identifying leaks

i haven't posted anything in awhile because frankly, not much has changed; this month is still about break even give or take a $100 and i'm mainly sticking to small buy-in shorthanded tourneys, as that is where i feel i play the strongest right now. that being said, i have identified a huge leak in my game - i thought it was just that i was going through a period where i was calling a lot - not quite calling station level, but more than i probably should. this would be a big enough leak, but last night i identified why i was calling so much.

i played in a small live tourney before a friend of mine goes away for a month. i limped for 50 on the button in an unopened pot with Q9 offsuit. small blind completed and big blind looks at his cards... thinks for a second and announces raise. he makes it 250 to go. my first mistake in this hand was calling the raise, but i figured i had position, and i hadn't played a hand yet, so maybe i could get a little credit for a decent hand - and i basically thought that the blind could be raising the weak plays with a pretty wide range because i have begun to do it a lot more in my own arsenal online. also, he and i have talked strategy before and this play comes up from time to time.

flop comes j94 rainbow. small blind checks, big blind bets out 400, which was the exact amount i had in my mind if it got checked to me that i was going to bet, so i called. small blind folds.

turn is a Q. big blind bets out 800. i raise to 1600 with my two pair, and after a moment thinking, he raises all in for another 950. if i call, im left with 225. i feel pot committed, as im getting good odds (950 to win 5600) but think i can get away from it if i think im beat which im not sure of yet.

i try to put him on a range of hands that makes sense with the betting. i immediately discount the straight. i just didn't see him making the raise from the blind with that hand, and if he had the straight, it was just stupid lucky that he made it. (not to say that doesn't happen sometimes, but i just didn't see him with k10 or 10/8 this time). he could have two pair as well and while i don't see him raising with k10, i do see him raising with aj,kj,j10,qj and j9. i'm ahead of all those hands but qj. the other possibility is that he has tripped up. maybe he raised with a pocket pair and hit it hard. in my mind i land on aj as making sense mostly because i wanted to believe i was ahead. it wasn't curiosity that made me call, it was that i think he has the capability to make a move on me and it seems the more respect i have for a player, the more likely i am to call.

because i immediately discounted his raise at the beginning of the hand, i was less likely to put him on a good hand, and this colored how i viewed the hand all the way through i did land on a somewhat decent hand when i decide he had something like aj, but couldn't go all the way and give him credit for a pocket pair. btw, he had pocket jj and had tripped up on the flop.

if i had made my raise on the river, i could have gotten him to lay it down as a 10 came and my raise would have looked like a value bet - but i would have been unintentionally bluffing, because i thought i had the best hand when the turn came and his bet did little to dissuade me, even though his betting was telling me otherwise. now, if this was an isolated incident, i wouldn't call it a leak, but i have noticed that i have a tendency to discount people who are raising out of the button or the big blind.

i had a similar situation happen online recently. only this time i was in the big blind. it folded around to the button who had been min raising the button each time it got to him. this was probably 4th or 5th time around the table in a small tourney. small blind folds and i find ak off, so i triple his raise. he calls.

flop comes out j82. i put in a continuation bet of about 2/3 of the pot. he raises me. now while its possible that he had a j in his hand, i didn't think he did. i thought he was playing my continuation bet and raising with position. so i reraised all in and of course he called or i wouldn't be writing about this hand in my blog. i was right, he didn't have a j in his hand. nope he had pocket 8s. and i was out just like that.

now in some ways this is a completely different situation, but not at the crux. at the core, my thinking was flawed in that since i didn't give them credit for an actual hand, i overplayed the hands i had. how do i keep from assuming that they have nothing, but also keep from assuming they have the nuts everytime too? it honestly just seems to be when people are playing out of these two positions that i discount everything.

heres another example... works out good for me, but i still discounted what turned out to be a very strong hand.

4 of us limped in, early in a tourney for 20 and the big blind raised to 100. 1 guy called ahead of me and i called, and one guy behind me called. i had 97 spades. last time around the table, the guy in the big blind had raised his big blind when every one limped and everyone had folded, so that is one reason i called, plus once i had a caller ahead of me, i was getting better odds and i had later position and could see much of the action ahead of me.

flop came out 57a. big blind puts in a continuation bet and guy in front of me folds, i think its possible he has an ace, but could just be making a continuation bet, so i call with second pair to see what he does on the turn. guy behind me folds.

turn is a 9. he bets out again about 2/3 of the pot. now im pretty sure he has an ace - probably with a decent kicker. slightly worried about a9 or a7, but not horribly. i think im ahead. i call and we see the river.

river is a 6. while there is a straight possibility out there, no way i have him on the 8 unless he has exactly a8. he checks to me. now im pretty sure i have best hand. i bet enough to put him all in. he uses his time bank and finally decides to call and shows ak for top pair top kicker and gets beat by my two pair. while this hand worked out in my favor, i still didn't give him credit for a hand until part of the way through the board. my first thought is that he is trying to get the weak limping plays out of the pot. which i guess was true since he had ak, but i tend to put players on a very wide range here and maybe i shouldn't. anyway - im noticing the pattern of discounting hands from those positions, but i don't want to go to the other extreme and assume they have the nuts either.

any suggestions?

peace and love and happiness to all
kk