Winning sessions ending at break even or worse.

I'v been finding this happening more often then I'd like and its turining alot of potential winning sessions (playing 10NL) of half a buy in or more into an even day or +- 0.20$. Here is one that happenend yesterday. The session was going well untill near the end when i have A9 in the BB. A few people call 2 in mp 1 in lp and the button.

Flop Comes back AxA rainbow. After the flop only me and the button are left after some action and I know he is on an ace. In this position should I just check/fold in fear of a better kicker or play to get value out of A rag suited. The guy ended up with AJ and happily ate the sessions proffit.

Any advice for this kind of thing, thanks.

Get a feel for when it's time to seek a cheap showdown. With A9 on that board it's tough. I might act as if I don't have the ace just so he won't bet large. Think about it though. The only serious action you're getting, is action which beats you in this situation. Ideally you want a calm ride through 5th street.

Winning sessions turning into break even ones?

When exactly was it a winning session? When you were 1/2 or 1 buy-in up? A session is done when you stop playing. If you are break even by then it was a break even session, never a winning session.

when I say "winning" i mean that I would be up decent amount from playing situations where I was the clear favorite (playing mainly for sets etc.) and then at some point from the BB in an unraised pot i would hit a situation like the one described above and have a hard time guaging how to play it. I'm more looking for tips on how to deal with these trouble situations then have someone quibble over how I define my success in a session. I didn't want to make the post topic like a page long and i think people get what I mean.

What did you do after the flop? You were first to act, and therefore set the tone for that betting round.

Sorry man this didnt come out the way I meant to...

Anyway, I will agree that what you need here is a cheap showdown since you cant really know what the other guy might have. Its an unraised pot, he might have Ax and already have the boat, or he might have xx for a boat. You dont really wanna get involved in this hand cause the pot is too small to start with. Though I dont know what the action was on the flop (HH would help), I usually go with the line of "telling him" that I have an Ace on the flop and then see "what he has to say" and take it from there.

I'd be interested to see the hand history on this one if you don't mind posting it.

Thats guys. I think this has been a case of needing to hear my own advice from someone else "i'f you're not shure where your at, get out cheap and wait for a better spot".


I'v tried playing situations like this in a couple of way when this flop is rainbow. I've tried betting out at it and then often one guy in LP will call me down the whole way and have me a little outkicked. Other times i'll hope to check raise on the flop to get a bettr idea of where the other guy stands and i'v hade people re-re raise with A x(2-5) so it can be hard to tell at times what people are betting/calling with.

When trying to figure out where you stand during a hand don't forget to take into consideration the strength of the hand you have represented througout. If you slow played TPTK until the turn, and they come out firing huge on fourth street, they probably think their second pair is good but your TPTK is still most likley best, because if it wasn't they would play their trips or whatever hand they have super super slow because you have yet to show any strength and they want to make some money.

If you raised pre-flop, then bet the flop, then fired again on the turn, and they come over the top you can probably safley lay down TPTK because you have shown strength througout and they are still coming over the top indicating that they are stonger via a re-raise.