I think you lose out a little bit on reads by not playing the same thing over and over with the same familiar faces. It is probably also a bit harder to calibrate game types. I kinda stopped playing PLO because switching back and forth makes me feel like a fish. That and PLO is like too big of a game for me.

Hand 1 is sort of close...Your Cbet is pot-sized right, I think that makes most hands just want to call...I think this weights Btn's hand against diamonds...Also, did you tank-call or sort of just snapped it off? These spots are a little easier to tank and evaluate...he's also sitting like right next to you, no reason NOT to take advantage of this and try to get a bit of physical tell. If you did and still decided to call, oh well...live and learn, if not...shame on you. Also, V's a fish.

Lol at Villain in Hand 2. I mean why in god's name did he check turn? Or that he didn't shove river...so much value lost. From your perspective, not much you can do imo, seems like he's MUCH nittier than his reggy image gives off.

Hi Aseah,

Hand 1 is a tough spot, it's very hard to lay that down but as you correctly said v probably raises pretty much all his value range on the flop, he can only really have diamonds or complete air which wouldn't make sense here.

Hand 2 I like the check on the flop, I think v's line is pretty clever too, I actually like his check on the turn firstly for pot control and secondly because it goes some way to disguising his hand, I actually think he gains more value from this check as I think there is a good chance you fold the turn if he bets and you are almost never calling a 3rd bullet on the river anyway. I think it is very hard to fold this hand pre without a specific read on the villian. One approach you could use in this spot although a little unconventional is to 4 bet him pre, pop it to 240 , hopefully most of the time he is not flatting with aa here and obviously if when he comes over the top it is an easy fold pre, although if he does flat here the 4 bet doesn't really help you.

Good Luck

You can def bombs away in hand one on that flop. Don't see why the 1/2psb otf then a psb ott when one of the obvious draws come in.

Decent rule of thumb you can use verse randos in nlh is the larger your value bet, the more confident you can feel about b/f. And even if someone is bad enough to slow play 2pr+ on a flop that wet, they're not gonna just decide to ship turn when the flush comes in.

Hand 2 a reggy looking guy who straddled otb 3b his first hand? Idk how you could ever fold there.

There is a serious drawback to playing multiple games that I think is extremely rarely (if ever) discussed and if anyone plays competitive video games, they might know what I'm about to say. If I take even 1 week off from playing League of Legends, hell if I take a few weeks off of playing a specific character in the game (they only have 4 abilities each!), I perform significantly worse until I get back into the groove. While poker is not quite as bad because it's not mechanically taxing, it definitely still is a factor.

Re: Hand 1. I was in 9 seat and he was in 1 seat lol. I think turn is a fold for most of the reasons listed by myself and everyone here. I bet small to try to induce a raise from any pair instead of a call since I thought BTN looked like a thinking player who plays a lot of poker and might think my hand looks like AK (I mean that's what I would think an unknown would have a decent amount if they raise pre and cbet 1/2 pot here).

Re: Hand 2. 4-betting QQ is bad vs. an unknown villain unless you're playing in aggressive games such as LA. People's 3-betting ranges are just way too tight to do it for value and it's possibly the nut worst hand you can turn into a bluff due to no blocker value + high hand value.

I think my postflop line is 100% fine, I think his postflop line is 100% bad. No turn bet makes river a mandatory raise in his spot. I mean would you raise with A2 on the river if you chose to play it that way? It's the exact same hand value except it blocks *one* combo of quads that's already extremely, extremely discounted by since I raise/called preflop and just called the flop. I guess it also blocks combos of me having unpaired 2x hands but those hands are just insanely unlikely.

I guess my question in this hand is, should I just fold pre vs. an unknown. For 2/5 grinders who have seen thousands of 3-bets in their lifetimes, what percentage of 3-bets are KK/AA from unknowns in microcosms* (even young reggy-looking guys?). Anyway I didn't want to be results oriented at the time I played the hand, but fwiw I later saw him showdown A8o and JTo + a bunch of non-SD hands after 3-betting in only a few hours of play so yea in hindsight I have absolutely zero issue of how I played the hand.

So yea tldr: hand 1 was misplayed, hand 2 was fine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*A note on microcosms. Sandia is a small poker room with just like 4 tables of NLHE like hours away from any other poker room, so all the regs there kind of homogenize their play. This is the case in any similar poker room such as my beginnings in Oaklawn, but not the case in bigger places like LA/Vegas/AC (although the effect is still there, east coast players are much tighter where getting in 150bb with TPTK is probably in general -EV from what I've heard whereas you're usually good in LA).

Anyway, the point is some microcosms make all the regs absolutely horrible at poker, like to the point that people who haven't experienced playing outside of LA/Vegas/AC can even believe. However sometimes, like I suspect in Sandia, it's the other way around and there are too many 2+2 readers that make even the worst players (at 2/5 NLHE) there decent and they played reasonably balanced ranges with floats/bluffraises/hero calls/thin value bets. So yea if you're in one of these locations it's really almost not even worth playing (except recreationally of course), just get online somehow.

Because he suffers from a condition that I've termed CHS*. Players with this disorder have an intense fear of facing an uncomfortable check-raise every time they play against an Asian in a big pot. This fear essentially shuts down the value betting region of the brain, the long-term effects of which include a significant loss of both money and respect.

If you think you or someone you love may be suffering from CHS, contact a licensed and certified poker coach as soon as possible.

*CHS: Chinese Handcuff Syndrome

In general weaker players (this particular guy in the AA vs. QQ hand was actually good- and I rarely say that about anyone ever- but this was one of his leaks) are afraid to win 400bb pots with 1 pair, but you have to realize the SPR after the 3-bet is only about 3 and you've got AA on a very safe board (only losing to exactly 54, very unlikely sets, and EXTREMELY unlikely 2p combos) so it's like the easiest get-it-in of all time if the opportunity presents itself.

What people get this situation confused with is... you should NOT often be trying to win 400bb limped pots with 1 pair, or 1600bb 3-bet pots with 1 pair.

Aesah how did you get really good at poker. Reading your first few pages, you seemed like a n006 only 2 years ago

it's basically 100bb and not 200bb because of the $10 button straddle imo

I can't get enough of this.

^ Exactly, I agree

I think my postflop line is 100% fine, I think his postflop line is 100% bad. No turn bet makes river a mandatory raise in his spot.

He probably should raise the river but with your range he isn't getting called very often. If he bets the turn in hand 2 are you calling?

^ depends on sizing. He should definitely raise river as it's almost impossible for him to be beat.

Got to Vegas, played a 3 hour $1/3 PLO session at Aria, got slowrolled twice but hey (once by a guy who said "you're good" then rolls over quad aces, and another by a guy who couldn't read his hand for the life of him, stared at it for ~1 minute then rolled over the nuts). Was up $78.

Went to look for lodging, but holy crap Valentine's Day weekend, absolutely none ANYWHERE. Ended up sleeping in my car for like 3 hours before security woke me up, played a super super tired 5 hour 2/5 NLHE session at Venetian, first time I think ever in my life when I couldn't remember wtf was going on in hands. Lost $636 in 5 hours, shouldn't have played but hey it's an experience/lesson learned.

So what garage were you in when they woke you up?

Man I have been woken up too once. Made me really mad lol. But then I got window tint which is nice in Vegas.

I actually am not sure. It was a casino a bit south of the strip with a big "M" on it, no poker room.

That would be M.
Good 5/10 going at wynn.

You're in LV? I live near the south point hmu tomorrow and we can meet up

Aesah,

Just found this thread and saw your op was in 2012. So I'm assuming you ended that year pretty successfully and are now and full-fledged pro?

Nope, op confirmed busto

Lol no way are you leveling here?

confirmed

He was sleeping in his car in Vegas, confirmed not busto because he has a car

yes.

read the thread, you won't regret it.

Sorry about the meetups, me and my buddy had a turbo change of plans as I'm apt to do, we're in Los Angeles right now. However we'll be back to Vegas within the next month probably. Still running on very little sleep, played a 1 hour session at the Bike, won $44. Uneventful. Slept about 12 hours last night so a little caught up. So as a quick summary I played near Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Vegas, and now in Los Angeles for a total of +$274 in 16 hours so far.

LA is awesome. Shorts in February + taco trucks + asian girls + good free casino food. The poker I played last night seemed somewhat slow though, let's see if LA does or doesn't live up to what I remembered about it last year. Definitely one of my favorite cities I've been to.

2 hour session at Bike, game was really nitty so left. Up $25 in 2 hours.

A really questionable hand, would appreciate comments on this one. It'll be awhile before I get comfortable with NLHE again (or maybe not if I just start playing PLO again lol). Villain is like a 50 year old asian guy but from what I have seen, plays well- like what I would expect from a young grinder. Hero opens to $20 from UTG+1 with KK, 3 callers.

Flop 774, pot $80
V checks, I bet $60, fold, fold, V calls.

Turn 8, pot $200
V checks, I bet $140, V makes it $300 with $500 behind, I call.

River Q, pot $800
V checks, hero thinks for a long time checks. MHIG. After I cashed out, I came back and asked and he said he had JJ.