Loose passive table 9-handed with not too deep stacks. I think the biggest is ~$350. I sat down with $200.

In first 45 minutes I got mostly junk. I had played only a few hands, giving up on all of them. The first was QK, made it $8 in the hijack after a limper, got called by cutoff, button, both blinds, and the limper. Whiffed the flop and gave up. Second hand was A10 in the cutoff, a couple limpers before me, I made it $12, called by button, a blind, and limpers. Again, whiffed, and gave up after others showed aggression.

The hand:

SB-BB -- mostly irrelevant.

UTG $300 -- older guy, maybe 50s, dressed like a early 20s internet kid with his hood on. Hadn't seen him show down much, maybe a medium-sized pot he won with top pair.

MP limpers -- mostly irrelevant

Hero $170 -- See above. Probably seen as tight-passive, maybe a nit.

PREFLOP:

Three limpers to Hero, who makes it $25, small blind and big blind call as do all three limpers.

27Q

Pot $150. Checks around to Hero who makes it $60. SB & BB fold, UTG calls, everyone else folds.

TURN:

Pot $250

4

UTG Checks, Hero checks:

RIVER:

8

UTG bets $95 or so (randomly grabbed enough chips to cover me), I have $85 in front of me. Hero?


**

Other questions:

Thoughts on pre-flop raise size? Being on the button I didn't think my raise would get much respect, but didn't expect 5 callers. Anything less I'm sure gets called by almost everyone.

Thoughts on the flop bet? My thinking -- no draws, so $60 might get called by big pairs and overpairs. I don't think anyone at this table is putting in a third to half of their stack to try to catch some weird backdoor straight or flush.

Thoughts on turn: Is checking OK? I'm not too thrilled with shoving an overpair here and the board is fairly safe draw-wise. Only other option is to shove imo.

why in god's name did we check the turn?

^, and please call.

Preflop raise seema big but if it got 5 callers that's nuts. Is this typical? It couldve been bigger but I don't mind some multiway action with AA. Flop bet should be bigger. All in would be fine, but stringing them along on a dry board is fine too. I probably shove and hope for Qx to call. Not shoving the turn is criminal. As played you have to call the river here.

Checking the turn is really bad.

If people will call a 25 dollar raise when you have AA why the hell not do it then and I think on the flop bet bigger 60 into 150 is pretty weak and going to get called by any "funky draw" I feel like you have to ship the turn but as played just call and double up you are good here way more than not

Preflop is fine. How much you should raise here depends on table, but $25 is a good size at most and sometimes it just doesn't work like you want. If the table was super sticky and everybody was limp/calling big bets then a bit more might be better, but really with your stack anything over $20 is OK and trivially different in EV.

After getting that many callers on a dry flop your pot committed, it's just a question of the best way to get the money in. $60-$75 on flop looks good with that many people in, and then shove turn. Mostly your either crushing villain or he is crushing you, but if by chance he has something like KcQc there is no reason to let him draw for free.

As played, river is a trivial call. You can't fold AA here getting 4-1 on your money.

Preflop—it's good to see that you adjusted your raise size up based on the World calling $8 in the earlier hand. But, if you find that you're still getting a ton of calls @ $25, go even bigger next time till you find the sweet spot.

I think your flop bet sizing can be okay (I'd go bigger), BUT ONLY IF YOU PLAN TO SHOVE THE TURN.

River is a call.

Bet the turn, bruh. Not because you're afraid of draws or something—you need to get VALUE from your aces.

Agreed, flop bet is way too shallow...In fact, given the calling station tendencies of this table, I would advocate to ship the flop. There is $150 in the pot and you have $145 behind; get it in there and hope none of the stations flopped a set.

Turn check is horrible but why did we even get there?

We have a PSB left otf, shove. It doesn't matter if you ran into a set (2 pair is unlikely on this board), sets didn't have odds to mine, you're too shallow. Also, top off.

I'd say the PFR is a touch on the large size, but no worres if they're willing to call it. But if this is standard for you to raise to 8 with KQ, 12 with AT and then 25 with AA, a smart player will quickly figure this out and take advantage of you. Keep your raises in the same size / structure regardless of hand strength. A good marker for LLSNL is 5x + an extra BB for every limper.

I don't mind the size of the flop bet actually. I'd prefer it a little larger, ($75 to 90 maybe) but that board is so dry, $60 is a good size to maybe get someone to raise you and then you GII. Or obviously get some action from a couple of donks holding weak Queens.

Shove the Turn all day son, unless you're so savvy you know he's going to donk into you on the River and you are planning to call. But otherwise giving him a free card is a mistake. Generally speaking, always bet the Turn, because you're unlikely to get paid on the River when they miss.

Agree that PFR is big especially given stack sizes. I thought $25 was right because I knew it would get some callers and it also may have looked like I was frustrated because I hadn't really played any hands.

Noted on turn.

Well how are you defining large? I'd say it's too large if you got no callers and I'd say it's too small if it got more than 1 caller. We're looking for the number that gets us heads up going to the flop. My 1/2 table last night, $20 was going MW to the flop, once I started raising to $25 I was getting HU. So $20 was too small, $25 was good. For OP, $25 is too small if 5 people are calling, raise bigger.

I would not ship this flop, unless you're terrified of variance. You have a very strong hand for this Flop and for the action thus far. The board is super dry; you're looking to get called by a weak Queen, not turn your hand face up and watch them all fold. I think if you jam here you're only getting called by sets, unless someone puts you on AK and decides to be a hero with a pair.

Bet for value here and be prepared to GII on the Turn. If you run into a set too bad, because you're too shallow to fold AA here.

Agreed. I just don't see those 1/2 or 1/3 tables often enough where $25 gets that kind of action. My main point was that his raise size seemed to be indicative of his hand strength which is never a good habit.

Got a lot of responses already so I'll post results.

Taking this away: I still feel OK about my PFR and flop bet. My turn play is weak and I need to work on that.

My plan had been to hope for a 3bet PF so I could shove, or a raise on my flop bet, which I'd shove. Don't know why I shut down on the turn. I have been learning on microstakes and I shove AA there all day. Need to not be scared live where the play seems a lot worse and I win regularly while breaking even at micros.

I was somewhat surprised by the river bet but it didn't make any sense to me. As someone else noted, why is anyone calling 25 with a hand that hits two-pair on that raggy board? I thought for a few seconds and called.

"Nice call, you're good" before I even showed any cards.

Thanks for help.

The way the table was playing I thought 25 would get me heads up. I chose 25 because 12-15 raises at the table with limpers were getting called by all the stations. Thought 25 would do the trick, apparently not. Over 25 I really do think screams QQ-AA.

At 5/10 it's probably a bad habit. Most 2/5 tables I'd say it doesn't matter. At 1/2 it rarely matters. It's actually what you should do at 1/2. With made hands bet bigger, win more money. With bluffs, bet smaller, when you bluff smaller, your bluff only needs to work a smaller % of the time to be profitable in the long run.

$100 pot, you bluff $100 into it, it needs to work 50% of the time to be profitable. For every one time you lose $100, there's a time you win $100, it's breakeven.

But if you bluff $25, it only needs to work 20% of the time. It works once and you win $100, it doesn't work 4 times and you lose $100, breakeven.

I hope you stayed at this table for as long as it lasted and reaped the rewards; I'll fold 98% of my range to a $25 open at a $1/$2 table. Anytime you can get one call, let alone 5 of them for this kind of open is indicative of every poker player's dream table. Reel them fishies in!

I stayed as long as I could. Lost a few medium sized pots after the AA hand. Shipped a set and got paid off later. Flopped a straight and got paid off by short stack. Besides those hands was pretty card dead and got the bad end of a few marginal situations. In the long run booked a win and went home happy.

The room is like this pretty often. Never played in a similar place. It's high variance I think but I've booked I think 6 winning or break-even sessions in a row now only having to re-buy a couple times. I probably play too nitty but I'm happy to book the small wins as I learn to open up my game.

I LOVE pre flop. Get value for your aces and build the pot early if they are going to call, especially with less than 100 BB's.

I don't hate flop, as nobody who calls $25 PF is folding a queen...I would go bigger.

Turn is an easy shove, unless you have an aggro read on villain which means you could check and let him bluff river.

Grunch: Good game making it $25 and getting 5 callers. Nice!

Ship the flop.

You have $145 into a $150 pot.

Profit.

Easy game.

+1

I'm getting all in on this turn card as it is about as blank of a blank we can hope for. As played I probably make the call on the river as I think villian as described could be taking a stab (reverse float?) as our turn check implys super weakness.

If I call and villian says "nice call" I will still make villian show his hand and take a mental note of what he has. I want to know if this was infact a reverse float attempt or some weird draw that missed.