I'm such a fish. 4 hands @ $50NL

I lost a lot of smaller pots that added up (to a LOT) today playing $50NL, and so I thought I should post some of them to see if there's anything big I should change.


1) I was new to the table. Fold okay?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

SB ($44.90)
Hero ($52)
UTG ($55.75)
MP ($56.05)
CO ($51.05)
Button ($71.60)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, K.
1 fold, MP raises to $1.5, 1 fold, Button raises to $5.5, 2 folds, MP calls $4.


2) Only had about 50 hands with the villian, his stats were 56/20. What kind of hands is the villian doing this with?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

CO ($123.35)
Hero ($49.75)
SB ($49)
BB ($50)
UTG ($122.50)
MP ($146.55)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, A.
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2.5, 2 folds, UTG calls $2.

Flop: ($5.75) J, 2, 2 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $4, UTG calls $4.

Turn: ($13.75) 9 (2 players)
UTG bets $16, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $29.75


3) Just fold the flop?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

UTG ($117.35)
Hero ($85.90)
CO ($50)
Button ($49.25)
SB ($65.80)
BB ($120.50)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, Q.
1 fold, Hero raises to $2, 2 folds, SB calls $1.75, BB raises to $5, Hero calls $3, SB calls $3.

Flop: ($15) 8, 4, 2 (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $8, Hero raises to $20, SB folds, BB calls $12.

Turn: ($55) 6 (2 players)
BB bets $20, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $75


4) What am I supposed to do on the turn?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (4 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

BB ($59.15)
Hero ($49.25)
Button ($52.40)
SB ($53.40)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with T, A.
Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, SB calls $1.75, 1 fold.

Flop: ($4.50) K, 4, T (2 players)
SB bets $3, Hero raises to $8, SB calls $5.

Turn: ($20.50) K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $12, SB raises to $43.4, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $75.90

Hand 1: Fine.

Hand 2: Hands he does this with? Jx, smallish-mid PPs that figure to have you beat on the flop. 44-88, wouldn't surprise me at all figure he'd raise TT+, and 2 unsuited broadways. Might be ahead here.

Hand 3: Am I missing something? Why fold the flop with overpair QQ on a 2 flushed board against a 1/2 pot bet? If you're THAT sure he had AA/KK with the tiny reraise preflop, ok fold the flop, but I fold that flop or turn just about never and push over for his last ~$5.

Hand 4: I tend to prefer to float the flop instead of reraising when I think guys are c-betting, but thats me. As played its an obv fold, nothing really odd about it.

Hand 1: It's fine. Re-raise ranges on typical players aren't wide enough to gamble here. Why flip $100 coins today when they'll just give you their money tomorrow?

Hand 2: I'm a fish, I sometimes call the turn.

Hand 3: I'm a fish, I cackle like Jack Nickelson and shove all-in on the turn.

Hand 4: Betting the turn reduces your hand to a bluff. Is that what you wanted to do?

1. Fold is good. To go into a bit more detail here, when I was learning NL ring, I thought this was an automatic, routine fold here preflop and that's really not the case. Seen as how the lower stakes still play relatively passively, you are fairly new to NL ring lean heavily towards just mucking pre. You can get into some tricky spots, high variance spots here both by cold calling and 4 betting (of which, against 2 agressive players, I heavily favor the 4-bet... keep in mind that a range of AA/KK/AK here is ahead of KK). Anyway, to be clear, if button has a tight range here, this is always a muck preflop if you're even reasonably deep stacked. 100bb eff easily applies here.

AK is a nut hand here sometimes at 100bb deep, eg if lagtard is getting out of line here, make it $20 to go and call a push. Pushing yourself is another option.

2. I don't know. Logic says fold. I think I would call here sometimes. I might even raise here out of spite sometimes but I'm not really sure if that's as a bluff or for value.

3. unanswerable. Put BB on a range and figure out the best way to play post-flop. As a default, I think the raise on the flop usually sucks because it lets him play perfect poker against you. I think I let people have a look at 6 overcard outs here too often in the interest of protecting my stack.

unanswerable. Put BB on a range and figure out the best way to play post-flop.

4. I really don't like this flop raise. I think a call is best but if you're going to raise, I'd want to put real pressure on the guy. As played, I'd probably just check behind on the turn. Getting raised off your hand sucks, and if the guy called the flop with a king or better, he's obviously never folding. Ok, now that I realize that you DID get pushed at, you have to fold. Unless you think he's going nutso with a combo draw then you can call him. I put him on something like KQ here a lot.

Originally Posted by takesix

Hand 3: Am I missing something? Why fold the flop with overpair QQ on a 2 flushed board against a 1/2 pot bet? If you're THAT sure he had AA/KK with the tiny reraise preflop, ok fold the flop, but I fold that flop or turn just about never and push over for his last ~$5.

Originally Posted by Fnord

Hand 3: I'm a fish, I cackle like Jack Nickelson and shove all-in on the turn.

I honestly don't get this. If he doesn't have AA/KK here, what does he have? It's standard to put my stack in with QQ here?

Look at his bet sizes. AA or KK doesn't half pot the flop and bet even less on the turn. Whatever he has, he's looking to show it down cheaply.