Wednesday, April 23, 2008

New way to play Ace-Jack?

The latest Card Runners video I studied spoke about timing tells. I don’t quite know if you can classify it as quick bet = good hand and slow bet = bad hand, but it’s definitely something to take notes on while I am playing.

I was impressed on how the instructor was very good at reading the hands of his opponents based on how long they took when it was their turn.

I am also going to try and spend 5 minutes after playing a session and review my hand histories on Poker Tracker. He suggests looking at your biggest wins and losses and looking for ways to improve.

On Monday I did some digging in my Poker Tracker stats and found out that my biggest money losing hand in No Limit is Ace-Jack suited. My first instinct was that maybe I was playing the hand too much and losing to AK or AQ. After reviewing all 60 of the hands on replayer, I discovered that my real problem was that I was not aggressive enough.

Most of my losing hands were from either calling a raise in position and missing the flop, or raising the hand and not making a c-bet on the flop. I now think that AJs in position is a re-raising hand. Take control of the pot and fire at 90% of the flops and I should win a lot more of these hands. If I get resistance and I have nothing, it’s an easy fold. If I flop the Ace or the Jack as top pair and my opponent is still in the hand, betting or raising, then the hand becomes tough to play. Depending on the opponent, it may be a fold on the turn or river if they keep betting.

2 comments:

birdiemachine said...

Don't forget about what you said about the CR instructors...They were making plays based on opponents tendencies. Being able to fold AJ, especially offsuit is +EV in many situations.

I almost always 3-bet AJ in the blinds against a button raise from LAG player...conversely I will fold AJo a high % against and UTG TAG.

Thanks for the comments on my blog...I have responded today if you want to read!

Tell me about your poker goals and I will certainly keep track with your blog by adding it to my blog list.

Good luck and thanks again!

nick said...

I did 3 bet AJs against a LAG in CO,
flop was Jack high with 2 hearts,
I should have checked and he would have checked, turn was blank, and THEN I should have gone all in,

I went all in on Flop giving him only 2:1 odds, he called and rivered his flush.