Think about this, you have been playing tight all night, you have a winning image and you are up 300+bb.

A spot comes up where it would almost be criminal to not bet and take a pot down with aggressiveness. This is called pulling the trigger. Just rep it and bet it.

thanks for the advice

I think I was just upset about losing a buy in a few days ago and nitted it up after that for 2 sessions and it happened to work out for me. I don't have a big bankroll so I'm super careful with my money at the table. thanks for the help.

playing tight and value betting is way more important than bluffing on a short roll. Super ABC poker will win the money over time.

Upset over losing a buy in? Explain.

because I work very part time and live at home and can't afford to be gambling really.

And because I lost the $200 by bluffing it all away.

You should not be gambling.

^^ Truth.

Unless its really just your beer money anyhow, then do what you want.

Hey everybody, I have been wondering lately about playing a different range of hands at different stakes.

I find that when I play 1-2 at my casino I am typically a winning player by playing tight ABC poker.
However, I host a home game once or twice a week and have been losing more often because we play much lower stakes (.25/.25) and my range of hands that I play opens up significantly.

My question is do players tighten/loosen their hand ranges relative to the stakes they are playing? or is this just an issue of self discipline to stick to my regular range?

Standard?

8 handed
Early in session, no significant history with Vs
HJ - 60yo, Asian male, reg, hasn't been laggy in a few orbits
CO - 60yo, Arab male, reg, hasn't been laggy in a few orbits, I have a feeling he's fit or fold
Hero - standard 40yo cracker, baseball hat, t-shirt

fold
fold
fold
HJ makes it $6 with $100 behind
CO makes it $12 with $200 behind
Hero (covers) on Button with AK pops to $50

I feel like I'm probably playing for stacks a good percentage of the time with at least one of these min-raisers...

We can't answer this question unless we sit in the game with your villains. Alex, you need to be watching the other players and see the types of hands they each play in given situations, how they play those hands (aggro or passive) and then answer the question for yourself.

Paying attention to the other players and understanding what they do is Poker 101, there is no magic range of hands to play that will always work.

Pay attention and make a plan on how you are going to win pots from each person in the game.... ESPECIALLY the player(s) to your immediate right.

GL

I may or may not 4b AK without reads, especially when I have position, but w/e.

This is fine as long as you never fold on any flop -- you're priced in to gii with unimproved overcards here.

Money doesn't mean as much to you at lower levels, so you open your game up.

Also, you're playing with 'friends' as opposed to playing at a casino.

I treat $6 and $12 as one raise. I know technically we are 4-betting, but the size is really more of a 3-bet.

Effective stacks will affect the answer.

Cleveland Horseshoe, 1-2, last hand of the night. Chips in rack ready to go. UTG, get dealt JJ (fml), raise to $12. Folds to button who 3bets to $35.

Read is that he's fairly decent, knows how to fold, I have seen him 3bet only once before, ended up having QQ and getting it in on a QJT flop.

Is this a happy fold or do I give any credence to the self-leveling game ("well, he knows that I'm ready to leave, so maybe he thinks his fold equity is higher, blah, blah, blah").

Stack sizes? Getting 3bet, and getting it in on this flop is $200 deep is likely ok.
Getting it in $450 each, maybe not ok. Esp depending how the action went down.

There's a good chance that he gets it in with TT+ AK, so just range that and see if you're ahead of that range

Board: Qc Jd Th
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 49.090% 48.09% 01.00% 48563 1008.00 { TT+, AKs, AKo }
Hand 1: 50.910% 49.91% 01.00% 50401 1008.00 { JJ }

Looks ok to me.
But then again, we can debate the likely hood that he might not bluff with TT.
But with the money in pre flop, and the chance that he's "bluffing" with KQ/AQ here, seems fine for most stacks $250 and less.

effective stacks were $200 for my JJ hand, but the QJT hand wasn't the flop for this hand, that was the only showdown I saw for this villain on on a prior hand. My decision point is still preflop, facing the 3bet.

Ford and leaves, rack it up.

1-2 NL Hero has a tight winning image. On the button with 56

Two big fish who I have a little history with in this session limp UTG and UTG+1. If no one else limps I think I like isoing. I get 2 more limps from tight players so I decide to limp on the button and take it 7 handed.

Flop comes KJ10 and it checks around to me. If I raise pre and we narrow the field to heads up or 3-handed, it's a pretty standard c-bet. 7 handed is this a standard check on the button? I feel unlikely to get any folds, and might get 4-5 callers making me unsure if I actually want to hit my fd. In essence I'm pot controlling here with my baby flush draw. Thoughts pre and on flop?

I check turn is 8... Old nitty shortstack g-ma leads out 7 and 2 people call. I'm getting 5:1 and I fold how bad am I?

I like your decisions so far. Too many limpers to ISO. Too many on flop to stab.

I call this turn bet on the button. We can see all the action in front of us if we hit. If there's a bet and a giant raise, we have plenty of info. If there's a small bet and folds, we can raise for value.

Don't fold now, though, getting proper odds. Basically, if you fear getting over flushed in a 5 way pot, you could have folded pre.

Sup guys, I'm a total noob and need some help with this hand.

2/5NL- 10 handed

Hero($350)(UTG)(KK) has a very nitty image
The 3 V's (cover) are all playing 70/30

Hero raises to $25, CO calls, BTN calls, BB calls

Flop($94): 9TJ
BB checks, Hero? ($325 behind)

Some of my thoughts: Preflop all the villains put me on JJ+,AK, AQs but they call anyway because they're fish. I think their 3b ranges are probably QQ+ and sometimes JJ and AK. I think they all probably have 16 combos of 78 in their calling ranges as well to give you an idea of how wide they are.

Thanks!

B/f $65

You can still get value from FDs, AJ, KJ, QJ and SDs

Hero just sits down with $200 in $5 on btn game couple hands in wakes up with AA in cutoff folds to a raise to $15 2 seats in front of me from a player ($300) I would like to trap, folds to hero, hero smooth calls, btn($200) calls $10 more

Flop K64 rainbow
checks to Hero
Hero bets $20
Btn min raises to $40

Should I be comfortable going all in on this board with a hugely under represented hand and value owning AK-KQ? Is it mathematically that bad?

(I am not discounting the call/check/call line either)

Why are we trying to trap when we have no reads on table and table has no read on us? We "trap" when we have an image we can play against. Here we have no image.

The general read of a new player getting loose on the first hand is "fish". I think we are way better off taking advantage of this and continue to bump it pre-flop. We get AA once every 220 hands, can't afford to be tricky. Just play it straight and hope to GII pre-flop. /lecture

As played, we are pot committed whether we know it or not. I actually like a min-raise back (to get V to feel more committed) and shove flop. We are never folding.

I agree with analysis, I posted hastily and forgot to mention this was at my regular game and V1 and V2 are both well known

2-5 nl
Hero tag 26 asian just sat down new table 10mins ago $500
V loose bad mid 20s asian been losing a few decent sized pots in a row now. Havent seen him bluff but he looks capable and ive only been here for 10 mins. $400

Utg limp
Utg1 limp
Utg3 Villian limp
Hero sb kq makes it $45
Utg calls
Villian calls
Rest fold

Pot $135
A A 3 rainbow
Hero cbets $55
Utg folds
Villian raises to $155 and has 200 back

Anybody like a shove here?
Risking $300 to win $345, need him to fold a little under 50% if the time.
Think his range probably looks like 33% trip aces, 33% pocket pair, 33% bluff
Im thinking its pretty unlikely hes raising trip aces on such a dry board. We also have blockers to ak/aq if that matters, and we have the nut unpaired hand, in case he decides to spazz call with some small pair or gutshot were still live.

My new casino allows a Mississippi straddle. Seems very +EV to do it. Any reason not to.

Simple question. How do you get the suits to display with a picture of the suit when writing hands? Its so much easier to read A with a picture of a heart next to it rather than the words "Ace of Hearts"; but I can't figure out how to do it. Help would be appreciated