Blinds: 75/150
Hero Stack: 11k
Villain Stack: 16k

Very little information on villain. Full ring (9 players).

Villain is UTG.
Hero is CO.
Villain limps.
Folds all the way to hero.
Hero has 99 and makes it 500.
Everyone folds and villain calls.

Flop is 444
Villain checks.

Hero bets 800.
Villain calls.

Turn is 6.
Villain bets 500. (Super small weird bet.)

Hero raises and makes it 2k. (Big enough? Just call?)
Villain tanks for a long time and calls.

River is K
Villain bets 4k.

Hero?

yes seems ok

Id call it off, what 4x is there really except A4dd maybe 45dd, two combos.

I would most likely just call turn, what is your logig behind the raise?
Folding river seems fine, but pretty weird hand/spot overall

Have to call. I'd be more inclined to think villain had a 6 than a 4 in this spot and may have legitimately been trying to think if they were drawing to an overpair once you reraised their bet. Even if you call it off it's early enough that you can recover.

I'm also inclined to agree with him having a 6. I know this might sound weird, but if he had the 4 he would have shown it EVERY time. You don't just muck quads. For real, have you ever?

I've seen plenty of people limp UTG with aces and just call along the way, never creating serious action until the end. I'd say aces are way more likely than him having the 4

I agree as well. I do not think I would be raising this turn. I can't see what worse hands would call here or what better we would fold.

I guess there is a possibility he/she is trying to get a cheap price on a river card. Maybe they picked up a straight or more likely flush draw. AK is a real possibility here to (depending on the player of course).

They also may be trying to keep you in if they have something strong A4, 66, TT, or JJ.

I don't think it would be unfair to range them as follows: JJ-55, AKs, A4s, AhQh, AKo, A4o.

The pause on the turn could be something strong or they could just be deciding to continue with something marginal or a draw (flush draw for example).

Against the above range you have 38% equity and if you throw in a couple random bluffs your equity only goes up. Your getting 31% on your price.

In the moment I would have a hard time making the call as you are really only beating a busted draw and 55, 77 and 88, but it seems against this range it is the right play.

Why do you have to show quads? Lol, just because he didn't show doesn't mean he can't have quads. OP, I'd just call turn and depends on what he bets make a decision, and if he checks consider betting small or sigh checking back and beat his weird ace high/bluff/worse pp

I was off on my math above. You are actually getting 27% on your price. More of a reason to call.

I would like to preface this with I am really bad a poker. Like, *really* bad.

My logic was that I wanted him to know I had a made hand and I wanted him to pay to see more cards. The only reason why I could think that he called was that he either had a bigger pocket pair or he hit his 4 so I felt like the pot was lost to me. I guess I was raising for information to see where I was at.

This is the part of poker that I need to learn. The only thing I can do right now is pot odds when trying to make a better hand. I need a training tool or something to establish ranges and how to do the math on hand equity. I mainly just play on instinct or whatever you want to call it with very little math involved but I am literally just lighting money on fire by not learning the math.

Is there a website for training you on establishing hand ranges against certain types of players?

just start calling from the turn onwards. you have reasonable SDV and no reason to stop V bluffing/overvaluing.

there are V-specific exceptions to this sometimes, but it's too rare to care about.

A couple of things:

1. If you are admittedly "really" bad at poker and are still learning the fundamentals I would recommend dropping down in stakes. Like you said, you are lighting money on fire not knowing some of the basics.

Stick to lower levels and learn at less of a cost. Unless money is of no meaning to you at this time, why play for $300 and not feel confident in your game when you can play for less until you gain some of the basic skills and fundamentals?

It's a positive that you know where you are at in relation to where you game is and you can be honest about it. Everyone has to start at the bottom. Now you just have to take the smartest and least expensive path to improvement.

2. I am sure there are training sites out there, but I personally found the best way to learn ranging opponents and the math is simply to deliberately practice hands on your own.

This is what I like using the site for. Every time I analyze a hand I go through it slowly and thoughtfully. I even use a Word document to range the Villains on each street. If a math situation comes up I plug it into an equity calculator to see where its at. I think about each street and the options.

At the end of the hand I compare my range to the actual hand shown and see where I went wrong or right for that matter.

There really are no short cuts to this. Its just work off the table. Over time you learn and develop an automatic pattern of thought to help you work through hands. You remember common situations and numbers, etc.

This then carries over to the table in live play. But it takes time and practice....lot's of it.

3. Instead of raising to see where you were at (you might not get an honest response anyway), why not just call the turn and call the river? This would have cost much less and you would not be facing such a large bet on the river with a tough decision. When you practice think about each option you have and what the response from the opponent might be to this response. What would your response to that be? These are all things that can be improved upon thinking through hands away from the table.

I have 2 main casinos I play in where I live. One runs a 35 +10 rebuy and a 55 deepstack. The blind levels are 20 min until antes kick in then they go to 15 minutes and they jump levels. You can imagine the types of players here. Is that worth it?

The 330 tournament was 30 min levels. The main one I play in is 125 with 20 min levels that start skipping levels once the blinds get big. For example, it jumps from 400/800 to 600/1200. It's a decent size field though with about 9 to 10 tables.




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One thing I need to do is keep track of my IRL VPIP. I feel like I am way to tight but I have a feeling I am actually way to loosey goosey. Perception versus reality and all that.

Another question: in those cheaper tournament should I be widening my range or playing tight and making people play for all of it everytime? As you can imagine, you don't have a lot of time to maneuver.

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This is fantastic advice, really. I do a lot of this at home, just kinda making up random spots and then trying to think of what I'd do in them, and then seeing if the math lines up.

Most live small buy in tourney's operate this way. Casino's want you in and out of tournaments quickly. They do not make a ton of money here (keep an eye on the rake cost as well). They want you playing cash or table games that's where money is for them.

So they shorten level lengths, eliminate levels all together, etc. You have to answer the question if its worth it or not. Personally I do not like turbo's and poor structures. But luckily I have a few options at the casino's near me and I stick to structures and level lengths I excel in. If you can't play online and have no other live options, then you may want to make a personal goal to beat these games to the best of you ability. Develop a strategy to do this. Think what players you face do poorly and develop a way to exploit that.

Just remember, the shorter the levels and more levels they take out the more luck is a factor. So your variance will likely be pretty high here.

In general I like to play a tighter, more aggressive game when facing weaker opponents. In general, weak opponents tend to be loose and are call happy. It makes it hard to play a wider range of hands because you will not be very successful with c-bets when you miss as they often call REALLY wide.

You will also see a TON of limp calling. So when you do attack limpers I like to be on the stronger side of my range because the raise very rarely gets through and you will often find yourself in a multi-way pot with a bloated pot size.