Over the last year at 1/2, when I have the nuts on the river and my opponent is anything less than a good palyer and shows solid interest by betting/raising, I have been shoving even if the amount is ridiculous, and I've seen really strong results. Obviously I am getting called a lot less than if I min-raised, but the math of the massive overbet has well more than compensated.

I'm curious what you are all seeing. Is my limited experience an outlier? I just think that there are more recreational players than you would expect who may not even be horrible, but who just "need to see it" when they have a great hand, even though everyone who is not emotionally invested in the hand knows exactly what I have.

Here is an example from last night:

2 limpers, I overlimp A3 OTB, crazy maniac lady ($200) in SB makes it $10, villain ($600) calls, hero ($500) calls.

Flop ($30) : 24J Maniac lady bets $15, Villain calls, hero calls.

Turn ($75): 24J 3. Checks around.

River ($75):24J 3 9 Maniac lady leads from $20, villain makes it $50, hero jams. Maniac lady folds, villain shows his hand to the guy next to him and says "how do I fold this" and eventually calls with 99 !!

He had been playing tight for 2 or 3 hours and really seemed at least somewhat competent, so this shocked me. I thought forsure he had the K-high flush. Have I just been getting lucky with these stupid calls or do you guys see the same stuff enough to make these jams the right play?

I play the same way at 1/2 for the same reason. Though even for 1/2 this example is stupid and I would shove only against particularly bad villains. With both straights and flushes possible villain's set isn't even particularly strong given the bet/raise/reraise action. But yes, at 1/2 pot sized or larger raises get paid off way too often.

One of the bigger adjustment I had to make moving from 1/2 to 2/5 was learning to size bets better because 2/5 villains won't consistently pay off. At 2/5 all but the worst villains would fold anything short of a flush and most could find a fold with a low/medium flush.

If your player pool is soft, keep doing this, but only on the river.
You're less likely to get paid off like this on earlier streets and your strategy is really face up to competent players (even though balance at low stakes is rarely required, this is one of the rare cases when it does - shoving too much gets really obvious quickly)

Shoving too much gets really obvious quickly unless, like us mere mortals, we get the nuts on the river about twice every eight hours.

I think in general at lower stakes games overbetting exclusively for value on rivers where Vs have a strong range is literally PRINTING money

Yep.


Nope, you can do it any street where you think it will work. Against most 1/2 Villains, I only have 1 4-bet size when I have AA and get 3-bet, can you guess what it is? It gets called ridiculously often. Any street where you have the nuts and you know V likes his hand and isn't a good player, going for the over-bet is often the best play.