Sweat Session #1

Last week, my buddy, his girlfriend and I sat down for a quick sweat session.

Here's a little breakdown on us.

My buddy and I are about the same skill level with his girlfriend, having only been playing for about a year now, just a little lower than us. We all have a huge passion for the game and really want to learn and become better poker players, not so that we someday may become 'pros,' more so that when we play, we play with confidence and stand by our decisions. Oh, and yes, we would like to make some money at it.

Now onto the sweat...

Being that it was our first, we mostly watched the other person play, while adding a few comments. I'm sure as time goes on and our game improves, our sweat sessions will follow. But for now we take it one step at at time.

Tonight we each played in a $2 6p turbo tourney. Unfortunately none of us made the money, but we did see some interesting hands. I also ended off playing in a $5NL 6p game just to show my buddy's gf how it can be a little different. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the turbo games as they force you to play too many hands which leaves more to chance and less to skill. Not that I'm saying I'm a skilled player, but I would like to work on my game instead of just playing, and turbo games don't let you do that.

This first hand was played by my buddy's gf. 3-way action in the BB with everybody limping. Not a great starting hand, but we paid our blinds and nobody was agg PF.

Titan Poker "TURBO" Copenhagen 50/100, hand converted by the iPoker Converter at Talking-Poker

saw flop | saw showdown

Button Button (4790)
SB (2200)
BB Hero (2010)

Preflop: Hero is in the BB with 6c Td
Button calls 100, 1 fold, Hero checks.

Flop (250) Th 5c 7d
Hero bets 300, Button calls 300.

Flop gives her tpwk and she decides to bet to see if her hand is strong or not. BTN only calls and we're thinking Ace rag and probably figures his hand is good.

Turn (850) 3c
Hero bets 500, Button calls 500.

This now gives her a gut shot plus tp (which might already be winning). She bets hoping to take the pot down now, but knows that she still has a decent drawing hand.

River (1850) 7h
Hero bets 500, Button raises to 1100, Hero moves all-in for 610, Button calls 10

Hero shows 6c Td
Button shows Ks Ad

Hero wins 4070 with Two pair, Tens and Sevens with a Six for a kicker

The river pairs the board and we bet out hoping that the BTN wasn't calling with A7. Probably a bad idea as the only hand that should call here is one that has us beat. BTN decides to put her all in and being that she was pot committed, makes the call and takes down a nice pot. Because of odds, she played well on her part, but the BTN played it poorly. At any point he probably could have pushed her off the pot (especially PF) but decided to slow play it and took a hit for it.

Now here's a hand where emotions got the best of my buddy (hero). SB had been playing a lot of pots and showing some bluffs. He had just bluff hero off the pot a few hands before (and showed the bluff), so hero wanted to get back at him by playing sheriff. Hero starts off by putting in a raise hoping to steal the blinds. SB decides to push it up and hero calls. Personally I would have dropped the hand even though SB had been bluffing a lot. You take your shot, it doesn't work, drop it and live to play another hand.

Titan Poker "TURBO" Lisbon 20/40, hand converted by the iPoker Converter at Talking-Poker

saw flop | saw showdown

Button (870)
SB SB (1090)
BB (2590)
UTG (1750)
UTG+1 (1840)
CO Hero (860)

Preflop: Hero is in the CO with Kc Td
UTG calls 40, 1 fold, Hero raises to 80, 1 fold, SB raises to 320, 2 folds, Hero calls 240.

Flop (720) 4s 3d Jc
SB bets 280, Hero calls 280.

Complete whiff on our part and SB bets out. Again I would fold, but hero now getting a little frustrated with SB decides that this is the hand he takes a stand and calls.

Turn (1280) 3s
SB bets 120, Hero calls 120.

SB decides to bet out small, which makes me think he doesn't feel good about his hand. Hero only calls but should have raised to see if we can get SB off the hand. The reason I'm saying raise now after saying fold the previous 2 times is that since we are committed we should show some strength and try and push SB off the pot. I think it might have work knowing now what SB was holding.

River (1520) 9h
SB bets 120, Hero calls 120

SB shows 4c Ad
Hero shows Kc Td

SB wins 1760 with Two pair, Fours and Threes with a Ace for a kicker

Since hero called SB each time there was really no reason for him to not call the small bet on the river. Again a raise here by hero and I think that SB folds, but hero was frustrated and not thinking it through. Oh well, lesson learned.

Here's a cash game hand that had me thinking.

http://weaktight.com/288737

I'm UTG and decide to try and see a cheap flop. BTN limps then BB decides to raise and I call along with BTN. BB had been playing a lot of hands and I felt he was just trying to steal the pot. Flop gives me tptk and I think that this board totally missed BB. I really didn't put him on a PP, so I decide to raise the pot to see if my hand is any good. To my surprise/scare, BTN calls my raise. BB decides to put the rest of his money in and now I'm getting pot odds even though I'm worried about BTN. Flop is nothing and I feel I should check and hope that BTN will check it down hoping just to take BB $. River is also nothing and I decide to value bet it as I feel my hand is probably the best. To my surprise BTN is holding the exact same hand and we split the pot. I'm not sure if I should have bet the Turn, but being that I mostly play tournaments, I was thinking more about knocking BB out (taking his $ in this case) then trying to get paid off. Over time that will change I know.

Now I have a question for who ever reads this post.

Is it the right thing to call someone's all in if you are pot committed but feel like you are behind in the hand?