It made some sense, he had an open ended draw on the flop, and wanted to chase. I still can't imagine why he played it to a raise and a reraise out of position. This just illustrates how much passive play and how much money there is to be made at 2/4 NL.


If anyone has any more hands or any questions, go ahead and email me or post them here and I'd be happy to give you my thoughts. Also, I'd love to here what other people think about these hands, my play, or any other hands. Would love to see some good discussion.

Thanks guys.
-Brian