Am I a psychopath or is this completely normal?

There was a hand recently posted where someone had Ah4h on Qh3s2h and flat called a cbet. I and others said this was a clear x/r and shove turn. That is a strong draw. There you are 46% against AA and 33% against QQ. There is no way you can be drawing dead.

Here you gii drawing completely dead. You need to understand the difference between a strong draw and a weak draw and how an OESD and over cards can be a very weak draw on that flop. Back in the day, the books used to say to call with a weak draw and raise with a strong draw. This draw is so weak you can't really even call with it.

It can't be good for your win rate to throw away your stack drawing dead.

I’m the nitty old man here. I encourage people to straddle. I welcome a mandatory straddle if unanimous. But why give up the exploit against Vs straddling? As soon as hero straddles, he is now the exploit too. It’s better if most Vs happily straddle, and hero doesn’t. I never straddle and never show my cards. People love playing with me nonetheless.

You are no a psychopath, but you are an arsonist. You like to burn money.

I don't get this logic.

Assuming you're something close to the best player at the table, which shouldn't be hard for anyone who frequents poker forums and the tables are mostly loose-passives and nits, which is basically everyone at 1/2 and 1/3 straddling is mostly beneficial to you.

Yeah this I don't believe. No one enjoys playing with the nitty old man who also refuses to straddle.

Without reading replies I guess V called with red queens.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IWyLURZB3...

Love is def. the wrong word there. I'd guess they don't mind enough that it's a problem for you now and I can believe that the other players would rather have a player than not (esp. at MGM Springfield over the last year or so).

Also as said in the low stress thread, it's your money so feel free to do what you want with it. But if everyone is doing straddles it's often better for you to agree and keep them going.

At 1-2/1-3 I've very rarely seen over half the table want to, and at MGM I've often seen 1 or 2 people who want to straddle a lot (esp. with the BTN straddle) ... so maybe you are exaggerating a bit too?

FWIW, I want the fish to love playing with me, because I'm fun, and the regs to hate playing with me, because I'm good.

I'll happily straddle if more than half the table is doing it, or if the game is dead and needs to be livened up a bit. I'll play bomb pots if they're allowed. I always buy in for the max, and will constantly top off. If someone asks me to show when I don't have to, I often will.

I'm the first to say "nice hand" as someone drags in a pot. I'll smile and tap the table if someone shows me a bluff. I'll congratulate an opponent on making a correct call.

No one wants to play with the short-stacked nit who refuses to straddle, and who's just looking for a good spot to get it in pre with a big PP. I'll go out of my way to make that guy uncomfortable. I'll harass him to put the straddle on every time he's UTG, and point out that he's playing short, and only playing one hand per hour. I've gone so far as to tell them I'll put up half the money for the straddle, and they still refuse.

Last session, I stacked a mis-reg who always buys in for $200. He asked if anyone at the table had chips on them. I had $500 in chips in my pocket, and asked him how much he wanted. He said $200. I told him I'd sell him $500, or he could walk his short-stacking a$$ to the cage.

He walked to the cage.

A short while later, he got it in pre with AK vs his opponent's AJs. I asked the dealer to put a jack on the board. He shot me a dirty look. The reg sitting next to me almost pissed himself laughing.

Poker is supposed to be a fun game. If you're not doing your part to make it fun, you're bad for the game.

I did, and if they’re an accurate representation of where banana’s head is, he should be directed to the nearest GA meeting, and banned from here for his own good.

He is playing to lose, and punish himself for something only he knows, and starting these threads and being criticized for playing poorly is part of his cycle.

Yeah, he posts over and over again making semibluffs with very little on dripping wet boards. He gets told over and over again it is bad.

There are other types of big mistakes in many of his posted hands. His posts are entertaining, but I doubt he is a winning player playing that way.

There are some problems also. What is he calling the largish x/r with on this dripping wet board and folding to a turn shove with? Unless he is really passive, what is he flat calling the x/r with anyway? He might shove partly for protection with a set or straight. It makes sense he had 5th nuts and didn't want a fold.

i wouldnt take people not leaving the table when you play as a sign they enjoy playing with you

AdAx, KdKx, QdQx, AdKx, AdQx, AxKd, AxQd.... so about 21 combos...

AdAx is 43% against 2-pair on the turn. You may be ahead and are drawing to the nut flush, wheel, and top set. Plus 1/3 players don't like folding AA. No one folds that. Not sure the others are flat calling the flop and folding the turn.

You are about 25% on the flop against Adx, QdQx, a set, and A2s for a low straight. You are 30% against 2-pair. Of course close to 0% against a made flush. That is on the flop. It is worse on the turn.

You just can't make this kind of play with a weak draw. If you had Ad, sure, the way you played it would be fine, even though you could be drawing completely dead with Ad. You need a draw that you could gii on the flop and usually not be in terrible shape.

I get the opposite, one reg furious at me cause I keep stacking him. Several regs that used to be friendly are switching tables, because they clearly don’t want to play against me. I actually wish I knew how to diffuse it, I just keep trying to be nice to everyone.

Usually when I show up next week, it’s a new mix of players & many have forgotten why they were mad at me. But there’s some ready to move as soon as the next table opens.

Believe it or not, I’m a humble guy and I know that the cards can turn on me. I never feel entitled. They like me more when I’m losing, so I guess I’m not looking to be popular.

Also, I envy you guys that play late into the evening. At 6pm yesterday, I believe I left the softest game I have ever played. My wife is happy, but I’m missing a lot of opportunity

It's good if regs switch tables because they don't want to play with you.

On this flop, you can raise the flop, shove the turn with Ad. Usually, you need something like nut flush draw with a straight draw or pair or a flush draw and straight draw. You can't do it with a weak draw just because you think villain doesn't like to get all the money in.

I don’t think openly bullying people you consider to be too nitty or too short-stacked qualifies as "doing your part to make it a fun game"; to me this comes across as being an entitled prick for no reason actually. Reading this I have trouble believing that people generally love playing with you because you’re fun. You sure you're not just telling yourself that?

Yeah, it really is amazing I don't have more friends.

Yeah, I agree with Homey. Doc seems obnoxious telling people how to play and what to buy in for.

If you had 8c6c on 7c5h2d, I wouldn't mind playing it like that. Then you would be 37% against a big pair and 28% against a set. You could also play like that to stack off with just the nut flush draw. You would rather have a really strong draw, but you could semibluff with those kinds of draws.

The problem is this OESD on the connected 3-flush board is so weak. It is one thing for your opponent to gii with KdQd when he could be drawing dead to a nut flush or straight flush. However, something is wrong when you gii on a semibluff and are drawing dead.

3:00-15.

#TeamDoc

Save your thumbs. Banana’s posting in crayon if he thinks someone familiar with his play over the past few months is folding BLACK premium pairs on the flop here, never mind red ones on the turn.

There is a question if villain is familiar with Banana's play. In his posts, he makes crazy semibluff stack offs like this, but then slow plays big hands.

You're going to want to have the Ad if you do run an all in bluff on this board. That blocks the nuts and has outs against anything short of a straight flush. Deuceblocker is right that you need to distinguish between strong draws and weak draws, and if you're putting all your chips in when you're this deep you typically want to have a strong draw to the effective nuts. Maybe you could convince me that running a bluff with the Kd could be OK, but even that is iffy. Overbetting all in into a strong uncapped range with A6s (a weak non-nut draw) is pretty much a punt.

You might try thinking about what your value range is when you're in a hand. Like if you had 98dd how would you play it? Then think about what combos in your range make the best bluffs to support your value combos. Generally the more value hands you have on a given board the more you can bluff.

Here if you're bluffing with A6s you're likely bluffing way too often. You're probably also bluffing with the Adx, Kdx, Qdx, 86s, etc. You see what I'm saying? It's just spew if you bluff with every hand that looks like a half-way decent candidate and even oblivious opponents will pick up on this and call you down light.

I could get behind the flop check raise if you think your opponent is range betting the flop. In that case you're attacking all their unpaired overcards that don't contain a diamond. Once they call the raise you should likely just check fold the turn. Maybe if a fourth diamond hit you could continue betting to rep the Ad, but even in that case I would probably be using a smaller sizing, since you could just be bluffing into the nuts, plus if you really did have the Ad you would use a smaller size to get the money in over two streets.

Even though you said your opponent plays face up, they still have a strong range when they open in early position so you really shouldn't be bluffing all that often.

+1

If you're playing poker in a public card room at posted steaks, you are well within your right to (a) BI for anything within the rules stating the minimum versus maximum BI and (b) play whatever method you so choose (from literally never playing hand to shoving in blind every hand and everything in between). To call anyone out / harass them in this environment is a solid 10 out of 10 on the entitled douche scale, imo.

Gdon'tbeadouche,imoG

Kd on this flop is way weaker than Ad. Ad is drawing to a wheel as well as the nut flush.

2/5 used to usually be $100-500 buyin and I did well buying in for $100, although it annoyed some regs.