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 Originally Posted by Redstripe
 Originally Posted by bjsaust
Your play doesnt make a lot of sense in some spots there. Think about WHY you're betting in certain spots.
Can ya be more specific?
The QQ hand was the best you played. nh, and NO, don't bet smaller on turn.
What you'd like to do is cbet in the other hands like you mean it. After 50-100 hands against you, I would probably have this read on you: "weak cbets mean mediocre hands." When you cbet (betting AK after catching air on the flop), you have to rep something to get people to fold. Sometimes, you have make a full PSB (pot-sized bet) on air, or villains know you don't have anything. You don't ALWAYS do this, of course, but you have to mix up your play more.
My suggestion would be to make a least 1/3 of your cbets PSB's, and start making PSB's on the flop with at least 1/2 of your TPTK/overpair hands. Do this in two ways:
1. Check more often with air. If don't think you can continue with a bet on the turn after getting called and catching air, just fold sometimes.
2. Cbet bigger a larger percentage of the time when you do decide to attack the flop with air + overcards.
Another suggestion: Overpairs are good hands at this level. You should be willing to bet big (3/4 pot) on both the flop and turn with a hand like JJ on a Txx flop. You'd be surprised how many top pair/weak kicker hands will continue and extra street further than they should here.
I think BJ's point was that your cbets often invite villain to continue with hands that are slightly better than yours or that have a lot of outs against you. Plan your turn BEFORE you bet the flop. With weak hands, try this. Bet a full PSB if you're planning on NOT continuing on the turn, and bet 2/3's if you are. The bigger bet will get the most folds from medium strength hands.
Finally, I think both BJ and I looked at the HH's and saw disconnected betting, like you made each decision in a vacuum with no plan for the hand afterwards. It's important that your bets tell a consistent story. Instead, you seem to bet/call based EXACTLY on the strength of your hand, so there's no deception. If you bet AK on a Jxx flop like you have KK, you have to bet the turn like you STILL have KK, even when a blank hits. If not, you're playing your cards face up. If you're not planning to bet the turn like you have KK, make a reasonable flop bet/call/check and follow that up with a consistent action.
I'm rambling. Sorry. The key here is to quit worrying about your own cards so much (level 1 thinking), and start thinking about villain's cards (level 2 thinking) + the board and betting. The only clues villains have on our play is the board and betting. They only know what we have if they have the guts + cards to call us down to the river.
I'll give one concrete example. You have 88 and raise from the BTN after two limpers. EP folds, MP calls. The board comes KT3 rainbow. What should you do? Remember that your open raise basically said "I have big cards" and villains limp behind/call basically replies that "I have small cards," in this case sc's, a small pp or Axs junk. Of course, he might have something better. But he's not advertising it, yet.
This is a perfect situation to cbet the wired 8's at least 3/4's pot. The flop smacks your advertised range in the face, and misses his advertised range big time. You can win this hand right here because lots of Tx and Kx hands will fold, even though they're way ahead. And most of the junk will fold, too. The times we win right here are worth it, and we're content later to check/call or check/fold with reasonable showdown value. The cbet forces him to commit on medium-strength hands, or fold them. And the worst thing about medium-strength hands (Kx in this example) is they tend to get worse and worse on later streets, making it difficult for him to put pressure on you.
Hope this helps.
There's a lot more to it. Check these posts for more ideas:
1. Renton's Guide for SS NLHE. 3 mega-posts intended to help noobies think coherently about all phases of play. The other two are linked in the article, and all three are in the Beginner's Digest.
2. Spoon's Good Example of When to Cbet. Also see A Good Example of When Not to Cbet. These are two threads that got me thinking more coherently about cbetting.
3. Renton's ABCD Theorem post. Explains expert postflop thinking in a way beginner's (like me) can readily understand.
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