First ever time playing live at the casino, this hand occurred near the end of the night. Wondering if my play was correct here.

Table is quite loose passive, people seemed to call raises with a fairly wide range of hands.

UTG+1 (Hero): $500- 18yo Asian, played tight most of the time
MP (Villain): $132- Just sat down so no reads, 30's male

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG+1 with K of spades Q of spades
1 fold, Hero raises to $10, MP calls $10, 1 fold, BTN calls $10, 1 fold, BB calls $8

Flop: ($41.00) 6 of clubs 4 of hearts 2 of diamonds (4 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, MP checks, BTN checks

Didn't think c-betting really does anything, I thought that someone was likely to have hit and I didn't want to put myself in an awkward OOP turn and river spot.

Turn: ($41.00) K of clubs (4 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $30, MP raises to $122 and is all in, BTN folds, BB folds, Hero folds

Villain seemed quite calm, I thought he has a set quite a bit. I don't think he would shove a flush draw or top pair. Was fold OK?

If your read is that he wouldn't shove a flush draw or top pair than the fold is probably OK.

In a spot like this it really helps to have some specific hand history and an idea of what the opponent would and wouldn't play for a raise in MP. As you continue to play live it's a good idea to make specific notes of what you're seeing people raise and call with in specific positions, it will make you much more confident with the decision making process in tough spots like this.

I will also say that in my experience lots of players will take anything from K8s+ and over value it here, but as mentioned above, if you think that this vil only does it w sets, then it's wise to trust your instincts for now. In general erring on the side of caution when you've put in a relatively small % of your stack will be the best way to beat low limit.

Without history it's a pretty easy fold. It makes sense for him to slow play a big hand on that dry flop, and the K hits your range (they always put you on AK) and you bet the K and he shoves anyway.

Good example of a hand post structure: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...mplate-770217/

PF: Assuming 9-handed, fold
F (41): SPR against V is ~3. On this board, I'd c-bet, even against three opponents. This flop is unlikely to hit someone hard, and we can barrel broadway cards on the turn.
T (41): 3/4P bet is fine. When V shoves you are getting 41+30+122:92 or ~2:1 or 33%. If we had AK, I'd call. Since we don't have a read on this guy, fold is fine.

Wasn't sure on the structure, only took a look at some other posts made recently. Thanks for the link.

PF: It was 7 handed, so I opened. Probably would've folded 9 handed.
F: I was not entirely focused on Villain's stack, most people had between 100-200bb to start the hand. In live 1/2, would a c-bet or double barrel work enough? From what I've read, people overvalue their hands a lot at live.
T: Kept checking my hand hoping that the Q would magically turn into an A. XD

It wasn't so much a read, just a gut instinct. Probably also erring on the side of caution with an unknown player and trying to protect my profits. I know that's bad but this was a one-off for me and the stack I had meant quite a bit to me. I'm more used to playing micro online. In general, would live players be shoving wide enough to justify a call?

As w most poker questions, it depends. I think there will be certain, easily identifiable groups of people that absolutely do and certain groups that are also pretty identifiable that dont ever shove without having us crushed.

In general I would say yes, most live players are shoving wide enough to call here, but it's pretty close, and the fact that stacks are shallow and we're getting decent odds play heavily into that. If they were shoving closer to a full buy in ott I would say that they're much more weighted toward having KQ+ as I feel that most hands that we beat probably just call here, or raise smaller at a slightly larger stack size. Small details often make people's ranges for certain plays painfully narrow, which allow you to make plays in certain spots that often go against the standard.

I like your check otf 4 ways, unless you have players that are very tight, and stacks that sometimes allow for some big late street bluffs. If we had flopped one of our suit I would be much more inclined to cbet here.

Backdoor equity can be really huge in a spot like this, and also realizing that, if there is room to maneuver, (I. E. Someone is not so shallow that they get commited easily) we can sometimes easily Bluff every over card that hits the board, especially face cards.

Dont go too crazy w it, but look out for player types that are calling flop bets a lot, and then folding frequently when any manner of scare card hits. If you have a solid image these are exactly the types of players that we want to be cbet ting very wide against, because although we have a very low chance of getting a fold for our first bet, they have a very low chance of actually being able to make it to showdown if the board changes and we continue to apply pressure.

It's pretty golden to realize that all we're doing, betting early, in a spot like this is building up there dead money as they have a very low chance of improving and being able to actually realize any of their equity.

Thanks for the advice, Sungar. Will take it into account when playing live going forwards.

I would never open fold KQ suited in a live 1/2 game. Limping in EP is better than folding with a hand as strong as KQs that plays well in pretty much all situations post flop.



OP, I like the check on the flop. I would probably bet a bit smaller on the turn, maybe 1/2 pot (20ish), but 30 is fine too. knowing nothing about this villain, it's probably a coin flip between calling and folding. Folding is fine. I probably call because live poker is boring and calling is more fun than folding, so in close situations, I call

Until you are dominated by AK, AQ, or the A high flush. KQ and KQs just is just too much of a trouble hand to play UTG and UTG+1 in a full ring game. Just my opinion. Of course there are going to be players way better than me that can play this type of hand in the two early positions; I'm not one of them.