Weekly juicy home game. Played there for months and up overall. Probably the second most winning player there. A few people don't like me there because I have won some good amounts.

Loose game overall. Villan is a reg that HATES me because I don't play how he does and therefore I'm bad.

My game plan is to have a lose image of a maniac that plays any two cards. I don't necessarily plan a ton of hands but in their eyes I do. I will purposely play bad hands and show as they will call me down when I have good hands and hit them.

I am in early position with 6d3d and call a raise from seat 1 to $6. 5 caller and is up to villan who makes it $19.

I call and another player calls.

There is roughly $80 in the pot.

Flop come 5d Jd 2s. Villan goes all in for about $80.

I have 12 outs in my mind and I put him on a big pair or AK-AJ. I know him well and he's predictable.

I call and hit a flush on river. Villan had QQ.

Was my call on flop bad?

I Know may preflop play us silly but I purposely play some hands like that at this game.

Your flop call is perfectly ok- i mean you flopped as good as you can possibly flop with that sort of trash hand, without actually flopping a flush or full boat.

The preflop call on the other hand is a disaster. The pot odds/implied odds arent even close to what you need to make this sort of call with speculative hands.

Its a good idea to reflect on adjustments to our opponents and think about how you could get each opponents stack- but that doesent mean we have to make horrible preflop calls and ignore basic math calculations.

Thanks for the feedback. My reasoning for calling occasionally with trash hands like this at this game is because my opponents can't fold big pocket pairs.

I win with straights and flushes against them too often.

Does that in your opinion justify calling ever?

No problem dude, i dont mean anything personal if i sound too harsh sometimes.

The thing is: you dont exploit them when calling that kind of 3 bets preflop with garbage hands. Your not even close in getting the right price to outdraw your opponents likely big pocket pair. Infact its the opposite: you obviously has a leak when it comes to calling huge preflop 3 bets with garbage, and your villains is exploiting that when you make those unprofitable calls. You dont make two pair, trips, flushes and straights nearly often enough for this to be a +EV play.

However its a good and useful observation you have done about your villains who wont fold big pocket pairs: the next step is to pick +EV situations to exploit that weakness.

Let me give you one example. Lets say one of these opponents raises to 4 dollars from early pos, and you suspect he has a monster like a big pocket pair he usually cant manage to fold after the flop. 2 other players is calling from middle pos. You look down on 7-8 suited on the button, and you guys are sitting on 150 BB+ each. That is a much more favourable scenario for you to exploit him. Your implied odds and pot odds are ok and you have position on the original raiser wich gives you bigger chances of extracting value if you do happen to flop big. More factors are on your side, and you want to try have as many things going on for you as you possibly can in each hand you play.

Mathematically speaking, the flop call is standard. You're getting 2:1 with 12 outs. Also worth noting is that the J is a diamond. This completely eliminates V from having The AJdd NFD, thus weighting his hands towards made hands and less towards over flushes

No hard feeling at all. I'm here to learn and appreciate any feedback.

My range right now will include suited connectors but also suited semi-connectors (97, 68, 75...etc).

Do you think it's ok to include them or not in this case?

Not if villain is giving you a horrible price- wich he does when he 3 bets to 19 preflop with regular 100 BB stacks. When he does that the correct action is to fold.

If the stacks are deeper, we have pos, have a good grasp about our opponents range and is getting an okay price to call preflop it is starting to look better as i also mention in my last post.

I find it very hard to believe that you are a winning player in this game. You put in 20% of effective stacks with 63 sooted and spiked.

You don't have to believe me. Not sure why I would lie at a $1/$1 level...

I don't because you put in 20% of effective stacks then spike a miracle flop and ask if you should call. Zero concept of implied odds, spr, positional awareness, and all other poker fundamentals...then justify play...just sayin

You're getting 2:1 on your money and you're a 3:1 dog at best. I think your play is incredibly questionable but you're playing a home game so you can make plays like that.

In games like OP describes many people win playing like this, but they aren't really winning in the game, if that makes sense. OP very well could be slightly above break even, even though we both know his play, reasoning, and more than likely skills are not the greatest. In these games you don't have to be ossum to book a small win because the other players are typically worse. With that said, OP is not crushing these games or even beating it for a good clip. OP- I play these games a ton and I have seen your type. You can justify your play all you want because you binked, but preflop is super terrible. Trust Uncle Squid on this.

OP, it would be wise to listen to everyone's advice and just fold pre.

Good players exploit other players by raising to 20BB with premium holdings, and when other players whiff, they lose 20BB.

Let me quickly give a small explanation, if you're not convinced that you shouldn't play 63s:

For the sake of argument, let's assume you'll continue on the flop if you flop a:
1) two pair, trips, or better ~3.5%
2) flush or flush draw ~ 11.5%
3) straight or OESD ~ 5.8%

Keep in mind, you may not even win with a FD or OESD. You only flop 35% equity in those cases. You immediately see that you are 4:1 to flop something worth continuing, but in a large majority of those cases ~16%, you really only have 35% equity, so discounting that, your expected equity on the flop is ~10% (ignoring the times he flops a set, has a bigger FD, etc.) Seeing as you're calling off 1/5 of you're stack, this is never a +EV play.

Fellows - I'm very much listening to advices and have no issue agreeing that 63s isn't a hand I need to be involved with.

I see that suited connectors are ok to be played in position and with enough callers.

Sorry if I came off as a complete donk. So far (6 plus months into) I'm still winning and have adjusted my play to my opponents.

I do have the image of a donk there and am ok with that because it's working for me.

That's not how I play at a casino $1/2 or $1/3 game but I think that adjusting your play is a good thing to do.

Same night, a few hands later I got paid when I went all in with a full house against trips. The caller didn't think twice about calling me because of my image and play with 63.

I see a lot of flops at this house game and fold if I don't hit. It works there.

Would I do that with regs at a casino? No way. I play tight aggressive with better players. Abc poker and bet it when I have it.

Certainly I'm a beginner level but enjoying changing things up when they work for me.

Reads like, "I purposely spew and show that I spew so that they will pay me off those few times that I have it."


Sigh....



preflop is indeed all kinds of spew. It's ESPECIALLY spew if you don't know what to do on this flop with this action.

Your responses are based on your results. 6 months of results. That's a tiny sample. I promise that's just variance. It isn't actually "working." You're going to come back to Earth playing like this and the ground is going to be very very hard.

You're like Vesuvius and your money is the lava.

There's a number of things to consider here:

1) Are you trying to make a play that can turn a profit in the long run or are you trying to have fun? If you are trying to have fun, then it's fine to play whatever you want that will bring you closer to that goal. And if playing 63s from EP against a raise and a 3bet is fun for you, then play it all day long.

2) Do you ever plan to move up to places with higher stakes, or where your competition is better? If you start to play against better skilled players they will see you calling with this hand and they will immediately lable you as someone to target and exploit. And you will get exploited. Calling a 3bet OOP for so much of our stack is a HUGE leak. It's going to cost you lots of money in the long run.

3) While you may be turning a profit at this home game (as you may be the best person or one of the top 3 players at the game) if you go somewhere that the money is greater and the money matters more, there's a strong chance that you are not going to be one of the best players at the table if this type of play is standard for you. And when that happens, you will find that you are losing money a lot of the time instead of making money a lot of the time.

4) Finally, there is a rake in a casino. Even if you are a small winning player right now where you are playing (and this is assuming that you have a lol valid sample size) then going somewhere that has a rake is going to smash your win rate very quickly. Most people estimate that on average players will lose 7 - 11 bb / hour just in rake / tip / promotional drop along. This doesn't even take into consideration the skill factor. So if you're winning at 3bb/hour now, you would be a 3+bb/hour loser at somewhere that takes rake.

Just food for thought.

Oh, and fold pre flop.

The issue is this though: it doesent really work for you, you only think it does because your quite obviously on a heater and is binking miracle flops like it was nothing.

Poker is easy when your on a heater and is hitting your miracle cards all the time- i know many players who believed they was winning players in the game, only to figure out a couple of hundred hours play later that they where only on a big heater.

I know you are being flamed quite hard in this thread OP, but if you really want to improve your game and maybe move up in stakes in the future, think it through, take a couple of days and then think about it again. When you get some more time to reflect on the inputs you have gotten here, it will all become more easy to understand.

This forum is great for me because I can post hands and get feedback.

No hard feelings at all here from me. I will digest everyone's comments and certainly make adjustments and tighten up my range.

What state does this game take place in? PM me if you want to.

IDK...

Getting 4.2:1 immediate odds, in a situation where you are putting your opponents on monkey tilt and they are going to pay you off like always.

I can see how OP can be profitable at this game. This looks like a pretty juice game to me.

This game is the classic, "Oh, you hit the flush, huh? F'it, I have to see it, I call."

Its going to be high variance, but if your bankroll can handle it, then play the maniac and rake in the manneys...

You're going to miss a ton though and you will burn your roll over time. Just because he is getting the odds on the 3bet doesn't mean it's not a mistake. He is only getting the odds because of the first mistake he made. It's compounding.

Great questions:
1) I play to make money but I think that in this home game I try to have fun and since I'm very comfortable with the stakes and my opponents I may be justifying in my head some really bad plays.
In a casino I would never play that and I only play 1/2 and 1/3 games.

2) in the last 6 months I decided to play more cash than tournament play and really like it. This home game was a chip way for me to put in some hours since we do a $60 Max buyin and $100 rebuys max. At a casino 1/2 and 1/3 range from $200 to $500 Max buyin and was less comfortable with that.
Now I am very comfortable with 1/2 games but will agree that one of my leaks is too play a too wide of a range at times. When I don't and play tight aggressive I have done well. I guess I'm working on being more disciplined. Certainly want to move up to 2/5 but recognize that I'm not ready yet.

3) I kinda answered this in #2 above.

4) I 100% agree with you

Thanks for the feedback

Just sent you a PM

That is what I meant when I said that it works for me.

Players are unable to fold JJ-AA and complaint if two pair beats them.

Once again I have never played like that at a casino with unknown opponents.

I think I knew the answer to my question but just needed confirmation from other players. Isn't this one of the reasons this forum is around?