Pot is 60-ish, go for thin value and bet 25.

Does anyone have any good recommendations on a good short stacking thread on 2+2? Otherwise, can someone recommend to me a range of hands I should be looking to get it in with playing about 40bb's?

Please don't become a short stacker. Learn how to play poker. Short stackers ruin otherwise good games

You have a deal! I don't know why I was even thinking about it really. I am just in a rut poker wise man and I was willing to do anything. I figured I had the bankroll to play $200 games and could stand a little extra variance short stacking 2-5. I have been messing around with it the past few days though and honestly I think I am better off just moving down to 1-2 and playing with a full stack. I think that will allow for a higher hourly.

99+

Just pairs 99+ or AK, AQ, and KQs as well?

AJ> KQ I think

Thanks for the advice!

What is the absolute tightest range you could play profitably in a LLSNL game.

You're pretty much getting about the odds you need on a call with a 27% chance to hit, I just call.

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1/2. Effective stacks $200. Somewhat loose, yet competent, player makes it $10 utg. Unknown in mp makes it $30. Folded to hero on btn w JJ. Hero? Do we ever raise/fold this at 1/2?

The best option IMO is to just fold. You could make a case to flat the 3-bet since you are OTB but the initial raise is coming from UTG and you state that this guy is a competent player. Therefore he should have a tightish UTG range as well and we risk him possibly moving you off of your hand after putting 30 into the pot. If we come over the top we are pretty much committing to the hand. In this spot we are representing AA and KK and will only get called by better. IMO we need to be pretty certain both of these guys are on pretty wide ranges to continue here in any situation. You state MP is unknown so we really cannot have any clue what his range looks like. It is most likely nutted at these stakes in this spot.

Good threads on SPR? I've been seeing it pop up a lot around here and feel it's a huge leak for me. I've definitely folded some spots in the past where I shouldn't of been. Do certain SPR's just force us into committing? I feel like people keep leaning on it in threads and feel like it's being used to rationalize stacking off frequently.

Should we always be raising or folding in both NLH and PLO? Should our approach differ from online to live games?

Limping (including open limping) is a bread and butter play with speculative hands at live small stakes NL, imo. Get into a pot for cheap, hit a hand, stack a moron.

Do you have TOP by Sklansky / Miller ? They discuss the advantage of being short stacked from pages 199 - 205. They explain sensible situations for playing a short stacked strategy. Ed also has a section of short stack play in his first book " Getting Started in Hold'em." Read those sections and then make up your own mind.

I agree! I mean we are seeing 30 hands per hour max. We are playing with mostly loose/passive fish. We need to be playing as many hands profitably as we can. We need to be getting the money from these fish. It really shocks me to see how many people are 100% in the online mindset of aggression aggression aggression and will not even give this approach any consideration. I mean yea it makes the game simpler but poker was not meant to be simple. The more complex you make it the tougher you make it on your opponents. If you are good at making the correct decisions in these tough situations you stand to make some good money IMO.

Thanks for your response! It is greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the recommendations. I will definitely check them both out.

As far as a certain thread on the topic I am not able to help you. However, the concept is very easy to understand and you really do not need to look into it much more than a basic understanding with some additional number crunching using something like Microsoft Excel on your end. SPR stands for stack to pot ratio. It is simply the size of your current stack/the size of the current pot. It can be calculated and used to make decisions at any point in the hand. You are likely incorporating this into your game by instinct but could benefit from additional explanation.

Say we are playing in a 1-2 LLSNL cash game. We start the hand with a stack of 200 in the BB with AKo. UTG straddles to 10 and it is called around the table to us in the BB. There is now 200 in our stack and 92 in the pot. The SPR is therefore 200/92 or 2.17. It is basically risk/reward. If we shove here we are risking 200 to win 92 and this is clearly the best play as we are getting a good risk/reward, no one has even indicated any sort of strength, and we have a good hand to make a play at the pot with since we have the A and K blockers. Given this logic we are pretty much committed to making our move. It is clearly the most profitable play. If the SPR was 100 this move would be horrible.

Now say we are getting deep into a hand with AK on an A6722 board where our opponent could have possibly missed some draws but we are really thinking at this point that he most likely has made a better hand than us. Say the SPR is 1. When all we have left is 1 PSB we are more likely to be committed to the hand and we should be more likely to just put the money in here as opposed to if we were in the same spot and the SPR was 10.

You should now get where I am going with this. Please let me know if you have any questions ITT or via PM.

Here is a pretty awesome thread on SPR, iirc

Also, it helps to read the entire thread. I think some of the better discussion re: SPR happens after the initial post, especially the posts about dead money and leverage.

I think while probably over used and used to justify poor actions at lower limits, SPR becomes really important as we start playing deep

Yea, check these recommendations out. Exactly, do not use SPR to justify bad decisions. Just keep in mind that you should be more likely to continue with a low SPR and less likely to continue with a high SPR. As always, it comes down to your opponents and the math after taking into consideration his/her tendencies. Essentially, SPR is just a tool to help you make the correct decision when taking into consideration these last two things.

I posted this in several PLO threads with no luck. I feel that I may be able to get an answer here. It has been said that in live NLH if you are beating the game for 10bb/hr you are crushing the game. How many bb's/hr can you expect to make if you are crushing a similar live PLO game?

How many buy-ins are needed for a bankroll to play 2-5 LLSNL? What is the largest downswing that you think we should expect to see before we need to really start looking at our game critically as it is most likely the problem?

1/3. Hero is on button, villain is in big blind, there is a straddle to 6.

Hero (400ish) has been folding lots of hands, but doesn't expect the table to notice because old bitter lady has been harping every time he takes down a pot uncontested.

Villain (350ish) has a history with hero. Two weeks ago, made a huge river all-in where lots of draws hit, ended up getting called by hero who had a set, and lost. Normally villain plays very straightforward. Today however, he was seen double-barreling on a bluff when he noticed hesitation on the flop (he explained, genuinely, that when he saw hesitation on the flop call, he decided he could probably take it down with a larger bet on the turn).

One straddle caller in MP, hero is on the button with QQ, makes it 20, only villain calls.

Flop comes Tx7d3x rainbow, villain checks, hero bets 25, villain checkraises 40 more, hero calls.

Turn comes Td putting diamond draw out there, villain bets 50, hero calls.

River comes Kd, villain shoves like 200 more. Hero folds quickly.

Thoughts on all streets? I bet the flop smaller because it was dry. I called the turn because now I know he's capable of double-barrelling, and maybe he has a pocket pair. But honestly with the checkraise, what can I beat other than JJ on the turn? He's not checkraising with 2nd pair. I think when the T hits the turn, I'm screwed, and the King on the river was just gravy for folding.



I am a strong proponent of the idea that you should be looking at your game critically after a 0 buyin downswing.

(There is no cookie cutter answer to that question because of variance, and the fact that you'll probably know to some degree when you're losing because of skill factor rather than luck.)

Like any BRM question, it really depends on your comfort level. Are we talking about playing for a living or just casually? An appropriate answer is somewhere between 5 and 100bi depending on your specific situation/goals.

The day you stop looking at your game critically is the day you stop improving.