Almost exactly this, though I suspect my overlimping range there is wider than many.

mine was wider than that at 1/2.

I guess this is one leak of mine. I almost always take strange lines as strong hands played badly. Many times I see guys c/c 2 streets with 2-pair, then donking river, I guess this kinds of lines sticks in my memory...

IMHO, the above post holds up pretty well after nearly 2 1/2 years. I didn't have the data at the time, but the more people in a hand, the better the average winning hand is if it goes to show down. The average winning hand at SD is 2 pair. If there are 6 people seeing the flop, the chances of being able to bluff off everyone is near zero. So you're left with fit or fold poker. In a really weak game where TP is the nuts (that's often enough at 1/2), you can get paid off with an IO hands oop. However, anything tougher and you'll find IO hands need more than fit or fold to get them to +EV.

The result is that many players could improve their winrate by simply folding everything pf in the SB. Of course, you are going to get monsters from time to time and aren't going to fold and those are profitable. That isn't to say that your game can't be good enough to open it up more in the SB. But you're going to do more squeezing than many people are comfortable with.

Just curious, you play college ball? If so, where at?

+1. I am probably the biggest SB nit at my games, but I can convinced it saves me a couple hundred $$ each year.

No, I am a little too old for that these days. I coach basketball (6th and 8th grade currently) and I am also the director of a junior program.

I agree with you post entirely.... Except you said not to limp in the SB with small pocket pairs? Can you explain why? Sets are huge money makers in 1/2. I'd consider myself tight in the blinds, but also am curious as to what your SB limping range is in the SB at 1/2 games

YOu can have a wide range to complete, but you may remove the Big-little unsuited sometimes. maybe not as high as K4 though.

I play 2/3 so it's not 5:1 [which would be only one limper at 1/2 table] it's more like 12+ to 1.

I pretty much complete any two tbh besides the complete garbage (although this is also table-dependent). It's always been a leak of mine that I've justified by playing well post-flop... but it's probably a faulty justification.

In 2/5, I only dump non-suited, non-connected hands in the small blind except I play any Ace, and maybe around K5o+.

In 1/2, which I don't play often, I probably am too loose because a single dollar chip is symbolically insignificant to me. Now the five dollar chips that I lose by playing bad hands out of position...

+1

I'm never folding a small pocket pair out of the SB, even with my 1/3 structure. My guess is that even in a limped pot and OOP, a flopped set will get payed off enough.

Thanks.

First night back at the tables was a mild succes. When I got there there was only one table with three guys sitting but apparently there was a tournament starting in a half hour so not wanting to play short handed on a small roll I opted to wait nd see if the action picked up around tournament time and went outside and caught up on my voicemails.

Ended up playing the $45 buyin tourament since the 1/2 table broke and there ended up being around 40 entrants. Busted 15th or so after running AQ into AK with 11 bb two hours in, not much happened before that other than taking a few pots down with cbets in the early levels. Had a guy tell me during the break that seat 1 was the guy he feared most at the table because he was unpredictable and he could never put him on a hand which made me smile inside because I'd seen seat 1 had obvious bet-sixing tells and was limping J4o unopened on the buttom, lol live pokers.

So after busting I sat down at one of the two 1/2 tables going with 60bb. We played five-handed for a bit before the table filled up as more people busted for the tournament. Despite folding for an hour straight towards the end of the tournament I quickly realized that folding is more difficult in cash games, especially when the table is playing super weak and passive. Luckily I didn't find myself in any tough spots that would test my resolve to nit it up.

After an hour or so I had roughly 45bb after raising a few pots and playing weak after not connecting with flops when I picked up AK in a position I don't remember (I noted that my concentration wasn't very good and often found myself not remembering what the action was or what position people were when reviewing hands in my head despite my best efforts to keep track of the pot size and action every hand.) and got 3bet to about 3.5x my raise and I shipped and got called. Villain was bad and losing, door card ace and villain shows KK. Ship that I'm good at poker again.

A couple of orbits later I get KK in EP with 80bb, popped it up to $8 seven handed and got 3bet to $25 by a woman in late position who covered me. I had played a bit in the tournament with her and viewed her as sort of a tight-weakish player so her range was strong but not wanting to give her the opportunity to fold a hand I dominated I just flatted with the intention of check/raising most flops. Flop came 964r and I c/r her $15 cbet to $35 and bet out $45 on a blank turn thinking my line, while strong was better than shoving since I didn't want to narrow her range or whatever. She raised me all in on the turn I call and win vs QQ.

I sat for another 30 minutes before calling it a night, a little over two hours in the tournament and a little less than two hours at 1/2 and ended up 70bb on the night, a pretty big victory after not playing for 6 months.

Will probably take a few more sessions to get used to playing again but it was nice to see some familiar faces and get a few haven't seen you in a whiles. While my table was playing pretty weak-passive it was pretty perfect for the occasion imo since all I'm looking for is some low-variance poker to get back on the grind. The other table was super juicy and I counted about $2k worth of addons while the time I was at my table. Will continue buying in short until I have a larger roll and become more comfortable with the regulars.

Speaking of small pocket pairs...

I was short-stacked, had about 28BB, and was waiting to top off at the button when I mucked 44 to a 5BB UTG+1 raise.

Flop came 4/7/Q, two of three villains had flopped set of 7's and Q's.

Whew, saved about $140.

My completing range with a bunch of limpers is something like PPs, Axs, Kxs, Qxs, 76s+, 97s+, A8+, KQ/KJ/QJ. I'm probably only raising JJ+, AK/AQs at this point.

Started a new table last night, and on the very first hand I get KK, flop trips and turn quads. So I get to spin the win of crappy prizes (mostly pens, mugs, tshirts, caps, etc. although there is a $500 prize) and I end up binking a $100 buy-in to a bounty tournament ($30 bounty per head). My tournament experience is strictly limited to lol family reunion donkaments usually won by 13 year old nieces, but I figure I'm free rolling so I might as well pop my casino tournament cherry (tournament only runs once a month so it'll be a while before I play it).

Funnest hand I saw last night at 1/3 NL (I wasn't involved): Top set vs flopped flush vs bigger flopped flush vs single card straight flush draw (lol, others had his two outs), all four of them get it in for ~100 BBs each. Top flush holds; guy couldn't lose all night, left the table after 6 hours of play with $2800 on ~$300 buy-in; I was the only other player at the table who made money that night (breakeven for most of the night and then somehow managed to win $821 thanks to running hot the last hour).

Grunninghot,posteditinthisthread,cuedoomswitchG

Quit lying, you were the straight flush draw and ended the session down $821.

Good trip report. Best of luck in the near future! It's always nice taking a meager sized win home after either struggling or taking a long break from the pokers....

You always limp with 88-1010 in the SB? I think 1010 in particular is too strong of a hand to allow everyone to see cheap.

set over set happens about 5 times a year for me, and but over set over set has never happened to me... phew is right with your set of 4s.

Ha!

Heater guy's friend is sitting beside him at the table and says to him "You know, you're the only middle aged white guy I've ever seen sitting with over 2K at a 1/3 table". I laughed.

Ghasneverbookeda1+Kwin,althoughIhavebookeda1.2Klos sonceG

Last night I won $475 which is just what the doctor ordered after a $800 downswing over a 35 hour sample... Felt so good being on the right end of a cooler last night:

AJ with 105BB deep UTG, I raise to $10 and get 2 calls. Flop comes out Q78 2 spades I bet $20 villain folds, other calls. Turn is an offsuit 10 which is a great card besides pairing my ace perhaps giving me a double gutter/FD villain bets $20 I consider raising but his donks are draws/nuts a lot of the time so no value in turning my hand into a bluff since he will bet the nuts weird like this. River spikes a 6 and he leads 45$, I ship my last $150 and he snaps calls with K5

Given the way things have been going lately I thought about leaving right then, to preserve a "win" to get my confidence back. While it's important to leave when you have confidence issues, I kept reminding myself that poker is one long session, and that I had an advantage among the rest of the table. Table was perfect though. Reduced rake, no one adjusting to SH and limping speculative hands, raising monsters. It was short handed and deep stacked just the way I like it. Everyone was 150BB-400BB and I picked up another $250 after that hand by adjusting to SH play and being aggro in position. It was probably the most fufilling session I have had in the last 2 months.

With a comfortable roll and full stacks my range for raising is wider.

Thing about 88-TT is the raise needs to be big in order to isolate or else I'm just bloating the pot OOP to effectively set mine.

with a small stack and roll I'm kinda just hoping to cooler somebody by completing the SB

TT is very situational for me, and comes down to stack sizes and if I feel I can select a raise size that allows me to narrow the field and keep the SPr in a comfortable spot for me.
At one of my current home games, it is an raise 95% of the time, at another it is a limp 95% of the time.

I think this is the key. When everyone limps, everyone is searching for the same thing: a big hand. If everyone thinks TP is a big hand, then set mining pays off big. You can stick in big bets or raises and get called. However, if the game is slightly tougher and nobody is going to put much money in the pot with out 2pr+, a big pot if you have a small set is going to be driven by bigger sets or straights. For example, you have 44 in a 4 way pot and the flop comes 458r. You open and get raised. In a weak game, this could be over pairs and TP hands. In a stronger game, this is better sets or straights, with some component of air.

The other aspect is getting paid off. If you are in the 458r flop and everyone missed, everyone is folding. If there are 4 people seeing the flop, you didn't get paid off. Even if there is 5 or 6, players, you aren't compensated for the times you are beat.

With SC, the situation becomes even tougher because you won't hit nearly as often.