You're a woman playing in 5-5 and maybe really soft 5-10 games. You should almost never pot control, and you should usually never have to pull creative bluffs outside of a standard continuation bet on great boards and situations. When somebody raises, you fold. It's an exploitable style, but you're rarely playing against tough opponents, so you should still be able to achieve near-max win rates for your games. When you're in tougher 5-10 games, then the adjustment is simple: exploit your image of always having it (but only in pots against the really good players). Masaraksh mentions a simple and probably the best way to do it. You could also open and isolate more hands (like J9o from late position, JTo from middle position, JTs from early position) assuming your post-flop play is really good.

Tripple barreling is another option I had not honestly considered too much. Its worth a thought but I generally think that if villains are putting in bunch of money they tend not to fold unless I bet really big on the river. Also in my experience I get so many folds on turns when I have something that likely villain was on a draw anyways.

I play in LA and I think in general the level of play here is a bit better. Certainly in the sense of me and my image. I would like to try and find a balance between playing optimal which I have been trying to play and the fact that I get a lot more respect.

So I have just been wondering then if my made value hands will not make me as much money what adjustments do I need to make to get more in other spots? Bluffing more is key..but when to do it? Best place to bluff is to make it look like a monster.. when do players make raises most with monsters? The turn. So if I am floating with say a gutshot to the nuts and turn a flush draw it would be very hard for anyone but a complete station not to give me credit.. Even if they have an overpair to the board. But the key here is I have around 30% equity if I do get called. If my fold equity is high.. say like 80% or even 70% then I think it immediately profitable.

I have three barrelled before against an agressive player who kows me very well. But in general I think that is a rather high variance play that I dont think I need to do too often to increase my win rate. I think right now its finding good spots to take one off and making these occassional bluffs.

I played this past sunday and looked for spots like this and they really didnt come up. I didnt have one situation where I could raise on the turn with a combo draw.. thats actually pretty good since I will get immense credit when I do do it.

One thing that did come up is what happened when I delayed cbet or just bet turn and river when it looked like no one wanted it. I took those down everytime but one.. I even got a player to fold a wheel to my turn and river bet when a fourth suited card hit. I had 7 high.. but it didnt matter.. So many players bet a flush draw they pick up on the turn that villain game me credit for having a flush.. I knew I had to bet the river to win and I didnt make it very big but it worked.. These are the kinds of plays I think I need to make each and every session.

As other players see this out.. in the long run they will see me less as a TAG female and more of a good player and I should get more calls and I can move more towards and optimal line.

thanks for all the feedback..!

Wendy

You're kind of contradicting yourself when at first you say that "you get a lot of folds ad people don't pay off your big hands as much" and then say that "you don't feel like 3 barrelling since people will call down once they put a lot of money in the pot"

You really should 3barrel more tho... You'll be surprised at how common it will be for live players to chk/call, chk/call, chk/fold... Or call/call/fold post flop...especially now that you're playing in the deeper 5/5 1k cap game where you can actually pound on people with 100bb river bets.

Level of play in LA is "a bit better"... You're kidding right? I've seen L@TB, games are a joke, TAGfish nits like Fred and Jeremy are raking in all the money... Lmao

You don't have to consciously look for spots to bluff at 5-5. In Sunday 5-10 games I never bluff. Are you more concerned with making money or trying to look good? I know you're trying to improve your game, but you don't have to force advanced high-level strategy and mind-games against simple straightforward fish.

What she means (I'm pretty sure) is that she gets so many folds to her 2nd barrels that once she is called on the turn, she thinks that their range is strong enough to call the 3rd barrel. This could definitely be the case. If so, I advocate just firing a 2nd barell with weak draws and low SD value holdings more often given they give up on turn so often.

I agree and disagree. Just playing her value hands well with occasional semibluffs will be sufficient to win at a decent rate.

However, Wendy's image is more different that you can really appreciate. Of course, if she showdown some bluffs and some aggressive plays that get there with weak draws then she will get more action.
But, as a woman, with not in her 20's, with an overall conservative look, she really does just get insane respect for aggressive actions.
I have suggested to her to incorporate some bluff raises vs weak-tight and TAG players that I personally wouldn't have enough FE for.

From a game theory standpoint bluffing should be a break-even expedition which allows for thinner value betting and higher hero call rates by villains.

However, I think that there are spots that Wendy can turn pretty substantial profits on bluffing just due to how people treat her aggression.

To surmise all of this:
Wendy,
Think of the spots that you are getting frustrated that you arent getting called on; and bluff much more in those spots.
If its 2nd barells. do it there. If its turn raises, do it there. flop raises, etc etc.

i gotta agree w/ oil on this one. the best way to profit in these 5-5 capped games is to just play straight forward. triple barrel bluffing/any type of creative play in this game has to almost always be -EV.

also prob something to point out that since shes a girl guys are going to be giving her a ton of action w/ hands that they normally wouldnt play just cause they figure girls suck. may be a reason why she never gets value w/ her good hands cause everyones in there with her with crap just trying to break her.

I have played against her before and OP has a super tight image, someone who really doesn't bluff a whole lot. To me she is a average reg, not bad but not someone I would hate to have on my left. That's why it is difficult for her to get three streets of value on the first hand. Unless villain is a spewtard, no one is going to call 3 streets with just KQ against her. I think, as you mentioned, part of it is because she has a very conservative appearance.

In the second example her bluff raise/check raise would work the first couple of times but players will soon figure out that she doesn't have a set every time she raises the turn and assuming that a decent villain is betting an OP she is going to get seeing more reraises than folds, IMO.

yeah just bet all the way in first situation. you won't get 3 streets of value with AK on that board a lot, but you can get two streets and it's easier to do that if you bet flop and turn. Also, you need to bluff more in general if you think people are folding to you a ton.

second situation, with your image check raising with those hands is awesome and will get you a lot of folds. Just be prepared to bet big on river even if you miss.

I used to think I didnt really need to bluff that much. The issue I ran into is after playing alot with the same players I just didnt get much from my value hands. Zach has seen this first hand when sweating me on a number od occasions. in one situation the board was super wet like j 10 8 tow suited. i bet on flop into 5 way pot and got no callers. I didnt think my image was that tight but I think the regs just thought there were easier spots.

So to eventually move my game I needed to incoporate more bluffing. Where and how were the key and as I think I have improved my hand reading I hope to be able to do this more often.

but... I have been running so horrible in big pots for so long its just really hard to pull the trigger. I so respect you guys that can play day in and day out. Gald I have a goos job.. So I took some time off and will get bak on the horse.

I will have to try the three barrel. I have done it before but it was against a laggy player.


My goal would be for regs to NOT want me at the table.

Wendy

Don't try 3-barrel cold pls! Write down all your questionable and poorly played hands each session. Discuss post-mortem with someone who rly knows what they're doing.. Best way to improve your game.

so played last night and guess what? i was called on two streets just once all night! thats right. i played 8 hours and i got called on the flop around half the time but each player either folded the turn or on river when i checked.

now it could be that they just didnt have anything to call with but its also likely that they would have called any random player but not me.

I think it will be rather hard to be a long time winner at this game if I get a lot less in value with my made hands but lose max value when I get sucked out on. the positive side of the equation just cant overcome the losses in those big suckout pots.

Also there was nly one situation all night where I could have even thought of raising on the turn as a bluff. I couldnt do it because by the time it was my action the pot had already been raised so I just folded.

For now I think all I can do is actually cbet less even on great boards when there are multiple players because unless I gt a good double barrell card in turn I just end up checking and if someone makes a play for the pot its hard to counter that.

I was able to steal pots on turns and river in a good few spots that actually I am most happy with as far as play. I also made a big (for me) river bluff to get a guy off a better hand after he raised and I floated him with a straight and backdoor flush draw. I dont remember the hh exactly but the board was two suited and somewhat wet. villain is a pretty tight player. he cbet flop and I called from oop. on turn he checked behind me. river was a brick but I lead out into him for around 3/4 pot. something i would do normally and he folded ace high. i had like 8 or 9 high.

thats it folks

Wendy

If the 5-5 game is deep, widen your open, iso, and 3-bet ranges. If a whale is raising every other hand fm MP there's no reason you shouldn't 3-bet him with AT+, KJ+, suited broadway, and mid pairs fm LP. If you don't think you're beating the game for 40/hr, it's prob bc of volume or fundamental leaks and not about fine-tuning bluff frequencies.

If there's a part of your game that rly seems to frustrate you, I would suggest writing down hands every sess where you feel you made mistakes, could play better, or could take different line variations if you adjust a few variables. Discuss these daily or weekly with someone in the game that rly knows what they're doing. 2+2 only does so much for improving your game esp if you only play part-time and live.

thanks!

If you want to make a nice steady, lower variance profit, your goal shouldn't be for the regs to fear you or wish you weren't in their games. Sometimes that fear can have an adverse effect that also dries up your action. It only takes a few sessions of light 3bets, a float or two, and maybe value-owning yourself a few times on the river to loosen up your image. But having a goofy image is much better than having a badass scary one.

Omg you're killing me. You just said "I can bet two streets an everyone always files against me. How am I going to make money in this game?". How about bluffing a ton in the near future until their perception of your game changes (this could take months for what it's worth). Just about every good player in the world would kill for your problem.

More importantly consider reading theory of poker or some other basic theoretical strat so that you can understand what to do to exploit villains based on their play and ranges and your perceived image. Tbh OP your question is über über basic and really not worth of a lot of discussion, but you seem sincere and nice so I think people are giving you the benefit of the doubt.