I would be leading $50 ish on that flop

Yeah although check seems natural it's better to lead half pot. There isn't really a downside to doing so. It doesn't look particularly strong and you can always check trap turn instead.

Wrong thread but whatever, putting it here: in Vegas as of tomorrow night until 17th if anyone wants to grab a beer or whatever. Sort of there on business so flying solo for the most part.

nobody who can/did afford the ME is ITT imo

Kind of awkward preflop spot with AK stuck between shortstack jammer and tight UTG raiser - wasn't sure what the best play was:

AK BB
Tight Asian reg UTG opens to 25
MP call
CO loose gambler jams for 210
Hero? (UTG had 900 effective)

I raised to 430, realizing a cold min-4b looks super strong. Would I be sigh folding to a 5b jam from UTG? Should I just stick in the 150bbs here?

If he 5b jams his range is likely KK+ absent any other reads. Estimate a few ranges for the SS jammer, figure out your equity and act accordingly. My instinct is that this is a fold. But its likely close and largely dependent on how we range the jammer.

Yeah you're right, nobody ITT just has 10k cash lying around. Oh wait literally all of the good players do.

If he's capable of just getting it in with QQ you can never fold. Once I put in the 430 I'm never folding personally, you're too invested in the pot & approaching the point where he could show you KK and the correct play would be to call it off.

I thought about this but didn’t pick up on it because I think he meant ‘anyone playing the ME isn’t itt today’

But yeah, I’ll be playing the ME next year, albeit there’s a difference between ‘can afford to/can let poker winnings pay for it’ and ‘be rolled to’. But then I’m guessing very few people playing the ME are rolled to be doing it, even with steaks, if we’re talking 100x buy in as tourney roll

was taking the piss kinda but those who may not be fully rolled for the ME but have enough money and sold enough action to feel comfortable playing aren’t ITT to provide strat. they are connected enough to keep strat discussion private with friends/coaches and have basically zero upside for posting ITT. generally they aren’t interested in meeting randos either unless you have mutual friends because again, no upside and plenty of downside. if you do have friends playing the ME then it would be logical to text/PM them instead if you wanna hang out.

ETA: LVL is a much more appropriate place to look for social opportunities and i have done that myself because i had a TR going and chilled with some LVL regs before i was a LLSNL reg.

1/3 live, hero is the effective stack with $400. V1 is MAWG, seems like at least minimally competent. V2 is late 30’s Asian with big headphones and seems more regy. V2 is new to table. V1 has been here for about 30 min and has been somewhat active pre. I’ve been fairly active as well.

V1 LJ $10, V2 CO call, H $40 OTB KQss. Call call.

Pot:$120

Flop 653 two spades.

Is this the type of flop where I want to go small on flop to set up a nice turn barrel and get value from those “gotta call once hands” or should I go bigger to get rid of floats right away?

Should I size differently with KQ no spades? I feel less comfortable betting small to then bluff turn since my hand doesn’t turn as well. However, it seems kind of counterintuitive to be continuing for a larger sizing with an inferior hand.

I really go back and forth on preflop here, but I think in the end I've convinced myself that flatting is better than 3betting and playing some postflop poker in position where we aren't handcuffed. I just feel the huge pots I end up losing my stack in don't make up for all the small pots I win preflop / flop cbet (but, perhaps I shouldn't be losing my stack in some spots, such as what I've decided to do on this flop). And since SPR is going to be so small, I think I'd rather make it like $60 to setup a more comfortable stack off postflop situation, but the times we run into dominating hands is devastating and this seems like such a huge amount to risk for so little dead money in the pot. But it certainly does widen our 3bet range if we're concerned about that. I dunno, that's just what I've been thinking about lately in these spots.

Anyhoo, SPR is 3 and we've flopped a huge draw. I think we could either shove the flop or PSB the flop to shove the turn. For better or worse, we've handcuffed ourselves to this huge pot, so we should be doing our best to take it down (which means flexing our FE one way or another), imo.

GimoG

Both of these river bets look more like value than bluffs. For the first one, just because he slowplayed nuttish hands before doesn't mean he will now. But it does skew his range more toward two pair and pair/straight draw type hands IMO. I don't think he has JJ or QQ here, just cause he's a bit passive postflop doesn't mean he isn't raising those preflop. by the river you're looking at a value bet, I think, from someone who believes he has both of his opponents beat. I suppose it's possible he has something like AT-JT and is betting for value/blocking but.

Second hand, yeah if he's a legend then he's probably slowplaying his sets...but also maybe raising his worse jacks for value on the river. sucks but I have trouble finding a fold here. I'm guessing he had a boat or a runner flush?

5/5, 2.2K eff - best line for max value?

Q9cc in BB
5 limpers, I check
Flop (30) JT8hhs
SB checks, I bet 20
Folds to SB, who raises to 85

I 3-bet to 275? Any merit to flatting and raising any turn?

Definitely not. You want to get money in before some turn card kills your action.

I actually like three betting significantly larger. There's some extra risk of folding out JT but I think what you want to do here is go for the moon shot when he has 97. Most players will find it extremely hard to lay that hand down here. That said, SPR is awkward here and I have limited experience this deep, so I'm unsure what is best. But basically I think you should proceed under the assumption that he has 97.

Thanks, just wanted to double check I’m not going crazy. He tank folded 97 lol but he was pretty nitty

97o is basically the one holding you'd be happy flatting vs to be honest but you have to raise because literally every other combo he might play like this is sets, two pairs, pair + draws, straight draws and flush draws that you should be able to get value from and deny equity to

not sure what i think about his fold tbh

Ty Chris. What about the villains decision? Any chance he can find a fold considering the dynamics? And what's should be his calling range (think I'm using that term correctly)?

Hi guys,

I have a question on how I played this hand vs this villain. Villain is Asian guy, kind of gambley, not afraid to put money into the pot with draws. Kind of tight preflop in the sense that he will only raise premo hands, and limp all others.

Its 2/5 and here's the hand:

He is UTG +1 and raises to 30, I haven't seen him do this before and I feel he's pretty strong (9's+, AQs+). I have right next to him and have AA and decide to flat, not wanting to scare him away with the lower part of his range and thinking I can get max value on good boards.

Is this a poor way of thinking? Should I always be re-raising here vs this villain?

Yes, ALWAYS reraise

That logic literally makes no sense. He’s so tight and has such a strong range but you want to flat the best hand in poker? His raise size is large too, indicating he probably has a hand he wants to play and/or is very good.

Not to mention other people will flat behind you, and you’re giving them implied odds to crack your aces

There are very few scenarios to flat AA preflop. Unless he opens 1010+, AQo+ but has a FT3b of 90% (btw nobody has that high of a ft3b), then you should just always be 3betting

Interesting and fairly difficult spot to deal with.

Probably bc I'm in the big blind and don't want to play a massive limped pot, I just flat here for a slight amount of pot control/range balance. Your equity is going to go through the roof on the turn if it bricks, but if you 3 bet and get called, board pairs/heart turns and you're oop are going to make things difficult for you.

Merits for raising are that you can really hammer him if he has 97, but I'm not sure if the guy can find a fold if a TON of money goes in on bricky runouts.

it isn't a poor way of thinking and in no way should you 'always' 3 bet AA here.

I think the question about whether to flat is in part linked to the tendencies of the players behind you. I'll be more likely to flat if I have aggressive people behind who might well 3 bet than if the table is loose passive and flatting is more likely to get us 6 ways to the flop and out of position.

Wow brutal. Make a mental note and go aggro vs him turning your hand into a bluff other times. He can't raise/fold everything that isn't the nuts with impunity. An example of a hand you could 3bet bluff with here is KJ. A nit like this is a lock not to flat the nuts vs a 3bet so bear that in mind and bomb again if he flats.

Although, careful if he's so nitty that a raise here means a straight, which is possible. In that case he's correct to fold 97 and I guess you want to flat the raise? I dunno that is a super nitty dude at 2/5 if that's his deal.

No. Once you get to the point where your call is like 1/3 of final pot, generally you cant fold anything which has a reasonable chance of being the best hand. Folding 99 would be reasonable for him and he could maybe consider TT but nothing stronger.

Note that raising to protect your hand (which is the reason you're shoving JJ) is generally something I oppose at NL and only really comes into play when the raise is allin and especially if you are OOP, meaning opponent may get two draws against you.

What hands do you think typical villain is raise/folding with here? 2p that's not bottom 2, pair/non-nut FDs, pair/SDs?

I mean, if he's folding the 2nd nuts to a 3bet, he's only flatting with the nuts by default, right?