Did I play this draw correct?

Hi everyone,

This is my first post at this forum (wich I have read for months), so thank you for your contributions to this great community and the usual yada, yada :D I am a new player to this game, but I take it very very serious and always try to play my best game and keep on improving. I play No Limit Holdem exclusively and focus on cashgames. Im currently playing 100NL at Party and has been doing pretty good.

Or at least that's what I thought... I have been winning a lot of money but of course that could be the result of short term luck... A couple of days ago I played in my usual game, and happened to destack one particular opponent two times at different tables. Then this hand came up, and while I think I played it correctly my opponent went insane, accusing me of near-to-criminal bad play. He was specifically "angry" about my play in this pot. Now, I could just brush that off...

And maybe I should. It's not his demeanor that bothers me, but rather the fact that I might played a hand badly. I ALWAYS try to improve my game, finding leaks etc. Since im new to this game and constantly learning new things I would like to hear your opinions. I really thought this was the way to play a drawing hand, but I am not sure... How am I supposed to play this hand? Fold pre-flop? Call pre/fold-flop? I am learning about pot-odds and implied odds and I believed it to be correct to call in this spot because of implied? Any comments appreciated.


***** Hand History for Game 3506873666 *****
$100 NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, February 06, 19:18:47 EDT 2006
Table Table 68786 (Real Money)

Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10

Seat 3: rodneb ( $121 )
Seat 4: doyozing ( $50 )
Seat 5: n1232 ( $97 )
Seat 6: kansaswonder ( $88.95 )
Seat 7: DFDFF10 ( $76.50 )
Seat 9: Rhiannon_65 ( $96 )
Seat 10: mywinstreak ( $64.11 )
Seat 1: Zorlock ( $112.85 )
Seat 2: texca ( $99 )
Seat 8: DrFeelinFine ( $105.50 )

Zorlock posts small blind [$0.50].
texca posts big blind [$1].

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zorlock [ Kc Tc ]
doyozing folds.
n1232 folds.
kansaswonder calls [$1].
DFDFF10 calls [$1].
DrFeelinFine calls [$1].
Rhiannon_65 folds.
mywinstreak raises [$4].
Zorlock calls [$3.50].
texca folds.
kansaswonder folds.
DFDFF10 calls [$3].
DrFeelinFine folds.

** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, 7d, Qs ]
Zorlock checks.
DFDFF10 checks.
mywinstreak bets [$8].
Zorlock calls [$8].
DFDFF10 folds.

** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
Zorlock checks.
mywinstreak checks.

** Dealing River ** [ 5h ]
Zorlock bets [$30].
mywinstreak calls [$30].
Zorlock shows [ Kc, Tc ] a straight, ten to ace.
mywinstreak shows [ Qc, Qd ] three of a kind, queens.
Zorlock wins $88 from the main pot with a straight, ten to ace.

Welcome to FTR.

Short answer: No.

Pre-flop: KTs is a decent hand, but not from early position facing a 4xBB raise.

Flop: You have an OESD, but it's tainted by the diamond draw. You have no diamonds. And your opponent bet half the pot. Even if it weren't tainted, it's too much to call.

Turn: It's a nice size pot. Don't give him a free card. He could be drawing for the flush.

River: Good bet.

Preflop the call was a bit loose OOP to a raise. I may call this preflop in late/last position and fold if I don't hit a nice draw (like you did).

Flop play depends on your read on the opp, I don't think the call was that horrible; even with tainted outs you would win this more often than lose if you hit...

Quote:

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And maybe I should. It's not his demeanor that bothers me, but rather the fact that I might played a hand badly.

---

this kind of stood out from the rest of your post. I respect and understand your attitude of perfection, but you also have to understand that NOBODY plays perfect. In poker, everybody makes mistakes. You can't play the game perfect. The great thing about the game though, is you don't have to, you just have to play better then your opponents (and rake). As long as you learn from your poor plays (you will make many, just like everyone else), you are heading in the right direction.

As for the hand...

CLEAR fold preflop. Not only is your hand trash but you are also sandwiched between the PFRer and the rest of the field preflop and on all subsequent betting rounds. Being out of position for the rest of the hand makes this even worse.

Flop texture is pretty dangerous. Ad, Td are dirty, so you really have 6 good outs. You are nearly 8:1 against hitting a non-diamond straight card on the turn, which is exactly what you are looking for. Villain's stack isn't deep ($64 preflop) and your are OOP. Implied odds in these situations are bad. check and fold to the $8 bet here. If you were in position with deeper stacks, we could talk about a positinal raise/semibluff. Not here though. For future reference, I would avoid calling a preflop raise with a hand like KTs without a very good reason to do so. Like I said before, position makes this worse.

[quote="Lukie"]

Quote:

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Villain's stack isn't deep ($64 preflop) and your are OOP. Implied odds in these situations are bad.

---

I stand corrected on my previous post, misread stack sizes.

Solid comments from all of you. Xiantis and Lukies analyzes really made me understand what I did wrong playing this hand. This is a tough game, and sometimes I think I will never learn... But I will, it's just a matter of putting the right amount of time and energy to it. Regarding Lukies comment about playing poker to perfection; I do believe that sometimes you do mistakes, and I also do believe that it may be near-to impossible to always play flawless poker. So I certainly do understand your point. It's just that when I head into something new I always strive to attain the highest possible goal... Maybe I'm being a little harsh on myself, but on the other side maybe not... In retrospect it is clear that I played this hand very bad, and if I want to become a better pokerplayer I have to learn from my mistakes. So thank you all for your input.