Hi guys,

I know we prefer one hand per thread, but I am going to post 3. Just got back from what I would consider a rough night where I think I made some big mistakes - and I think these mistakes might reflect some leaks I have in my game or just my inexperience. These 3 hands were the most crucial I think - as always, feedback on all streets is appreciated and I care more for responses that detail how you approach these hands and what are line of thinking should be so that I can apply it in the future in different situations.

Hero's image on all hands should be fairly nitty and tight. Nothing out of line. Also - all hands are fairly spread apart - maybe an hour or two. So should not consider anything like image being tilted or anything like that.

Hand 1:
Hero (~$250) SB with KcJd
One limper in EP; one more limper at CO; Hero raises to $15; EP calls, CO calls.
-NOTE: KJo is not usually in my opening rage... so I think people may or may not have a problem with this preflop play. I have been card dead for about an hour and so I felt like I need to widen my range a bit just so I don't look like an ultra-nit when I pick up my premiums
-I know CO will chase some draws and can be fairly gambly but not insanely spewey; EP don't have much history with

Flop ($45): Ac Jc 7h
Hero checks, EP bets $20; CO calls, Hero calls
I call because I think there are a lot of good turn cards for me... think both can easily just be on some draws

Turn ($105): 10c
Hero checks, EP bets $60, CO calls, Hero calls
Is this ok?

River ($285): Ks
Hero?

Big pot here, and was just not sure what my best plays were on each street. Was preflop just bad? Is it ok? Flop should I lead? Turn should I try raising? Am I ok to value bet river or is that just way to thin? I would normally lean towards checking again here, but what if EP shoves? what if EP bets like $150?



Hand 2:
Hero (~$400): BTN w/ AcQc
V (~$250) MP3 - reg, seems to know the dealers fairly well; has not been too active since sitting down
V2 (~$300) MP1 - no history

UTG straddles to $6, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP3 calls, Hero raises to $25. UTG folds the rest call (4-way)

Flop (~$100): Kh 5d 3s
checks around to hero; hero checks
-Is checking ok here? Continuing into 3 other people with a complete whiff just seems like spew to me

Turn (~$100): Ah
UTG+1 checks; MP1 bets $25, MP3 calls; Hero tries to raise to $100, but is called for string betting. I didn't announce my raise verbally, and I moved my chips in with two hands but threw in the initial $25 with my right hand right before I moved the $75 with my left hand. As a result, hero has to take back the $75 and just call; UTG+1 folds

River (~$175): 4c
MP1 tank checks (obviously missed hearts); pretty sure MP3 was chasing hearts. MP3 leads for $100. Hero?


Hand 3:
Hero (~$350) in SB
Villain (~$300) UTG - Villain just sat down about 10-15 minutes ago. I have played vs villain a couple of times but do not remember too many specifics. I do remember specifically him calling a big preflop raise with J5 suited - and after he won a big pot his opponent called him out for calling with J5 and this villain said "yeah but it was suited" - and he was dead serious. He justified his call because it was suited. Overall, I remember him being fishy - the guy who can have a huge stack in an hour, and lose it all in the next hour for playing hands like J5 suited because they were suited.

Villain straddles to $6; MP1 calls, MP2 calls, CO calls; Hero looks down at AsAc and raises to $30. Villain calls and everyone else folds.

Flop (~$75): 5h 5d Qc
Hero bets $45, Villain raises all-in

Hero?




Any feedback is much appreciated, thanks guys.

Hand1: Raising pre is fine under any circumstance. But checking flop? Why? Go ahead and cbet, rep the ace, charge for whatever dog**** they may call with out of spite. Maybe even work a miracle and get A2 to fold. Just bet, plain and simple.

If you're not going to bet then for god's sake fold. There are no good turn cards for you because the only thing you're afraid of now is that ace which has you beat. Even if there were a semi decent turn card like a King, you're out of position and arent going to be able to get paid. Lets say you hit, what are you gonna do, donkbet the turn? Donkbet the river? Any move at this point is going to set off alarm bells. It's one thing to put someone on a draw but it's very hard to bluffcatch OOP like this. Besides if you thought they had draws you'd just bet the flop in the first place.

On this turn I probably go ahead and c/r since you have the nut club and all the other big cards are out there so if they are drawing you're ahead with 2nd pair + NFD and all your other draws. But it's just like I never would have played it like this so I cant really assess their reactions to this runout. I would have 2 barreled by this point.

River is c/f

Hand2: Raise preflop much bigger. It's now a 1/3/6 game, so 3xBB+1 would = about $40 preflop.

As played; absolutely cbet this flop. You raised pre and the board is dry and there's a king out there. You're supposed to have a big hand when you raise preflop right? Yeah it's a little more dicey with 4 players, but you're last to act and it's just whatever. I dont always cbet here. At this point I try to get a read, see if anyone is stacking chips preparing to call, look at their faces and see if they seem interested in the board or not, etc. If it looks clear then I bet. If I cant get a read and there's some sticky players then maybe I check. But I'm cbetting here a good 50% of the time minimum just to keep up image.

Uhg, that river is so gross. Go ahead and fold, you tried to raise and got shot down, they know you wanted to, you raised preflop, etc etc etc. Just no way this can ever be a bluff.


Hand3: Once again raise more. Make it $40. As played call his stupid shove.

Hand 1: raising pre is Fine, depending on Vs. what are the stack sizes by the way? AP I would cbet this flop. Just too many hands in Vs limping range that you are ahead of.
After only calling the flop I would be very inclined to c/r the turn, depending on stack sizes. You should get V1 to fold a lot of Ax and V2 could still be drawing. If the stacks are to shallow, really no point in raising.
AP on the river check and hope for it to get checked through, V1 should not have any Q in his range, yet V2 could and it seems like lighting money on fire here vs two opponents to bet out.

Hand 2: Bet this flop, BET THIS FLOP. Perfect texture with the K and you can two barrel if only one V calls. As played after that mishap on the turn, this can never ever be bluff unless you have seen V capitalize on similar mistakes in the past, therefore fold.

Hand 3: congrats, snap and take the money. If he has a 5, tap his back and become his acquaintance and make sure to play with him often.

Hand 1: raising pre is Fine, depending on Vs. what are the stack sizes by the way? AP I would cbet this flop. Just too many hands in Vs limping range that you are ahead of.
After only calling the flop I would be very inclined to c/r the turn, depending on stack sizes. You should get V1 to fold a lot of Ax and V2 could still be drawing. If the stacks are to shallow, really no point in raising.
AP on the river check and hope for it to get checked through, V1 should not have any Q in his range, yet V2 could and it seems like lighting money on fire here vs two opponents to bet out.

Hand 2: Bet this flop, BET THIS FLOP. Perfect texture with the K and you can two barrel if only one V calls. As played after that mishap on the turn, this can never ever be bluff unless you have seen V capitalize on similar mistakes in the past, therefore fold.

Hand 3: congrats, snap and take the money. If he has a 5, tap his back and become his acquaintance and make sure to play with him often.

Also, raise bigger in Hand 2, a straddled pot, so make it 36-40 and in hand 3 the the same.

Hand 1: I wouldn't raise. You are going to be OOP for the hand. If you are going to raise, yes, I'd bet the flop.

Hand 2: I would not bet the flop into 3 people. I probably fold the river after not being able to raise the turn.

Hand 3: Snap call. I am guessing since you posted he had J5 suited again.

Hand 1, you called OTF thinking they might be drawing, and then the turn card completed the only realistic draws and you called again. That doesn't make sense.

Agreed that the PF raise in hand 2 should be quite a bit bigger. Winning the existing pot is fine, so make it $50 to go. AP, the flop is extremely dry, so bet. You want pocket pairs that whiffed to fold.

On hand 3, again the flop is super dry, but this time there are no better hands that will fold, so you can check if you want to. AP, it's a very tough one because his range is so wide.

I would go with any physical tells; someone who plays a junk hand and then flops trips usually gives off something, unless he's super psychotic. The old adage about watching the player not the flop doesn't help much on 90% of the flops, but the other 10% it's priceless.

H1:

With our image and if limper/CO are ABC non-bluffy postflop, I don't hate preflop. But typically I would just complete and see a flop in a small pot since we're going to be OOP. Get more out-of-line / build bloated pots in position, not OOP, imo.

I'd probably bet the flop. Decent chance we have the best hand and we can get called by worse while protecting our equity; I'd probably bet like $30 and evaluate from there. As played, I fold facing a bet and a call as it is just so likely that someone has an Ax at this point. Calling hoping to pick up part one of runner/runner / etc. is pretty meh.

Turn call is mehish but I can't hate too much. We're almost getting 4:1, so almost the immediate odds we need to chase our flush draw. But our IO on the flush draw are low (only the Qc may pay us off on the obvious 4-to-a-flush), our straight draw might not be any good (and offer high RIO), plus it's possible someone has a flush (our outs are dead) or the 7c gives someone a boat (one less out and high RIO on that card). If any of these guys is a payoff station, I probably sigh call but it's borderline at best.

A river bet would be a bluff; do we really expect a worse hand to call on a 3-to-a-flush / 4-to-a-straight? It's only point would be to bluff out bigger two pair. I'd just check/fold.

GcluelessNLnoobG

H2:

With this many callers to the straddle I'm raising much larger so that (a) I have a better chance at narrowing the field (since our hand isn't made, I'm really not unhappy about taking down all the decent dead money now) and (b) I can get in a larger percentage of my stack and stack off comfortably postflop HU with TP. With $300 - $350 stacks at the table, I'd easily make this $30 - $35.

I typically never cbet air 4ways, but if I were, this would be that flop. Very dry (no draws) and a good K to rep (cuz everyone is putting us on AK). I don't hate a $35 bet to see if I can get that done. But I don't hate giving up either.

I would just call the turn. When we check back the flop, what does everyone think we have? We either have a whiffed Ax (which just got there on the turn), a monster KK/etc., or a scared underpair QQ-; if we raise the turn, who are we getting action from? In a lot of cases, we're only getting action from the hand that beats us. In a 3way pot, I tread very carefully here and evaluate the action in position on the river.

Even though the river donk is a little weird since there is a 4way straight, it's possible he (probably correctly) doesn't put anyone on 2x. This guy could have easily been flatting the small turn bet with a monster (wanting us to raise our Ax). And he knows we wanted to raise the turn, and yet he's donking anyways. Bluffing into 2 people is typically suicide. I would probably lean towards a fold but I guess it depends how aggro/bluffy he can be.

GcluelessNLnoobG

H3:

Nice, our raise thin the field to HU with some dead money and we created an SPR of ~4 getting in 10% of stacks which sets up an easy-to-play situation postflop even when OOP.

This board isn't drawy at all, so we can risk going for 3 streets of betting, in which case I would bet 3 1/2 PSBs (so I probably woulda gone like $40 but no big deal).

I'm snap calling the shove. If he got in 10% of stacks preflop and somehow outflopped us with 5x, nice hand sir (he simply ain't going to be profitable against us long term even if we pay him off every single time he hits). He should have enough Qx / tricky KK / overvalued pocket pair / random spaz in his range to make this an easy call, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Grunching all of these.

Pre: I usually just complete here - but if we want to raise we have to go much bigger than $15, if not we are just bloating the pot oop with a bad hand. Make it like $21 and get heads up so we can take it down on the flop a lot.

Flop: Tough spot oop, why I don't love opening pre. I think anything would be better than check/overcall. I would rather just c-bet or possibly even check/raise since we block AJ, AK and KcXc and have some good backdoors.

Turn: As played I guess check/call is okay since we picked up a lot of equity but might be another good check/raise spot depending on how each player plays their draws/made flushes.

River: Check/fold



Pre: Again raise more with the straddle, we got 4 calls so clearly can go bigger. I raise to $35

Flop: Fine, this is an A+ c-betting board but tough to do with 4 other players in the pot and we don't even have backdoor clubs.

Turn: I don't really like the raise because we never have anything stronger than one pair after checking the flop, I would just call the $25 like it ended up happening.

River: You're bluffcatching so its just gonna come down to your read on MP3. I'm trying to decide if his lead is strong or weak after you tried to raise the turn but couldn't, but I'm going to lean towards strong since the pot is multiway and you showed turn strength. I probably fold.



Pre: Probably go $35 here again but $30 is good if that's getting you headsup/3 ways post flop.

Flop: Tough. There is really no reason for him to fastplay a 5 here but sometimes people just spazz when he flops trips. Have you ever seen him spazz off with air before? Does he normally fastplay his made hands? I probably call though getting ~2:1 but I'm not sure if this is a leak and I feel like they do have it a lot here

Thanks for the responses all. I know it was a long post and 3 hands, but definitely appreciate it.

Hand 1 was tough for me on all streets... When I raised pre-flop, I thought to myself "maybe I should raise more." $15 almost invites just a multi-way pot at that point. The flop/turn decisions were also marginal for me. Wasn't sure if turn was a C/R spot... if even one player has a flush already then my equity is much lower. Just was not sure if my equity was enough to C/R

Regarding hand 2: Is the raise not ok on the turn? I suspect I have the best hand here quite often, which both players still drawing. Do I not want to charge them for their draws? But I guess in that case, my raise is not nearly big enough? Are we ever shoving here if we think they're drawing or is that spew?

Also, I wasn't sure how to size my preflop bets with the straddle and limpers. Example, I would probably do like a 5x + 1x for each limper (depending on the table but this would be my standard).

Should I just do the same, except with the straddle as my "x" now?

Personally, I would throw all this 5x + 1x stuff out the window and ask yourself (a) can I get a call if I put in 10% of my stack preflop (setting up an easy-to-play postflop spot with TP) and (b) what raise size will thin the field to preferably HU (which of course depends on the number of limpers you are facing and the overall table looseness).

GimoG

This is your problem in hand 1. You're approaching it all wrong. Look at hands 2 and 3 where people are calling big bets from you. Do you think they are doing that because you raised KJ offsuit from the SB? Of course not, so don't let card dead dilute your thinking.

@gobbledygeek - Well I guess the problem is I wasn't sure how much I should be raising to in this situation. I felt like $25 was enough... but I guess not?

@Mr.Curious - True. This is what I struggle with a lot being a tight player. I feel like people will just know, and when I just raise after a super long time of being inactive, they will just muck. But often times I guess that's not the case.

Did you read Ed's book about playing short stack. His example was I think two or three hours where he only played KK and both times people still called his raises. Remember, most people are there to gamble, not play good, so they will call because it is sooooooted or "their favorite hand" or "the speed limit" or whatever. We take advantage of it by sticking to our game and not letting it all get to us.

Hand 1 - If we c-bet the flop, and get 2 callers again or even just 1, how do we approach the turn? I know it would depend a lot as to what the turn card is... but when are we continuing again on the turn? When we pick up equity? Like on this particular turn, are we just firing again since we have the 2nd nut flush draw, even though maybe other flushes got there? What if the turn bricked to like a 2h or something - are we firing again to rep a strong A?

Have not read his book.. haven't read any books. I've only been playing poker for like 4 months, and it's difficult to find time to read books outside of other things going on.

But yes, I was going to comment that regarding premiums - image plays a factor but I think it's really just about what cards they have. They will call a $15/20 preflop raise from me even though I haven't been active for over an hour just because their Ax is suited. Even though they are likely dominated by me. So agreed...

As I say, the very first thing I do is ask myself "will a raise of 10% of effective stacks have a decent chance at being called"? We have a $400 stack, although it looks like the next biggest stack at the table is $300. Does a $30 raise in a straddled pot with 3 limpers at a 1/3 NL table have a decent chance at being called? In my experience, absolutely. So I'd default to a minimum of $30, and then ask myself the second question of "how much is it going to take to narrow the field here if we're not 100% pumped about going very multiway?". With a couple of loose players in the pot, I'd easily go $35 here and expect action.

Those are the questions I'd be asking myself with regards to preflop raise sizings.

GimoG

I'm typically shutting down unless I improve to beat Ax. If we get two calls on the flop, the chances of one of them having an Ax is huge, and getting TP to fold is difficult.

GcluelessNLnoobG

grunch.

Hand 1:

Limp preflop. It's ok to raise here sometimes, but you have to go more than $15. in 1/3, if I am going to raise from the blinds, I go quite a bit bigger than usual. Probably $24 or so here. We don't really want to go multiway here, and loose limpers generally aren't folding for 5 bbs.


Flop is either a bet, or a check/fold, and I would lean strongly toward a check/fold here. Once you face the $20 bet, it's a pretty trivial fold IMO. You are out of position, there is no card that could come on the turn where you are going to be comfortable building a large pot, you most likely do not have the best hand, and there is a lot of RIO if you do happen to improve your hand on the turn or river.

On the turn, a call is probably ok, but it's still marginal. You have 9 clean outs, but are unlikely to get much action if you make your flush, as it will put a 4-flush on the board. Your straight outs may be live, but maybe not. The problem is, if you make a straight or trips, you are unlikely to get paid off by the hands you beat, due to the transparency of it, and you are likely to lose more money when your opponent has a flush.

River is a check/fold. You may be ahead, but if Villain bets, you are beat. Betting is pointless, as you are targeting a really narrow portion of Vs range that is currently ahead of you but would fold to a river bet, and the latter is hardly a guarantee.

Hand 2:

I'd go a bit bigger preflop but it's not bad.


Flop standard.

Turn, I would just call probably. Although raising isn't terrible depending on your opponents.

I would probably fold the river. Your attempted raise on the turn should have indicated a lot of strength to your opponents, and he is still willing to bet $100.

Hand 3:

Looks good so far, now call. with the straddle, we are playing 50 bbs effective. We have a fishy villain, and people tend to go crazy on paired boards in heads up pots.

Hand 1 just complete, don't raise. Check/fold flop. If you were going to check call then why not just bet? Turn is close between a call and a fold (neither is terrible). With the right reads, I even like a raise here. River is a check.

Hand 2 Raise a bit more given all the limps. Fold river.

Hand 3 In game I'd probably use reads to determine my decision but readless vs terrible opponent I call.