Hand #1
I'm dealt A-K off suit in the big blind so i raise 3 times the big blind after 3 people had called, this thins the pack slightly with only 2 callers of my pre-flop raise. This is pretty ideal as the hand doesn't have any limpers but enough opposition to possibly draw value from if i flop big.
And flop big i did...
I hit top 2 on the flop and tried to slow play it by checking under the gun, i didn't want to scare my opponents off with a C-bet because the board is pretty scary for something like 10-10 or a middle pair which i believe are in the button players range. I hoped to give one of them the betting lead if they thought they held the best hand with something like the aforementioned middle pair, unfortunately this backfired and it was checked around...
The turn card was a 10h which isn't the greatest card for me, this had me thinking that letting a middle pair see a free card was a bad idea because pocket 10's just turned into a set that is beating my hand. By this point i've pretty much ruled out anybody holding J-Q to make the straight because a post-flop raise would have been pretty likely with a strong hand like that so i'm not really giving either player credit for a straight here. This time i fire a 1/5 pot sized bet (minimum) which makes one player fold and the button call me. I was hoping he would come over the top with a re-raise because i felt i had the best hand although thinking about it know, that kind of re-raise might have caused me to think about him holding the straight. I don't think i would have laid down top 2 here to a weak re-raise after him checking the flop anyway so this probably was the right play.
I river a King and i've completed a full house, Kings over Aces! I now know that i have the nuts with my boat beating any set or possible straight out there (I knew he didn't have aces). I led in with another small bet, again trying to make myself look weak and this time it worked! He fired over-the-top with a bet a little smaller than the pot, i immediately pushed all-in with a flash of eagerness. I thought he may have had pocket 10's or a King in his hand so he would probably call me but straight away i felt i had made the wrong play. He folded.
Obviously i had to raise in this situation but pushing was a mistake. A value raise around the minimum would be more likely to extract more value as he would have, if holding a decent hand, called or even pushed over the top of me in an attempt to foil a bluff that i was possibly making due to me slow playing the pot earlier on. If i had made this play i could have eliminated him there and then as opposed to taking down a decent sized pot and leaving his chip stack relatively untouched.
In conclusion...
I read him fairly well but possibly slow played at the wrong time then over-bet the river losing a lot of potential value.
Hand #2
Coming soon......
