Not Quite Threadworthy--Low Stress Strat Questions

I’d go smaller flop and bigger turn. Like 30% flop and 125% turn. As played x/f river unfortunately.

in all seriousness, fact you're feeling scared or excited at the tables is deeply troubling for your long term ability to be a winning player

you should not be having either of those emotions unless you're a degenerate gambler

Or he’s just being overly expressive with his words? Or English isn’t his first language? That first sentence is verging on classic patronising tpt elitist nonsense to someone who is clearly learning the game and asking for advice for low stakes.

OP - I would speak up on people bringing in overly large stacks if it affected you - ie if it meant they covered you and were in position on you and/or you thought they were a better player than you. If not, I wouldn’t worry too much about it

Re the bigger stack people and what it means about their play. You are right that on average that more good players will sit down with bigger stacks than less experienced players, but they might just be richer or more used to playing and losing more? Or have just run well at the other table. Don’t worry too much about it - if they were wizards they’d be playing higher stakes.

Poker is definitely nerve wracking when you’re starting out and playing very good players can be intimidating if you allow it to. You can talk yourself into them trying all kinds of wizardly tricks to take advantage of you but they’re probably not. Just play solid, fundamental TAG, bet/fold poker, be aggressive but remember the age old chant if in doubt…

‘They are not playing back at me. They are not playing back at me’

feel wrath. I do not understant this old chant.

It means that when they raise you and you think they’re bluffing to take advantage of you, they’re almost certainly not, they have value. You’re not being ‘outplayed’ nearly as much as you think

It goes along with the cardinal rule of live poker

‘They always have it’

FaceplantWizzard

1. I don't say anything. I'm one of those who believed the more money at the table, the better, and the more that can end up in my stack.

2. Yes, assume they are a little better than the average fish until proven otherwise. However, no reason to be "scared, " just play your A game and pay attention until you know how good/bad they are -- same way you'd treat any other player. Again, more money for you to win!

"They are not playing back at me. They are not playing back at me."

I wish I remembered this chant more often! Very good mantra.

on reflection, feely is right

while i stand by my comments, they were not put forward constructively

Trivial but rarely get into this spot in live poker

2/3 7 handed at the moment 500cap

First rotation around, hero has $500 behind

Hero is in SB

folds to button who opens to $12 (opened to $15 previously, female, around $170 behind), hero in SB makes it $47 with AKdd (9 red chips), BB covers me (reg, male, around 60 years old, around ~$1000 behind, usually always has $300-400-500 range, has opening and limping ranges) thinks for about 20-30 seconds and throws out 5 green $25 chips to make it $128 total, button folds,

HERO??
Fold, Call, 5b! Small, 5b! All in

and if possible can you rank these 4 options

In a vacuum, I think the flop c-bet just because the board is K-high and supposedly good for us is overly optimistic. I think it's worse on this static flop texture, where V isn't likely to have many hands that want to raise, but could have a lot that are happy to flat call.

I'd prefer to check flop, call a small bet if he stabs at it, or fold to a big bet, though that seems pretty unlikely here. More often, he'll check back, and we can decide what we want to do on the turn.

If the flop checked through, I could see making a delayed c-bet when we pick up equity on the turn, or even going for a check raise. If we check and he checks back, I might check-call, check- fold, or lead out depending on what the river is.

As played, it looks like he has Kx, which is never folding to any bet, so I probably check-fold if he bets big. If he bets small, I might get curious enough to call, or even raise.

In situations where someone sits down with more than the table limit, it's fine to ask the dealer for clarification of the rule.

I would buy in for the max, even when I was terrible, because I read that's what you're supposed to do. My personal view is that a short buy in is a more reliable indicator of a weak player than a full buy in is an indication of a strong player.

I'm never worried about the guy sitting down with $500 at 1/3. I'm more worried about the guy who might jam $150-$200 pre with a harder to define range.

Population reads suggest the 60 yo reg who's run up his stack isn't going to be cold 4B'ing you light, especially if he has a limping range pre.

There's no 5B size less than all in here. So it's jam or fold. In theory we should 5B jam, but in reality I think the low stakes population is mostly calling, and with QQ+/AK. At best we're flipping, but we'll often be dominated.

I fold QQ/AK to 4bets at 2/3 to the general population.

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It makes no sense for you to call the turn with AK only to fold if you spike an ace. Were you planning on a check-fold?

And an 'old dude loose passive' is not folding trip 8s. Probably neither would a tight passive.

I had nut fd, also his bluff frequency is a lot higher on the turn (random stabs, 54, 64, lower fds). On that river though i expected him to give up a lot with his bluffs.

I don’t think you can fold AK there

Maybe threadworthy, maybe not, but a strategy question that's pretty broad - how does one really conceptualize AK in LLSNL?

I've generally filed it away as "a premium hand that is happy to GII preflop", as that seems pretty consistent with how solvers play it. However, the more I think it over the more I am struggling to really justify it, especially since I think I am realizing that a lot of the reason that AK is treated so aggressively is for balance - more combos to shove with for fold equity (solver loves to shove KK and AKo and raise AA smaller) or to avoid getting 4b bluffed too much.

In actual live games, the fold equity part makes sense, but it's hard to see much point in balance. Fish already 4-bet extremely tight and are not going to pick up on how often you defend the 4-bet to make an adjustment. It just seems like AK has very limited hand equity versus the ranges that real players are using when stacks go in preflop.

As an example, here's something drawn from a hand I played recently; assume Villain is an average fish without any specific reads:

Villain opens to 8bb from EP, MP calls, BN calls.

Hero picks up AKo from SB and makes a big 3-bet to 50bb (hoping that 6.25x here is standard-ish and not itself a point for debate?).

Now what if...

(a) Villain 4b all-in for 100bb total (23% pot odds)
(b) Villain 4b all-in for 150bb total (32%)
(c) Villain 4b all-in for 200bb total (36%)
(d) Villain 4b raise to 100bb, with another 100bb behind (23%, but IO/RIO concerns)

...and the other callers fold?

To save lookups, raw equity should be:

• 18% versus KK+
  
• 30% versus QQ+
  
• 39% versus QQ+/AK
  

The closest solution I can get from a free solver (GTOW, can't remember the exact config) has a little over 40% pot odds and mixed-calls AKo 65% for zero EV facing a shove range of mostly KK and AK, but I think the fact that it plays AA differently is a huge factor and no one at a 1/3 table plays AA and KK differently pre. The fact that AK is flipping or losing against every single combo a LLSNL player can plausibly 4-bet is just bothering me.

Situation (a) seems like an easy call since there's a decent chance some combos of AK or QQ are in range there, and the rest are a bit tougher. The hand I faced was essentially situation (d), and I elected to just call and evaluate. Things went well after an Ace came on the flop and I was able to xrai against KK, but that felt like a pretty lucky outcome. Should I just shove and hope I have a smidgen of fold equity? Fold pre?

Confusing line in a straddled pot here. Would love some feedback on my thought process

1/3 match the stack, Tuesday evening

V: BTN (340 eff). 40s WG, first session with him, 1-2 hours in. He has an open limp and an open raise range pre. He has double flatted pre. Haven't seen much postflop except he has called down small bets in limped pots and lost without showing
H: HJ (covers). 30s WG, probably tight image

V straddles 9 BTN
3 callers
H raises to 60 with J♣ J♠ in HJ
Only V calls
I range him on 22-QQ, any suited BW or AXs, and most offsuit BWs - thoughts?

Flop (~140):
T84 r
x x
I've been trying out checking range OOP. I suspect he bets sets, JJ-QQ, strong TP, and also stabs with some overcards. So after his checkback I weight him toward middle pair and weak TP, and air

Turn (~140):
T84 6r
H bets 45, V raises to 100, H calls
I went small to get calls from his perceived weak range. The minraise looks milky, but only 66 makes sense for value, unless he slowplayed a flopped set

River (~340)
T846r 7
X, V shoves for 180, H?
I only need to be good 25% of the time, but I can't find worse value he plays this way, and the minraise turn feels value-heavy. Thoughts?

Bet flop

squeezing to 60 preflop made your hand strength completely obvious

the worst you have here is ATs - but mostly people are putting you on exactly the kind of hand you have, JJ+ and AQ+

so you're actually at the bottom of your squeezing range - you find a board that's actually good vs a sticky KQs, Axs, sc that sticks around and you opt to give him a free card?

what is your plan here, make them think you have AK?

what you going to do then if an A drops and then lead into you, are you going to continue to rep AK?

I don't like checking back the flop -- it's too draw heavy for his calling range.

I probably raise bigger on turn, but I bet flop, so it would be different. As played, it's probably a fold, but not sure I could do it.

Upon reflection, I think this was just me trying too hard to get something done, but I can be a little cowardly sometimes and wouldn't mind agreement that there were places to fold here.

So.. rate my punt?

V1 looks like a competent, thinking reg. Most importantly, he has shown capable of making big moves post-flop with both nutted made hands and draws.

V2 is a loose-passive fish, somewhat of a station but can fold complete trash. Fairly recently saw him call down multi-way aggression with 99 on an AQ-high board.

Table in general has been a bit more competently aggressive most of the night, although there is a changeover happening and lots more limping pre now.

$1/$2 Hold'em with a state-mandated $100 betting limit that is mildly relevant, 8-handed

V1 in BB with about $280
V2 in EP with about $230
Hero in CO, covers.

Hero picks up 6d 4d in the CO.

UTG limps, V2 calls, LJ calls, HJ folds, Hero overlimps, BN calls, SB completes, V1 checks the option. Seven ways to the flop.

(On the fence whether choosing to overlimp a suited gapper from LP is a sign I'm losing patience... have been fairly card dead all night.)

Flop ($12): 9d 7d 6h

SB checks, V1 bets $10, UTG folds, V2 calls, folds to Hero who raises to $50.

(Yes, impatient... but this doesn't seem like a terrible spot for a bluff? Last time I aggressed like this, it was with middle set and unfortunately everyone folded.)

BN folds, SB folds, BB tanks and then raises to $150 (max limit). V2 calls. Hero calls.

(This didn't feel great, but at the table it felt cowardly to walk away from these odds (21.9% direct odds to call)... but this seems like the most obvious spot to fold.)

Turn ($457): 9d 7d 6h 5s

V1 has $128 behind now, V2 has $78, Hero covers.

V1 bets $100, V2 calls all-in, Hero calls.

Turn ($735): 9d 7d 6h 5s Tc

V1 bets $28 all-in, Hero calls.

(Dear limit players, can you ever fold this??)

you should leave out all the annotation going forward and just post nothing but reads, table dynamics, your image, relevant prior hands and the hand history itself

when you mud it all up with you general thoughts and excuses it makes it difficult to analyze objectively

as played you have to call knowing you're never good simply for reasons of sanity

i think it was a spew to call pre

but the far greater mistake was raising it on the flop this is just never getting through and importantly, the only hands that fold here are hands you're already crushing - anything that beats you is calling, anything that loses to you is folding

the only hand you're good against which is calling is another flush draw, but if both cards are overcards like ATs then he is still ahead of you

and more importantly, due to reverse implied odds, since you always have the worse flush, and unimproved bottom pair is not something you will play for stacks you'll either win a small pot or lose a big one against another flush draw

so just call the flop and turn and hope to get there on the river

furthermore, you need to realize that ep is the bb on an unraised pot so he has any random hand and something like 85o is not to be unexpected and his flop lead is very strong