Problem hands in poker

[flanks]

What always seems to get you into trouble in poker? What would you like to see analysed that would help you become a better player?

[christian_harris]

This hand doesn't get me into trouble, but I know of many a player who thinks that an Ace is a fantastic hand; regardless of the other card, position, player strength, stack size etc

[womble chris]

playing 5-10NL
4 players, im BB, first guy raises to $30 (he was very aggressive), other two fold, i call with QK

now, flop 6 10 J, no flush draw, he goes all in with $113, i called (how crap),

turn J
river A, i hit the straight but he had AA, boat

anyways, i then proceeded to go for one on one 10-20 limit, full tilt mode having lost about 320 dollars in 2 hours, i then literally outplayed him (to my shock) despite worse cards and won $150 back

anyways, enough rambling,

Trouble Hands:

small preflop raising

i flop top pair with moderate kicker, bet and am raised very big by an aggressive player.


e.g.

i have JQ hearts

flop 48Q

i bet and he raises me big
usually i either reraise or fold, is this good or bad play??

anways, sorry for lack of article as of yet, spent last 5 days quite ill with drinks...not good...

[christian_harris]

That's alright Chris. 1st September is the launch date so plenty of time

[flanks]

Your problem is a common one, shouted out by inexperienced poker players all over the world. basically you are asking how to play an aggressive player when you arent dealt pocket Aces or Ks.

Ill write something on this at some stage I guess, but the short answer is that it is unusual to flat call with such a marginal hand when you know that virtually all you will be able to call with after the flop is trips or 2pair, or to re raise all in (as you said above). In short re raising preflop makes more sense, because then you know what your up against.

In the problem you cite he could have AQ/KQ/KK/AA or even QQ, you simply dont know. A player such as you describe could easilly be on KQ, but bottom line is that unless you have a lot of money to back you up you wont be able to get him to fold after a bet like he has made, so dont flat call in the first place