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I’ve been at the game a couple hours now. Im playing very tight and treading water. I need to find a hand to play after folding about 20 in a row. We wake up with the closest thing to a premium we can find at 4pm on a Monday afternoon.

2d 6d. Yep. This Will Do.

We fire $15 into the pot from the cutoff our standard open after 2 or 3 limps. People hate to fold when weÂ’re in a hand. You would not believe the **** some of these people play. 2d 6d anyone?

$60 to the flop…..
Come on flush draw. Come on trip 6s.

Ad Jd 6s

Well thank you poker gods.

The nits in the LJ & HJ check both around $200 deep. Hero has $450. Button covers. I bet out $40. Hopefully take it down right here.

The 70 year old man on the Button does not hesitate to squash that plan. He smooth calls rather quickly. I think this man has called every flop bet I have made so far. He is better than most of the players at the table. Ive just started to take him out of OMC status after seeing a couple of plays an OMC would never use. I have not seen him bluff yet. LJ & HJ fold.

$140 in the pot. Turn is the magical 9s. Ok not magical. Not really helpful at all. H?

The flop hits his calling range. Turn. I reluctantly bet 85-100 and planning to shut it down. If he calls and I brick the river, check/fold. If I get a flush, I raise 40% pot/fold.

Well, assume you don't want to hear about preflop, but ... The open raise would only be half as bad, if you would'nt face to limps already. Flop seems fine. Turn I just xb to realise my EQ. If you think Qx is decent part of his range and he would fold betting seems okay. I'm not a fan to try to get someone off Ax, since you need 3 barrels for this. Your hand sometimes wins at SD, when checked through and you sometimes improve.

You know flip is bad so I won’t perseverate.

I check turn and try to bink. Tread somewhat carefully if you hit.

I do not have position on the villain who is on the button. I expect him to bet $50 minimum if checked to.

OTTH: Hero blasts the turn for $130 representing AK, AA, JJ. The V had proven sticky in previous hands to half pot sized bets.

V very quickly counts out $130 and calls. $400 in the pot going to the river. $275 left in the stack. I think I am checking the river without a 6 or a spade. This guy is stickier than I thought?

I wouldnÂ’t have posted the hand, but the strangest card came on the river, and I was having a hard time comprehending what had just happened in real time.

Ad Jd 6s. 9s. 2h

The next 20 seconds time stands still for the first time in a long time at the tables. I stare at the board in disbelief. I probably gave off some tell because, well im playing 2d 6d and wtf is going on. Poker Gods what is going on? We have to be good here right? Is he ever playing AJ like this on the flop and turn in position? He jams that doesnÂ’t he? A9? Jams A9? A6? No he canÂ’t have that very often can he? Back into A2? That would be just my luck.


I immediately discount all sets to maybe one combo combined based on preflop, flop and my blocker to 66. Maybe one combo was being
generous?

H????

Larry: one suggestion - find a good podcast on Spotify to keep yourself from playing crap like this. I like Lex Fridman, for example.

AP: the turn doesn't change much. H is uncapped. Pot is 140. H must decide whether to make a value or polarized bet, or check and invite aggression and cap ourselves.

A value line gives V proper IO when he's drawing, but will certainly elicit a raise when V has value because the board has gotten wetter. A value bet may only fold the bottom part of V's range, much of which we may be ahead of. I'm not sure a value bet accomplishes much.

The problem with a polarized turn bet is that V may jam his value. Obviously he will fold his air, but how much air does he have after preflop/flop action? The real question is: what will V do with his mid-range hands? Can we fold this part of his range with a polarized bet? I think so.

A check invites aggression, but may give us appropriate IO to call. We have some SDV too.

Overall, I think check>polarized bet> value bet. But it's a tough spot not covered in many podcasts.

Hand is fine up to now (obv excluding preflop, but even that’s not too bad, since you should be raising 64s there), but River is a trivially easy shove.

You’re never check-folding if HE shoves ($275 to win $675 with a sneaky two-pair), so if you’re beat you’re losing $275 no matter what. So we want to lose the BEST way.

And by shoving yourself, you get value from his AK/AQ hands that would almost certainly check back the River.

Villain should call this with one-pair hands quite easily, when every draw on a draw-heavy board missed. (EG: You would be shoving 6d5d here too.) So this is a clear spot to shove for value.

Shove to hide your shame.

Just cuz we've gone x hours without playing a hand doesn't mean we have to play the next one. I open fold this after 0 limpers (really not good enough even to attempt a fairly meaningless blinds steal), but after 2 or 3 interested limpers this makes the fold even more trivial (after 3 limpers we should probably only be raising absolute premiums). I also hate 3 gappers due to their RIO on straights, so I don't even bother overlimping this for a cheap flyer in LP. No reason to force anything at LLSNL, we can just patiently wait for the game to come to us. IMO.

Preflop result is completely standard / expected, and obviously very poor.

At these small stack sizes, we've actually corrected the nits passive preflop play by creating a situation where they can now comfortably commit postflop with their TP. Had we overlimped, maybe we could have barrelled them off of TP as they won't want to risk playing for relatively large stacks behind in such a trivial pot. But now our FE is likely out the window with these stacks. So I'd probably bet slightly smaller on the flop in an attempt to take it down against non-TPs, and then plan to give up UI and simply attempt to realize our equity.

Well, I guess we got it HU against a bigger stack who, unlike the short stacks, won't be as comfortable getting large $$$ in. So I wouldn't hate a large double barrel here in this spot (and then probably just giving up UI on the river and hoping our pair wins against some busted draws).

ETA: So on the river we have $265 left and the pot is $400? Board is pretty drawy on the turn so I just think we hear from two pears+ sooner. You'd think an aggro old guy might get more frisky at some point with a flopped flush draw + gutshot, so busted draws, while possible, aren't a huge part of his range (where a check to induce would be fine). I kinda doubt we can fold putting in any reasonable bet and facing a shove. So I think I just shove and lie in the bed we've made.

GcluelessforcingthingsnoobG

Ive been playing with a smaller bet size to set up close to a PSB on the next street and the few times Ive done this its worked. Since most here aren't playing 300bb+ poker we often run into these situations where V calls us on current street and the next street we don't have enough to properly bluff someone out. In the small chance someone is reading this and has a thread dedicated to a topic like this Id love to read it.

If V has say ATo in this hand and hes never folding turn to any reasonable bet when a flush card doesn't come is it not better to bet 90 and PSB river whether we hit or not? What about betting 70 and having a slight over PSB shove?

The initial read was V has called every one of H's cbets. Thats as close to an auto 3 barrel spot as you can get for me.

Keep in mind this guy called the flop bet with 2 others still to react (who could easily be sandbagging and checking to the preflop raiser). So he shouldn't really be floating the flop very lightly here.

Gjustsayin'G

Quite simply, no you don't.

20 folds in a row isn't even remotely close to card dead, and even when it's much longer at low stakes, people are barely paying attention, so won't somehow react differently.

He could have AK and AQ too. Its very rare to see someone slow play 2p or better multiway in a flush draw flop which you already pointed out. It's very H image dependent but if old dude who doesn't want to risk a lot with AK pre probably doesn't want to call off 300+ on the river.

My theory, which I am still in the process of testing, is that if we bet turn 90 here and 315 river we likely get V to fold out when we brick river. It just so happens H (probably) got lucky and hit his weird 2p no one can put him on and we don't want a fold now.

AP I check turn planning a crai if he bets chunky like 100. If he checks back and river bricks I check fold. Most wont fold an AX here unless its for their whole stack.

I'd check the river to him in an attempt to get to showdown and would consider my hand as a bluff catcher.

I'm willing to call his bet up to about 175 to 200 bucks.

He shoves - I prolly fold, depending on how many double absolutes with pineapple juice I've had.

Why am I giving you guys free info? I need to have my head examined....

The river did not brick. It is the 2h

OTTH;

H considers checking but thinks the Vs most likely hands in order are AQ, A10, and then some smaller aces, then AK, then some kind of draw, then two pair or better.

H believas V will check all these back except maybe a draw. And believes he will jam two pair plus likely A2. H is Especially targeting AQ which H is really believing in the moment V most likely has and is playing it this way because he is scared of AK. And because of how fast he insta called the first two streets.

H considers a small value bet of $130 but instead jams hoping AQ will call.

V instamucks flipping over his hand as Qd10d to show the table. Of course that is why he instacalled flop and turn. Like every other small stakes player.

H kind of of wanted to show his hand but the old man was already mad enough about not hitting his draw. H does indeed hide his shame and does not show. H would later learn that AK would have been raised at some point by V. H also later learns that V would have definitely made a $100 to $150 bluff if checked to. H gets more of Vs chips later this way.

I never bother with post hand revisionism. People will either lie to you or are lying to themselves and still giving wrong info. Paying attention and writing things down is the only way to know what any V would have done after the fact.

This hand also would have been funny if you didn't hit 2p and had to show down.

He did not tell me anything other than I was lucky he missed. He actually bet every missed draw on the river when given the opportunity the next 6 hours after this hand. I won another larger pot off him later where I checked river and I let him bet his missed draw.

Not really in topic, but I find this hand more interesting from V's perspective.
If you were V, how often would you raise this turn ?

I agree the hand is possibly more overall interesting and especially his perspective on the flop and turn.

He also had a gutter to a straight flush on the flop. Is anyone raising with that before turning 3 more outs? Personally I would be more inclined to raise the flop as V than the turn with two cards to play in case I got jammed on.

If it's me, 100% of the time if I'm not revealing a pattern having already bet into every recent check. I decided that checks are always showing weakness is a rule I can live by. I'll occasionally be wrong, and get whacked. OK. I'm also going to steal lots of pots that way and with a nutty draw, I don't care if he calls.



V wins this hand with a 50% PSB. on the turn.

Fold pre, also LMAO @ "we need to find a hand after folding 20 in a row" - fold 100 in a row if you should, go home if you can't.

I’m the definition of a recreational player. I have a nice career and financially will never need poker. I started playing poker live again at the end of last year. My poker bankroll has grown from $2000 to intothe five figures in 10 months playing less than once a week. It costs me $40 or $50 and three hours of time just to get in the car round trip and get in my seat at a table. If There is an opening when I get there. What I do need poker for isto keep my mind active. And sometimes that involves playing a hand like 26 suited once or twice in 10 hours. And not “going home” when I catch j6 offsuit 20 hands in a row.

The hardest part is finding the time to play. So when I play, I'm going to find a way to play. Instead of taking a break to eat or gamble at the craps table I play questionable hands. I might open 89s UTG. Or 26s onthe cutoff. I usually donÂ’t.

Someone much better than me has a vlog about beating 50nl online. The zoom tables. His advice with graphs and charts of it working is to open up as wide as possible pre and 3B much higher frequency than everyone else. He says to throw out the preflop charts from all the”training sites”.Never cold call and never limp. Obviously not the samegame as low stakes live, but his advice also brings up a great point. He says you should always be testing the boundaries of how loose and aggressive you can play.