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Poker Video: Razz by Joe Tall (Mid Stakes)

Joeball and I played for a while and picked the cool hands and it made for much better discussion. Rehashing the previous hands was pretty difficult to do with live play so boom.

Happy monday imo.

On the hand on 6th street where you have (23)3KJ2 and your opponent's board is (xx)44KJ, I think that his peel is pretty standard. Your range is essentially: one bad one in the hole (in which case he is a 60/40 type favorite), two bad ones in the hole (in which case he is a 90/10 type favorite), a made J6-J8 (in which case he is a big dog but not that big considering he is getting 5.5 to 1, or a made J4-J5 (in which case he is drawing dead). Given that in two of the scenarios he is actually favored, in one of the scenarios he is getting about the right price that the pot is laying him, he has a call vs your weighted range (which isn't going to include many smooth jacks anyhow).

Happy monday imo.

It's Tuesday Chuck but I guess Razz will do that to ya!

On the hand on 6th street where you have (23)3KJ2 and your opponent's board is (xx)44KJ, I think that his peel is pretty standard. Your range is essentially: one bad one in the hole (in which case he is a 60/40 type favorite), two bad ones in the hole (in which case he is a 90/10 type favorite), a made J6-J8 (in which case he is a big dog but not that big considering he is getting 5.5 to 1, or a made J4-J5 (in which case he is drawing dead). Given that in two of the scenarios he is actually favored, in one of the scenarios he is getting about the right price that the pot is laying him, he has a call vs your weighted range (which isn't going to include many smooth jacks anyhow).

But you are not saying we shouldn't bet, we sure should, plus it sets up the river bets, trying to get a better K to fold. However, I am wrong on the river analysis, he never folds a Jack since he is drawing to it after the 6th street call.

One thing to note about stealing as applied to pokerstars - Up to and including $2/$4 the completion is only double the minimum bring-in making it fairly lucrative to steal and making defense a bit more economical(exception $0.25/$0.50 where it's 2.5x the bring-in). From $3/$6 the completion fluctuates between 2.5x and 3.3x the bring-in.

Below was copied from Pokerstars site.

Limit Ante Bring-In First Two Rounds*** Last Three Rounds
$0.04/$0.08 $0.01 $0.02 or $0.04 $0.04 $0.08
$0.25/$0.50 $0.05 $0.10 or $0.25 $0.25 $0.50
$0.50/$1.00 $0.05 $0.25 or $0.50 $0.50 $1.00
$1.00/$2.00 $0.10 $0.50 or $1.00 $1.00 $2.00
$2.00/$4.00 $0.25 $1.00 or $2.00 $2.00 $4.00
$3.00/$6.00 $0.25 $1.00 or $3.00 $3.00 $6.00
$5.00/$10.00 $0.50 $2.00 or $5.00 $5.00 $10.00
$10.00/$20.00 $1.00 $3.00 or $10.00 $10.00 $20.00
$30.00/$60.00 $5.00 $10.00 or $30.00 $30.00 $60.00

I haven't been playing Razz much on Full Tilt so I'm not quite sure how it breaks down. I'll look into it as I'm sure it's worth checking in to.

Time Link to 00:12:07

you say its close, but i think it is very bad because it will never work (or hardly ever) and all of the cards you need to hit to improve are in your opponents hands. This is a better spot w/ a 8 or a 9, but a awful spot w/ a pair.

Time Link to 00:14:49

I think there is a big mistake in this hand, for one you already labeled him as tight so i really doubt he has as bad as a 87 down. i think this is just a spot were you should chk behind on 5th because he is never folding (if he is tight) because he shouldn't really have garbage in his down card range. then when you hit your 2 on 6th and he chks you bet and he folds a majority of the time.

From his perspective though once you bet 5th w/ 3KJ into his 44J you are basically telling him 2 things, 1)i have a nutted J draw like A23kj, A43kj, 243kj etc.... esp. considering the fact that you opened in EP w/ all other behind showing low cards or 2) you are full of shit and just trying to power through. Now that is how i think he thinks about your hand, and i think he is more likely thinking you have a nutted J draw. So when the 2 hits 6th for you and he bricks and you obv. bet, he should be thinking that either you improved massively or you paired your 2. Considering there hasn't been any 2s showing yet and you liked to bet 5th so much w/ xx3KJ i would expect a crying call here most of the time if he is a thinking player. I think if you chk 5th and bet 6th as stated earlier it is a much more credible line in that spot and i think he folds most of the time. That being said i think that unless you always bet in that situation on 5th w/ strong and middle-ish strength hands its fine for you to bet, but i think a lot of players take a slightly less variance route there and chk. It is a big bet street in a relatively small pot so i think everytime you bet there and you are ahead you gain less then the amount you lose when you bet there and you are behind or you are ahead but he outdraws you on 6th and your fav. turns to a dog.

Not saying that is a spot i would chk everytime w/ good hands, just saying these are my justifications of why i think it is a bad bet here right now.

Time Link to 00:17:29

I stopped this here and still haven't seen the end result but you are saying what hands can he have here that he isn't reraising you on 3rd. The first that comes to my mind is 254 and stuff like 274. I dont see any motivation to raise you here w/ none of his pair cards missing and his drawing cards dead yet it is perfectly reasonable to call your EP open w/.

Time Link to 00:18:41

soul read.......i bet he had 254 because there would be some motivation for a thinking player to reraise a 654 because his pair cards look good for his board, his improving cards like As, 2s, and 3s look like pairing cards (because he re raised on 3rd) which would allow him to own and he shares one of his down cards. He deff. had 254 or 264. This again proves why i think the bet on 5th is bad.

Time Link to 00:23:55

This is a spot where if he raises the worst 7 he can have which is 763k4 he is a almost exact coin flip (49.5% dog) vs your made 89 and he is the slightest fav. w/ like 263k4 (like a 52.5% fav.) vs your made 89. There really isn't any motivation for raising one of his better hands here (though i would have raised any of them that had a better draw than a 8) because you are going to be calling always unless you paired your A and because the odds are slightly more in your fav. because you and another player shared door cards. I think calling here w/ all better draws than your 8 and even calling w/ his best 8s is a very solid play because if you both improve you will be giving him less credit because of his call on 5th. According to skalansky he is gaining extra value every time his opponents play their hand diff. than they would have if they knew what he had. He may gain more big bets by either keeping you in the pot on a bluff or extracting value he wouldn't have gotten if he raises and you were on high alert.

I think this would be a clever way to play a nutted drawing hand randomly (almost never but sometimes) just to give you the idea in the future that he can show up w/ a monster in those calling spots on 5th as the hand develops. That said i wouldn't do it. I WOULD RAM AND JAM AND PUT MY 53-58% EQUITY TO WORK.

Time Link to 00:25:08

bad bet by him, would be a good raise by you if you make it. Only problem is the best hand you can make will be a 8 and if he improves he can still show up w/ a wheel. I would raise but it feels gross when he 3 bets and then improves on the river to a winner. I think i would put in as many bets as possible here and prob. chk behind river and just call if he leads;

Time Link to 00:26:04

If you are just calling here you are leaving money on the table. Vs his absolute best hand which i would think is A53K4T (giving his down cards paired w/ some of yours) you are a 60% fav. w/ 358A99. That is a lot to pass up on in a game like this. The river will create a diff. difficult decision, but this one is a obv. raise.

good raise!!!

Time Link to 00:33:18

you are board locked to a 8....i think raising the river would always be bad. Just take your 11:1 pot odds and call then ship it. You will prob. win at least 3 out of 11 of these.