On the button ($260) 1/3 NL, holding AT hearts, five limpers to me and I raise to $18, MP ($200, weak player, blown through about $500 in two hours) calls, as does hijack ($400). Flop AA7 rainbow, no hearts. MP checks, HJ checks, H bets $35, MP & HJ call. Turn is 4 of clubs, giving backdoor flush. MP checks, HJ checks, H bets $85, MP jams, HJ folds, I think for about 15 seconds but obviously make the call.


On the button ($300) 1/3 NL, playing at the same table of people as hand two (above). Holding A8 clubs with four limpers ahead. I raise to $18, MP ($600 and same villain as 2nd hand) calls. Flop is 88Q with Q of clubs. MP checks, H bets $22, MP calls. Next card is 5 of clubs. MP checks, H bets $45, MP calls. At this point I am assuming villains range is one gap and two gap combos of 8s, QJ, QT, Q9, KQ, and I hold nut flush draw. River is total dud, off suit 2. Villain checks again, pot is about $170 at this point and I bet for value at $75. Villain shoves, and I snap call.

Both are fine.

Please read stickies on how to post a hand, though.

Okay thanks. I have always been a lurker on this site.

H1:

After this many limpers I'm either raising a lot more to make sure I narrow the field (I'd probably go $25 to also setup a commitment spot postflop with TP, knowing that if I took down 5.5 bbs here it would a fine result) or I'd just overlimp (which isn't as bad as most will have you believe, imo).

Next time give pot size on each street so we know relative betsizes going in. Reads on players would also be helpful. With an SPR of 3 against the smaller stacked player and 4 against the other guy, you could argue we are committed here. Although at the same time I'd feel very uncomfortable about it against anyone with half a clue (which is why overlimping preflop isn't horrible). Alarm bells really should be going off in our head when both players call this flop; ok, it sounds like short guy might be calling weakly, but WTF is other guy overcalling with on this board?

As I say, next time say stack sizes, but I"m guessing we're probably committed against short villain, but uncomfortably so. But I'm guessing he's overvalueing a worse Ace enough of the time here. Frankly, I'm more interested in WTF the other guy called the flop with.


H2:

I'd be overlimping here almost always, but you somehow managed to narrow the field to HU in position with initiative, which is fine if that is the expected result (I'd expect that exactly never at my table with this many limpers and this preflop sizing).

Again, next time post pot sizes on streets. Looks like SPR is 7 or so, so we need 3/4 PSBs to get things in by the river, so I'd just bet/bet/bet that. I think we shoulda set things up so that we coulda shoved river ourselves for stacks.


My guess is that we lost both these hands, and that happens. However, one thing I will say is that both of these hands aren't monsters preflop, and yet we built very big pots to make it trivial to play for stacks with them; it's *possible* we might want to reconsider that (depending on what Villain ends up showing up with).

GcluelessNLnoobG

Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated. Hand 1, I had no idea what the other guy was doing in the hand. He was playing really strangely the whole time I was at the table, and actually called an all in bet with ace high (obviously lost a lot of money), so I was pretty happy to have him in the pot. I realize I should have sized a little more considering the amount of limpers, so I will definitely consider that for the future. I considered the main villain in this hand extremely weak. He was bluffing just about every hand down to show down and had been an ATM for the table.

For hand one, I really don't see many alarms going off even with a call on the flop. V1 and V2 are surely pre flop raising with any pocket pair and AJ-AK. V1 ended up having A7o


For hand two, I may need to just adjust my game up. I am fairly consistently aggressive on the button, especially with that many limpers ahead of me. Same villain held Q8o this hand. So flopping full houses against me for my stacks twice in two hours. Just hurt a little...

Raise more preflop in H1. My standard raise is 5BB + 1BB/limper at LLSNL, so that would be $30. That might be a bit much OTB, but I'd go something like $24 at least.

You have to call it off after you bet the turn, but betting the turn is actually pretty close. With two calls on the flop you're almost a lock to be up against an ace or better, and in any case they're going to fold if they don't have that OTT. There are 25 combos of hands which beat you (77, AJ-AK, A7, A4) and 24 combos of hands you beat (A2, A3, A5, A6, A8, A9). Of course, given the preflop action we have to heavily discount stuff like AQ and AK, so betting would be fine if it were allin. The question is whether HJ is ever capable of folding a worse ace. If he is, betting might be losing money because you always get allin when he has a better hand and sometimes don't get allin when he has a worse one. I think betting should be the default, but consider a) how likely HJ is to have limped hands like AJ-AK and b) how likely he is to be able to fold a worse ace. Sometimes it might be right to check.

Hand 2 looks good. Edit: Just reread. I'd just limp against that many limpers because I'm probably not going to just win the hand with aggression, which is sort of the point of raising in position. Raising is reasonable as well though. As GG said, if the result is going to be getting it HU, then raise for sure.

H1 Alarm bells going off after getting over called in the hj, there are only so many aces in the deck

H2 is well played and i find it hard to believe you could of lost this hand (except to the miracle q8)

Believe in the miracle... :/ Both times V1 flopped a full house on me.