Yeah I would not be folding to an x/r. What am I supposed to believe he has? Boats are a thin range and I'm not even sure he'd check the turn with a set or two pair. Aside from that looks fine.

This makes 0 sense to me. His value range is thin, so inducing is good for us, surely. I like the small sizing for that reason.

Well, I mean, "if we are planning to b/f" I don't like the sizing. If we are hoping it looks weak and he spazzes, fine.

Live $5/5

Setup
HJ - ($750 - 150BB)
Button - ($400 - 80bb)
Hero in SB - ($1000 - 200bb)

Preflop (Pot size: 10)
Hero posts small blind $5
BB posts big blind $5
UTG folds
UTG+1 folds
UTG+2 folds
MP folds
HJ bets $25
CO folds
BTN calls $25
Hero raises $125
BB folds
HJ calls $100
BTN calls $100


Hero has [A♣︎K♠︎]

Flop (Pot size: 380) [K♥︎4♣︎2♠︎]

Hero ?

HJ has a wide opening range of 25%. When he calls he could have pairs, AQ, AK. I am not sure if smaller suited connecters is part of his range. But bigger suited connectors is possible.

Button is a loose player who is just hoping to connect with the flop. His range is wide.

This is such a dry flop that I would normally but around 1/3 to 1/2 pot. At these stack sizes I am not worried if button calls. But say I bet $130 and say HJ calls. The pot would be $640 and HJ would have $500 behind. When he calls, he has AK, maybe AA, KQs,44 and 22. I wouldn't put him on any two pairs or straight draws here. On the turn am I just jamming to any card? Any other thoughts on bet sizing ?

I'd size up slightly to make jamming more comfortable OTT. Let's say you bet 150, then the turn jam looks to be 480 into 680, which feels more natural. And yeah, you just jam any turn card. There's no problem here really.

Thanks!

2/5. Hero raises black KK UTG $15, BTN calls. Hero is eff. at $350. V is 35 y/o WG who isn't just a nutpeddler.

Flop ($30): Qd-7h-3h. Hero bets $15, V raises $55. Hero calls.

Turn ($140): Td. Hero checks, V bets $75, hero ships. OK?

Borgata 1/2, late Saturday night.

V is a YWG in a suit, seems to think aggression is all you need to win at NL. When he's shown hands they generally haven't been good ones. One premium, I think. We've already played one hand PF: I opened AK to $15, he raised to $45, I 3! to $125, he folded.

This hand, he's UTG or UTG+1, raises to $15.

I'm HJ with TT, and (internally) prepared to raise.

Then a MP player calls the $15. Don't think I've seen him before tonight. He's a little tricky, not too loose, would probably raise a premium hand but not necessarily. Previously we saw him limp AA in MP then shove over a raise and re-raise ($15, $55, all-in).

Do I go ahead with my raise (with the call I'm thinking $65), or just flat now that there's a third player in the hand? I have about $300, V has about the same, MP has more.

If he's raising a bunch of hands in this spot I might prefer a 3bet preflop. I don't think a flat is horrible, although it might invite others in which complicates things. I also don't think just taking a very low variance approach and folding is terrible either.

Does he cbet 4ways with air too? I guess we can't fold to one bet but I'm not loving life calling here either.

I also check back the turn. We don't want to be blown off our 2nd nut flush draw, and we don't want to lose weakish hands (most of which are drawing very slim with us hogging up the spade outs) that might pay off one more bet / bluff river on this scary board. There's still a possibility we're behind.

I like our smallish sizing on the river. He's kinda indicated he has at best a weakish hand at this point so $$$-wise we should bet fairly small on this river looking to get paid off.

ETA: As long as we haven't seen this guy pull some fancy smancy check/raise river bluffs (which are for the most part very rare, right?) then I'm cool with a bet/fold line even to a smallish 1/3 PSB river bet. It's still $55, and it's still a river bet, and there's still a bunch of great stuff we can have and we could have been slowplaying the turn / waiting to boat up; would have to have a solid read on villain before I call a big street check/raise.

Gfairlynicehand,imoG

Looks good.

I prefer a flat here. Raising is reasonable too, but compare this guy to a standard player. He's less likely to fold to the threebet pre (which is the outcome we'd really prefer) and more likely to 4bet us (which would suck). He's also much more likely than a normal player to pay us off postflop if we flop a set or overpair. Often, especially with pairs, we have to figure out whether to try to maximise value preflop, or take it easy preflop and instead get value in the form of having a strong hand in position postflop. I think the latter is likely to be unusually profitable against this guy, so I'd prefer to do that. If, for example, this guy was active preflop but weak and fit-or-foldish post, I'd be more inclined to reraise straightaway.

There's little to no chance he's folding if I raise, and I'm shoving if he 4bets (or snapping if it's a shove). His cards are practically guaranteed to be that trashy. He's plenty likely to come to me post, so it's not totally necessary to push it now. Half the table is itching for their shot at him, and I'm prepared to jump on mine. But does the third guy change that?

How loose would you estimate his raising range is? I mean if it's 100% then sure.

TT is a good hand but it's rarely super crushing against reasonable ranges. For instance, if he 4bet jams as loose as {66+, A2s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KJo+, QJo } which is 16% of hands, TT is only a 57% favourite there. If he instead shows up with something more normal like { TT+,AQs+,AQo+ } then TT is a 59% dog. So it's unlikely getting it in pre can be super profitable, it's more like a backup to other aims of reraising. For reraising to be worth it you want the guy's UTG raising range to be extremely loose. Otherwise I think trying to flop a set, and otherwise falling back on trying to show down in position, is the better opportunity.

Edit: The third guy doesn't change things a huge amount. The dead money argues for reraising, but he also represents additional chances to stack someone if you flop a set. I'd say it's a wash overall.

1/3. Tag in EP ($500) raises to 15 . Fish in MP(300) calls. I(500) have 87hh on the Btn. Is this a good spot to 3 bet?

Not in my opinion, or at least not often. TAG raised in EP and is uncapped. Your hand doesn't block premiums. Fish is calling most of the time and his range is ahead of your hand.

Given that we have position, I like a call here.

Not quite 100%, but way looser than anything you could call reasonable. He *could* have a real hand this time, but he has tons of one-over and no-over hands in his opening range.



So, I let the caller in between slow me down and just flatted.

3-way to the flop ($48): 678

V shoves, ~$270.

MP hems and haws and takes his time...and calls. Seems like he had to talk himself into it.

Now what?

Yeah just threebet him and stack off to a 4bet then. If he can have a bunch of no-over hands that's very good news for a threebet.

Shove. MP wouldn't have had to hestitate with a hand this good. Just gotta hope you can dodge both of them. High variance stackoff but you should be pretty well placed. If V has something better that's just life.

If I'm reading things right you're kinda newish to poker?

If so, completely eliminate light 3betting from your playbook for now. Heck, you could probably do completely fine as an expert by completely removing light 3betting from your playbook. But if you are doing light 3betting, you'll need to be expert to make it work out well for you; I'll leave it up to you to decide if you're expert.

The better you are at poker, the more calling here will be profitable. I mostly fold here because I'm not convinced I'm profitable in this spot with this hand (give me something speculative that makes nuttish hands and I'd call).

GfoldingG

1/3 $300 eff. T9s in SB facing TAG open to 15?

Position of TAG is important but really, just fold

whoops. Tag in CO. Does a call/3bet work at deeper stack sizes?

I mean, I’ve 3 bet worse hands than that from the SB bs a LP open but the truth is it depends on a lot of factors and honestly, there are a load more important things to worry about

3b or fold. Lean towards a fold due to large open sizing and relatively shallow stack depth.

Just fold, imo. You're OOP. Your opponent doesn't sound like a moron. You don't sound like the most experienced player (correct read?), which will absolutely be required if you're thinking of 3betting and/or continuing in this spot. All you're looking for in poker is profitable spots. It's highly unlikely this is one.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Thanks, ChrisV. Just wanted some assurance I wasn't totally nuts.

I called (thought I had a little short...it was a little more). No improvement for me, but the middle guy, who flopped a set (!) filled up on the turn.

V didn't show, but picked his cards way up so the guy next to him saw: J8o.

Not really a strat question, but low stress.

How do you all go about taking notes on opponents without being the dude with a note pad. I don't want my opponents to think I'm taking the game seriously. So not really sure if there is an easy way to take notes without painting a target that you are "that guy".

Note that I'm only playing in home games too. 1 table so I can't just walk around the casino for 10 min with out it being odd.