Making the switch to NLHE from primarily a limit player(3/6, 4/8 HE, 5/10 OE, etc.)
Recently read PNLHE and trying to make considering SPR part of my process.
Right now feel like the saying "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing".


Short handed table 6 players 1/2NLHE
eff stack is $180(Hero) Villian has me covered.

Villian has been very active, raising pre often, c-bets often, stacked guy on my left earlier with a flush over top two on the river. Hero has been mostly folding.

UTG limps, V raises from MP to $11, folded to me in SB, I make it $30 with QsQd, folded back to V who calls.

Flop ($60)
9h 6c 5d

I bet 40, V raises all in.

I got 110 behind.

Pre: Raise sizing no good? Maybe 4 or 5x of his open $11 instead?
Flop: When I bet $40, have I already committed to shove against his reraise?

I generally go 3x IP and 4x OOP.

Flop bet is too big, imo. I often like a 2/3 pot sizing, but that's a pretty dry board for a 3-bet pot. I wouldn't go bigger than half pot, and might check back, especially against an active V who might be tempted to bluff by the perceived weakness.

AP, I think we're committed, even though he's shown a lot of strength and there are few semi-bluffs for him to have. He could still have a few combos of pair+GS and BDFD. I doubt he has a flopped straight, as he prob doesn't CRAI with it on this dry board, and sets might be somewhat discounted too, though for some reason people often overbet them on connected boards, not considering that you have almost no SDs in your range.

He also has pretty much all the overpairs, half of which you beat, a maybe a combo or two of 56s.

Long story short, I don't love how we got here, and I am a firm believer in the maxim that "SPR is not Ed Miller's permission to turn off your brain," but I have a hard time putting him on a range that doesn't give us more than the 30.5% equity we need, so I sigh/call.

I call. Players like these can't deal with pressure so they often make desperation moves on this flop with one pair plus outs type of hands.

4x OOP is standard after a raise and no call.

Once you raise and bet flop you aren’t folding to a jam on this flop.

He could have 1010 or JJ or 98ss 97ss etc

Easy call.

I'm kinda torn between this and being fine with $40. It sets up an easier turn jam targeting TT/JJ which is most of his calling range imo. I'm really not sure how often this guy is flatting KK/AA pre, if ever.

Are you ever folding if you bet 25 or 30 and he jams? Not saying we shouldn't, I'm just not sure if I can.

Do you think he floats A high significantly more vs <1/2psb?

I short stack as a rule and looking at this board with QQ+ and an spr of 2.5, I usually only have one plan: bet flop/jam turn.

Easy call ... and I like everything you did. I would default to playing it exactly the same.

(I don't usually comment on 1/2 NL because I don't play it so I'm not as familiar with raise sizing / stackoff thresholds with regards to $$$ / etc., but anyhoo...)

Personally, I would disregard the 3x vs 4x + limpers vs whatever type of formula unless your game is playing very deep (where you can probably do whatever you want). At a lot of stack sizes (especially shorter ones), we can instead simply target a size which is dependent on the amount of IO we want to offer our opponent (which is much more useful / important than some nx + y formula which is more relative to immediate odds and doesn't mean that much in NL). Personally, if possible, I like offering around 8:1 IO as this makes it pretty much immediately unprofitable for setminers (let alone other hands) due to not stacking us every time they do hit their set, sometimes losing their stack when they do hit, losing UI even with the better hand, etc. Even targetting getting in 10% of our stack preflop in a HU situation will put us in that ballpark (and I believe this is what PNLHE argues for).

So with that in mind, I'd probably go a little closer to $35 preflop; although $30 is certainly in the same ballpark when it comes to the IO we are offering, so it's fine.

We've now flopped an overpair in an SPR 2.5 situation where our opponent simply paid way too much preflop due to the poor IO he is getting (even if we pay him off every single time he outflops us). The drier the board / the less vulnerable our hand, the more we could target to get in stacks over 3 streets. In this case, I'm fine with aiming for 2 streets, and our flop sizing allows us to easily get the rest in on the turn.

As played, it is always uncomfortable facing an all-in raise here, especially as a 3better where we are supposed to have big overpairs (as we do). AA/KK and sets/straights/twopear are all in play here. But we could be up against JJ/TT or frisky pair + draws against an active player. I think we're just sigh committed and have to go with it.

Gnicehand,imoG

Totally standard. WP if you called.

It seems like the question OP is really asking here is whether this is a case where the early betting commits his stack regardless of his ability to range his opponent.

The answer is yes. There are some cases where you should feel good stacking off unless you have a specific read that you shouldn’t, and others where you should not stack off unless you have a specific read that you should. This is the former. If you are not sure you should fold, then you need to call and see what this is. As other posters have said, this could easily be a hand you beat. The last time I faced similar action I had AA and when I called my opponent had top pair. There is just too much uncertainty here to fold QQ on this flop.

Appreciate all the feedback.
GG- your comment about approaching raise sizing to wreck the Villians IO instead just a standard 4x or 3x+ etc is really interesting.
CallMeVernon- exactly what I was wondering here. I felt it this was an standard call, but being new wanted to get some assurance that I am headed in the right direction.

I took a moment to just verify my remaining stack to what was in the pot and called.
He had 99 for the flopped top set.

Preflop make it to 40


Easy call on flop. Yes youre committed

I'm pretty sure this is also how PNLHE approaches things too. There are a lotta situations / game conditions where you won't be able to do this (such as when everyone is playing deep), but I mostly start play (and constantly top up to) a 66bb stack or am up against villains with shortstacks where this is easy to accomplish.

GcluelesspreflopsizingnoobG

I'd go $45 pre, my pool defends 3bets too much so they need punishing.

With these stack sizes I like the flop bet sizing because I'm shipping the turn.

Pretty easy call for me.

Pre 3bet should be larger. General rule: 4x from OOP and 3x from IP where x is the open size. Add an additional x per additional call of the open. I think you can round down a bit to $40 because you have a short effective stack.

AP flop bet is good, easy call of the jam. Expect to be ahead a lot here. Like he could easily have TT/JJ and he considers that by calling he’s pot-committed, so he ships.