Advice For After the Flop...Worried About Sets
Posted by DustyB
Posted by
DustyB
posted in
Mid Stakes
Advice For After the Flop...Worried About Sets
I have been playing live 1-2 the last while. I have been having a bit of a mental block that I need to get over. When I hit the flop well and then someone raises or check-raises the flop I have been playing somewhat passively fearing that villain has flopped a set. Here is an example from my session yesterday...
I am in middle position in a short handed live 1-2 game and I decide to open J-4 suited and got 2 callers behind me. Flop comes J-6-4 rainbow. SB checks, I bet out around 2/3 of the pot and the player in position raises to $50. I obviously have a pretty well hidden 2 pair but his check-raise worries me and as I have done lately, I fold to the check raise fearing that he flopped a set. I have done this a few times in the last while.
I had only been sitting a short time and Ihave not had a chance to get a decent read on this player but I knew he was quite competent. So I fold, other player calls. Hand gets to showdown and check-raiser proudly shows pocket Kings, and takes the pot.
Even though there was a very good chance that I was most likely ahead after the flop, I once again feared being up against a set in which case I would have only 2 outs to the nuts. But i was certainly dissapointed seing the pocket Kings at showdown. I knew i Missed a great oppurtunity and I'm pretty sure there was a good chance he would have been fairly pot committed at that point.
As far as the 6 on board, people in theses games always play pocket pairs to set mine so i had that thought in my mind. With a better read I may have re-raised and been in decent shape. I wonder how he would have reacted to a shove?
Any advice for getting over his mental block and folding the best hand when I could have taken a nice pot from him? At 1-2 live, at least in my local games, people really over value their over pairs and it is hands like these that really punishes them. Maybe with a set he would have smooth called to let us catch up?
How small is the chance that he would actually flop a set in that situation?
I can't be folding 2 pair to an over pair too often and expect to maximize my profits...lol
I appreciate any insights and advice in dealing with this this.
Thanks.
Loading 7 Comments...
Don't try to soul read people. Ask yourself what would be the standard play with your hand and then if you have enough information then you can deviate from that. Without the info just try to play solid without hero calling/folding
I agree and this is usually how I go about things. In the end I guess that even though I could have won a fairly substantial pot early on in my session, i was okay letting it go as I really didn't have any experience with this guy.
I suppose his play worked, as his bet size was fairly large. Kept any weaker pairs away and certainly had me fold the better hand at the time.
Goid advice though, so thanks. I guess going with what you are saying, then the standard play would be to give my 2 pair more credit on this board? Perhaps I should have shown a little more strength with my post flop bet?
You don't need to bet larger to prevent people from raising you, you just need to respond correctly when they do...in this case that means call & plan on calling down.
Here's one thing that may help. What type of flop and action are you looking for with J4s if you're going to fold on this flop and action? If you're going to raise this weak of a hand you're not going to smash many flops this hard.
Maybe the underlying advice is: tighten up your preflop opening ranges. If you're confused what to do after the flop in these spots it probably means you need to tighten up preflop to make the flop decisions easier. The players are bad at these stakes so we want to be in there gambling with them. But if you can't outmaneuver them post flop what's the point of playing weak hands preflop?
Absolutely correct, ralphykid67. I normally have a pretty tight pre flop range and in this case I just had the thought to play this poor hand. This is what dissapointed me in my descision because with this hand I couldn't have really flopped any better and yet I failed to continue.
Rest of the session went well. I decided to be patient and keep a tight pre flop range after that point for the exact reason you mentioned, and I comfortably ended up on top for the day.
This was a bad example, as i normally would never play those two cards. But it is my post flop game that I really need to work on.
Thanks for the advice and thoughts.
Lays down.. a monster.....Should have paid me off on dat.
"Monsters under the Bed" I've been there Buddy...
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