Hello, first hand I've posted here. I think I got it right with the HH converter. Just recently made the move from $.02/.05 to $.05/.10. Villain is 33/17 after a measly 19 hands--I had no other reads or betting patterns on hiim. I am playing 23/18 or so, and if the guy was paying attention he'd see I play looser close to the BTN and tighter in EP and MP.

Thanks for your time and attention. Should I have folded the Turn? And most importantly, how would you deal with the River?

Folding pre really. Even with fish in the blinds, just not a fan of playing this hand in this position.

As played i'm cbetting larger...betting turn for value and b/f'in river.

Playing QJ utg doesn't really seem very tight to me.

Pre looks fine to me. your hand is going to play pretty well against the fish at this level.

Bigger on the flop, could go about $0.70 here. I would bet/fold the turn as we still get called by worse.

As played on the river i dont like the lead its going to be tough to get called by anything we beat so would probably check/call again.

FML.

It happened again today, only this time I was able to get away from it. Would you guys play any of this differently?

2nd hand 3bet size too small and bet turn as played river is a call.

I expect you know poker better than me, but I am really perplexed that you think you think I should call there. It's a potsize bet--I have to be right 1/3 of the time, but I was pretty sure he had Ax (and probably AK, as unlikely as that is given I can account for two Kings). I cbet the Flop just to see where I stood, and his smooth call only served to confirm my suspicions. The check on Turn made me think he was slowplaying the growing monster. And the all in at the end was just a throwaway/hailmary bet. What range do you put him on or, if it's not about his range, why do you think it's worth calling?

Thanks.

Pretty much this but i dont understand why you advocate 3betting bigger IP?

1st hand, if I open from EP it's always for pot or 4x. QJs is a bit on the loose side but I do open that from time to time depending on blinds and who's left to act.
Flop size is ok by me but I think we should be betting turn here a lot to get value from Jx and spade draws. But with the line you took it's 50/50 cc/cf depending on villains river sizing.

5x to 15x seems okay imo on the 2nd hand. No stats, not sure what to do. Unknown, I fold.

I don't think you can assume a flop check/call followed by a turn check is a monster, I mean it might be but that's also how most people play their weak sdv hands

I think that someone who opens 5x - you should not have a need for a balanced 3betting range.

So if you are never going to be light here and then your consideration is how much can I bet and get the most value.

I do not believe that when villians open 5x that they are likely to fold alot to 3bets
(a) I think there range is going to be value orientated much more so than usual
if it is not always value - then you are likely dealing with a maniac or someone on monkey tilt - which usually means that they are either going to play back at you and also call more often than not.

So - I just think we need to get as much value as possible - So I would think 3.5x seems appropriate.

1st hand is fine pre. Postflop bet-bet-bet around 2/3 pot everytime and fold to aggression. As played, without reads it's probably a fold. But I really dislike leading the river, you're not betting for value in that spot as you're almost never getting called by worse.

In the 2nd hand the turn is actually a good card for us and must definitely bet. If faced with a raise we can be positive villain doesn't have an ace, nobody is ever check-raising quads there in a 3bet pot. We have no reason to bet river as we can only get value sometimes from QQ, anything else folds and only quads raise. If he donks into us, stats would really help but doubt we can fold. As played I'd fold, his pot bet tells me he's not at all scared of us having a queen; and you haven't invested much in the hand.

Edit: I'm curious what villain had in the first hand if you did call.

It is a number of things.

5x usually means that villian is either very very aggressive and bad or on monkey tilt.
So that bet sizing means I am very reluctant to fold ever.

- you have the 2nd nuts

- villian is not a good player - so he will not know that this is a bad board to bluff at - but I think this player is very likely to want to bluff as he might believe that only quads can call him.
- I think you are also likely be facing alot of from a very good player would be thin value bets or range merging bets - but in the hand of a bad player would be considered retarded bets when all worse will fold and all better will call - e.g. 77 type hands
- he could be value betting a queen



So to the math - you only need to be right one third of the time or more.

Do I believe that he 5x with all bad Ax - prolly not ( he might sure cause he could be uber maniac)
I expect the Ax he has will tend to be the remaining two AK, 4 AQ , 4 Aj 4 AT

So my guess is that he prolly has 14 Ax combos - but you can decide to add more if you like.........so lets double it and add a couple and say he has 30 combos.

We need to find 10 combos of bluffs and Qx to have enough equity for a profitable call.

QJs - 3
KQs - 1
Maybe
QTs - 3?
+
QQ - 3 combos

Note I have excluded all QJo - remember the more relaxed you are about including more Ax the more inclined you should be to include more Qx in his 3bet calling range - i.e. if he is wider and more aggro/maniac he should continue more often with his range and we have no reason to believe he will treat Ax as exception relative to Qx. Which means the ratio of Ax and all other hands should remain stable.

So you can try and work out how many hands he 5x to begin with and either bluffs with them + may have the weird range merge but in this guys case retardo bets. and you need to find what between 6 combos of bluff/ weird retardo bets to be profitable calling.

I think it would be a very low bluff frequency required to get to the 10 combos we prolly need - which is good for us and should incline us to call.


I hope that breaks down all the reasons you should call.

Summary

The proportion of Ax combos must be more than 3 times more than

Qx
Bluffs
retarded bets

So make assumptions of number of Ax

and compare them
with number of other combos.
If there are not more than 3*Ax than all other hands he bets - you should call.
Adjust the assumptions up and down - but make sure that your assumptions are internally consistent.

Good luck at the tables.

QJs pre is fine
bet-fold turn
3b bigger in KK hand, rest of hand is fine