I haven't played in a casino in about 2 years. I started studying and chugging small online tournaments after I graduated and couldn't find work, but my seasonal job gave me enough to play 1/2 live. I am worried I am over-adjusting because in my few sessions, I am getting steamrolled against unknowns who jam on me when I'm not sure they can even bluff, but then they show me the bluff.

OTTH

V1 ($500) One of the floor guys on his day off I guess. I had an overpair with 99 in a bloated 5-way straddled pot and he min-raised my 40% flop bet. I folded. Calling a ton and not raising a lot pre. Can't remember any raises pre.

V2 ($200) passive fish

Hero (~$350) Just sat down a few orbits ago and lost the aforementioned hand

V1 posts straddle. Folds to V2 in SB who calls. Hero raises to $15 with KQ(I'm not sure if I should play a straddle exactly like a 2/5 hand or size down). V1 and V2 Call.

Flop ($45) Q 6 3
V2 leads out $12. Hero calls. V1 raises to $40. V2 and Hero call.
I know V2 is weak, but I saw no reason to discourage V1 from coming along. The plan was to give the business on the turn against V2 IP, but I got raised. I'm guessing a reraise must have been the better option because he can have all 16 combos of 54 as well as any XhXh imaginable (as well as any two pair), but I'm kind of trying to keep variance down and right now I have TPGK.

Turn ($165): 6
V2 and Hero check. V1 bets $85. V2 folds. Hero calls.

River ($335): A
Hero checks. V1 shoves. $200 to call for Hero who folds.
Worst card in the deck obviously. V1's AhXh hands are ahead and all I have is a bluff-catcher and FD blockers.

I wanted a reasonable showdown while I didn't have a flush, but calling didn't help. Should I have reraised the flop even with the plan of avoiding high-variance spots? AP do I call on the river without the A (or with it?).

Thanks

Yeah it’s a bad river for us. Obviously our hand is good enough that we could of fast played flop. But now that we played it for a call sometime we got to fold this river. Thing is he could of had a 3s full and river saved us.

Your raise pre-flop is too small. OOP in a straddled pot w/ a limper, I go $25. I'm actually happy taking it down or making them pay with weak hands.

I'd raise V2's flop bet myself, and I'd go ahead and raise V1's 3bet.

As played, call on turn is OK, although shove or fold is probably better, and river is a fold, but I don't like how you got here. What were you planning to do on a non-A river? If it was check/fold, then you should have folded turn.

Playing with scared money is tough, so you should probably just start playing tighter and nut pedaling -- otherwise you'll just get yourself in trouble as with this hand.

I would go $25-$30 pre.

I would raise to $40 otf - donks are almost always top pair/pair between top and second pair, and draws. We can get value from all of these hands.

As played flop and turn are standard.

Fold river, this line is a bluff close to 0% of the time.

Why would we fold the turn? We have 9-14 outs + implied odds. I see why you say shove, but I like call better because we can just fold when we don't improve and shove when we do.

FWIW, other than going bigger pre (~$25), I play flop/turn exactly the same, and fold river.

I don't a hate a flop 3bet, since it's hard for us to be crushed. But I'd rather flat and let V1 come along.

Bonus result: V1 shows T2, which is good that he showed me. With a flop like that there are a few ways I could've played it I think. And preflop aside, the way I chose felt super natural for what I wanted to accomplish, but the results made me unsure if the other options were just way better.

This is a rare villain that you need to make note of and never fold to again

In polling, people talk about the "lizardman constant". Each poll gets about 4% of weird answers. In one poll, 4% of Americans said that reptilian people control the world. In another, 4% answered "yes" to the question "Have you ever been decapitated?".

In LLSNL games, any time you range your opponent, in addition to the hands you'd expect them to have, you need to give them about a 20% chance of having any two random cards.

As stated, I don't mind the call, but if we are planning to check/fold river if we don't improve, I don't really see the point. We could improve to two pair, trips, flush, and still be behind, or we could already be ahead and fold the best hand.

I wouldn't be here, though, because I raise the flop, and I definitely go bigger pre.

saw results so won't discuss river

pre as others said is horrible

$25-30 pre

if I didn't 3-bet raise his flop I def am on turn

he is playing a straddle hand he only called your wimpy raise pre with
what does he have that is ahead of you here ?

as others said sounds like your playing scared money

Preflop is way too small. I'd raise the donk bet on the flop. Even without the FD our hand is really strong on this texture. With the flush draw there are no runouts we really fear except the one we ended up getting. Bad luck. As played the rest is fine. Folding turn would be very bad.

For those of you who always call turn, what do you do on a 2c river? Shove or check/fold or check/call (both assuming he shoves)?

I really don’t like just about everything with this hand. Stylistically it is way too passive for me and probably a losing strategy overall. Looks like you’re just playing to bink a hand. My suggestion would be to add some actual aggression to you line.

I get it. You would have 3bet flop and jammed this 6c turn, I guess?

Perhaps it is like when the witch turned me into a newt? "I got better."

Your comment sent me into a Googlian black hole, reading about the Lizardman Constant. Very interesting.