Originally Posted by lagdonk
Match 2. (Same villain as match 1.)
A5hh at 12:24 --
He limps, you 3x it pf. I wouldn't do this against this villain. Or even in general. I normally prefer to value raise out of position preflop with hands that have pair-flopping potential; for example, any two cards 9 or higher. That way we're relatively happy when we hit a pair, can do so with either hole-card, and can also flop two over-cards on many occasions. With a hand like A5, the 5 is not doing much for us flopping-wise. Also, we know this guy can suddenly start putting in large bets post-flop, and rarely folds preflop, so I prefer to keep the pot smaller with A5 and get to the flop cheaply when out of position.
Anyway, flop is 894hh. You c-bet 80 into 120, he min-raises to 160. Calling is fine. The turn is the 7h. You check, he bets 180 into 440, and you call. I don't like it. Look at the board: 8h9h4d7h. It's scary now and will only get scarier (for him) on the river. Also, villain is the type who will put in chips on the flop or turn just to see if his hand can improve by the river. So we need to inflate the pot before then. Either bet the turn yourself or check/raise him to like 435. This gives him a chance to put more chips in and feel tied to the pot when you shove on the river. I'm actually not sure what the best check/raise size is on the turn vs this guy. Is he bad enough to call an even bigger check-raise, like to ~575, with a too-wide range? Or even a check/shove? After all, he could have a pair + heart, or pair + straight draw, or something similar that he's never folding until he sees the river. Just build the pot on the turn. Your stack should be going in by or before the river whenever possible.
KTcc at 14:20 --
Easy fold when he shoves over our 3x pf raise, especially given what we know about him.
Match 3. (New villain.)
A9o at 15:50 --
You raise pf for 3x, villain folds. Your notes say he's a nit who 3-bets tight. So I think we should begin the match by opening a lot of buttons for 2x, not 3x. We lose less when he 3-bets. We pick up his blinds for a cheaper price. And when he does call us pf with his stronger range, the pot is smaller and we have more room to maneuver post-flop, make cheap stabs, play more streets, etc.
64o at 17:29 --
Open this pf for 2x. Open a lot of hands pf for 2x against this guy, with an expectation of good results. If he starts adjusting in a way that hurts us, we can switch to something else pf.
36ss at 18:03 --
Limped pot, you flop a flush and lead for pot. I think leading your flush is fine, but I might bet like 25 or 30 into the 40 pot. In fact, I noticed that you click 'bet pot' often when you're firing the first bet in a limped pot. This sometimes works against you, because you do it with like 3rd pair or 2nd pair on a dangerous board, and your pot-sized bet discourages weaker hands from calling. It's better to bet closer to 1/2 pot when going for thin value with marginal pairs in limped pots, especially when you're betting on the river.
A8ss at 18:30 --
Villain limps, you raise 3x, flop is QdKd4s. You c-bet 60 into 120. All of this is fine. Villain raises you to 160. This is where you fold. Instead, you decide to call to "see one more street." Why? Your notes say he's a nit. So he's probably not bluffing us with nothing on this flop texture. We're out of position, so it's much harder to float his flop raise efficiently. And consider how unreliable our outs are. A diamond Ace doesn't look good. Even an offsuit Ace makes a straight for T9. And hitting our 8 is meaningless. This should be a very easy c-bet/fold on the flop vs this guy. Even if he's semi-bluffing with diamonds, he has a million outs (in the form of pairs or diamonds) *and* position on us on the turn and river. Or imagine even that he's turning a Q or 66 into a bluff for some reason. He's still ahead of us. And can give us trouble on later streets.
J4o at 19:34 --
Limped pot, flop is Jc2Tc. You lead for pot. It's okay, but I prefer checking here. I do this because I don't like the ratio of calls/folds/raises that this possibly nitty villain might respond with. If he raises, I'm not very secure for the rest of the hand. And I worry that he folds too often otherwise to make up for the problem we encounter when our bet is raised. But if I check on the flop, I give him a chance to feel more confident about betting his Tx, or his 2x, or any draw, or his air. Then I check/call on the turn, or if the turn goes check/check, I fire a value bet on a lot of rivers. With a hand like JT or better, I'm happier leading the flop and calling a raise. Anyway, as played, he raises your lead to 120, you call, turn is 4d, and you check/call his turn bet. I think a check/raise is better. We've hit 2 pair on the turn and our opponent is showing quite a bit of interest in the pot. So let's build it up on the turn with a check/raise, which will allow our river bet to be that much bigger. Also, if our opponent has a strong draw here, like 89cc, he's putting in a lot of money now, but no more on the river if he misses. Not that the line you actually took is "bad" or "unprofitable"; far from it. But I think a turn check/raise has a better result overall.
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I hope you found the commentaries helpful. They're probably not sufficient in themselves to fix or reverse whatever it is that caused you to have problems and keep moving down in HUSNGs. I didn't find your overall play in these three matches to be particularly bad or flawed; there were just a few places here and there. On the other hand, I didn't really get to see how you approach the end-game phase of a HUSNG, which can be crucially important for win-rate, and I didn't really see how you play other important spots, like 3-bet pots, or 30 BB to 18 BB stacks, and so on.
So if you decide to continue trying to improve at HUSNGs, post specific hands and spots and start getting feedback from the forum regulars.