[sours]

For discussion.

NL Hold'em hand.

PlayerA is dealt Eight Clubs Nine Clubs in MP.
Player B is dealth Four Diamonds Five Diamonds in LP.

Two limpers and PlayerA limps.
Player B raises to 4BB.
It is folded up to PlayerA who calls.

The flop
Six Clubs Seven Diamonds Ten Spade
PlayerA checks and PlayerB bets 8BB into the 11.5BB pot. PlayerA calls.
The turn
Six Clubs Seven Diamonds Ten Spade Three (trey) Clubs

PlayerA checks.
PlayerB bets 20BB into the ~27.5BB pot.
PlayerA re-raises by 20BB to 40BB.
Player B pushes all-in (50BB more).
Player A calls

The river is n/a.

PlayerA wins PlayerB's stack.

Both players played this hand exactly the way they wanted to.

Without knowing anything more, which player do you think is the better NL player and why?

Begin.

[norshvind]

Player A won the pot, but I'll take player B's style in the long run. B was betting and raising, A was calling. His hand wasn't strong enough to want to smooth call that flop. Straights are vulnerable hands, if an 8 or a 9 falls either he's beat, chopped, or gets no action. If the board pairs he's gotta precede with caution. Check to the raiser sure, but then raise... that call is really weak. Once the turn falls and A is fortunate enough to still have the nuts, the raise should be more than double B's bet. For all his chips preferably. As it turned out, B did the betting for him, and it worked out perfectly.

Who knows, maybe A knows something about the way B plays that justifies being so passive. But on that hand alone if I have to draft someone to my poker team I'll take player B.

[DeepBlue]

Whereas perhaps Player A played it smart and took Player B for everything he had, his style was non-descript - he showed no initiative to raise the pot (until late on), he had the typical amateur play about him. He limped, he called, he wanted to see cards for very little and played it very cautiously.

Although he won on this occasion, on another he might have ended up calling half his stack into the pot and coming out with nothing. Checking and calling constantly is, in my opinion, negative play and can get you in all kinds of trouble when people get wise to you and raise on marginal hands.

[BigAl]

Right on the money there DeepBlue! Although in that scenario things panned out well and he kept players in the hand, just as I would have done, I wouldn't want to repeat too often because it is negative play and as much as it shows you may have a weak hand, a larger bet comes in and then what do you do? Call and risk it or fold and have your play exposed?

No brainer really, is it?