I've just started playing poker as a semi-serious hobby and actually just finished my first 20k hands at the micros over the course of three months. I get the sample size is small, but I have been slightly profitable after a 12 BI initial downswing. My original plan was to understand the basics of fundamentally sound play with the intent of transitioning to live poker on a more regular basis. Today I took a shot at 1/3 at my local casino in Maryland. Looking for advice for those transitioning to live and any other general points to help me improve (hand related or otherwise).

I'm sure everyone says this, but I was shocked at how spewy the game was - my game plan was to just try and play TAG poker and to not put myself in tough spots. Given how sticky people were pre and even post-flop, I tried hard to really only play in position with strong cards. Not to cbet multi-way pots lightly (think I play played one heads up hand over 3 hours). I suppose my stats were probably 14/12/6 or so. I am late 20s and relatively sociable - tried hard to keep track of the action, but also enjoying the conversations over time. I didn't keep track of every players stats (to what extent do people do this in live games? Any tricks/tips here?), but was mostly aware of the fish, donks and regs.

Villain sits down an hour after I arrive; clearly one of the stronger players there, happy to straddle and create action. Within two hours at 1/3, he was up from $200 to ~600. In his late 20s or early 30s - didn't know any of the dealers or other players, but clearly a reg. I can feel him observing my play; particularly in spots I was 3 betting IP, raising flops when donked into etc. I don't think he saw any of my hands at showdown besides one or two little ones.

Effective stack (me) was $365, villain raises to $12 from UTG+2 full ring. I 3bet on the button with AA to 30. BB cold calls, villain calls.

Flop: K55

Checks to me, I fire $60, BB folds. Villain raises to $160.
Hero: ??

Now if this were to have happened online, I think I would be comfortable here getting it in vs a LAG. Maybe that's a mistake, but would love to hear thoughts. More importantly however, I did know villain was watching my style of play. Obviously this flop hits my range hard, however I think an aware player could check raise here considering he's deep to take advantage of an obvious cbet; maybe this is overthinking it.

If I don't feel comfortable enough in my post-flop play to be "outplaying" a spewy game with a laggy style, I would think ABC poker should be relatively profitable given the number of fish. If that's the case, how do you prevent from being outplayed by laggy regs who try to exploit the straightforward style of your play.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

We need to be going bigger pre. My rule of thumb is 3.5x IP (4.5x if one caller, 5.5x if two callers, etc.) and 4.5x OOP (5.5x if one caller, 6.5x if two callers, etc.) So here I would go $40ish.

We don't have to go 2/3 pot on the flop. This board is pretty dry. I would go $45 on this flop. Facing a raise I don't see any reason to get it in. I do expect to be ahead at an extremely high frequency, and we have no problem getting it in on a later street with spr<1 when we call, and there are no turn cards we hate except a K...Especially with 55 on the board, we are pretty nutted. Also, any chance villain is bluffing at all, we scare him off with a shove.

Welcome to the forum, OP.

Please don't include last actions, as it biases responses. I edited them out.

I'm OK with your pre-flop sizing, if there were no limpers or callers of his raise. My general rule is 3x, but anything over 2.5x is OK, imo.

OTF, I think I go down to half-pot on the c-bet on a board this big, though if BB is fishy, I don't mind making it a bit bigger for value. Fishy LLSNL Vs are often unbelievers on paired boards. AP, I'd probably flat the c/r. You're playing so tight that he could peg you as scared money, so lets keep his bluffs in, and wait for the turn to GII. Never folding at this SPR, even on a board this dry.

Garick got this right. I'm just going to point out that after you call the flop, you're only folding to a King on the turn. The money is going in. If he flopped a FH, tell him nice hand and move on.

I'll just point out that a player that is straddling and "creating action" isn't one of the strongest players in that game. The strongest player in that game is the one that didn't draw any attention to themself and when they got up you were wondering, "where did they get all those chips. I don't remember them playing a hand."

That's not necessarily true, it's really dependent. The two best players I've ever played against that absolutely destroy 1/2 straddle OTB every single time.

Thank you all for the thoughtful responses! The point is well taken that the best players go unnoticed - it's a good thought.

Mod edit: removed results

Still too soon for results, OP. Please give it at least 24 hours from your first post, or several hours since the last response, whichever comes last.

There's probably some good info in the best of stickies for you. Live certainly plays differently than online. While I haven't played online since black friday, even at the micros back then everyone was a TAG robot. That's certainly not the case live.

The best thing you can do live is to watch to see who is doing the limping, and watch hands at showdown to see what their preflop ranges are. Once you've identified the weak players, adjust accordingly.

As for this hand, you hinted that you've 3-bet while he's been at the table already. Given that 3-bets tend to be pretty rare at 1/3, he probably thinks you are 3-betting wide. You should have his range destroyed here. KK likely 4-bets, and 5x doesn't exist. He could easily have all combos of AK/KQ and overplaying top pair for value (a common mistake here). I'd flat this and look to get stacks in on the turn.

Like others said, your flop bet is a bit on the large side. You can certainly make exploitative bets like that against the right villains, but generally in a 3-bet pot on a dry flop where you have a massive range advantage, smaller bets will work better. He's going to have a lot of middle pairs (77-QQ) and you don't want to make it too easy for him to fold.

Sorry for posting the outcome too early! Below is my earlier post.

All that maybe true, but one that thing is certainly true, is that people defend way too widely against 3-bets at low stakes. I assure you for the most part they aren't thinking. They are looking to gamble. If they had a hand that was good enough to raise, they aren't likely to fold it without seeing a flop. A guy flopped gin against your AA and you got stacked. It won't be the last time this happens. AA is still your most profitable hand by a mile though.

Tbh I peg straddlers as mostly fish, or losing/mediocre live regs. Never seen a crusher consistently straddle. Also don't equate big stacks in front of a player for them to be a winner/competent. 1) They could be in for many bis 2) it is one session, and anything can happen within that session.

As for this hand - flat reraise, and gii on next street. Turn card I'm not too happy with would be a K.

In places that allow a button staddle, I'm going to have to disagree with you. It's a huge advantage in certain kinds of games and against certain kinds of players.

As for this hand, more pre live. Call the x/r, get it in on the turn unless a K hits. Youre 110 or so BB deep, should have no problem getting coolered here.

Have you been 3betting a lotta pots in the single hour villain has been here?

Anyhoo, even though we have position, he's still one of the better players at the table, and a 3bet sets up simple postflop commitment where we won't be able to fold, so with that being the case I want to offer poor IO. For conservative me that's 8:1 targetting setminers-, which means I'm 3betting to upwards of $60 preflop.

Thanks to our very small preflop sizing, we've now setup an SPR of <= 4 where stacks will be able to go in trivially (even if we manage to check back the flop), and that ain't great since we offered 2 players great IO of 21+.

I mostly try to outplay the good players by offering them poor IO to splash around with me. If you think you can outplay people in an SPR ~4 pot, be my guest (obviously just flat his raise and let him barrel off), but good luck with that long term, imo.

ETA: As always, I really disagree with the suggestions regarding nx + y or whatever preflop sizing because this doesn't take stack size into account (and stack size is the main concern). This sizing may work if stacks are super deep and you're always leaving yourself with a very large and very manageable SPR, but otherwise it is a really poor method, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I don't have experience with button straddles - I was referring to typical utg straddles.