I said it your other thread, and I'll say it again in this one, based on the vocabulary you use and your explanations, it's sounds like you're criminally bad in the big blind. No good or bad player will ever think about folding 77 in the big blind. If you think they will or you would then it's by far the biggest flaw in your thinking/threads that it by far dwarfs anything else about the hand.

if you had posted that you think the bb "might" fold 77 preflop in your original post, not a single response would have been about the hand

OK, thanks, I get the idea. The reason I posted about 77 is because Calli seemed to leave them out of his excellent analysis. Thank you for agreeing with me that such a hand ought to be considered.

I know I have "massive" problems in my game and that's why I come here for help.

Poker is one of the cool games where deception is not only allowed but even encouraged. That's part of why I like it. I'm just trying to get better at it and that's why I come here. No other reason.

Deception is totally unnecessary at small stakes. Don't do stuff just to mix up your play and or fool your opponents. They most likely don't care what you're doing and you will probably just end up costing yourself money by taking deceptive lines that would likely benefit you at higher stakes or online.

For example, if I was in the big blind here, I'd call preflop with the stronger suited connectors like T9s, JTs, QJs because I think that's the most profitable way to play those hands at 2/4. However, make it an online game or 10/20+ and I'm 3 betting all of those hands preflop. It's not for deception but instead it's because I think that's the most profitable way to play those hands.

To be fair, if you are reraising T9s, it's likely because you think you it will be more profitable to play that hand in a deceptive manner. It's not likely to be a favorite against any player's opening range.

"Deception is totally unnecessary at small stakes,"


Well, thank you for that, Bob. Seriously, not sarcastically, I won't bother to do that anymore. It's a lot of trouble and if it's worthless then not bothering to try something like that is going to make the game a lot easier for me.

There are some things that I'll do at small stakes that may be considered deceptive, but I don't really think of them as deceptive plays. Examples:

- calling strong hands in the big blind heads up facing a raise from a middle position or early position player

- check raising when I think the previous aggressor will bet at a high frequency

- semibluffing in shorthanded pots with strong draws

- pure bluffing in shorthanded pots on static boards

- calling down with strong hands vs overaggressive players

stuff like that just seems standard to me at this point. I could probably tell my opponents that I do all those things and I don't think they could do much about it.

In that 8/16 5+2 structure, what hands would you chop off your button opening range? Assuming maximizing is the only goal and developing bad habits isn't a concern. I would naturally open 56s but that's from years of 6max online games with smaller rake + rakeback deals.
Maybe just keep the same range as opening in mp?