Hand #1
Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $2.98
Hero (BB): $1.55
UTG: $4.43
UTG+1: $8.66
UTG+2: $1.18
MP1: $0.50
MP2: $0.26
CO: $1.91
BTN: $1.04

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BB with A Q
UTG raises to $0.22, 7 folds, Hero calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.45) 8 A 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.45, UTG raises to $1.34, Hero calls $0.88 all in

Turn: ($3.11) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($3.11) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $3.11
Hero shows A Q (three of a kind, Aces)
UTG shows 8 8 (a full house, Eights full of Aces)
UTG wins $2.96
(Rake: $0.15)

Hand #2
Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

CO: $7.62
BTN: $4.69
SB: $2.78
Hero (BB): $2.00
UTG: $5.02
UTG+1: $1.34
UTG+2: $4.15
MP1: $0.95
MP2: $1.11

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BB with 8 8
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.02, UTG+2 raises to $0.08, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.08, 2 folds, SB calls $0.07, Hero calls $0.06, UTG+1 calls $0.06

Flop: ($0.40) 4 4 A (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.06, UTG+2 folds, MP2 folds, SB folds, Hero calls $0.06

Turn: ($0.52) J (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, UTG+1 calls $0.50

River: ($1.52) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.70 all in, Hero calls $0.70

Final Pot: $2.92
Hero mucks 8 8
UTG+1 shows A 6 (two pair, Aces and Fours)
UTG+1 wins $2.82
(Rake: $0.10)

#1: his raise was obviously too big so it seemed like he had bluffed. he raised preflop with Ax(some crap). i guess i shouldn't have bet on flop

#2: table was loose so i limped in with 88(probably bad move). what was his .06 raise on flop about? i guess i should have reraised. i take these bets as "check"

more generaly, what would you do if you face:
1)excessively big bet on flop
2)excessively small bet on flop

*edit*
another "type-1" hand:

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: $3.00
UTG+1: $5.00
UTG+2: $2.27
MP1: $8.82
Hero (MP2): $2.32
CO: $3.79
BTN: $0.55
SB: $0.93
BB: $4.81

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP2 with 9 9
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $0.02, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.08, 3 folds, BB calls $0.06, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.19) 3 4 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.20, BB raises to $1.92, Hero raises to $2.24 all in, BB calls $0.32

Turn: ($4.67) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($4.67) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $4.67
Hero mucks 9 9
BB shows A 5 (a straight, Deuce to Six)
BB wins $4.47
(Rake: $0.20)

It's pretty hard to answer these, especially hand 3, without some information on your opponents, but...

Hand 1 the preflop call is bad. If your hand is good against his range, reraise; if it's not, don't call off an eighth of your stack out of position. Also it makes no sense to hit your hand on the flop and then bet an amount designed to make him fold most worse hands. You need to get money out of worse hands, this is probably best accomplished by checkraising.

Hand 2 the minimum bet is pretty stupid looking but has to be taken somewhat seriously against three opponents on such a dry board. Most likely it means he has an ace but is worried about the kicker, however there's no predicting what he will do against a raise. I would probably call once in case he's kidding around and because there's some value in turning an 8, but fold is OK too. I wouldn't raise as you're probably launching a multistreet bluff which at this limit isn't that great a plan.

Hand 3 cbet less and probably fold to the raise. Really I need to know something about how the opponent plays as I would autofold to some and auto stack off to others. In general though your equity sucks in this spot. You're either going to be looking at hands that you're essentially even money against (55, 54, A3s etc) or at hands like sets or straights which are crushing you.

Reraise preflop on Hand 1.


Hand 3. He seems really strong with his Flop play, I would think he has a set. Fold on flop.

HAND 1:

Fold pre-flop.

As played I'd check/call or check/raise all-in on the flop. What you did isn't bad I don't think.




HAND 2:

I could get calling the flop given the guy's ridiculous sizing. I guess it's actually possible you're getting implied odds to draw to a 2 outer though I didn't check the numbers. But why do you decide to lead the turn like that? What do you think is going to happen? Check again ... and probably fold. Folding the flop certainly wouldn't be a mistake especially in a 4way pot here.




HAND 3:


Ah .... might be fine against people at 2NL. Depends on the player and I don't know anything about him.

Just want to add that you should typically fold hand 1 preflop, I would only reraise if UTG was loose and bad.

Agree with the thinking here so far...just to note, I'm brand new to this and am still trying to figure out my style.

Hand 1 - fold that pre-flop. If you have reason to believe that UTG is loose then I guess the call was OK, but definitely fold after the raise on the flop since you didn't catch anything. If this guy is even close to a reasonable player then his bets mean something (I wouldn't have expected a set but two pair seemed likely). If he's a true maniac (which he probably is given that opening), then wait till you have the nuts and take him down hard. It hurts a little to lay down at first, but taking his stack at the end makes it so worthwhile.

Hand 2 - call on the flop was good to me since you had a lot of people playing and the money was there (decent expressed odds, deep stacks behind). That said, you missed the flop so get out of the hand. In micro, I starting to find that min bets on the flop usually mean top pair, weak kicker and a half-pot-sized check raise (0.30) could have scared him off without costing you too much. Plus, that kind of bet can serve to mix up your table image, especially if you have to lay the hand down afterwards.

Hand 3 - the joys of micro...it's tough to rule any hand out since ranges tend to be wide and A/x is a hand you can consistently expect someone to call a raise with pre-flop (out of position, no less). Make the cbet for half to 3/4 the pot to scare away the air and lay down the pair at the raise for a better opportunity.

Best piece of advice I've learned in my short time playing...small hands are meant for small pots, large hands for large pots (Harrington on NL cash games vol. 1). A pair is rarely a large hand. Yes, this can be interpreted as weak but it also helps me to not force a hand to be something it isn't (which caused a ton of losses for me very early on).