u/TimmyTimeify

Being slight underdogs on the road, on the east coast, in the home team’s big university tradition, with their own backs against the wall, we could have easily lost this game.

Instead, we cleaned up on the penalties. Had no turnovers or ever turnover-worthy plays. Defense made a lot of situational stops. And the offense was able to execute a clutch 4-minute drive to end the game.

This team didn’t look anything like the team I saw last week in the Coliseum. Much much better team tonight.

Also, Trent Mosley and Taynook Hines picking up right where Makai Lemon and Jakobi Lane left off is so encouraging.

Legitimately this election seems infinitely more confusing than 2024. I feel like even the mega contributors on here are differing in their slates this year. Can someone give me an endorsement list or unendorsement list?

Side note: can someone let me know the meta of why the endorsement slates are so messy this year and maybe advocate for who I should vote for?

$5/$5, $1k effective

Hero raises from UTG +1 with 8d8c, raise $20
HJ 3-bets to $60
BTN cold-calls
I call

Flop comes Th9s7h.

Check to HJ, who bets half pot. BTN quickly calls.

Assuming these are players who can fold relatively strong hands on the flop to the raise, this feels like a mandatory check-raise on the flop? My range is most likely to contain 77, 99, TT, and T9s, where I feel like all 11 combos of those hands would play the hand exactly like I would. The raise would look incredibly strong, and IMO I could get a lot of folds here from from bigger pairs, while getting a few continues from hands I beat like QJ or AhKh. I would also help “clean” my J out in case HJ or BTN are continuing here with KQ. worst case scenario, I’m up against a set and I’d still have 8-10 outs.

I do feel like my range in general contains a lot of hands that either would fold or raise to the bet and call preflop. I’m not sure what hands here I’d want to call OOP though, if any at all. In a situation like this, what would you be doing with you thick value, SDV, and draws?

I had a very interesting and difficult hand that I am curious to figure out how to play.

$5/$5, effective stacks ~$800-$1000, most villains here have high VPIPS (>30%) and play passively.

I raise UTG with KcKs.

Called by UTG +1, CO, and BB.

Flop comes KhJh9h.

My main questions here are:

1. Should my main goal here be to focus on equity realization or value? Given the position I raised from, I have literally *maybe* 3 credible combos of flushes (AQ, QT, and QT), which would all be the nuts and probably would not need much protection at all, but CO and BB will simply have more combos of flushes of every sort, and more combos of QT as well. These ranges are wide, and can included offset Ah hands and offsuit QT. Being out-of-position, my biggest fear is being forced out of the pot on the turn: I feel like a hand like this needs to see a river.
2. Once it checks to me, my consideration is to just bet small on the flop to fold out trash hearts, trash straight draws, and get value from pair+flush draws, pair+ straight draws, etc.. But the happy problem of having top set is that I block a lot of the top pair combinations that I'd want to target that have very little equity against my exact holding. I know that even heads-up, 3 flush flops tend to be played very passively and for small sizes, so I was wondering if checking here would make sense.
3. Since my equity is so resilient even in a multi-way pot, I'd imagine that I'm largely indifferent to getting the hand all-in on the flop multiway, but I'd most likely not want to do it heads up, especially on the turn. If the postflop sees something like a me check, big-bet and a call, should I consider raising to get-it-in multiway or should I play this hand passively?
4. In the event in which I hit my boat and I'm playing against a villain in position who bet on a previous street, I feel like donking would be mandatory, correct?

I’m genuinely curious if anyone who has come out of that poker school has won 20 bb/hr. They had Tommy do vlogs for them after Marc, and then the next guy they got was performing so badly that they basically shuttered that vlog series.

I’m sure Marc is a great poker player, but the interesting thing is that on the matter of education, I always found Doug Polk’a philosophy that teach exploitative-focused philosophies when it came to poker could be problematic because it was very hard to make that education repeatable and teachable in the different contexts that poker can often come in. Then again, I’ve always found the duality of “GTO vs Exploitative” to be silly, two sides of the same coin.

Any HH alumni, your responses here would be very appreciated.

$600 effective, $1/$3/$6

HJ raises to $20 CO calls, BB calls, straddle folds.

Flop comes JdJc2d.

Hero makes decision to check all hands based on hand history that BB calls with too many hands, and thus both CO and BB have a lot more Jx than hero.

CO bets $30. Hero calls.

Turn comes brick, 6.

Hero checks, CO bets $60. Hero calls.

River comes Ah.

Hero checks. CO bets $400.

Assume the following:

Raising range would be all suited broadways, most suited aces, 55+, AJ+, KQ, and suited connectors 65-T9.

Hero checks all hands, calls flop with AQ/AK, diamond combos, 55-AA, and Jx.

On the turn, hero folds low diamonds, AQ and AK with no flush draw, and 55.

River range will be Broadway diamonds, various AdXd, 77+, and Jx

Hero has no read on CO other than he seems competent and regular, and is able to take aggressive actions.

Exploit read: the bet sizing seems weird because I feel that Jx would want to bet larger on the turn to get more protection against diamonds and to get called by a whole sort of pockets that could would get sticky. Also feels that villain may have bet some hands for protection on flop and turn and feel that the A no longer gives them SDV with something like 44. Main value hands I see playing like this would be big Jx, 22 and 66. Not sure if this line is even taken with lower Jx.

I feel like given this size, Jx+ is the minimal strength I need to continue with this hand? Are there any other hands I’d need to consider defending here versus certain player types.

Anyone have any suggestions? Back in the 2010s I vaguely remember hearing from Dutch Boyd and Bart Hanson that Portland was one of the very special places in poker because the poker playing was rake-free and dependent on volunteer dealers, since so many of them were associated with strip clubs that made their money off of winners spending it at the strip club. Checked PokerAtlas and that game seems to still be running, so now I’m adding it to my weekend itinerary to Portland.

Main question is: which venues should I try when I’m there. Mostly interested in playing at least one night at the KitKat Club and then maybe sightsee the rest, but am wondering if there are any other unique venues I should visits

8-handed at the Aria, $2/$5. $1500 effective.

UTG, $1000 effective, who is a loose, passive, and fast plays all of his strong hands preflop, limps UTG. Folds to me, I wake up with QdQc in the CO, raise to $30. BTN, same stack and main villain in the hand, who seems like a solid player but I don’t have much of a read on him, flats the BTN. UTG calls.

Flop comes AcQs7d. Checks to me, I bet $45. BTN flats, UTG folds.

Turn comes 9h. Completes the rainbow runout. I bet $110, BTN calls.

River comes Ah. I bet $345, BTN jams for the remaining $1300 effective.

This is a jam I almost never seen live as a bluff. Jamming 260bb into a triple barrel is just incredibly strong. Just an absolutely insane spot. My main question is:

1. Are there any boats here I am supposed to fold on this river? I feel like facing this jam, I think I’m supposed to fold 77 in theory because I don’t beat any of the boats and I don’t block many of them like I would with QQ.

2. If I think villain would raise some of his AQ or A9 on the turn, how should that affect my calling range? Does that even matter if I don’t think the villain is ever capable of turning a hand like 97s or Q9s into a bluff on the river?

3. If you were the villain in this hand, what hands would you play this way and turn into a bluff on the river, if any?

4. Would your read change if you thought that the BTN flatted my raise primarily to play a pot in position against the fish?

5. Given the rainbow runout of the flop and river, is my sizing on the bets good or bad?

I’ve had a few spots now where I’ve taken a strong line with a bluff, the villain tanks, shows a relatively strong hand, and then folds.

For me, I read any time the villain shows a hand before folding to either be: communicate to the rest of the table why they took so long as a courtesy, or communicate to the hero to play more passively with value because they won’t get paid off.

Do we tend to believe that the average villain who does this will call down at some point light or will just continue to fold facing aggression?

Was particularly curious about anyone who has any stories of Jamie Shaevel since he apparently plays the higher stakes cash games in Los Angeles and exclusively plays cash.

Is that for how loud he was, I don’t think he actually made any bad plays, and literally made a tough-ish call that was right and got his money in good for $56M pot.

People saying he is like Will Kassouf seem to miss that

1. He actually shuts up during hands
2. He isn’t talking down on players

And his post game interview was classy and very honest. Much appreciated.

300bb effective with main villain

UTG limp, Hero raises UTG+1 5bb, CO, BTN, SB, and UTG all call.

Flop is Qc7d2s

SB and UTG check, Hero decides to check range, CO checks, BTN overbets the pot for 45bb.

SB and UTG fold: what should Hero’s continue range be considering he is raising linear and checking all hands.

Live, 250bb effective

CO raises 6bb
Hero BTN raises 18bb
BB, vpip 90% including cold-calls, also has a linear raising range, calls 18bb
CO raises 103bb

Assuming read on BB is correct and their money is essentially dead money, what should a 5-bet jam range look like from the BTN in equilibrium? From an exploitative perspective, what would your range be for:

1. A Thinking LAG who notices BB VPIP.
2. A splashy rec
3. A nit
4. A new player

to the table

One of the crazy things in LA that I’ve been noticing since I’ve started playing again is just how often players seem to request table changes, seat changes, and sit out if VIP is taking a break. It feels endemic to every player type in LA. Euros looking to bum-hunt. Superstitious regs looking to get the “hot seat.” A bunch of immigrants/foreigners of the same ethnicity waiting to sit together and breaking the “English only” rule like it’s no buddy’s business during hands. Weirdo musical chair games where a player will trying to go to the best player’s left, and then that player will hop-scotch to go to their left, etc.

I was initially confused by the mandatory-go-South on table changes in LA, because it absolutely isn’t the rule in LV. But, Holy Lord, thank god for that. If the bumhunting is already this bad in LA, the LV bumhunting going on with the aspirational pros must be insane.

For me, my mentality is that every player has leaks, I’m here to get experience playing against every player type, I don’t care who sits with me, I think I’m better than at least 2/3rds of the table all of the time and the ones that are better than me, I can watch and learn. Literally the only time I request a seat changes is occasionally so I can get a more ergonomic/visible seat.