Alright so I rarely play 2/5, but yesterday I took a shot there, here are two interesting hands I played. Both were early a the session against pretty much unknown opponents.

Hand #1
Game: Live 2/5
Hand: KKsc
Position: CO (5-handed)
Stack: 430$
Villain: 40yo Asian (unknown), UTG, 280$.

Preflop Action: HJ limps, I raise to 15$, BTN, BB & HJ all call. (60$)
Flop: 234ddh
Action: I bet 45$, BTN calls, BB folds, UTG shoves 265$, I?

What's my play?


Hand #2
Game: Live 2/5
Hand: KTsd
Position: HJ
Stack: 260$
Villain: Unknown 30yo Asian woman, looks loose. (BTN, covers)

Preflop Action: folded to me, I raise to 20$, V calls. (45$)
Flop: 55Tddh
Action: I bet 30$, she called. (100$)
Turn: 8s
Action: I check, she bets 60$, I?

What should I do here?

Likely opening for $20 instead of $15 here after 1 limper.
Calling the flop getting a bit better than 1.5:1 on my money.

It only takes just a few combos of overpairs for us to be decently ahead of his range + the overlay.

If he was $350+ it would get more interesting imo.

Also, why are we raising more in the second hand with no limpers and a worse hand?
Big hand small pot, small hand big pot?...

Flop is fine. $25 might be ok also heads up.
Turn check seems ok to. If she has T8 here then she has all sorts of other worse Tx, and she still has QT/JT. There are some 8dXd type hands in her range. Also, the suits are wrong somewhere here. I'm assuming you had KdTx, and the flop was 5h5dTd?

Hand 1 - hard to fold KK for only 56 BBs. Probably raising more pre, to $20-25, after one limper.

Hand 2 - call. When you check the turn you are turning TP into a bluff catcher. Now catch it.

For the preflop bet it was 2 different tables so different dynamics and also 5-handed vs 9-handed. But your right 15$ was not enough for my KKs.

On the second hand your right for the suits, sorry

I concur with both of the responses you received. Call with both hands.

Raise to around 25$ pre flop in hand one. In hand 2 you raised to 20$ unopened and with a limper in hand 1 to 15$? Hand 2 call and get paid 2 streets hopefully.

hand 1 make it 20 pre, half pot otf, fold now.

hand 2 I call. more Tx in her range than 5x, lots of hands we're ahead of at showdown. I call, x/eval river.

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Hand 1: I'm not sure a call is that of a good move, even if it's only 56BB I'm not sure he has a draw or an overpair often enough :S Any other opinions on that?

Hand 2: Yep that's what I did, I called. Now a Kc came on the river, first to act would you bet there and how much?

Hand 1: More pre. At least $20. I'm absolutely calling. The game is 5-handed. You're getting about 2:1 odds to call. There are plenty of semi-bluff squeezes in his range to justify a call.

Hand 2: Fine pre and flop. I'd consider betting myself on the turn. Check-call is ok too.

1. Call

2. Call

Does anyone wish to discuss what advantage calling turn in Hand 2 has over shoving?

Does shoving fold out better, and/or get worse to call? Or are you trying to get the flush draw to surrender it's equity?

Hand 1 I actually called and he showed a set of 3.. Since than I think it was a bad call and I keep convincing myself it was a bad call, but you guys help me to see it more clearly, anybody would fold?

Never folding on this board with an unknown V. You'll get that ish back easy.....

#1 - looks like you are flipping against Ax. if he was deeper you could fold, but when you are getting almost 2:1, it would be hard not to call getting that price. yes you have the other V behind you, but he appears to be on a draw also. you could call, and if the other V comes along with you, you shove all non ace and turns.

did you think about checking that flop? and then just folding to any kind of aggression?

#2 - call, and then lead river for 75. that is about the most value you can get. if only has a T, you are only losing to AT. if she has a 5, she is shoving over the top and you can save a few measly bucks.

The key part about hand 1 is adjust your preflop raise sizes to 2 5NL standards. If you raise to $20 when you open pots and add $5 for every limper every single time, you cant really go wrong. After you raised to just $15 after a limper pre, I am surprised nobody from the other table called.

You have to call the flop shove as he has a lot of hands like 55, 66 and diamond draws in addition to sets/straights and 2 pair combos in his range. Sometimes, your big pairs lose - that's poker.

Me!

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Speaking in terms of "value" versus a "bluff" is a heuristic that doesn't perfectly reflect optimal play.

I'm looking for someone to talk in terms of EV, hand ranges, ex-showdown equity advantage, etc. What range of hands do we put villain on that's wide enough that we can profitably call? How does calling against those hands allow us to outperform villain for the last $150?

[QUOTE=PFunkaliscious;48971992]
did you think about checking that flop? and then just folding to any kind of aggression?QUOTE]

I don't want to give a free card to anyone on that drawy board, I don't mind getting draws to call at that price thought and a lot of in between pocket pairs are calling, also some weak players might call with a naked ace just for the gutshot. If I check, why would I fold to any kind of aggression lol? There is enough hands that bet that flop that I still beat..

explain...

I think she bets as a bluff/semibluff pretty often here and for that reason I think my hand beats her range. If I reraise shes just folding her bluffs and calling with her real hands that beat me. Still I'm not sure what to do on the river, if a blank falls I might make a small value bet. If a diamond fall I'll have a really tough decision to make thought. What do you think?

This is kinda what I was getting at. I'm ok to raise all in if her bluffs here (with the occasional 77/99) contain more than 50% semibluffs, but generally speaking, I'd rather go to the river against a wider range, especially when a non diamond river can induce a spaz bluff in a lot of loose players.

Hand #2: Reasons to check turn:

1) You don't have enough info about the opponent to comfortably value bet thin.
2) It's an awkward OOP situation. What you are going to do if you bet and get raised by an unknown player?
3) Induce bluffs from peeled hands or weak draws that would fold to a turn bet.
4) Induce bets on turn from weaker value hands that might have folded to a bet.
5) Widen opponent's calling range on river (if turn is checked back) so you can get paid off by weaker value hands.

I think it's a profitable CBet on the turn, but I think it's more profitable to check. I plan to c/c both the turn and river unless I get some new information somehow (like an obvious physical tell). I expect to be shown a lot of busted draws, peeled bluffs, and weaker value hands. (And in reality, your check range is going to be weak...KT is near the top of it and so shouldn't be folded w/o good reason.)

A non-diamond river *can* induce a spaz bluff, or it *will* induce a spaz bluff? This is a pretty important distinction, and her frequency is crucial to guessing at the EV of a call down.

Do bluffs make up a large enough portion of her river betting range that calling improves the overall EV of our play, or is it merely +EV when evaluated on a one-street basis? In other words, is it a value-call, or is it merely the correct play to make once you account for the dead money in the pot (much of which was contributed by ourselves in step 1 of our plan, and the rest of which was already accounted for in the EV of step 1 of our plan)?

And if blanks are inducing spaz, then surely overcards and flushes are inducing spaz, and that makes up 43.5% of river cards. So either adding FE gives all of her semi-bluffs much better equity than the 20-34% their H&C equity represents (ie: we're often making a mistake by folding), or there is a lot of implied odds to consider in the hands that she would have otherwise folded to a turn shove (ie: we're often making a mistake by folding).

This is the true life of having a vulnerable bluff catcher OOP with <1 PSB left behind against someone who is either unexploitable or whose exploitabilities are unknown to us.

Meanwhile, is the breaking point for her calling really EXACTLY KT. She's literally always calling a chop and never calling QT? She's never calling even with AJdd/98dd/QJdd? In practice, I have both seen players fold better AND call worse, and I wouldn't exactly call either of those circumstances rare. Never mind the fact that many of these hands are actually robbing themselves of EV by folding against our particular hand, which brings us back to the fallibility of terminology like "value" and "bluffs."

Stacks aren't deep enough to fold hand 1. Villain could easily do this with AX, and with overpairs less than your kings. It sucks, but you don't raise and bet/fold on a relatively safe board with kings when V has less than 75 BB.

Hand 2 is fold pre. I know people hate "fold pre", but it really is. You have a loose player who is likely calling wide, and who has you covered. Plus, you have little to no info. Tighten up and take her to value town when you both hit aces and she can't find her fold button.

AP, fold. You don't have the stack to call and play the river. You either have to jam here or let it go. At this point, even 108 is beating you.