I'm really wanting to improve my game and am trying to find a hand or two per session to post about.

V1: (275) nitty semi reg, we don't have a considerable amount of history but I'm aware of him and his play style. He is on the tight side but has the ability to bluff using his perceived range.

Hero: (450) reg and known as a winner in the room. Have even horribly card dead and folding everything for about two hours. V1 just came to table in past 30 mins so isn't aware of Hero's lack of playing.

UTG limps, Hero raise to 15 UTG+1 w/ K10 6 callers including V1 in SB

Flop: (105) 45J
Checks to Hero bets 40, all fold except V1.
Turn: (185) 2
V1 checks, Hero bets 100, V1 goes all in for 206 total.

Thoughts?

Fold pre

fold pre. raise bigger pre if you're playing this hand. but fold pre

flop betsizing could be fine if you plan to set up a shove on the turn yourself

snap as played and tip the dealer before binking

Fold pre IF:
You are bad at postflop play.
or There is a shortstack behind you that is looking for a spot to shove with any decent ace or any pocket pair.
or There good tricky players who play good in position who you have a tough time playing against behind you.
or There is an aggressive 3-bettor behind you.

Call pre if:
The table is loose and passive and you're raise will likely get called in 4+ spots. There is no reason to build a $60 pot when stacks are only ~$275 and you're out of position. If you just call, the pot will be large enough that you can probably get it all-in on on any board you want to. Getting more money in pre with just a little edge means there is less to get in post with a big edge.
or It is a generally loose/passive table but with an aggressive 3-bettor directly to your left. Call, if he chooses to raise, then you'll have good relative position on the raiser and you can see how many people are in the pot before it gets back to you closing the action. If his raise is small and there are lots of callers, see a flop. Otherwise you get out for $5 instead of whatever you were going to raise.

Raise pre if:
You can expect to buy the button or at least narrow the field behind you down to 1 person.
or If there is more than 1 person behind you who you expect might call, they are loose enough to be calling with hands like T7o and K9o and they play bad postflop.



In this situation, at most tables, I would raise to $20. I would also raise to $20 with AA, 99, KQs, etc... As a standard, it doesn't give away my holding. It's large enough that for hands like KTs it's not begging the entire field behind me to come along forcing me to play against a lot of opponents OOP. If I only get 1 or 2 callers who I have a big edge on postflop because they play too tight and don't defend enough, then it makes my postflop c-bets more valuable.


In this spot, on the flop, I would have bet more.

Your hand has more value as a bluff than as a value hand. You don't want people to call. You're bet is asking people with gutshots and hands like 56 to call trying to hit one of their few outs and crack your overpair or AJ or whatever. Betting $75 should get those hands to fold. I would also bet $75 with hands like AA since this is a draw-heavy board, so betting this size doesn't give away your holding. If you do get called, you're better positioned to shove the turn if you bet $75 (assuming some other people have around $300). The pot would be $250 and they'd have about $175 left. It would be tough for someone with QJ to call $75 on the flop and $175 on the turn against a preflop raiser who bets into 5 people. That looks like AJ+.

As played, obv call the river getting 4.9:1. You have a great semi-bluff hand, but you gave yourself the minimum fold equity on each street.

Table was pretty lose, most preflops bets of 30 or less would have at least 4 to the flop. I was sure my $15 raise would get multiway action and was more as a pot builder without investing much pre.

Why do you want to build a big pot preflop OOP with KTs?

Low investment and an easy fold on brick flops. My EP range is prob one of my biggest leaks.

For the people suggesting fold Pre; are we folding KJs as well...curious what the cutoff is?

Raise pre is pretty bad. Folding this hand or opening it larger but only from LP. AP snap it off as the pot is giving you ~5:1 on a call for ~4:1 draw

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What happens when the flop comes K 7 7. Or K 5 6. Or 8 9 10. Or any number of 1 pair flops which you are going to hit more than anything IF you hit. How are you going to get value vs. worse hands? How are you going to respond to aggression? You are essentially doing what the fish do when they have small pp that wants to see a flop cheap. Small raise in EP to make sure nobody raises too big behind them. You are now set mining K10s in EP.

Whether i'm raising, limping, or folding this hand is very table dependent. Whichever you do, commit. If you are going to raise, then raise so you can take the pot if you miss. Don't raise to 'juice' it. ESPECIALLY OOP.

Obv I would bet any flops that I hit top pair and evaluate from there. Action vs aggression would be table dependent. I see where playing this hand in EP is might be -EV but I don't see how raising it to 20-25 pre, at least at this particular table would matter. I guess I should reserve raising this hand for a table that plays a little tighter.

Quick off topic question, are you open limping your sm-med PP or opening for table standard of 15-20?

Fold or limp pre, mostly fold unless there are some pretty bad players we want to get involved with.

Bet bigger on the turn, at least $50.

Check behind turn. What hands are you trying to fold to a turn barrel that called the flop?

If we expect the hand in this spot to be -EV how does raising it pre all of a sudden make the hand +EV to play?

Raising pre is fine is you're competent post flop, but make it 20 or 25. Something that gets you heads up or at most two callers.

Flop bet is fine but make it 55 or 60.

Turn bet is bad. Too often people semi bluff the turn because "Oh I have outs so MUST BET". The thing about a semi-bluff is that it's still a bluff. What hands can villain call with on the flop in a multiway pot that would be scared of the deuce of spades? Essentially none. The fact that you have a flush draw doesn't mean you don't have to think about what you rep. Since we can be pretty sure villain has a strong top pair or better with that many people to the flop, barreling turn is a bad play as we aren't likely to get any hands to fold that wouldn't have folded the flop.

Easy overlimp/fold at most 2/5 tables unless heaps of ppl call. As played check turn bc it doesnt change anything for V

Limping along works way better.

Preflop: not sure how I feel about the raise, I think I would prefer fold > call > raise 15

Flop: I would've just checked, it looks weak and your never going to get any real hand to fold

Turn: Don't like the turn lead, V1 is very likely to jam on the turn. Now you are pot committed and have to call. I would've just checked and possibly fold depending on the sizing.

Looking back I played the hand poorly. Results although not really important to my inquiry was that we get it in onon turn and he rivers a full house. ****ty thing is I'm pretty sure I played a hand similar today.

A10dd raise to 20 UTG+ 2. Two callers, one in LP the other in SB.

Flop As 3s 6d lead for 35, LP calls, SB folds

Turn 6h. Hero?

Instead of raising or betting because of X hand, start thinking raise or bet to fold out that player's X hands or to get called by that player's X hands.

So when you bet AT in that spot, what hands are you expecting to get called by that are worse? Most importantly, are there more worse hands than better hands that will call?

On a table where 20-25 raises are getting called in 4 places, you are on a loose passive table. Most profitable but least fun table to play. I'll start upping my raise size to get 1 or 2 callers, sometimes you have to go to 40-50 in 500eff stack situations. The good news is, it turns in to 1 or 2 street poker so its very easy to play. The bad news is, it turns in to 1 or 2 street poker so it's very easy to play. I'll limp hands like Axs and sc's if a raise is going to set up an SPR of 5 and the villains are sticky.

As for the most recent hand you posted, very dependent on stack sizes and players. If you are going with 'no reads' then what are stack sizes?

V has 280, Hero covers. He sat down a short time before this hand so no real reads.