3-300 spread limit game, blinds $2/$3. Effective stacks $145

Table is pretty weak over all, no one pays attention to bet sizing and probably no one has any idea how much is in the pot in any given hand.

No real read on villain besides general table status; He has been in more pots than he should been but he hasn't gotten to showdown in any hands.

Villain($145) raises to $10 in EP, Hero($450) makes it $20 in middle position w/ AQ. 1 caller, Villain raises to $50. Hero calls, V2 folds.

Flop comes QJ9r ($120)

Villain checks w/ $95 behind, Hero....?

I would love notes on preflop action as well. Thanks everyone!

Hi, welcome to the forum.

You start off by saying the table is "weak" overall. The villain is in more pots that he should be. Usually, that means he's doing a lot of limping and very little raising. So your first step is to put the villain on a range of hands. I'd start with whether $10 is a standard raise for the table. If it is on the small side, then you need to ask why he made a small raise. Generally, this comes down to him either having medium pocket pair(pot sweetner) or or AA/KK.

If it is a standard raise, the next question is what would be his raising range in EP. People who limp regularly tend to believe poker is about flopping a big hand, then put your money in the pot. The only big hands they see worthy of raising pf are maybe JJ+, AK. AQo doesn't do well against that range. In fact, the villain would need to be raising a pretty wide range for 3betting AQo as a value play. If he was raising that much, you would noticed it (and mentioned it).

In either case, you're behind. You have a RIO type hand, which means if you hit and are ahead you aren't going to win much money. If you're behind when you hit, you're going to lose a lot of money. Therefore, I agree that calling wasn't the right solution. That leaves you with folding (which I would do) or raising as a bluff. You're not looking to get to showdown, but rather get the villain to fold. If you are looking for a fold, bumping it up to $20 isn't going to do it. You need to go at least $30 and if nobody is paying attention to bet sizes, I'd go $40. You want him to fold his medium pocket pairs and things like JJ and AK.

The villain then 4 bets you. At this level of play, it is AA or KK mostly. Now you should fold for sure.

As played, check behind. If he can't beat TP, he's not calling your bet, which can only be all in. If he can, he'll call.

It may seem a lot at first to think about, but as you continue to post hands you won't have to think through these things at the table. It will become second nature on how to handle this and other situations. Good luck and see you around here.

$10 is a pretty standard raise here, and raisers usually aren't paying attention to position. And I should have specified about bet sizing, it seems most people are afraid to bet in relation to pot size and are betting way too small post flop and beyond. Most hands I'm in here, I'm betting smaller if I want a call and betting closer to pot size if I want a fold, and that works ~80% of the time. Given that info, that's even more of a reason to fold here preflop in hindsight, which I agree, I should have done. My thinking, as played, was with TPTK and V with only $95 behind, I should put him all in on the flop. I should have a pretty TAG image, if anyone is paying attention, so I think I have some FE here. I did shove the flop, and he asked me if I had QQ, so I think my read was somewhat accurate. It sounds like this isn't the best line of thinking though from your response.

Thanks for the feedback, I am just starting to get back into playing seriously after about 5 years, and I used to be primarily a limit player, so I'm in a whole new world here. I feel like I have good fundamentals and I play pretty solid, but I know I have a LOT to learn. Iv'e been focusing on putting opponents on ranges while I'm playing, but finding it pretty hard to know where to start. I'm a frequent reader on the forums here, and I plan on posting a lot more in the future, so I'm excited to gain some insight from everyone!

Fold pre unless villain has a sizing tell which shows their hand is weak or is unusually loose. 3bet size should be $30, the minraise will never get folds. You can turbomuck to the 4bet.

AP I check flop, we are committed to calling it off so I want AK to have a chance to ship when we show weakness.

Kinda had to lol a little at the table description of no one paying attention to bet sizing / knowing how much is in the pot, and then we go and minraise/call with these stacks. Unless this is a super new market, most of your opponents are probably very aware of the pot size; the thing is, and this is really evident in the last thread I just grunched, everyone has their own ideas of what good bet sizing is (and even among winning players there isn't necessarily a consensus).

Anyhoo...

Has this guy raised yet? If not, I would probably nit fold preflop; AQo simply doesn't play well against a typical EP raising range. If I am to continue, there is no way I'm minraising it which is will (a) create an SPR 3 pot where we won't be able to fold TP while (b) giving our opponent IO of ~15:1. If I'm 3betting, I'm raising to a size where I can simply ship a PSB on any flop (flexing my FE both preflop and flop), so I would have gone to about $50. As played, trivial fold to the 4bet as action-wanting 4bets this short are like AA almost always.

No way I get to the flop and I have no idea why he checked it with just 3/4 PSB behind when even AK and TT would likely shove this all the time. In the end I still think I'm behind so I check.

GcluelessNLnoobG