How to you feel about limping with small pairs and suited connectors, in any position? Lets say for 25nl and under FR, and multiple limpers aready in pot.

Hoping for a monster hand of course.

Hey wcgrider, I just got the book "Getting Started in Hold' Em" by Ed Miller
and read through the short stack stratergy section. I gave it a shot and was pretty
successful but I found myself in trouble when I become "mid stacked" (~35-60bbs?).
I usually play 100bbs so this stack size is pretty awkard for me. Any tips and
anys idea where I can get info on how to play mid stacked, specifically any written text/books or threads? I've tried using the search function buts its really hard !

Thanks

You guys are going have to wait a month or so.

Hey WCG, I know you're crazy busy right now, but if you happen to be browsing, can you explain the $2 open you are using at 25nl while you 24 table instead of the standard $1?

Is this for the sake of the challenge to build pots faster or w/e and how successful is it?

How do i picck up tells live, when they seem stonefaced?

Hello. I' am playing NL Holdem FR micro stakes (10 NL) and would like to know what hands should i play on what position? There was a good Ed Miller's teaching in his blog, but it isn't there anymore.

Maybe anyone can advise some books or internet pages for that ? What hands to play in what position in what circumstances and how, preflop i mean.
Thanks.

WCGRider, when you first started taking poker seriously (not professional), how did you manage to "play properly" and avoid the normal distractions of being at home?

For example, my B&M Winrate is much much better than Online. Obviously it's possible the players are worse, but to me getting dressed, driving to the casino, sitting at the tables puts me on my A-Game.

However, when I play online. Most of my sessions I take seriously and have a decent winrate, but when I am bored, tired, hungry or something, my game takes a MASSIVE turn and and I can lose a lot.

My thoughts to solving this is to have two online sites. One for when I really, really want to play properly (not tired, enough sleep, eaten) and the other for micro 1c/2c stakes where I can relax, have a couple beers and pass the time. Maybe even have the Football on TV.

Is this okay? What are your thoughts on the general subject?

Thanks,
Moya

Hey Doug
Congratulations on trying so hard in your prop bet. Tough luck.

In your challenge you seemed to make squillions during EST night but struggled to breakeven during the day.

I have the same problem! I can make $20 per hour 8-tabling NL25 consistently during EST night ~8pm to 2am but outside these hours I can't find many if any loose tables and struggle to break even. My blind steals and raises get 3-bet a lot more and I feel like I'm being outplayed. Players won't stack off with TP but I still do sometimes especially with AK/AQ!

My stats are 13/8 over 53,000+ hands. My ATS is 33% My winrate is only 1.5ptBB/100 overall but only because I keep taking shots outside EST night. Each shot I've lost 4-buyins over 6 hours before I stop. One session I tried raising ATC on EVERY Btn,CO & HJ EVERY orbit on EVERY table and I was making nearly $10 an orbit across the 8 tables but then I'd overplay a hand and stack off and end up breakeven or down again.

So, my questions:
1.How do I beat the tight regulars that infest the EST day time?
2.If I can only beat the night, is that good enough to beat NL50 at night? (I feel as if I can't move up until I can beat NL25 daytime consistently).

Thks

Tim

When u wake up wit Aces on the button, and before u there is a limp, raise and a 3 bet,

what will u need to do now? Move in?

Ok 25c / 50c blinds

Lets say you hold KT spades and you raise 4x from the button everyone folds and the big blind calls.... now flop comes

(pot currently is $4.25)

Js 9c 3h

Villain donks $3 at you he is unknown no reads what do you do?? do you call this and hope he checks turn and try to steal it... do you raise it?? its already a decent amount bet so raising might be spew or do you just lay it down? This situation happens frequently and I am just wondering your opinion on this

What is EV and how do you use it i've read alot of posts and answers saying they had positive ev hands. How do they know? Is there a list of positive EV hands? There is alot of talk about what the other players holdings are but how do you know if he is pushing with junk or good hands if you fold and dont see his cards? I've only played SnGs and some tourneys.
If for instance i have a king on a king high flop and bet and he calls because he has an ace and an ace comes on the turn did he have positive EV or me i dont really understand how it works.

Why would u raise 4x BB with KT suited pre flop anyways?? Unless ur just trying to gamble. I can't see you raising 4 x BB just to steal the blinds. Not knocking your playing at all just mainly curious. To me KTs is to weak to raise 4 x BB the only reason I could come up with is to steal the blinds but ur risking 2.00 for .75 cents and if someone reraises with a big pair who was waiting for someone like you to raise what do you do?

If everyone folds to me when Im on the button Im raising KT suited almost 100% of the time. I will raise 75 suited+, 34 suited+, any pp, unsuited connecters as low as 56, unsuited 1 gap as low as 8T, and any 2 cards T or better in this situation.

From what I have read this is pretty standard. I could be wrong but it seems to work for me.

3-4 BB is a standard raise preflop. The big hands you're worried about (let's say TT-AA, AK) represent less than 3.5% of a player's possible holdings. If we steal 75 cents every time neither blind has that 3.5% and lose $2 every time one of them does, we will come out hugely ahead. KT suited figures to be the best hand against two random hands by a large margin. It wins over 44.5% of the time against two random hands. Furthermore, a lot of the hands that beat us will find it difficult to play out of position. For instance, 66 is a small favourite, but will often find it difficult to get to showdown against the pressure we are able to put on him postflop on flops like ATx.

I dont understand how any of this makes sense?

First off. 3$ into a 4.25$ is a donk bet now?? Guess I better increase my value betting.

Lets see. Villian called a 4x BB raise from an obviously overaggressive button/on the steal player.

You have what with this hand? A back door straight and flush draw. So..2 outs. MAYBE an overcard draw since a bet like with no reads puts his range @ 88-AA,AJ,KJ,QJ,J10 and less likely 33. So at the most you have 5 outs. And with this bet I assume you have 2(1 for each of the backdoor draws).

Are you deciding whether or not to call with King high and a double backdoor?
What exactly do you play on doing on the next betting round?
Lets say your king comes on the turn... ~7% of the time.
Lets say when your king comes that 7% of the time, 60% of the time it actually is an out. (The other times he would have been holding 33, 99, KJ, AA) The other 40% of the time you are paying off a bigger hand.

Lets look at the other possible holdings.
AJ - You might get paid off a little but the K might scare him enough to drop the hand.
QJ - He has now picked up a straight draw and will either draw out and beat you or you will get paid off slightly if he doesn't hit his draw on the river.
J10 - This hand will fold after a call and a bet I assume. no implied odds here.

I dont see how a call can be profitable. If can put him on an underpair such as 88 or 10's. or J10. A raise might give you some FE here, but other than that. No.

It's a donk bet because the blind called OOP and bet into the raiser, not because it's a bad bet.

Oh, I forgot to answer the hand.

No? Take a look at the hand again.

I would call close to 100% of the time here. The nut gutshot has a bunch of implied odds and the overcard and backdoor flush draw add a bunch of value as well. I am also intending to bet or raise my opponent off his hand fairly frequently later on.

The most likely hands I expect to see from my opponent are nines (A9, K9), draws (QT) and ordinary jacks (JT). I expect to see sets rarely. Mostly they checkraise because a bet is too likely to catch me with AK, AQ, 88 etc.

duplicate

1. So your going to draw ~6:1, hell be optimistic and say 5:1 while getting ~2.5:1 Pot odds....
2. He didn't check. He led out.
3. Backdoor draws add an out each at most
4. You are playing on raising an opponent off a hand who
a. called a 4x raise OOP
b. Bet 2/3 the pot back into the raiser on the flop
c. You have king high.

k.
The only possible option is a raise, fold to push. If you think hes not on a hand. A call is ridiculous.

Have you ever called with only a gut shot when getting the wrong odds?

If not I recomend doing it occasionally. If you hit and get a big pot everyone at that table thinks your a moron calling station. Plus a lot of times the person you hit against gets pissed off and goes on monkey tilt.

Doesnt sound too -EV of a play to me if you do it occasionally.

I understand your metagame thinking here...

But look at it this way. The hands you are putting him on, Do you really have the implied odds to call? How many times you hit one of your backdoors or gutshots will he actually call? If he is strong enough to call after you hit now you have horrible odds.

If he is too weak to call when you hit, you are not getting implied odds to call with this. And if you don't showdown the hand you lost your entire metagame point. IMO. Raise 3x BB folded to you @ Cutoff/BT no matter if you have a hand or not. If you get resistance and dont have a hand. LET IT GO. Calling a gutshot here might surprise him if you hit, but the infrequency of you hitting compared with the infrequency of him having a strong enough hand to call a push by you (to balance out the implied odds). Makes this a -EV play always.

If you are going to chase gutshots, do it in multiway pots for cheap odds. Timing more than theory matters here.

I agree I'd fold here 95% of the time. I dont like calling with a gut shot when my gut shot is an over card like in this case. It will be a scare card for TPTK type hands. Even if hero had KQ here the T is still not a good card if his opponent has AJ. AJ cant like a 69TJ board that much. So I probably wouldnt be calling with any gut shot on this hand.

I was just playing devils advocate and giving another reason that calling isnt as bad as it looks.

Understand your logic and agree with it.

The only thing I was trying to convey was that if you are planning on calling. Raising 2x the initial bet would be a smarter play. If he pushes you can fold losing less bets then you would on a call strategy since the size of a bet will ratio exponentially with each betting round.

If he has a weak holding like A9 or 88 he will be forced to fold or cold call, and check on the turn. Which will buy you a free card for these crazy draws and not force you to commit money into the pot before knowing the final results. This would also make you more money on your draw because of the simple fact after a check check on the turn he might be confident enough to bet into you. Where you could put in a min or 2x raise and give him odds to call, all while getting more chips in when you were a favorite than an underdog.

I would fold why put more money into a pot where your odds aren't good and if your thinking about betting how much of a bet were you thinking about making?
And if he called your 4xBB bet what makes you think he wont call another one and if you do bet again and he calls and you miss then what? Your toast thats what now it cost you say $8.00 when all you were trying to do is make .75 cents.

See what I mean but there's tons of ppl on here that play way much better than me but I'm just not gonna raise 4x the BB and I'm an tight aggressive type player for the most part maybe thats why I dont raise. I can understand a single raise to build the pot and if I hit I may wait for him to bet which if you check he probably will because he did call ur 4xBB bet and now hes gonna sence your weakness even if you hit 2 pair I would check he won't put you on it but hey this is just my thinking on what I would do.