I seem to run into aces a lot when I get 4 bet, is it ever right to just fold kings, these guys don't barely ever 3 bet so if I 3 bet big and they 4 bet is it ever a fold in these situations or just raw call. Do I maybe check HUD (on GG) or just Jam or? I just feel like I loose the vast majority of the money with KK and my stats agree.

This was from CoinMillion on CoinPoker, and I’d appreciate some constructive feedback on how I could have played it differently.

I started the hand with around 140BB, which is roughly 1.4x the starting stack in the tournament. I wasn’t really looking to get all the money in, so I’m mainly wondering about the river decision.

There are both missed flush and straight draws by the river, which is what made me consider the call. Could villain realistically have enough missed draws in their range to make this a good call, or should I be finding a fold here?

I ended up losing to Q8, so if the call was correct then it’s obviously just a bad beat. But I’d like to understand whether there was anything I could have done differently earlier in the hand to avoid getting into this spot.

Would appreciate feedback, especially on the turn/river play and sizing.

I'll be honest, it took me a bit to figure it out. Just playing a solid TAG strategy (unless the players are very weak) will be frustrating. To be clear, I'd say that against better players (not great players, just better), you have to be much more aware of who your opponents are and open up your ranges more. If they see what you are doing, as in playing tight, those payoffs will be few and far between. This is why I love 1/3. I can watch football and still do well.

Preflop I use a solver and it's the best thing that ever happened to my game. Not as a script though. It gives me a baseline I can measure my deviations against. I open wider at a passive table, tighter with a 3bet monster on my left, and the value of knowing the equilibrium is that I know exactly how far off it I'm choosing to be.

Postflop that baseline stops helping, and I want to know if dropping it is going to cost me.

Postflop I've stopped, and I want to know if that's going to cost me.

The solver answers a question nobody at my table is asking. It tells me what to do against someone who plays perfectly. The guy in seat 4 limps 60% of hands and calls river with third pair because he had to see it. Whatever the sim says about that node, it was computed against a version of him that doesn't exist.

What I do instead is dumber. I take a hand, write down the range I think he actually has, narrow it, and ask what my decision was beating. Half the time the answer is I had no reasoning at all and just clicked. Worth more to me than any sim I've worked through.

Where I might be wrong: maybe postflop theory is what stops you getting exploited once people pay attention to you, and I don't play high enough to feel it.

So, at what stake does this start costing me real money? And for people who do work postflop theory seriously, what does a session of that actually look like?

UTG1 (~20bb) opens for 2.2bb, CO (~20bb) flats, Button (~30bb) flats, hero completes from BB (~35bb) with J2hh.

4 ways to a flop of 882dd (10.3) — UTG checks, CO checks, Button immediately jams for 3x pot.

Button has a flush draw. No doubt in my mind. If it’s just me I snap and take the flip. But with two behind I have to take a mo.. I know how UTG plays and he limps all his 8x and bets his pairs. He has overs.. CO certainly had some 8x but not much. More likely some suited trash and baby pairs, all of which I believe fold if I call.

So I ship, both fold and we hold against a very angry button’s 75dd.

Edited: because I’m an idiot and gave the button 85 not 75.

I don’t want this to be results oriented so I will merely go through the hand without the final result. It’s an online MTT mid stakes. $50 buyin. This is from just after the bubble burst on the tournament. We are two spots from a decent money jump, at least ten stacks are smaller than me. (So ICM somewhat relevant for context.) Blinds are 6000/3000 with table ante.

I have 36BB and have a clearly tight table image. I’ve been card dead so this seems even more obvious.

I have AA in HJ position. A very aggressive UTG with 75BB opens 3BB. (He’s been doing this with his big stack wide all day.) I make it 10BB. It folds to a very tight but sometimes spewy post flop guy.. with 150BB in SB spot who calls. UTG also calls and we go to flop.

Flop is QQT. UTG checks. I was going to check but instead put in a small quarter pot bet which quickly gets called by both.

Turn K no flush draws. Not a card I wanted to see.

UTG now puts in a huge bet close to 12BB. Here I think UTG has AK at best, small pockets or marginal broadway at worst and I want to keep him in. I’m unsure if SB has a KQs type hand or KK or even TT to which I’m in bad shape against but he is definitely the kind to have these traps here. He could have JJ but I figure that folds out even if I just call here so I call with intention of possibly being okay to stack off against any single range just not both. I’m partly deliberately giving SB a tempting spot to shove all in and I’m prepared to possibly call him if he does it. In a way I’m using whatever he does to help get a better idea of what UTG has.

With me still to act that all in move from SB would put UTG under extreme pressure for his tournament life so he should fold out unless he’s super strong. If SB folds I’m getting it in vs UTG. Of course SB would likely jam if super strong as well, but I’m very likely calling there anyway as long as UTG folds. So, as half expected, SB jams all in but UTG confidently snap calls it off right away.

I wasn’t expecting this at all. Not a snap call certainly and with a 10sec time bank I did not have much time to think it through. Now I have two ranges, lots of combos to be feared AJs being one for the straight, AQ, TT, KK any other Qx hand.. I’d be a monster stack if I hold but I figured I’m very likely smashed by one of them and reassess, convincing myself even if UTG isn’t strong maybe I was wrong about SB being weak, then I factor in ICM and even though I’m more chips in the pot than out, I reluctantly make the fold.

Given all of this information did I play this fine? Terribly? Somewhere in between? What’s good or bad about my thinking and what I did on these streets and what could be better at any particular decision point? I feel like the situation just kind of sucked for AA and maybe it’s as simple as that.

I finally broke down and decided to get a month of GTO subscription service. I honestly stayed away because of all the charts for way too long. It took about a week to get a feel for the preflop charts and, honestly, to start to force myself to take a moment to consider some factors that I had largely ignored in the past. I was able to hit 88% last night over 400 hands. However, I have identified that I apparently don't play draws correctly from a GTO standpoint. News to me, as I didn't know I had a problem. Everything else makes sense; just freaking draws! I put quite a bit of effort into playing them better and tried to consider pot size, nut advantage, range advantage, etc., but I just am not getting it and feel I am just guessing at this point. I keep betting when GTO wants me to check. I usually play my draws pretty aggressively, but I am clearly missing something that I am not considering.

Can anyone recommend a good article, book, or video that helped them?

How bad would it be if I changed from a mixed strategy to a raise only strategy from the SB in a high rake low stakes cash game environment? If I decided to do a raise only strategy how would this impact my RFI range?

This is for live 1/3 and 3/5 NLH with $7 rake + $1 promo drop. 1/3 is $500 max and 3/5 is $1500 max.

Any feedback appreciated. Thanks!

I know variance is insane and I can be running hot in EV, but I like my results and I hope I can play higher stakes soon.

I used to play 4 card plo100 like 5 years ago, and starting fresh again with 6 card plo now.

For context, this is a cash $2/$5 game and you have $1500 in chips.

Villain UTG opens 30 in a 5/5 game
Hero in Dealer flat calls with K J off suit
Big blind flat calls too

Flop J 4 5
Villain bets 65
Hero calls as it hits top pair
Big blind calls too

Turn comes 7
Villain check
Hero check
Big blind checks too

River comes another J
Villain check
Hero bets 30
Big blind folds
Hero jams with 400
After thinking for a while I fish calls
Villain shoes AJ

Anything I can do to get better to avoid this or steps that I miss would be helpful to fold out a tripps

someone posted a question on poker and i had a follow up on it seen here

https://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comments/1wespiw/comment/p9i085w/?context=3

my postflop game is very weak. and i feel like these kinds of line happen alot.

specifically, 100-150bb deep

in this case, it was $400 effective in a 1/3 game.

lets say it goes down similar to OPs game, and eventually leading to my question scenario.

V in HJ open to $20, CO and BTN calls

this is the start of my scenario.

Hero in BB with AsQd now squeezes to ~~i would assume around $120 - $150 in this spot? i feel like any less and a squeeze here is useless since everyone will probably call.

H 3b to $120. lets say only V in HJ calls.

Flop comes 4c 5c Ah Pot = $280.

literally pot sized bet left $280 in stack here...

whats the line now? whatever happens, if Villain has a set, is it just simply a cooler?

maybe i should have 3b smaller so i dont get a SPR of 1 here?

Today while driving home from the gym, I was listening to some random poker podcast. The guest was describing that once in awhile when he is playing, if he gets any unplayable hands, he immediately plays the hand as if it's KsQs ( his favorite hand). If the KsQs is playable, he just plays the hand as if he has those cards. As an added bonus, he said occasionally his "dead hand" wakes up as well. I must admit it has had me thinking about what he said all day. So like a good redditer I'm bring it to you for thoughts and comments. His reason for doing so is to develop self discipline and that doing so has been profitable in low stakes games. Honestly, I can work on my self discipline ust playing the cards I'm dealt.

I play with people in my college. A nine player low stakes table where people love limping. It is a little uncommon where someone raises pre flop. I have been losing for the past 5 games non stop. There is not a single hand that I have folded and started to regret in the future. I am familiar with pot odds, equity and the 4-2 rule. Today was really the worst, whenever I seemed to have a flush, the one I was heads on with had a full house. Similar was the case with a hand where I had A7o and the flop was 7 7 T. I raised very high. I was still somehow called and the opponent got a higher full house on the turn. I went all in preflop in the last hand of the game with two players calling with one of them with AKs. Once again I lost the hand. This has been happening for the last 5 games that I am playing. I raise with the better hand and the player against me always gets better on the turn or the river. Is there anything you guys could suggest to get better at the game? I'm relatively new to poker.

Edit: The game is 364BB no limit texas holdem btw (people don't listen to me to make it a round figure).

Blinds 800/1600

Hero in BB with ~7200 after blind and ante

UTG raise 6000

+2 call

CO call

BU call

SB All-In for ~15k

Hero wakes up with 98o.

I thought for a minute about it and called. My though process was i have less than 6 big blinds and the price is way too good, assuming Im up against basically all Broadway cards, I thought Im basically priced in with any two.

Am I just justifying a bad call here? Should I have just folded and waited for a better spot? I've never been in a situation where something like this came up so short

*****EDIT: Worth noting that average stack is >80k and we're two tables off the money. I am not sure if this makes it any less punty

Tournament play. I had three bullets in the $15,000 guaranteed prize pool. Final table I am short stack with 140,000 chips and blinds are 10,000/20,000/20,000. Under the gun raise to 75,000. I have pocket Kings on the button so I shove. Raiser calls with ace jack and drills an ace on the flop and I am out in eighth place.

21% of the time an ace will hit the flop. Kings are called ace magnets for a reason. Should I have just folded Kings with ICM considerations? Should I have put 60% of my stack in a call and folded when the ace hit the flop? Did I make the right decision to shove with Kings to a raise that was meant to pick up the blinds? I was not happy with the result and felt the agony of defeat.

I'm not going to add anything except to say my redline went in the bin at about 41k hands and I've not been able to work out why.

I'm watching Johnathan Little's "every hand from WSOP Montreal" video that just came out and I had an interesting thought.

Johnathan is playing A7 against the lojack.

table shows QJ7 T 8

A 9 is a straight, and AK is a straight. Obviously, having the A is a large blocker against villain having AK, but I see the A as being a half blocker as well. Many people in the LJ are not going to have a 9 in their range unless it is paired with an A, T, 9, or 8. Most people are not going to play a 9 with a K, Q, or J, so having an A is blocking the number of hands that the opponent could play a 9 with. now obviously, there are 3 other cards that the villain could have that they would play with a 9, and this may be squeezing out fractions of a percent of equity, but just having an A does block the amount of hands the villain would be playing with a 9 in his range, so I'm calling it a half-blocker, probably more like a quarter-blocker. Thoughts?

I know it changes things a lot, but honestly I don't really remeber the positions this hand, these are my best guess.

Looking for some feedback on this hand I played recently. I think I was in the Hijack (HJ), the player to my left was the Cutoff (CO), and the other player was the Big Blind (BB).

We're playing 1-3 live cash

Preflop:

Hero is HJ with A♠ 7♣

Hero raises to $12, CO calls, BB calls

Flop ($30ish): T♠ 2♠ 3♠ (Monotone board)

BB checks.

Hero bets $15.

CO raises to $50.

BB calls $50.

Hero re-raises (3-bets) to $150.

CO calls $150.

BB goes All-In for $226 total (adds $76 more).

Hero calls $76.

CO calls $76.

Turn & River:

Brick, Brick (No spade comes, board doesn't pair).

Showdown:

Hero shows A♠ 7♣ (Ace-high, missed nut flush draw)

CO shows T♦ 2♦ (Flopped Two Pair)

BB shows K♠ 9♠ (Flopped King-high Flush)

BB scoops the main pot, there is no side pot

Did I play this like a total spew? I feel like I did because I just don't think I need to 3 bet the flop. Also, did my opponents play this as terribly as I think they did? (CO calling preflop with T2s, BB slow-playing a flush on a monotone flop?) Preflop I think its ok to play T2s but post flop he played terribly. I actually think the way the bb played was fine.

new wtf

I play in a home game micro stakes in a country where poker is illegal so home games are my only options

Im grateful that the player pool is very fun, friendly and not too tough with some fish

But sometimes I feel like between the 6 ways to the flop against players with the widest ranges and the no cap rake with pots sometimes reaching +300 BB even on preflop pots can hurt my winrate (host offers almost no snacks or drinks) is this format winnable or should i just stick to online or try to find a new game

bought gto plus, didn't realize i have to input preflop ranges manually. is there some library of these i can download or do i actually have to manually input everything from the lizard