Hey my888's

I often play hands and win or lose wonder if I played them correctly. Now when I say correctly it really opens up a whole can of worms as most players have their own opinion of what is the correct way to play poker.

So rather than ask if hands are played correctly lets try a more subtle approach and ask

"How would you have played this hand?"


I think one of the reasons we see poker analysis threads die out quickly is because players state that a hand was played wrong or badly rather than just explain how they would have played it and why. Who wants to be told they are wrong when all they want is a little help?

I certainly don't want to be told I'm wrong I would rather look at how others would play the same hand and take on board anything I think would be beneficial to my game and improve that way.

If I was a new player then all help would be welcome.

Online poker has certainly changed the way many players play and has IMO most certainly affected the mathematics of poker sort term and to a degree long term too.

As 888 attracts a huge percentage of recreational players you are no longer going to be sat at a table with just 1 fish, more likely there will be 3-4 at any 9 handed table these days and of course the freeroll mentality is a whole different ball game as well.

Also remember that some new players have no idea how to play, I know I didn't when I first started playing, hell the first hand I won with with 92 suited and it cost me a few bucks to find out that wasn't a good hand afterwards lol

So with all this in mind rather than stating just numbers and odds and right or wrong lets just offer up how we would have played the posted hand with a brief reasoning of why. 
Remember some members who post might find any deep reasoning hard to comprehend and might be very new to the game and the community.

Try to be helpful and thoughtful in your replies as I am going to try to attract now members and players to this thread 

A few of the vast amount of things to look out for in posted hands that might help others.

Could they have extracted any more chips?
Missed chance to check raise.
Are they reraising, if not should they?
C-betting used correctly if at all.
Repeating mistakes.
Keeping notes.

There is also the fact that some players will need to research some of the above if they are completely new to poker.

So with all this in mind who has a hand they would like some feedback on?

Please give as much info as you can on the game, players, stakes and what you think your poker ability is at the time as that will aid others in their replies.

You need to look at the situation, first we need to know how many BBs we have and how many BBs our targets have.
Now in this situation the blinds are 2500 and 5000.
We hold just under 32000 which is just over 6 bbs. You need to make a stand and as its been folded to you there is only 1 option for me and that is shove it in.
Now looking at the small blind and big blinds stacks sb has 350k and bb has about 160k.
Now they know you will be shoving in this situation so you will more than likely be called by the sb and possibly the bb if the sb doesnt try to isolate.
If i was the sb with his stack size i would be calling with any connecting cards as i know it would mostly be a 60-40 situation.
Try looking at it from the villains pov, when you see players call which you may think look crazy but its only costing them 10% of there stack then its not so crazy as it first looks.

So if we look at other situations by just limping in, how many times do we hit the flop with any given 2 cards? So you limp in for 5k leaving behind 26k you miss the flop sb bets out bb folds you got to fold as well.

If we raise pre-flop we only have 31k even a  min raise of 10k leaves us 21k behind what do you do if both blinds call and you miss the flop?

So going over the 3 options i think you have to get it in and hope you get called and hope we are not dominated, with a bit of luck only the small bind calls and we hopefully against a hand like 9-10 or simallar.

Basically what slim said

Hy guys, looking at the blinds level I am sure that you were in the money so in this point the only right play(IMO) is to go all-in in this hand.If you play poker and you want to go deep(not only just make the money) then you could not want a better spot to push all-in, looking at the blinds level and your position, you could wish for much more.Of course it would be nicer to push with Aces or Kings but in this situation the hand will go in 95% of the cases like Slim said.You go all-in and you will get called most certain by a weaker hand, now you will probably be in a 70-30 or 60-40 situation, all that's left is to pray that your hand holds.If by miracle the blinds fold then you have increase your stack by 40% so no matter how you look at the hand for me the only right way to play it is all-in.
Regarding what David wrote, if you play poker and your primary goal is to make it to the next pay jump then it is ok to limp and fold to an all-in raise(hopefully you get dealt a better hand by the time the blinds get to you), maybe in big buy-in tourneys were the pay jumps are big I would do the same but a good player with a healthy bankroll will always push from this position.

Some good replies and slims reply is IMO excellent and a lot of players could learn from it.

This is how it played out. Obviously I shoved as I needed chips to get to a better pay position and with the blinds what they are any other play was not even in the equation. 



 Not so happy to see a PP but...

 

It came good in the end.

With the extra chips I managed to get to 38th from several thousand players after another 38 hands and only collecting chips from 2 of them. Due to the huge amount of entrants the payout was only $3.60 but overall it was a fun game to play

This next hand from later in the same game is worth some thought though.. Should I have played it as I did??  I raised from early position



Reraised by the BB



 Call or fold?