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Medium Pair vs. LAG Player advice

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  1. TavistD TavistD is offline

    Philadelphia, PA
    United States

    Posts: 62
    Joined: Nov 05

    Nov 26th, 2005 (11/26/2005 9:22pm)

    <hr>This hand occurred with 10 players left in one of the 180 man SNG tourneys on PS. My reasoning/questions follow the hand history.

    <pre><tt>
    *********** # 236 **************
    pokerstars Game #3167810407: Tournament #15666460, Hold'em No Limit -
    Level XII (800/1600) - 2005/11/26 - 20:51:48 (ET)
    Table '15666460 6' Seat #4 is the button
    Seat 3: TavistD (33260 in chips)
    Seat 4: gotmesome (13330 in chips)
    Seat 5: ejgress36 (45420 in chips)
    Seat 7: biscuithead2 (23580 in chips)
    Seat 9: Shrimp128ca (4925 in chips)
    TavistD: posts the ante 75
    gotmesome: posts the ante 75
    ejgress36: posts the ante 75
    biscuithead2: posts the ante 75
    Shrimp128ca: posts the ante 75
    ejgress36: posts small blind 800
    biscuithead2: posts big blind 1600
    *** HOLE CARDS ***
    Dealt to TavistD [7d 7c]
    Shrimp128ca: folds
    TavistD: raises 3200 to 4800
    gotmesome: folds
    ejgress36: calls 4000
    biscuithead2: folds
    *** FLOP *** [4h 5h 4c]
    ejgress36: checks
    TavistD: bets 6000
    ejgress36: calls 6000
    *** TURN *** [4h 5h 4c] [8d]
    ejgress36: bets 8000
    TavistD: calls 8000
    *** RIVER *** [4h 5h 4c 8d] [Jh]
    ejgress36: bets 8000
    TavistD: calls 8000
    *** SHOW DOWN ***
    ejgress36: shows [Jc Ah] (two pair, Jacks and Fours)
    TavistD: shows [7d 7c] (two pair, Sevens and Fours)
    ejgress36 collected 55575 from pot
    *** SUMMARY ***
    Total pot 55575 | Rake 0
    Board [4h 5h 4c 8d Jh]
    Seat 3: TavistD showed [7d 7c] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Fours
    Seat 4: gotmesome (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
    Seat 5: ejgress36 (small blind) showed [Jc Ah] and won (55575) with two
    pair, Jacks and Fours
    Seat 7: biscuithead2 (big blind) folded before Flop
    Seat 9: Shrimp128ca folded before Flop (didn't bet)

    </tt></pre> <hr>My perception of "ejgress36" was that of a very LAG player almost to the point of hyperaggressiveness. He entered the pot approximately 35% of hands at a full tourney table, he called off 1/5 of his stack as chipleader with A6 to a JJ all-in earlier, and had shown a propensity to both bet and call with nothing. However, I had also seen him slowplay top pair/top kicker (AK) on an Axx flop earlier.

    So my initial raise was 4x the BB which is pretty standard for me. EJ calls. At this point, I can't really put him on a hand. Flop is a good one. He checks, I bet approximately 1/2 the pot, he flat-calls rather quickly. I didn't like the call obviously. Turn is an 8 which would fill a possible openender for him...but he bets out. At this point, I believe he has either one of 2 holdings: A higher pocket pair OR nothing and he interpreted my bet on the flop as a standard continuation bet and wanted to take the pot there. So, I'm not keen on raising here as I do think he could have me beat but I also don't particularly want to fold and give him this pot. So I call (probably the most controversial move I made). River brings a jack, he bets a relatively small amount considering the pot size, I have 6:1 to call and I call. He wins with his AJ.

    So, my question is what should I have done differently? I run into this issue often in the lower buy-in tourneys where players will chase with premium/semi-premium drawing hands...but it gets tricky for me when I have a vulnerable middle pair. Thoughts? Criticisms?

    Thanks.
     
  2. Dunce Dunce is offline

    Posts: 1,153
    Joined: Mar 05

    Nov 27th, 2005 (11/27/2005 7:02am) in reply to TavistD

    You just have to accept that donks turn the game into a card catching contest, and sometimes they catch the better cards.

    Try not to give them such tempting odds. After the Flop, he was 24% to win and you're giving him almost 3:1 odds with your 6000 bet. You really needed to bet about 8000 there.

    After the Turn, with over 25k in the pot, you only bet 8000, which gives him better than 4:1. He made a very bad bet by continuing at that point since he was then only 13% to win and needed 8:1.

    Moral of story: In general, when up against a donk, bet more with the best hand. You may not be able to prevent the suckout, but you can make him pay for the priviledge.

    My guess is that this guy would not have been deterred. He was gonna chase that Ace all the way to the River no matter what, so you probably lost the minimum you could have.
  3. jay_shark jay_shark is offline

    NY
    United States

    Posts: 2,633
    Joined: Oct 05

    Nov 27th, 2005 (11/27/2005 8:57am) in reply to Dunce

    I would have overbet the pot on the flop with my overpair . On the turn , you should have considered pushing all in .
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