First, I only just started posting lately as I'm now medically off work and have no life to speak of. I also have been a lifelong $4-$8 LHE rec player, but now my cardroom spreads $8-$16 so I've moved up a little. I've played this game about 3 times a week for a month or so, and find it to be not much tougher than $4-$8 but more aggressive.

Tonight I'm in the BB. UTG limps, MP limps, SB completes, and I look down at A4os. I check my option. Flop is 4-4-7r. SB checks, I check, UTG checks, MP checks. Damn-it. Turn is a 9. Checked to me. I decide (I may not be the best player in the world) to check and hope someone tries to steal. Sure enough, UTG bets, MP calls, SB folds, I raise. UTG CALLS! MP folds and we go to the river heads-up. OMG it's the case 4. I hesitate slightly, and bet. UTG raises, I re-raise. He stands up, swears, and calls. I turn over my quads and he explodes. Throws his pocket 9's face up across the table, swears again, and calls me a F'ing idiot. At no time did I not think I had the best hand. I'm thinking he played his hand about as bad as he could, and I did a pretty nice job playing mine. Two other players agree with him that I'm crazy. Is this just typical poker room BS, or could I actually be insane.

Note: I do have two ex-wives who would agree with UTG.

It all looks like a standard 8-16 hand to me. The only thing you did 'wrong' was win the pot. In spots like that, if you feel like goofing around, call the floor and say: 'He called me a ****ing idiot. I object to the 'idiot' part and would like to know what the room's policy is.'

Bet the flop, otherwise looks fine.

Every time I do that ZOMG chastises me. Maybe you'll be lucky, doc.

HB- You're still confused. This is an unraised pot and it's OK to bet and it's not a donk bet.

DAMMIT!

Me too. He got preflop, the flop, and the turn wrong.

Welcome to the forum.

NH, OP. You played it well. Never ever take strategy advice from someone at a live low stakes poker table. Villain played his hand terribly.

HB straight trollin' at this point

Nope.

I bet the flop as well in 8/16 games but check with the intention of raising at hogher games.

As played, I bet the turn for the same reason.

Also +1 to whoever said never take advice from your opponents at a poker table.

Thank you all for your comments. Each of you have provided me with some great insight into poker, but maybe most importantly a much needed diversion from my reality this past year. If nothing else, you've certainly expanded my vocabulary, ffs.

And to actually wind up inadvertently in the middle of the never-ending Howard "donk bet" conversation is a thrill that ranks right up there with having a signed copy of Doyle's original Super System.

this.

welcome (back?) to the forum.

Back, yes. I first registered and posted a little years ago. There used to be a thread about old LV stories and I loved the chance to tell some of my exploits back in 78-79 when I was a young, irresponsible degenerate living in Vegas at the urging of a friend of mine from Vietnam. His name is Eric Drache. Historians will remember him as the first WSOP tournament director. He was also considered one of the ten best stud players in the world. He actually came up with the idea of getting 10 guys to buy into a game for $1K each, with the winner taking the money to buy into the main event. It was the first satellite.

I enjoyed telling some stories of the old days when many of the casinos were still operated by gentlemen from the seedy side of society. In 1978, a guy wrote a new book called Super System, and Binion's set up a card table in the hallway by the old gift shop and Doyle sat there every day autographing his book if you would buy it. I dealt the final table that year, when Bobby Baldwin won. 42 entries in the main event, and it was the first year that they split the prize money. Bobby "only" got $210K and to this day considers it a bad beat.

Cool story. Keep em coming imo.

i think you played the hand fine on all streets. if you don't make quads, i probably b/c the river but it's very close to a b3b.

b/3b UI otr at small stakes is pretty bad, imo, bec it's really tough to fold to 4. OTOH, scared as they are, maybe V. doesn't 4bet.

I think ui I have to b/c the river. I don't think I'm good enough to fold to 4. I'm finding sometimes almost head-shaking aggression in this game until the river, then a dramatic drop-off. Almost any action on the river is believable. Last night I won a 4 way, $250+ pot OTR with no call.

As I said earlier, I'm new to this particular game. I'm generally a TAG with my personal leak being becoming loose/passive when stuck trying to win these big pots with crap. The first 4 sessions I lost 6 bi's. Stubborn, I watched more carefully in the next 3 sessions how the TAG's beat the LAG's. Wound up stuck then battling back to even/small wins. The last 4 sessions I've averaged 1 1/2 bi wins and am starting to feel comfortable. I'm now in the position where I can concentrate on the long-term and begin to really enjoy this experience. I've paid close attention to lots of info I've read in this forum and am trying to take this more seriously. It's proving to be much more fun than my years of only having limited poker time and feeling I need to play as many hands as possible to get my money's worth

I'll try to be bluntly honest in my postings to get your honest opinions/reactions. One of my toughest challenges now, I think, will be not allowing the loud, disgustingly obnoxious players to get to me. I know they are usually good money sources, but I'm naturally reserved and have to fight the feeling of hating to have to tolerate them to play. I think I live in this world where I'd be happy with a "gentlemen's only" game with a dress code.

Looking at my postings, it also seems I'm incapable of posting in less than 3 full paragraphs. I'll work on that part of my game, also.

I disagree, flop check is fine as you'll be doing that pretty much always. I'd check to raise here 100%.

Kind of indifferent on the turn, at this limit I'd probably bet myself because I'm not sure the 9 gives anyone enough reason to bet.

Villain is an idiot.

This is an unraised pot and a very dry flop that'll get checked thru a significant portion of the time at these stakes. I'd argue that OP leading the flop does more to disguise the strength of his hand because "they never have it on the flop."

Don't get me wrong, leading isn't bad. I'd just rather "never have it" for 2 bets on the flop vs 1. Also benefits by letting one of the fish catch a pair.

I can think of spots where I'd bet this flop though (spazzy fish left to act being the main one).

I appreciate the thoughts. I've been betting or checking the flop in this type of situation about evenly. In this hand, it was a quick, knee-jerk reaction. However, checking the turn was a planned move. In the game as played in my room, virtually nobody thinks you will check a big hand twice. And the villain in this hand was not someone I thought would let a chance to steal the pot go by.

This may sound really foolish and naïve, but I have almost always played a hand the same way regardless of who the villain was. I've started to think much more about strategy and this was one of the first hands I played specific to the villain target. I went back today and did this 3 or 4 times and found it to be a fantastic tool. I'm sure you guys are laughing at my "discovery", but as I said in the past I just wanted to see flops.

I'd like to add that if against a live player with a clue, check raising this turn (unbalanced) will get you the least amount of money at the lower stakes. If multiway I'd consider betting the flop out, some will call with no pair drawing virtually dead that catch a pair, or the 3 of the suit call, you get calldowns from one two pair hands, occasionaly you'll get a bluffer raise you along the way, or the lol slowplayed KK.