Hero has been playing less than 30 minutes and UTG at a 7 handed 1/3 NLHE table at a casino I haven't played at in several months. It's been a long few weeks of second nut hands and betting mistakes that has left my confidence in tatters. My stack is about 60BB.

Villain in this hand is a youngish Asian female in MP, new to the table, who has me covered. She bought in full (100BB). She is obviously a regular as the dealer said hi to her by name. All these tell me that she probably knows what she is doing.

Hero is dealt 56 and limps. All except the SB calls. 6 handed to the flop. Pot (after drop) is $14.

Flop is KT9

BB checks. Hero bets $15. Folds to villain who insta-raises to $60. Puke in my mouth a little. Hero????

At this point I am pounding my pud and hating poker. Her PF limp makes A-rag or K-rag suited within her calling range. In the absence of other information, my read on her tells me that she probably would not over-value and raise an offsuit QJ PF, but probably would have raised a pair. Her action tells me she is committed and if I am going to call, I might as well ship yet another buyin. On the other hand, $15 is pretty easy to get away from at this point. Crying call or smart fold?

I may as well add this to this thread instead of the j10 one. Limping is even less profitable/more losing in a high rake game. You don't want to be playing lots of small pots.

Fold or raise this pre, probably fold with 60BB.

As played when you flop a flush with with 60BB stop puking and get the money in the middle.

^^ This is exactly what I'm struggling with. I understand completely.

But, I am at a point where I want to move up stakes. In order to do that I feel like I need to widen my opening range up a tad (currently 99+, 89s+, AKo, AQo, and every now and then KQo in position) and play more post flop like I do online. I really don't want to wait until I move up where mistakes are much more expensive to start practicing. In your opinon should I just go ahead, widen my opening range, and raise in position instead and let my bankroll absorb all the times I am unable to continue my hand?

Looking for help. Thanks for taking the time to discuss!

If you want to increase you opening range start with playing deeper.
If you just play for 60bb you cant open as many hands, compared
to playing with 100bb+.

Opening wider is not the same as open limping UTG wider.

Flopping a flush and folding is a pretty terrible way to use your money. You're not deep enough to be thinking of folding here. Shipp it and sweat another .

Everyone pretty much covered everything so well, so I'll just reiterate that i would also fold pre with 60bb and insta-get it in on the flop. And to people saying to play deeper: not exactly the easiest thing to do unless you live in SD county in SoCal. But, I agree.

Never limp with suited connectors unless you are super super deep. AND even when deeper its not a profitable play to simply limp with sooooted connectors...either raise/fold.

However disgusting villians play on the flop is, auto ship this. youve got less than
60BBs left playyyyya, sweat the diamond

Why are you limping OOP with garbage? What are you looking to flop?

I know what you gonna say. So, you've got what you been looking for. This is what's gonna happen when you limp with garbage and hit the flop. You've got a small hand but your stack is small too. So, I cannot see how you can fold here 60bb. Expect to lose and learn for future how to play OOP.

Che,

I don't see the reason to pile on OP. He limped a suited connector. If I feel I'm at a table that plays limped pots multi-way,I will do the same. These are profitable spots if you play well post flop. I would like to be a little deeper but I do not think that completely negates the play.

Now,on to the question posed. You absolutely have to ship it on the flop. No question.

Lastly, I have to ask:$19 preflop=$14 after drop?? $5 rake seems high,especially if it is taken out of preflop monies. Hope that room is nice with good perks!!

Nobody's pile on anybody, bro
Small to medium suited connector are hands for deep stacks not for 60bb. Actually for 60bb 65s will have a -EV but for 300bb very magically the 65s is +EV. Go figure! Hahaha!

Che,

Thanks everyone. I had a run bad streak this weekend and all I could think of at the time was "there goes another buy in." So even after it didn't I racked up and went home.

In their defense, it was at Harrah's in SD County. I should have bought in 100BB, but my wife was finishing up in the WSOP Women's event, so I was just playing for a short while using pocket change.

Standard Southern California drop of $4+1.

Yup. I respect that answer....

So, say at 50 - 70BB (typical for a lot of Southern California low stakes games) are there any SCs that are +EV?

I'm your friend for life, partner. But always remember: The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look

So CA games with 70bb are not suitable for drawing hands because you don't have the implied odds to draw if you just start the game. If you build your stack above 100+bb you can start playing more suited connectors. That's why I prefer Vegas deep NL games where you can play real poker post flop. One great Vegas game for starters that play well post flop I would say is at Caesars LV 1/3 NL with 166bb buy-in or $500 and straddle on the button. A pre flop raise would be like $25 (5% of effective stacks) and you can call that bet with lots of speculative hands. But the 70bb game becomes a "big card" poker with a big pf raise and an AI continuation bet on the flop, like HU confrontation and that's all. You cannot draw because for a drawing hand you need time and stack and you don't have in 70bb games.

Che,

Thanks Che. Makes for pretty boring poker.

Apply poker theory that you got it from your poker books to what I’m telling you here.

In the game of con there’s always an opponent and there’s always a victim. Let the victim do the hard work while you just tag along. Feed small pieces to him and make him believe he took those pieces cause you’re dumber and he’s smarter. The more control your victim thinks he has the less control he actually has. Place him in an environment he can control and give him just a little of the things he wants. So, you simply distract your victim by getting him consumed by the wrong assumption. You’ll often see your victim hiding behind your pain, embrace that pain and you’ll win. The greatest con you’ll ever pull is the one you make your victim believe he’s you. Always remember that.


Che,

When you flop a flush, you need to be doing everything possible to get as much money in the pot. Even deepstacked I'd probably stack off with a baby flush in a limped pot.

^ lol.

The only thing that scares me about the limped pot is the suited A or K that limped along. That teaches me to limp SCs OOP. Jeesh.