Ya looks like a turn fold for about full pot sized bet. River fold too. Is your range preflop reallly wide? If not I would never size my open under $10 unless it was a table of nits or a table of shortstacks. You want to be playing fewer but much bigger average sized pots than your opponents, or the rake really gets you.

My typical open at a normal table is $10. I usually open to $7 on the button though, mostly because I want to be opening a very wide range when it folds to me on the button (which almost never happens obviously). I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but it makes sense to me. If my opponents defend a higher volume of crappy hands in the BB to this smaller size, that doesn't really bother me too much since I am in position with (usually) a skill advantage. I think my edge is highest in HU wide range spots. Since I play short-handed online games, I am in this spot all the time, whereas my opponents very rarely are. Have been wondering if I should refuse to chop for this reason, but it doesn't seem worth it to slow down the game and annoy the other players.

Dont be the guy who does not chop. Id keep firing for $10 on the button. Way too hard to get any kind of value for $7 with the rake being what it is. BBJs, high hand promotion, etc. you need every pot you win to be larger size. Case can even be made to go no lower than $12 or $15 as anyone who calls $7 pretty much will call the $12

10/23/23 @ Mohegan Sun: +$22 in 3.5 hours

Essentially a breakeven session today, but I had a lot of hands to play and it was a pretty fun table. There was a rotating cast of soft spots at the table, including one guy who was very clearly playing poker for the first time ever (couldn't get in a hand against him unfortunately). Wish I could have won more, but I feel like I played pretty well.

AK

CO (tattooed and bearded younger guy who is actually kind of a nit) limps, BTN (older reg, not as tight or passive as most) overlimps. I raise to $16 from SB and both call. I have $200 to start.

Flop: KJJr (Pot: $43).

Interesting spot OOP to two late position limp callers. I think it's pretty hard for me to get a ton of value here, since my hand will look like exactly what it is. I also think my opponents have a lot of Jx in range, especially the BTN. I decide to check and see what happens. I don't expect my opponents to bluff this board very much, so maybe a small bet is better. CO instantly starts loading up a huge bet. He makes it $45. I am already thinking I might just fold to this ridiculous bet into two people, but then BTN calls the $45. Snap fold from me. CO ended up having JTo and BTN had J8s. They got it in on the turn and chopped on an Ace river. Nice to lose the minimum here on a set-up flop.

QQ

UTG straddle. $4. EP limps. I raise BTN to $20. Straddle calls. EP folds. Straddle is a 40ish Asian guy. Hasn't been at the table long, but clearly likes to gamble and has called some big bets. I have $175 and straddle covers.

Flop: 962r ($40). Straddle check. I bet $25. Straddle calls. I sized up a bit here, because I don't think this guy is going to fold very much, but could probably go smaller on a dry board.

Turn: 962 T ($90). Turn brings a backdoor flush draw. 78 completes which is concerning, but I'm going with my hand here against this guy. I think there are enough pair + draw hands (98, 97, T7, T8, pair and a flush draw, etc) in my opponents range that he isn't going to want to fold so I just overbet jam here $130 into $90. He thinks for a bit and calls. River is a 2 which is a great card for me, and Straddle mucks his hand when I show.

--

There were a lot of other small pots, mostly ones where I had to fold post-flop after raising pre-flop with a good hand. The QQ double up happened early in the session and I bled off chips one small pot after another which isn't my favorite way for a session to go. I think I'll be playing again on Saturday. Would be nice to keep winning.

One interesting note about this session: winning $22 in 3.5 hours ($6.28/hr) is actually extremely close to my expectation at this point. I've played 465.25 hours of live $1/$2 lifetime, and I'm up $2,852, for an hourly winrate of $6.13/hr. While I'm happy to be winning, I do really want to increase my hourly in this game before I eventually try moving up to $2/$5. There are a number of things I can do to achieve this:

1) Call less across all streets, particularly on the river - See discussion from prior session

2) Continue to sharpen up my pre-flop game - I need to play tighter, and more aggressively. I would estimate that I make several undisciplined and losing pre-flop calls per session.

3) Find more spots to get value - I have missed a few thin value spots the last couple sessions, and I often feel like I fail to get the absolute maximum in other big spots by betting too small on later streets (I've referred to this in several posts recently).

4) Execute better if/when I run a bluff - I think I have been bluffing too much and taking lines which are too weak when I choose to do so. I need to get better at picking my spots and also at knowing when to give up against players who will not fold

5) Play in better games - Right now I only play daytime hours, and mostly at tables with a lot of short stacks and older nitregs. I'm obviously a winning player in these line-ups when I play well, but it's hard to win a lot in these games no matter how well you play.

-

I'm sure there's more, but this seems like a reasonable list of things to work on for now. Studying and gaining more experience is going to be big for me, but a lot of this is also just stuff that I have to get better about executing when I'm at the table.

10/28/23 @ Mohegan Sun: +$55 in 4.5 hours

Another small win. Didn't play any big pots this session. I also table-changed after two hours or so which is rare for me. The second table I played at was way better. There was one fishy player who was playing borderline maniacally and was driving all the action. He was running super hot and sitting on my direct left unfortunately though. Before he left, I played two pots against him and made the wrong decision in both (folding top pair no kicker when he was running a ludicrous bluff multiway and hero calling 3rd pair in a spot where he rivered a disguised full house). I think my main mistake in both hands was that I played way too loose pre-flop in both hands, just trying to be able to get into pots against this guy. Playing too loose like that just puts me in a horrible spot OOP against this guy. Needed to be playing tighter than usual not the other way around.

I made a couple huge hands this session but wasn't able to get paid. Here is one spot that I think I may have misplayed.

JThh

I open MP to $10. BTN (old white guy, seems clueless and has repeatedly had issues following the action in hands) calls. SB (older Asian nitreg woman) calls. $300 effective.

Flop: JJTr (Pot: $30). Checks through. I really wanted to bet small here to build the pot but obviously this is a pretty standard slowplay spot. BTN is pretty stabby too, so I may be able to induce him to bluff.

Turn: JJT Kcc ($30). New overcard which brings a backdoor club flush draw. SB is about to check when BTN bets $20 out of turn. He takes his bet back and SB checks. I decide to check, and BTN bets $20 for real this time. SB now calls. I decided to checkraise to $80 and both players fold, with SB open folding AK.

Not sure about this one. Obviously checkraising multiway looks super strong, and I probably went too big. I would like calling more if I was in position. Maybe I can just call and then lead out on the river to ensure the river doesn't get checked through?

Call the turn. Check the river. Its really hard to get paid on these hands. They would have bet flop with a J. Your best chance vs a lot of these weak tight nits is to just check call until the river where you check raise. Check raising turn is announcing you have at least a jack to even the worst players in the room in a hand like this. On the river you can at least represent flush draw that missed when you check raise

U generally want to open bigger on the button compared to other positions

JTs, I'd probably fold preflop in MP at a full table but I'm a huge nit.

OMG I'm betting the flop. Huge amount of hands will continue here (overs + gutshot, OESD, Jx, maybe even pocket pairs for one bet, etc.). With an SPR of 10 we can easily play for stacks by the river with large early street bets, so I might even consider a PSB on the flop (unless $30 is considered a massive flop bet in 1/2 NL). But I'm at least going 2/3 PSB, we're missing huge value otherwise, imo.

I'm also check/raising the turn knowing that Button is betting out-of-turn. Wow, quite the fold by AK, unlucky, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

10/31/23 @ Mohegan Sun: +$55 in 4.5 hours

Same exact result/session length as last time out, but this session was way different than last one. Just a painfully slow grind where I lost small pot after small pot and was card dead for long stretches. I felt myself tilting a bit midway through the session (after the second hand history I'm about to post especially) but I think I held it together well. I was losing for basically the entire session despite a stream of really bad players entering and exiting the game. Despite that, at no point this session do I think I got way out of line with my play, which is something of an accomplishment for me in a session like this.

JJ

One of my first hands of the day. I open to $10 and get two calls, including V on BTN who is an unknown fish who has been VPIPing every hand thus far and betting a lot, including donking. $200 effective.

Flop: K84r (Pot: $30). BB check. I check. BTN bets $17. Fold. I call. Standard, I think.

Turn: K84r 3 (Pot: $64). I check. BTN bets $20. I call. Again, I think this is pretty standard. When BTN sizes down like this, I think he is not very strong but a hand like K9o or K5s is possible so I don't think I'm always best here.

River: K84 3 6 (Pot: $104). I check. BTN checks back and shows A4o. When I table my hand, he is in disbelief. He says "I had the right read, I can't believe you called the turn." Not a super interesting pot but I thought this statement was kind of funny and indicative of faulty fish logic. Did he really think he was bluffing on the turn with 3rd pair when he bet less than 1/3 pot? Does he really expect a strong second pair to fold? I think in reality players like this are just betting to bet. They don't know if they are bluffing or value betting, it's just easier for them to keep the initiative and bet every street until they can show down so they do it.

ATdd

Couple hours later with many different players at the table. I open to $10 UTG and 3 players call.

Flop: AhJhJd (pot: $40). SB (middle aged European [?] guy, super splashy, has already basically doubled up through me earlier) donks for $10 off a $150 stack. I call. Folds to BTN (old white guy) who thinks for a bit before jamming for his last $27. SB snap calls. I fold? Turn is Tc. River 6d. SB tables 74hh for the busted flush draw and BTN wins with A6cc.

I think folding turn getting a sick price here with a decent top pair and two backdoor draws is pretty bad. SB's donk confused me, but once he just calls the jam I think I can start to rule out Jx. I didn't have a great read on BTN's playstyle, but I figured he would have Jx or at least AQ+ when he jams. I guess he is just going with TPNK when he has a micro stack though, which makes sense.

It's a weird spot but I think I just have to call here and expect to lose a lot of the time. Could even think about backraising to create a side pot with SB. As I mentioned before, this hand tilted me a bit. Sucks to make a mistake and miss out on a hand you should win, especially when you are already stuck.

KJss

This hand was at the end of the session, and the table has mostly turned over again. I open to $10 UTG+1 off $250. 3 players call before SB (splashy middle aged guy who I've played with a few times before, VPIPs very wide but 3bet range unknown) 3bets to $25 off $300. I call and so do the other 3 players. Uncomfortable spot pre-flop. I don't want to fold a good hand to a minraise from a weak player, but playing a massive pot OOP with KJs also isn't great. SB doesn't 3bet that often, so I don't think a 4bet makes sense here.

Flop: AsQh5c ($125). SB Checks. I check. UTG+2 (young African American guy, shorter stack) bets $20. Folds to SB who calls. I make the call, which I think is pretty clearly the right thing to do with a nut gutshot and backdoor NFD.

Turn: AsQh5c 6s ($185). Check check UTG+2 bets $35 leaving himself $75 behind. SB calls. I call. Obviously can't fold here, but I wish I had thought about check-jamming. UTG2 and SB both look weak here, but I guess there isn't very much fold equity with UTG2.

River: AsQh5c 6s 5s ($290). SB thinks for a bit and checks. I jam for $170. Both players fold pretty quickly. Didn't love the board pairing, but I think I have to donk jam here given the stack depths. If either player folded an Ace, I would be impressed. Guessing UTG2 had a Qx hand and SB had KK or JJ.

This hand got me unstuck for the session and I left pretty quickly after, since I had some family responsibilities to attend to. Happy to be on a bit of a win streak. October was a good month for me, both live and online. Going to be playing a session up in New Hampshire this weekend which I'm looking forward to.

The AT hand is a call and evaluate for 17. That costed about $100.

Hand 3. Check to the guy betting. Hes rarely going to call off when you donk 3 ways. Donks have taken a huge shift in the last year where everyone and their mom donks “to not miss value” making folding really really profitable

Interesting thought on Hand 3. I hadn't really considered that donking river here might be a mistake. I worry that most loose passive LLSNL players are checking back river with Ax hands though, rather than jamming the final $75 after the board pairs and flush completes (also possible for SB to be trapping the nuts). I also don't think he would ever bluff there for such a small amount.

When I jam river, I would expect the IP position to call off with Ax because he is calling $75 to win a final pot of at least $450, and now he chops with AJ and below. Like I said in my post, if the IP position player folded Ax there I would be really impressed. It would be a legit great fold, because the reality is Ax is never good when I jam there.

If you played the hand like you did, I would snap fold the river with Ax and pretend I had some kind of draw. You are never doing that as a bluff, it makes no sense. And you are never doing that with a worse A. You are playing the same as every other river donking low stakes player. Which makes my style of play, folding to river donks unless I have a reason not to, a massive plus EV play. And what I have noticed lately is my river folds to donks is not something only I do. Its something even the worst players in the room do. You cant get value OOP in every hand. You need to have hands you check on the river that might get checked through that are monsters. It does several things for you including making your opponents who are not so great think very hard about value betting ever again on the river vs you with one pair. As you go up in stakes players are better and it wont be so simple, but at these stakes, they see the slow play and they stop value betting you nearly as much.

ATss I would limp in and then sigh call the flop action and evaluate the turn.

KJss I would fold preflop but then play the rest the same.

GjustwhatIwoulddo,notnecessarily"correct"G

That's fair enough. I appreciate your feedback. I definitely would have felt like I missed out on value if IP checked back a hand like AJ or AT, but the reality is maybe it's just not possible to get any more out of AJ or AT in that spot.

Also will again acknowledge that I made a pretty big mistake in the ATs hand which has been confirmed by both you and GG. I guess I was seeing monsters under the bed there.

Dood has $75 left in a $290 pot, good for him if he can manage to fold TP for this price (and yet he's checking it back a huge percentage of the time). He's also rarely going to bluff for this amount into 2 opponents. I'm with you and betting this all day.

ETA: And it's not like you need to get paid off 100% of the time here to be profitable (i.e. what Larry is able to fold at 99% frequency worse players might only be able to do at 66% frequency). So even if he just pays off 1/3rd of the time, that's $25 you otherwise wouldn't have gotten (cuz he's checking back / not bluffing otherwise, right?). Compare that $25 to your hourly and that's massive.

GimoG

Agree with your 66% assessment. I think that is realistic and no one will ever know the true percentage. Its probably between 40% and 75% if I had to guess from experience. Your assessment fails to note that of those 66% that may fold one pair or worse on the river to your bet…..enough of them would bet (need 50% or less depending on how often 3rd player is involved) if checked to to make up that EV of the 33% who call. Maybe the EVs are close, but playing it as a River Donk makes you face up if you always play like this. It gives Vs free reign to bet the river any time you check scared you will lose value. And even the bad players pay attention to things like this. Oh he led on river after check calling. He had it? Ok he probably always has it when he does that. Thats how bad players think. GG it is unfathomable to me that anyone ever calls your river donks. When is the last time you donked river three ways and did not have a winning hand? Has it ever happened?

Don't get me wrong, if you have a super nitty image like mine then you certainly have to eke out value by not playing as face up... *sometimes*.

But in this particular case here, I just don't see any other better option for OP. If dood is literally never bluffing (a fair read in this exact situation?) and also checking back his TP 99% of the time (again, fair read on how population plays?), then there's nothing else we can do but donk and take the percentage of time we're managed to get paid off (and for a 1/4 PSB we're gonna get a high percentage of "sigh, I know I'm beat but can't fold for this price" calls).

GimoG

My experience is players who bet the turn and the pot is big will shove their last 75 in with TPGK at least 50% of the time but will not usually call their last 75in with TPGK. There are a few different rooms Ive played at where this does differ, but for the most part the average 1/2 1/3 rec is much more willing to put money into a pot when checked to. I dont think 99% check back with top pair by most Vs is close to what I have experienced

Our experiences differ, so fair enough.

GcluelessgameconditionsnoobG

After this hand, the UTG+2 player ended up busting by limp-jamming Q9s for the last $75 he had left behind after folding river. Don't know if that makes it more or less likely that he would have jammed river with Ax if I checked to him.

Ultimately, I'm comfortable with how I played the KJss hand. Some good food for thought in the discussion here though. I'm sure this discussion will pop into my head next time I'm OOP without the betting lead on a draw completing river.

Exact type of player who would have shrugged his shoulders and pumped in his last 75 with Ax if checked to.

Online update. Hit 10k hands at 25NL and things have been going unbelievably well, fueled by a couple huge winning sessions in a row. I had originally meant to just take a shot at this stake, but I've found that the players aren't really any better than the players at 10NL. Playing for more money has been motivating for me too, and as a result I've been putting in extra study time and increased volume. At some point I might take a shot at 50NL to see how the games are at that stake. My online bankroll is probably too small for that though, and I do really want to prove I am a winner at 25NL before moving up too quickly.

This is probably the only time in my life I've had a losing red line. Usually play too loose/aggressive and make a lot of dumb hero calls. I've been able to rein that in quite a bit fortunately.

11/4/2023 @ Lebanon Casino & Poker Room: +$102 in 3 hours ($1/$3)

I took a trip up to Vermont/New Hampshire with my wife this weekend and snuck away to play poker for a few hours in the afternoon while she went shopping. This room is super small but it's lively and the action was awesome - one of the best games I've played in this year. I didn't bring very much money with me which was unfortunate because $1/$3 is a bigger game than I'm used to and there was a ton of money on the table. I saw several fish playing massive pots with weak holdings, which didn't feel especially great when I was sitting there nitting it up on the short stack.

Still, happy with how disciplined I played and content with the small win I booked. Couple hand histories to follow.

AcAs

Villain in this hand is a loose passive older white guy. He is in a jovial mood and we have been chatting quite a bit. About 10 minutes prior to this hand he asked me: "What, are you just waiting for Aces or something?" I had been card dead for a while obviously.

Two fish limp. Solid Younger Player makes it $20. Villain calls $20. Hero raises to $60 on the BTN off a $200 stack. Folds to SYP who folds. Villain double flats.

Flop: KcTd6s ($140). Villain checks. I have pot behind. I bet $35. Villain calls.

Turn: KcTd6s 8d ($210). Villain checks. I jam for $105. Villain snaps with KJdd for top pair and a flush draw. River 7d. Sucks.

I think I played this hand fine. I got kind of cute with my sizings (could 3bet bigger, could jam flop), but I was really trying to get action despite my nitty image and short stack. Got all the money in good against a hand I had crushed, so what else can you really do.

Qc5c

This hand was an hour or so later. I had rebought for $300 and had about $350 at this point. V1 in this hand is a whale. He is a young white guy who ran a $300 stack up to $2k (called a 3bet with Q8o and hit top two; cold-called a 3bet with 78s and rivered a flush against TPTK and a set) but is bleeding it off quick. Prior to this hand, he lost a $1k pot where he called a 3bet with A9o and got it All-in on the turn for $500 each vs AJs on an Ace high board. V2 is an older Asian gambler type who plays here regularly. Both Villains cover.

Six players limp to me in BB. Obvious check.

Flop: 78Tcc ($18). I check and it checks to V1 who bets $25. V2 calls. I call. Everyone else folds.

Turn: 78Tcc 6x ($93). Checks through. Wasn't sure what I was going to do facing a big bet here, having picked up the idiot end of a straight draw and with a big but non-nut flush draw OOP. Would have been a gross spot. Happy for a free card though!!

River: 78Tcc 6x 9c ($93). Yahtzee. Kind of an interesting spot with the board running out as a straight and with both players having so many flushes in range (both stronger and weaker flushes, since these guys are playing any two suited). Thought about check-raising here or about betting truly massive (jam for 3x pot??) but instead I bet $100, a slight overbet. V1 calls quickly but doesn't look happy. V2 counts out $100 and thinks for a second before over-calling to my delight. V1 showed JTss for the second nut straight and V2 claimed he had a lower flush.

This hand got me unstuck and into profit, and V1 racked up immediately after. So I played for another orbit or so before I took off. I didn't want to play longer than 3 hours for this session anyway, since this is supposed to be something of a romantic getaway and not a poker trip.

Nice hands. Sounds like a dream game