blonde poker forum

Few hands of late. LAG image unless stated. Good Reg Villain unless stated.

Hand 1;

1/2 uncapped at DTD. Tight image, Villain 1 opens BTN £10, very reggish but never seen before, covers me (380), I 3b  Ad Aspades £26 from the small. V2 cold calls, very frustrated doesn't seem too reggy playing 250. Reg calls pretty quick.

 Kh 6c 4h (Pot £78)

Bet £42, V2 pretty quickly makes it £105 with what I think is a bare K. V1 then makes it £225.

Hand 2;

1/2 Uncapped at DTD. Just lost half my stack with TT<KJo AIP so I might seem a little steamed. Open  Ac Kc UTG £8. 5 callers incl villain who is very good reg, considerable history between us. £250 effective (me)

 Ahrt 8c 6s, bb donks for £14, I make it £35, villain cold calls, bb folds, rest fold.

 9s, I bet £50 and he calls.

 Qc, you?

Hand 3

Still on uncapped 1/2 at DTD. We open  8h 8c over a straddle to £15 UTG+1 6 handed. Reg 3b's BTN £40, he's pretty LAG but in a bad seat on this table and has tightened up, rest fold we call. We have a ton of history with villain and regularly talk about hands/spots so I expect him to be goof around slightly more than vs a random 1/2 villain.. I cover him effective stack is £330

 Tc 2d 6c

We check call £50.

 Jd

Check/call £80.

 Js

He takes 15 seconds and moves in for £199.

Hand 4

1/1 at DTD. Super LAG almost OOL image. I'm playing a lot of hands.

1 Limp we make it £6 with Ahrt Ad, good reg on my left peels. I cover him effective is £300, limper folds.

 Qs 3d 5c

We bet £7, he makes it £19 and we make it £40.

 Kc

We bet £45, he splashes 4 ponies in the pot (£100), has about £150 more..

Hand 1 pre flop sizing is a big leak minimum 35 here with both bluffs and value.

Hand 2 again raise sizing too small and is a leak. You raise pre to 20ish and got 5 callers, he leads15% of pot and you basically min raise?

Hand 3 calling turn seems really bad, yes it opens up q9, kq, aq, ak, 89, 87 but your range looks really weak and he's going to triple you on almost any card but a ten.

I dunnow, I tend to make it this sizing with my entire range against regs (whether or not we have history) not expecting him to fold very much but expecting to be able to outplay him postflop with the betting lead and position. Being £380 deep makes me want to make it slightly bigger, say £30, though.

Postflop strap yourself in and go all-in, expect to win the pot about a third of the time if I were to make a ballpark guess.

Hand 2 I don't see how much you made it preflop? Pot sizes are crucial to how to play the hand, makes a huge difference if you made it say £7 or £15, both of which could be standard.

Opened to £8 sorry, will edit OP

Hand 4 pre flop seems badminimum 10 here especially with ur ool image.

Flop sizing is real bad, If we think he is cr for value and going to call a 3be then size it larger if u think he's bluffing a lot then use this as a bluffcatcher potentially raising some v few rivers depending on run outs and sizings.

Hand 4, was defo  Kd

Do you always open 10x with AA?

Hand 3 I could actually imagine smashing it in pre but ofc calling is fine. Flop and turn are good - turn closer than flop - river is probably a call but it really depends what mood you think he's in. If you have considerable history with villain this comes into play much more than any advice anyone on the forum could give - unless you share some of that history?

Hand 4 it's awkward but I think we can find a fold. We've shown a lot of strength, we block AQ, KQ just got there and we've given him a chance to just flat with draws and he's declined. Looks like he's trying to get more money into the pot with the best hand.

Hand 1. I find this a really tough spot. Cash game, I suppose we have to jam and cross our fingers. We stand to have >40% equity a lot of the time multiway (this is TalStove^*), up against Kx and YZhh, I would suggest.

I'd raise more pre tho in a 1/2 game. No one opens and passes. Ever.




*patent pending

Hand 1 bigger, 30 absolute minimum, I'd go £35. Reasonably happy to get this in. Villain minraise looks kinda suspicious but I suspect he could do this with some Kx or the Axhh that is happily getting it in vs the donk lead that is at best Kx and will also be worse flush draws. If he has 66/44 then lol wp he should definitely be flatting the fish's lead with those.

Hand 2 again bigger pre, people don't fold pre. I don't really mind the flop raise vs his tiny sizing here BB lead here but against a normal sizing I think raising would be pretty bad. Against some people you have the worst hand always (eg. me), he doesn't really have many draws and he'll probably continue betting with some worse Ax on bricky turns again with his sizing. If he starts betting bigger though I think its a fold.

River I think is a clear c/f

Hand 3 fold turn, if he wants to 3b and triple you light on this runout then thats fine, just have standard/not too OOL ranges pre and OTF and you're printing.

Hand 4 I'd make it £8, as played £12 on the flop. Really don't like the flop  3b, happy to let him keep barreling his Qx. Turn as played is kinda tricky cos vs regs that can have a spew you're gunna induce some with these weirdly small bet sizes. On the other hand its 1/1, if he was gunna bluff you would he really float and minraise turn? You'd check Qx most of the time on this turn so I don't really know what he's trying to bluff you off. Getting such a good price and with the possibility of him spazzing around I can see maybe peeling this turn raise and c/folding river. Can't quite shake the feeling that you're always gunna get shown KQ here though so villain would have to be pretty damn OOL. I dunno, fold turn I guess vs most maybe continue vs spewtards. That got really rambly but cba to edit.

H2 only just saw that you made it £8, people often just don't care that it's £1/2 and will call a pfr to £20 so go ahead and make it bigger. Definitely a c/f on the river, there's nothing for him to turn into a bluff and it's unlikely he'll call or even have worse at this point.

I'm the villain in hand 3.

Hand 1 agree needs to be bigger PF, live poker, bet big! Get it in now on this flop.

Hand 2 raise flop bigger if we must raise, raising seems ok, as played chk the river back i think...

Hand 3 chk/fold the turn defo, against a good player OTB id just fold this pre-flop to the 3bet, miles better hands to defend than pocket pairs, getting stubborn with pairs is defo the most bowl thing i see people do in live games. Calling the river would be bad, yes he has bluffs but his range is just stronger and our hand is weak, if you get some ninja read he's bluffing then flick it in but default has to be fold.

Hand 4 i would never 3bet the flop, I'd much rather just call everything here, you've got LOADS of hands that can defend vs this, draws, pairs, even some gutshots+bdfd's if you wanna get funky don;t see any need to have a raising range on such a dry board, you can just flat sets/AA and your range OTT is plenty strong enough for you to float the flop sometimes.

As played IDK id never be here.

Hand 1:

3bet bigger. Cbet bigger. Get all-in now.

Due to the SPR it is a slightly awkward stack off though (I still would stack off), and it would be much more comfortable if you had 3bet bigger preflop.

FWIW he has made the 'ghey flush draw raise' (i.e. raising to a silly amount that clearly commits him to the pot, rather than going all-in... he hopes this will look strong etc) which in my experience weights his range even more towards a draw than if he had simply jammed.


Hand 2:

Open bigger provided you are playing in a good game where players are calling big raises with bad hands. If your game is 'tough' then raise size is ok, but still probably just open bigger anyway. People love to call. Your range should be tight and strong UTG in a tough game so you can open big with your entire range. The fact that you got 5(!) callers definitely suggests that a) you are not in a tough game, and b) you can open bigger and still get action.

Flop raise sizing is not 100% terrible IMO, but should be a little bigger. Pleno seems to have got his numbers mixed up somewhere.

Bet bigger on the turn. If you bet at all.

Probably check-fold the river. AQ is a big part of his range to get to the river, as are sets and a few two pair hands.


Hand 3:

Fold to the 3bet preflop.

Check-fold the flop. You have opened your legs by flatting OOP vs a good player with the wrong sort of hand. Don't open them any further. You made a mistake preflop, correct it now before it compounds itself.


Hand 4:

Raise bigger pre. It depends on exactly how the table is playing and your feel for this, but you will usually be able to raise substantially bigger and get at least one person to call you. If this is not the case in a 1/1 game then you should not be playing in it. Don't be constrained by dogmatic thinking like "What? You want me to raise to 10x! Seriously?" If they will call 10x then why the fuck not?

I would not 3bet this flop vs a competent opponent. But if I did choose to 3bet then I would have a clear reason for doing so and my sizing would be bigger (see below). When villain raises this flop it usually means one of the following:

a) He is a competent player and his range will be heavily polarised, rather than 'overplaying' KQ type hands, or

b) He is not competent and/or doesn't understand polarised ranges. He is simply raising KQ/QJ etc because he 'thinks he has the best hand'.

If a) is the case then you have a top of the range bluff catcher, so do some bluff catching. If b) is the case then he will likely value bet at least the turn if you flat.

If villain is competent and sees you as competent then he should not ever be raising KQ/QJ type stuff and should be properly polarised. However, your opponent may not 'respect you' and thinks he can depolarise his range and try to get thin value from you without getting punished for it. If you believe that is the case then you have two responses. Either:

a) Flat and let him continue to value-own himself by betting his mid strength hands on the turn/river.

OR

b) Seek to punish him immediately for depolarising his range by 3betting BIGGER than you did. If he is going to raise you with KQ on this flop - because he thinks 'he can' - then make sure your 3bet size makes him squirm! Ideally you pick a sizing that he might sometimes fold to, but will usually feel forced to call whilst hating it. If he always makes an easy call with KQ/QJ here then you have not 3bet big enough.

If you were very sure that villain was depolarised in this spot then obviously 3betting is the most profitable exploitative play, provided you are able to size it well to make him grudgingly call down with Qx. However, you do not know this for certain and thus by far the best line is to play your hand as a bluff catcher. You'd be hoping two things. First, that when villain is polarised he has enough bluffs in his range - in other words that he is not polarised to the nuts and second nuts like some guys will be. And second, you'd be hoping that if villain is depolarised then he will continue to 'value bet' vs your AA on the turn and river with his Qx hands.

As played you should check the turn. You have narrowed his range further by 3betting (he folds or 4bets his zero equity bluffs), and even the depolarised part of it (KQ) has now improved to beat you.

Once you bet the turn, fuck knows what to do when he min raises you. Good luck with that one. You shouldn't be in this spot in the first place because you should not have 3bet the flop.

Probably make a tight fold. Or call now and then check-fold the river if he jams - it will go check/check some of the time and you win, so calling planning to fold river is not necessarily bad.

A common theme seems to run through these hands. The mistakes you make on early streets compound themselves and create problems for you on the later streets. You can play this way (exploitatively) against weak players, but against competent players you are just setting up bad spots for yourself.

Not much to really add to what so many really good players have already posted except for hand 2, i think betting turn is a bad idea and i'm checking to fold. A good reg isn't going to flat many Ax to the flop action and the 9 completes one of the draws, so i'm certain his overall range in this spot is gonna have AK crushed.