I was playing 1-2 at a Northeast casino last Friday night. Maybe not too relevant but every opponent had to wait almost an hour for the table (is that normal? it's not like it's pay day or there's a big tourney on). When I saw my opponents I was a bit unhappy that everyone kind of looked like a degenerate human (usually there's more people who don't look like a lowest stake casino table probably did in '95, I'd like to see a flop for under $25 one of these centuries you know) The college guy didn't look like a degenerate or problem gambler but played like money was cheap anyway. I wouldn't call the table maniacal, at least the usual pot wasn't hundreds of dollars. (Or is a 2013 game distorting my idea of maniac?: $45-$65 at his first possible action while saying "Money!". Lost all 5 hands for $100 each then left. Only looked at his cards 3 times. He said "you scared away all of my customers so it's just gonna have to be you and me" and re-raised/gifted me $45 with rubbish (53))

Villain 1: Two to my right. Was behind the dealer (the employee) and another player so we didn't see each other much but he wasn't even paying attention one of the few times that I looked he was really into his phone. Kay, maybe he's a way better player than me even doing that but seriously, you're playing like almost every hand, if you're going to call a nittish personality later for $200 then you could at least not be entranced by your phone and using headphones when you play. But that's the only player I liked, if he's that easily bored then I'd love to have a strong hand vs his.

Villain 2: ?? He's just a guy.

Hero: They probably thought I'm either a nit, rock, or TAG at first. (I'm 27 but could pass for 18, Chinese, unmasculine looking, I looked neurotic but it was about something else not poker (which resolved itself after the game). Not so much that people will talk about it, but I know I got at least one fold from me acting mediocre poker face-nervous-excited at several times more hands than I would really be excited about to muddy the real thing cause I knew from experience that my poker face only works when all is good in life. I was dealt junk and folded, lol. Oh, and I had won a medium pot (by this table's standards) and didn't tip. Anyway, I'd rather have even half the field (especially the left half with the better view!) refuse to play with me than none so I get the anti-draw effect of raises without having to raise preflop as much! (the extra big blind for every limper)) My actual play was TAGgy but somewhat greenhorn. Maybe I also became weak once the bet exceeded about $25 in previous hands but I made up for it stacking off with this hand. I just wanted something good if I'm going to risk losing all my disposable money on one hand. But I wanted to be able to set mine so I put it all in the stack.

$1/2 NL (10 handed)

HJ minus 3: Villain 2 (short stack)
HJ seat Villain 1 (~$205)
Button Hero (~$185)

Hero is dealt KQo

It was raised to $15-25 with about 2 villains by the time it got to me. I called cause the table had been laggy constantly, I'm in the button and I don't want the table to catch on that I only like to have the best of it and to be a weak-tight player that everybody tries to push out of pots. It's only like 10% of the $200 that I could afford to lose. The hell am I going to put more money in if I don't have the balls for the flop, like only one K and what they'd probably raise. If I'm going to go all-in I at least want a KQx flop. I've only been there 45 mins, I'm not sufficiently entertained for $200 and the experience yet.

Flop: K, 5, Q rainbow
Jackpot!, V2 goes all-in for $35, V1 raised something, Hero calls.

Turn: 8 still no flush draw I think

V1 raised something, Hero called.

River: Q Maybe no flush draw still

V1 pushed $92 in, Hero happily said all-in cause he wasn't certain that Villain's bet was bigger than Hero's stack eyeballing it bit I only had $72 left so I couldn't raise no matter how much I wanted to.

I do wonder what Villains might've been thinking and how good or bad all of us played. Maybe I'll learn something.

Also I know I don't have the money or skill to play live poker this but this is how I learned chess, figure it out on my own cause I can only get this experience once, then read a lot when self-improving becomes too slow (i.e. right now). But this is money so I read more before starting than when I learned chess. If they allow poker online in my state soon I'll do that reading and then not play 5¢NL till I truly beat 2¢NL (which seems easy but some people don't think so).

Cocaine is a helluva drug!

I didn't read all that and I doubt anyone here will. If you want to write a blog or something where creative writing and artistic license is encouraged... well, this ain't the place. Reads are good but you are going on and on about idk what. Rewrite that OP into something coherent and remember: just the facts, man.

There's a lot going on here... Villain probably had the other Q, something like TQ, JQ, or AQ even. Work on paying attention to how much is in the pot. You should be able to keep an accurate count on all streets including your stack and villain's stack.

Use google, there are some sites that accept all 50 states. Playing online at the lowest limit and moving up is the best way to learn this game.

Way too much irrelevent info and not enough details about the action itself (ie what the bet amounts were)

On the turn just shove his last 92$ in. Will get JT and KX to come along. Not many bluff hands in his range for him to keep firing here

The bet to me at each round was unremarkable. Approximately geometric progression.

You're way overthinking 90bb live poker

Most people playing 1/2 don't consider $100 to be a whole lot of money (which is good, because if they did then they would have a gambling problem)

I didn't know my four year old son was on 2+2.