Table Selection Revisited

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Overall, I ended up with a nice profit for the weekend of $104 over 985 hands:



Paradise Poker $2/4 LHE: 482 hands, $75 loss

Poker Syndicate $2/4 LHE: 353 hands, $44 profit

Poker Stars $2/4 LHE: 150 hands, $135 profit



Strangely, the Paradise and Stars sessions were complete opposites. At Paradise on Saturday afternoon, I had a ton of great hands cracked. I followed that session up later that night with a session at Stars and everything went right. It's always kind of funny how that works.



Table Selection Revisited

I did find that playing at Stars late in the evenings is a good way to find good games going. Most of the time the games are tight at Stars, but possibly later at night things loosen up. Especially on a weekend.



That discovery made me realize that I have become very lax in the past couple of months when it comes to table selection. If you have been a long time reader of my blog, you know that I spent a lot of talking about this in this past and practicing what I preach. Unfortunately, I have fallen into the habit of just sitting down at a table and playing instead of looking for the right table and the right table at that seat or scouting out certain weak opponents.



When playing at Poker Syndicate, table selection is not a a concern, because the competition is just so weak. But at a site like Paradise, even as good as the games are, it is important. There are enough good players at Paradise that you can end up at a table that isn't the most profitable. In the past, I would just get up from the table and find greener pastures. But here of late, I stay and slug it out.



Time to get back to practicing what I preach...



What's Your Plan On The Turn? - Part 2

The hand that I posed last week:



Here's a hand I played recently that comes up a lot, or at least a lot more than you would think:



World Poker Exchange

Limit Holdem Ring game

Limit: $2/$4

8 players



Pre-flop: (8 players) Michael is EP1 with [A? Q?]

2 folds, Michael raises, MP1 calls, Button reraises, 2 folds, MP1 calls, Michael calls.



Flop: [A? J? 8?] (7.5SB, 3 players)

Michael bets, MP1 raises, Button folds, Michael reraises, MP1 caps, Michael calls.



I have spent little time playing against MP1, so I don't have a real good read on him.



Two questions for you:



(1) Would you have reraised the flop and what is your reasoning?

(2) What is your plan on the turn and what is your thinking?



I think we all agreed that reraising the flop was the right thing to do.



On the turn, I think that heads-up that betting again is the right move. If a third spade falls and I bet and I am raised, I think folding is correct. He either has made a flush or has a set and his capping the flop would certainly be consistent with him having either hand and raising again on the turn if that third spade falls. There just can't be very many hands that I would be ahead of here.



If a non-spade falls on the turn and I bet and I am raised, again I just can't see many hands that I am ahead of. There are very few players that would semi-bluff a 4-flush again on the turn. A raise here is either two pair, a set or even AK.



No matter what falls on the turn, if I bet and am raised, I can fold. I think this is better than check-calling the turn and river because I am more often that not going to be way behind here based on the flop action. This saves me a river bet. And if I am ahead, he isn't going to raise the turn (likely), so I am betting for value.



A non-spade brick did fall on the turn. I bet and was raised, thought about it and folded. My opponent was kind enough to show me his pocket 88 and he in fact did have a set.



Thoughts?





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