Hey guys,
So today I wanted to talk a little bit about a hand that I played during a $5 heads up match on pokerstars. Sometime I have a hard time explaining exactly what is going on in my thinking process but I will try my best here.
*Also a bankroll update, got my intial $8 up to $41 now after a little bit of grinding on pokerstars.
PokerStars Game #21834407995: Tournament #118984907, $5.00+$0.25 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2008/11/07 12:52:49 ET
So here is the set up. The guy that I was playing was I believe to be a more aggressive type with just the right amount to make a good heads up player. Not overly and knew how to choose spots to bet. This hand happened after I made a couple of aggressive continuation bets without hitting anything and thus losing the chip lead. So at this time, both him and I believe had looser images then normal.
Table '118984907 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: thinkjc (1150 in chips)
Seat 2: 3_masaru_1 (1850 in chips)
3_masaru_1: posts small blind 10
thinkjc: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to thinkjc [Qc Td]
3_masaru_1: raises 40 to 60
Ok so while playing heads-up, I tend to try and play a lot of my hands from position to get an advantage that way. My game tends to lean toward small ball poker from position, but because of the strength of the hand I decided to forgo the position advantage and look him up. Also with in mind that both images I believe are to be on the looser side so I didn’t give much credit for his raise.
thinkjc: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [Ah As 7c]
thinkjc: checks
3_masaru_1: bets 20
Now with this flop, I decided to check to see what he would do, and he bet a min raise 20 into a pot of 120. For an average player that would have an Ace, he would likely to slow play this hand a bit being almost the nut. He betting 20, I believe that he was just checking to see where I was at for the cheapest possible price and so I decided to stick with my instinct that he was just doing a continuation bet to steal the pot and call.
thinkjc: calls 20
*** TURN *** [Ah As 7c] [Js]
thinkjc: checks
3_masaru_1: bets 60
This time a bet of 60 into a pot of 140 still a very small raise in terms of the pot, it could be considered a value bet of sorts but again I decided to call.
thinkjc: calls 60
*** RIVER *** [Ah As 7c Js] [Qs]
thinkjc: checks
3_masaru_1: bets 420
Now the river comes hitting my Q however giving a possible flush. With 420 into a pot of 260, he massively overbet the pot incomparison to his smaller bets previously. My chip stack was also floating 1010 so if I was to call it would be almost half my chip stack in jeopardy. But because of the metagame of our images I didnt believe he put me on anything. You could debate to go all in at this junction but I was also confident that if my call was wrong, I could make a come back with 600 chips.
thinkjc: calls 420
*** SHOW DOWN ***
3_masaru_1: shows [8c 5c] (a pair of Aces)
thinkjc: shows [Qc Td] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
thinkjc collected 1120 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1120 | Rake 0
Board [Ah As 7c Js Qs]
Seat 1: thinkjc (big blind) showed [Qc Td] and won (1120) with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 2: 3_masaru_1 (button) (small blind) showed [8c 5c] and lost with a pair of Aces
So I was correct that I was good the whole way and scooped it. Winning the match all together as we progressed.
Without thinking of the metagame and preplay, I probably would of folded by the turn but by observing tendacies and comparing with other plays that you had seen, a somewhat harder call can become an easy call.
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