That's 1 of 2 pretty common courses of play, particular with 7's and below. From the button a raise seems a bit more reasonable though.

Yea I was limping to set mine, and going over the hand I think a button raise to like $15 in that spot would have been good to get to 52 hand out. But the guy with the 58 hand was super fishy, played with him before so he woulda still saw the flop and the action with him probably would have been the same for the most part.

I realized after that session that I have been limping in spots a lot more than I was a couple weeks ago so it's turned into a bit of a leak in a way. Going over hand histories with my boyfriend we've determined that the reason for this was that when the WPT was at bestbet there were more players that I could profit from by playing a bit more tricky so I changed the way I was playing preflop, but when those players left I've continue to play in a way that has me basically leveling myself against fishy players.

Friday I had a pretty good session and booked my first win in several sessions with this in mind, I also happened to have a wonderful table draw. There was a guy on my table who said he only plays once a year and he was raising and betting and calling any 2 cards the whole time. I sat with the same players for almost 5 hours until I was card dead enough to leave.

Yesterday my session wasn't so good, in the first 30 minutes I had this hand:

UTG limps, Mp1 limps, I open QQ to $25, btn calls, blinds fold, limpers call.

Flop comes 3cTd7c, UTG leads for $50, mp1 folds, I raise to $125, btn folds, UTG goes all in for $5 more, I call. Turn 8s, he shows JJ as river comes J. I show QQ.

I didn't really feel anything when the J hit the river as I saw his hand, it's kinda been going like this for me with my bigger hands these last few weeks. I've tried just about everything I can to minimize my losses but can't get away from 85/15 flips lol :P

Was pretty card dead and didn't feel well so I went home a couple hours later.

Only other hand I played last night was this:

AQs I opened to 20 in middle position, co and UTG call. Flop comes T75r, UTG checks, I cbet 25, co folds, UTG thinks for a second and calls. Turn comes low, like an 8 or something, UTG checks, I think about double barreling but decide to float the free card, river comes Qd, he bets $5 (lol) I raise to $30 assuming he wasn't on a straight draw or he woulda bet the turn and he tank folds.

I think I played that pretty well, but still was down $200 on the session.

Gonna play online today, possibly some 25c/50c PLO. Also might try the PLO at Orange park here soon, heard the game over there is pretty fishy and it might break the monotony of NLH at the moment :P

I dunno how 2/5 plays there but open limping in LP with low PP's is ****ing horrible

Care to elaborate or nah?

I would love to know also Please Thankyou

I do know the advantage to the preflop raise is that it helps polarize your callers to be at least higher than any two cards. You're set up to know that people playing are going to have some sort of suited connector, pocket pair, or any two high cards. That information can really help determine how much you can charge when you hit your set.

The advantage to limping is the fact you can get away so cheaply, but you'll have no idea what you are up against or the best way to play it.

I definitely agree with that, and I'm working on making some changes to my preflop play. Currently I'm having a good session and I'm up a couple buy ins so I'll do a write up afterwards

Sorry only just checked your thread again been busy.

I had a big long explanation typed out but was on my phone and lost it.

Pretty much what ghstflame said. You need to be able to extract enough each time u do set mine and hit to make it a profitable play longterm. Limping late position and allowing any two cards to play against you dramatically lowers any payoff you are going to get and long term will make it a losing play.

By raising as said your playing usually against ranges that will pay you off more often when you do hit. And you're going to pick up the blinds from time to time too

Can post a more in depth reasoning if needed when I'm home or if this doesn't make complete sense as I've kinda rushed through it

Those explanations make sense, I have been working on committing to it I suppose. Personally I prefer not to play pocket pairs 22-44 from any position, and normally only like to open 88+ in late position.

Today I had a pretty big winning session, only about 2 hours long. There were a couple hands I played that I feel confident I played well.

I start the session with $400.

Within the first couple hands I get A6ss in the SB looking at a straddle UTG for $10 and 2 limpers, I decide I call and see a flop, BB calls, straddle checks. Flop comes Ad6c7d I bet 15, BB folds, straddle goes to $40, folds around to me and I just call. Turn comes 2x, we both check. River is a 6, I check hoping he's gonna bet but he shows 23s ... Lol I'm still trying to figure out where the 3bet on the flop came from?

Then the next hand I played there was a raise to $10 UTG1 by a guy who was doing this almost every hand, saw him show down hands like J5o after opening min in EP, so it folds to me on the button and I min 3bet AQo to $20, BB calls and UTG calls. Flop comes 73Qhhh and it checks to me, I bet $30 in this spot and they both fold. Nothing too fancy here, seemed like a standard spot but this leads to my next hand a few hands later..

I have $500 behind. UTG1 limps, I raise AsKc from UTG2 to $20, CO, BTN, BB and UTG1 all call.

The flop comes Ac9hTc.

BB leads out $75, UTG1 folds and it comes back to me. I think for a bit to put him on a range, thinking maybe 2 pair, but more so thinking about hands that would call $20 OOP preflop, I decide to put him on either a weaker Ace or a draw and raise to $175 to really see where he's at. The guy has a bit of gamble in him but I felt like I needed more information. It folds to him and he tanks before he goes all in for like 180 more .. I tank again, check my cards and decide that with the Kc and top pair with some running straight and flush possibilities I am good in this spot. I don't think 2 pair shoves me here, or even a set really so it felt like he was drawing and he was. The turn was an 8c, and the river was 4c so I made a running flush. He turned over QJcc. Ran this hand through the equity calculator and it said from the flop I was 50.4 to win, so basically a flip. I feel like I played it well and got lucky too.

I sit through a round and take a smoke break. When I come back to the table I post $7 to come in at UTG2 (not something I do often) UTG and UTG1 both limp and I look down at QQ, I make it $30, folds around to SB who calls, then BB makes it $120, folds to me and I think (this is the guy I just stacked with AK) so I just flat in this spot knowing I have to be up against a big Ace, it just makes sense to see a flop just in case so I can get away from it, SB folds. Flop comes out J78dd, he checks and I bet $200, he thinks for a little bit then tells me "This time I am getting my money in bad!" And calls for less, board goes running diamonds and he flips AKo no diamond so we win that too

Now I'm sitting at around $1100 or so when I play what was pretty much my last hand.

UTG1 opens to $20, I look down at AA. The guy who opened is a super aggressive PLO player waiting for them to open a table. He can be really tricky so I decide to 3bet UTG2 to $50, folds to him and he calls. Flop comes K46r and he checks, I bet out $100, he thinks for a second and throws in a black chip. Turn comes diamond to put the flush draw out there, so I'm thinking maybe if he had some kind of straight draw on the flop or flush draw this card could possibly give him a bit more value to call with, but I didn't want him to know I had Aces in case he paired the K, so I do a fishy same bet of $100, he calls. River was 4d so it paired the board and put a flush out there, he checks to me and I check back to make sure he wasn't trapping with a hand that gets there, possibly a set or flush draw. I show my Aces and he mucks so we held.

Now I'm at $1450ish. I sit a few more hands and pick up 88 in the CO, folded to me so I opened to $15, BTN calls and SB 3bets to $40, I decide to let it go, it's uncontested. After this I cashed out because the table dynamic was changing and there were more regs at my table that would be a bit more difficult to extract money from. So I booked a win up 1k and think I played well



Gotta say it's a nice win after being on a bit of a downswing last few weeks, back in the green

Yeah you're right in addition to what I said you should obviously be adjusting your range depending on the type of player in the blinds.

I was more saying if you are choosing to play that type of hand from late position for whatever reason I much prefer a raise (or even a fold) than a limp.

Don't have time to look at hands from today atm but will have a look in a few hours on my way home as I'm actually at school today which kills a lot of my attention after not working/studying for such a long time lol

So I've realized that I've put the work I'm supposed to be doing for my recovery on the back burner.

I'm not quite sure how it happened, and I'm almost certain this is the reason why I have been feeling a bit hopeless and lonely as of late.

I'm going to be hanging out with a new group of sober people in Jacksonville tonight, and I must say that it makes me quite anxious. Meeting new people sober has never really been my strong suit, usually I would have beer in hand in order to calm my nerves. It's one of those things that wound up on my list of fears, something I've been good at ignoring I suppose. I hope this is easier than when I first got sober and I was dreadfully paranoid still :P

My dad sent me an email the other day letting me know how proud he is of me, and for some reason this was the thing that made me want to get back to working on myself. Today he said that he is one of those people I inspire to be better, and that made me incredibly happy.

There are few things in this life that are precious to me, and my family is one of those things. While I was participating in active addiction, it was so easy for me to take them for granted. Something sobriety has given me that nothing else ever has is the ability to work on and rebuild the relationships that I destroyed while drinking. I intend to continue making my family proud.

My dad gave me my Christmas present early, which was my own website domain. I'm super excited about this as it's something I've wanted for some time now but haven't had the enthusiasm to pursue. I'm not quite sure what exactly I'll do with it, but I'm sure something will come to mind

Things are looking better with each passing day.

You are easily one of the better well spoken well written posters on this site.

Considering you are purely set-mining, there's no real difference between 22 and 77. Makes no sense to not play 22-44 based on your strategy.

And yes open-limp 77 on button is terribad for all the reasons already stated. Plus by raising you are much more likely to get folds on the flop.

Turn was checked through, bet river.

3bet more, you're on the button with a good hand. By min-3betting you're forcing them to call due to pot odds with a random hand so you gain no information or fold equity.

With so little behind why WOULDN'T 2-pair or sets go all-in there??

Betting $100 into $300 on the turn is bad. So is checking back river. You lose tons of value from Kx hands. I would bet $150 on the turn, making the pot $600 on the river and I'd bet $350-400. Look at how much value you lost vs hands like KQ, KJ. River pairing bottom card is great for overpairs.

All day in the smaller games. Of course we are being results oriented with this one.

I'm def not saying it can't be a correct play or have any merit. Limping in a multi-way pot, limping in early position when the table is full of droolers who constantly follow with a limp etc etc can end up being profitable spots. All depends on table dynamic really.

I am however saying that positionally as put forward by OP with all the information provided there is no way (I'd have to have a pretty good ******ed reason eg. be playing against an absolute monkey that would call my raise regardless every time with any two cards and regardless of raise of limp that typically check folds every time he misses a flop and plays his hand face up) that I'd be limping the button when it folded to me with a low pocket pair. Raising is nearly always the correct play here.

You may as well just light your money on fire or go play roulette.

Fundamentally it's a bad play but especially playing live (especially small stakes) you can not analyse everything in a vacuum and expect it to be correct.

I dunno, lots of strategy books and a few pros who are doing well in the poker goals and challenges ( Butterfly) who mainly plays 1-2 says it's the right play. Who am I to argue with a guy who makes 40k a year from 1-2 NL.

Link?

Maybe I'm missing something. It's not like I've never been proven wrong or learnt something before. What I've suggested seems to work for me but probably should get my ass back to reading a bit of strategy from time to time instead of just posting in NVG and BBV/4L aimlessly.

It's sometimes easy to forget this place can be a positive resource hahaha

Pretty terrible advice ITT re: low pocket pairs. THis is live poker after all. Limping is totally fine and appropriate spots even in late position particularly at 1/2 or 1/3.

Raising can be fine as well but making blanket statements like never limp from LP or raise preflop since you will get folds on the flop more shows a fundamental misunderstanding of poker theory and live poker in particular.

But maybe you are all trolling the OP

So it might help if I explain a little bit about the games I'm usually in when considering how to play hands. As well as mention that my boyfriend and I go over HH on a daily basis and he's been helping me a lot with relearning how to play sober.

I play at bestbet Jacksonville on the 2/5 on average 4 days a week. The buy in is $100-$500. Normally I buy in for $400.

All the regs there know me, and I have a reputation that varies depending on the player, but for the most part if we get to show down or my money goes in, most of the time I'll have the nuts or pretty damn close to it.

The solid regs give me respect and consequently avoid being in most hands I raise preflop, and if they happen to see a flop with me they play pretty straight forward, basically avoiding getting tricky with me for the most part.

There are also the donk regs that just love trying to crack me, they will call my raises preflop OOP with almost ATC to see if they can hit a flop, and these players tend to play pretty straight forward too. They donk bet in front of me to let me know they hit the flop, and if I missed I have no problem getting away.

Then there are the fish players that come in for the high hand promotion and sit down on the 2/5 with $100, they're pretty much dead money when they put it in the pot, if they hit any top pair, sometimes mid pair they shove.

Also there are players that try to get tricky and trap me.

Finally my favorite kind of player, the never ending luck box of a call station. Chases every straight draw, flush draw, and back door anything. Always behind, never folds, and gets there too often lol
I feel like these are pretty basic descriptions of players in any room really, they only difference is that they know who I am for the most part, and they also know who my boyfriend is since he's been a solid reg at Jax for a few years now.

My issue with pocket pairs is more that I'm not always able to read the spot I'm in, and I try to avoid getting in tough spots. I normally do open pp 99+, but have found it to be profitable to limp/call with pp 55-88 in most spots to set mine. The reason that I avoid 22-44 for the most part is because I've never had enough profitable spots with them to find them appealing. I feel like the scenario I described with the 66 was not a common scenario, but with the table dynamic I feel like that hand would have still played out the same regardless of whether I raised pf with them or not simply because of who I was in the hand with.

-_-

I might as well try not to be terrible myself and add some advice.

OP, re: your last post. the idea (and I'm not saying this is definitely your outlook) that "I got over hands everyday with my boyfriend", and that's all you need to improve your game is incomplete, and worst-case is actually ******ing your progress. I've been following your blog since the beginning, and this isn't the first time I've noticed this. When you post hands and receive push-back or advice about your play, rather than addressing the poker-related content you justify your play and kind of put a stop to the discussion, like "woah guys I know you can play the hand a couple different ways but my way is also good and I talk poker with people so chill here's a story."

My advice is to spend at least 1/3 of your time on 2p2 reading and posting herelive-low-stakes-nl/ . Going over hands IRL is great in theory, but there's no way to know how good the advice/discussion is. You don't know what you don't know, and you may not be able to recognize the fact that your friend lacks a solid understanding of the game. That's one of the primary benefits of a public forum. Plenty of knowledgeable people are lurking, ready to tell someone "you're wrong and this is why".

GL

Ok thanks.

sorry I missed this before. I definitely wasn't talking about you

I understand this. It should be, though. At the very least post some of these hands in the strategy forum.

The bolded quote is a leak. You don't know the quality of the advice you get from your friends; you can't know.

I lightheartedly trolled you a while ago about making
"pot sweetener" raises (small raises that accomplish nothing other than bloating the pot). It wasn't trolling for trolling's sake, there was a substantive poker point I was trying to make.

Fast forward to a few days ago, you're 3-betting to $20 in a 2/5 game.

You have a lot of room to improve you game. We all do. Don't limit yourself to just the people around you IRL to learn from.

I'm not quite sure how this became so negative.

I apologize for anything I said that was taken the wrong way, for my intent was to avoid this negativity.

I know I have much to improve on when it comes to poker, and I do what I can to improve as much as I can. I get opinions from people IRL as well as reading the forums on this site and others.

When I began playing poker I was a drunk. Almost everything I learned was when I was drunk or high, as well as most times I played. When I finally got sober July 29th of this year, I took some time off of playing poker. In that time I chose to focus on other things in my life so as to be able to be better equipped to handle playing poker. I started playing again in October, and what I realized was that I had to learn almost everything all over. There are fundamental mistakes I've been making that are huge leaks in my game. I know this, and do wish to fix them.

I have never been someone who receives advice well. If I seem to be avoiding or ignoring advice, I would like to make a point to say that I am not. My way of responding is not the most productive, and this I know. I'm not perfect, and although I may have 5 months of sobriety under my belt, I still have many shortcomings.

In recent weeks I've been a bit more on edge than usual with the holidays. I was unable to see my family, and the holidays have always been a hard time for me. So I also apologize if I've offended anyone by not understanding the context of what was being said.

I suppose it would be better suited for me to post my HH in the strat forum, especially if I wish to have input from other players about them. I understand this point. I've only been apprehensive about doing so because I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle the feedback or not...

Ok but don't let it happen again!