Short but sweet

If only it was always this “easy” …

I’ve just played a short 25 minute session, 2-tabling $25NL and won $30.

The winnings came from the following two hands and I am really pleased with how I played both of them:

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2386842

 

Very often, players (myself included) at the micro-stakes limp small pocket pairs in early position and then either give up on any flop when they don’t hit a set or bet/raise when they do. This is usually fine at the lower stakes where players aren’t really paying attention to what you’re doing, but it is a highly exploitable play and will get punished at $50NL and higher.

Something I am therefore slowly mixing into my game is raising up small pocket pairs from all positions to keep my opponents guessing. This hand was a good example. Deefburger made the correct play in late position reraising, but got too fancy and only minraised. This meant it was only $1 for me to call and he still had $13 behind. By reraising I knew he had a premium pair and that I was going to get his stack if I hit a 5, so this was an easy +EV call preflop.

Postflop, the hand just played itself. The other added benefit of this was that the whole table (especially the initial limper) could see I had raised pocket 55’s from EP and so meant my table image was now as a bit of a LAG.  This image helped get me action a few hands later vs the initial preflop limper (Brouns83):

 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2386883

 

The way I played this hand was based on a read and previous history vs Brouns83. He had been very aggro (68/20/0.8) in the short time he had been at the table and his image of me was as a bit of a LAG (see previous hand)

It folded around to him and he open raised on the button. His range is very wide here, so I decided to 3 bet with my pair of 9’s which are well ahead of his range.  When he calls, I put his range on A8o+, any pocket pair, KJo+

On the flop, I have to bet having shown so much strength preflop and I’m still way ahead of his range. When he just calls, I was sure I had the better hand because my bet committed me and he would have just pushed if he had TPTK or better.

So when the 6 came on the turn, I figured that didn’t change much. If I bet (putting him all-in) I reckoned he would fold if he couldn’t beat TPTK, but I was sure he would try and bluff if I checked to him. Once he bet, I had to call – I had induced the bluff so had to call it.

 
GL at the tables