Took a break and started to play once again after a 4 month hiatus. Usually a 1/2 profitable player but game doesn't seem to transition well to 2/5. I want to learn and improve very badly though I think I have some fundamental flaws to my game.

1)Hero( $550)UTG with AA. First real hand played having brought in for $500. Action had been snug. Hero bets $15. One caller. V($850) LAG, raises to $60. Action folds back to hero, who, thinks villain has either very strong or blurry hand. Hero elects to raise $120 to induce. Villain calls $60. Flop ($255) 679r, hero shoves all in.

Different game, different table.
2) hero ($270)SB with 77. V1,$900, very loose player, known to not care about money and has raised pF about 60% of starting hands. Doesn't fold often to 3bet. V1 raises to $25, typical raise. V2($600) TAG, on button calls. Hero elects to $80. V1 and v2 call. Flop ($245)8dQd4s. Hero intend was to ship on the flop but when flop came, thought hit too much of their ranges to ship. Instead, checked all around. Plan was to give up. Turn 8dQd4s10d, checked through. Hero then sensed weakness and began pokdering what hands he can ship river to get off paired hands. River 8dQd10d4sJc. Perfect, maybe? Hero shops for $190.


Please critique my plays. Tell me where I went wron and why. I'm trying to deconstruct my game from the bottom and relearn everything, because it's been pretty bad as of late.

first hand the sizing is awqkward imo, were out of position alos. I think the rereaise shud be around $145 because were not getting enough money in here pre at $120 and giving him to good a price too call to ever be doing this without aa/kk. Like we look incredibly nutted at this sizing. On the flop I would bet like $110 on flop and jam safe turns, we atleast give our opponent a chance to semi bluff and hes going to jam all over pairs and stuff he calls a jam with anyway. we are jamming $380 into $255 which isn't good imo.

second hand we are pretty shallow and with the opener opening 5x i think a 3 bet is definately going to be a mistake. 77 plays really badly postflop and there are gonna be overcards on the majority of flops. If you are certain this guy is at it tons and is folding alot then shoving all in is fine. Personally id much rather make a 3b vs this guy with big picture cards as a bluff, kj, qj etc they are going to make top pairs that are going to be strong enough to go with when we are shallow on most flops and contain blockers to villains stronger parts of thier range. I think 77 is either a call fold or a jam, I thnk 3b too $80 is worse than all of the above actions. In short there are way better hands to be making this play with and you have so little equitty when u jam it in on flops with overs and are called.

Hand 1 is gonna get you in a lot of trouble if you play like that. Make it 25 pre, although action had been snug, you want to make more money when you do, it is much better to take down the blinds than take AA oop to the flop with 2-3 others. As played 4bet should be bigger. 120 is never cutting it here, I'd make it about 150. On the flop is bet about 120 And I'm pretty much calling off that flop there. Beating way too many KK, QQ, JJ 10-10 combos as opposed to sets and 8-10, which is unlikely.

Secondhand, if he doesn't fold much to 3! then why are you bloating the pot with a marginal hand...it just doesn't make sense. I hate playing oop and in general, no set no bet for me in that spot. Plenty of other spots for you to get paid, don't push marginal spots

hand 1 - miniRaising creates a smaller pot, raise more pre (to $150-$165) - like the previous poster suggested. Plan to commit on most flops once you put 30% of your stack in. Use SPR in these cases -

Hand 2 - makes no sense to RR w/this weak hand with your stack size when you could have just set mined.
OTR You are folding out weaker hands and begging stronger hands to stack you. Seems like you are hoping/praying to win, not planning to win. The whole line could be avoided by having a plan preflop.

You may have been profitable at the 1/2 game you used to play, you must ask yourself "Why?".

You may also be a loser at the 2/5 game you are currently playing, you must ask yourself "Why?".

Regardless of the answers to those two questions, you want to learn and improve! Well played sir! You are making great decisions in your pursuit of the game.
We all have fundamental flaws to our game. That's the fun part of initial learning!

AA's YAH!!! I do love to look down and pick up Aces~! It's always fun no matter when I get them. If it's the first time in 3 games, "awesome!" goes through my mind. If it's my third AA's in 10 hands, "we are getting ready to play a big pot, awesome!" goes through my mind.

First off, post these hands in different threads. Focus on one question at time. You are seeking too much information and need to slow down a bit! But don't worry, you will get a lot of feedback on more direct questions.

In relation to the hand: How are you planning to play a hand like AKss later, in a similar type situation? The reason I'm curious about this is because it will reveal how you may should be thinking about your Aces.

What does your hand look like, what did you think you were inducing a LAG to do in this situation? Why would he think that?

Again, this thread is too dense to analyze these questions because it has too many hands. It's all good though, I hope your thread thrives!


Again; Post in different thread! Also, you have the FLop/turn mixed up in your post, quick edit it so people understand which is correct. Either the Td came on the turn or the flop. I'm unsure where your mistake took place!

I like the way you are thinking, I have no idea if shipping or not there is good. To be honest it would take WAAY more time than I have already taken in trying to address your thread... PLease post in two different threads. Also, it would help if you added a little flair to your post such as They are fun and can be utilized below where you type!




In order to figure where and when you went wrong, you should take time and take practice in posting your hands. As far as learning from the bottom up, I applaud your effort and believe we can all learn a lot from reviewing the game from the bottom up!
You will have better luck getting people to respond to you if you make your post more informative. I will offer my best example using some extra information you did not comment on.


This is what I would have tried to write:

1/2 NL, Table playing fairly Tight PF

Hero: Learning player seeking out better ways of thinking about the game, seeking to play TAG. Bought in $500, had Open/c-bet a few good flops for Hero's range and won a few small pots. Not show down a hand to this full of random, tight playing MAWG's, in a casino game, at Gettingin, British Columbia.
($550, UTG) Here looks down at AA, two red aces! Hero opens to $15.

MABG calls in MP with 300.

Villian: Early 30's white male, in a business shirt and tie, IMO a LAG, raises to $60.

Hero: Hero elects to raise to $120.

MABG, 285 folds.

Hero does this because he is trying to induce a re-raise. Is this correct?
Why should hero be raising here?

Villian calls $60 more.

Flop: 679

Hero, Learner, UTG, AA, $430
Villian, MP, LAG, we assume a wide range, $430eff, has more behind.

How do we continue!~?

What are our plans for turn cards?

What are our plans for river cards?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Too many players at 2/5 are going to know exactly what you are doing with the min raise. They are going to call and not put another dollar in unless they can beat an over pair. It ends up costing you money when you do have a strong hand and you can't do it often enough as a bluff to balance it. In this case it also sets you up with an awkward size on the flop. Flop shove for a bit over pot is marginal, since it will often limit villain's range to hands that beat you, but the board allows for a lot of straight draws and your committed to pot.

77 isn't strong enough to raise OOP in this situation. Fold would be best because your not quite deep enough to flat and set mine.

Once you did raise pre you need to ship flop. It is more bluff then value but you have the most FE at that point. By river you have little or no FE. You have shown no strength and your stack is too short to apply a lot of pressure, villains are likely to look you up pretty light, not to mention the chance one has a 9.

Wow....way too much text in this thread. Sooooooooo.....

grunch

Make a plan for every hand

fin

Just some advice in general and then to the hands:

From the two hands posted...it does not seem that you're feeling comfortable with the stakes and you're not sure exactly how to play stack sizes. I strongly recommend staying at 1/2 for awhile until you've plugged some fundamental leaks otherwise it's going to be an expensive lesson for you. This is not an opinion...it's basically a fact after reviewing these hands alone...not to be too harsh....just trying to save you some money.

1. Hand 1 - raise larger pre to about $25 (your hand weakens the more players are involved in the pot). Re-raise should have been larger on the flop to around $200...reason being is your hand is basically polarized with the min-raise and it sets you up for an easy shove on flop.

2. 77 is a weak hand to be playing with less than 60BB...if you do play the hand it needs to be in a situation where you can get it all-in with some fold equity (also given you have a tight image) or calling to set mine. 3 bet here is horrible since you already said V doesn't fold much to 3 bets and you're OOP and you'll have no idea where you're at against V's but.....since you put in 1/3 of your stack pre, you should always be shoving flop. Not a hand you want going down to the river...

grunch

Hand 1
Preflop: You're opening size is to small. You shouldn't have a problem getting action with 25 or at least 20. I don't mind a small 4bet but you need to get as much value as you can. I'm probably going with 150 at a minimum. You are not going to "induce" anything imo. He is certainly not going to 5 bet bluff you and AK will just call and hope to hit.

Flop: Why ship this? What are you hoping to accomplish with this bet? You are maximizing your fold equity with what is very likely the best hand. You don't want to do that. Do you understand why?

Hand 2
Preflop: Again, what are you trying to accomplish? Imo, you want to maximize value from the maniac, and you probably prefer it if the TAG folds. 77 is a hand that will be much easier to play HU. So, you need to make it larger. Probably something like 115-125.

Flop: Obviously this is a much better spot if you are HU but as is, that is about as good as you are going to get for 77. It's time to ship. The only thing that you really get beat by is a Q and if you are ahead, they both have decent equity against you.

Wow, the amount of thorough replies and feedback I have gotten is incredible. I rarely ever discuss hands with others- yes, I'm the anonymous guy on the other side of the computer watching and reading away poker hands- but the feedback here has convinced me I need to start posting to really improve my game and not commit as many bad mistakes.

I'll post a reply to some of your responses in a bit.

I'd re-raise this hand, to about $160, on the larger end to increase FE. And play it like big pocket pair on the flop, following through with a confident c-bet.

Hand 1:

You are giving incredible odds for the villain to stack you. He is going to fold out many over pairs that he should have called with to your shove and you are only going to be called by hands that are beating you.

Open to $20-25. 3bet to $170-220. KK, QQ should shove over you and maybe AKs as well.

First hand you need a larger bet than 15. Can't fault those folks that say 25, but I like a bet of 35, at least. I'd bet about 230 on the flop, and then shove the turn.

Second hand
Don't like your raise to 80. I'd just call. However if I did raise it would be for 100. On the flop if they check to you then bet, don't check. About 80% pot here. If you are check raised than your done with this hand.

Although I butchered your hand by posting it incorrectly, (sorry) I did post it with a better format. (Just a little) check out these responses and the way thy more directly address issues within the hand.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17.../#post46696729

Hey! Thanks for doing that. Yes, I'll re-format hands for next time.

To your re-posting: crucial error: it was at 2/5. And I 4-bet to $120. Regardless, its the thinking process that I'm after and the responses achieve this.

1st hand: In a vacuum, I almost would never min-raise in that spot. However, it was my first time playing in 4-5 months, not to take anything away from the bad play, but there's definitely some rust involved. Raising there is a must to $160 I'd say. As played, villain calls with 58s and snaps my all-in.

Wondering, can you think of any scenarios in which min raising WOULDNT be a bad idea?

2nd hand: Villain here is the big X-factor. Later I found out, this degen is loaded. He'll re-load with an almost unlimited number of times. Raises $50 with JQ, and calls off $200 shove with J9. Calls off 59 pre to $350 shove with one caller after committing 30$. Known gambler, loose aggressive, but capable of adjusting.

That said, don't like my 77 hand anymore. I would muck this hand, not enough to just flat with 55B. With villain playing would wait for a better spot and his unlimited bankroll. Think there's any justification for a shove?

As played, Villain(V1) calls with Q9 for a straight having checked top pair the whole way.

Hand 1
Would be raising 25-35 depending on the table, I played some 2-5 where a 20 raise is seen as KK or AA only and I played at some tables were there is a UTG 50 blind raise so it really is table dependant but 25-25 should do the trick if everyone fold oh well take down the blinds and move on.
The other problem with betting small is that you start getting the calling train and then your aces are looking a little weak when you got 6-7 runners to the flop and then some wild action starts and you dont really know where you at
After the villain 3 bets you, should be 4 betting to 150+ as you are OOP and have a great hand so make him pay for it, hoping he got big Pockets or Ak etc he might just ship it in.
As for flop you are just turning your hand face up, and playing scared poker not wanting people to out draw you and most people can see that.
bet 200 or so then ship just about any turn depending on your reads on the villain.

hand 2
You dont mention your position but I guessing it is the blinds so I would generally just call looking to set mine with the 77 as they are not a really great hand to play OOP when you miss.
I dont really mind your squeeze but you got to have a plan for it.
pre I would push All In pre hopefully it is heads up against the Degen villain maybe you can take it down right now but by the sounds of things he will call, so all you are really doing is bloating a pot with a marginal hand and the variance will be huge
while squeezing is good fun you have to pick your spots with the right cards, 77 with your stack is just not that great of spot in general

Flop
Isn't that great for you as you said hits villains range way too much and would be pretty much shutting down AP, you are not really beating much and even the draws are not that far behind your 77.
would just check/fold more often than not try to get to show down