Would like to discuss

1) Whether it is a good idea to open up our range when we run hot. Interested in both empirical experiences and and theoretical analysis.

2) The hand below:

1/2 Ten-handed

H ($400) - Young girl in a hat. Aggressive and running hot. Flopping two pair/nut flush/etc and stacking people.

V ($152) - Young African American guy in wheelchair. Tight and quiet, haven't seen much of his showdown, could be a good TAG, or fit-or-fold.

Only worth-mention hand between H and V:
3 limps to V ($100) in SB who raises to 12. H ($200) 3b to 35 with JJ, folds back to v and he shoves for 88 more. H calls, V shows KK, and H binks a J on the river. H apologizes politely and V takes the hit gracefully - doesn't seem to be affected/titled at all.

On to the hand:

5 limps including V OTB. H in the SB with 25. H completes SB and BB checks.
I promise I fold this 99.9% of the time, but the thought of 'I am running hot why don't I just see a flop" flashed over my mind and comprised the 0.1%.

Flop ($14) 346
BB leads for 12, folds to V who calls, H raises to 40. BB folds, V shoves for 100 on top.
So running hot or disaster?

You basically play the hand (fold pre) to hit gin... And you do... Get that money in there.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using 2+2 Forums

Riding the rush is a myth as far as card results are concerned but if you have a winning image at the table it can give you options post flop that don't exist if you're losing.

Players will fold to a winning player more easily.

Of course that advantage is negated if you limp napkins from the worst absolute position.

Heh, and I thought this was going to be a "should I call 78o on the button" kinda question.

When you're running hot people will fold to you more. Preflop bluffs, flop bluffs and double barrels will become profitable where they weren't before. Table talk can be especially helpful: if someone's mubsy against you, x/r semibluff every chance you get.

52o from the SB is still going to lose you money, but I think you know that. Now that you've hit the second nuts on the flop, time to shovel the money in.

There is no excuse for playing garbage regardless of how you run. BUT in certain circumstances you can take advantage of your winning image.

Your opponents tend to become more submissive when you are "hitting everything" against them. If they do, and if you notice that they are increasingly starting to play fit/fold, you can play more aggressive and safely fold when they play back.

I would open up more in position against fit/fold opponents. I would also semi-bluff more. And I'm going to hammer pots when weakness is shown as your fold equity is increased. You will get away with more stuff when you have the winning image.

Agree with what snowball said, good reflections.

That being said: completing with 2-5 off from the SB is a disaster, for a tons of reasons. Its absolutely horrible and should be folded 100 percent of the time.

Preflop hand selection is still leak number 1 at live low stakes in my book, from every position at the table. I see people playing so much total garbage its unbeliveable.

Its never a good idea to open up your limping range because you are running hot. Total recipe for disaster. That creates situations like this, where you haveto put the money in since you flopped the 2nd nuts but if you end up losing the hand you cant complain about being coolered since you shouldnt of been there in the first place.

When having a good solid image at the table, and taking down pots easily, I like to open up my PF raising range somewhat in late position, such as maybe opening with a 78s, K9s type of hand, not when im "running good" but when im in good control of table and like my chances to take down the pot with a c-bet on the flop no matter what flops. But that is image and table dependent, not card dependent.

You never want to limp those type of hands to "see what comes up". Leave that for the fish, who spend 10 minutes bragging about how they just "knew their J4s was gona hit".

Point taken.

The fact that you hit gin this flop OP shoudnt affect your reasoning at all when it comes to why fold garbage from the SB. But of course: you hit gin and still lost the hand, thats something to really grasp the depth of- also called reverse implied odds.

And not to forget about the 99 out of 100 times your gonna whiff the flop completely with 2-5 off and check/fold, or when your flopping a pair or draw and fool yourself to get sucked into the pot and losing even more money with a garbage hand from the worst pos at the table.

Garbage should be folded from the blinds without no hesitation at all.

Open your range from the button, CO and HJ.

Maintain a tight range from SB, BB and UTG.

~~~

LOL... why is the hat important? Lucky hat?

Regarding the title, I wouldn't change anything. A lot of guys do things differently when they're up: slow down to lock in winning sessions, limp way more, raise much wider. Whatever got you that stack you should keep doing. You'll be card dead at times, you'll be getting hit with the deck, it'll all even out.

It's a baseball hat (sorry it that wasn't clear)... So there's a chance some Vs would see that as a 'poker hat' and think 'mmm this girl might know what she is doing'. (Whereas if I go in party dress I am sure some people would think 'what the hell is this girl doing here?')

You should open up your range just because you're female imo

I don't agree. I think ladies get less FE.

IMO, value bet wider and bigger.

That's an over-generalization dukey

Tru

If I was a female I would just open a lot of hands and cbet/barrel a lot because people will not play back as often. They'll also give you credit for hands since a lot of older men perceive young women to not really be able to make any moves.

If a female 3bets me or barrels me, I'm likely going to be folding a lot more often than i am to a young guy. That's because I perceive women to be tighter and less creative. Older rec players will fold their weaker hands to women for this same reason and to be nice to them

or you could go in a party dress AND a baseball cap and make their heads explode.

Exploding the heads of thinking players = +EV imo.

Back on topic:

I won't make plays based on winning image alone, but it'll factor in. Last 1-3 session, I was running hot/up 1k, and I raised the button to $15 over 2 limpers with A6o. Not something I would normally do, but people were folding to me quite a bit both preflop and on the flop. The BB with $110 behind reraised me to $30 total. Now, as the limpers were folding, I was planning on mucking my hand without a second thought, but I waited a couple seconds and she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. That tell + my AA blocker + my image/stack made me announce all-in.

She tanked forever and even brought up my chipstack when she was tanking:

"Wow, that's dramatic."

"I should've toppled it all forward after I said it."

"It's a lot of money."

"It's not my stack just your stack."

"Oh so you just want MY stack." (This made me laugh)

etc.

She eventually folded. Pretty clear, concrete evidence that a winning image DOES matter imo.

When I'm running hot if I have a hand where I'd call 35% or raise 65%, I'll raise because cbets will work more often. I'll also bluff more in limped pots ip. For the most part I don't really change how I play a ton when "running hot." On the flip side I'll get involved w/donks "running hot" w/less implieds as normal because they will often just fold much less often than if they were running normal.

My experience is that the female image could have polarized effect.
For example some Vs respect me so much that they'd fold whenever I bet or 3b on an A-high board ("OMG she must have aces!").
Some Vs are so determined to look me up that they'd call my bet saying 'I am beat but I want to give you my money/I want to see your cards'.

So I'd say it's villain-dependent.

Do you find tighter/more solid players are the former and the bigger fish they are, the more of the latter attitude?

I'd have to disagree on your first sentence. Limping any reasonable non raising hand ip isn't bad if you can get ppl to fold incorrectly because you have a winning image post flop. However that doesn't mean completing from the sb w/25o is optimal.

As far as your last couple of bolded sentences it doesn't matter how you got to the flop. You didn't lose a big pot because you limped w/garbage. You lost because you did in fact get coolered and are often good vs villain's range. So folding otf because you made a pf mistake is quite the disaster compared to completing 25o in the sb. Losing the big pot w/the near nuts isn't the disaster, the disaster is you're pretty much always pissing away a dollar every time you complete 25o.

Solid advice.

I think if your running hot, and your stack builds up to over 200bb, you can start adjusting your play to deep stack vs deep stack play, which allows for wide ranges.