I got absolutely destroyed by the whales yesterday and have noticed this has been a consistent problem for me. After 24k hand sample at 5nl at over 5 EV bb/100 and 6.5k additional hands at 2nl with the same win rate I decided to move up to 10nl with a $200 bankroll and lost 5 buy ins in one session.


I'm wondering if maybe I'm overfolding on the river. My fold to river cbet stat is over 70%. (My fold to flop and turn cbet are 51% and 43.5% respectively)

Anyway, here are some hands I played against the whales yesterday. Here are 3 online hands against 2 different players (both of which had 3 bet percentages >16 and were barreling far in excess of the typical 5 or 10nl reg):

This first hand, although villain had been very aggressive so far, I was not yet confident he was a true whale.


At the time, his flop cbet % was over 90%, and his turn and river cbets were 50-60% each. He also folds to flop and turn cbets under 1/3rd of the time:



Here is a second hand against this same villain. at the time, I didn't want to check raise turn because I didn't think I could be called by worse:






Here is a hand in the same session against a different villain, who is 55/36, 90% flop cbet, and 67% turn cbet, who has been check and reraising everyone a lot:



After this very long session I decided to slow things down to play live 1/2 at my local casino and was sat directly to the left of a whale, young middle eastern guy who limps most pots, and rarely pre flop raises. He was raising or check raising like 50% of flops, showing down with random **** like second pair after doing so at SD:



approx. 200 effective:

2 limpers, I have TT on cut off. I raise to 15. Only whale calls.


Flop: 8 6 5 (maybe FD, maybe rainbow, can't remember), I bet 23. Whale check raises to 50. I call. Flop comes 4. Whale bets again for some amount like 75. I fold


Another hand vs same guy, also 200 effective:


Only whale limps. I raise to 15 with AA on cut off. Flop comes K92 two spades. I bet 20 and he check raises me to 100, he has 82 behind. I shove

In my opinion I think one problem is categorizing these guys as 'whales' on the basis of being a bit looser and more aggressive than an average reg over a small/undefined sample size and without evidence of large exploitable mistakes on their part which you have a plan on how to exploit.

Re hands - First one tough, but I call. 2nd hand I raise/fold PF, not call. 3rd hand you played it well, but no doubt he shows a random 5 given the context of this thread.

On second hand I forgot to mention button only had a 6.7% 4 bet percentage vs 3 bets (I have over 2k hands on him, he is a reg) Both "whale" villains I had at least 100 hands on for each of these hands

Looks like you’re the whale with those hand histories.

Hand #1 call
Hand #2 fold preflop
Hand #3 3bet flop
Hand #4 ship flop
Hand #5 now you’re learning

It's nice to take a flop in position on the 3-bettor given Button's tendencies but I just really hate cold calling SB 3-bets from the BB. I'd like to do that with only a small range of hands so it gives away a lot of information, so I tend to fold or raise. If you have a balanced strategy incorporating these calls then fine, the way I play is no doubt not optimal.

4-bet here with KQ is a bluff but with blockers I kind of like it.

Yeah hand 2 is a near obligatory 4bet pre

Pretty much this.