Last night I found myself in that once a year game that was a total ****show, with money flying everywhere and the hands at showdown being laughable at best. This is where I think I do my best work.

One thing I feel I do better than a lot of regs is adjust to these maniacs. At least I think I'm better at it. Most regs I see try to nutmine. While I think this can be a profitable strategy vs. an incompetent maniac, it's not optimal, and against a thinking maniac you play into their strategy. For me, I make 3 big adjustments. Massively expand 3-bet range, expand call down range, and bluffs go bye-bye.

In my first orbit at the table I witness a maniac with almost $2500!?! proceed to bet with reckless abandon. He bets at every opportunity and sometimes for huge sizings, like $100 into $25. I'm licking my chops. He's 2 seats to my right.

Probably 10 hands in, I pick up AQ. There's a $5 button straddle and the maniac limps UTG. I make it $40 (upping the pfr size is another big adjustment) it folds to him, and he calls. I'm only in for $200, so I've decided that I'm only folding on the worst of runouts.

Flop comes J94r and right on queue he leads $25. Call. Turn is a 5. $25 and another call. River is a 9. Outside of an A or Q the board pairing is probably the best scenario. $100. I think for 5 seconds and call. He grimaces. "I'm not even sure what I have" and flips K2s. I got some wild looks from the table for that one.

He didn't last long. He was visibly drunk when I got there and did 3 more tequila shots. He left with about $1700. But he got quickly replaced with an almost as wild player. This guy was actually more aggressive preflop, but not quite as wild post, but still way out of bounds.

I've got about $300. Maniac raises in the CO to $13, I 3-bet to $50 in the SB with A8s. The guy on my left, who I thought was OK has now 3-bet 3 times this orbit, puts in a 4-bet to $100. Folds to me. My first instinct is to rip it. I've never 5-bet bluff live, but this feels like the time. But I chicken out. I'm not letting this guy steamroll me though, so I call looking to stack off on any pair/draw.

Flop is 873r with a BDFD. That'll do. I check. He rips for $200. Call. He has AK. The K hits the river and I'm felted. Yuck. Back in for $200 more. I ended up getting about $120 of it back before racking up. I probably 3-bet or raised to $50+ about 12 times this session. It felt good.

One final hand that I wasn't in but have to share. It's the 2nd maniac, vs. the guy to my immediate right who is also playing way too loose. I forget the preflop action but knowing the table it was likely a maniac raise and loose guy flat. Flop is 753 with a club draw. Maniac checks. Loose guy makes it $20. Maniac $65. Loose guy $205. Maniac call. Turn is some weird brick. Loose guy rips for $80 more. Maniac calls. River hits the club. Maniac shows T3 of diamonds. Loose guy 52 of hearts FTW. Wow.

tl;dr version: Played at a really wild table with two of the biggest maniacs I've seen lately. If not for a rivered 3 outer an $80 loss would have been a $500 win.

I'll admit I find these tables super tough if I'm sitting on anything other than a shortish stack. So my typical plan is to just play super tight until I double up and then look for a table change.

I think we're being a little results oriented in the AQo call down hand. I mean afterwards we see some lol play with second pair vs third pair, so there's a decent chance our villain just hurps durps over 4th pair in this hand and ships a $400 pot against our A high. Don't get me wrong, I get our plan, but it so often backfires that it's not like it is some super duper printing money profitable spot.

And I'm don't know if I'm misreading things or being results oriented or what, but in the A8s hand we got in 1/3rd of our stack preflop facing a non-maniac 4bet as a huge dog setting up a lol SPR 1 pot. Again, I understand our light 3bet of the maniac, but the super tough thing in these lineups is he ain't the only one at the table (even HU OOP against him with A high isn't going to be a postflop joy).

I could be wrong, but I've actually gone the other way at tables like these and just tighten way up and nut mine. You tend to do that after your 3bet "light" open with AJo is cold flatted by KK behind you and your rep of the K on the K high flop with a PSB left doesn't work out too well, or your "light" 3bet with AJ gets cold flatted behind you by AQ and your snap call of the maniac's EP shove on AATcc flop doesn't work out too well with the guy behind you sitting with the ~nuts, etc. and yet that stuff happens far more often than we probably give credit for at these tables. And when you actually sit down and start reviewing some hands afterwards, you begin to question exactly who the fish is when you realize you're getting in huge money with fairly lol hands.

GavoidsthesetablescuzIhavenoideawhatI'mdoingonthem G

I'm a dumbass.

Two limps, including a nit OTB, and I complete the SB with 77.

Flop comes 966r. Checks around. Turn is a 3rd 6. I bet 5, two folds and the nit calls. He has a 9 here pretty much always. River is some blank like a Q, I check, he bets 5. Then he says "call the 5".

For high hand bonuses to count, there must be $20 in the pot. But I'm looking at the board and it says "for quads to qualify, they must be made with a pocket pair" I'm not sure why he's telling me to call here. But, I do have a decent full house here, and I'm getting like 5:1 on a call, so I make it. He has 88. I flip my 77 to show him how close it was. Dealer yells out "2 full houses!"

Huh? Oh yeah, there's a full house pyramid promo going on also, and 6's full of 7's & 8's are two of the qualifying hands, and we both walk away with a high hand bonus of $200. If not for him having 88 and sticking around, as well as me just listening to him and calling, I could have cost us both $200. For some reason trips on the board never even registered in my head as a qualifying way to make the hand.

On top of the bonus, I racked up a solid $150 win for a cool tree fiddy. Would've been more but I got $135 AI preflop with KK vs. AJ and he binked it. If I hadn't been running bad in these all-in spots, I'd be in the middle of a pretty huge heater right now. Instead, it's just an average heater.

GG,

Nutmining bad maniacs can be fine. It's certainly very profitable. The thing is, these maniacs aren't going to be around forever. If you just wait for sets+ chances are they dump their chips to someone else before your shot comes. In the AQo hand, I'm 50/50 vs. a random hand OTR, and I'm getting almost 3:1 on a call. That's $90 in EV I'd be giving up here.

The swings can be brutal though. If risk of ruin is a concern, then nutmining is the right way to play. But if you have the bankroll to withstand the swings (I suspect you do) then learning how to play against wide ranges and stacking off with hands you would never dream of otherwise can be massively +ev.

And yeah, I did get 1/3rd of my stack in bad vs. a 4-bet. The thing was, this guy had blasted the pot 3 times in probably 12 hands with large 3-bets to take them down, and now he's 4-betting me. His 3 & 4! frequencies were approaching maniacal levels. My gut instinct was that he was adjusting to the table (and likely correctly) but that I had a good enough hand to call given the stacksizes. He did later confirm that he was just on a sick run of hands. I probably did misplay the hand, as I will concede that my read is not strong enough to call a 4-bet there (and that given my hand a 5! jam is probably better).

I think I will post that hand in LLSNL. I'm guessing the most common advice will be to fold to the 4!, but we'll see.

Yeah, I really don't know how to play maniac tables. I posted a thread about it a couple of years ago, and really questioned if the super wild short term variance over lol overall hours is really "worth" it (not just in terms of $ EV but also in terms of mental EV, which admittedly as rec players we should likely more be concerned about the latter even if we are lol overrolled for the stakes).

But, as I say, it doesn't take too many hand reviews of how big chips were getting in as huge dogs before you really begin to question your play (ranges be damned).

Gbut,Icouldbetakingtheeasywayout,sowhateverG

You're not wrong. With how infrequently these maniac tables came up, I don't really see them as having a big impact on overall winrate. And if you don't like them, or think they can mess up your mental game, then avoiding them could be best. Mental game is a good strength of mine, as I am relatively tilt proof and adjust well to game conditions.

The hand generated quite the discussion in LLSNL. Fold to 4! was the consensus, and I sort of knew that in real time. I think in wild games like this, there is a fine line between widening your value range to take full advantage of the fish and rolling in the mud and playing bad poker with them. I definitely crossed the line into bad poker when I called the 4 bet.

But I am glad to see that some of the higher stakes pro's whose opinions I respect (Sabr/Minatorr) agreed that 3-betting is the right play given the game. I think most of the discussion came down to some thinking we should be avoiding these thin spots with positional disadvantage, while others thinking this is a good enough spot to push an equity edge.

I booked yet another nice win last night, and am now up over $800 in my last 5 sessions. It was a pretty standard table. No maniacs, no high hand bonuses, just typical regfish. I played some ABC sLAG poker, getting just the right amount of action and getting paid.

My point of view is this (and I don't mean to be dumping on you, plus keep in mind I'm folding preflop the first time cuz I don't have expert skillz):

I believe the consensus was calling the 4bet was a drastic mistake, and likely one that was an incredibly straightforward spot.

That being the case, how come we're so confident that in the general 3bet case that we can make that easily profitable? OOP? To a difficult player? The decisions we will face postflop on the myriad of variable runouts / situations will be *much* tougher than the easy fold-to-the-4bet-preflop spot (which we got wrong).

Gbutgogogo,imo!G

Calling the 4! was a mistake, I won't argue the consensus there. I overreacted to this players recent aggression, and took a stand in a bad spot with a bad hand, and in the end I got a 3 outer gut punch as a reward. The guy later admitted that his sudden outburst of 3 and 4-bets was just a sick run of good hands. His 4-bet of AK was certainly reasonable here.

But 3-betting in the first place is what was controversial, and is what really started one of the more divisive discussions I've seen on the forum in a while. I think to sum up the arguments as best I can:

Arguments for a 3-bet, including Sabr who I know plays 10/20 and higher at times:
-We need to push preflop edges when we've got them, and we have a clear one here.
-Our range advantage is strong enough, and he is bad enough, that we can overcome the positional disadvantage.

Arguments against the 3-bet
-Our hand is too weak.
-We should be focusing on playing IP against the maniac.
-We should wait for a better spot.

Overall I felt the arguments for 3-betting are more in-line with my understanding of the correct way to play against guys like him. I think not 3-betting can still be winning poker, but to maximize winrate, we can and should be 3-betting these spots.

Although I will be the first to admit, that strategies used for beating higher stakes games are also sub-optimal in LLSNL. You'll find yourself bluffing too much, and hero calling with blockers far too often. They are both mistakes you'll find I've made in this thread. Playing 1/2 like it's a bigger game is an occasional leak of mine. But that't not what I was doing here. I was playing what I thought was the right way to play against a complete maniac, and I was at least glad to see some solid players argue for the play using the same logic that went through my head at the time.

I have spent some small amount of time studying GTO poker, even though I try to keep it out of 1/2 as much as possible. I've always had aspirations of playing bigger games. But given my low volume and the fact that the nearest 2/5 game is over an hour drive for me, it's unlikely I will spend any significant time playing larger, unless online poker makes a comeback. I do have a plan in the back of my mind on shot taking a 5/10 game when I get to Vegas this year. After scratching the WSOP itch last year, and not really thinking much of the experience, The next thing I really want to do is sneak my way into a midstakes game.

I've played a couple sessions since my last update. The short story is my hot streak continues. Last night was a +$595 5 hour sessions where I wasn't getting many great starting hands, but I couldn't miss a flop. All my top pairs & overpairs got action and held up.

The earlier session was one of those once a year card dead type sessions. I think I raised preflop 2 or 3 times the entire session, which is like torture for me. I actually think these sessions can be some of the best learning experiences in poker. Probably my biggest mental game leak is trying to overcome the boredom and frustration that sets in on these nights. I've got a LAG on my right opening every pot with garbage and barreling off light, and after a couple hours of this, T6s suited starts to look pretty good.

I ended up losing $100 on that session, which wasn't terrible, but I don't think I played particularly well, and I am lucky I didn't get myself into some worse spots. I actually misplayed a couple combo draws, one where I folded despite getting the right price, and another I called where I really wasn't. It was a good learning experience.

Fun hand from last night's heater though:

Hero is in small blind with AQ. 3 limps to hero, who adds $16 on top. The BB and every limper calls.

Flop($78) 569

Checks around.

Turn($78) 5697

Hero bets $20 (I like betting small on 4-flush boards, I find they look you up ridiculously light). BB folds. Whale limper #1 calls. Another fold. Whale limper #2 jams for $121 total.

I've seen these 4 to a straight flush boards get some interesting discussion on the forums. Some say this is a slam dunk call. I have the one card second nuts, but there are several combos of hands that beat me here. I think for a second and make the call, and Whale limper #1 agonizes before eventually folding.

V shows K8 *wheew* and I drag a nice one. Kings full of 8s was good for a $2k bonus last night, so K8 was getting played no matter what.

I still don't have a huge database of tracked hours, so this latest $1200 heater has moved my winrate from $16/hr to $18/hr. It was around this time last year I went on a similar heater, followed shortly by a $1400 downswing. Hopefully I can keep this going into June for Vegas. The plan this year is to take a buy-in to 5/10.

Whelp, we've crashed back to reality a bit. Actually I'm not even that mad. I'm still on a good run where I'm running above my hourly recently. I don't even think I played badly this session, mostly just a pretty colossal cooler. Maybe there's some argument that this hand could be a preflop fold, but I don't think so.

Hero has $350. Villain covers. This is my second orbit at the table. Villain seems like a typical limp happy type of player. As I was sitting down I saw him dragging a massive pot where he spiked a gutterball to win, but I didn't see the action, just him with a straight and the loser of the hand complaining about the suckout.

This also involves a button straddle. I know I've mentioned it before, but my 1/2 game tends to play a bit bigger than others. Given that 2/5 rarely runs, the "bigger" players always but in for the full $400, and like to straddle a lot. There's been some debate on whether to treat straddle pots like 2/5 hands, or if there are some other considerable adjustments to be made. For what it's worth, I don't make any significant adjustments other than raise size. 3-4x raises do the same job that a 5-7x raise would. So basically I'm going from deep 1/2 to mediumish 2/5.

Hero is in the CO. Btn straddles to $6. V limps in the SB, BB lmips, MP (also deep) makes it $20. Hero calls in with QJ. Seeing how this pot is likely to go 4-5 ways with me in good position and still decent stack depth, I make the call. Btn folds, blinds call. 4 ways to the flop.

Flop($80) QQA. Bingo! Checks to MP who bets $40. I make it $120. V in the SB doesn't take long to call. Everyone else folds. I'm hoping for a nice blank turn.

Turn($360) QQA6 V checks. I jam my remaining $210. V snap calls and fast rolls AQ.

Whether or not I played this right I guess depends on a few things:

1. Should a 1/2 game with a $6 button straddle be treated similar to a $3/$6 game?
2. Is QJs with a 60bb stack playable IP vs. a 4x MP raise?
3. Assuming yes to #1 & #2, is that board an auto stackoff?

I think the answer to all 3 is yes, but I'm open to debate.

My 2 cents:

I don't play 1/2 or 2/5 (I'm strictly 1/3), but overall all I feel the straddle does is enable us to increase our preflop raise size to make it easier to play for stacks (if we want). It doesn't have any affect on how people view $$$ at the table, so if $350 is a decent amount of money at a 1/2 NL game then it is whether the straddle is on or not.

I fold preflop. But I'm a nit. We're going to have poor relative position (acting right after the raiser with everyone to react after us). Plus his hand has decent RIO on a lot of "good" hands it makes. Unless I'm up against a moron, I very rarely want to play for stacks with any hand it makes, and yet in a raised multiway pot the SPR will be such that I'm forced to. And if we end up in a HU pot (also possible) we have domination issues (albeit in position). But I'm a nit.

And here's the RIO issue on the flop. The board is somewhat drawy and the SPR is lol 4. We're kinda committed. And yet the problem is that unless we're up against a moron or QT, we're very uncomfortably committed against anyone who is willing to commit. If this hadda been a limped pot with a sky high SPR, we woulda had a lot of postflop play to figure things out (such as just flatting the flop). But here, we don't. At a moron filled table, ok, whatever. But at non-moron tables, a lot more RIO than IO with hands like these.

I just think the postflop edge is getting thinner and thinner these days at a lot of tables, so one of key things is to simply make sure we're more likely to be on the good side of a cooler versus the bad side by playing hands that are much more likely to make the ~nuts than the ~second nuts.

GimoG

Staying on the winning side of coolers is definitely an advantage to nit play. Although on the flip side, once you've developed that image, the better players are going to be better at dodging those bullets against you. There's an epic nit who is at my table for about 1/3rd of my sessions, and I've avoided a lot of coolers by folding to him.

There are still massive postflop edges to be had though. While the games aren't quite as simple as the flop TPTK then pot/pot/shove that they used to be 15 years ago, there is still a lot of really really bad postflop play out there. At a 9 handed table, there's probably at least 2 or 3 people that are likely to make massive mistakes, by either chasing longshot draws for horrible prices, or calling down with an obviously hopeless hand. While it sounds like a lot of the good NLH action has mostly dried up above 2/5, down at 1/2 the games seem to be holding steady as highly profitable. My winrate over the past 5 years is holding steady right around $16/hr.

The low SPR in the above hand really handcuffed me, and while I still think QJs is a profitable call in that spot, it's a lot thinner than it would have been if it was an unstraddled pot with a standard raise.

Dang, another loss. -$225. Some of it was probably my fault. It was the night of a $500 tourney where 1st is over $30k, so it attracts a lot of the better players in the area, including last years main event 4th place finisher, Nic Manion. It's the first time I've seen both a 2/5 and/or a 1/3 super deep PLO game going on a non weekend in a long time.

As a result I found myself at a tougher than usual table, with a particularly frustrating villain on my left. He was playing a bit too loose, raising very aggressively, and getting sticky. I'll go out on a limb and say he was the most frustrating left-side neighbor I've had in my entire time playing poker. He called my UTG open with JTo. I raised to $22 from the SB with AQo and he called in the BB with 97s. He won both those pots. It's probably the first time playing I really didn't have a great strategy for how to beat a guy.

If he's on my right it's easy. He's playing too loose, I could just value bet him to death. I ended up nitting it up, mostly because I was card dead, but even then I felt like he had a big edge against me with his position It was a good learning experience, and the adjustment I make next time will be to request a seat change. No more will I try to man up and tough out a session with the worst possible villain type to my left.

+1 (and not close, imo)

GcluelessseatpositionnoobG

Another gut punch last night. I'm now up a meager $560 on the year, which I guess is nothing to sneeze at, but this is now my second $1k downswing. I really don't think it's "that" bad, considering I play in a deep 1/2 game with a lot of straddles, but these always come at bad times.

My typical schedule on a playing night is to get home around 1am, and getting up at 6:30 for work. When I win, I sleep like a baby. But on nights like yesterday, I toss and turn for over an hour replaying hands in my head, and I end up dragging ass at work the next day.

Here's the two hands giving me nightmares.

Few limps to me, I make it $15 with AK. Bad lag limper calls, and we're heads up to the flop.

Flop ($30) K33

He check/calls my $15 bet.

Turn ($60)K33T

He checks, I check back. I am trying to induce a river bluff here.

River ($60)K33TJ:diamond :

Check. Bad runout. But against a station, I still want to bet. For some reason, I convinced myself to bet $25. He x/r to $100. I did not see that coming. I level myself into believing he had busted hearts and called. He had 63o. I completely missed he could have checked that 3 times.

Next hand:

AA UTG. I make it $11. 3 calls, including a snug player in the BB.

Flop($40) Q76

I c-bet $30, bb calls.

Turn($100) Q768

BB open jams $83. If I would have stopped to think about this, I probably would have figured out it's a fold. Yeah, he's got *some* Qx and combo draws here, but the way he had been playing, I think he would have gone for a cheaper showdown. I didn't stop to think though. I called way too quickly and got spanked by 66.

So some more bad play by me, and I got punished for it. This felt like the worst I've played in a session in a long time. I guess to only be down $260 on a night where I made those two mistakes, plus some other small ones, isn't too bad, but I need to play better.

Some of this is partially driven by winners tilt. I get overconfident. I think I can outplay everyone. I think I have the game solved. I know downswings will happen, but the fact that they always seem to come after a heater tell me I have things to work on in my game. The good news is the games I play are soft enough that I still have an edge. But I know if I want to stay competitive in some of the bigger games in Vegas, I will need to play with better discipline, and make better decisions.

If you folded to every river raise ever in 1/3 games you would save lots of money over time.

Today, I can’t imagine getting 5 hours of sleep and having to go to work the next day. That sounds like torture. But I’ve been getting 9-12 hours for the last 3 years. I call it catch up from being chronically sleep deprived for the preceding 20 years.

I’d imagine you’d play better on more sleep too. Gl!

Yep. What's frustrating is I know this, and have probably posted this advice many times in these forums. Yet every once in a while I sill convince myself that a villain is bluffy enough that it's a good call. I'm almost always wrong. Another leak of mine is that I sometimes need to slow myself down at the table. Some sessions I'm very good at this, and others I'm way too kneejerk and impulsive.

You're like the opposite of me. When I was in high school I could sleep 12 hours no problem. Left alone, my body would revert to a 30 hour day naturally, where I was up 18 and slept for 12. Once I hit about 25, sleeping more than 8 hours became impossible. After 8, I'm up ready to go. I usually try to get at least 6.5 hours a night, close to 7 or more when I can.

I almost never play poker 2 days in a row, so I'm rarely sleep deprived at the table. One thing I have been experimenting with is the right amount of coffee to drink right before a session to give me a perk up but not so much that I'm wired when I get home. Half a cup has seemed to work, but sometimes, like on Sunday, I still don't sleep well. Maybe being too caffeinated is preventing me from slowing down to think, so I might try to give up coffee.

I rarely drink alcohol when I play, except for my few sessions a year in Vegas where it's free. I have noticed that it helps alleviate some of the boredom that can set it in during a card dead stretch. I'm not claiming it's a playing aid in any way, other than I'm less bored folding for hours when I'm drunk. Speaking of Vegas, it's looking like June 23rd thru 26th this year. It's still a ways off, but I'm starting to get excited!

A huge part of poker is trying our best to not let our ego get too out of hand. Plus trying to mentally handle the vast amount of mental mind ****s we'll go thru playing this game. If we do both better than most others, we'll probably do ok.

I got off to a great start in my first ~100 hours this year. But in my last 5 sessions / ~50 hours, all I've done is lose, setting a personal record of 5 straight losing sessions (I'll see if I can extend that record tonight). Thankfully this "downswing" has only been a lol ~300bb during this stretch (not even a 1/3rd of my biggest downswings) so nothing that'll keep me up at night much... yet. And of course, lol sample size; it'll all just end up being a very small blip on a very long lifetime giraffe.

The more I play, the more I realize my advantage over a decent amount of opponents is actually quite slim. A big part of things is to adjust my expectations appropriately. Winning, even in good games, is tough to do long term, mostly cuz we're not robots.

Ggoodluck!G

Good perspective GG. I've always been fortunate to never have experienced some of the worse downswings others in this game have shown. In live poker, this recent $1250 beats my worse swing by $25. I know from others that this is nothing. Even online, I think I had some 5k hand or so breakeven stretches, but in those games where edges were tight, other winning players would show some 50k or more stretches. I have always convinced myself, probably incorrectly, that live games were soft, and I was good enough, that I probably wouldn't have to deal with those types of swings.

Over a period of 7 sessions and 24 hours from March 3rd to March 25th, I was up $1600. In 4 sessions and 12 hours since then, I've given back $1250 of that. I guess I should be happy that I'm winning, but god if these last 4 sessions haven't been one gut punch after another.

I actually played really well last night, and made some top notch reads. I correctly folded both AA and QQ to a flush and trips after losing the minimum. I 4-bet QQ in another spot and got some decent action. It was just another session filled with beats, coolers, and card deadness, that summed up to a $210 loss.

The main cooler, which I possibly overplayed my hand a bit, was having A3s on a final board of AKKKJ. I knew one of the villains had QT and I had his straight beat. I originally read the other villain for the K, and probably could have saved $60 on this river, but f'd up and went with it. Other than that, I can at least say I'm really proud of the way I played last night.

Wow, so you've never been on a $1500 downswing!?! Nice! It actually took me quite a while for me to do that myself, but I'm guessing I've probably done it about a half dozen times now (too lazy to look at my records). At 1/3 NL, my biggest downswing is $2865, which I've done twice (to the dollar both times, lol). They felt brutal.

This is definitely one of my biggest leaks. And still having a very difficult time correcting it.

Last session out I (probably) misplayed QQ to the river all the way where it runs out 863hh9ddQddd, and after I check back the turn in a smallish SPR pot (as I say, pretty sure I misplayed every postflop street) my tightish opponent bets $125 into $190 on the river leaving just $95 back and I just snap call. I don't even think and consider my options. Thankfully he has TT and I don't cost myself (this time) against worse sets, but again, this leak just comes up all the time for me.

Gnotsurewhattodoaboutit,tbhG

I'm glad to report that I did not hit 5 losing sessions in a row. I booked a nice $233 win last night. Granted most of it was just me coolering someone with AA vs. his KK, with how dead I was the rest of the session, I'll take it.

Here's a hand that felt a bit like Deja Vu:

A couple limps to hero who makes it $14 with 88 OTB. Sometimes this is an overlimp, but I had seen the limpers limp/fold some, so it seemed like a good spot. It doesn't work, and a BB LAG and both limpers call.

Flop comes AA5. Checks to me. I *think* this is a good spot to bet. 88 benefits bigly from equity denial here. I think KK/QQ type hands can check this back, but in hindisght, 88 is probably a bet here. I end up checking.

Turn comes a 7. Not bad. BB bets $15, one of the limpers call. I feel like I'm getting sucked in, but I'm not folding.

River is another Ace. BB bets $45. This guy is pretty aggro. I should *probably* fold here, because I think he has some Ax and a lot of better overpairs. I'm really only beating some 7x and bluffs. I call. It was a bluff.

My one big losing hand was raising KK to $11 UTG. Both blinds call. Flop comes 246 rainbow. Checks to me and I bet $15. SB calls. BB jams for $115. BB is a bad LAG. Lots of straddling, and raising his straddle when it's limped to him. This is his first big postflop bet in a while though. Anyone folding? I didn't, and of course he has 62 and I don't catch up. Oh well.

Hopefully my downswing bottomed out and the climb continues.

Yeah, I just overlimp 88 here at loose tables. I also bet the 88 / check the KK/QQ as it is not nearly WA/WB and denying equity from a world of overcards (who can't call a flop bet) is fine. I'm fine with your calldown plan against this guy (heck, he could even be value betting a 7x).

Is the KK hand 1/2 or 1/3? Find I can't really comment on 1/2 as I'm not familiar with raise sizing / stack off thresholds, but at 1/3 it's kinda a dumb spot where we likely have to sigh call it off.

GcluelessrecreationalnoobG

The KK hand is 1/2. Although depending on the room/table/buyin, 1/2 and 1/3 can sometimes be indistinguishable from each other. A $400 1/2 game where a $15 preflop raise gets 2 to 3 callers is going to look like your average 1/3 game.

I feel the 1/3 structure is a bit better than 1/2 (there's a post about it in this thread somewhere) just because it does generate slightly bigger pot-sizes on the flop.

And what do you know. Very next session after this post, my room is bringing 1/3 back!

I booked another small win last night ($71). It appears the cardroom is trying to bring back a structure that they have long since advertised but I haven't seen run in over 5 years. It's a 1/3NL game where the initial max-buy is $500 but you can top up to the biggest stack at the table at any point. It's the same structure they use for PLO (which plays super-deep) but is fun for NL as well.

I bought in for $200 to get my feet wet. My first impressions were pretty good. I had definitely played at worse 1/2 tables. There were 4 or so fishy players donating pretty heavily. The rest of the table was playing fairly sLAG, but no one particularly had me concerned. I recognized almost everyone from 1/2. I had the previously mentioned main event 4th place finisher on my left, but his low stakes cash game left a lot to be desired. Lots of limp/calling.

Even the "good" players in this game were TAG fish. They played a pretty predictable exploitable style. It helped that one of the fish made it a point to comment on my tightness, so I used that to bluff my way through a few pots when I wasn't hitting. For the most part I was chipping up in small to medium sized pots. I did play one spot that seemed odd that I'll share.

I have 77 in the CO vs. a $6 btn straddle. BB limps, EP fish limps, I make it $30. Btn and EP limper calls.

Flop($90) j86

I'm not sure if this is a board I should be giving up on or not. There are definitely worse boards. I make it $50, btn folds, and EP calls. Turn is another J. He leads for $80. I've definitely seen him bluff with some garbage before, but this is not the hand for a calldown, and chuck it. The turn fold seemed pretty straightfoward, but I'm torn on the flop bet there. It's probably a give up on that board.

Another small win, I'll take it. I got stacked early when I ran QQ into AA (hand posted in LLSNL. I think the stacking was inevitable but I'll defer judgment).

I worked my way back getting lucky flopping a set with TT when a guy decided to slowplay KK against me. I won another good pot when I got in there in a raised straddle spot with 66, got a 345 flop, and managed to hold on and win against A high.

The hand of the night was this one though:

CO limps, and I limp the button with 89. SB completed, but BB makes it $10 more. CO folds, and I decide to get in there. We're about $350 deep. SB folds, and we go heads up to the flop.

Flop($25) 722. He c-bets $10. I'm not going away this easily. 2 overs and 2 backdoor draws, plus some solid float potential. He's going to have to try harder than this.

Turn($43)7226 He bets $15. Nope, not now. I make it $55, figuring I can scare away some overpairs. He thinks for a while and calls.

Turn($152)7226Q:diam ond:

He checks. Whelp, I can't check back 9 high. $100 it is. He quickly folds.

I know the V pretty well. He is a thinking player capable of making some good laydowns. The way he played it, I put him on a spade draw that whiffed. I would have at least expected him to consider calling with any value hands he called the turn with. I haven't pulled off any bluffs like this in a while, so it felt good to get in there with one.

Despite the early $200 stacking, I left up $51.

I'm going to do something I know I shouldn't soon, but I feel like I have to. I'm going to take a $200 shot at PLO. That game just looks too fun, and there is so much money on the table. I might not last 20 minutes from what I've heard, but who cares. I know it's a swingy game, and I"m nowhere near rolled for it with how deep it plays despite being 1/3, but I think the time has come. I've been playing 1/2 NL with almost no realistic chance of doing anything but this for years now. If I drop $200, so what. But there is a non-zero chance of running it up fast. The game does attract some of the better players in the room, but also the deep stacked gamblers.