zero reads on the HJ? If I thought he had enough unpaired hands in his range to make coldcalling something like J8s tempting, then I'd have a pretty wide coldcalling range here. The thing is though that you said it's playing like a SSHE reader's dream, so I'm worried that HJ has lots of overpairs to those very hands that I wanna coldcall. Would a typical small stakes player raise it up with Q9s or 55 here? I doubt it. Take it to stove, start with a few different opening ranges for the HJ, come up with a 3 betting plan and see what's left over to work with.

I'd 3 bet while trying to keep a straight face. I'm thinking we need to look at the bigger picture to figure out what % we should be raising preflop here.

Seems to me that our position would be much better if we were in the big blind. Perhaps in that spot we should be playing even more hands than in a heads up game. I don't know, but both situations most definitely dictate a wider preflop range than when we're in the small blind out of position to two players. However, I do think we should be playing very loosely on the button against three blinds, perhaps even as wide as 60-65%. In a heads up game, I'm playing ~80% preflop. So I think that a good opening range in this spot is somewhere between 60% and 80%, but that's about as far as I can narrow it down.

8/16 9 handed...$200 splash pot and a full kill pot. Killer is BB.

UTG limps...I am next with As4h...the TAG two to my left raises out of turn, the guy to his left has exactly enough left to 3 bet and tells his neighbor he isn't even gonna look at his cards and go all in. I believe him. The dealer Stops the action after the TAG raise....action is on me. The players left to act are all fairly loose and I suspect will call but I'm not sure.

The pot is huge. Is this a spot were I should just put my money in and gamble?

The problem is that if I flop anything I'll have to continue. This could easily end up costing me a lot more.

There is also the uncertainty of how many others will call and it still could get capped.

I would be getting 16-1 assuming all called and TAG didn't cap. My equity is about 9% giving the TAG a pretty snug range and giving the rest of the field a decapitated random range except for all in guy.

I'll add that $40 goes to all who don't win the hand.

Snappity snap fold driven by our position, tags raising range, and the fact that he's going to put in a fair number of caps while we are oop. Plus there's other players behind who can wake up w hands. Killer in bb means less $ for which to struggle.

If somehow we could get all in pre for 3 sb and still get splashed, I'd like it more.

i like to gambool, so there's not much i would fold in this spot.

Where is this?! I want to play at this magical place.

If you decide to play the hand this is an auto raise yes?

Wait, mom said "if tag decides to cap" meaning you want to limp. I you raise tag can't cap and you see if he wants to 3 bet

That's a really good point!

TAG opens MP, LAGtAG 3 bets HJ, loose calling station calls SB, we have Td8d.

I'd fold the T8s.

Call either way.

Do a stove if you have any doubt.

Obvious call.

Live Mid+ stakes 9 handed game.

I open AQo from MP, CO calls (fairly average ABC player), BB 3bets.

BB is a very loose aggressive player that either loses 10K a session or wins 10K a session when hitting cards. Have seen him 3bet anything from KJs, to A8o, to AA. Heads up, I 4bet most of the time and only call some for balance. I have ABC player behind as well though and this is a 5 bet cap game.

Do I 4bet my AQo here or just call? BB will only call the 4bet unless he has QQ+ or AKs/o, then he 5bet caps.

seems like you're crushing their combined ranges.

Live 20/40 9 handed.

LAG UTG opens, two loose passive players in MP call, we are next in CO with 64s.

The blinds are both very loose.

Are the blinds loose aggressive or loose passive? Fold if the former and call if the latter imo.

I agree.

Same scenario but this time it is folded to us in SB with Jd7d. The BB is loose and passive.

How's bout K6s, Q6s?

If the last to act is loose and passive, isn't that a pokerstove question?

I must admit I don't understand the value of this thread without some aggressive filtering. It's also possible I'm running bad and the few times I've opened the thread I see a question like this.

Is it?

Here is a spot I’ve been wondering about. The scenario is that a tight player raises from EP. Then there are some number of loose passive Cold Callers - either 1, 2, or 3, and for these simulations I’m just going to start with 1 Cold Caller. We are in the SB and we know if we call, the BB will call his entire range getting 7-1 odds (and raise his premium holdings). To simplify, I’ll ignore the case where the BB 3! and just include it with the other cases by saying he calls 100%. Cold Callers are tricky for me to put on ranges – why aren’t they raising? Are their cards good but they are scared of the raiser? Or are their cards bad but they want to play anyway? I’ll assign CC the top 30% of hands except for the very top 4% (which he should 3!). So, here are my ranges.

EP: 99+,AJs+,AQo+ (a pretty tight range)
CC: TT-55,AJs-A2s,K5s+,Q7s+,J8s+,T8s+,98s,AJo-A7o,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T9o (assuming he 3! With JJ+, AQs+, AQo+)
BB: 100%

If EP, CC, and BB all put in 2 bets, and so far we have put in 0.5 small bets, we need to put in 1.5 more small bets out of the 8 small bets that will be in the pot to continue. That means we need 18.75% equity to call. Here are some equities I’ve calculated which the calculations say are a good boundary.
22 = 19.6%
A2s = 19.7%
AT0 = 18.71%
K2s = 19.1%
KTo = 20% (K9o is unsurprisingly much worse at 17.3%)
Q5s = 18.8%
QTo = 19%
J6s = 18.75%
JTo = 19.6%
T6s = 19.2%
96s = 19.5%
85s = 19.6%
74s = 19.3%
63s = 19.2%
53s = 20.2%
43s = 19.6%

We’ll act first on every street. And I ignored when the BB raises. My simulations do show the power of suited cards, but I feel like some of the boundaries I discovered will be really tough to play. For instance, I can’t imagine really calling with T6s or 43s. How much do you adjust from the numbers I got which represent pure equity in order to have hands that are more easily playable? I feel like the bottom of the calling range should be something like T8s, 97s, 86s,and maybe 76s. Yes? No?

Think about your poor position, domination by the strong hand, and playability post flop.

Q5s is a poster child for problems. It can't make straights. The villains assume you're suited, so hitting a flush isn't getting paid a ton. Your top pair is dominated by both of the non-random ranges. It is a hand that plays much worse than its equity.

Play around with hands that fall just below the strong range that still might dominate the 30% player. JT is potentially dominated by AJ, but EP isn't playing any non-paired T's (and will only have one combo of top set when you hit top pair). If you really cold nail down ranges, do you see discontinuities where you sneak just under the narrow range?

You'd rather have a combo draw than just a draw. Even backdoor draws can help, so 76 picks up a 5 for a perfect BDSD on a K52 board. Now, a bunch of cards give you extra outs on the turn.

I'd be picky in the small blind vs. a really strong range, a single cold caller, and a BB with a raise button.

If there is no cold caller, then I'm very tight from the SB. If I play, I will be 3! to get the BB to leave dead money in the pot, but I need to do that with a range that is close to 50% against EP since we'll be heads up - and he has a pretty strong range.

And there is the risk, which I've simplified away for my computations, that BB wakes up with a hand and 3! and if that happens EP has the opportunity to 4!. So obviously, the boundary conditions I found can't be played. You have to tighten up from them.

I didn't get around to calculating for 2 or 3 cold callers, which is sort of what I was wondering about when I did this exercise. I would expect the equity of suited hands to go up in value, but that's what has already surprised me from the calculations that I did run, the power of suited hands, even some bad suited hands. Many of the boundary hands I computed don't feel playable, and yes there are definitely some big playability problems that would arise if you did play those. But with 2 or 3 cold callers, some of the hands lower on the range I computed might deserve a bit more consideration.

This is exactly what I was getting at in my response to Chasqui. people blindly go with the numbers but there is so much more to making a good decision pre flop.

Doug hit some key points. There are many other variables that should be considered as well.

Early position raises and folded to me in bb, I feel like I want to defend any 2 suited is this too loose?