How would you play these hands? (Re: Call me paranoid but......)

Hi Everyone,

As a follow up to my previous post where I had the audacity to question whether my cards were being fixed I present the cards I was dealt from my last SNG. I finished 3rd in this 6 player game, and have now won only once from my last 11 SNG's. My impression is that these cards are garbage, and these are the kind of cards i've had for the entirety of the run I am mired in. I am at a total loss over what to do with cards like these and any help would be appreciated.

My questions to the group are: a) Are these cards really as bad as I think? b) Would you be confident of being able to win with cards like these if you received them for 300-400 hands.

I can post full details of any of these hands if anybody would like to see how I played. If your newsgroup reader does not show fixed width text my apologies for what follows.

1. 7h 3c [Kh 3h Js Jc] Folded K high 2. 7h 3c [4c 5c As 5d 8s] Folded A high 3. 5s 5d [4d 2d Ks] Folded Pair 5's 4. 3c 6d [7s Kd 4c 2c Jd] Folded K high 5. 9s 9d [3s 2d 4d Kc Jc] Folded Pair 9's 6. Qs 5s [7c Tc 2d 7h Kd] Folded K high 7. As Th [7h 8h 9d Ad Ah] Won Trips A's 8. Ac Qd [Ts 8c Tc 2d 6s] Folded A high 9. 8h 9d [6d 8c 2d 7h Qd] Folded Pair 8's 10. Kd 3h [Qc 7s 2d 9c Qh] Folded K high 11. 7s 8c [Qd Jh 3c] Folded Q high 12. Ah 9c [6h 3d 5c 2d Kc] Folded A high 13. 7h Ts [Js Qh 4s] Folded Q high 14. As 5c [8s 6h Jc] Folded A high 15. Kd 4h [8c Td 3c 4s 2c] Folded Pair 4's 16. 7s 6c [Js 5h Qc 4s 5d] Folded Q high 17. Qh 2d [Ks 6h 2c Jh 7d] Folded Pair 2's 18. 7s Ad [Ts 5d 2h Qc Jc] Folded A high 19. 8s 5d [2s 3h 6d Qs Qd] Lost Pair Q's 20. 9c Ks [7s As 5d 4d 6s] Folded K high 21. Qs 2d [Kh Td 3s] Folded Q high 22. 8c 4s [9h Qs 8d 5d 3d] Won Pair 8's 23. Qd Td [6s 2s Qs Kh] Folded Pair Q's 24. 6h 5h [2s Kh 2h 3h Ad] Won Flush 25. Qh Kc [Js Kh Ts 8s] Folded Pair K's 26. 9c 8d [Qh 8h 6s 8s 9h] Won Full House 27. 8h Td [5s 9c 2d 6h Jd] Won J high 28. Ah 9s [Jh 6c Qd] Folded A high 29. 9c 4h [4d 2d As Jd 2s] Folded Pair 4's 30. As Th [6c 4d Jd Ts 6h] Folded Pair T's 31. Qc Ah [Jh 6c 7s 7h 6d] Won Two Pair 32. 7h Qc [2c 8c 2h 4s 5d] Folded Q high 33. Qd Ks Folded 34. 5c Ad [9s 3s Qd 3d] Folded A high 35. 4s 5h Folded 36. 7c 3s [2d 2c 9c 3d Td] Lost Pair 3's 37. Ac Tc [5h 4c Ad 7d Kh] Won Pair A's 38. 2c Jc Folded 39. 8d 2h Won Last Player Standing 40. Tc Kd [Jc 8s 4s Ah 7s] Won A high 41. 2s Th [8c As 9h Kd Qs] Folded K high 42. Qc Js [4d 2c 7h 8c Tc] Folded Q high 43. 9h 7c Folded 44. 8h 7d [9s 9d 8s Ad 9h] Shared Full House 45. Td 8s Won Last Player Standing 46. As 2d [Jc 8c 4d 5c 4s] Won Pair 4's 47. 2c 3h Folded 48. Ks As [5c 6h 5d 8h 2c] Lost Pair 5's

Regards,

You're warning him like IM having a heart attack would be a bad thing...

Did you really PLAY all of those crap cards? From the summary, it looks like you were playing more than 75% of the hands.

If so, your biggest problem is that you are not folding enough pre-flop. You should not be playing more than 35% of the hands even if you are using a loose style, better would be 20-25%. The idea is to fold the crap pre-flop, thus preserving chips for the times when you have decent hands. You are hemorrhaging chips calling with cards that are basically big underdogs pre-flop.

You should not worry about how many POTs you are winning or losing, but rather how many chips you are accumulating or losing. I play a lot of SNGs, and for the first few levels I would basically not be playing more than 10-15% of your best hands. By doing that, the crazies will fight it out amongst themselves, and chances are good that 2-3 people will be eliminated before you even have to commit any sizable amount of chips to a pot.

So, you won 10.5 hands (one was a split) out of 48 for a win rate of ~21.9%, in a 6-handed game where the average win rate is going to be ~16.7%. All but two of your winning hands went all the way to the river, meaning you had the best hand. And you think this constitutes evidence of a rigged game?

I was the small blind (20/40) and limped in with 3 others. After the flop I checked, middle position player raised 160 and the other two folded. I then folded worried they had KK. I was probably thinking of a check-raise and hoping everyone else checked so I could then raise relatively safe in the knowledge I had top pair.

The blinds were 20/40 and somebody raised 160 pre-flop. I called, another player called, then someone raised 320. The first caller then raised all in with 2440.

I obviously folded.

Blinds 30/60. I was the small blind and limped in, the big blind checked, and everyone else folded. After the flop I bet 120 and they called. After the turn I checked, they bet 240 and I called. After the river I checked, he raised 960 and I folded. I see now I didn't have the odds to call the 240 bet, and if I was going to bet that much should I have done it first to force the call decision on them.

Folded pre-flop.

Blinds 50/100. I was small blind and raised 100. One player called, others folded. I catch top pair on flop and bet 400, other player calls. After turn I bet another 100, other player raised 400 and I folded. The other player was comflex who had also got me to fold in hands 5 and 9. I was his biatch by this point.

Guess who got me to fold? Yes, comflex again takes me to the cleaners. After calling my 300 raise after the flop, and 200 raise after the turn he then raises 800 and I decided it wasn't 'go time'.

Oh my god, comflex does it again. This guy has the nuts, and I don't mean the cards. Blinds are 100/200. I was big bling and raised 200 pre-flop and again it came down to just me and comflex. I bet 400 on turn and he calls. I check after the river and he goes all in with 6400. I fold again. Damn he's good !!!

I folded or checked to the river in 26 hands. Do you count hands where you were the big blind and checked to the river as being played? That would be kinda like including walks when working out a baseball players batting average, but then I expect checking all the way to the river does not happen that much with good players.

Anyway I played 22 hands, or 46% which I guess is too high.

This is the most mature response I've seen in months on this forum to a post that even hints at criticism. Bravo.

Thank you.

FWIW, when I tried my first Fishpage, I had a run of 42 hands with no pocket pairs. I collected all the data for a report but did not actually write it up.

What is your purpose in raising 100?

If you want to knock out better hands you have to raise a LOT more. Don't forget that you will be out of position for the rest of the hand.

If you want to get more money in the pot pre-flop with QTs then, well, what site did you say you play at again?

You might as well hire a megaphone and stand on a hill and blare out, 'I do not have a King'. Knowing that you are a weak player (ie. folds too easily), any decent player would pop it back to you at this point, regardless of their pocket cards.

Look at it from his point of view: Say there's 600 in the pot and he bets 400. If he does this five times and you fold twice, he breaks even. So if he thinks there's at least a 40% chance you will fold, his move is good.

Conversely, you now have to call 400 into a pot of 1000. Do you think your hand is good at least 29% of the time, especially against someone who is probably bluffing? (Hint: yes)

Also, if you aren't prepared to take this hand all the way, you should check/fold rather than wasting 100 chips.

You're going to have to stand up to him sooner or later. He has obviously cottoned on to the fact that you fold when he raises the turn. He can't have top pair beat every time, and why would he call that flop bet with king-x ?

Another dreadfully weak turn bet. Bet strongly or don't bet at all.

Again, what is the purpose of that raise? It won't knock out any serious contenders. It gives you no information about anyone's hand, because any 2 non-junk cards have good odds to call it.

All you end up doing is getting more money and more people in the pot when you have a dreadful hand. What you should be doing is either folding that rubbish, or isolating on you and just one other person IF you think you can outplay him post-flop.

Well, he's noticed that you fold whenever someone puts in a big bet.

My take is he's warning him so we all don't have to roll our eyes when the post from IM shows up....