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Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Trying to do what I was told (tighten up).

06-07-2023 , 03:47 PM
1/3 NLHE. These are a bunch of hands I played the other night that I recorded to ask advice for. Just want to get general feedback.

H1: 500$ eff. Loose passive fish opens 10 when folded to, LP station calls, Hero raises to 40 with J J from BTN, both players call (3-bets get called A LOT at my game and often cold-called so my adjustment has been to drop hands like A5s that people use for balance out of 3-betting range and just have thick value or premiums, thoughts?).

Flop 120 (460 back, 3 ways) - A 5 2

Checks through.

Turn 120 (460 back, 3 ways) - A 5 2 9

Fish bets 60, station folds, Hero calls (?).

River 240 (400 back, HU) - A 5 2 9 J

Fish checks, Hero bets 100 (?)...planning to fold to a raise?

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H2: 800 eff$. Woman I've never seen (but who later turns out to be a weak-tight losing player) opens 15 from EP, Hero raises to 40$ from CO with A Q, BB maniac who just sat down and has been all over the place (raising blind, AI without looking pre, showing up with all kinds of hands 63s, T9o, T2s, AA at river, has run up a big stack in a short time) cold calls from BB, Woman folds.

Flop 95$ (760 back, HU) - Q 7 3

Maniac bets 7$ blind before flop comes out (he's seen his cards). Hero raises to 50 planning to fold to a 3-bet, Maniac calls.

Turn 195 (710 back, HU) - Q 7 3 4

Checks through (?) (don't want to get check-raised here and now planning to call IP most bets OTR)

River 195 (710 back, HU) - Q 7 3 4 8

Maniac pauses and thinks a long time but then decides to check, Hero insta-checks back (?)

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H3: 600 eff. Hero 3-bets a good regs EP 15$ open (tight player) to 45 from MP with A K, good reg calls.

Flop 90 (555 back, HU) - 8 5 3

Good reg checks, Hero c-bets 40, Good reg x/raises to 100, hero calls (?)

Turn 290 (455 back, HU) - 8 5 3 8

Checks through

River 290 (455 back, HU) - 8 5 3 8 7

Check, check (?).

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H4: 195$ eff. One EP limp, hero bets 15 with J J from MP, folds to SB - drunk guy that just sat down, never seen him before, came in with a friend reeking of alcohol and says table is too tight and wants to party (not 100% sure but might be acting drunk somewhat as seems like he handles his chips well) - 3-bets to 45, hero calls.

Flop 90 (150 back, HU)- T 7 3

Drunk guy checks, hero bets 25, drunk guy calls.

Turn 140 (125 back, HU) - T 7 3 T

Checks through

River 140 (125 back, HU) - T 7 3 T 7

Drunk guy AI for 125, hero?
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-07-2023 , 06:07 PM
Generally speaking I like the way you played these.

You mention 3betting more linearly in this game and this makes sense.

H1 bet bigger on the river targetting sticky fish Ax (and yes it's a bet-fold). The turn call is a little dubious.

H2 looks OK to me. How would you have reacted to a river bet?

H3 is interesting, I wonder what the solver thinks. Gut instinct is this is fine.

H4 I think I reluctantly call off in this situation, vs normal opponent folding would be fine
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-08-2023 , 12:11 AM
Hand 1: a set is way stronger than you are giving it credit for here. I would have two river sizing mainly. About 60% pot for hands like set and all in for flushes. I would really have to think about folding this to a jam though. 3bet could be a little larger, like $45.

Hand 2: 3bet is too small, at least 45, I like 50 or 55. Postflop is mostly fine. A call here is like a check, which would be okay on the flop with no heart. Your raise is a little big for a monotone board. Either he has hearts in his hand or he doesn't. I like a 25-33% sizing more. Turn and river are fine. Your hand is too good to turn into a bluff, too thin for value.

Hand 3: Again would prefer $50 to $55 3bet, but size is not too bad. Flop, I would check this board a fair amount. You are going to have a lot of suited ace, suited king hands that missed this flop. You cannot cbet this 100% of the time. Your flop bet sizing is fine, so long as you make sure you use that same sizing with your strong hands like AA, KK. If you are cbetting very frequently on these boards, villain can attack you by check raising frequently.

After you get check raised. You have an interesting decision. I don't mind the call, but you have to be giving villain credit for 3betting you fairly light with hands like 99, TT, that you have equity vs and some bluffs. And you have to think that villain will check some turns and let you see a free river. This way you will get to realize some of your equity.

You are going to want to call some of your ace high hands here, but unless you are fairly sure villain is going to let you overrealize your equity, you are going to want to let some of your A high hands go. You want to be calling your AKs and AQs that have back door flush draws mainly, as those are ever so slightly better than other hands. Even some of your KQs with a backdoor flush draw. Your A high hands may want to take showdown value later while your K high hands are more likely to be used as bluffs later on.

The next class of high card hands you would want to be calling are those that don't block backdoors that your opponent may be bluffing with. So AdKd which had no backdoor flush draw can call some, and your AKo hands that have the Ad want to call a fair amount, and finally your AKo hands with the Kd want to call some, but not as much. The reason being is that your opponent can be bluffing with an A high or K high hand that has a backdoor flush draw. If you have those cards that he needs to have that backdoor flush draw, then there are fewer combos he can bluff with and he will be more weighted towards value.

Strictly speaking, you hand is not a very good hand to call the flop with because it blocks his bluffs that have backdoor spade and club draws. They don't really block his value range either as he likely 4bets AA and KK. Hands like A8s shouldn't even be making it here, so the fact that you don't block a hand like A8s should not be too relevant.

The turn 8 is not bad for you ad it is less likely he had 88. I don't mind taking your showdown value here and checking the turn if you think villain is pretty sticky. If he is starting to fold out some pairs like 99 if you bet half pot, then I would start going for it. Your bluffs have to come from somewhere. You may have A8s and K8s at low frequency if you have a very refined 3bet range. And QQ+ can still go for value. The only problem is, you just can't float the flop with every c k of AK and then bet every combo of AK on the turn when checked to, or you will just get looked up a ton.

As played, I kind of want to just show down on the river. We can win and if we lose, I kind of doubt we will get them to fold. Unfortunately, the open ended straight draw 76 has now paired up. I just don't know if we can get it to fold when we have made our hand look exactly like A high.

Hand 4 I really kind of want to call this off. Looks like a drunk bluff. People love to bet off flush draws, and while he could ha e some boats here, he is going to ha e a lot of A high hands, maybe some K high hands. Ideally we want a diamond here, but I think I could talk myself into a light call vs this guy.
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-08-2023 , 11:48 AM
H1:

I'll be honest, I find preflop a little difficult. Where did the passive guy open from? What does a lol $10 raise mean in your 1/3 NL game? With loose players calling 3bets, that means we're likely going to setup an SPR of <= 4, which means anyone can make us play for stacks postflop at any time, which means we'd better not be offering good IO. Our 3bet to $40 offered about 18+:1, which seems a little too good if we're going to often be asked to play for stacks. I typically aim for offering poor 8:1, although that would mean a 3bet to $70 (which might not get action). I also think flatting isn't horrendous as there is very little relative dead money in the pot / anyone else involved we'd like to deny equity too / we've already bought the Button / the earlier a passive guy is raising the more I'm cool with flatting / etc. I mean, I'm perfectly aware that our 3bet is "standard" here, but if can create tricky spots. Although we are in position, and it doesn't sound like these guys are going to do anything tricky postflop. Anyways, just things I mull over in this spot.

The smaller (and more vulnerable) our underpair, the more I would lean to a small cbet against 2 loose opponents to protect against random overcards. The bigger our underpair, the more we're WA/WA and can check behind (although there are draws that can call). So I'd probably bet like $40 and go from there.

Think I'm ok with the turn call given our weak flop check and decent odds. Could be good, J / heart could be good against random Ax, etc.

I would also bet/fold smallish on the river when checked to, so $100 seems good to me.

GcluelessNLnoobG
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-08-2023 , 11:57 AM
H2:

Against a weak-tight EP open, I actually snap muck AQo preflop. Although I guess at these large stack depths against a poor losing player you could argue for continuing in position, but raising seems like overplaying and meanwhile flatting could get us too multiway. Knowing that there is a maniac in the blinds I guess we could also flat to see if he goes nuts and see how the raiser reacts. Nice result HU against the maniac (although it isn't one I would expect facing an EP open from a weak-tight player).

SPR is 8 which ain't small so I'd rather not play for stacks postflop, especially against someone who is all over the map. So I'd aim to attempting to get to showdown for as cheap as possible and avoiding crappy spots. So I treat his lol small bet as a check and would happily check behind. I'm not looking to build big pots nor be put in spots where I have to fold TPTK in big pots.

I'm fine with our turn check as played (i.e. I'm really looking to check at least one early street, and I mostly do that on the flop to ensure that, but I do that now if the flop didn't check thru).

I think I also just check back the river and take our showdown value. Yeah, it sucks when we lose to some naked small flush card, but a maniac ain't necessarily folding that to a bet either.

GcluelessNLnoobG
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-08-2023 , 12:04 PM
H3:

Against a tight reg EP open and no other dead money in the pot and big stacks, I think I again lean to flatting and just seeing what happens. Obviously has drawbacks in that this could invite a multiway pot. But perhaps someone attempts a loose squeeze and we can back/raise after seeing what the EP guy does. And raise/folding sucks. But that's just how I would handle this spot.

Pretty sucky flop to rep, so we're only repping overpairs. I probably just check back the flop because our opponent likely has an overpair that he isn't folding to one bet. And calling the check/raise seems extremely ambitious to me (I would just fold). It's almost as if we're getting into a dick swinging contest with a good player, and I know that's not where I make my money.

I mean, if we're calling the flop check/raise isn't it partly to move him off a small overpair on a later street? If that's the case then we didn't follow thru.

GcluelessNLnoobG
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-08-2023 , 12:09 PM
H4:

My style is to just overlimp in.

At this stack size I think I would just go all-in preflopf facing the 3bet from this guy. Especially with extremely vulnerable JJ (more of an argument for flatting bigger less vulnerable pairs).

Spidey senses might be going off a bit with this guys flop check, but the SPR is lol 1.5 and we've got an overpair on a drawy board. We were committed against this guy for these stacks as soon as we got dealt the cards, imo. I would actually just shove the flop. Again, we could perhaps bet smaller with much bigger less vulnerable pairs, but half the deck is a stoopid card for JJ.

I can only assume our turn check back was to induce? But with less than a PSB left and so many killing cards, again I'd shove.

Snap calling the river.

ETA: We kinda treated this hand similar to the other hands (i.e. cautious about putting money in postflop), but this hand has one massive difference: the SPR. At small SPRs, commit ASAP (or at the very least realize we're slowplaying to induce to commit), especially with vulnerable hands. IMO.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Last edited by gobbledygeek; 06-08-2023 at 12:16 PM.
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-08-2023 , 08:41 PM
Your hand histories all look pretty solid, would have played them the same way myself.

Only nitpicks:
For H2, 3bet preflop should be a bit larger, like $45 or $50.
For H4, you can cbet slightly larger on the wet board to set up the turn jam. AP, calling versus the drunk guy. He can show up with a random A-hi trying to bet you off a chop or something.
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-09-2023 , 03:07 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stupidbanana
3-bets get called A LOT at my game and often cold-called so my adjustment has been to drop hands like A5s that people use for balance out of 3-betting range and just have thick value or premiums, thoughts?
You arent balancing your 3bet range with A5s against the described player pool, you're just valueraising thinly. 3bet A5s from LP/Blinds vs LP opens, this is fine.

I only read Hand1: You can still get value from worse on a flop like this. 77+ and all flush draws will give you action, bet 40. On turn slowdown and then on river get some value.
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-09-2023 , 06:46 AM
River bet size on H1 is too small. You’re targeting Ax. I think he calls 2/3 pot ($160)
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-10-2023 , 01:20 AM
Interesting replies. Thanks everyone for taking the time to read all that.

Results:
Spoiler:
H1: Fish's face distorts and he looks ready to spazz and H thinks its a real tell and then he folds showing AKo with A and says he wanted to rep the flush.

H2: Maniac shows down J7 , H scoops.

H3: Good reg shows down QQ and says "you have AA don't you?", Hero mucks.

H4: Hero decides Tx that called flop, 7x that called flop and FDs all got there and so folds. Thx GG about the 4-bet pre option, never thought of that.
Trying to do what I was told (tighten up). Quote
06-10-2023 , 03:30 AM
That H1 reveal is crazy
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