Hand 1

Villain is on the younger side, not really aggressive at all and has been announcing for the last hour that he was leaving soon so if he wins a pot please don't think it's a hit and run. Not sure that's worth mentioning, but it was odd.


Hero has $310 and in mid position with AK and opens to $15 (standard for this game), gets one caller OTB who has Hero covered.

Flop 29T

I'm of the mindset to not bother slow playing flopped hands at low limits so I bet $25, villain calls.

Turn 9x

Hero bets $60, villain quickly calls.

River 3x

Hero checks. Was this wrong? Villain could be calling along with a worse flush and hero leaves value on the table here.




Hand 2

Villain is old grumpy dude (no other way to describe him) who just got to table and bought in for the $300 max. Hero has him covered.

Hero opens to $15 from UTG with AxKx and gets two callers.

Flop A J 9 rainbow.

Hero bets $35 and only Villain calls.

Turn 5x

Hero bets $70 and villain calls.

River Kx making hero two pair. Hero checks hoping for a bet from villain. Hero gets what he wants as villain insta shoves.

Hero???????

I feel like this is such a polarizing bet, it's a set or nothing and I don't have enough info on villain to know for sure. Experience tells me players at this level never bet the river unless they have the nuts or near nuts. Fear the set or is this AJ/A9 often enough that we call it off?

What are these river checks? Don't check value hands against passive villains. Both hands are super clear river bets. Once you check I'm calling both hands.

In general against passive opponents I make the exploit not to defend checks very often as the prior aggressor. If a hand is good enough to check/call it's good enough to bet myself. Against more balanced opponents both of these hands are too strong to check/call and not quite strong enough for check/raising to be best. Also, AKhh blocks bluffs so it's not great to turn into a bluff-catcher. In hand 2 even decent opponents don't always find enough bluffs on hand 2. There are no real missed draws so they'd need to be turning pairs into bluffs.

Hand 1: I prefer a b/f line for reasons such as this. Now you're in a ****ty spot. Sucky thing is he could play 22, TT, and 9T all like this. Only flush you beat that makes sense is QT, maybe Q8. If you didnt have the K I'd be more comfortable, but readless I still think this is a call.

hand 2. This looks like QT all day. Again b/f.

It's easier to fold in these spots when you bet and get raised than when you check and he overbet shoves

More broadly these hands also showcase the value of sizing down a bit pre/flop/turn. Players generally don't react very differently to different bet sizes at low stakes live, and you help create maneuver room for youself. Bet $12-13 pre, -> $20 on the flop -> $50 on the turn, on the river you have $225 behind and $150 in the pot and you have room to bet / fold TPTK hands. This allows you to take cheaper stabs and widen your range too. Feel free to size up against players with more money.

Your sizing has got you into trouble... There's like $230 in the pot and only $180 behind and your pretty much left with one move on the river.

Just to be clear, three aee times when you want to size up, mostly against really fishy calling stations, but as a more standard raise size especially when your feeling unsure about your hand or its nota hand you want to stack off with betting smaller gives you more room to maneuver and you can bluff for cheaper