For me, I usually go when my in laws visit. I don’t dislike them but we have nothing in common and they have a better time if I’m not there, so it’s a win win. Also the in laws love watching the kids so the wife gets a break too.
He has the best hand and takes it down 25% and has 40-50% equity against 2 pair, shove is fine. He runs into a set maybe 10-20%.
I’m not sure what’s the best play pf, but shoving there seems like the correct play if you’re already there acting first with less than a psb.
Unfortunately my wife and I are in the opposite of that situation. She could probably take off when my parents show up. But it wouldn’t work the other way around. My in laws are cool AF for boomers (or really anybody) and I like seeing them. Also I think it would kind of hurt their feelings if I took off routinely when they came and didn’t have a good reason (i.e. work).
I agree but I was more or less just talking about how preflop hand section and play is bizarre. We can’t let this turn into poker talk! More random threesomes and open face pai gow
How it worked with me going solo to Vegas all the time is I think I made my wife hate Vegas. She would come down with me for WSOP and just be miserable. It was hot and I was basically gone the entire time and sleeping random hours. I still ask if she wants to go and she just says “have fun.”
I could have pulled this off pretty easy pre-kids. It’s harder with them.
We recently had a kid. It might be over for me.
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I’m folding out a lot of equity. Every possible turn card that doesn’t pair the board puts a possible wrap out there.
I’m not reraising this particular player without any potential dead money calling in between us that can be squeezed.
Good players tend to be irritated to be in a pot against me. My presence tends to make the game smaller.
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Shoving is fine on the flop but you should never be in that spot. It’s just a huge losing play long term.
You just flop a bad top pair on dry boards way too often and stack off on 1042, J65, K83 and just waaay to wide of boards.
If you’re going to shortstack games, you should actively avoid playing like this.
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I’m currently stuck $6 at aria 1/3 after almost 5 hours and that’s tilting as shit. I can’t leave like this.
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The fold pre argument is also an argument against making the games big and specifically a Rock and button straddles. If you’re folding KJT9ds (in this case as the SB and simultaneously UTG) your vpip is below 5%.
Why do you want small games? As a pro you theoretically make better decisions than your opponents. You want them making decisions on large pots when they are typically going to make even worse decisions.
You seem to play almost exclusively to reduce variance.
How old are the kids? I have a feeling thats a lot of solo trip deal breakers unless your wife enjoys solo trips and wants to make one of her own in exchange while you watch the kids
I don’t want smaller games. I just have the effect of encouraging opponents to take pot-control lines. I end up shearing sheep consistently rather than stacking donkeys.
The shearing sheep constantly only matters if you are playing with the same lineup all the time right? Random games you want to stack donkeys.
I default to a somewhat balanced game which doesn’t maximize exploitation against random donkeys. One thing I do is seek balance between my aggressive and passive lines. I think you need to check enough strong hands, especially OOP, to discourage people from trying to run you over.
Mini Trip Report
Day 1: Drove into Vegas, ended up getting ride to the Wynn for some 1/3. Got stacked when I check raised flop and overbet shoved turn with KQhh on a JTxxhh flop/turn. River brought no help and I lose to JT. Got it back and then some when I get shoved on with 99 on a K975 turn and stacked K9. Up $125. I then did my mandatory couple hours of drunken/high strip walking when I walked from the Wynn down to MGM before hopping a Lyft home.
Day 2: Car testing out on Mt. Charleston. Beating the heat was nice. We ate lunch at the Lodge at the peak. It was a comfortable temp outside but eating outside in high winds is always challenging. I had a massive stromboli (forgot to take a picture, but it was great). At night I hitched a ride to the Excalibur because there is a kids store my wife wanted me to get some stuff from, but it was somehow closed at 6:30. Even though Vegas is “back” it does seem that a lot of places are running at reduced hours, especially Sun-Wed. So I hoof it over to the Aria and play some 1/3. I’m stuck between $100-$300 most of the session, then this hand comes up. I open QT on the cutoff, and two loose passives in the blinds call. Flop A83r. Checks to me and I take a $15 stab. 1 call. I’m ready to shut it down. Turn is a J. Well crap, now I’m gonna 3-barrel. check, $40, call. River is a beautiful offsuit 9 giving me the stone nuts. Pot is $140, my opponent has about $120 behind. He checks, I rip it, and he hems and haws and calls with A2, and I’m back to even on the night. I’m shoving that river no matter what so I’m glad I got there because losing to A2 there would have been tilting. I leave down $17.
Pic from 7500 feet.
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Makes sense.
Don’t take my questions as saying I am right and you are wrong. I am sure it’s the opposite given you play for a living and I haven’t done so for 15 years. I am just interested in strategy.
Do you think you might benefit with small tweaks like increasing your VPIP 5% and upping your betting frequency in these random small stakes games? An extra Bb/100 can mean a lot at the end of the year.