PokerStars - 10/20 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 1,060
Hero (BB): 440

SB posts SB 10, Hero posts BB 20

Pre Flop: (pot: 30) Hero has 6 4

SB calls 10, Hero checks

Flop: (40, 2 players) 9 6 Q
Hero checks, SB bets 20, Hero calls 20

Turn: (80, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, SB bets 20, Hero raises to 80, SB raises to 1,020 and is all-in, Hero ?

oppo is unknown



2)
PokerStars - 10/20 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): 500
BTN: 490
SB: 510

SB posts SB 10, Hero posts BB 20

Pre Flop: (pot: 30) Hero has J 4

fold, SB calls 10, Hero checks

Flop: (40, 2 players) 9 A 7
SB checks, Hero bets 20, SB calls 20

Turn: (80, 2 players) 9
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (80, 2 players) K
SB bets 60, Hero raises to 120, SB raises to 470 and is all-in, Hero ?

oppos is unknown

call on both

hand 1:

I'm donking turn.

hand 2:

River raise size is definitely way to small. I can't imagine many guys bet/folding 9X to a jam. He has a ton more worse combos that are very likely to call off compared to the few combos that beat you.

As played, I'm calling off both.

thanks. Honestly I thought that these were marginal folds ( in particular the second one where I am about 25% against a flush).
The first I decided to miniraise because I don't think that many players would easily call a shove with 9 ( people don't bluff on flushy boards at my stakes (25s) usually)

Are you bluff-shoving exploitatively here if population is mostly folding 9X and worse?

Jup, Im also donking turn in the first one.

While I agree that in general people play way more carefully when flush hits, but than, it its like HokieGreg said, if you think they are so tight, are you jamming all your air vs this bet?

a few regs are very nitty, so you can do it

Consider that mini raise may be called ( in particular by recreational) even with a k or worse.
I don't think that shoving with complete air is good. I would do that with a flush blocker or some hands that may block a 9 ( t,8-)

A bet size being called more frequently does not mean it is the ideal value size.

If a player is bad enough to be 3/4 pot+calling KX here, that seems like the kind of player that can never find a fold with 9X to a larger size.

Blockers are overrated. Having a blocker or not only changes frequencies a pretty small amount.

I agree here.

What I love about hold 'em, is that you can do whatever you want even without equity.

Blockers matter a lot in PLO, but in NLH, you can run no equity bluffs on three streets. You can even bluff raise the river with nothing (zero blockers).

What I am trying to say is, that if you know, that people play certain spots too exploitatively, you can adjust by overdoing certain things.

For instance, if you know, that people rarely bluff when they triple barrel (in general, there are still some boards, that should be called down quite light), you should consider folding even quite strong hands.

For example if the board runs something like: AK5 9 4 and villain triples, you should fold even your weakest Ax. Btw, it's a rainbow board, there's no FD possible otf/ott.

Why are we supposed to call down tight on such board? Because villain has a nut advantage (talking about SRP pot) and he won't have many bluffs in his range.

But I am not good at theory tbh, I just lears as I go.

Keep posting the spots, it's cool that we can discuss it here.

I am going to post some hands, too. Feel free to contribute.

Oh another thing, that none888 pointed out a while ago. If you know, that people have very weak ranges in some part of their game tree, just exploit it hard.

For example: if people usually cbet their strong hands, draws and so on, you can expect them to check back a lot of weak pairs, Ahi, Khi, air... so when you probe vs this range ott, you will get a lot of folds. And the part of villain's range that will continue will be usually very weak, so they can't stand two barrels of aggression.

There's a lot to cover, but I am still not certain in many spots. I mean, I am always looking for the threshold - so I ask myself - would they call here with XX or not? And then I see villain calling me down with marginal hand, so I immediately mark him as a calling station and I widen my value range. Especially, when I see some one calling me with very weak hand on wet board, where there's a flush and straight possible.

I see thanks, I think that blockers are also a way to avoid spewing too much ( at least for me).
about small river raises. Do you think this is a good spot to do it?

PokerStars - 10/20 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 500
SB: 500
BB: 500

SB posts SB 10, BB posts BB 20

Pre Flop: (pot: 30) Hero has K Q

Hero raises to 40, fold, BB calls 20

Flop: (90, 2 players) A 7 3
BB checks, Hero bets 45, BB calls 45

Turn: (180, 2 players) Q
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (180, 2 players) K
BB bets 90, Hero raises to 180, BB calls 90

Hero shows K Q (Two Pair, Kings and Queens)
(Pre 42%, Flop 3%, Turn 11%)
BB mucks A 6 (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 58%, Flop 97%, Turn 89%)
Hero wins 540

That seems more reasonable to me, but I'd just be trying to pick the size that AX is likely to call. I think you can probably go a little bigger. Half pot sizing there can also be super capped for some players in this spot bc they put flush into larger sizing. If villain had bet ~pot on river, I'm just calling.

Also, I prefer a smaller flop sizing on this board. Almost everyone plays worse vs the smaller sizings. Doesn't matter a ton though.

OK thanks. I didn't raise bigger because didn't want to be committed ( would have folded against a shove)

I was curious and put this in crew and actually this is not a simple spot.

In short, if you are playing nit you should raise small/fold to jam and also jam all your air.

As soon as you think you cant jam all your air (he needs to call more than 25% of the time) than jamming this is best, even if he calls minraise 100% of the time.
And I gave villain very generous amount of nuts - 40%, jam is still better.

To me it seems its pretty much impossible to estimate how much they fold vs jam, also what HokieGreg said that villain could be very capped with this sizing, so you could also exploitatively raise small value and jam air, but they could be stations and call a lot making bluffing bad and jamming very good, there are a lot of IFs, looks like a very good spot to play gto, even vs fish.

Thanks. Do you mean that we should shove gto 100% of our air and value here? Isn't it too unbalanced?

I mean we should play gto otr as without reads it prob will give you best ev.
Shove for value what gto shoves and try to bluff what gto bluffs.
That wont be 100% of our air.
As for this hand, Im not familiar with SB ranges but Id say this hand is a jam, just because SB has to call plenty of weaker hands to deny us bluffing 100%

Table '3208421213 1' 3-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: pensodasolo (643 in chips)
Seat 2: bluetiger85 (857 in chips)
pensodasolo: posts small blind 10
bluetiger85: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pensodasolo [As 2d]
pensodasolo: calls 10
bluetiger85: checks
*** FLOP *** [2s Kh 2c]
bluetiger85: checks
pensodasolo: checks
*** TURN *** [2s Kh 2c] [Ac]
bluetiger85: bets 20
pensodasolo: calls 20
*** RIVER *** [2s Kh 2c Ac] [Ks]
bluetiger85: bets 80
pensodasolo:...

2X unlikely to pot size bet this river. We block a lot of the combos we can possibly get thin value from with a small raise. I think I like a small raise vs a ~half pot bet, but flatting pot size. More 2X and less KX in half pot sizing, and maybe some AX going for v thin value.

i would never raise against that size either, but according to the solver it is a 100% raise

yea, its a weird solver spot.