Was this first hand played like a donk? I raise this flop every time to figure out where I am at. I looked at his stats after he three bet and VPIP 18% with really low aggression factor so I figured after he three bet he had to have an A and would check the turn to me if I capped. I also didn't think he would fold an A so just took the two free cards. Thoughts?

PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with , .
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, 3 folds, Hero raises, 3 folds, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (8.50 SB) , , (4 players)
BB checks, UTG bets, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises, BB folds, UTG 3-bets, Hero caps, UTG calls.

Turn: (8.25 BB) (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks.

River: (8.25 BB) (2 players)
UTG bets, Hero folds.

Final Pot: 9.25 BB

Results in white below:
UTG doesn't show.
Outcome: UTG wins 9.25 BB.


This second hand I played a little strange for me. I was four tabling at the time and at most tables wouldn't call this preflop, but lots of limping and very passive table so thought I'd see the flop.
I went for the ?bluff (didn't have confidence I was ahead as evidenced by flop call) on the turn but when he called I was thinking well, on the river I am only going to get called with a better hand and maybe raised. Good play or weak?

PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with , .
UTG calls, 4 folds, Hero calls, CO calls, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (5 SB) , , (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, CO raises, SB folds, BB folds, UTG folds, Hero calls.

Turn: (4.50 BB) (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets, Hero raises, CO calls.

River: (8.50 BB) (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

Final Pot: 8.50 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has Kc Js (two pair, kings and nines).
CO has Ks Th (two pair, kings and nines).
Outcome: Hero wins 8.50 BB.

Ist hand - looked alright. One correction thou, the turn card wasn't free, it cost you the cpped bet. The river card was the only free card. (I know - picky, picky )

2nd hand - didn't much like the way this was played.
Pre-flop - raise - try to thin as many behind you as possible or fold the hand as it's too easily dominated. KJo has str8 possibilities which likes a multi-player field but it's first strengh is high card which doesn't like a lot of opps.
Flop - is about how I usually like to play to a flop raiser.
Turn - check-raise is the prefered play. When Co just calls re-raise, I have to think I'm ahead.
River - Raise!!! - CO already told you he was only going to call when he just called your check-raise on the turn. Missed a bet here my friend!

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1- With no draws out there, fold to his 3 bet.
2- Err turn checkraise is weird here. I just lead again and check the river.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

Weird how?
With the CO raise on the flop and Hero calling, it seems only natural that Hero would check into the CO on the turn. If Hero doesn't raise, then he's missing a bet and the info the CO gave him by just calling - indicating a level weakness which I would think was probably a weaker kicker (AK or even KQ should have raised pf!)! Had CO re-raised on the turn, it would have indicated 2 pair or a set and prompted Hero to fold or call it down. But with the info provided, why in the world would you check into CO on the river?

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I agree with the second hand, but for the first, Fold to the initial bet, then if you do think a raise is ok, call the 3 bet, checkk/fold it down....
The CR on the turn will just get you into trouble.... You bet intitially to see how he reacts, then if he raises, you can easily release it here... but your CR just cost you more bets if he 3 bets, Your hand isnt strong enough to CR, it can't handle a 3 bet....

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first hand, depending on UTG its either a fold to his bet or his 3bet... the board is completely drawless and capping the flop gave you a free card but how valuable is that when you are 98% sure you are drawing to 2 outs?

hand 2 - raise preflop, 3bet flop. turn checkraise is stupid because you are saying that your pair of kings might not be best on the flop by just calling the raise, and then are checkraising the turn when he would still have a better king, or trip nines. you need to declare to yourself a hand that you put your opponent on and then from that, tell yourself if you are ahead in the hand and go from there. your flop play says you think you are behind, but then the turn checkraise says that you think you are ahead... since if I played the hand I would have thought i was ahead the whole hand, I would have value bet the river.

Thanks for the comments, guys. It really helps me to see how other people play. I agree with the consensus that I should have just folded to the three bet on the first hand.
I stand by the checkraise on the second hand though. I should have led at the river though, clear mistake. I quoted the comments above because I think this is how I would like to have played the hands, although of course there is more than one way to play poker.
If it's OK I am going to post a few more of these limit hands that I feel I played suboptimally, trying to tweak my game with PT right now so doing alot of self-inspection.

If you are going to cap the flop on hand 1, I would imagine you should bet out to his turn check. I'm folding to the 3bet though. The second hand I'll admit I'm not sure on. I most likely would have bet out on the turn and called a raise I guess.

what do you like about the turn checkraise in hand 2? he is not folding a king and to me, on the flop it looks like you are afraid of a better king and the turn only gave a 9 trips now... doesnt make sense to me unless you put him on a worse king than you and were going to checkraise the turn... but i dont see that as being reasonable with KJ

Well, it was 3 checks to me and I bet on the flop and then simply called the flop raise, so I felt I wasn't really representing a big K. I wasn't sure what to think when he raised, I thought he had a better king than me, but I figured KQ, KJ, and K10 were all plausible. I had resolved to just call down the hand and keep the pot small since I had a bad feeling he had KQ. He had a low VPIP 18% or so. I rarely just call in these spots, but as I mentioned I played the hand strange for me, which is of course why I'm posting it. 95% of the time I reraise the flop and lead the turn.

But when the second nine fell. I thought it would be a good opportunity to go for a checkraise since if I DID have a nine that is how someone with a nine would play the flop and turn. When he called my checkraise, I think in my mind I resolved back to my thinking that I was beat because I thought he might have folded a weaker K so that's why I checked the river. I clearly should have led the river, but in the heat of the moment I didn't see him calling with a worse hand than me.

So I guess when I say I liked the checkraise, I meant that AFTER the second nine fell, I liked the checkraise. Especially since I could have easily folded to a three bet, but if I led the turn I wouldn't have felt comfortable folding to a raise. I don't think I would have checkraised here without a 9 or a J on the turn. I wasn't planning to checkraise when I called the flop raise. But again, I played the whole hand a little strangely.