Thursday, March 03, 2005

Value betting

I am seriously considering heading to Vegas for this event. I have looked for rooms and they are on the pricey side except for downtown or the far north end of the strip like the Sahara. Downtown may be the better spot. Have to win enough to cover taxis.

Played a couple hours last night at Poker Mountain, the new site being pimped by Daniel Negreanu and TJ Cloutier. Not much going on there. Action is decent but there only seems to be just over 100 players at any given time. I decided to try it out for the bonus (100%) and the chance at a Bellagio trip. Last time I tried to bonus whore I went bust at Full Tilt so hopefully the results will be better this time around. So far, I am up over $100 just playing NL and .5/1 limit games, not including the bonus earned.

Last night, while playing at the NL table, I ran into a situation over and over that left me wondering how to play it better the next time. The scenario was similar every time. I had a read on the players and knew which ones would hang on hoping to catch their draws. I would end up heads up with them with a board that showed either the flush or straight possibilities on the river. I would lead the betting on each street with them just calling. On the river they would check to me. I know I probably should value bet at this point. But after being slow played, I became a bit fearful of that re-raise when they are slow playing the nuts. I am confident I have the best hand, but don't want to get hosed by the SP, or get bluffed out with a big raise.

I guess this is more of a read on the opponent. If they have slow played big hands in the past, I may want to skip that final bet. Otherwise hit them with a bet they cannot help but call. I will have to tweak that part of my game and see exactly what happens

No comments: