I've been playing the 40/80 at Canterbury. Games have been great, but I have very little experience and just want feedback if anyone wants to offer. These are all hands I played this morning. I might make a little thread here with my hands if people want to respond--if that's bad, please let me know and I'm happy to do one hand threads or not post.

Hand 1:
HJ (lhe pro) opens. I 3! 77 on btn. BB (mixed game pro) calls. HJ calls. (pot=380)
Flop=9s7s5s. I bet, BB raises, HJ folds, I 3!. (pot=620)
Turn=8h. BB leads. I call. (pot=780)
River=Jc. BB leads. Hero calls. (pot=940) (I'm assuming this is just a fold, but, for the sake of transparency, I called)

Hand 2:
SB (solid LHE pro) raises. I defend TsTh in BB. (pot=160) (I've been mixing my 3 bets in the big blind and today hearts are just calling- Because I feel like the strength of my 3! range is face up-- is this too stupid with a vulnerable hand like TT?).
Flop 2h3s5h. SB bets. I call. (pot=240)
Turn=9x. SB bets. I raise. SB calls. (pot=560)
River is 3h. SB leads. Hero calls.(pot=740)

Hand 3:
LJ (mixed game pro) raises. HJ (weak reg) 3!. I flat AhQs on btn. LJ calls. (pot=420)
Flop=9h5h3h. LJ and HJ check. I bet. Call, call. (pot=560)
Turn=7x. LJ and HJ check. I bet. Call, call. (pot=800)
River=3x. LJ and HJ check. I check behind.

Hand 4:
Btn (solid LHE pro) raises btn. I 3! Jd8d from SB. BB (very solid pro) flats. Btn 4!. I call, BB calls. (pot=480)
Flop=7h6d3h. c/c. Btn bets. I call. BB calls. (pot=600).
Turn Js. c/c. Btn bets. I call. BB folds. (pot=760).
River=3d. I check. Btn checks back.

Hand 1: with HJ folding the flop, I prefer to just call the flop c/r and raise safe turns. If HJ called 2 cold, then 3! is fine. As played, river call is fine, your hand is too strong to fold. BB may have 55, two pair or some type of combo draw (As9x, As8x, etc) that you beat.

Hand 2: ok

Hand 3: cap or fold pre

Hand 4: I'd fold flop. You aren't closing the action and your overcard outs may not be good. If you think your overcard outs are good, then why not c/r the turn when you catch the offsuit J?

I think when you write “mixed game pro” most people are going to take that as “solid LHE player”, which is usually not the case. In any event don’t fold the river in hand one and 4 bet hand 3 (cold calling probably the worst option).

The other two seemed fine, although I don’t think you really need to “mix up” BvB play just 3 bet and good things happen

1) good

2) you should be three betting pre pretty wide so tt is a raise for me here. You should raise like A3s and kt I like a flop raise instead of turn, but whatever.

3) really hate the cold call pre. You should have no call range here. Just 4 bet. Not sure I bet turn here.

4) I fold pre but whatever. Rest is well played.

This is definitely true. I'm pretty new to the area, and it's surprising how variable some of the 40/80-mix regs are at straight holdem.


Yeah, I read a book that advocated flatting your entire BB continuing range against a single raise, so mixing was a middle-ground decision. It's probably unnecessary.

If you play between 6am and 2pm, I'm sure we've played together.

Hand 1 -- River is a call and it is not particularly close IMO, although I expect to lose often.

Hand 2 -- You should generally be three-betting enough hands that you don't need to be worried that your hand is face up when you do so, nor do you need to really worry about protecting your calling range. I suspect the book you read was suggesting just calling in the BB HU against a single raise in situations other than blind vs. blind. When you're the BB in a blind battle, you have position and generally the SB will have a very wide range, both of which (a) limit the extent to which you need to protect your calling range by calling with everything, and (b) allow you to 3! a lot more hands than you could OOP vs a tighter range, allowing your 3! range to be less faceup.

Hand 3 -- Agree with others; raise or fold. I'd only be folding against snug ranges.

Hand 4 -- This is a fold pre, especially against the described villains. I think the rest of the hand has some close decisions, but you played it fine.

See y'all whenever I get my shot.

That advice is not when raise is from small blind and you have position.

Hand 1: I play the same way.
Hand 2: 3bet preflop. As played, seems fine.
Hand 3: Fold pre. As played I think bet or check on the river is fine. Betting folds out ak with kh. I doubt it works that often but it doesn't have to.
Hand 4: I play the same way.

Edit: Looking at other answers I think hand 2 is better to raise flop too. Still seems fine after the flop though.

Hand #1: It's usually best to call the flop raise once it is heads up and wait until the turn to face villain with a big, turn-sized raise. This is just a general rule in LHE when in position heads up... almost always wait until the turn to put in a raise regardless of the previous action. The river is not even remotely close to being a fold. Villain could easily have 2 pair looking for value from an overpair, for example.

Hand #2: Always calling in the BB makes sense when ranges are tighter and we are out of position. But Blind vs. blind, it is definitely best to use a 3-betting strategy. And TT is a hand that needs to be 3bet 100% of the time. Most pros will raise you 60-75% of the time here. Never fold and 3bet a ton. With ranges so wide, we can 3bet stuff like Q8s and 64s (or even looser) to make sure we are balanced. The rest of the hand looks good.

Hand #3: Cold-calling 3bets makes no sense here. If the 3bettor is super tight to the point that you think he might only have pocket pairs and AQ+, you can make a rare fold here. But otherwise, just 4bet. The rest of the hand is fine since you often have the best hand.

Hand #4: This looks fine. I don't usually 3bet J8s from the SB, but it is not bad or anything. Peeling the flop looks good due to our backdoors.



More generally, I would recommend working harder on your reads. It always baffles me when people describe their opponents as "solid LHE pro" or "weak reg". It is like some sort of disease in this forum. A "solid LHE pro" could be a TAG or a LAG. The word "solid" make me think of a boring ABC TAG, but I have no way to know if that is what you mean... especially when you describe another pro as "very solid". A "weak reg" sounds like a semi-loose player who doesn't 3bet very much and probably does some cold-calling, but again I have no way to know what you mean.

Unguarded, really disagree with always waiting till turn to raise heads up. It is totally opponent and board dependent. I like the flop three bet here because 1) there is nothing to say he bets turn for sure if he has AsX 2) if we are behind will lose more waiting 3) there are times we want to three bet to give us opportunity to check behind 4) there are tones we want to get value in now because turn changes our equity

Hand 1) call flop. As played raise the turn. I would just call flop intending to raise non spade turns both HU and MW. Easy call on the river.

hand 2) You 3 bet the TT's for it's strength not it's vulnerability. You should have a wide 3 bet range in position against a wide opening range. I like the flop and turn. I'm tempted to raise the river. You've underrepped your hand preflop. I think a solid pro will check raise a flush or a 3. I'd expect the pro to 3 bet bigger pairs on the turn. If you can fold to a 3 bet then that may be the play. If not then just call.

Hand 3) cap pre. bet turn.

Hand 4) I tighten up a pip or two against a solid pro open on the button when OOP. I would fold J9s but would 3b JTs. I don't know about the flop peel. What range do you put the capper on? You still have a player behind who is good and called three pre flop. You may have some reverse implied odds if you continue.

What does weak reg mean anyway? Because if it means weak-tight aq is a turbo muck.

I’d bet that book is referring to someone opening CO or Btn and it folding to you in the BB. I like flatting 100% in that scenario a lot better, not BvB.

And yeah we’ve played together some

If it's at canterbury its safe to assume everyone playing is bad

Hmm. This is interesting. I'm gonna guess VT?
Although I'm hoping it's Leach or Kane (the poorly described "solid pros" that I was sitting between) and you're screwing with me.

For sure. But I play even more bad and need to work my way up to the field.

Hi Toastr:

I haven't read the rest of the thread so I may be repeating what some others have said.

Hand #1: There's no reason th 3bet the flop. Your opponent should bet into you on the turn, and as long as a safe card comes you can raise there. Other than that, I would call on both the turn and the river as you did.

Hand #2: I wouldn't trap before the flop with a pair of tens. By 3 betting you should catch your opponent playing a very wide range and you can often get your opponent to fold to your flop bet which is often in your best interest. Given that you didn't 3bet before the flop, the rest of the hand looks fine to me. Even if you know that this particular opponent hardly ever bluffs in this spot, the spot is very large compared to his bet. By the way, if your opponent raised from any other position, then calling with the pair of tens would be correct. (See The Intelligent Poker Player by Philip Newall for an explanation.)

Hand #3: While not as clear, I think you're better off folding before the flop. However, if you don't fold, you should take it to 4 bets. I think your check on the river is correct. No hand, including AK, that beats you is likely to fold. Also, when you bet the flop, given its size, no one is likely to fold, so I would also check there. In addition, your flop bet makes it less likely you'll pick up the pot with a turn bet.

Hand #4: I don't like this hand at all. There's no reason play before the flop. I do agree that if you're going to play the jack-eight suited should be 3bet.

Best wishes,
Mason

If you read The Intelligent Poker Player by Philip Newall, he has you always calling from the big blind against a single raiser who is not in the small blind. Against the small blind, he'll make a lot of three bets.

Best wishes,
Mason

Mason, hand number 3 is a pure equity bet on the flop with two overs and the nut draw.

Seems like there's a consensus about folding J8s in hand 4. What is the minimum equity you need in the SB against a button open?

Hi fingers:

You're right. I didn't see that the flop was all hearts.

Best wishes,
Mason

this dave p?

did you do all this while wearing a mask? if so, do something else