July 1, 2010 7:39:25 AM EDT
My area of focus has typically been fixed limit mixed cash games, but I'll give this a go:
1. I like that you don't overvalue one-pair hands in NL cash games, too many newcomers do and wonder why they got stacked
2. Preflop in this low limit of a game I might be inclined to raise 4-5x the BB since I'd expect there are lots of players who might call with a wide range of hands and they'll have position on you post-flop, but not a huge deal that you made a "standard" 3x raise
3. The flop has some potential draws we have to be concerned with (straight and flush draws). I think your $1 bet is a bit small, I'd lean more towards $1.25-$1.50 at least to charge our opponent to outdraw us
4. The turn check to control the pot size is fine. I'd hate to go broke to someone who flopped a set. If we're beat I'd expect Villian to show up with 66 or 99 in the hole and not JJ here. Other hands Villian might be betting on the turn when we check (thinking our flop bet was a c-bet with a whiffed AK perhaps) include TJ s00ted, AJ, KJ, etc. I think we're ahead here more often than not, so I'm fine with calling his bet.
5. Both of you have around $21 left and the pot size is around $9. I'm fine checking and calling a reasonable bet from Villian. If we lead the river and get raised we're in a tough spot where we could be paying off a set a lot more than we needed to (I'm discounting a runner-runner flush atm).
By check-calling the river we signficantly undrerepresent our hand strength to Villian, since it looks like we might've been in there with AK or AQ or perhaps an underpair to the J. This gives Villian an opportunity to bluff and put more chips into the pot with the hands we beat but he may think is best or realize he can't win unless he bluffs.
By check-calling we get extra money from someone betting a weaker hand, and save some of our stack when Villian value-bets a hand that beats us (i.e. I don't expect him to shove $21 into a $9 pot here too often with a set after the river flushes)
K
6
