About an 3 hours into my session and have a stack of about $400. Hero is playing pretty tight just trying to make easy decisions and not get too involved unless I have the goods because most of the table is calling till the river with most draws.

Villain in the hand is an unknown player in his early 20's but is there with his friend which I have played with before. Actually they are together as 3 in their group playing at the same table so I imagine they are a home game just coming to the casino together. Villain only has a stack of about $120 (60bbs)

-HAND-

Hero opens to $10 with A K from EP, folds to Villain who calls in MP, and his friend is in SB calls as well. BB folds


-FLOP ($29 in pot after rake)-


A 5 5

SB checks, Hero bets $10, Villain calls, SB calls

Sizing it small because its a very very dry flop.


-TURN ($57 in pot after rake)-


7

SB checks, hero bets $25, Villain raises to $80 (only has about $15 behind after raise), SB folds, Hero???

The board is so dry that I almost want to fold unless I feel he is overplaying an Ace but why would he? Is it standard to just go with your hand in this spot when Villain only has a 60 BB stack?

Work on learning how to read visual tells. They are plentiful in 1/2NL games. Pay attention to players when you're not in a hand. Odds are that the guy who flopped trips showed his surprise in some way. Especially players willing to pay $10 pre with 54o.

I watch the dealer burn and deal out the 3 cards for the flop & then look up at my Vs b4 the dealer turns the flop over. When I catch myself not doing that, I either take a break or consider packin' it in for the day.

Where do you play in Oklahoma that they only take a $5 rake & no $1 for a bad beat jackpot? I may consider moving there. Are the games any good? What's the average size pot?

I wouldn't put the results in your OP. Not even as a spoiler.

Yes you're getting it in here, and probably a little easier with some tweaked bet sizing. You are smart to bet small on a dry board to keep their ranges wide, however you can still extract a little more value by just betting half pot at every opportunity. Any ace is calling, some stubborn pocket pairs like 77-TT will as well because they know you might be cbetting. So go ahead and bet $15 on the flop. Anything they call $10 with they are calling $15.

On to the turn you would be facing almost a minraise following the above betting strategy so you are obviously calling a shove. I've seen villains spaz out with weaker hands just because they think your bet is weak and dont understand what a valuebet actually means, or because they know they cant fold their AJ so they figure they might as well just roll with it and get it allin now.

The good thing is the times you lose 60BB's to people playing 54o are also the same games you will be winning 300BB's against these kind of opponents. Just reload and keep playing with them.

you are correct subtract $1 from the pot for the Bad beat. They take that from the small blind before the cards are even dealt. I play at Winstar and I can say the $1/2 games are very soft almost every day of the week. $1/3 and 2/5 is a little tougher but nothing to get worried about. I'd say average pots go 4 ways when you open for $10 and maybe one call on the flop. So I'd say the average pot is around $60 not counting the endless supply of limped pots!

I would just check the turn after getting called in two spots on the flop, the big blind could easily have a 5.

Depends on how many aces you think he can have after taking this line after you've represented strength, so if he is really fishy, then I am more likely I to call.

$20 OTF; and I'm not folding.

$10 pre seems on the small side, but it's table dependent.

Definitely more on the flop. Traditional 1/2 Vs aren't folding an ace on the flop for any price and are almost never calling without an ace. Betting strong gets max value from the hands you are targeting and also minimizes the chances that someone will make a play on you with air.

As played I'm looking for some sort of physical read. He certainly has a 5 here a lot, but sometimes players get frustrated with good aces here and spaz shove. If I can't get any indications from the player I'm probably letting it go, as a standard 1/2 V only shoves the turn with the nutz.

If villan has a 5 it sucks but folding here is just not an option. We are in a WAWB spot. Villan is short stacked and we have no clue if he is spewy or not. Checking turn is just bad IMO, unless it's done to allow villan to bluff or value own himself. if he had a 5 in his hand maybe you can be raising larger than 5x and still get called by worse. Try not to let the results dictate your decision making in the future.

Crappy spot. Why no reads, on villain?

Need to bet larger on flop. Should be comfortable here playing 3 streets. Being WAWB spot. Likely need to check/call at least 1 or 2 streets here oop.

Bet larger on flop. Likely checking turn to keep his range as wide as possible and evaluate from there. Obviously never folding to short stack.

Agree with everyone about bet sizing OTF.

Against an unknown I'm not folding because they'll do this with most Ax too, but now you have a bet sizing tell on V - when he raised you he left 15 behind with an insanely strong hand compared to what you could have (you're at the 2nd best hand in your range). Now you can watch and see if he does this a few more times and what he's holding. If it's always the same type of hand strength (beating TPTK) you could fold this in the future to him

Case point: Last night 2/5. Villain buys in for $300 in BB. CO raises $20, Villain calls. Flop is A68r, villain donks $40, CO raises $120, Villain shoves allin, CO tank calls. Villain turns over A4s. It's this kind of nonsensical aggression that a lot of live players have, so when you flop TPTK on a relatively dry board and are facing bets of 50BB and such, you're just never folding.