$1/$2 NL max $500BI

Uno
Prehand Descriptions

Villain 1: MAWG. suspected knitter. bunch of limpers to him on button and he raised to $40 (at a table where mostly the table was limp folding to a $15 raise). Showed his hand to his neighbor and someone invoked the ''show one, show all''. Had AA. Made a comment about not wanting to get run down

Villian 2 Old Chinese guy. Played with him before. Very passive. Not raising less than AK, QQ kindofguy.

Hero is tight, good image. Hasn't been caught in the cookie jar yet.

Hero is dealt KJ

5 limpers including Villian 1 ($300) in CO, V2 ($100) completes in SB, Hero )($500) raps.
Flop $14 (J93)

V2 bets $10, hero raises to $30, V1 calls, V2 folds.

Turn ($77) (Q)

Hero checks, V2 bets $30, hero folds
------------------------------------

Table change.

Old lady is tightish but still playing too many hands. Never raises pf. Saw her bet out a flush draw on the flop once, checked turn. Basically only betting when she has it and always small bets. Fit or Fold.

Old Man: Actually plays pretty good. Saw him open 99 UTG for $12 and value bet second pair. I suspect he stole a few orphan pots from the button. overlimped AJs MP however. Raises his real hands for $12-$15.

Hero is fairly new to the table. Haven't played too many hands

Both players to hero's left and super tight knitters.



Dos
Hero has AT
4 limpers to including Old lady UTG+1 ($150) Old Man($400) in CO who raises to $7, hero (covers) calls on button, everybody calls, 7 ways to flop

Flop ($45ish) KKT

Checked to Old Man who bets $20, a lot of players behind are ready to muck, hero calls, old lady calls.

Turn: ($102?) 4 Old lady in EP bets $15, Old Man folds, hero considers folding but calls anyway.

River ($132) 6 Old lady bets $10, hero calls.

Tres

Same table and villians

Hero has JT

Old lady ($200) limps UTG+2ish, Old Man ($400) limps CO, hero (covers) raises to $15, both call.

Flop ($40) 823

Checked to hero who bets $30

Cuatro]

Same table.

Hero has 83

3 limpers including Old Lady in EPish, hero (cover) calls , BB checks

Flop ($9) KQ3

Hero bets $10, Old Lady calls

Turn ($27) 2Hero bets $10 as a blocker, Old Lady calls

River ($45) 6 Hero tanks, bets $25

Cinco

Same table

Hero has 87

Old lady limps in EPiish, folded to hero (covering) on button who raises to $15, knitter calls in SB, Old lady calls

Flop ($41) K92 Checked to hero who bets $30


How terrible of a hand can I raise here pf?

1) I think x/f on turn is correct. I guess V1 has a set on the flop To x/c a raise and bet 1/2 pot on the turn following your check. If he is somewhat less nitty he can also have QJ, J9, KT. Only problem I have is if V2 is as passive postflop as you rate him preflop then I wouldn't raise the flop.


2) You can't fold to these silly little bets but I'm unsure as to whether you shouldn't raise rather than call. Old Lady only has to bet TX occasionally among a load of KX to make calling profitable. However, if she is betting out with a draw then she is getting the best of you on the turn.

I'd like to r/f if she had more behind but she only has $105 after her $15 bet on the turn. Pot would be $132 after turn call so you would have to raise around $50 on top of $15call to deny her immediate pot odds to draw at a flush or a straight. Since you don't know which she is drawing at (if drawing at all) you'd have to raise bigger. She would have less than $50 behind so she could gii with her draws at this point thus giving you a tough decision. Raising obviously makes it very easy for her to stack you with KX.

So, on balance I think you were entirely correct to take the lesser of two evils and let her draw cheaply rather than risk your stack since she can easily have JJ+ here.


3) I would be happy to just call with JTs unless I've seen these two villains fold to a lot of cbets. I also don't mind a little pot sweetener raise if neither villain will read it as such. I guess from b/f in earlier hand you think oldman can let go of hands easily postflop and fact he is a good player means he may well read a pot sweetener raise for what it is. Therefore larger raise is reasonable against him. If old lady is fit/fold and likes small bets I guess she hates big bets so maybe she folds a lot to decent cbets. Therefore I'm happy raising big preflop.

Flop is dry apart from FD possibility. We know old man usually raises 99+ from EP so he rarely has a hand that can call on this flop and even rarer does he have a hand that can call two barrels. Happy cbetting vs him. If oldlady has a hand she will call our cbet and well give up unimproved on turn.

Conclusion: Well played.


4) preflop I'd fold. Call me a nit but 83s is not a playable hand in any position, especially SB. That said - well played postflop. You could argue for just checking on flop but given no raises preflop I doubt their are often decent KX or QX so why not try to take it now and disguise your FD if you get called? Your pair of 3s isn't going to hold up at showdown vs so many so happy to ignore showdown value and try to win the pot.

Turn I like the blocking bet more because it disguises your hand than actually blocks oldlady since she bets so small anyway. River I like bet size because - probably as much as she will pay off with a 1-pair hand and looks like a block bet so is consistent with you not having a flush.

5) I'm guessing you have, by now, established that old lady folds a lot postflop so are just taking every opportunity to get in the pot with her and push her out. That is fine but I think think this last hand you're pushing it a bit far maybe.

I don't mind raise preflop but once you get called in two spots and flop is not super dry I worry about the big cbet with no equity. Whilst K92 rainbow should hit the raisers range better than limp/caller's range we know oldlady never raises preflop so she could easily have KX. Also we cant be sure about what knitter in Sb is calling with. Has he noticed you opening up your range vs oldlady and cbetying a lot of flops? I might x/f this last hand.



In answer to your last question: If oldlady is easy to run over postflop and rubbish at getting value when she does hit hard then you can raise her pretty wide in position. However, if she is limping a tight range she is surely going to have to call you down with a good part of that range fairly frequently? If so then you want to stick to speculative hands that can flop some equity and give you an escape hatch occasionally. I'd stick to 22+ AQ+ KQ, suited Broadway, T9s-54s J9s-64s A9s-A2s K9s-K2s. Something like that anyway.


Phew, that was a lot of hands, I hope some of what I said makes sense but i don't even remember what I did say now!

I'm thinking he flopped a set, two pair with J9, T8 and QT just got there, I'm behind AJ. KT, QJ should have folded on the flop but they got there. Chopping with KJ, and ahead of JT but he should have folded on the flop and is probably not betting here.

I actually considered folding on the turn. But I was getting 8:1! If she had bet $40 or something on the river I would have folded pretty easily.

If you mini raise the turn, the river bricks and she donks for like $20, what the hell are you doing there?


Yeah, I don't like raising small here. Even the bad regs with pick up on the obvious bet sizing tell. And, really, I want all the fold equity I can get.

I'm almost calling ''any two napkins'' getting 9:1. Maybe that's a leak. Definitely not folding two suited cards though. Maybe that's a leak too.

I basically never make blocking bets because I feel it is so obvious what I am doing and easy to exploit. But here I figure Old Lady is betting a king when I check to her anyway (for $10-$15) and my hand becomes so obvious when I call. Also, she is never raising me without a monster. I actually considered betting like $2 lol.

SB was soo nitty post flop, but would defend from blinds occasionally and then just give up on the flop to a 1/2 pot sized bet. I played with him before and watched him stack off for 250BB with Jacks on a T62rainbow flop. Also had been watching him closely and felt like I could tell when he hit the flop hard. He would do this blinky blinky thing and quickly look away from the community cards as then came out and then look super nervous. As I was going for chips on the flop he already has his cards ready to fold.

Yeah. I'd probably not bother with the crappy suited kings myself. Lovin' some middle suited connectors though.


Thanks man. Appreciate it.

Hand 1 is confusing with someone betting after they folded. In general I think it's a huge mistake to be raising medium strength hands. I think you very rarely get called by worse, so you're not value-betting, which means you were bluffing in a spot where no one ever folds a better hand.

Ha ha, didn't notice villain 2 making that sneaky bet after he folded. That has to be some kind of massive tell


Re. Limping with junk (e.g. 83s) I am unsure of this myself but my current thinking is that if I'm at a table with a lot of limping I can make money easily limping the best speculative hands IP so why push it with junky hands OOP? I know that sounds cowardly/lazy but when you actually look at how often you hit a decent hand/draw with SC it is not very frequent. You also think "83s is not a huge dog vs AK" and limp along with the rest but 83s is a massive dog in a 7 way limped pot when other players hold an 8, higher suited cards in same suit as you, a pair >3s etc. When you add in the difficulty in extracting value postflop OOP it makes it an even longer shot with junk in the SB.

I think they key difference between this table you describe and the ones I normally play at is you managed to find a lot of fold-equity. Maybe I'm too conservative but I find FE is like hen's teeth at the 1/2 tables i play at. If i can raise first in, get it headsup and cbet a decent flop i expect a fold but apart from that I'm almost never bluffing. Therefore my whole game at the moment is value orientated or revolving around looking like i always have AA when i raise so i can get any FE at all!

If you have FE then use it and abuse it. I saw a clip of Doyle Brunson playing 5 or 6 handed with a bunch of pros including Phil Helmuth. Doyle just keeps raising Phil and taking every pot on the flop or turn. I think at one point Doyle raises 82o, c-bets flop and folds Phil's AQ! If people want to fold to your bets then it really is a crime not to oblige them With enough FE your hand really doesn't matter at all.

Physical tells can be hugely, hugely profitable. On here somewhere there is a post from me where I x/f a paired flop (77X) holding AA because a villain smirked at the flop. Sounds daft but the guy showed down trips allin vs two other players after taking a x/c line on flop. There's money to be made at poker through all sorts of weird s**t. Don't let the "standard lines" crowd put you off getting creative orvtelling you, curtly "you plaulyed this terribly". They're an odd bunch some of whom seem to thrive on churning out as many "you're s**t" responses to threads as is humanly possible but never gave time or the inclination to actually share their thinking/insight on any of your threads.

Don't get me wrong, many of the experienced players on here know a lot and are much better players than me (au4all included i bet). Take on board what they say - it is valuable wisdom even if you have to think about it for a minute before you get what they're saying.

The thing is if you can get to know all the "standard" plays and "good poker" inside out it just frees you up to see the game more clearly. Then you can start taking weird lines at the right times in order to exploit the f**k out of your opponents.

Also, get some real-world poker friends you can talk to about poker face-to-face. This is invaluable.

This is re. Hand 1: I do agree that a "good player" is not going to call with worse but at bad 1/2 tables players genuinely do, particularly at the weekends late at night. Here hero raises KJ to $30 vs a $10 bet on a J93r flop after checking in BB vs a load of limpers preflop.

In my experience of 1/2 NL even villains who are nitty with their preflop raising can calm this raise with gutshots, OESDs, worse JX, TT. I kid you not - if the games you play in are not as soft as this, you are missing out.

Also I think there is something to be said for raising people any chance you get - it tilts them and makes it ever easier to stack them when you do have a monster. Plus, if you are betting and raising frequently, then people start calling you down ever lighter and your dumb raise with TPGK can end up winning a massive pot from a normally tight player who decides "enough's enough, I'm calling this punk down here."

All that said, au4all is absolutely right - generally, in a vacuum, the correct thing to do with TPGK here is to call not raise. Having raised, got called and then faced a bet on a Q turn the correct thing to do is fold.

Kookiemonster, you have to apply all the advice you get judiciously to your own playing style in the games you play in against the specific opponents you find there.