As I suck at PLO AND limit at the moment, I thought I'd give NL a try for a bit. Here's a hand that came up today:

Party Poker $25NL. I have $25. I'm on the button with KK and there's 1 limper to me. I raise to $2. SB is the only caller. Flop is 852 with 2 hearts. I bet pot of $5 and he calls. Turn is another 5. Checked to me and I bet pot of $15 setting him all in.

Would anyone play this differently and why?


Thanks,

Martin

Personally I hate that one unit raise for any reason in NL. The player in the BB is still getting odds to call you with even weak hands like connecting cards, suited Kx, this gives you almost no idea what your opponant is playing. I woud still make it 4x-8x BB on party/empire, if everyone folds thats ok, better to win a small pot, than get stuck with someone flopping two pair with rags and having no way to read their hand. Other than the preflop raise you played this hand right, thought its hard to know if you opponant has a 5. In the shallow stacked party games I am willing to live and die with my big PP, if someone hits a 5 outter to make two pair of trips, more power to them.

The blinds are 0.25/0.50 so this was a 4BB raise. Not sure if that's what you meant but I think this raise was pretty standard.

Martin

Ok sorry I misread you post, I thought you were playing a $50 NL game, my mistake. In which case you played this right. Hope he didnt have the 5.

The only thing i would have done differently, since this is party, would to raise closer to the $3 range. players are generaly looser and will call larger bets. beyond that, you played it fine - if he's got two pair/trips/boat, then oh well. you didn't do anything wrong in this hand. barring a flopped set, you're opponent's probably the one who screwed up (assuming you lost this).

~Dustin

Yes - I often raise to $1.50 or $2 with AA as I want a call , but $3 with KK as I want to put off as many of the cheesier Ax hands as possible (because from EP I am betting out even if an ace hits the flop)

But that is what I do in EP/MP. OTB with 1 limper I would play it exactly as you did.

If you want to make sure that any call (apart from AA) is a bad one you could bet 1/5th your stack (as then lower pairs would not have sufficient implied odds to try to hit a set), but most people want to see some action with KK for obvious reasons..and to be happy with the blinds with AA or KK is a bit weak-tight (not so with any of the lower pairs) - I'm not too unhappy with the blinds' money and a limper or two's with QQ,JJ, TT, AK etc..

If you are adjusting your raises though because of your hands, isn't there a tell there good players will pick up on? I have been messing around with different raising but decided for a while to always keep my raises at 4xBB. I know I keep a constant track on who is raising what with how much on NL. And then if you do mix it up then isn't it defeating the point of what you are trying to do in either having callers or shutting it down?

I have taken to raising the same no matter what, but adjusting what hands I raise with depending on texture and position. I'm not saying my way is better but I am curious on others thinking as this has been one of the weird things I have had to get my head round coming from limit poker.

Rich