Posted by pocketaces in 
I never ever 4 bet whether its preflop or postflop. Lets say i have AA on the CO in a 1/2 game 100bb deep. I raise to 7. Villian raises to 24. Even though i am OOP, i will never 4-bet as I just never do it. First of all im not comfortable with putting 1/4.5 of my stack in preflop. Secondly people can easily put me on AA, KK, QQ, or AK. If they are any good they will c/r me on the flop or float me if no face cards come out. Then they will bet the turn and i will be forced to fold as i know they know i have a overpair or two overcards.
Actually, Eric to be blunt it didnt help at all. I do make raises with 75ss in middle posiion or better ina 6handed game. I do the same thing with KK. I learned this in second grade. However, what i dont know is whether i should 4 bet!!! The blinds are the first bet. A opening raise is the second bet. A reraise is the third bet and a raise of the reraise is the FOUR BET.
Well thx for trying anyways and gl with the holdem thing!
PS: Villian is on the button. Thats why i said you’re OOP :).
Eric, actually im not sure whether I interpreted your words right. At first, i thought you didnt know what a 4 bet was and i thought you were talking about a open raise with 75ss. However, i soon realized that you might be talking about 4 betting with a suited one gapper. You are basically raising to $75 ($25 less than half your stack) with a pretty bad hand without position. You said you were tight as hell, but you recently change your style a “litttle”. Seems like a big difference to me as you are basically bluffing half your stack with 7high.
Im 60% sure this isnt a good idea, but then of course this could be very important for the meta game and might actually be profitable.
you need to mix up your game a little. your reputation as a tight player becomes predictable. therefore it is easy for them to put you on 2 overs if the board is all low.
i used to be the same way.
i recently changed my style a little and now i play a few more hands a bluff instead of just playing the best hands possible. ive also started to win a lot more now. in texas holdem, you cant be great unless you can vary your play. be unpredictable and always keep your opponent guessing.
example: make the same raise with 7 5 as you would with KK. they can try and force you to fold if they think you have KK and all unders are on the board but if you actually have something, theyre screwed
I go by a very simple rule,when i have the best hand i want to put as much money in the pot as i can. And when i have the worst hand i want to keep the pot as small as i can. If i have aces and i can 4 bet the pot, then i will, odds are that the other player re-raising me will have a good, but second best hand to yours. And if they think you have aces and they fold then that’s fine too, you win the pot and you don’t have to show your hand, plus the fact that you might get a bad flop and you will have to fold to a lot of actions. Just because your scared of giving away your hand is no reason not to get all the money you can into the pot when you have the best hand. Plus anyways most people won’t believe you have aces per flop in most cases, only very good players will be able to tell that you really do hold such a big pair in your hand. I like making 4 bets with weaker hands as well, just to let the table know that i will put pressure and i will risk chips with other hands as well. For one example i was playing in a no limit 2-5 game and had been playing pretty fast since the table was playing very tight. I had about 400 dollars and was in the big blind. The action was folded around to the button who made a raise to 17 dollars. I looked down to see 2 aces, i knew i was out of position, this made it all to clear that i had to re-raise to win the pot right there. I made it 35 to go, the button thought for some time and re-raised me again to 80. I again though since i had the best hand i should raise again, so i did. He put in the call and the flop came out 7-8-2 all rainbow. I went right ahead and bet out since i thought i had the best hand. he went ahead and re-raised me, and re-raised him all-in, he called right away and turrned over two kings and lost a huge pot to me. Even if he had a hand like a-k, im more then happy to take down the pot.
It’s a huge leak man, not a leak, a gaping hole. You can’t play winning poker and be afraid to gamble. Especially when you have the best hand. You’re at “worst” a 4.5:1 favorite with your aces. If I get re-raised I’m raising at least 3x whatever his last bet made it.
If I take the pot down now, that’s fine I won without any chance of losing, but if he wants to gamble, that’s fine too. I’m way ahead and I know it so I’m charging the max.
Now, if 1/2 my stack is in preflop and I have AA, I don’t care what that flop is the rest of my money’s going in there. If he doesn’t put me in first I’m doing it myself. He’s not going to get the chance to c/r you if you play it strong like this.
And I definitely wouldn’t worry about being floated. Like I said, my goal now is to get all my chips in the middle, so let’s do a little rundown. 100bb each. You raise to 7, villain to 24, comes back to you and you do the right thing of re-raising. Now my play as I said would be about 3x his bet which seems callable to him but if he knew your hand he should lay it down. So we make it 72, that’s only leaving us 28bb in our stack with a pot of 147 if he calls. At this point, if he plays, it’s all going in regardless of the flop, just like we wanted. If you lose, you lose, you will in fact about once every five times, but four out of five you’re going to win, so this play is a HUGE money maker.
If you’re only calling, now you each have 24bb in and 76 behind so a pot of 51. Even at this point, it’s hard to get away unless the flop is fierce like 3hearts and you have black aces, or JKQ, which is a likely 2 pair board, and in that case he’s going to have to shove it at me. So a majority of the time, you’re still fine. Don’t overthink it, when you have a big hand, play it big.
Huge hole in your game. Why wouldn’t you raise again preflop with AA-you have the best hand b4 the flop. All you are doing by calling is giving the Villian to hit their flop. Since they are on the button they are most likely playing a less than stellar hand-thus his bet is an attemt to steal your bet and the blinds. For example they might have K-9 OS which is a 20% favorite to win over any random hand. He put you on as weak and is trying to steal your bet.
Go over the top of him raise it to about $75 or more that will send a red flag to him that you are strong. Thus a possible laydown and you win a pot of about $34, if you just call he can hit his flop and you will lose a lot more.
If he calls make a pit sized bet after the flop-this will still show strength and he might forl the best hand if his flop hits.
Who cares if you 4 bet and others might put you an a big hand-use that to your advantage and raise with weak hand every once in a while-you will see more people fold to you.
Your current style shows weakness and it shows you can be pushed around. If you are afraid to 4 bet b4 the flop with the best possible hand you should not be playing poker.
sorry i dont know
yes, this is a definite leak, there really are very, very few plays that you should say that you “never” do…if your opponent is constantly 3-betting you and you never take a stand it is just weak poker, you have to pick one spot to come over the top of him and tell him that you won’t be pushed around…now, i actually wouldn’t necessarily recommend it with a hand like aces or kings, because by smooth-calling you can trap him, but with a hand like J-J or A-Q that doesn’t play quite as well post-flop, then would be a good time to play back at him…even if you have garbage, if he’s 3-betting you enough you just have to try to draw your sword in the sand one time and say enough is enough, you will not push me around, i will come back over you, don’t mess with me…if you never 4-bet then you allow people to consistently 3-bet you without fear, and you will be forced to play many more big pots with marginal hands