There are three hands from tonights session that I think I definitely could have played better. One in particular I think I missed a lot of value. I'm going to post them all in separate threads so nothing gets lost. All 3 involve the same 2 villains. This hand is later in the night. I'd like your opinion.

Main participants:

Hero: Mid 20's white guy, seems pretty TAG, maybe even nitty tonight as I don't think I've seen so many Q5 or J5's in one session in my life. Have taken down a few pots, but nothing significant. Probably have a winning image and seem like someone who knows the game.

V1: Mid 30's white guy. Sort of drunk, but not crazy. Seems to understand the game, bet sizing, odds, etc. Doesn't limp often, but likes to throw out small bets preflop ($8-$10). Seems to be able to play post-flop, but we haven't been playing too long. He certainly understands position. He just changed seats from 4 to 3.

V2: New to the table, though I've played with him once before. Confident, but I'm not sure if he really gets the game. Limps a lot, and makes a lot of $10 bets preflop, with a lot of $10 bets on the flop and turn as well (I didn't notice this during our first hand, as he hadn't been there for an entire orbit yet. He's in hands from all over, so not a big positional player. I have seen him fold to a re-raise after one of his continuation bets.

At this point, we've been playing for about 3 hours.

Folds around to V1.

V1 (~$800): Makes it $10
V2 (~$250): To the left of V1, calls.
MP Rando: Calls.
Hero (~$650): In SB with 46, calls.

The Flop (~$40): 468

Hero: Checks.
V1: Checks.
V2: Bets $10.
Rando: Folds.
Hero: Raises to $35.
V1: Insta Calls.
V2: Thinks, folds.

The Turn ($120): 6

Hero: ??????


This is the hand that had me thinking the rest of the night. Let me know how you would have played it or if you would have played it any differently. Gracias.

Make it more on the flop like $55. $10 is such a tiny bet and looks super weak. AP bet $99, give him a shiitty price for his draws, which is basically what his range is capped at. If he's calling 35 otf he's probably calling inelastically on the turn.

I have a hard time believing your reads on these players haven't changed in the hours you have been there. This "sort of drunk" villain was sort of drunk hours ago, is he still sort of drunk or has he sobered up? Have you not watched a single hand of any of these villains at showdown in the hours you have been there that you can't provide a better read on villain than the one you provided when you first sat down?

Static reads that you are clearly copy-and-pasting from thread to thread is the lazy way of tackling poker.

Fold pre. You have 6 high and you're out of position. Eff stacks w V1 are relatively deep, but this is still just 6 high and OOP. Calling raises with small suited one gappers from the small blind is a leak.

As played, lead $35-65. Give V a good price to draw against you. This is a very wet board. Most players would have raised a set on a board this wet, so you can discount 8s full a little bit. Anything much bigger that half pot might spook him, and at this point, he could have a straight, a straight draw, a flush draw, a flush draw with a pair, a set, over pair, etc.
His range is wide, and betting around half pot targets value from his entire range.
If he flats, then bet a little more than half pot on the river. I think you want to lead all rivers that connect for straight or flush. About the only river you'd check is an 8.

Agree with Johnny that the reads are dubious. Expecting people to slog threw all those words and give you helpful responses is optimistic.

I assume you're playing 14 handed, as it folded around to V1, he got a caller and then a MP called.

You said V1 has some positional awareness, so you might want to note at what position he opened to 10 and how that affects his range. Seat 3 doesn't count.

Deep stacks tempting and all, and 64s is a fun hand to play, but fold pre. One of the nice features of 1-3 over 1-2 is that villains make bigger mistakes in the SB, so let's not give that money back.

Why did you check raise so small? Which villains were you committing stacks with if they came back over the top?

Turn, villain sure looks like he's got a draw. If he looks at bets as dollars and not pot precentages, go $50 or $70, if he's a chaser and dreaming of his implied odds, go $100 or $150.

On the river, maybe betting lol small to induce, depends I suppose.

Bet $75

My bad on the copy and paste player reads. It was like 3am when I got back to the house last night but wanted to post with it fresh in my mind. The basic reads I had were a culmination of the entire night--I see now that it would have been 10x better to post the reads as of the hand, since this specific hand was a few hours after the previous ones I posted.

So I'm seeing bet-sizing as an issue of minde, as I tend to bet too low. How to you guys typically size re-raise or c/raise bets? In my rather simple mind, this c/r of $35 into a $50 post. Should I be aiming to get it to a pot size bet or higher?


On to the results:

When you are raising, a pot sized bet is basically 3x the previous bet plus everything else already in the middle, or in this case 3*10+40=70.

You can think of it in 2 pieces, the call and the raise. The call is 10, the pot sized raise in addition to the call is 10+10+40=60, for 70 total.

By raising to 70, the villain who bet 10 is being offered 2:1 to continue, (now 120 in the middle and it's 60 for him to call) just like if you are first to bet and bet whatever is in the middle.

bottom two OOP is tricky and vulnerable, typically you want to play it fast although you have a tough decision when somebody plays like they've got a big hand.

Good bet on the turn, bad luck V was good enough to abandon the paired board.

You learned a lot about your V from this hand, assuming he was honest about his holding which I'd assume he was. Opening j7s in EP is bad and makes it clear how wide he is playing and positionally unaware. He flopped gin draw and went into immediate passive mode. But good enough to be wary of chasing on a paired board.