Alright I bit the bullet and picked up SSH from Amazon with one of my many gift cards. Most of the games on the sites that I play really fit, except when I tend to play short handed, but I do try to apply some of the concepts from the book to the game when I get alot of people involved in pre-flop.

Please-if I misunderstood or played this like a donk, which I feel I did let me know.

PokerStars 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Hero is SB with , .

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 2 folds, MP3 calls, CO calls, 1 fold, Hero completes, BB raises, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP3 calls, CO calls, Hero calls.

Okay on the small blind with a reasonable holding, AJo I know is a poor hand in multi-way pots, but I will always call 1/2 a bet with it. The BB raises and really is building up a big pot, which I know isn't great with this hand. I call and all the limpers call aswell.

Flop: (12 SB) , , (6 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP3 calls, CO calls, Hero calls.

alright this is where I was a little bit confused trying to incorporate SSH. I hit this flop fairly well, TPTK and a back door flush draw to the ace. I checked to the initial PF raiser and was going to see what the rest do, he bet and they ALL called?? alright, now I am thinking I was going to raise, but thats not going to do anything, the draws are still hanging around and I may or may not be the best hand right now. I decide to call and go for a check raise if a blank comes on the turn. The big blind was fairly aggressive, while UTG+1 was a definate calling station

Turn: (9 BB) (6 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 folds, MP3 calls, CO folds, Hero calls.

that complete the flushes, but I have the nut flush draw still. I check to see how much action there is out there, I really was thinking there would be some raising. 2 folds and 2 calls, I think I really should have raised here and think it was my mistake. I called, I was a little confused here

River: (13 BB) (4 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, UTG+1 calls, MP3 folds, Hero raises, BB calls, UTG+1 calls $1.25 (All-In).

well I hit the flush, the only hand I was really worried about at this point was 33, but I didn't think that was out there. I was going to donk bet, but figured I would only get at most 1 call, so I went for the check raise and potentially 4 big bets that way. Worked out nice.


Final Pot: 18.62 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has Ac Js (flush, ace high).
BB has Ks Kd (two pair, kings and twos).
UTG+1 has Qh Qc (flush, queen high).
Outcome: Hero wins 18.62 BB.

anyway I was thinking about the hand and I felt I played it rather poorly, I was going to raise the flop, but realised it would do nothing what do you guys think? I probably should have raised the turn though. I realise I won the hand, which is nice but I would like to know where the mistakes were

Well, small stakes hold'em style:

Pre-flop: SSHE would say raise this in small blind to a bunch of limpers. In practice I would raise here >80% of the time. You rate to have a better hand at these stakes than the limpers do. The other goal is of course to take control of the hand regardless of whether you hit the flop.

Flop: You have a great but vulnerable hand, top pair with A kicker but there is a two flush on the board. Your main goal should be to get people out. The best way to do this since you didn't raise preflop is to bet into the preflop raiser who will likely raise then you three bet assuming no one else reraises. If it wasn't raised preflop by anyone you would checkraise this everytime. I would happily cap this flop. The only hands the BB has that beats you is JJ, QQ, KK, AA and unlikely to have a flush draw unless it was maybe KQs. Limit is all about pushing marginal edges. People raise in BB with far less that those hands. You want to get those flush draws out and also get out anyone else with KQ. Good sized pot so if I win it on the flop, Great!

Turn: Since I would have taken the lead in the betting on the flop I would bet out here and just call if I got raised, since I have nut flush outs. Since you didnt do that I think you check call like you did. I have no problem with you not raising here since you don't want to get in a war with a baby made flush or trips. Now I would have played much more aggressivley up to now so I am saying check/call since you weren't.

River:I bet out here. I think it is too much to ask for the BB to bet again hoping for a checkraise when you hold the A. He is pretty stupid to bet here. No one that beats him is going away for one bet. Often in this spot it will get checked around and you make nothing. Usually when you bet you will get a caller from anyone with 10/Q/K of 4 flush (J was on the board).

Limit is all about pushing marginal edges VERY aggressively and value betting. Since you aren't trapping anyone for their whole stack it is important not to get too fancy when you have a great hand, in this case I am talking about the nut flush on the river (unlikely anyone has a boat with that board). The chance of missing those calls isn't worth the value of the checkraise since you can't get someones whole stack or a significant amount anyway if somebody bluffs or tries to value bet a worse hand than yours since this is limit and not NL.

The above is the way I play this hand almost every time barring some specific read, such as some ridiculous tight rock in BB.

By the way, I would say that you played the hand reasonably well, but very cautious. Just not my personal style. The other two people in the hand played it FAR FAR worse than you did In particular, UTG+1 fucked up every street.
I play these hands very aggressively so I will be interested to see what others say.

I actually had the same thought when I first read the HH... but then I read the result and I think it f'd up my thinking, so I didn't post.

Yeah, I'm betting/raising/3-betting and slowing down on the turn. With that line, it's probably 3 handed by then anyway... and it's a monster pot to make up for the times when you ARE behind and none of your outs fill (Aces, Jacks, clubs)

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growler has it correct. You need to thin the field and see where you are at. The best way to do that is to bet into the preflop raise and apply the concept of "inmplied collusion" where you are using the aggressiveness of the preflop raise to charge draws a heavy price and thin the field.

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I would limp in pre-flop as you did, horrible position and this hand won't play well with a lot of people chasing in a big pot.

On the flop I agree with betting into the preflop raiser, he may knock people out which is what you want and at worst they all call anyway.

If you had bet the flop I would keep the betting lead here and on the river

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Well I originally thought that the BB held something like AQ or AK, he was betting out alot of hands even into large fields when he missed the flop. I had a fairly good read on him.

UTG+1 was a calling station, and when I saw he held QQ I was beyond suprised, he would have gotten me out of the hand PF if he had raised.

I didn't really consider leading out with my hand in terrible position that I was in, I found it is usually very hard to get people to fold in that situation (I should have though). I also found that the BB raiser typically doesn't re-raise there, he probably would have in this case holding KK however. This was one situation where I tried to make one play, it really didn't work and I didn't have much of a back-up plan.

You guys seem to like my turn play, I thought that was one of my mistakes here .

My river play was made based on the reads I had, I knew I risked giving up a BB by not leading, but I figured that was all I would get by doing so. By risking the 1 BB, I thought I could potentially get 4 or at least 2 by checking.

I agree the BB was stupid for leading the river again with 4 to the flush, with just an over-pair.

Thanks for the input

I understand your though process here, but think about it again like this:

If you bet into him and he raises: perfect!
If you bet and BB just calls, everyone else calls, which sucks but is the same result you got by checking and letting BB bet. However by betting you take control of hand.
If you bet and everybody folds: great! It's already a big pot so take it down before an overcard or club falls.

If you check, there is some (likely <5%) chance it gets checked around - disaster.
If you check and BB bets, everyone calls - like in your hand - sucks as you gave up control of hand.
If you check and late position player calls first in you can checkraise - which would be good.

So bottom line is that any possible outcome you get by betting is better than checking, except in the unlikely chance that BB checks and there is late position better you can checkraise. So don't worry about if the BB just calls, you are better off betting here in almost all situations.

And I realize the preflop raise is controversial, but I raise against a field of limpers with AJ AQ AK JJ QQ KK AA almost everytime. I check everything else including KQ and 1010. At these low stakes table people limp with complete crap sometimes and you have an edge preflop - the whole "pot equity" arguement. Plus it gives me control of the hand.

That's a good way to think about the hand aswell Growlers, that's the good thing about posting is that you get some different insights.