I come from a LHE background, have done pretty well in tournament poker, and am starting to gain interest in learning how to play NL. I've ran hot for the 2 15min sessions I've played waiting for my LHE table, but here are some hands where I wasn't sure what the best line to take was. Blinds are $2-$4, max bet on any street is $200 (so I guess it's spread limit...?)

Hand 1: 3 limps, sb completes, I check J8o. Pot~$20. Flop: 864 I have ~$400 behind. sb checks, I check (?), UTG bets $20, UTG+1 calls $20, rest fold, I fold.

Hand 2: 3-4 limpers, I complete 5s4s in sb, super-LAG raises $20 (he covers my $400) in BB, all call, I call (?). Flop: 2s 8h Qs. I check, BB bets $100 into a pot of $120, one guy calls allin, folds to me, I shove (?).

Hand 3: 3 limps, I limp 5c3c on BTN, blinds check. Flop: 2c2h4c. Checked to me, I bet $20 into a $24 pot. UTG calls. Turn: 9c. Villain checks, I bet $32 into $64, Villain calls. River: Ac. Villain checks, I try to put him allin but end up betting $200 into a pot of $128.

My thoughts: Hand 1 is a problem of stack vulnerability (??); I'm OOP on a drawy board with a hand that can't take much heat; after such a large flop bet, I just decide to let it go. Hand 2 feels like I should just call the flop to draw, but then, if villain is c-betting A-hi, I can just get it in with tons of dead money. For hand 3, I don't know what to construct for a range for villain; feels like he has a lot of A-hi's and random club-overs after calling the flop, and likely club draws going into the river. Felt like I can bet 3/4 pot to get value on the turn.

Comments appreciated, thanks!

Welcome to the dark side, swifty!

GcluelessNLnoobG

I like. Its worth a bet in deeper stacked games or games where you have a better sense of the table. But in a short-stacked game you've been in only a few minutes, just fold and save chips.


Preflop is meh. Closing the action calling is OK, and I do it too, but I'm not thrilled about it.

But I fold the flop. The non-zero chance one of them has a beter FD wreaks havok with your equity, especially with an allin sidepot situation. Do not want.

nh



Yes, welcome to the darkside!

Hand 1: looks fine
Hand 2: fold to the $20 raise
Hand 3: fold preflop. As played, check the turn and get a free river.

The difference between NL and Limit is that there is no reason to build a pot, or even to bet your draws, etc. In low stakes NL there is always a very good chance to get paid well AFTER YOU HAVE MADE YOUR HAND.

Likewise preflop, fold fold fold. Play your monsters.

Last night I got dealt pocket aces twice in the span of about 8 hands.
Previously I had played nothing but AK, AJs, and JJ.

The first pocket AA hand was the 4th hand I had played in 2 hours. I raised $15 preflop ($7-$10 was typical preflop raise), got two callers, went to the river with 1 player, I won unimproved.

8 hands later, I got AA again and raised $20 preflop. Since the table had recently saw me raise $15 with Aces, they took this as a sign that I didn't want callers and did not have AA (since I raise $15 with that instead of $20).
I got 5 callers, flopped trips, and got it all in on the river.

Why bet low flush draws???

Hand 1: fold is fine. You said you just got to the table so don't know your villains yet. Calling and then reevaluating river is also fine. GOod chance villains are drawing and will most likely shut down on turn. But you are OOP so folding is fine.

Hand 2: Fold pre. 54s OOP just isn't a good hand. You basically need to flop gin or else you will find yourself in awkward spots betting/calling on a draw. Basically, this is how you end up paying off overpairs.

Hand 3: Definitely you want to bet this turn. You get value out of trip 2s (if someone is playing A2) and you get value out of Ax or Kx type hands. I would be prepared to b/f turn though if someone shoves over the top of me. River, I would go for a value bet, 2/3 pot. Any fullhouse will raise you so no worries there in terms of getting max value. Otherwise, shoving my scare out Jx type hands that would have called a weaker bet. This is a problem many noobs have. They river the stone cold nuts and they just can't wait to shove all-in. Value betting is usually the way to go and 2/3 pot value bets almost always get paid off by decent hands. But shoves usually fold out decent (weaker) hands and we don't want to do that.

thanks for all the responses.

dg - The reason I bet pot on the river was partially due to table image. The table just saw me check/shove with 54s (and folded out maniac's QJ), so I felt that JcX would virtually snap call (since I'm also in position and the river is an obvious scare card). Do live players really fold a J/T/9 of clubs after calling to draw to it on the turn?

You sound like me 5 years ago. Back then the limit games were drying up as everyone was moving to this $1/$2NL crap. All the donks went to NL to be like the guys on TV. Now the limit games are getting good again as the casual players have gravitated back towards them more. Unfortunately it's hard to find a game outside of the unbeatable rake at 3/6.

Hand 1 is fine. I usually lead out in these spots, but there's not a lot of $ to be made with hands like these.

Hand 2 fold preflop. Completing the SB is fine but you're in the worst possible position postflop so fold to the raise. On the flop just fold. So much of your value from playing draws aggressively comes from getting other people to fold. With an all-in that ship has sailed, so just let this one go. If the guy is that LAGgy where he has junk here, just hit top pair and ship it. Also, move to his left. Make up some crap about needing to see the flop better or no arm room or something.

Hand 3 is well played.