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Could I have played these hands different, that was also better?
After 4 years of online poker, i finally seem to have found a pool of players with vastly inferior skills at the poker table, mixed with my most recent readings and homework from my library of poker books, that are much easier to play against, as opposed to playing at the "regular" tables, and that's zone.
On the one hand I could legitimately be on a variance induced heater. On the other hand, which I think is a plausible possibility, given I have been reading a bit here and there about poker more often than I had been, I may be bringing my "A" game to the tables where I hadn't 3, 6, 9, or 12 months ago. I've won so much off these players I don't even really tilt (at the moment) when I get coolered out of a buy in.
Ok so here are the two big hands I played today.
Villain is UTG with 300bb in his stack
Hero is on BTN with effectively 100bb in his stack.
Random pool of players so absolutely no player-based reads
I'm dealt AhQh on the BTN.
UTG opens for 4bb
MP1 folds
CO folds
As BTN, UTG plus his "slightly" unusual raise size, I'm putting him on a stronger hand, with a legitimate possibility of some premium pocket pairs.
I do not think 3betting in this spot is the best play, my hand flops really well, and if I 3bet, and he comes over the top with a 4bet, I'm put on a very tough decision often leaning towards fold. I think the best course of action is to flat and try to get to see a flop and not give him an opportunity to raise me off my hand.
I flat
SB folds
BB folds
Pot is 9.5bb going to flop
Flop comes Ks10sJd
I basically flopped a very vulnerable stone cold nuts.
He leads into me for 8bb
I think for a moment (not slow rolling) that any A, any spade, and Q, and any 9, is going to potentially scare my action away on later streets while I hold the stone cold nuts at the moment.
I decide the proper move here is to raise, because he very well could have flopped one of the three sets, two pair, or TP + straight draw, and he'll be looking to get the money in anyways before any scare cards hit on turn/river.
I raise to 22.5bb
UTG comes over the top for covering me all in for my whole stack. I got 83bb or so left in my stack, obviously, I call.
Sure enough my initial PF read was correct, he shows up with KK for a set of K's.
turn was an A, I forget what river was but it was a brick, I take down a 200+bb pot.
The 2nd hand I had tonight.
I'm MP1, I have 134bb in my stack, again at a zone table with no player-specific reads.
Villain is in the BB, with 150bb and essentially has me covered.
UTG folds
MP1 (Hero) opens for 3.5bb with QQ
CO calls 3.5bb
BTN calls 3.5bb
SB folds
BB squeezes to 17.5bb
Pot is 28bb at this point.
I read this as a squeeze play. I think if I had a good, but not "premium hand" I was thinking if I was in the BB I would see this as a potential profitable situation for a squeeze play with a PFR'r and 2 callers. While I'm also legitimately running up against hands that I'm dominated by (KK, AA) and coin flipping with (AKo, AKs), I also think there is a legitimate possibility that I still have the best hand at the same time, and he might spazz on a good flop for me (hopefully no A's or K's hit or that will make my post flop decisions much more complicated).
So anyways, I'm putting him on AK's AQ's, broadways, suited broadways, JJ, 1010, 99, 88 potentially and occasionally suited A's, and even if he has AKo/s I still have the best hand. KK and AA is just a bad cooler I deduce. If I call here the pot is going to be rather large going to flop, so he very well might be pot committed if it goes to flop even if we're both deep stacked.
TL/DR I put him on a squeeze play.
I call the additional 14bb
*edit*
CO folds
BTN folds
Pot is now 42bb going to flop.
Flop comes 8d4d2c
Very safe for me. At this point, except for a lot of the extremely unlikely setmines (not very many people squeeze with 44 and 22, for the most part), and an unfortunate cooler from AA or KK, this looks like just about the perfect flop.
He checks to me on the flop, looks weak (or deceptively weak), I bet 28bb into a 42bb pot. He comes over the top for all of my chips.
When I call, the pot will be 270bb. I call.
He shows 99, my read turned out to be correct (in this circumstance). turn and river are bricks, I take down the pot.
I think maybe my game is improving, or I've been bringing my A game a bit more than usual in part due to my readings, to the tables, unlike most the times I play. How do you guys think I played in these spots?
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