Relative position

One of the hands I've struggled with since moving to NL is suited connectors. To a lessor extent, suited aces are in there too.

Postflop, I think those are hands that a relatively easy to play, but finding what Tommy A. might call a bread and butter spot with them has been tough. It's gotten to the point where I was routinely mucking them in the blinds, which I'm sure is wrong, and sometimes even to raisers when I had OK position. I just had no really sense for what I was doing, and I'm surely passing on some great spots.

I think I'm finally getting a handle on them, thanks to Rolf Slotbloom's PLO book.

Rolf developed a really tight, shortstacking strategy that involved keeping the laggro big stacks on his right, and then limp-reraising. The idea is simple. He limps in the CO, LAG otb raises, BB, who knows LAG is FOS, calls, now Rolf can come over the top with his short stack and either take the pot right away or get his money in almost always with a solid edge.

For some reason, this got me thinking about flops. You're way better off being able to semibluff behind a bet and a call, than you are facing a bet with a guy left to act behind you. You not only have more dead money in the middle, you're playing with a smaller stack-to-pot ratio, which is perfect for draws because you want to either see no more cards or two. You can get it in much easier.

So take this hand. MP is 45/22/2.2, CO 35/8/1.1. calls.

Ultimate Bet - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.50/$1 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)



Hero (SB): $99.00

BB: $117.10

UTG: $71.85

MP: $141.50

CO: $13.50

BTN: $104.95



Preflop: Hero is dealt 9 A (6 Players)

UTG calls $1.00, MP raises to $4.50, CO calls $4.50, BTN folds, Hero calls $4.00, 2 folds



Flop: ($15.50) 6 5 5 (3 Players)

Hero checks, MP bets $15.50, CO folds, Hero raises all-in to $94.50, MP folds

Uncalled bet of $79.00 returned to Hero



Pot Size: $46.50 ($2.30 Rake)




So if he folds, I pick up $25 for a $2.50 investment. If one of them calls, I'm probably behind, but likely have a solid 11-15 outs. I think he's got exactly two hands, 66 and 55, that have me in any kind of real trouble.

So there it is. It seems simple. It actually is simple, I'm just dense. I'm ok with playing the SCs in position now, but what I really want to see is that raise/call. That's bread and butter time.

If I'm ever in Amsterdam, I owe Rolf a beer.

I'll probably just head straight for the weed, but what ever.