Back to the QQ hand ..

If you truly were leaving for dinner and feel that your mind will be better for it, then it's a muck. I have no issues when a Player makes an exploitable fold if they feel their sanity is more important than 'this' exact spot in 'this' exact moment.

My issue with you is that you didn't 'raise big' .. You said that folks were raising to 20+ with no limpers and 'more' with limpers. That's 6x the pot .. you raised about 1.5x pot (or less). Which in my mind is 'just' a standard (if not weak pot builder) Button open against the Straddle. Forget the 'aggressive' image talk by the OMC .. with this action I'm going to think 99 is pretty strong as well. I probably don't even make it 95 with your stack behind, maybe 80, so I can fold to your shove if I feel like it.

I'm just looking at your story based on table dynamic. If you pop it to 45-60 then I take notice and maybe 99 gets a bit smaller.

AP you're offering about 8.5 to 1 against your stack to call and set mine also.

I get your mindset and reads here as far as the other Players go .. what I don't like is your own viewpoint of your own actions which led to creating this decision point. GL

This topic is more nuanced than is typically framed here. I both agree and disagree with this approach. The fact is that the straddle is not a BB in that total dollars definitely do influence player decisions more than the straddle should imply. However the bloating preflop has an impact as well.

We can examine this topic by looking at the extremes, lets say UTG straddles for $300 in a 1/3 game, turning this into a 1BB game. A typical player closes the action in BB, are they calling as light as this implies? Hell no. Are they calling as tight as they would facing a typical $300 shove? Hell no.

TL;DR effective BBs matters but not neccessarily as much as they theoretically matter.

A few questions about multi way pots. Def has been an area of weakness in transitioning to the live realm.

Preflop example: 4 limpers and I get KQo in the blinds. What sizing am I using for a raise? What is the worst hand we isolate here?

Postflop example: I iso to 25 with AKo in MP vs limper in straddled 1/3. Should this be bigger PF? We see the flop 5 ways (all villains were typical loose passive recs) I cbet 1/4 pot on AJ9hh and get called, lady donk leads semi large on 5h turn I fold AKo no heart. What sizes do you use for cbetting in these spots?

Stack sizes are a key factor, imo.

The shorter the stacks, the more we should mostly only be raising premiums, and simply to whatever amount offers horrendous IO to our opponents (such as ~10:1 or worse) while setting up a trivial commitment spot postflop with TP+.

The deeper the stacks, the more position and skillz come into play, so raise (or don't) accordingly.

For instance, with KQo in the blinds against a world of limpers with half a clue, with a small stack I'd probably lean to raising large (although this would be the very bottom of my personal range and might depend if there are any known LRRs in the pot), with the power of my hand helping negate my positional / possible skillz disadvantage. But with a large stack, I'd mostly just see a flop (although the more of a skill advantage we feel we have over the field, even OOP, the more cooler we might be with raising).

For instance, with the AKo hand it's all about commitment. If we feel we're committed due to a very small SPR, we should probably PSB the flop to get the rest in on a safe turn. But if we're not committed, then we likely have to play it a lot slower, by betting a lot smaller (if betting at all, which is sometimes also determined by our image / position / opponents / etc).

Gitdepends,imoG

In general, you want to go 4x the bb +1 bb for each limper. If your normal open size is already larger, then you want to go even larger. If the straddle is on to 6 is 1/3, then I am going $30 vs one limper.

In I am normally raising to $10 pre, but if I have a hand worth raising, I am probably going to $20 or so vs one limper, add $5 or so per limper. Just because I know people will still call and it is more likely to get heads up. May be different in your games. Same thing with 1/3 unstraddled, I normally raise to $10, but would go to $20 for one limper.

When the flop is 5 ways, I don't mind just checking back there. 1/4 bet size is a decent bet size multiway though.

Fine to fold to a large turn bet there. The thing is, you are playing 5 way postflop. You're going to lose most of these pots and that is okay. You only need to be winning these pots a bit more than 1/5 of the time to be profiting.

PF raises against limp happy Players is whatever it takes to thin the field .. Agree you need to narrow your range, and by increasing the open/raise size you should naturally narrow the calling ranges, which makes post-Flop play 'easier'. Using this mindset you need to be aware of that stronger calling range from OOP. As noted in lots of threads, most low stakes Players don't recognize differences in opening sizes based on position, but they do notice a change in a standard size that deviates from the table norm.

KQo needs to open 'a lot', but also needs to proceed with caution .. lots of pot control on Flop or Turn depending on table dynamic, especially live. GL

this shouldnt have been allowed to slide this far down

bump

Agreed, any new thread with 2+ HH should be posted here instead

Combo of newbies not really knowing how to use this Thread and 'expecting' MODs to train them. I've seen more MOD movement of threads and comments in the last few weeks than I remember the previous few months. Which IMO is good since I think there is an influx of new blood to the site.

Another issue is the 'damn' charts/solvers .. why start a Thread or look for minimal advice when you get your answer? GL

5-10-20 bvb spot 2.5k eff

Folds to me bb 4h5h i raise to 75
Straddle who is a very good player, plays NL1k online, i consider him to be the best NL player in the room, he probably respects my game too to a certain degree.

Anyways he 3bets to 225, i call

Flop Ah4d2h (455)

I x , he bets 110, i call

Turn Ah4d2h 4c (675)

I check quickly, however he doesn’t see me check and 2 mins go by, i look at the dealer and say i check, i dunno if he thought i was actually deep in the tank or not

Anyways he checks

River Ah4d2h 4c6c (675)

I bet 700

So not sure about sizing here or i shouldve check/jammed. Turn was weird with the whole he didnt see me check situation.

2 late position limps, SB calls, I check Ad8d in the BB. $6 in the pot after the rake.

Flop QdJh8d. Check, I check, and a young guy with $80 in his stack bets $20, three times the pot. Other two guys fold, action on us.

Wtf, right?

I know man. Really pisses me of when there are 2 8d in the deck.

haha, oops! QdJd8x, I have Ad8d facing a 3x pot bet in a limped pot from a short stacker.

Im not in a hurry to play HU oop against the best player in the room whos never folding pre on his straddle with 5 high. AP theres not much you can do to play the hand differently. Are you ever flatting a raise pre with AK/AQ?

Play the hand like you would AJ/AT which means no flop x/r and however you'd bet those hands on the river. You bet too much trying to make it look like a bluff and he probably folded whereas if you bet a normal amount he might have raised you and you can snap him off since he has the range advantage here and there isnt a whole lot to be worried about in V's shoes. The very least a normal bet gets called by a lot of Ax.

Your next most likely holdings on this board after an A is med pp's who would prob rather take a river x/c line that isn't gonna cost $700. Against great online players I play as balanced as possible.

IF you are trying to show some action, and

IF you want to tilt your opponent, and

IF you like to play big pots, and

IF you can put your opponent on AK,

THEN it's OK to check-jam the flop while you are ahead. You're behind 2pr or a set, but have outs. I guess it depends on your idea of fun.

Looks fine. I would have bet something like $450 or so on the river, but that's me.

1/1 8-handed game at the local pub

I raise to $6 from HJ with AA, SB ($150) calls, BB ($200) calls

Flop ($18): AQQ
Checks through

Turn ($18) K
SB bets $8, BB calls, I call

River ($42) T
SB bets $25, BB folds, I raise to ???

Table is an hour old.
SB got stacked earlier when he 3-bet with AK prefop and called down his opponent's donk bets (on all three streets) with a set.
Otherwise he's providing commentary/coaching on pretty much every hand that's being played at the table.

- Thoughts on flop and turn?
- What raise size would you use here and why?

I thought if he has a flush or a straight, he's probably not folding to a raise to $75.
Though, my natural instinct was the fear of scaring him away with a large raise.
What's the largest raise I can go here that would reasonably be called by a villain type described above and who holds a flush?

All in baby. I would get greedy. You played your AA so passively that it's time to get paid for it. Hopefully he's boated up (he won't fold) and he may not even fold a flush at these stakes. If he has anything less than a flush he's not likely calling any raise.

Btw, bet flop small. Want to start building a pot. Plenty of hands call a flop bet and you will sometimes just get stacks in early with Qx. Total air like 89s and even small pairs will probably not put a penny more in anyway.

Allin, i hate the coaching/commentary guy at the table. Would love to stack him.

AsQs in the cutoff of a 1/2 game. 2 limps. We open to $15. Button 3bs to $65. He has $275 before the hand starts. Is this a fold? First time in a bit preflop I was in between on folding, calling or jamming.

Why target a flush when you could be targeting KQ or QT?