Hey guys, my name is Britt and I'm here to share a situation/scenario that I had faced in a live game recently on Saturday. I've not used forums much in the past because of lots of annoying trolls, but I'd like to get back in the habit of posting in forums about different plays and scenarios that myself and others experience.

I'm in my intermediate phase of playing live in cash games, but I was originally an online player back when that was a thing in most states. I am always trying to learn from my mistakes, learn new strategies and tactics, trying out different theories, and fixing my leaks. Thus, I am here to share and have conversations with people about it.

So...

I was playing a game of 1/2 NHL in a full ring with a mix of Nit, TAG and LAGS. I bought in for much lower than my usual buy-in which was $140 (my usual is $200-$300). When I had originally sat down I chose not to buy-in and I when dealt my cards, I chose to "feel" out the table and watch the betting patterns and style of the other players. There were two rather loose-aggressive players to my right, which was convenient. After noticing the two LAGS betting patterns, I was also able to narrow their ranges based on their position (kind of polarized, but still pretty obvious). I tripled up my stack from just those two players alone from $140 to around $600 in just a few hours and eventually reached a little over $700 before this scenario:

I was dealt TT in the CO.
EP (Villian) Limps
I RFI to $25.
SB and BB fold.
Villian in EP calls.

The flop shows:
T, J, 4 (I can't remember the suits) but I do recall it being a pretty dry board and no flush draws) and I flop a SET.
Villian checks and I c-bet to $75.
Villian moves AI with $340 and $100 in the pot.
I snap called.

MY ANALYZATION:
Now if I had given myself some time to think and make my decision rationally and logically, I know he is a tight player based on his betting patterns and style of play, so that limits his range and in EP, but he didn't RFI and he limped so my thinking prior to his AI was:

He didn't raise pre-flop (I excluded AA, KK, QQ) and thought that he could be limping in just to see the flop with mid pocket pair or maybe JJ, A-J, Axs, AK K-Qs, K-Qo, K-Js, Q-Js.

I feel like I really didn't give myself the time to make a decision when I impulse called his $340 AI on a $100 pot.

With $100 is the pot and $340 to call I might have reasoned with myself that he hit a set of Js on the flop or he has top pocket pair (AA, KK) and is trying to save it from going to showdown and push me out. I didn't give myself enough time to think about the EV, fold equity, or calculate probability.

In this this situation I felt that I had good outs and the odds were in my favor, so I call his AI and he shows Aces with a 10% chance to win and at the moment I'm way in the lead.

The turn is a 6 and the river is a nice big fat ****ing Ace. Bye bye $340

What are your thoughts on this scenario?
Do you think I made a that AI call too impulsively?
Could I have done anything differently?

I should have left after that, but it kind of messed me up. I went out for some fresh air and then returned but what I really should have done was just leave. It was around 8pm when I lost that hand and I had already been there for about 5 hours, so after losing that much of my stack after being there for a while I wanted to win it back and I think I put too much pressure on myself.

Thanks,


Britt

SNAP call. Just a bad beat.

There are a few things I'd point out here.

A 1/2 table probably isn't full of TAGs and LAGs.

One minor semantic point: JT4 isn't really a dry board in a limp-call pot (or most scenarios for that matter). Your opponent has plenty of T, plenty of J, and plenty of straight draws.

Your bet sizings both PF and on the flop are very large. Yes you want to punish a limper, but a raise to 12x is going to chase out most marginal holdings. The flop is obviously fantastic for you, and obviously you are going to bet. But when you overbet the pot, what sort of hands are going to call? Is he going to call with AQ? What about AT? Those bet sizes suggest that you're scared of being drawn out on. It'll happen some times (as it did in this case) but most of the time you want to get as much money in the pot as possible from worse hands. Those big bets might scare people away.

Anyhow you bet big on the flop and face a check-jam. You have the second-nuts. Unless you know he does this with the nuts and the absolute nuts only, then this is a trivial call. Play this situation 10 times and you're not 340 down, you're thousands up. 44, JT, KQ, AA can all play this way to name but four hands that you beat. Forget about things like fold equity and pot odds in this scenario: you're way, way ahead of his likely range so you call and the vast majority of the time you win easily.