1-2 NLHE with an optional 5 straddle either UTG or Mississippi 5 on the button straddle (The Mississippi straddle is more popular in this cardroom - 50% of the hands are straddled on the button.

Very first hand and we buy in for 300e with the table having a range of stacks from 150e - 900e.

1-2 with a 5 button straddle. We are UTG with AKo. SB folds, BB completes to 5 and we make it 20, there is one call from CO and from button (original straddler). As said its our first hand and have not encountered either of these players previously for history - both players have me covered, the CO with approx. 500 and the button with approx. 800.

Flop AK5 rainbow. We lead for 35 and both players call. Turn brings the Jc bringing a club flush draw. We lead for 105e and the CO after a short dwell jams for circa 400 remaining, button folds and its back to us.


Thoughts on flop and turn sizing? Thoughts on river decision? We have literally no info as its our first hand on either of these guys.

Cheers guys

Please follow the formatting guidelines so it's easier to follow the hand -- including puttting pot on each street.

Once I've put half my stack in, I'm calling with top two vs. the original straddle, especially since it's less than 100bb with the straddle.

Thanks for the feedback man much appreciated

Will post this in a more digestible format cheers for that

Snap calling as played. I expect to see AJ a ton here.

I usually open to 25 here, but that's quibbling.

On flop, I go bigger. LLSNL players love to call pre with crappy aces and have a hard time folding TP. Get that value. I go 50.

AP, turn sizing seems good and never folding.

Yup, not folding without reads. Besides lower 2-pr hands, there are also some BD flush combos that are behind, applying pressure to the bottom of your range.

It's woman, and you are welcome

Thanks guys, I snapped but talk about a rough first hand to get stacked! He turns over Q10o

Felt rough but don't think we can do much.

I take the point on about the flop sizing, on a rainbow board like this I tend to bet approx. 1/3 pot by default but both guys afterwards did seem to play pretty splashy. With that info I may well have upped to 50 for the flop lead. With no info at the time I went to default bet sizing. Interestingly I wonder will he call flop for 50 with a gut shot

My apologies, thanks for your viewpoint, I think I might be overthinking it slightly. The flop sizing may influence if he calls or not with a gutshot but I can standover leading approx. 1/3 pot with no history / it being the 1st hand of the session.

I know it's all the rage these days, but I'm against this tournament sizing in LLSNL cash. I never bet less than half pot OTF, and almost never OTT and OTR. There is just way too much value to be had, and unlike tournaments 1/3 pot bets don't have any FE to speak of, so there's no point trying to make your default sizing smaller to save money when you're c-betting air.

100% agree. I see a lot of younger online type GTO type players doing this and its just bad.

I've actually incorporated it in tighter games as an exploit to fit/fold opponents.

Ex: It folds me to in the CO with QJo and I raise 3x.


BB calls. Flop comes T93 rainbow


He checks. I bet super tiny like $10 to extract a little bit of extra value from A high, 9x and low pocket pairs that I know I will fold out on a turn double barrel. It also saves me $ the times I take a DB line and he has a monster.


Plus there's a good chance he is super weak tight and actually folds his A high/K high and small pocket pairs to a tiny little bet. So we get a ridiculously cheap price on our bluff. But if called, we don't have to go into shutdown mode on the turn, we can still look very strong since we double barreled and can possible even triple barrel without the pot being so bloated that we have no FE

Totally different situation. That's an acceptable bet, but you need to bet pot on most turns.

I didn't realize the term Mississippi straddle was used in Europe

Preflop open was too small, flop bet too small. Charge them to call with their weak hands!

Yeah! Really popular here tbh. This hand is from a casino in Dublin Ireland! They always refer to it as it’s name

Thanks man yeah spot sucks but so many combos he can turn up wit that we are good

Fair points thanks man

Really good points. I played a lot of cash early days and have been focusing on online tournaments lately so this is probably why this has crept in as my default. I think your right here with respect to adjustments I’m not making from online to live that I need to give serious consideration to once again.

Thanks man defo need to make some live adjustments again. Too many mtts lately and a return to cash has these thing a creeping in