I wouldn't straddle.

Are you UTG or on the Button? I'm definitely folding preflop OOP. More reason to call in position but still have massive RIO issues with this hand.

All options are available on the flop. He has bet into 3 opponents, but hasn't bet a lot on a drawy board, so this could still be a weakish pair that we could move him off with a flop raise. We could either do a 3x raise and just hope that gets the job done, or we could raise an amount that would setup a turn shove (applying maximum pressure if we whiff). There's also no crime in just flatting here and playing later streets in position (perhaps betting if he checks to us).

I'm too lazy to math but I'm guessing we have to commit with this draw once we put in 1/4+ of our stack.

GcluelessNLnoobG

1/2 nl QQ in early position.
It's folded to me and I come in for a raise of 16.
It's folded to CO/BU.?
We are heads up. Eff 225
Villain is young, quiet, Tag. Usually has heads phones on and never talks but not douche, wannabe type. More of a smart, college kid vibe.
OTTH
Flop J 6 3
I cbet 25, villain calls
Great flop for me but I can't put villain on a range.
Turn is another good card, a 2, but it completes a straight if villain happens to hold 5 4.
I checked, villain bets out 50 without thinking too long about it.
I make the call.
River card doesn't change anything. It's a 7.
I don think villain has a straight but I'm not sure how to proceed.
Do we go for thin value and bet river, or do we go in check call mode?

Bet the turn.

As played, there is only one pot-sized bet left to make. You may as well shove.

+A
Thanks
Went c/c, MHWG

He has a J. B/b/jam or CRAI ott.

Preflop opening question at 1/2.

Generally, my starting preflop raise is $12 and I'll go up to $18-20 depending on limpers. When there is a $5 straddle, I'll start at $20 and adjust based on the number of callers. I know everything is subjective but do these figures seem ok?

Also, I've been trying to solidify my preflop open ranges and I want to make sure that I'm reading the charts correctly. When the charts say that a particular hand should be opened, that means if nobody has raised before you right? It doesn't necessarily mean that everyone has to have folded to you rather that the only action before you was a limp or fold, right?

Also, does anyone have access to a general preflop chart for calling someone else's open?

Additionally, would the preflop raising chart be affected by straddles in the sense of when to raise? At my home casino a button straddle means that SB acts first which makes me wonder if I should be raising a wider range of hands in LP since there are less players to act in front of me?

Lastly, I'll post a hand from last night!

Hero is effective stack at $275, villain on BU. Villain (and table in general) has been very passive, often limping preflop or limp calling pre.

Hero has QQ in MP. Folds to hero who raises to $12. LJ calls and so does villain on BU. Pot ~38

Flop K34 rainbow.

Do we cbet here? I'm thinking yes because middle pairs probably stick around and maybe some straight draws like A2 and 56 but figure I'll post a hand asking.


Thanks in advance!

Lotta questions in one post. Sizing seems fine for an average 1/2 game.

I don't use PF charts at all, so I couldn't tell you what their authors think about limps and straddles, but I will tell you that I open more tightly over limpers than I would if it were folded to me. The bottom of what would have been my opening range becomes my overlimping range.

As for the straddles, I def open a little looser in LP (if it folds to me), not only because there are less players left to act, but also because there's more money to steal.

As for the hand, against an LP, I b/f here, and if called I prob look to get to a cheap showdown. Gonna get more calls OTF when they think you're c-betting a lot of air than you will if you wait, generally speaking. It depends, though.

Thanks for the response, Garick!

Good to know about the ranges. I think it's time to reintroduce over limping to my game. I cut out limping entirely as a way to force myself to become less passive. I know that's not the greatest strategy and all but bringing in back in certain limited spots definitely seems like the best move

To "open" means to raise first in; nobody else has entered the pot voluntarily.

If one or more players have called the big blind, you may well want to raise, but doing so is not opening; to do so is to "iso," or isolation-raise, that is to say to raise the caller(s) so that you can play your uncapped range advantage against one or more players with capped ranges, while shutting out other players who haven't acted yet. Iso'ing doesn't work very well at 1-2 or 1-3 because people just want to play their hands. That doesn't mean not to do it; it means to pick a raising range that plays well multiway, possibly out of position.

Ahhh, good to know. thanks!

Correct to blast away w/set?

Setting: card room in Slovakia, 8-handed, About 1 hour into the game so not great reads yet, seems like mostly passive draw-chasing MAWG-style regs, one slightly creative younger player. Stacks are relatively small, between €100 and €250.

Blinds: € 1/2

Hero (BTN - stack € 165) - looks down and sees black 66
UTG (€ 100) raises to € 10
MP1 (€ 150) calls
MP2 (€ 180) calls
HJ (€ 120) calls
Hero calls

Flop: 864 rainbow
checks to Hero
Hero bets € 50
MP2 and HJ call

Turn: Kd (second diamond on board)
checks to hero
hero AI
MP2 and HJ call

River: don't remember, prolly Qc

Hero drags nice pot, but I am wondering if PSB on the flop was a 'good' play, or should I have gone smaller, like € 25-35 ?

I'd usually go about 3/4 pot on that only slightly wet board, but if people are paying off light, nice value.

2/3 hold em. 500 effective stack.
UTG1 opens to 20, CO calls, SB calls.
I reraise in BB with red Aces to 80. UTG1 folds, CO and SB call.

Flop comes J62cc

I bet 80, CO calls Sb folds. Villain is an old reg, I have no reads on him at all.

Turn is 9c

I jam for 340 he snaps off with 99.

Is this a value bet on turn or am I basically only getting called by better?

80 is pretty small, I know you have AA and all but I'd make it 100.

Bet a bit more OTF so that your turn jam is more comfortably sized. Jamming turn is fine even with the club coming down. With the pot the size it is, you can't really get away from your hand, and V probably doesn't have many flushes anyway, as many players would shove a draw on this flop.

Yeah, I've been following the general strat of cbetting 1/3 pot after 3! with my entire continue range. I think betting a bit bigger in this spot is probably a good adjustment though because I actually don't have a heap of 3! bluffs that cbet this board seeing as I'm against an UTG1 open.

And yeah obviously I call if he jams turn anyway. My thought process at the time too was there was a few bad river cards too like any Jx or a club which would put me in a ****ty spot on the river.

Thanks for your feedback.

I was a TAG 6/12 limit player a decade ago, now trying NL200 after time away.

BTN at a table of 7 players with K2s (clubs). Folds around, except for a middle position player, who raises to 5X BB. I ($400) call. The SB (c. $160) raises to $35. The only other players (BB & MP) both fold. I call the $35, and we are now HU. The SB is a young (early 20s), attractive Latina female with large fake boobs, flattering clothing, and lip projections. She plays classic TA (the puns in this case write themselves), but frequently acts like she has something to prove when pressured. She is also only buying in for $100 in chips at a time and has never had more than $160 in front of her.

2 players ($82)

The flop comes 45Kccx. SB bets $15, which I feel is a c-bet b/c of the bet size. I raise to $45 b/c TP and flush draw. She calls.

The turn comes 9c, making my K high flush. She checks, I bet $100, and she calls, leaving only $10 in chips in front of her.

The river comes 6h. She checks; I bet her last $10; and she calls; showing JxJc.

Please provide analysis, especially with regard to how I should have treated the flop.

Both preflop calls are an absolute mile too loose. K2s is rarely playable to a raise.

Flop raise is fine, call would be OK too, hard to go wrong there. May as well just jam the turn but whatever.

1/3. Hero opens Ad5h in CO to $12 and BTN calls. BTN has shown a propensity to bluff on occasion. Eg triple barreled JT with oesd that missed.

Flop ($18): Ah-Kh-8s. Hero checks, V bets $15. Hero calls.

Turn ($48): 2h. Hero checks, V bets $40. Hero hesitates, putting V on possible flush, and calls with 5h blocking some flush combos.

River ($128): 2d. Hero checks V bets $60. Earlier hero jammed and V tried table talk during his tank, hero remained silent. Now V says, “I’ll answer questions, even though you didn’t.” Hero?

I'd fold. I don't think that's ever going to be a bluff (sizing way down on a not great card to bluff when you've called twice, plus that speech doesn't seem bluffy). It also seems unlikely you can be chopping, because his big turn sizing when the flush falls would be odd with just an ace, especially since big aces like AQ and AJ should be threebetting pre. If it's not a bluff and not a chop, that only leaves one possibility. Hands like heart suited connectors are completely compatible with this line, so is A8.

I like offering poor 8:1 ~setmining odds preflop when 3betting to create an SPR we won't be able to fold postflop to. So with about $550 effective with the dead money in the pot, this would mean 3betting to about $90. Since we're facing an EP raiser and this all might look a little stealy with significant dead money in the pot, I'd be fine with bumping it up to $100. $80 is also decently within the ballpark, offering about 9:1 IO, so it's all up to you how conservative you want to be here.

SPR 1.6 so trivial commit postflop. With an SPR this small and committed I would probably lean to getting stacks in by the turn, but since board is so drawless it's also fine dragging it out over 3 streets with 3 lol small bets too. Again, your sizing is slightly less conservative, but it's still fine.

If our plan was to jam the turn (instead of 2 more sucky bets) I likely would have bet more on the flop just to make it slightly easier to do ($$$ wise). But jamming as played is fine too.

He was about a ~22:1 shot to hit the turn getting IO of only ~8:1, so we want the flop call every time even if we stack off every time when he hits (which we will).

ETA: Just realized the flop had a flush draw. I wouldn't screw around as much in this case and would definitely bet a lot more on the flop to setup a trivial turn jam; our flop bet actually gave correct IO for flush draws since we won't be able to fold even if it comes in.

Ghandisfine,imoG

I also come from Limit. The games are completely different in every sense, so there is quite a learning curve, imo.

I would fold the first time preflop (if you're a super wizard and opponent is super horrible then there may be an argument for calling here in position with these stacks, but it's very meh imo). Calling the 3bet for ~20% of stacks is just horrendous, like really really really really bad; I can't overly stress how bad this is. As a starting point (and a starting point only) you likely shouldn't think of calling a raise for more than 5% of stacks preflop when HU (there's more than goes into it than that, but it's a good place to start).

The SPR is 1.5 on the flop which means we can get stacks in super easily by the river whenever we want, especially in position. With that in mind, there isn't much reason to raise the flop. If she has an overcard, she's likely on a 1-outer; if she has an underpair, again, she's likely on a 1-outer. With us having the Kc and her 3betting preflop means there is just so little chance she has a flush draw herself, so not worried about charging a draw. Yeah, a club might kill our action, but it kinda looks like she doesn't have much anyways. A raise just often gets her to fold her weak hands. So even though the raise is lol small and we're 100% committed, I would still just flat to encourage her to keep bluffing / barrelling an underpair into our flush draw.

FWIW, just because we have TP + flush draw doesn't mean we have to raise in NL. This is one of the big differences between NL and Limit. In Limit we have to take advantage of equity advantage on each individual street because we can't make it up on later streets due to the limited betting structure, so a raise really is necessary here and we hope for the best. But this isn't the case in NL, where it can be more about making sure we trick our opponent into getting in the rest of their stack when they are way behind.

Next time post pot size on each street, but here it looks like we only have 2/3 PSB left, so I'm fine with shoving targetting her pair + flush draw. Betting to leave $10 behind on the river is just a dumb bet; make sure you bet the remaining $10 on the turn because there is 0% difference in her calling $100 vs $110 (and yet she could fold that last $10 on the river if her lone backdoor draw doesn't come in).

Gwelcometothedarkside!G

I sometimes get out-of-line with this junk on the Button, but the CO is just too early for me (I'm not guaranteed position, I gotta get thru 3 people instead of 2, etc.). It's just not worth the hassle, imo. If it was suited I'd be more cool with it (and would be either/or regarding open limping and raising depending on stack sizes, player tendencies, etc.).

Assuming non-committed stacks, standard check/call for me against this guy on the flop.

When he triple barreled last time, how was his sizing? Here he just ~PSB the turn on a drawy board when the flush came in, that's a little scary. You're *way* overthinking things regarding "blocking some of his flush draw combos since we have the 5h", imo. I would likely just exit now as I have a weak hand / weak draw and he could also be setting us up for yet another big bet on the river.

I would also mostly sigh fold the river. It's more difficult since we now chop with most Ax, but calling hoping for a chop when there are still lots of hands that beat us is meh. He's also sized it to a "please call me" size.

Overall, try not to play big bloated pots with mediocre hands OOP to difficult players.

GcluelessNLnoobG

DT fold pre, x/f flop probably, x/f turn definitely.

Whatever mental gymnastics caused you to call turn... don't fold river when a good card hits unless turn was a misclick. You made it this far, call and feel like a genius when he tables queen high.

The Ah and Kh on the board make it far less likely that the villain has a flush draw. Just about the only flush combos they should have are QhJh, JhTh, and Th9h.

For the same reason, hero's holding the 5h doesn't really block flush combos. Do we really think that villain is flatting a CO open with 6h5h? Ah5h is blocked by the ace on the board every bit as much as by the 5h in our hand.

The small river bet doesn't say "please call me" to me, it says "thin value," after the board has paired and made nutted hands like QhJh into non-nuts and thick value hands like A9s into possible chops.

AK should be discounted because villain flatted pre. There is only one combo of A8s (Ac8c) they can have, and likewise only one A2s, also clubs, and we should likely discount this somewhat. Flatting a CO open with 22 is very special. If the villain did this, we should change seats to get position on them.

So there are four combos plus two discounted ones that beat us, something like six to ten chops, and whatever bluffs the villain has. Because of the bet size the villain shouldn't really be bluffing very much.

This is an unusual end-of-action spot, because of the likelihood of chopping. We are risking $60 to win a total pot of $248, but because of the chop it is more like $124, so we need to be "good" almost half the time.

I would say, with six combos of value hands, two of which are discounted, and something like six combos of chops, possibly more, we have a clear call.

Yeah I was probably not playing my best this hand between the open and calling like a total station all the way down. Lol. Sometimes I forget that V's don't bluff as much as we think at these stakes.

His sizing the bluff hand was somewhat smaller. I think he bet $35 river.