I also shoved. It was weird to almost 10x my flop bet while holding the nuts. Felt like an OMC. But I didn't want to arrive on the river with like 1/3 PSB or something behind.

One concept I've been trying to implement is to charge people big when I might have to pay them off upon hitting.

One guy tanked and asked for a count, but folded. QQ?

However, I considered another option which would be to bet small again. Suppose I bet $58. It would really suck if I got 1 caller with a decent draw. But if I got 3 callers I'd kind of like the spot. I would be getting a lot of money in, with room to fold the river. And with the huge pot, I would probably be able to get more money in on the river if I felt I was good.

1/2, 9 handed, line check, $250 effective.

OTTH

Loose passive limps OTB, fish in SB calls and hero checks with 22.

Flop ($6): 6 6 2. Fish bets $6, hero calls and BTN folds.

Turn ($18): 9. Fish bets $10, hero raises to $35 and fish calls.

River ($88): 4. Fish checks, and hero bets $100.

Thoughts?

I tend to play everything fast, so I'd probably just put the raise in on the flop to say $20. Probably going like $40/110 on this runout. Could also OB the flop to enable you to get stacks in, like make the flop $30, turn $55, river 165 and it's all in there.

I don't hate your line, I just think this looks so much like a sandbag that you're better off trying to get into a pissing match on the flop -- maybe fish will think you're raising with 77 and that their 6x is good...maybe they'll have A6 and think they can beat your 6...but the more cards that come off, the likelier they either view your line as sandbagging or that they won't view their hand as strong enough in a vacuum.

Thought this one was a bit interesting:

7 handed and I'm in MP. UTG and UTG+1 both limp. They tend to limp a lot. I have 88 and make it $15 in MP. Folds back to them and they both call

Pot-48

Flop- 249ss

Checks to me and I bet $25. UTG folds and UTG+1 calls.

Pot- $98

Turn 5x so now the board is 2495ss

UTG+1 checks and I bet $40. He calls

Pot -178

River Qx

Villain bets $120.

Hero?

IME at Fun/2, a large river bet is almost always good. Maybe some kind of QsXs hand? A3ss? a set? A set would be weird because I'd expect him to do a bit more with it on earlier streets.

Also, looking back, maybe a smaller cbet on the flop and then that way I can bet more on the turn compared to the pot size. As played, probably need to bet more on the turn if we're going to do it. Maybe $65?

Maybe we just check back turn here with the plan to call non spade river bets?

Villain is effective stack, probably around $350.

Ac9d

2/3, H is in bb and utg straddles. V is new to the table, the very first hand he 3b and checked down on a wet board, in a different straddle pot called 45 bet after straddler raised, cold call and showed a 3x on J433x board.

Folds to h, 20 straddle calls f773ssx, Cbet 20, call tKd 50, call r9d, xc? Bf? Xf?

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

You listed the 9d twice.

I think I check and see what the price is. If it's around 1/3 pot or less I'm probably calling, and otherwise I'm trying to get a read.

I think I don't like one of the other streets to bet...this just doesn't seem like a good V to be trying to two-barrel.

Sklansky's new book, TOP Applied To No Limit is great. There's a few questions I have about some of the material in the book:

1. He mentions not to make the mistake of a calling a bet without thinking about direct odds - for example with a FD and thinking that we have 36% equity and need those pot odds, but should instead think that we hit 18% of the time. He states this a great reason to raise with flush draws when we aren't getting the direct odds, and to call when we are. He does however mention that this doesn't apply if your opponent is known to usually take bet flop, check turn lines. Do you agree with this?

2. For example, if we had A J, called a raise in the BB and were heads up to a flop that came J 9 2 and we x-c a half pot bet, the turn was a 3 and we x-c a half pot bet, and the river was 7, it's often the best play to lead out here for 1/3 pot as we can get called by much worse and a raise is almost never a bluff, ever, in this spot. Do you agree with the concept behind this example, and that it applies to LLSNL?

3. Should we consider making tiny blocking bets post flop with hands like gut shot straight draws for 20%-25% pot to prevent opponent from betting, because we can't call if we check and he bets, and because there's a very small portion of the time that he'll just fold? Here's the example directly from Sklansky: $100 in the pot, we have QT, board is A K 9 7r - we bet $20 to avoid facing a $50 bet, which will in some cases take the pot down, double us up if he calls and we hit, and we very seldom get raised in this spot.

This is a mixed bag -- I think it applies less at LLSNL. Our villains are frequently passive and frequently don't betsize appropriately, so not only will you usually have direct odds, but your implied odds will tend to be good because people don't cut them down enough.

I hate this line, and I think you'll get bluff raised by your thinking opponents who have a hand that contains exactly one big heart. This shouldn't happen too often, since the board missed AK badly enough that they'll probably check behind the turn instead of two barreling, but I think blocking bets tend to be somewhat obvious to your better opponents.

Against your worse opponents you have a different problem -- when they two barrel, the worst they really have is an overpair (or maaaybe a chop here, but you get my point).

Sometimes, yes. But if you always lead your gutshots and never anything else, you'll find yourself always facing a raise and always having to fold. Which is the difficulty both with writing the book and with consuming it -- you have to be able to balance all of the different concepts together. Here, you need to balance by occasionally leading with a set or two pair, because if you always c/r those but donk-lead with the gutshot, your opponents will eventually catch on.

2/5, 2400 effective. MAAG villain sitting directly on my left has been playing straighforwardly.

Folds to fishy CO who opens 20 (500 deep), I 3b to 60 to isolate with AKo. Villain cold calls in SB, CO calls.

Flop: Ah Kh 8s. Pot: 180.

Check, check, I bet 100, SB raises to 375, fold, I think and call.

Turn: Ax. Pot: 930.

SB checks after a short tank. I bet 400, SB tank calls.

River: 8x. Pot: 1730.

SB thinks and leads 700. He has 860 behind. FWIW there is no BBJ consideration.

This is a slam dunk shove yes?

Yes. Sorry you lost to the 1 combo of eights

1/3 button straddle to 6 new table 3rd hand at the table so no reads. We are 7 handed

Sb, bb, utg, mp call I have QQ CO and make it 40. BTN SB BB UTG call. Button and I have 300 everyone else has 200.

Flop (200) K J 6 rainbow sb checks BB leads 50 folds to me. Do we just fold here? SPR is less than one against everyone but button

Edit: BB is 30s white guy with a beer

Such a disgusting spot but what range leads out and doesn’t beat 2nd pair here? The fact he didn’t just shove is suspicious too. Last, you have 2 more to act and 5 ways seems like someone should have Kx. I guess I fold and die a little inside.

Line check for two hands from live 1/3, within a few orbits, against same guy, new MAWG without much history at the table.

Hand 1:
Hero has villain covered with 300 effective, in UTG+3 dealt pocket 8s, raised over one limp to 15, V calls in CO, limper calls (pot 45)
Flop is 679r, I check, V bets 25, limper folds, I raise to 80, V calls after thinking for a minute (pot 200)
Turn is 3, I check, V shoves for 200, I fold

Thoughts: I was blocking the nuts and thought I could push him off a top pair, he could have a lot of 9x combos. I'm not sure if this was a spewy raise or I got unlucky - by his turn shove I think he had better than one pair.

Hand 2:
Hero has about 300 covered by V, in BB with Jc6c, five people limp before me and I check (pot is 18)
Flop JJTr, I check, V in early seat bets 20, folds to me, I call (pot is 55)
Turn 8, I check, V bets 35, I call (pot is 125)
River 3, I check, V bets 90, I fold
Thoughts: I have made a lot of money in the BB in limped pots where I smash the flop and got too excited about my hand. Should I have raised the flop? Since he limped preflop, he probably didn't have TT or 88 but could easily had Q9, 97, less likely a better Jx. By the river there was very little he could value bet that I was beating, but part of me felt like I was being exploited since he thought I would make a big fold without the nuts on a scary looking board.

I could use some work dealing with short stacks. 50 BB stacks are very common in my game. If no one else is in the pot yet and one of these stacks opens for a standard open $8-$12, with no signs of more people entering the pot (i.e. last to act, or only nits to act), what hands are we calling with? I know it's player dependent, but assuming a player isn't a nit, are we exclusively calling with suited broadways, maybe T9s, and 3 betting the top of our range or what? When a nit, or TAG opens at these depths, do we just let go a lot of our suited broadways because we're behind a lot of the time, and not deep enough stacks for implied odds?




Here's a hand that deals with getting 3 bet by a short stack. I know this isn't the original question, but was hoping to get feedback on the initial idea, and then feedback on this as well:

Hero opens TT $12 UTG and it's folded around to BB who 3 bets to $30 with $100 effective. BB is a somewhat LAG-y semi reg, but definitely views hero as a TAG and has shown a lot of respect in the past. We just fold here, right? I'd never fold this even $200, especially IP and to that sizing, but see over cards more often than not, and even when we have an OP we don't love it, because while I do not know villain's 3 bet range in this scenario, I'd have to assume it's skewed towards big pairs, but that's stereotyping the population.

1/3 live $350 effective. Hero is new to the table. V is an unknown mid to late 20’s Asian. Talked about having a piece of some friends in a local tournament.

Another V that I know who isn’t in the hand made a reference to the fact that hero is a pro as I sat down.

V opens to $12 EP, I $35 ThTs CO, BB cold calls and V calls.

Board runs out KhQd6h-3d-Ks. It checks until the river.

X, V $65, H?

I feel like in theory we are supposed to call but people are under-bluffing here. BB doesn’t look interested and I’m pretty confident he’s not a factor. Thoughts?

I would fold. Is the 3bet standard for you against unknown EP open?

Line seems fine.

Against a 4x open at 1/3 from a young guy I’m always 3 betting TT.

One more spot.

2/5 1k effective. 9 or 10 handed.

Pro playing between tag/lag opens UTG $25. Two calls from decent recs. H $125 AKo BB. Pro $400. Folds to me. H?

We play together somewhat often, we have at least 75 hours together. Perceives me as a solid tag, maybe on the nittier side of tag. Very willing to 3 bet me light but very rarely 4 bets me but that’s always going to be a small sample. He has seen me 3 bet him light with hands like A4s but I’m not usually getting super out of line against him.

I don’t think it’s a lineup where he’s getting too out of line from UTG.

What do you put him on? I fold here all day long TBH but I don't know how your game plays. It's hard to see how we make a lot of money here and we could be completely crushed by his range.

1/2, $250 effective with main villain.

OTTH

Loose passive straddles $5 UTG, bad LAG raises to $10 +1, loose passive calls LJ, hero 3 bets to $45 with K Q OTB, and LAG who hero doesn't have much experience with 4 bets SB to $115 and it's folded back to hero. Hero?

I'd probably fold here. Unless you have a better read than "LAG" it's still 1/2 and most LLSNL villains aren't going to stick in half of their stack with less than roughly QQ+ and AK, all of which has you buried. The other problem is even if V is wider than that, AQ gets added around the same time as TT, so there's just too many combos that have you as a 3:1 or bigger dog.

I'd just fold here. Wait for a better spot. Your best case scenario here is that you have 2 overs to a pocket pair, and there's a decent chance you're crushed.

I think I find a fold here. If he perceives you as a nit/TAG, and he's 4betting you, it's most likely QQ+ or AK, meaning you're crushed by half his range, chopping with a quarter, and flipping with a quarter. Quick back of the napkin math says you have a bit better than 12.5% because of the dead money in the pot, so I think it's a fold, especially since it's going all in on the flop in all likelihood, so you actually have 3 cards to hit your pair, rather than 5.

Have another scenario similar to a hand I posted a couple weeks ago, pretty annoying to me, otth...

2/5 $650 effective, bunch of folds, total random middle age drooler (<$200) open limps from CO, Hero raises to $25 on btn with KcJd. BB(700ish) never seen before, seems like a rec fish but not total spewtard, seen him limp call a raise with A7o and over limp a few other garbage suited hands oop but nothing severely alarming, calls. CO calls.

Flop ($80) Q94r , one heart may have been Q, couldn't remember.BB ck, CO ck, I decide to ck. Which I think is fine 3 ways with no bdfd even though we block some of their Jx and Kx hands.

Turn : ($80) Th. BB bets $30, Co calls, H raises $125. BB calls , co folds

River $360) Qs. BB jams ~ $500 eff. Hero ???

I think 44,99 tries to gii on turn when I rase, but I dunno wat these droolers are thinking sometimes lol. Also gotta stick back to knowing overly agressive large bets from bad fish recs/regs are almost always nutted.

Also would like to believe V does this with all his KQ, AQ, JQ combos even though we block some of those but LOl blockers in 2/5 live amirite :-(

Brutal. That’s gross.
I fold. Big blind knows that you could have a str8 and doesn’t care.
Just let it go.