My Current Style: Part 2

A-Hands

AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AK, JJ

I don’t worry about position with A-hands. I raise PF with all of these hands. I will reraise PF with AA, KK, QQ. If the aggressor is another player I will reraise PF with all 3 of these. If someone goes back overtop of my goodly sized reraise I will push all-in with AA and KK. I will fold the QQ to this aggression because the predominate holdings are AA or KK. Yes you might get the hyper-aggressive reraise or push with QQ, AK, JJ, AQs, and AJs, but I think in the long-run you will pay out much more than you will win in this situation. Depending on how much the reraise was I will call the flop and see if I spike that Q. With AK or JJ I just call a PF raise and hope to hit a nice flop and can hopefully then bet or more often CR the flop. I am cautious with JJ on low flopped boards. I will bet or CR it and if I get too much resistance I am done with the hand or depending on bet size C/C to showdown. I prefer to just bet it and see where I stand instead for calling bets. I figure if I’m willing to put a certain amount in the pot I mind as well put him to the decision because if they don’t have a premium hand or are afraid of overs they are more apt to fold to that aggression. If I am the PF aggressor and get 1 or 2 callers I will always CB the flop no matter the board. With 3 or more in the flop hand I will always bet AA and KK. I will sometimes slowdown with overs on the board with my PF raised QQ and JJ, because with 4 callers odds are that I’m beat and they are looking to CR. Sometimes I will bet a little over ½ pot to reduce the field and gather some info. If I’m CR’d here I’m done. If my AK whiffs the flop I will always CB with 1 or 2 PF callers. If 3 or 4 are with me to the flop, I either check hoping to see the turn or I will bet a little over ½ pot to see where I stand. I don’t go broke as often with K’s, Q’s, AK, and JJ anymore. I do still find it hard to let K’s and Q’s go if there are no overs. But now if I get all-in action over my CB and there are overs on the table I drop and save my stack for another opportunity. I might hold the winning hand on occasion but why risk it all the time. The rest of strategy wins enough small pots that I don’t want to lose all my grinding money on one big hand where I put it all-in with the worst hand. I will break my own rules here if I have a read on the player, but that goes without saying. If I totally crush the flop with a set or trips I will usually slow-roll till the turn or depending on their aggression CB the flop instead. If the board isn’t all that innocuous, but instead is coordinated with straight and flush draws, I bet out even my monsters as to make them pay to chase. A big no-no for me is slow-playing PF. I always bet PF; I don’t care if is folded around to me in the SB, they pay to play – this ain’t a Holiday Inn Express. Lastly, I obviously bet PF to isolate against 1 player or 2 at the most; anymore than that and you are just asking for trouble.

B-Hands

All prs Ten and under – TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22

I play these cards for set value. I usually limp and do a little set-farming. If I’m able to limp in and hit the flop I usually slow-play the flop. If the flop is bet I CR or smooth-call opting for the turn bet or CR. If there is a bet and 1 or more callers on the flop, I add their bets to the current pot and raise that amount, because they are showing that they are willing to add money to the pot and if they are on draws I definitely need to make them pay to see. If the board is scary I don’t even mess around, I just bet pot and see where we go from there. I will fight a little bit on the flop if I have an over-pr (usually opening or RR’ing for info and hopefully taking it down right there) but as a rule you should never put all your money in on an unraised pot, because the other limpers could be holding anything because they weren’t forced out PF. (2pr is a very likely holdings.) With TT and 99 I will raise PF in an unopened or un-limped pot if I’m the cut-off or button because I will have position on my side if I get any takers. I will call a PF raise with any of these pairs for set value. This tactic works especially well against a PF raiser, because they might have premium hole cards that they will find hard to fold and double me up. The more people that get in PF the better, because it usually juices up the pot for my set. Also the PF raiser usually CB’s the flop, which increases the pot. I usually check to the PF aggressor, then I decide to smooth call or CR according to the board. I prefer to CR on the flop and hope we can get all the money in right there, and optimally they are drawing to a 2-outer, but it also keeps them from drawing cheaply. If I’m out of position and it is a drawy board I just lead out and hope to take it down.


C and D hands plus the summary coming up next.