Hero has had an awful session, lost just about 3 bi, last two have been from being called by worse and drawing runner runner, first was an all in on the flop with NFD and bricking vs mid pair.

Hero still considers set mining, although has folded 33 UTG two times on this table due to very aggressive table & no chance of seeing a cheap flop limping from this position.

Hero has been completely card dead / dominated for many hours (not tilted but jeez, its definitely noticed by the table).

Hero picks up 55 on the button, raises to 16. SB calls, Btn raises to 45. (Btn has been super aggressive, gave Hero a double up with 36 vs hero's AJ on a two diamond flop).

Does hero fold here? Playing about 270 behind, 45 is not in setmining odds imo. Can't immediately put villain on a pocket pair, but will likely be snapped by better and worse... Villain has had some major rungood today (1200 pot QQ v AA binked a flop Q, 56 binks a 7 on a 894 board with a ton in the pot already, etc.) Really cant establish a range beyond like 50% of hands opened...

Pretty standard fold here imo.

If you want to do something stupid and -EV though, I'd prefer to 4bet here (as a bluff obviously..) and call it off if he shoves.
At least then we can rep QQ+ and possibly fold out 88-JJ, AQ, AK.

Fold now, steal less (not that opening 55 otb is necessarily a steal). 4 betting isnt awful if there is a dynamic that warrants it, but that is insanely rare at these stakes.

When you're really card dead at the table and no steals are given credit, what should your opening range be? Only hand I picked up the entire session was Kings, which was folded to me before I had any action on the bb (chop).

When I get these marginal 55 hands and my button gets no credit, I'd rather fold than limp (limp leaves 3 dollars in the pot after rake, so its impossible to get value from a 5 without being close to flipping on three streets)... I ended up folding this hand, Villain did not show. I really felt railroaded this entire session, any advice?

Here's a problem I suffer from: I fail to request a table change when it's clear I need one; I'm working on that. The situation you describe makes it sound like you need one.

As to your 55's... fold.

As to your question re: card dead, not being given any credit, etc.... change your table! Failing that, call it a day. Next option: take a 30 minute break (or however long you can break and still keep your seat. If those are not options for you, only play premium hands until either you can get a table change or improve your table image.

I don't really agree that this is a standard fold.

Let's first discuss your state of mind. In this hand, you didn't lose 3 BI. You need to keep that in mind. Just try to make the best decisions each and every time without the past wins/losses affecting that.


Of course the odds aren't there to set mine, but the real question is How is Hero's hand reading ability???? Being IP here should be a huge advantage that we should be taking advantage of instead of just calling to set mine.

If Villain is truly playing 50/35, shouldn't this be a 4bet for sure?

I guess villain is in BB? I'd also fold to his 3b. Anyone here consider limping on btn here vs this kind of villain?

Thanks for catching that - Villain is BB... also, table change request was unavailable. 4!ing this seems unreasonable. Only folding out the garbage in his range, which might be as high as half his opening cards, but losing to / being unable to continue on a flop against most calls.

Iraisetoomuch, why do you prefer 4!ing pre if you believe it's not EV?

Perhaps the 4-bet is the better option to actually take down the pot here. Set mine is 8 to 1, and then you need to get paid off for Hero's whole stack (which means V has to hit Flop also or already have something as well).

Does Hero have the image to take down this pot with a 'serious' c-bet? Probably not due to stack size and V description.

Although the 4-bet puts more chips in the pot it may be the 'only' way to get V to fold at any point during the hand with hands that we are behind right now. The assumption is that V's range calling a shove is wider than shoving against a 4-bet? Both a shove and 4-bet are -EV ...

Fold ... seat change>table change ... stay at this table and get position on BB or go into OMC/Phil Hellmuth mode and min-raise/limp so you can raise the aggressive player and put HIM into the 'tough' call, not yourself as you have done here. GL

With an aggressive BB, I might have just limp/called here.

Can you get a seat change, at least?

+1 to both

If it's folded to us, our raise on the Button looks FOS, which an aggro BB might take advantage of, putting us in the exact situation we are in now. If we hadda just limped, we can always see a flop and setmine in position against an aggrotard, which is a good spot to be in. There are times when open limping the button is acceptable, and I think this might be one of them.

And yeah, our seat doesn't sound like it is too great, although it depends how many aggrotards are at the table.