Two simple spots @ 50NL 6m

I'm a nittagg who is tired of folding in any spot that requires a little bit of thinking.

1st hand, the pfr is a lagg reg whos PFR is 20+ and cbets 70%+. his double barrelled me last orbit and I folded on the turn when a scare card hit. caller from blind is a weak player. what do I do on flop? call and give the weak player from blinds a reason to call as well? raise and pretty much turn my hand into a bluff? fold and b a wimp for the rest of my life?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) -

BB ($47.20)
UTG ($70.55)
MP ($15.45)
CO ($54.80)
Hero (Button) ($90.20)
SB ($59.80)

Preflop: Hero is Button with ,
2 folds, CO bets $1.25, Hero calls $1.25, SB calls $1, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.25) , , (3 players)
SB checks, CO bets $2.50


Second hand is versus a winning reg who is on a lot of my tables. His capable of squeezing there with a wide range. Is their anyway I can call here profitably? What conditions are required to call here profitably?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) -

SB ($54.70)
BB ($50)
UTG ($161.60)
MP ($24.75)
Hero (Button) ($60.25)

Preflop: Hero is Button with ,
1 fold, MP bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50, SB raises to $7, 2 folds

1st hand, CALL!

2nd hand, conditions necessary = have a read that villain is squeezing too light. You have position so when you flop a pair try to take it to showdown likely calling two streets, and if you flop any kind of draw try to raise flop, or call flop and jam turn in order to push him off his hand.

1st hand

I don't mind three betting preflop and taking it down right there if the guy is raising a lot preflop. I would call more than 3betting though but you can mix it up. You aren't gonna win a big pot with 7's unless u flop a set and so after having called preflop and getting this board i would definitely raise. I can get value if the SB elects to call with some gut shot or pair and gut shot. The pfr is gonna have missed this board quite a bit but u cant really like any over cards or a 3 in this spot. I would play a small to medium pot with this hand. raise to a about 7 on the flop. If you get re raised its an easy fold and if u get called you can barrel a lot of turn cards. I just think by raising ur not turning ur hand into a bluff you are just trying to get value from some random pairs or gut shots and you are preventing a situation that the pfr can barrel u of ur hand on later streets. Raising makes ur decisions on later streets easier.

2nd Hand

I don't think you can ever call here profitably given the size of his raise. You are gonna whiff a lot and he is gonna barrel a lot too if he is a solid reg. Preflop i would either 3 bet or call, but i would 3 bet a lot more than calling. Your relative position sucks. If UTG raised and got one caller i would call, but in a potential HU pot and with a squeezer in the blinds i would go for a 3bet and might even fold if he squeezes really often rather than calling.

Hand 1

-I'd only 3bet preflop if I had been 3betting him a lot and was fairly confident a 4bet bluff was coming (ie: ship over a 4bet).
-as played, easy flop call

Hand 2
-agree with marshall

2: Conditions required: Your opponent is passive or bad postflop, orrr if you do this with monstars too and he knows it (unlikely), orrr if you're deeper.

But given raise size, stack sizes, and competent opponent -->snapfold


1:meh call. Folding is alright too.

Re: hand 1, I'm trying to understand how a call on the flop can be the right decision in this situation. I mean even against a guy who 70% c-bets, the part of his range that isn't beating us still has decent equity vs us and since you gave us the read that he double barrels turn scare cards we're going to be put in a really shitty spot on most turns.

I guess I'm just not sure what to do on most turns after we take this line preflop and on the flop. I'd much prefer 3-betting on the button in this situation since if we don't we're giving the blinds odds to call preflop, and if they do elect to call and unless we flop a set we're going to be playing a huge guessing game against wide ranges, and even if we do hit a flop like this, we basically ruin the implied odds we have preflop if CO actually has an overpair by getting highly invested in this flop.

So anyways my default play would be to 3-bet preflop and as played fold flop.

I think I raise flop in hand 1. As caddie said, we're going to find ourselves in a shitty spot way too often on the turn vs this villain. He's got a very wide range here and we're ahead of most of it, so lets get some money in.

I call flop in hand 1 unless vill is spazzy. You have position and
Raising is a little fancy....he doesn't call with worse. Force the lag to put in that 2nd barrel knowing that in general his range will be weaker then yours and will have to fire 3 to get u to fold.

Originally Posted by TonyB73

I think I raise flop in hand 1. As caddie said, we're going to find ourselves in a shitty spot way too often on the turn vs this villain. He's got a very wide range here and we're ahead of most of it, so lets get some money in.

raising puts us in a much shittier spot than calling and seeing a turn does here. Unless villain is a huge spaz, raising is shutting out all worse and letting all better continue.

Originally Posted by TonyB73

I think I raise flop in hand 1. As caddie said, we're going to find ourselves in a shitty spot way too often on the turn vs this villain. He's got a very wide range here and we're ahead of most of it, so lets get some money in.

The fact that we're going to find ourselves in a bad spot on the turn doesn't make a flop raise better than a flop call, I think that fold>call>raise on this flop. Calling allows this villain to at least barrel hands that we are beating, but I think folding is the better option due to the reasons I stated in my previous post.

Originally Posted by AnTman_69

I call flop in hand 1 unless vill is spazzy. You have position and
Raising is a little fancy....he doesn't call with worse. Force the lag to put in that 2nd barrel knowing that in general his range will be weaker then yours and will have to fire 3 to get u to fold.

+1
Im consused why people are avocating a raise, what are we trying to acomplish? a freeze play? Op said last time villan DB, not he DB alot. Even if he does DB alot then surley we know we are ahead of his range. Like AnTman said we can fold river to a 3rd bullet.imo

1) I would always flat. Raising is very bad since your bluffing with 2 outs when your gonna be ahead a bunch when you flat.

2) You're not deep enough to do anything other than fold. Your hand plays badly with a low spr and without the initiative.

Originally Posted by caddie444

I guess I'm just not sure what to do on most turns after we take this line preflop and on the flop.

just call most turns, other than K, A and 3 turns. we're in position, so he's not going to be able to put us in nearly as many super scary impossible spots as you seem to think.

@ preflop: not to sound like an ass, but 77 just might be literally the very last hand i would 3b in this spot. if it ends up being HU to the flop, then we're in position with a hand that plays very well against villain's wide range; if the fish comes along, we'll mainly be bum-hunting, but now that the fish called, we're getting great implied odds anyway.

I think raising has been mentioned earlier on because the op sounds like he folds to a lot of double barrels. If we call the flop intending to call off barrels on any non K A or 3 than flatting is much better. To keep the hand simple and try and win a small to medium pot raising is ok to. We are beat a lot of the times when either player calls, but then we can shut down and the raise on the flop would be all we lose. At times it can get checked down and we could have the winner too.

I have been thinking about the concept of raising to slow people down recently. In the million dollar cash game Phil Ivey barreled Allen Cunningham off aces when he lead out into him three times with 105o on a 669x9 board. Now that is Phil Ivey but other players do that to. with a hand like 77 in this spot I think that if u don't wanna be put in a spot where u have to call down barrels from an aggressive opponent, why not throw in a raise. You are definitely losing value from hands that he is gonna barrel but if ur hand is pretty marginal like the 77's in this spot, wont closing the action be an ok line to take considering the fact that you will be beat sometimes, sometimes they will catch up and sometimes one of the mentioned cards will peel off?

Originally Posted by surviva316

Originally Posted by caddie444

I guess I'm just not sure what to do on most turns after we take this line preflop and on the flop.

just call most turns, other than K, A and 3 turns. we're in position, so he's not going to be able to put us in nearly as many super scary impossible spots as you seem to think.

@ preflop: not to sound like an ass, but 77 just might be literally the very last hand i would 3b in this spot. if it ends up being HU to the flop, then we're in position with a hand that plays very well against villain's wide range; if the fish comes along, we'll mainly be bum-hunting, but now that the fish called, we're getting great implied odds anyway.

Just wondering why you think 3-betting 77 is bad in this spot? If villain is running PFR 20+, he should be folding a lot to 3-bets form the CO (although this is an assumption and might not be true)

I still have a hard time thinking that this hand will be more profitable to play by calling preflop even in position against a villain who likes to double barrel, just seems like we're having to make hero calls on most boards, and our we just supposed to fold to his river bets?