Hey guys, first of all thanks for everyone for commenting. I've picked a winner at this point and they've been notified by pm that they've won. I know I said I was going to close the contest at some point late sunday night but I've gotten so many good answers at this point that I'm going to close it early
I was intending to make all my free coaching giveaways not be poker oriented as it does give a slightly unfair advantage to those who play higher...
That being said, I remember at the time thinking his raise was sort of suspicious given the preflop/flop/turn play (less so the flop obviously) and then sort of realizing how important the Kh was. It then occurred to me this might be an interesting teaching point and figured instead of just posting about how I made some hero call I figured I'd turn it into a free session giveaway.
Anyway, to briefly answer the questions I asked.
1) The importance of the Kh cannot be understated. He's repping almost exlusively Qxhh combos on the river which are QhJh and KhQh with the some discounted QhTh as well. Thus our hand is favorable to a hand like Aces up because we are blocking 1 of his 2 or 3 value combos and aces up, while being stronger in absolute value is equal in relative strength to KhKx.
2) The most important card in our hand would be the Qh. It blocks almost all of his value combos.
A couple other important notes to address: Yes, he can have some lower flushes... It's not impossible. I would ideally like to block as many hearts as possible... that being said it's a hero call for a reason. However, I still have the advantage of blocking one of the most obvious hands for him to play this way.
Also, as a result of a few comments on the last blog post I'd like to clear a few things up.
I'm not trying to teach people to play this way. I also never claimed to have played every street well. Turn is almost certainly a clear bet and the river is most likely a fold to the BB bet (though I do have some reads on that specific villain that make my call probably just slightly bad instead of really bad.) Unfortunately, I still make mistakes when I play. Additionally, I have reads on CO villain that he is a good reg and more than capable of bluffing in spots like this. I don't even know about the final river call. It could potentially be bad here too. The fact that he did show up with a bluff in this spot probably lends some support to the idea that the 2nd river call isn't that bad but we will never know. If I knew for certain I was going to win it wouldn't have been much of a hero call would it?
Instead of posting a less than helpful comment proclaiming how big of an idiot I am why not see this for what it is. I'm giving away a free coaching session to someone and I'm trying to teach people about blockers to a value range.
Now, I have no idea who everyone here is. If you're pretty good then most of this stuff more than likely seems pretty obvious to you. I notice that sauce didn't come in here posting a comment to try and win a free session. More than likely that's due to the fact that a) he has no idea who I am, b) he doesn't need coaching from me, c) He already understands this stuff better than I do. That being said, not everyone who frequents this site plays mid or high stakes. Some more than likely don't understand the importance of having a blocker to his value range, or even what that term means. So, if you feel you're in the "Sauce" category of people who understand about blockers and feel you're better than I am and don't need coaching then feel free to simply stay away and let some people who may have an interest in free coaching and actually have to think a little bit to come up with an answer try and win.
Sorry if you didn't enjoy how this went down. Other will be non-poker related in the future.
One last comment. I also agree that it's more than likely BB folded the best hand here. To be quite honest at the time I nearly fast folded once the raise came in and BB started tanking, but then I realized that if BB folded I had the opportunity to make a hero call that I thought would work a decent % of the time.
Once again, thanks to all those that participated and keep an eye open for future ones which I promise most of which will not be poker oriented.
Also, if you weren't the winner, but it's unclear to you why the Kh is important here, please make sure you read through some of the posts and understand why it is. At least that way you'll still have gotten something out of it.
I was intending to make all my free coaching giveaways not be poker oriented as it does give a slightly unfair advantage to those who play higher...
That being said, I remember at the time thinking his raise was sort of suspicious given the preflop/flop/turn play (less so the flop obviously) and then sort of realizing how important the Kh was. It then occurred to me this might be an interesting teaching point and figured instead of just posting about how I made some hero call I figured I'd turn it into a free session giveaway.
Anyway, to briefly answer the questions I asked.
1) The importance of the Kh cannot be understated. He's repping almost exlusively Qxhh combos on the river which are QhJh and KhQh with the some discounted QhTh as well. Thus our hand is favorable to a hand like Aces up because we are blocking 1 of his 2 or 3 value combos and aces up, while being stronger in absolute value is equal in relative strength to KhKx.
2) The most important card in our hand would be the Qh. It blocks almost all of his value combos.
A couple other important notes to address: Yes, he can have some lower flushes... It's not impossible. I would ideally like to block as many hearts as possible... that being said it's a hero call for a reason. However, I still have the advantage of blocking one of the most obvious hands for him to play this way.
Also, as a result of a few comments on the last blog post I'd like to clear a few things up.
I'm not trying to teach people to play this way. I also never claimed to have played every street well. Turn is almost certainly a clear bet and the river is most likely a fold to the BB bet (though I do have some reads on that specific villain that make my call probably just slightly bad instead of really bad.) Unfortunately, I still make mistakes when I play. Additionally, I have reads on CO villain that he is a good reg and more than capable of bluffing in spots like this. I don't even know about the final river call. It could potentially be bad here too. The fact that he did show up with a bluff in this spot probably lends some support to the idea that the 2nd river call isn't that bad but we will never know. If I knew for certain I was going to win it wouldn't have been much of a hero call would it?
Instead of posting a less than helpful comment proclaiming how big of an idiot I am why not see this for what it is. I'm giving away a free coaching session to someone and I'm trying to teach people about blockers to a value range.
Now, I have no idea who everyone here is. If you're pretty good then most of this stuff more than likely seems pretty obvious to you. I notice that sauce didn't come in here posting a comment to try and win a free session. More than likely that's due to the fact that a) he has no idea who I am, b) he doesn't need coaching from me, c) He already understands this stuff better than I do. That being said, not everyone who frequents this site plays mid or high stakes. Some more than likely don't understand the importance of having a blocker to his value range, or even what that term means. So, if you feel you're in the "Sauce" category of people who understand about blockers and feel you're better than I am and don't need coaching then feel free to simply stay away and let some people who may have an interest in free coaching and actually have to think a little bit to come up with an answer try and win.
Sorry if you didn't enjoy how this went down. Other will be non-poker related in the future.
One last comment. I also agree that it's more than likely BB folded the best hand here. To be quite honest at the time I nearly fast folded once the raise came in and BB started tanking, but then I realized that if BB folded I had the opportunity to make a hero call that I thought would work a decent % of the time.
Once again, thanks to all those that participated and keep an eye open for future ones which I promise most of which will not be poker oriented.
Also, if you weren't the winner, but it's unclear to you why the Kh is important here, please make sure you read through some of the posts and understand why it is. At least that way you'll still have gotten something out of it.
