I just got back from a marathon session at Bally's AC this weekend, and I have a few hands that I thought were interesting . . . The game is the 300 max buy in 1-3 NL game that is spread there. On to the hands . . .

Hand 1:

Early in my session, I've had to reload with 100 dollars twice to get up the max after splashing around a bit. There's a very LAGish Asian kid initially sitting to three seats to my right that I've been itching to double through; he managed to get all in preflop with AQ and lose his first 200 buy in to AA. I moved into the open seat to his left and was standing up moving chips as I was dealt TT in middle postion (suits unimportant). He limps, as do I, and two other people limp as well. SB completes and BB checks. Pot is 18 dollars, flop comes 8 6 2 rainbow. SB and BB check, Asian kid bets 100 dollars (no typo), leaving him with just over 200 left behind, so he barely covers me. Thoughts? My action to come . . .

Hand 2:

I'm in the CO with 9 5s, with about 650 dollars. As is customary, two thirds of the table limps to me, so I toss in three dollars to see the flop. Yes, yes, the hand is garbage, but I feel I play well enough post flop not to put too many chips at risk with any flop other than a monster. SB completes, BB checks. Flop comes 9 7 5 with two diamonds. SB bets 20 dollars, one call to me. I raise to 80 dollars, SB immediately goes all in for 230 total. Folded to me. I've played with the SB before, and he's a mildly tricky older gentleman who could literally have anything. We've played many times before and he knows me, and most likely knows my TAGish tendencies. Thoughts? My action to come . . .

Looking forward to hearing everyone's responses to my first post.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

I fold both hands.

Hand #1. You may well be ahead but its going to cost your whole stack to find out and someone behind you may have a set and then your dead. After seeing that move by the kid, there will be plenty of times to bust him

Hand #2..Hes in the blind so he could have anything. Your raise didnt scare him a bit. he couldve flopped the straight, a set or have a flush draw. You have no way of knowing. Let it go.

You obviously mustve called at least one of these if not both, but remember that just because you may have won the hand doesnt make it a good play. If you make that call against ME, your going to wish you didnt. If these guy play that crazy, you may be ahead of them, but there will be times where you flop a straight or set and they bet like that. Wait for the sure thing.

Iceman --

I have no problem letting go TPTK or an overpair (or two pair) when the situation warrants it. I'd have no trouble laying any of these hands down against you, especially if you told me who you were while I was thinking .

In both situations, I don't see much of a difference between calling these bets and your play, described in an earlier post, of calling a pot sized bet on the river after a flush draw arrived. You made your read and stuck with it.

Also remember that just because you might not have done something doesn't make it a poor play. I know the tendency is to view any new poster as a fish until proven otherwise, and that continuing on with either of the above hands, in a vacuum, is marginal at best and idiotic at worst. That's why I posted them; I would have dumped both hands had they been online, as the bulk of my information on the villan in each hand would have been unavailable to me.

Hopefully I can validate myself through future posts of strong play and insightful comments.

Until then . . . .

Eric

I don't agree with Iceman on the first hand, I think an overpair is exactly what you are looking to take up against this guy so I'd push it, but the second call is more marginal because you don't even have top 2 pair.

I guess I'd also have to say that he does have a point about some of the hands you have posted recently Iceman. I think pushing hard in these situations (well, the first at least) is far less marginal/dangerous than some of the flush posts you've been putting up (though they are really great to work through and are certainly helpful) recently. You could certainly wait for some safer spots at times too, but you went with your feel of the opponent and were right. My high amount of online play has really made me realize the greater volume of information available in live play.

One thing worth re-iterating, though, is that in the first hand, it isn't necessarily Asian kid that you should be worried about; it is the other 4 players that you need to be concerned about. Best case scenario, you re-raise all-in and kid folds, givine you a profit of a little more than $100. However, if one of them holds a set, you lose your stack on a hand where you had a pair of tens. Remember that you should never go broke in an unraised pot (unless you happened to hold the nuts and get outdrawn). If the Asian kid is aggressive enough to overbet the pot almost 6x with a hand that doesn't beat 10s, then I guarantee you it will not take more than 15 minutes for you to bust him.

I guess I wasn't taking into account that he had 4 (that's a lot! =S ) people behind him. I guess I don't know what I'd do there--probably make a mistake by pushing it hard.

Second hand I still agree with everyone that you've gotta fold.

I ended up pushing all in on the first hand. Everyone folded to him, and the kid cursed for a while and finally called with J8. No help for him and MHIG. I did call the second hand, because I'd seen this player make this move with anything and there was a fair amount of dead money in the pot. He flipped over A7 diamonds and got no help.

I posted these hands not because I won them, but because I thought I played them poorly and got fortunate. I think my push in the first hand was a relatively easy play to make were there no other players left to act. The fact that there was probably turns this into a fold . . . The second hand I called without thinking, and again was fortunate.

Thanks for all the input,

Eric