This hand sums up all my problems at uNL HU matches. How do I play vs droolers in these spots?

Poker Stars $2.00+$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10/t20 Blinds - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): t1020 M = 34
BTN/SB: t1980 M = 66

Pre Flop: (t30) Hero is BB with 7 7
BTN/SB calls t10, Hero raises to t120, BTN/SB calls t100

Flop: (t240) 5 8 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t200, BTN/SB calls t200

Turn: (t640) T (2 players)


Villain was 85/13, which is pretty representative of all players at this limit. Should I raise more pre for value, b/c these guys just refuse to ever fold? Should I just open shove and let him call with A4 or whatever he so desperately wants to see a flop with as is almost always the case?

There is no bet large enough to shake them from any hand, and in situations like this im not sure if I should be value betting, pot controlling, or semi-bluffing. But it seems like every time I take a passive route with pot control every possible bad cards hits on the river and I let them get there for free floating me with Ax or Kx high. I really just prefer to take these pots down on the flop than play 3 streets wondering what they are going to suckout on me with this time.

Check/fold turn.

Raise less pre. Cbet less.

PF is bad. You're bloating the pot OOP w/ a hand that doesn't flop all that well. I'd bet alot smaller, around 1/2 pot on flop and prob c/c turn and fold river unimproved.

C/C turn is terrible. What sort of range do you give your opponent and how many outs do you think you have? We are most likely behind, drawing dead at times and very thin if not.

(i'll comment if dopey ever is anything but spot on for all streets)

check behind pf imo, they never limp fold and never fold anything better postflop

I was giving villain a hugely wide range including a ton of air, A-K high and not expecting him to fire twice that often and put us in a bad spot. But you're right and c/c'ing turn sucks in retrospect. I was thinking we had good implied odds vs an average 2$ villain when we hit but I didn't really account for how flushed the board was.

Consider the next 2 following hands and tell me if I should be raising less and checking more often:





Ok so after reading advice, I decide to play Hand 1 more cautiously... i lose to a gutshot.. I had bottom pair and I ****in knew it was good, but how can it be right? I mean what can he call me with here that I beat? A gutshot thats what, I feel I should have bet turn and c/f river assuming he calls turn, which we know he will no matter what I bet. (I only called river b/c im tilted and paying to see what these idiots have so I can figure out how to adjust... Proper adjustment here seems to 2 barrel every board and see what happens on the river b/c they are so apt to call with nothing.)

Hand 2 I decide to play more aggressively, because his range is just, well air, which is exactly what he had... but he stacks off anyway... now how is this a good thing for me? I cant put someone on KJ necessarily, and be willing to stack off for no reason with it... I'm really at a loss on how to play these limits.. If I just wait for better hands well im still usually in a 60/40 or 70/30 situation.. combined with all the hands I have to fold if I play uber tight, seems to be like uNL is just a break-even game at best.

Anyone checking this wet flop? I'm not fond of c-betting this spot as we usually don't have enough FE to justify bloating the pot OOP with a marginal hand. I like a c/c line better.

Yea I don't mind c/c this flop either. I have started to check a lot of really wet flops like these pretty often because I doubt you are folding much in his range here.

I am cbetting for value, lot's of draws and 5x hands will call.

In your second post hand one is mostly fine except fold river -- many straight draws on the flop "got there" on the river (either hitting the straight or rivering a Q) and you're really only beating a bluff there. Yes, a lot of villains will check call flop with a K and will also randomly bet Qx on the river because they just hit a decent pair, ranges be damned. Other streets look good.

Hand after fold pre and it's really not close, Q7 OOP to a 5x raise is really not a great spot.

check flop not that close i think

Hmm Micros players are pretty exploitable. They are too loose passive. So just bet for value. Being a nit against micro players have been pretty EV cuz they overplay their marginal hands too much.

First hand: I would bet the flop and c/f the turn and river. You basically bet the flop to fold out his equity (FD, OESD, weak pairs, and random over cards (AJo)). The turn card completed his FD and possibly his st8 draw. If he had an OESD, he now has TP. So only cards you are ahead are overs and some bottom pairs. You can't really bet for value on the turn or the river because no hand that you can beat would call you unless his calling range is super wide. Since your hand has showdown value so you should check behind.

Second Hand: I would bet the flop to fold out his equity b/c he'll probably be drawing with overs so your equity is pretty much 50%. If you can't get him to fold his equity on the flop, I would give up the turn/ river. Because by the river, there is literally nothing you beat except a missed FD that is trying to bluff. You don't beat Kx, 10x, Str8 draws, and random sets.


Third Hand:

Wow. You call OOP with Q7o? You should be calling tighter than that. Fold PF. Also great, you flopped mid pair with decent kicker and he c-bets pot. Man that's a pretty bad situation. What do u expect to accomplish with your c/r? Good thing he's as spewy as he was...

There are not that usually many 5x hands that limp/call, just something like A5, K5s, Q5s, 75s, 65s, 54s. And good draws can certainly semi-bluff us off our hand more often than we get value.

hand 2: don't call river. you need reads that he will bluff with that sizing to call. usually at the 2s they have better than 4th pair when they bet this big on the river.

hand 3: why is his range air? couldn't he have an overpair? even if you know his range is air, i think i prefer letting him bluff this hand by just calling flop and turn. once you move up from the 2s, people will learn to fold to flop raises with nothing.

c/f

+1