TalkFlop.com Blog

It’s hands like this that make you want to play every single hand that you get dealt.  After I fold my hand I always watch the action trying to pick up on tells, betting patterns, etc.  But when I get raised and throw my hand away I really try NOT to play the “What could have been” game… it does nothing but make you make bad decisions in the future.

Sure I would have flopped a boat here, but how often would the flop have come with 3 over cards?  Or something like 5-A-3.  Or God forbid something like 8-2-3.  On an 8 high flop I’d have no idea where I stood in the hand.  Sure I’ve got top pair, but I’m out of position in a raised pot with a 5 kicker.  Not the spot I want to be.

See you after the flop!

Tags: bad kicker, flopped full house, full house, out of position, top pair

I was playing a sit and go the other day and ran across this hand early in a tournament.  It’s not the weirdest hand I’ve ever seen but just goes to show the type of stuff that you’ll see on a pretty regular basis when you’re seeing so many hands.  All the money went in after the flop and it played out as is shown below.  I can only imagine how pissed I’d be if I was the guy holding the nut flush and had to watch as my opponent caught runner runner to fill up.

This is one of those situations where you need to remember to play your game and let the chips fall where they may.   tmingda0129 absolutely played the hand properly.  He got his money in with the nuts and the majority of the time his hand would have held up and he’d have double the chips.  The more correct decisions you make the better your bank roll is going to be.  As they say… that’s poker.

See you after the flop!

Tags: flopped flush, full house, nut flush, runner runner, suck out

Poker is a game of decisions.  Sometimes you make good decisions and sometimes you make bad ones.  Many times the decision not to play is the best decision you can make.  Unfortunately there are also times where you decide not to play a hand and it turns into a monster – that you let get away.

At the start of the hand I was by far the short stack at the table though I wasn’t in the “all in or fold mode” quite yet.  We were four handed at this point in the night and I was under the gun.  I limped in with Queen/Ten off-suit and the guy behind me who was third in chips moved all in.  The big stack at the table thought for a few minutes and called and the guy to my immediate right folded.  This left me with a pretty difficult decision.

One one hand I could potentially triple up if I put my money in the pot and won.  On the other hand I was pretty sure that my hand was not good at this point and I’d need to improve to stay in the tournament.  There was already one person in the hand at risk of being knocked out by the big stack which would theoretically move me from 4th to 3rd place (and into the money).

I decided to play it safe and fold my hand.  As I’m sure you can tell, the flop was an interesting one.

followed by a turn of and a river of leaving me looking down at what could have been.  Looking back it was a hand that would have tripled me up as the original raiser showed JJ and the big stack at the table showed AK.  I still think that I made the correct play in this situation but it just goes to show that watching a flop after you’ve folded can give you quite a bit of heartburn from time to time!

See you after the flop!

Tags: all in, bad laydown, final four, fold, four handed, full house, good laydown, luck

So the other night I was playing in a super tight game (6 handed) at my place. I was sitting in the big blind where it was limped around to me (I.E. tight game). I looked down and found:

Not too bad for an unraised big blind hand. Off to the flop we went which looked like this:

Now based on the way the game was being played I wasn’t too worried. I was obviously not in the lead here but I figured if I made my flush I’d be in great shape. The small blind checked to me and I decided to try and take a free card to catch my flush so I checked. The next player checked. He was followed by a small bet, a call and a call from the button. The small blind folded and I thought for a moment before calling. The only reason I thought for a moment was because this was SUCH a tight game that any betting was out of the ordinary.

The turn came a and the betting was on me. I decided to make a bet to see just where I stood in this hand. The player to my left folded followed by a call and a raise! (remember, I’m surprised by this only because of how tight the game was). I immediately threw my hand away knowing that I was up against either a bigger flush draw, trips or at the very least a Q making my J no good if I hit it. The player who had called my original bet called the raise and we were off to the river.

The river came a making me feel very good about my laydown and VERY interested to see the cards that remained in play (2 players). The first player bet (very small bet in relation to the size of the pot) and the next player called.

I simply could not believe my eyes when the cards were flipped…

for a flopped quad 3s and for a flopped full house.

Remember that this hand was LIMPED AROUND TO ME IN THE BIG BLIND!!! I really can’t fault limping with a pair of 3s but for my money I’d be in there raising with a pair of queens in a 6 handed game. Not sure that a raise would have forced the threes to fold before the flop and there wasn’t anything in hell that was going to get them to fold after flopping quads. The best thing that I can say for the gentlemen with the queens is that he didn’t lose his entire stack on this hand which I definitely would have.

Just goes to show why I love this game… you never know what you’re going to see!

Tags: bad luck, full house, pocket queens, pocket threes, poker, quads