Been a while since I’ve played live 1/2, and I’ve just recently started trying to play more often. Some of these spots may seem straight forward to some of you, but I was kind of unsure if I had made the right decisions. I’d love to hear everyone’s thought process on what I should’ve done.


Hand 1:

First hand of session. Folds to CO who is a fairly good tight aggressive opponent, and he raises to $12. Folds to me in the bb and I look down at 44. We’re 200 effective at this point, so I call to set mine.

Flop: Q52r. Check to villain who cbets 15 into 25. I feel like my opponent will be cbetting here pretty frequently with over cards, as he definitely widens his range in position, and likes to cbet dry boards at a high frequency. I don’t want to be over folding in this spot, so I call.

Turn 5x. I check and villain continues ott for 25. Hero?





Hand 2:

Same villain as before raises to 12 in middle position. Hero looks down at KTcc and flats otb. Loose passive bb who is fit or fold post calls as well. Effective stacks are 200 again. Flop 986cc. Bb checks and raiser cbets 25 into 37. I decide to call, as does the bb. Turn is a 6. Checks to raiser who continues for 50. Hero?

Obviously I have a monster draw here, but there are a few things that worry about me. I don’t expect my implied odds to be very good here. I except the initial raiser to be cbetting this flop with a much more value heavy range given that this is a wet texture and we’re multi-way. My first thoughts are hands like TT+, sets, 98, and then semi bluffs like AJ/AQ/QJ with clubs, and then hands like JTs. After being called in both spots and having the board pair ott, I would expect hands like JTs and 98 to slow down, leaving over pairs and bigger clubs. Because of that, I don’t expect to be able to extract value on most rivers here when either of my draw come in, since the board is paired and my draws are very obvious. Especially since the range I’m targeting is mainly over pairs. I also have to worry about reverse implied odds when my opponent has better flush draws or turned full houses. This was my thought process, and I ended up folding here. Is this bad?



Hand 3:

Perceived snug player in mp raises to 7 (small for this game, as standard is 11-12), and flat in hj with ATo. Fold pre? Heads up to flop with effective stacks of 190. Flop 235r. Villain cbets to 10 in a pot of 17. I elect to call, as villain will have many cbets with air in this spot, and with an over and a gutter, this seems like a great spot to float with equity and bluffing opportunities ott.

Turn 4. Villain continues for 25. Hero calls, and the river is another 2. Villain now bets 20.

On the turn when he continues, this seems to me like sets, 66, the occasional overpair, a hand like 54, 56/67, and other ax hands that I chop with. When the board pairs otr, I’m not really loving this spot. Obviously sets catch up to beat me, I think 54 and over pairs no longer bet and will go into showdown mode, 66 still beats me, and I chop with an Ace. Yes I’m getting 5:1 roughly, but I question if that’s a good enough price given that I’m basically calling to chop (or at least I think I am). How should I play this?



Feel free to tell me that some or all of these hands are easy spots, but make sure to include your reasoning if you do, and what I could’ve done/thought differently

H1: Flop call is fine, now I fold. I'm probably also overfolding in these spots, but I'm not super convinced that (even on this dry of a board) calling down with an underpair from out of position is going to be profitable. If we want some hands to call down with, I'd prefer (e.g.,) overs or ace highs with some sort of backdoor draw rather than an underpair, since we can turn extra equity that will allow us to continue by calling a turn bet.

H2: I'm mostly 3betting preflop -- probably making it $35-40 (and if I had done this and gotten heads up I would have cbet ~$60 on this particular flop). As played I'm calling turn -- with <1 PSB left on the river it will be hard for overpairs to fold, so I personally wasn't too worried about not having the implied odds. Could consider jamming turn but I don't see him folding after this action.

H3: Yeah, I'm folding pre. This is usually going multiway with us in not-last position, and I don't want to 3bet a perceived snug player with ATo. As played, just like hand 1, I'm not super excited about continuing versus a flop bet with this particular hand -- again, I'm probably overfolding here, but we'll have lots of better hands to continue with than this one (overpairs, some overcards+backdoor flush draws, etc). As played I'm snap calling the river, mostly because if he had a 6 or a boat I can't imagine he'd bet like 1/4 pot when you can so easily have an A (and most people would call a huge bet).

Hand 1:

Just FYI you don’t have to set mine Hand 1. He did make a 6x open. This is a clear fold in the small blind. Big blind it might be defensible, but usually calling 6x the big blind to check fold most flops, in the hope that you get it all when you do hit, isn’t the greatest proposition.

AP we have one of our weakest hands possible on the turn, I’d assume. So I’d fold.


Hand 2:

When calling 6x to close the action is one thing, calling 6x not closing it is totally another. It’s the button, so it’s kind of defensible. But once again, if you never do it, you’ll be close to correct. Paying big raises preflop to play ABC postflop is going to bleed money in the long run. Against people opening this big, you need to be almost exclusively 3 bet or folding.

Flop is an easy jam at stack depths. Not only do you have a huge portion of equity with two overs, flush draw and gutter on the good end, but this board favors you as the in position caller (you can conceivably have all the 99/88/66/98s while a lot of your opponent’s value is overpairs). Against a hand as strong as queens, you’re a favorite.

And think of the math with regard to stacks. He bets 25 into 37. You’ve 188 left. If you jam 188 total, he has to call 163 to win 250. A little better than 1.5:1 on his money, and this is incredibly easy to balance (you jam your monster hands and monster draws).

As played, you’re getting 3.2:1 and you’re priced in to call at the non-nuts.

Hand 3:

This is by far the least debatable preflop action. Very very very trivial fold. You can maybe 3 bet sometimes. But calling is lighting money on fire.

From here it’s a standard calldown. It’s always a call for half pot with this hand on 532r drawing at two overcards and a wheel draw IP. It’s never a fold or raise when you hit it. And against this tiny sizing, I call and expect to lose sometimes, chop sometimes, and be against a weird block bet and win sometimes.






But in summary, you seem to have a systemic problem of being too passive. Especially preflop. The worst thing you can do at 1/2 is playing loose and passive against their massive opens relative to the blinds. You’re engaging in a bad value proposition where if you both hit, he will have stronger hands that you have to worry about. If you both miss, he wins because of this as well. Playing purely to hit something is losing poker, and this is especially true at these lower limits.

My suggestion: tighten up. A lot. And if you think a player is loose enough to where a certain hand is profitable as a call, there’s a great chance it’s even more profitable as a 3 bet.

I know it’s boring to sit there and fold, but the way you exploit 1/2 players who are opening to 10-15 preflop is by playing fewer hands and coming after them with stronger preflop ranges. By calling a ton, at the very least you’re not exploiting your opponents. At the worst you’re being exploited.

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Grunch:

Hand 1 - If you're check-calling this flop, you weren't setmining. It's a 6x open from a TAG and you're OOP, just fold pre. And don't worry about overfolding at live 1/2. Most people are unbalanced toward value.

Hand 2 - It's a little optimistic to be calling 6x TAG opens with KTs, but on the button with a LP in the bb, this is the one I'm closest to ok with pre. Raise the cbet, though. As you pointed out, your IO are not great, since most/all of your outs are obvious scare cards. You can get both opponents to fold a lot of equity, and you have plenty of outs when called.

Hand 3 - 3b or fold pre. If you think his opening range is wide enough to include hands like 54/65/76 and low pairs, it's an easy 3b. As played, call river and expect to chop a lot.

You'll get better discussion if you post one hand at a time. In general, it looks like you're calling preflop raises too often.

Grunch(-ish)

H1: For the love of god, don't fold pairs pre when HU with SPR>5.
Flop is fine. Turn fold is ok, but this is such a good turn card to bluff/deny vs a CO open. He virtually has no 5x and we have quite a few. Donkleading turn is probably theoretically better, but x/raise works so well vs typical LL TAGs.

H2: preflop: THREEBET.
Raise flop, allin is kinda big, but the board is wet AF, so yeah, jam.
AP, easy call turn when both our fold equity and actual equity are diminished. Problem is we are gonna have to hit or give up rivers, and probably have trouble getting paid when we do hit. Meanwhile we coulda generated so much fold equity vs 1 pair hands. Or just have gained initiative and realized equity easier by THREEBETTING pre.

H3: Fold pre. If this smaller raise size is uncommon for villain, i actually wouldn't mind a 3bet either.
AP, flop is close but whatever. Turn is good.
River: raise to ~70. Highly unlikely we are beat when he 20% pots it after betting 60% on a oneliner turn. Usually still a split, but sometimes we fold out a chop, and on rare occasions we'll get called by a tilty nit who spites us with KK.
Rake might factor in to make me just call, but generally we never want to flat blockbets, specially when we have this strong of a range advantage.

TLDR: dont be passive.

Hand one: fold pre flop, probably fold flop but I doubt calling is that bad, fold turn

Hand two: I'm fine with flatting or 3 betting pre. I would raise the flop. Sizes are weird with the SPR, so I would just go ahead and shove. As played, I would call the turn with the implied odds we're getting.

Hand three: fold pre, call river

EDIT: After reading the comments, I agree that we should be 3 betting hand two because of villain's sizing

I really appreciate all of the feedback on these hands. I’ll try to post individual hands next time in order to make it a bit easier to respond.

That being said, you guys are all definitely right about me having a pre-flop leak, and I think pre-flop was where my biggest offenses were. This is something I‘ll have to study a lot more of it appears, as some of these flats I would’ve considered somewhat standard for my pre-flop game. I’ll also have to incorporate more of a 3bet or fold strategy in more spots, as I agree, calling to hit generally isn’t a winning strategy.