He did follow through with 2 calls. He just wasn't happy about it, which is probably a result of him losing. If he would have won the hand he would have likely thought his plan was brilliant and that he played it perfectly.

I mean he didn't call without thinking about it otr. The flop is the street to make the decisions. Win or lose, if his flop plan was to call down because he gave up the lead and kept V's range wide, that's fine. That wasn't how it played out though.

Which is what I was saying in post #22. OP got HU, in pos., A/K didn't hit, and still this is what happened. If you're only plan is flopping top set, you probably came from the Terry Collins school of thinking where you do nothing and hope miracles happen. Weak strategy. So an alternative to 3b'ing pre is flatting. At least consider it.

Good points eldiesel - basically OP's mini 3bet was neither one thing nor the other and same with post flop.

If I'm at a table where it goes multiway a lot despite big raises and post flop 3+ players insist on calling till all the cards are out I like calling/over calling/over limping some pretty big hands in position to try to cooler an incompetent deepstack for 200bb+

If they are all/mostly shorter than 150bb (especially <100bb) I prefer to 3bet big preflop to isolate and gii on appropriate flops/turns.

I absolutely love playing with you guys.

"I'll intimidate the other players by having a tower of chips." Meanwhile, you have no idea that 1) effective stack size starts with the smallest stack active in the hand, and 2) You can always add more to your stack (when not in a hand) but you cannot take $$$ off the table unless you're leaving.

So put yourself in the straight jacket right off the bat so that you can intimidate folks -- who are likely not paying enough attention anyway.

Yeah, buy in huge: Bad players don't notice and good players target you relentlessly.

How does sitting with big stack handcuff you?

Only playing for effective stacks. So you are not risking full buy-in. As stacks get deeper, edges get bigger.

If a fish goes on heater, I want my effective stack to cover him. And you won't be able to add-on to cover him.

Only reason to not tranfer full amount (Assume it's capped game). If there was a huge stack on your left.

Most of my 3b are against shortstacks too, trying to gii as quck as we can, as eff stacks increase the reason for 3b'ing any hand decreases.

How do you know you have an edge over the new table?

Wouldn't you like to find out whether you have an edge before you put your huge stack at risk?

Always bringing the max amount possible with the assumption that yes, I have an edge over 90% of the player pool at 1/2 or 1/3.

Most posters in LLSNL are probably ahead of 90% (read, not necessarily winning players).

If you actually know what you're doing, you should believe your edges will run the test of time against any player. Maybe you need to find a better edge if you aren't that confident.

My "risk of ruin" does not matter here. There is no ruin. I play with an unlimited bankroll at $1/2. I want to have a big stack so later in the session to stack off the other big stacks. I will take any hand I can get, no matter the size.

For example:

If I have $1,000 to start, and lose two all-in's against two stack sizes that are both $200, I'll have $600 left on the table. If I had $200 to start, lose my stack, rebuy, lose my stack, rebuy, I have $200 on the table, and $400 in my pocket, for $600 total.

Wouldn't you rather have $600 than $200 on the table? With $600 you have greater implied odds during hands at $1/2 than $200. If the action is aggressive preflop and 3-bets are more liberal, you diminish your pot/implied odds preflop with only $200. When the 3-bet is $30 with $200 behind and you have JJ, you have to jam or fold. With $600, a call is now a real play.

No, because I am not risking anymore than effective stack. But buying in for less, I am risking the chance of being able to play deep stack, with fish.

Yes, call me arrogant. But I believe I can find an edge in every 1/2 game.

There have been times I have left 1/2 games because I couldn't (or felt it was small) or it was crazy wild and playing short, and I didn't feel like playing tight to create an edge.

Plus I can count on my index finger how many times I have lost $1000 @1/2.

I posted this hand because I liked my move, I just second guessed myself based upon the result. I see the merits in C-betting, but my plan here was to give him the lead and call down to river (although not ecstatic about it.) If he didn't bet the turn, I would have. I just was interested in whether or not I need to learn to fold this. In general, I think I need to learn how to fold more. This hand felt like spewing (Obviously he has a jack right??) In retrospect, I think calling him down was correct, given his stack and my decision to give him the lead.

He showed A J

He had AJ because your 3bet pre was so tiny. Bigger 3bet and you could have won this hand there and then preflop. If he still calls it will cost him so much to chase a miracle flop that you'll crush him over the long run.

^ If you're going to 3b so big hands as good as AJ fold, then 3b huge with rags, why are you wasting QQ looking for and being content with folds pre? QQ is valuable because it can win at SD.

I maybe phrased that wrong. What I meant is this:

I'm not so much looking for folds pre as looking to allow V to make big calling mistakes pre. With such a tiny raise AJ isn't making a huge error calling vs QQ and also the small call V has to make means he can afford to pick and choose when he continues postflop. Villain isn't under pressure to continue postflop since he doesn't have to win that often to make the small preflop call profitable. That makes it difficult for hero to profit.

I'm not looking to avoid losing to trip J or a set of Ts or folding vs possible flopped pair of As or Ks. I'm trying to raise the maximum villain will call with a range my hand is ahead of such that when he has to fold postflop or when we gii and I win I end up with more chips than I lose all the times I have to fold postflop or gii and lose.

So you're right - you dont want to raise so big you fold everything but hands that beat you and a good alternative is to just call. I agree with that - you just need to be clear what your plan is:

1) flat to keep V range wide and play poker postflop with an equity edge.

2) 3bet to put pressure on and allow villain to make bigger mistakes pre and postflop and to create a dynamic where you can 3bet bluff with a profitable frequency of success. This can then lead on to a further dynamic where observant villains loosen up vs your 3bets and you can change gears again and get some extra value from QQ+ till they catch on.

In this hand I think hero fell in-between these two viable approaches and if he keeps doing it he will find himself winning small pots and losing big ones while being unable to 3bet bluff at all.

Toss ur hand in the muck, or verbally announce to the dealer that u intend to fold

Only problem with this hand is preflop raise size. Never finding a fold with this SPR except against VERY known villains