At HG yesterday around 6-7p. I get the #9 seat right away at a typical passive table. Two players are pretty good, the rest are different levels of bad. Lots of talk about how to play from all the bad players.

One limp UTG from a kid in the 7 seat who is playing pretty TA so far. He's wearing his mirror sunglasses and ball cap. My first thought was omg he's wearing his pro gear at a 40max lol. But he was probably #1 or #2 at the table when I sat down. I've talked with him a little about his trip to the Stagecoach concert this past weekend. He's a pretty cool guy. He's very hard to read.

I've been playing tight and folding most hands. The only hand I showed down was my QT vs AQ on a Q high board super cheap against this young woman who thought she was pro and almost mucked it when I called the tiny river bet. I think I showed KK or some other big pair one other time when everyone folded. I've bought a second time when I was 1 chip below half a BI and now have about 80bb.

I'm in MP with 88 and raise to 3bb. I'm hoping to get 3-4 callers with this raise on this table and set-mine. To my surprise, everyone folds, even the BB. Stagecoach calls.

Flop 57Jr.

Check and I bet 3bb. He calls.

You might think that I should have bet a little more here, but at HG, the rake is horrible and I think that was only like 5.5 in the pot.

Turn K.

I watch him as the turn comes out. He waits a beat and checks. No reactions I can see. So I fire a second barrel and bet 6, he casually calls. I get a little worried and now am trying to decide if I triple or check behind.

River 4s no flush possible.

I watch him as the river comes out. He's shuffling chips as the river card comes off. He stops, counts out 12bb and donks by quietly putting them out in two even stacks. I look at the board again, then look back at him. He's got 6bb left. His face is made of stone and he's trying to shuffle his remaining chips, but not doing it very well.

fold

I don't understand our reasoning for the preflop raise at all. If I understand things right, everyone at this table is probably fairly shortstacked with only around $80 or so, is that correct? So if our plan is to setmine, then there is no reason to juice the pot cuz it should be super duper easy to get stacks in if we flop a set with stacks so small. So I probably just limp behind. If the table/blinds were tight behind me then I wouldn't mind a raise, but I would be raising to get things HU in position vs the limper, not to setmine.

We're in position and checked to on an okish board to cbet, especially since there is a good chance our hand is best. Looks like we cbet 1/2 pottish which seems fine to me.

If we're called, I typically shut down on the turn with mediocre hands (course I also do with larger hands like TP as well) and then evaluate on the river, possibly calling a smallish bet or betting myself if checked to depending on what cards fall. I would have probably checked this turn with our mediocre hand. By betting 6, you meant BB, not $, right, cuz betting $6 into $25 would be fairly bad methinks.

Two overs, a straight draw just got there, and he's committed himself to the hand with any non-air hand. I fold the river.

IMO, I don't think our preflop reasoning makes sense and we put in one too many streets worth of action with a mediocre (yet showdownable hand) postflop.

GcluelessNLnoobG

When you make a mistake it makes it that much harder to figure out the correct play. When you are heads up against a super short stack, you need to be prepared to put the pressure on them and get them to fold. Weak bets are just asking for trouble.

UNfortunately, them being so short means that if they shove, you are probably going to be pot committed vs them.

Based on your post, it seems he has around 20bb. Pot on the flop is roughly 6bb, so FFS bet the pot. Your rationalization about the rake being so bad should actually encourage you to BET MORE if anything.

Also, vs this villain you don't have the odds to setmine, so we are playing our hand for value. 88 on a J7x board isn't too bad. Decent chance villain has Ax, Kx, type hand so we should be good here majority of the time.

As played, check back turn, snap fold river.

once a short stack calls your initial bet on a dry board, they have it.

Why would anyone play 1/2 with a 40bb max buy in? Can't be profitable with rake can it?