yep, I mean...it's certainly preferable after you 3 bet/fold such an incredible hand and tbh, recently I've got myself in a huge amount of sticky situations OOP in 3 bet pots. From the straddle I'd be far more likely to flat tbh but flatting the SB can get me OOP 5 ways a ton at this table.

I'm still not sure the fold was correct but I don't think I can flat and 5 betting feels icky too unless to fold out QQ and AK IDK

My cardroom is a decent drive away and I am thinking of using ignition's full ring NL games as a proxy to practice and get a sample of hands to use pokertracker to look at my game. I play 1/2 NL at a cardroom in Texas and 25NL full ring seems like a totally different game, with 5NL seems to mirror the gameplay best. My question is should I be playing the game that most matches the live 1/2 game, or would it be better to play in 25NL to face tougher players. I do have aspirations of moving up to 2/5, if that matters. Thanks for any and all advice!

When you play online the money has to matter. If you can cross that hurdle, then you should play whatever level you you can beat or break even against.

No matter the study online will be different than live, but IMO your mistakes will be more glaring online, thus easier to spot and learn to correct when playing live.

I think the biggest will be playing from position with the proper range. You will find yourself 'stuck' in spots OOP online quite often that you need not put yourself into.

Also, it's quite a jump from 5NL to 25NL .. should cross the 10NL bridge first. GL

This hand is stuck in my head...

Live 1/2 ~500 eff

Passive UTG player limps, I raise to 10 in the HJ with AJss, CO who is the big stack (~1.2-1.5k), not particularly good but is very splashy and running like a god, 3bets to 35 . SB who is a TAG reg who can get tricky calls 35 and i call.

Flop is K610ssd. Checks to CO who bets 35, SB pops it up to 90 and it's on me. I tanked for a while, i was never folding but i was considering raising over the top to 250 (roughly pot) with the intentions of calling any shove - does that seem right? Or is flatting better?

All of your outs are nut outs, I would flat to keep CO in with the parts of his range that make a T high straight or a lower flush. If CO wants to 3! then you can jam, you're never in terrible shape unless up specifically against a set and QsXs. I wouldn't consider any ace as making my hand on later streets unless the action dictates otherwise.

That was pretty much part of my thinking, against the SB i wouldn't consider an Ace strong but vs the CO i think i'm good. Was almost certain the SB had 2 pair or better.

I flatted in the end, the CO 3! to 450, SB folded and i shoved for a tiny bit more. Run out was 2c, 9d....he had Q9ss.

Either way works for me. You never know what V are going to think. 'Cold' flat a 3-bet strong or weak? Shoving strong to protect or weak?

With these stacks sizes I still think either is fine. If you're never folding, even to a paired Board with action on the Turn, then just GII and use any amount of FE you may have as it wont be there on the Turn. It's probably not even there now .. there could be a RIT consideration as well in your room. GL

Ugh. I hate these kinds of runouts more than any other. I think you played it well.

Flop bottom set very multi-way limped hand with a wet board.

1/2 hero $400ish black 22 in SB completes after about 5 limpers of various stacks and none noteworthy in playstyle.

Flop ($14) 2x9hTh

Do we lead out like $15, lead out small to induce or check hoping for a c/r opportunity?

i lead here always

can't risk it checking through and can safely b/f if multi callers before a raise, if only calls then check back any wet turn and continue on safe runouts

draws will tend to want to keep the price low and made hands will want to raise - if multi callers the raise is nearly always overpair at worst and from that point you need to decide if he's stupid enough to think two pair or JJ are the nuts here or if it's 99 or TT (which it often is)

Hi all,

5/T/25, there is a utg2 open to $75 8-handed and two calls to hero in straddle with JhJc and we flat this time $1,500 eff. The callers are both recreational players and the opener is pro (?) I think.

Flop ($300): KQ4cds. Checks through.

Turn: 9c. Hero $125, pro $400, folds to hero. We were repping JT here and he is raising us now.

Thanks,
DT

I don't play anywhere near those stakes but I think this is a 3bet pre when we have so much dead money and we're only 60bb deep so we can stack off on favourable boards with a middling overpair. Lastly I assume a pro's range is wide enough here that we're crushing with JJ and should just be value raising.

AP looks like an easy fold when we're raised OTT.

yep, agree with all of this

Played a pretty sizeable pot all-in pre-flop tonight at Mohegan Sun $1/$2. Curious if my squeeze here is too loose?

UTG in this hand is a whale. He had a big stack when I sat down but it has whittled away to $175. He is continuously overplaying small pocket pairs, often calling with underpairs multi-way across multiple streets of post-flop play. He indicated to me at one point that he was under the impression that AA vs 55 all-in preflop is "about 60%/40%," which I somewhat regrettably corrected him on. Very fun player, giving a lot of action and in quite good spirits.

UTG+2 is a solid TAG-type younger player. He has about $350, which covers my $300 stack. Doesn't seem too out-of-line, but he is definitely open-raising more than most of the limp-callers at the table.

UTG calls $2 blind.

UTG+2 raises to $10

Three additional loose passive players call $10.

Hero has KTs in the SB. I have a good image, having shown down several big hands that I played aggressively, and I have not 3bet once yet over about 2 hours of play.

I squeeze to $50. Is this too loose? I think I will get a lot of respect here, but obviously my hand is pretty mediocre and I have to get through over half the table.

FWIW UTG ended up jamming for $175, everyone else folded, and I felt I was thoroughly priced in against a player that could have any number of small pairs and ace-highs. Ended up losing a coin-flip to 77. Mostly concerned about the original squeeze pre though. If not re-raising here, do you fold KTs in this configuration?

I think the squeeze is fine with a good table image. I think you can/should actually go bigger, maybe $60-65

I'm not folding that hand at a 1/2 table tho, even with the worst position. Raise>call>fold

Agree with making sizing bigger and this being a great multiway hand.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

Cool, thanks guys. I am coming from a microstakes online background, where I have attempted to drill into myself that the SB should be played as 3bet or fold. Have realized that this is not really necessary at 1/2.

Also easier to size bets and raises online. I realized as I was typing my above post that $50 was probably too small. Appreciate the feedback.

I don't mind the squeeze or the size, but $60 is better as well. Typically you want to raise at least 'pot' (or more) when OOP. I will vary this based on the stacks since I may (or may not) want to give off the impression that action can (or can't) be reopened if the shortest stack shoves.

On the other hand, I don't mind flatting this hand 'for cheap' when I'm last to act if the whale creates action during the hand. I'm a bit against the grain on this thinking, but I've always felt very comfortable with whales on my left so I can see what everyone else is doing first. GL

Yeah I was really enjoying my seat in this game. Got a lot of action from the whale and, because he wasn't raising much pre or post, he wasn't really putting me in any particularly difficult spots. He was also stabbing liberally when checked to which allowed me to get a couple solid check-raises in.

If I was going to double anyone at the table up in a coin-flip situation, very happy it went to this guy.

I folded KTo twice at my 8 handed 1/2: once open fold from Utg and second time from Utg +1 after a raise from a somewhat lag Utg making it 5x.

Both time I would have made a straight and two pair with loads of actions, so I just want a pat on the back saying I folded correctly.

Punts vs high variance plays

1/3

Hand 1:

$6 btn straddle
4 limps including H in co with KJo (SB limper known to do this with monsters)
btn shoves for last $60
folds around to H who has to call 60 more to win 90

V has played 3 orbits at about 66% vpip and is on his 2nd rebuy already


Hand 2:

$6 btn straddle
H completes for 6 in SB w AJs
BB completes
UTG+1 V raises to 26
MP cold calls 26 (does this a lot)
BTN straddle calls 26 (does this a lot)
($90) H shoves for 220

V is playing fairly solid from EP. H has insanely tight reputation. V commented to H about an hour prior "I would have folded like AQ to you there" after I took down a limped pot pre with a big raise.

Definitely both standard folds, good pre-flop discipline. Any hand can flop the nuts, you can't play 'em all.

KTo is a hand that can be annoying. You’re going to feel like you should be opening with it more than you should be. In reality, you probably shouldn’t start opening with it until MP or LJ, especially if you’re not a crusher at your steaks. It sounds super nitty, but there are just too many people to act behind you.

Got into a weird spot in a bloated multi-way pot playing $1/$2 at Mohegan Sun yesterday.

Three limps to me on btn with AcKc. I raise to $16. All three limpers call. Unfortunately, I did not notice that one of the limpers only had $21 to start the hand, so he has $5 behind as we go to a flop with $60 in the pot.

Flop is 2c4c4d

Two limpers check, third limper leads for $25 and has $105 behind.

Should I always raise to go with it here, having two overs and the NFD multi-way on a paired board? We have the very shortstacked limper still to act and then the last limper has a full stack (don't remeber the exact amount, but more than the other two for sure).

I ended up just calling, figuring it couldn't be bad to invite the other two in with dominated draws. Thought I'd be able to continue accross a multitude of turn cards, picking up equity with a 3 or a 5, and then obviously making my hand on any A, K, or club. The donk-bettor had been pretty sticky in previous hands, but he hadn't really been getting way out of line so I thought this donk into three opponents (one of whom is never, ever folding for $5) was pretty strong.

After I called, the short stack called, and the other limper folded. Turn was 7s and the donk-bettor jammed for $105 into ~115, with a side pot of $40. Realized here that I may have screwed up on the flop, because all of a sudden I am in a spot where I probably just have to fold a ton of equity.

We always want to raise a lot bigger here, no?

I've read around the forum 5x + 1bb per limper, which is what you are doing, but you really want to fold sticky limpers I think because if one calls all other will and now you are against the whole deck on the flop with very low visibility.