Brand new table first hand. I’m in the cutoff with Qs, Qh. Effective stacks 200 in a 1-2 game. I raise 10. Button calls, small blind reraises to 45. Everyone folds. I call thinking I’ll fold if overs flop, otherwise im committed. Flop is 3,5, 8 two hearts. SB goes all in. I call. I’m head he’s shows 3,4h. Hits flush I bust on the first hand. New card room in Dallas. Legality questionable. City blessed it, State hasn’t interfered.
1. Did I do anything wrong
2. Should I be suspicious of the card room. I don’t know how it’s regulated. Am I just being paranoid.
3. I’m disgusted, I leave after that one had due to fear of tilt and suspicion of something. Are my suspicions unfounded.

Thanks in advance.

Thats texas poker now. So many are willing to gamble and push with napkins.


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How do you beet this game? Is it just like playing bingo?

Used to be play solid poker and choose your spots, but now it seems every pot is getting bloated so its hard to just wait them out.

I usually just try to play solid hands and charge the **** out of draws on the turn.

Still don't win as much as you theoretically should, but hopefully win big when your hands hold up.

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To answer your questions

1. No, I don't think so. 1/2 live(I assume) you flop a QQ over pair with an SPR of 2. The shove looks suspicious, since KK+ probably tries to extract value.

2. No. What happened to you is called variance. Part of the game.

3. The best thing you did was leave when you felt your emotions might get in the way, but yes, your suspicions are unfounded.

Play just like you did in the previous hand. Repeat that same situation 1,000 times and you make a lot of money.




2.

This. You should be happy if you find players like this because they cannot help but lose money to you in the long run.
Variance happens. That's why you should make sure you're properly bankrolled for the size of game you're playing - so that you don't have to worry about variance taking you out before you can reach the 'long run'.

On the flop you were essentially tied.

Self-Anlysis: I should have three-bet all in pre-flop. If he had AA or KK, so be it. What do you think?

Yes, I realize on the flop villain had enormous equity. That’s why I fear my lack of 3-bet shove pre-flop was my mistake. I see villain played it right from the flop. Probably not pre-flop.

Terrible idea. Why do you want villain the fold hands you dominate?

You played this hand nearly perfectly. The result of this single iteration is irrelevant.

You need to get over believing you "deserve" to win a pot every time you have a premium pair.

What are you trying to do? You have the third best starting hand possible. You should be trying to do one of the following:
1. Get as much action as possible
2. Set up a trap for a more aggressive player for later streets
3. Get it all in if you think you will get called

At this point, none of your thought process should be 'I need to bet big to run out 34s because they might flop a draw and then outdraw me.' You absolutely want those weak, squirrelly hands in, because there are a lot of flops that are just wet enough that those guys will call your subsequent value bets.

So, calling is fine here. 4 betting is only OK if you have a read on the villain and think he will call with big aces or smaller pairs. QQ is not a hand you want to protect.

OP, I understand your concern about playing in an unregulated room. There is a lot that can happen in such an environment to screw you, but this hand is not evidence of anything. Even preflop, 34s has just under 21% equity against QQ. If you play this spot 5 times, you should win roughly 4; this time was just the other one. Nothing suspicious at all about a hand with 21% equity winning. It happens all the time (or more accurately about one out of every five hands on average).

As for how to beat this game, you already did. When you got a 40bb bet called by an opponent with 21% equity, you generated an EV of 23.2 BB. Unless your emotions truly would have prevented you from continuing to play well, the point where you failed to beat the game was when you left the table.

One of the most difficult aspects of learning poker is that the feedback you get from implementing a strategy is not a good indicator of the quality of that strategy. You can play perfectly and lose your stack. You can play horribly and double up. This hand is a good example of that. Try to focus on your decisions, not results. Make good decisions and results will come eventually.

Given that you are inexperienced and likely to make mistakes on future streets it's probably best to just ship preflop when you know you have a strong hand. Vs this villain, he wins if he gets the better hand or if an Ace or a King flop because you will fold to his cbet.

You're definitely being paranoid. I'm not sure which poker room this is but the main poker room in Dallas is more professionally run than the rooms in Vegas, IMO. I've definitely seen more shady stuff in Vegas, but even then I think shadiness is rare. Since the card rooms in Texas are in a legal gray area, they are incentivized to provide an even safer gaming environment than your avg casino poker room (of course it's still all dependent on how well the room is run).

If it were an underground game, then that's a whole different discussion.

What you experienced was playing against a true gambler. In Texas there are a lot of gamblers, and this makes the games good but it also makes them play bigger. I've lost $1500 in a Dallas 1/2 game in like 45 minutes all to the same guy in like 6 or 7 pots. You probably won't experience that, but losing $200 is not a big deal. If you think it is, then you aren't really rolled to be playing in this game. If you feel like your game is playing too big, ask for a table transfer to another 1/2 game.


Study study study. Experience experience experience.