Poker Hands and Strategy

You just have to show them you do it more than zero percent and usually they are cautious enough that you can make exploitative folds.

With some regs, there’s this dance where I demonstrate I can slow play and they back off for a time. Then, I slowplay less or not at all. Eventually, they revert to their more aggressive tendencies and start bluffing more. And I go back to setting more traps.

I know some in this thread seem to have an “lol live reads” attitude, but I’ve always found that the most useful live tell is when they show me they telegraph whether they are going to bet or raise or call or check behind me. It’s more useful than strong or weak tells, which often just confirm what you learn from their betting.

At low levels, trapping is the least important poker skill as it’s almost always wrong yet you (and hellmuth) are under the impression all your profit comes from trapping people who can tell within three orbits you are a 10% vpip nit who should never ever be paid off.

I’m not sure who is the lol live reads crowd, as it’s a super important part of live poker, but it’s much more effective when you’re the aggressor and not the check caller

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With a tight image, your profit comes less from value betting and more from bluffing and bluff-catching. The nits who always have exactly the hand they are representing are the ones who don’t get paid off. If you have a tight image, you need to under-rep your hand sometimes.

If you’re trying to bluff why are you constantly posting hands when you’re not even 100bb deep?

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I’ve always found it easier to read an opponent’s hand when they have more strategic options. Hand-reading is harder when you give them more opportunities to auto-check with 100% of their range.

You got some sort of 100% straddle range lol. Do you ever not straddle (I guess 1/3 nl so can meme it up)?

Western Canada it’s kind of expected in good games.

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I always straddle as I want the game as big as possible.

It’s also match the stack so I always match largest no matter how big.

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The places I play in most often only allow straddles UTG and less than 20% of hands are straddled, for both NL and PLO.

RE: The heads up stuff.

Gap between payout 1 and payout 2 literally don’t mean anything, as 100% of the remaining prizepool is always given to first (you mentally assume everyone has won areas the next out prize when playing tournaments.

I.e 1st is $100, 2nd is $20

Reality is you already have the $20 locked up, and are playing a HU match for $80.

Same applies if 1st was $100 and 2nd was $75. YOU already have $75, you are just playing a HU match for $25.

It’s why ICM literally isn’t a thing heads up, there is no laddering to do. You either win or lose.

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aware that icm considerations are not a thing hu. It was a consideration because I’m not super well rolled for this game (it’s like 50% dead money) and the jump represents a sizable portion of my bankroll, so I’d rather not be flipping for huge chunks of equity when it was basically impossible to lose postflop.

I believe this guy actually realized this and is why he was doing it, which impressed me a lot.

Here are some hands I was dealt on the button in a recent 2/5 PLO live session. Tell me which hands I should not be folding with. Hands are from 8- or 9-handed play. Feels pretty normal.

Suits are separated by dashes. AKT-2 would be AKT of one suit and 2 of another suit. A2-KT would be a double-suited hand. AKT2 would be four cards of the same suit while A-K-T-2 or AKT2r would be a hand with four suits. “Two limpers, raise to 20, one call” means that two players called, another raised to 20, and a fourth player called the raise and anyone else folded. I wasn’t able to capture what positions the actions were in but I don’t think it matter much. Assume stack depth of 100-200bb.

  1. JT-9-9 one limper, raise to 10, one caller, action on me
  2. J-76-2 six limpers
  3. K6-4-3 five limpers, raise to 25
  4. K2-94 four limpers
  5. Q9-T-9 two limpers, raise to 20, one caller
  6. 9864r four limpers, raise to 20
  7. K4-92 two limpers, raise to 20
  8. (a) 97-96 one straddler, four limpers
  9. (b) 97-96 one straddler, 7 limpers (including hero) straddle raises to two players call, everyone else folds (straddler always has AA)
  10. A442r four limpers
  11. A-9-54 six limpers
  12. A954r two limpers, raise to 30

Most of those are crap hands, I’d be folding most of them and I’m someone who loves raising in games w/tons of calling stations and almost no non-AA 3-betting.

If I’m expanding my preflop ranges it would be with broadway cards or almost any suited A, or higher 1-gap or 2-gap connectors.

Of your hands, I’m prob raising the 9976ds, possibly calling the QT99ss and possibly calling the JT99ss. Everything else is bottom 25% at a table like this.

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Some people believe in playing almost any four on the button in a limped pot. Part of my nitty image comes from me folding way more in that spot.

I dislike raising 9976ds because of the gap at the top. 9986ds is much better as a raising candidate.

In a game where button straddle is allowed and has priority over UTG straddle, if UTG will straddle your button if you don’t, would you let him?

Line check on two spots as the pfr with identical flops.

11 handed private game. First hand played as 5-10 second hand game switched to 5-10-25.

Many limps. I have red KK in the SB and raise to 125. I get 6 callers :(

Flop T86ccs.
I check (?). Checked all the way to the CO (last to act) who bets 300.
I call (?). Two other calls.

I have about 3500, the CO has 2k behind and the other two somewhere in between. It’s early on and I’ve never played with any of them. CO seems to be straight forward and not great.

Turn Kc cause of course.
I check (?). Checked around.

River 2c. I check. Checked around. one of the callers win with QxJc. CO shows 66 for flopped bottom set.

Dunno about flop or turn.

Hand #2

Game 5-10-25. I open 88 to 100 from EP. 4 callers. 2 in position, 2 in the blinds.
Flop T86ssx

Checked to me, I bet 300, HJ and BTN call, blinds fold. HJ is a rich older guy who was a passive nit but has been very splashy lately and tries to do lots of things he heard about in vlogs. BTN is the only kinda solid player in the game, he runs it and is very rarely going to put himself in high variance spots. Under bluffs and pretty predictable.

HJ has like 4k and me and BTN are fairly deep.

Turn Tx

I check (?), both check.

River 2s

I bet 1500, both insta fold.

I think hand one is fine.

Hand 2 I like betting turn here, especially if one of the villains is a weaker player.

I felt like opening pre, cbetting a really wet board into 5 players and betting the “worst” turn card for overpairs is too strong. I can’t imagine i’m ever betting aces on that turn and HJ isn’t bad enough to not notice it