2/5 game, looks like a reasonably solid table with a few young guys that look like they know what they're doing, but no reads on any of the players.

I get dealt in in MP and look down at AA. One EP limper, I iso to $25. Folds to youngish guy in the BB who flats, limper folds.

Pot: $51
Flop: T98.

He checks, I decide to check. This may be terrible and am willing to discuss lines that involve betting the flop.

Pot: $51
Turn: 4

He checks, I bet $35, he raises to $80. I call.

Pot: $230.
River: 8

He bets $110, I call.

Standard? Does the fact that this is my first hand play a roll in this hand at all?

I had this exact same experience at the Hard Rock in Ft. Lauderdale. First hand I look down at AA and raise to $30 and got one caller. Flop came down much drier than yours, something like 8, 5, 2. I decide to shut down the hand by going all in for $470. DONKEY MOVE. V instant calls and shows pocket 8s.

I believe I may have been stacked in any case since the turn and river were blanks but this was the LAST time I make such a stupid move.

To answer your question, Yes it sucks to get AA or KK in the first hand not knowing your players, but it should play the same. My guess you lost this hand!??

Bet flop and check turn is generally better but your line is workable if your willing to call down. Villain could easily be betting worse for value or thinking they can get you of a small pair/two over cards, or they could be betting a big hand. Once you check the flop you have no idea where you are relative to medium sized bets and you just have to call down unless something really terrible hits board or villain shoves.

I don't like the flop check much. I also get tempted to check flops like this sometimes because they really suck to get raised on, especially with no reads. But checking you loses you value from a lot of draws that would just call the flop and makes the hand harder to play on later streets. If I get c/r I would usually be folding without reads.

As played I think you have to call/call as its much more likely he is turning some pair/draw or even a naked draw into a bluff. He may even be betting TJ type hands for value. The 8 is a nice card for you (fewer flopped 2pr combos and we beat 9T now). So I would just call it off. But I wouldn't be thrilled.

If I bet the flop I would be betting clean turns. I think 90% of the time a c/c on this flop means we are currently ahead. I would even bet a decent number of rivers, likely including this one.

bet/fold on the flop then?

Firstly, spelling fixed. I couldn't get the image of a dinner roll out of my mind... J/K

Decent line. Here's another option.... Shove PRE! First hand... You have the pre flop nuts and table has no read on you either. What if you shove and get no callers... Well the may start seeing you as the über-fish and you can play TAG and get mega-paid for a while. If you get a caller... Even better!

But as played I'm betting 75%PSB on this flop.

Yeah, noticed that but can't edit an OP

I guess that's possible, or maybe a raise to $100, but I don't really like strategy plays that require getting a good hand later on to make it worth it. It's hard to get good hands. Could make it like $50 I guess and accomplish a similar thing.

folding to a raise probably?

Please don't shove PF. That lets them off the hook from making their biggest mistake (calling down too light).

I would probably fold the flop to a raise with no reads. I might use some semi-profiling (i.e. I would snap fold to an old nitty looking guy but might get it in with a younger, more aggressive-looking player (whatever that means)). As a general rule I would be folding b/c I think we are basically getting raised by hands that beat us and combo draws which isn't a range we fare that well against.

Hehe

Well you WILL get hands to open with. So building an image is not a bad thing. And you WILL make hands. And lets hypothetically say someone has 88-QQ/AJs+... They're more likely to call (incorrectly) a shove pre flop from someone's first hand because it looks like its FOS. KK is calling anyway. So it's probably way +EV. But yes possibly the $100 raise accomplishes same thing. And maybe if no history you could try pulling one of the obvious speeches like "how much can I bet?" Or "this is no limit right?" Lol!

Idk if I'm folding to a raise on flop. Would be a PUKE-fold only if I somehow picked up a read, as first hand, could just be an aggro trying to establish his dominance. What was V's demeanor/appearance/etc?

I have a hard time establishing a "donk" image just in my appearance and normal handling of chips and such. I do think it's a leak that I never really get a "this guy sucks at poker" image. I think an interesting line would be to raise to 4 $25 chips and try and give off the impression that I meant to use red chips. Will have to wait 220 sessions before my next chance to do this.

V was serious looking. White, probably mid 20s. Didn't look too aggro, but sometimes those are the most aggro players.

please tell me you didn't fold. you are so tragically underrepped here.

I think shove in this exact scenario is an interesting move, especially if you are an unknown to the other players. You just might get somebody to look you up.

Not betting this flop is terri-bad. 75% pot bet.

As played, call the turn because we are ahead of most hands and want to keep weaker/bluff hands in. (Also, it's 211 ott, not 230.)

Raising the river here is understandable, but I don't agree with.

1) Raising defeats the purpose if it's an OESD that missed, and we're sunk if we're against 89, 8T, 8J, 87.

2) What could he possibly be betting 1/2 pot with otr? We're all hoping he has 9T here, but how many times does he show up with this with a bet otr after an 8 comes, knowing that his two pair is sunk because hero's range could very well be overs?

3) His thinking could very well be knowing that hero called that turn raise with overs. Why would he bet here then?

I call here, expecting to see 50% JQ, JK, JA, and 50% 78.

You need to bet the flop.

Make him pay to draw.

If he calls the flop I would over bet the turn.

There will be no strong hands in his range and if he semi bluff raises his draws u can easily call the shove getting the right price.

As played you are so under repped.

How are you responding to a flop check raise? So you plan to get stacks in on blank turns?

If he just calls the flop then yes I would be trying to get stacks in on the turn because the turn card misses his range so much.

If he raises the flop I would call and re-evaluate. Since he can raise a lot of hands for value he should be raising a lot of bluffs on this flop.

I don't like getting stacks in on the flop as I think we are either gonna be up against sets, straights or combo draws and our hand has now become a bluff catcher. I would fold if I knew villain was not capable of aggressively bluffing this flop but as we have no info I would play GTO against an unknown and bluff catch.

i think your line is fine if you didnt fold the river.

hell, on that river, i could argue for a raise. i doubt villian folds Tx to you.

i think you should very rarely check this flop back like this, doing it once in a long while as a change of pace is ok for pot control. once you decide to check the flop i think the other two streets are fine. call river

I did it mainly because I was so readless that I didn't want to have to decide on what to do if check/raised on the flop. But managed to force myself into a similar situation on the turn :/.

I'm fine the whole way. Betting flop would have been another way to go, but I don't know if we get 3 streets of value anyway here, so the flop check is okay.

I'm calling otr, underrepped and we counterfieted T9, I think that matters a little.

wp

Probably the biggest mistake you can make at LLSNL is try to play "GTO". Sure, he should have a bunch of bluffs in his range to balance. But the average 2/5 player in this spot is very unbalanced because they aren't capable of bluffing in this spot. Trying to extrapolate out actions from what they "should" so is almost always a mistake, especially against an unknown.

You shoved $470 into a pot of $60?? 8x pot bet.

One of the reasons I prefer to bet the flop here is because hero has no read on villain and villain has no read on hero. Better to play straightforward TAG poker and see how villain responds. If you have no read on villain and a good but not huge hand it is better to play to your hand's strength or slightly over repped then play your hand under repped because it is simpler to figure out how to react to villain's action.