I'm relatively new to live play. Probably 25 hours of play and running even. I can't seem to bet trips properly. Example dealt KK raised $25 UTG

2 Calls; 10,10, Q10s.

Flop A, K, 9 rainbow.

Hero open $45 2 calls. I was thinking I did not want to push anybody out & could be turned into a monster.

Turn Q bet $45 again they both call

River J I checked and Villain raises $100 immediately called by other villian, I fold.

I feel like I either overbet or underbet trips. Major leak... Any help would be appreciated

Read the stickies for proper format. Don't post results if you want accurate hand analysis. You also didn't post stack sizes, which make a fairly big difference.

First off, that sounds like a great game. I want to be in that game. You raise $25, get two callers. Ok, with no reads I would think they both have fairly strong hands, AT+, 99+, KQ, KJ type of hands. QQ and AA are probably reraising you unless they play 'tricky'.

flop is AK9. Ok. No one has AA (you would have most likely gotten reraised pf), so you have the best hand. So you want to bet as much as you get called. Think about what people are calling with (especially in that game you are playing). AK, AQ, AJ, AT, A9, 99, and even hands like KQ once and a while. An ace is never folding. So I would bet a little bigger, maybe like 60 to build a pot.

Turn is a Q. That is a good card for you! Why would you be afraid of it???? No one really has JT (people don't call big bets preflop with that hand AND call big bets on an AK9 board with that usually), so you are still ahead. Even if they do have JT, you have boat outs. Even better, hands like AQ, KQ, just made two pair and have a stronger hand and are NEVER FOLDING. If I have $200 dollars to start the hand (200-25-60=115 left), I shove right here and expect to get all the money all the time.

River is a J, and that's not dream super good card for you, but isn't a bad one either. AJ made two pair. AT sucked out, but hey, you got a ton of money in good. I usually put the rest of the money in here, pretty much all the time. Checking is just missing out on free money.

You got sucked out on here, but you had a very strong hand here the entire way in a very lose game where villains are calling with anything and everything. This means bet, bet, bet to get their money in the middle. I'm all in by the turn unless I'm super deep and then i'm all in on the river.

P.S. Trips are like AK on a KK8 flop. A set is KK on a K82 flop. You flopped a set, not trips.

Thanks for the reply. I will check out the stickies, and make sure I use the correct format on the post. Are there any other can't miss stickies for someone starting out with live low stakes?

Well you didn't overbet. First off, don't post what the opponents have in your original post. It leads to results oriented thinking.

At 1/2, I am interested in your table dynamics. I don't have as much experience as a lot of other players on here, but $25 preflop seems like a lot (at 1/2) if it's not table standard or if it's not your usual preflop raise. Where I play at 1/3, if it's not a loose table, $25 preflop will get a lot of folds. Obviously it was fine for you because you got two calls, but you have to be careful that you're playing your hand face-up if you're only raising so much with KK+.

Second, board is fairly wet and hits a lot of players' ranges. I'd argue this allows you to bet more because AK, A9+, K9+, QT+ all could (and probably will) give action depending on the table. Since you raised $25 and had two callers, that's $75 in the pot. I personally like to bet about 2/3rd-3/4th the pot so about $50-60. You don't want people on a draw to come in cheap, but obviously you don't want to shove because everyone on a draw will be likely to fold. Oh that reminds me, you want to jot down stack sizes. That will change your decisions.

On the turn you only lose to AA and JT. AA most likely would've 3bet you preflop or 3bet you postflop so you can give it less weight. Considering all the hands the opponent could have that you crush, I'd bet another 2/3rds-3/4th pot. I'm not sure exactly what you would do if you get raised, but I would consider a fold depending on the amount. You do have a redraw to a boat even if someone has a straight here.

On the river, personally I'd slow down. Since villains keep calling especially in the face of strength, I'd be much more likely to put them on a draw so I'd either check here or put out a smallish blocker bet and hope they don't come over the top. I don't think you're good here often if you get called or raised. When Villain bets $100 after the check and gets another call, I think a fold is okay considering the board.

Probably biggest leak was betting small on the turn. You give people pretty good odds to call and draw out on you on that wet board.

I'm kinda new to live poker so if someone contradicts me, by all means go with their opinion. Just giving my two cents and if people correct me, it'll be good for me to learn as well.

$25 seems abnormally large for an open UTG, but if that is what it takes to narrow the field in the game I am fine with it. Once you get two callers and an A is on board you need to be betting slightly more than $45. Not a lot more, but $55-$65.

Once you get to the turn and there is now over $200 in the pot you need to be betting a lot more than $45. If you have ~$200 or less you can shove and are likely to get called by at least 1 opponent. If you have a much deeper stack a bet of ~$150 appears to be fine as you are giving people a bad price to draw.