I am a little tilt tonight playing NL2 zoom, like flop 2 bottom pair(24s) on flop (T42r), flop he bet I raise 3.5x, turn is a 3, he donk 1.5 over pot, I all-in, and river pair board (another 3), so his won 130BB by T6o.

It get me tilted, another one I have AK on BB and I 3-bet 12BB he call, on flop I shove AK on 533r, and get called by 22, and he win 120BB. These silly hands make me very tilt, I am more loose and call station, and here come 2 hand, looks very interesting.


The first hand
PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hero (BB): 112.5 BB
CO: 175.5 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Kc Qd
UTG calls 1 BB, fold, CO raises to 4 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 3 BB, UTG calls 3 BB

Flop : (12.5 BB, 3 players) Ks 4s 6c
Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks

Turn : (12.5 BB, 3 players) Td
Hero bets 7 BB, fold, CO raises to 26 BB, Hero calls 19 BB

River : (64.5 BB, 2 players) 5h
Hero checks, CO bets 54 BB, Hero calls 54 BB

CO shows 9c 9d (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 55%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

Hero shows Kc Qd (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 45%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)

Hero wins 166.5 BB




The second hand, middle pair call 3 barrel
PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hero (BTN): 193.5 BB
SB: 168 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8h Jc
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, SB calls 2 BB, fold

Flop : (6 BB, 2 players) 6h 9h As
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (6 BB, 2 players) Jd
SB checks, Hero bets 3.5 BB, SB raises to 16 BB, Hero calls 12.5 BB

River : (38 BB, 2 players) Tc
SB bets 36 BB, Hero calls 36 BB

SB shows 8d Ks (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 72%, Flop 79%, Turn 7%)

Hero shows 8h Jc (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 28%, Flop 21%, Turn 93%)

Hero wins 106 BB






The first one I am out of position, on turn he looks he has 3rd pair 99 but is representing Set T, if he will play TT, 99 in this same way, looks very balanced. If I am not tilted, I cannot catch him, could you catch him?

The second one looks special, he check twice then raise my turn bet, I thought he may have a flush draw, so called his river pot bet again (as there is no heart). Looks great, but I feel very strange, did I make a good play, is his pot bet indicting he don't want me to call?

I read many poker books saying, if you have a monster, check raise, if he checks back, you try to check again, but I seldom see people go this way, especially when the board has flush draw, he cannot check twice representing a TP or set(he should protect his hands), so I am making a good call? but since I know he is 99% bluffing raising, should I raise back on turn by my middle pair, or should I just call as I am facing a polarized range, he either has monster or air, so I should just call? But I don't like just call, especially he bet river or even shove river. I should either give up on turn or raise turn to find why I am? Is that a way try to "buy information"?

I have many times I c-bet flop with air and they call flop, and on turn I get TP but they suddenly donk turn, I just call with top pair, and they make their flush on river and beat me.

Long story short, facing a semi-bluff on turn, or a polarized range on turn (donk you or raise you), would you raise back, or call down 2 big bet?


I have been struggle in NL2 for long time, please help me on how you think.



Below is another silly hand one make me tilt...


PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hero (UTG): 104.5 BB
MP: 113 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Td Qd
Hero raises to 2.5 BB, MP raises to 8 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 22.5 BB, MP calls 14.5 BB

Flop : (46.5 BB, 2 players) 8h Jh Kc
Hero bets 82 BB and is all-in, MP calls 82 BB

Turn : (210.5 BB, 2 players) 6d

River : (210.5 BB, 2 players) 3d

Hero shows Td Qd (High Card, King)
(Pre 19%, Flop 24%, Turn 18%)

MP shows Ks Kh (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 81%, Flop 76%, Turn 82%)

MP wins 203 BB

all hands played horribly jesus.

Could you give a little hint, like which part?
Like flop I should do .... instead of ....., thanks .

Maybe try taking standard lines? NL2 is not the place to do anything clever, bet for value with big, make a decent amount of continuation bets on obvious dry boards, fire the turn once in a while against passive opponents, don't do any big bluffs (my greatest sin!).

In the first hand you call from the blinds with KK - why? This is a hand you should be 3-betting 95% of the time - build a big pot with your big hand, and narrow the field especially since you are out of position vs the CO raiser.

Then the flop comes - you hit a set - great! Had you 3bet preflop you could then bet your hand quite heavily (80% of the pot perhaps) and hope that your opponent has the last remaining king (KQ, KJ or even AK), or perhaps something like 99, TT, or JJ. If you're reallly lucky he may even have 44 or 66. Since you would have bet 80% of the pot, spade draws are getting unprofitable odds for a call. Indeed some of these draws even like to raise as a semi-bluff on this kind of flop, so you may be able to get it all in.

Why did you not continuation bet the flop in the second hand?
To be honest the river looks like an easy fold as well - I know he had worse here, but most times they will just have an Ace and crush you here.

3rd hand is a catastrophe...

Thanks a lot for the reply, the first one I don't have KK, it is an KQo, I do 3-bet with KQo sometimes, this time not.

I suppose you're right, I should take same standard lines and try to play solid.



The second hand I didn't c-bet, the main reason is, this time I try to steal blind with a hand not in my normal range, if the steal get called, I just give up and don't want to put 1 BB into the pot. (If he bet on flop/turn I will fold immediately).

But on turn I flop something, and he checks again, so I start to play the hand.

Sometimes I 3-bet or steal with a hand not in my range, such like K3o at EP, but if I open and get called, I will fold to any even I got top pair.

As I think these junk stealing hands like K3o, are easy to get bad beat at turn&river.