First hand:
Villain is asian, aggressive, table trash talker, plays like a fish, chases draws, plays bad hands out of position to preflop raises.

Hero is high late position (i think HJ or MP, cant remember), villain is SB.
Hero has 4h 4d, raises to 15 preflop. SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: 3d 4s 9c
SB bets 30 into a pot of 45, BB folds, hero calls.

Turn: Jc
SB bets 60 into pot of 105, Hero raises to 280, SB Calls.

River: 2h

Bit of history on Villain: He was trash talking me saying he was going to come after my chips (I was chip leader on table, and he was very aggressive towards me, giving me cut eye throughout the session)

Villain gets up and jams for the rest of his stack, 120 dollars. Starts mockingly saying "ooooh im sweating, please dont call me"
Hero says "5 6 eh? Lucky ****"
Hero tanks for 30 seconds while Villain sits with a big grin on his face.
Hero reluctantly calls the 120, and Villain indeed shows 5 6 offsuit.

Hand two: Hero is the CO with 4s 4c, no reads on Villain, newish player to the table.

UTG raises to 20 preflop, UTG+1 calls, MP calls, HJ calls, Hero calls, SB raises to 75, BB folds everyone with 15 invested calls, hero calls.
Pot is 380.
Flop is 2 4 K rainbow
Flop checks around to us, we decide to check because the board is rainbow, had there been a flush draw on board we would probably bet around 30% pot.
River is a 9, brings a back door flush draw.
Checks around to hero again, hero bets 120, SB jams for 640, folds around to hero. Hero calls.
River comes K
Villain shows pocket 9s
Are we supposed to bet the flop when checked around to us, or do we find a fold on the turn jam?

I guess stop playing 44?

OK to combat the trash talker you seriously have to put earbuds in. There's no beating stupidity and they spew stupidity and it works.

Hand 1 is fine. I'd consider clicking flop bc most of the time he has 9x and there are alot of scare cards to 9x and I LOVE clicking donk bets.

Hand 2

This one is weird bc often times value isn't going to change (Kx is teh best hand) so you can just bet flop. Checking is fine of course. I'd definitely check like a 422 flop or 429 flop though, just because so many turn will bring someone a Broadway top pair or a draw or whatever which is good for us extracting value.

If I was playing my super, super A game, I would fold bc he is repping exactly a set, most often KK. This is where line reading is really important in live poker. Write out lists and memorize them.

Here, villains line is:
3b/check/check/jam

You'll see with enough tick marks on your list that this is never a bluff. Then you have to ask what value 3bets pre and then checks flop. AA? Nope. AK? Probably not. These hands just always cbet. The 5%of the time villain decides to check AA or whatevrr, there's just no way he's checking turn again. And there's no way he's check jamming it either. Tough one but his line is a poorly played set that set the old bear trap.

Yeah, I can see how I could find a fold if on my A game for hand 2. Villain's line with 3b, check check Jam was too passive to have been Aces or AK.

As for fish in hand 1, I do play with earbuds in, but I still like to overhear some of the table talk because it allows me to get a read on some of the table dynamics between other players. Sometimes there is good information that people spew out.

Good news is the weekend was still a positive one, (+550). I think the lesson here is to read villains line better when out of A game.

I like to hear table dynamics too and am usually strictly against earbuds for the social aspect of the game but I have found the anti-tilt factor of not listening to Maurice Hawkins (by blaring Kid Cudi into my ears at full blast) adds greater value than being aware of what is happening in the game.

Also take breaks/walks etc. This really helped me. I am a smart ass only child and I have come back at these guys with some pretty complex insults but it doesn't shut them down it just feeds them. You might think they "win" when you put your ear buds in but they dont. The ear buds are your sheild. If you have a sheild against an enemy, use it.

Hand one is pretty much cooler. Even though you know you are beat a lot villain is putting $120 into a pot of $560. The chance villain shows up with two pair or some other weirdness pretty much forces a call.

Hand two is a bet on the flop. With that many villains you want to cut the field down. The turn is a tough situation against an unknown. Folding is possible because the board is pretty dry but difficult with a set.

Both hands are tough hands. I would have bet the flop, but Villain would have called anyway.

Some poker coaches will say not to play 22-55 because you'll go broke in a set over set showdown. This is a good example.

If it makes you feel any better, I played at Harrah's Kansas City once and got beat by quads ... four times. And still finished up for the day.

H1. Call flop, If raising just shove turn (and leave nothing for him to ck-f) given I doubt there's much difference between V b-c 400 if he's calling 280. I'd also occasionally flat the turn to keep him betting all rivs.

H2. Very bad ck, not bc you got oversetted, but bc middle set even on a dry K24r board is still wildly profitable 5 handed. Moreso, your reasons for checking do better as reasons to adjust a bet sizing downward. Top pair isn't likely to change on the turn, so the turn doesn't do much for you wrt finding value/trapping (<-your reason for ck flop) especially considering how prevalent Kx already is in the other 4 ranges in a 3b pot. Also, you must reopen betting for SB as a 2-5 random will often ck his AK/KK+ as an "underrep".

AP, I hate calling all in, hate calling monster bets all in, hate calling monster bets all in readless, hate calling monster bets all in readless facing this line, hate calling monster bets all in readless facing this line in a 3b pot... but AK/AA tho?!? Sigh call or sigh fold idk.

I just don't understand why hand 1 is anything but a snap call on the river in that spot.

Lol what the. How do you run into quads four times in one session, that's absurd.

Hand 1 you got in the vast majority of the money as a good favorite, river is trivial and you are just steaming because you lost

Hand 2 I'd like to know stacks/etc. but I absolutely hate checking the flop. You cannot call preflop if you don't think you can start getting chips in on this flop.

Because I know villain likes to play all connectors/suited cards, anything that can draw. And after he lead out both the flop and turn OOP I had a very certain read that he had 56 - and also because I was watching his live tells for 30 seconds as he was putting on a show. All these factors combined, I almost folded, but decided to reluctantly pay the small price that was the river shove.

Yes I can see why I should have bet the flop to try to get any other pocket pairs out. When I check the flop I allow a free card to other pairs; i'd be losing to a turned set from 55/66/77/88/99 from the other callers and 10s+ from the 3bettor.. That being said, i'm not sure if pocket 9s fold to a flop bet, as it may look like i'm just stabbing at the pot from the button.

You don't bet flop to make 99 fold, you bet flop for value.

Rumor's point is basically "when you flop the nuts start putting money into the pot" which sounds so simple and yet is so neglected.

Stop thinking you want hands to fold when you bet. You dont. You want value.

You want calls from 99 et al. Size accordingly.

I know I want them to call. I just meant in the context of this specific hand if they dont fold the outcome plays out the same.

Flopped a set and lost threads are often very results oriented to begin with especially at normal depth, so I just wanted to hammer home the point that results are completely irrelevant and your default play as PFC at 2-5 should always be to get monies in asap w middle set until/unless you find a legitimate reason not to do so.