I've taken some time off of live play to get more experience w/ hand reading & tough spots. So...90k online hands later, I think I've got a way better grasp of spots, ranges, etc.... Just checking what the consensus would be here about range/pot odds/etc..


Effective stacks are ~20bbs cuz this is california (sad, I know)

History: My 2nd hand on the table, EP2(17bb) raises 4bb w/ AJo, I shove w/ AQo, everyone else folds, he calls, and my hand holds up.


On to the hand...2 hands later..

Effective stacks are ~20bbs w/ one villain at ~11.5bb

Hero UTG +2 opens to 3.5bb w/ AJ

Villain directly to my left (11.5bb) raises all-in to 11.5bb.

Pot is $28, Hero needs to put in $14 more.

Hero does some quick math....


Pot odds are 2:1, if his range is aces that dominate my hand and QQ+ , I can call getting proper odds, right?


The very next hand (Villain or I may or may not have re-bought full after last hand that way you don't know if I won or lost)

Effective stacks are now ~20bb
Hero UTG+1 raises to 4bb w/ AQ
Same villain 3 bets to 12bb.


Hero??

There's no way I'm just calling - to me this is a shove or fold. Should I lean towards shoving since I may be seen as a maniac?

Any & all suggestions welcome (except "Lol don't play for capped 20bbs" - I don't have the bankroll yet and there's nowhere to play) .

I feel you would probably get better answers if you just poted this in the tournament thread and lied

The math in hand 1 seems a bit off, but either way, but if the pot is laying 2:1 then you should not call with the range provided. However I bet that range is tight for this game. Making it 99+ AQ+ puts you at breakeven.

Hand 2 is a fold.

1) Do you live in Barstow or something cuz I live in CA and there must be 10 cardrooms within a 2hr drive that offer 100bb nlhe and a couple that offer uncapped 2/5.

2) pokerstove.com

In a game like this a j and a q are not hands you want to be raising with oop. Both are automatic calls preflop after you raise. The AJ hand I would fold. The AQ hand auto call. I would fold AJ because I lose often oop with that hand. AQ pretty much its a race and its only for half your stack but you could argue for a fold.

Is this game really passive?

First hand is call. I think its pretty much automatic.

Second hand, I'm shoving, also pretty much automatic. Calling and then shoving turn is my only alternative.

both hands seem pretty standard AIPFs. Although tbh, hard to give a legit analysis on 2nd hand without knowing what he had the first hand.

not sure if this is a level or not...

but he had AA on both hands (yes, twice in a row)

Can you elaborate, please? I just want to get some reasoning behind it.

Suggestion noted.

I would really love your opinion on the hand, now.

My thoughts were his lack of an all-in indicates he might want some action on the hand. You have almost no fold equity due to pot size. It just seems like a really strong play. If I were him I would probably shove JJ or QQ but raise AA or KK this way.

just variance then, first hand doesn't really help us for a read then, since his play is so standard, if he shoved like KQ or KJ then you have some kind of a read, they are just coolers, really.

Yeah, obv I'm not getting hands like AJ/AQ in preflop w/ a normal 100bb+ effective stacks but I'm trying to construct a profitable range (against the typical player) to 3bet shove in these ridiculous 20bb games until I build a roll big enough to play bigger games.

I see guys raising w/ any 2 suited cards, min-raising 22-TT(and folding to 3 bets), limping weak aces so that gets me to thinking that against the pp's it's essentially a semi-bluff 3-bet and against the weak aces and sooted cards it's for value.


What do u'all think?

At 20bb stacks, I think you can get AQ and AJ in pre every time.