AQs in bb

At 40BB effective, this seems like an obvious shove.

I missed the straddle when I first read it and I was still gonna say shoving is fine.

Jam easily we are short to start good way to double up or take it down.

You don't ever put V on a monster? I know we're short esp in a straddle but not sure if we wanna go to war with just that and no reads, it's not even AK and even that is iffy IMHO. Is this the consensus nowadays, just to go for it and hope V doesn't have a big PP or AK?

This is a single raised pot at 40bb effective. What is your range for V simply opening 5x after limpers? Obv it contains AK and big pairs. But shouldn’t it contain a lot of other hands too?

Yeah. He is attacking a limp and the straddle and should have a ton of stuff like 9Ts, a4s, 66, etc. You have a premium hand and are OOP. I assume it is an extremely raked game so winning preflop is good.

Because of the straddle, you are very short stacked, in theory, so a shove is fine. If you run into a bigger hand, simply suck out. I do think 40bbs is maybe getting to where it is a bit awkward.

In reality, most players don't make these adjustments. So you could make a case for raising smaller for psychological reasons. Like, if neither you nor anybody else in this game would go all in with AA or KK, maybe shoving is giving your hand away as something more like TT or what you have.

It's all going to be pretty V dependent as well. If someone is a very scared player who would hesitate to get it in even with JJ here, and who would limp behind with hands like KQ and 88 you could raise really small and fold to a shove, or even call. That is an adjustment to an extreme player type, but they exist at 1/2.

I think this is a good flip situation for you being short stacked. I guess it depends on if you are only one bullet buy in or not. If your only on one bullet I guess you can just call but your pretty much already playing for 1/8th your stack at that point. Lets say you just call. Here's three example boards

Qs Ks 9c

Ah Jh 7c

8c 9c Kd

MP opens for 35$
your gonna be playing for stacks in any of the scenarios...

Thanks guys, I'm adverse to playing for stacks *pre* even though we are only 40bbs here, my argument is that it's not enough of a premium hand for me to shove with no reads. Maybe it's a nitty leak or I'm saving money, I dunno, but I've had trash variance in the past so that probably subconsciously affects my decisions. I know it's common for many guys to shove in this spot, and they either suck out/double up or bust out, but that's just not me fwiw. For sure it's player-dependent but sadly we don't have reads here. I'm mostly a one-bullet player (unless I gii good and got sucked out) as historically, I don't do well chasing losses in a single session, it rarely ends well.

AP:
H calls, straddle folds, MP limper calls

Flop $81 A♥ T♥ 3♦
checked to V who cbets $40, H?

You might as well play slots with their better player comps, because being risk-averse while sitting underrollled with one bullet is a guaranteed way to leak chips like a sieve.

So now we kinda have to stack off with top pair and SPR 2.5. I could consider a flat IP but OOP I think we need to just crai and hope to get value from AJ and draws. I would have gone broke against AK pre anyway.

It sounds like you are not rolled for your game. Shouldn’t be playing NL if you aren’t prepared to top up/reload. And if you are making +EV decisions it shouldn’t matter how you lose a buyin.

I hear you but I'm not underrolled, I just know historically I can't chase losses in the same session. I would shoot more bullets IF I gii good and got sucked out, but if I ran into AK or better here, I'd probably cut my losses for the night.

Thanks, there's good reasoning here. Like I tried to explain to the other poster, I'm more concerned about how I played if I get stacked. I'm ok if I gii good and I'd rebuy BUT if I played poorly, then I would leave to avoid tilting as it would affect my play.

You're sitting at a 1-3 table with $200 at risk in this hand and claiming that unless you GII good you're done for the night after one bullet.

I'm a learned man, but I'm struggling to find a better term than "underrolled, " unless you'd feel similarly even if you were risking only a max of $75 in the hand.

This is fine if you're playing a deep stacked game. But when you're sitting short-stacked, either by choice or by straddle, any mistakes you make are costing you a greater percentage of your stack each occurrence.

In addition, playing a short-stack properly means accepting high variance, because you need to be prepared to flip much more often, unless you really want to embrace the grim task of leaking chips while waiting for a monster and then hoping no one realizes you haven't played a hand in an hour.

I guess you're right in that I usually play 1-2 but 1-3 opened up so why not. I don't give much credit to that extra $1 in the big and the straddles are the same at $5 and the players are not too different. I have 2 rebuys if I got stacked but I'm not gonna put in money after bad if I'm playing poorly.

Yeah, thanks, I think what you said in bold is key here, hurts if I don't win the hand. My stack is problematic because it's awkward like someone else said, I don't think it's short enough to shove pre to steal pots but it's not deep enough.

You certainly shouldn’t play tilted and it’s admirable that you can walk away when you know you won’t be playing your best.

But NLH is a game that will have variance and multiple buyin downswings even if you are playing well.

Best to learn to avoid tilt. Also very important to remember that “getting it in bad” does not necessarily mean you played badly. Playing well will include getting our bluffs caught, getting coolered, getting value-owned, etc.

Focus on making the best decisions and not the outcomes.

Personally, I don’t think anyone should play NLH only prepared to lose one buyin.

Thanks again for your advice, guys. I suppose being shortstacked added to H's problem in how this hand may potentially run out, even though some said it made it easy to shove pre to take it down hopefully.

Ok, so what do you think of the hand?

Apologies for diverting the topic again to bankrolling and BIs but it's just that I feel I'm in the same position as OP in that sense. I play 1/2 with a $200 BI because I'm used to sit in with 100bb at micros online. I also usually top up if I go near/below 100bb but if I'm stacked I usually prefer to call it a day - I plan to relax this over time but as I'm quite new to live play just thought it could be a way to cut losses fairly quickly, avoid tilt in the beginning etc. As everyone can attest most people usually have deeper stacks where I play, around 150-300bbs (max BI is $500 at 1/2). So just want to have your opinion on:
- is sitting in with 100bb only a bad decision/strategy, given my situation (fairly beginner player getting used to live, control losses etc)?
- with how much do you guys usually sit in?
- I know in theory if you are a winning player you should always buy in for the max amount but what other reasons (if any) are there to sit in with less than that, other than possibly running a specific short stack strategy?

If you rip it in either pre flop or on the flop as played, and simply get called by AK, you haven’t “played poorly” and should be willing to rebuy..

From the theme of the discussion though it sounds as though you wouldn’t consider this getting it in good and being sucked out on..

You can play well and simply not have the cards fall right and run into a couple of coolers and do 4 or 5 buy ins easily.. on the flip you can play terrible but sun run and 10x a buy-in.. guessing you wouldn’t stop playing in that second scenario..

Edit: also, the issue I see often with short stacks who leak chips constantly, is that when they do finally have a good hand they’re sitting 20bb deep and the double up doesn’t even get them back to starting stack *facepalm*

+1

We always have reads, even when we don't.

I would just look at the guy, look how he stacks and handles his chips, and if how he handles and folds his cards, etc, etc, etc.

I usually prefer to jam only if I had any evidence that he's not a tight player or nit.

He opened from MP over a straddle, so in general his range will be stronger than average to begin with.

I think if he calls we're losing our stack instead of doubling up, but that's just me as usual.

I would just stay at 1/2 until you can be confident you won't tilt any more if you lose a hand, and it shouldn't matter if you turned your hand into a bluff or got sucked out on. All those things are part of the game just as much as getting dealt two cards face down are. You have to have losses to play poker, so you may as well get used to losing (I disagree that you're properly bankrolled, otherwise idk why you'd wanna go home after losing just one hand). This is your biggest leak so it's what you need to take from this thread bc it affects every hand, not just AQs..

I would of raised pre, but I wouldn't of sat with less than 100 bb's. Calling pre was ok (I would call before folding), and whether or not he had AK wouldn't really change if you lost your stack whether you jammed otf or post flop (which I'm sure happened or we wouldn't be here lol).

Thanks for the advice too.

As for your last paragraph, we're trying to get there, but I'll just say it may or may not be that. 😉