1/3 Wynn Wednesday night around 10 pm

Got Aces twice against the same player in the first half hour at the table, don’t think the line I took in the second hand was optimal.

Table just started, both hands take place in the first half hour. Zero(!) alcoholic drinks on the table, a few players mentioned in conversation they were in town to play tournaments the next day, but also a few players that looked weak. Hero planned to nit it up for a half hour to get better read on table dynamics before asking for a table change.

Hero: Young 20s white guy in a button down and shorts, bought in for $300

Villain: Middle aged white guy, bald, wearing a visor and had earbuds on, bought in for the $500 max, one of the more active preflop raisers at the table, called a lot of raises preflop and over the course of the night 3bet a few times but not before these hands took place, cbet almost always after raising preflop but was not aggressive postflop if he was not the preflop aggressor

History with this player (first hand):

Through one orbit of the table, Hero has only played one hand, overlimped 4h3h from the button and folded on a missed flop.

Middle aged Indian man ($250) limps in MP
Hero ($293) raises to $15 in HJ with AA
Villain ($500) 3bets to $50 on the button
Middle aged Indian man calls $50
Hero 4bets to $125
Villain asks to see how much I have left, calls $125
Middle aged Indian man folds

Flop ($300): T97r
Hero goes all in for $168
Villain snap calls

Turn/River ($636): T9733

Hero shows, Villain mucks

Second hand:

Hero doesn’t pick up any playable hands for an orbit or two, does not play another hand between the first hand and this next hand. Villain has rebought and his stack is around $450.

Villain ($350) raises to $25 in UTG+2
Folds around to Hero ($630), who 3bets to $65 in BB with red AA

Flop ($130): Q42hh
Hero bets $85
Villain says Hero’s hands are shaking (something that usually happens to me in the first few hands I’m at a table), and he says he has something and that asks if I have something
Villain calls

Turn ($300): 3d
Hero bets $200 (should this just be a shove?)
Villain tanks, asks if I have a 3. I ask if Villain has a 3
Villain folds, says he thinks I would only bet this way with a strong hand

Thoughts?

1st hand fine, 2nd hand 3b bigger, he is not raise/folding after going 8x from utg2

Dont drink coffee before poker if it shakes ur hands

I would be sizing bigger pf for value, especially in Hand 1.

Hand 2 seems fine other than my first comment above.

I don't mind the sizing in hand 1. Going to 125 over 50 seems standard to me for a 4b and sets up an easy shove on the flop. V will probably make more mistakes against this small sizing. If he happens to get there every now and then that's ok. We made it $75 more, so it's not like we were handing him great implied odds for the $168 left behind.

I like a bigger 3b in hand 2, tho. We're OOP for every street and we don't want him to have an easy call in position against all of the hands we're going to want to 3b from BB. I prefer going to around 4x. You might even get him to make a weird ego spew and 4b shove against you with his AJo or KJo because "I got blockers and he can't have aces everytime so it's just a cooler lol."

Also, I'd try not to talk during the hand. Looking confident gives away a lot of information...you're polarized between a semibluff and TPTK plus in that spot, so appearing relaxed may make it very easy for him to throw away something like a pocket pair below top pair.

Edit: Also, per your turn question, it appears as though you were effectively shoving. V starts with 350, has 285 going to flop, then calls an 85 bet on flop to leave himself 200 going to the turn.

I like the sizing in hand 1 given stack sizes. You had a half pot sized shove on the flop after he calls. Sizing bigger just might force hands you want to call folding pre flop that won't have the odds to out draw you.

2nd hand I might size it up a bit more pre just being out of position with a little bit deeper stacks, but 85 is still good. On flop I might go with 100, just to set up a turn shove that might be called a little bit more often, but overall well played IMO.

Not sure what you mean by asking if you should go all in...the 200$ bet put villain all in (unless you meant go all in as apposed to betting villans remaining stack?).

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It's a little unclear what Villain's stack is; if it's $350, then our 3bet sizing is ok, but if it's $450 then conservative me would go more like $80 (to offer poorer setmining odds).

Regardless of stacks the SPR is quite small on the flop and the flop is somewhat drawy. This guy is an active opener, and it's the second time he's called a 3bet, so he might be loose, so he could have any piece even on a board like this one. I mostly lean to a PSB here because no one folds a draw on the flop plus I think it gets us maximum value from TP (who'll likely call one bet before perhaps considering a fold on the turn).

Still unclear what stacks are, but I'm fairly certain they should probably be going in by the turn.

I wouldn't participate in any of the table talk during the hand but also wouldn't be too worried about it / shaking hands either way ("tells" are mostly highly overrated gibberish, imo).

GcluelessNLnoobG

Both played fine from where I sit. Well played OP

My hands shake and everyone makes fun of me

For Villain's stack size in the second hand, I made a typo. It is $450 at the beginning of the hand. He had about $300 (a PSB) left on the turn.

Yeah, I didn't think enough about the decreased chance he'd fold. 3bet should have been bigger. And no coffee, just nerves that I get when settling into a new table.

He was tilting for the next hour so I wouldn't put it past him.

Thanks, will keep this in mind

Yep, some old guy always says something about it

Agree with everything you said here. Good stuff