r/Poker_Theory

I have read two opposing strategies for exploitatively adjusting RFI sizing according to position, and I would like the community's input.

Strategy 1: Raise smaller in early position and larger from late position. The logic is that you want to avoid building a big pot OOP and you want to maximize your positional advantage with a bigger sizing in late position.

Strategy 2: Raise bigger in EP and smaller in LP. The logic here is that you already play a tighter range in EP, so you don't mind a big pot, and it thins the field. Also, it allows you to play a very wide range IP and take advantage of position on later streets.

What are your thoughts?

From a Friendly Home Game, Effective Stacks are 100 BB (roughly equal +/- 5 BB to both Hero and V)/ .25/.50 live.

Hero: Button

Villain: HJ, fishy player, on the more passive side, hasn't shown many bluffs, but has shown some aggression with his strong (or what he perceives to be a strong hand, though this is rarer).

Preflop: V raises to 3BB, H 3Bet to 10 BB with AJss, both sizes are standard for the game. Everyone else has folded.

Pot: 21.5 BB

Flop: AcQc6h, V leads for 4 BB, I raise to 12 BB, V snap calls. Snap call worries me a little bit, this is the type of player to flat AQ/AK or QQ preflop to a 3bet, but he could have some draws here with JT/KT/KJ or a flush draw. I think the donk leading from this player, however, is a little worrying in regard to my specific hand, as on this board I'll typically be much stronger than he will be. Because of this, I go into the turn a little bit worried.

Pot: 45.5

Turn: 2x, don't remember the suit but I do remember that it was not a c nor a heart. V donks again for 16 BB. I'm very confused/worried now, As I figure at this point that I am up against a better ace or 2p+. I don't see this player bluffing nearly ever, and given the player type I figure that I will rarely be good here, so I fold after a 45 second tank.

Because it's a game amongst friends, I windmill my cards to him and V turns over Q10o for just middle pair. Now, I can't tell if he was value betting or bluffing, or what exactly just happened. I'm a little dumbfounded by how this pot went down, so I'm looking for some insights from some better players about what I could have done differently or played better to learn from this spot.

Hi everyone! Which site would you choose for cash games in Europe in 2026, and why? GG vs. PokerStars?

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.

50NL Zoom on PS. Hero raises A♥8♥ 2BB from UTG, SB and BB cold call. SB fish. 93 BB eff

the flop comes down A♠J♠8♦.

SB donks 5.68BB, BB folds. Hero raises to 18.46BB. SB shoves for 92.24 BB, 74BB more to call.

What would you have done?

result of the hand, in-game thought process and hand analysis insights later.

(spoilers here: https://www.pokerstarsreplayer.com/hands/800877c9fc )

Deep stack tournament; blinds are 400/800, 9 handed. In the small blind, I peel back A-Q clubs.

Two or three limpets around the table, and I raise 3x. Big blind calls, limpers go away, button calls.

Flop comes Qd-4c-7c.

Big blind jumps and shoves before I’ve acted. I’ve got him covered by about 25-35k. Button waits to act while I tank.

wyd?

Hero (MP): 311.56 BB

CO: 250.68 BB (VPIP: 27.62, PFR: 20.30, 3Bet Preflop: 9.76, Hands: 751)

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has Ah 4h

fold, Hero raises to 2.2 BB, CO raises to 7.48 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 18 BB, CO calls 10.52 BB

Flop : (37.4 BB, 2 players) 3c 9c Ad

Hero bets 11.72 BB, CO calls 11.72 BB

Turn : (60.84 BB, 2 players) Jd

Hero checks, CO checks

River : (60.84 BB, 2 players) Kh

Hero checks, CO bets 34 BB, fold

CO wins 57.8 BB

Hey, looking for some advice on the following hand.

For context - this is at a low stakes in person local MTT. Players do not raise pre flop that frequently, and often limp to see a flop.

MTT, 50bb effective, hero limps 8h7h UTG, 4 other limpers and BB checks.

Flop comes Qh2h4h.

SB and BB check, Hero checks, person to my left bets 5bb and everyone else folds.
I raise to 12bb.
Villain raises to 24bb.
I jam for remaining stack.

Villain turns over Th5h for the flopped flush as well.

Now my question is - should I be looking to pile in my chips in this scenario and accept it as a cooler, or play more cautiously?

The only immediate hands I think I really beat in this scenario are 6x combos of two pairs (Q2 and Q4) and 6x combos of sets (22 and 44), however I’m behind so many other Ax Kx Qx Jx flushes that could’ve played in the same manner.

Is this a lesson to:

a) be more cautious post flop
b) not limp in with junky hands just because my opponents are
c) accept it as a cooler

I generally don’t limp however since my opponents often limp and don’t often raise pre flop or squeeze, I thought I’d try the same tactic to see if I can see a cheap flop with hands that can make ‘nutted’ combinations.

Thanks!

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

1/2 game, straddle is on to 5

Hero is UTG+1 with 600 in stack

Hero JdJc raises to 20

Called by 2 players in MP and LP

Straddle (UTG) 3! to 105 with stack of 2000

Hero thinks a while before calling

MP and LP fold.

Flop 4d 9d 4h

Villain bets 150 approx

Thought process of hero:

This is an all in or fold situation. I don’t think I can call here because calling causes me to lose control of the SPR, which will be less than 1:1 after calling.

I considered fold pre flop but given previous history with villain (ive tagged him as capable reg who likes to 3 bet bluff, and has shown he is capable of it), I decided to make the call.

Reason for jam is to give maximum fold equity to AQ and AK, and of course I’ll be snapped off by AA KK and QQ. But I was wondering if this is just a bad shove given the relatively narrow 3 bet ranges here of straddle vs UTG.

I figured this might have been borderline acceptable given that there are 12 combos of AQ and AKo respectively, most likely flipping with AQ, AK of diamonds, and possibly KQ diamonds.

Was this just a pure punt?

playing private game with some friends(we'll be 3 handed) who are not very good and have money to throw around. i want to play as well as i can but i also want to be fun to play with and I think having a limping range from every position could be +ev because they probably won't punish as much with isos like a solver would. what would a limping range look like from each position? how can i go about mixing premiums in so its not too obvious?

I am like 2 months into learning some of the basics. I don't plan to spend more than about 10 hours a week on this hobby between play and study. I wouldn't say I have any real background in games, no chess experiences as a kid etc, but I have a degree in math and am reasonably good at picking up new skillsets.

My goal here is basically to get to a point where I could go to any 1/2 or 1/3 game (either in a home game or a casino) and feel pretty confident that I can beat it. I will likely not ever play enough to confidently say I can actually beat it, but reading this subreddit I am getting the impression that you can know if you are playing correctly even without statistically significant results. I am giving myself 1 year to accomplish this.

Wondering what folks who made the leap from total fish to reasonable low stakes players would recommend to make this happen as fast as possible. So far I'm playing 10NL on a few sites; I'm about breakeven on maybe 10,000 hands or so, which I gather is meaningless but I am tracking this in a spreadsheet closely. And I'm spending about half my play/study time taking Jonathan Little's courses on pokercoaching.com. This is fine for learning by osmosis, but I've BSed my way through enough college courses to know that blindly watching lectures isn't how you actually learn. I've never had an interest in any kind of gambling in my life, so I'm actually playing to try to teach myself to be more comfortable with risk and ambiguity.

What would people recommend? I'm maybe an unusual case here in that so far I actually prefer studying the game to playing it lol (I can already see a leak developing around risk appetite here that I'm attempting to plug), so very willing to put in the work even without getting to have that much "fun" in the meantime.

Any recommendations for the right way to study given these constraints and goals? The thing that I find difficult is that its hard to take any specific lesson I learn in one of these courses and put it into immediate practice, because it just might not arise often enough for me to get the reps in. But these drill sites and solver stuff seems like a stupid use of a beginner's time as well given how far from GTO my opponents at these stakes will play.

And damn this shits such a cool and nuanced game, I get the hype guys.

I’m trying to get better at separating theory from practical exploits

For example at micros some players seem to overfold to big river bets, while others never fold one pair

How do you decide when to follow a balanced strategy and when to just exploit hard
Do you use notes, population reads, sizing patterns, or specific stats

Would like to hear simple rules people use in real games

Very deep in a 2,000+ field MTT with top prize of 10k. 80 players left and I’m about 30th with 29BB.

I open in HJ with AQo for 2.5bb and cutoff jams 40bb.

I hate this spot and know he’s jamming with a lot worse so I call. He has KQo and hits a king and I’m out…

Checked the solvers and it does say it’s a 100% call but is there any merit in folding here and waiting for a better spot?

Pretty much the title.

I played NL2 and NL5, trying to up to NL10 right now.

Should I stop calling shoves with QQ after 4-betting? My stats seem to tell me that I should. Unless the player is a really terrible fish, I find myself always against AK+, KK+ in these spots.

This hand is from about a week ago in a wild, deep stack Texas 1/2 game. You're gonna like this...

It's 10-handed and stacks around the table range from $1k-$5k. I'm sitting with about $1.8k.

I'm on the button with a $5 button straddle on. I have J10diamonds.

5 people limp in for $5, then it skips me (button straddle) and it's on the small blind. Small blind raises to $30. For context, $30 was a standard open that night and routinely caused almost no one to fold. No different here. 5 out of the 6 original limpers call the $30 to continue. Now it's on me last to act.

My thoughts: I thought everyone had very weak hands. They all double limped without thought. The $30 open for this night was on the weak end and I didn't take it to mean much strength either. I wanted to raise big to take the pot down or isolate. If I get a caller, I expect people to take me to have AA or some very strong hand. So post flop, I can continue the story of my AA or my J10suited hand might have it's own value. 2 ways to win?

I 3-bet to $250. Original $30 raiser folds, UTG calls, everyone else folds. It's heads up.

This UTG player is a wild player. He is sitting with $5k currently, the big stack at the table. He just rebought that 30min ago after losing his first $5k from playing drunk and wild. He was calling everything, bluffing, betting everything and losing. However, after rebuying his new $5k 30 minutes ago he got very tight and even showed some big folds with top pairs to smallish bets, a total 180. My interpretation was that his new rebuy sobered him up and he committed to playing it tight and smart. He can't lose his last $5k is what I'm thinking he is thinking. Ok back to the hand...

Flop comes K96 with 2 diamonds. I flop a gut shot and a flush draw.

UTG leads out for $300. Small bet from this player. He usually bets wild and huge. Can't think what he has, but seems weak. Maybe just stabbing at it?

I call and decide to see what he does next and reevaluate.

Turn comes a 7 of clubs. I now have a double gutter to go with my flush draw.

He checks the turn. I think for a bit. I interpreted both his flop and turn choices as weakness. I have another $1.3k behind me. Pot is around $1.2k.

I go all in. He snaps. We agree to run the river twice.

Both rivers are bricks. He says "You're good bro. You're good." I'm a bit stunned. I say "I have jack high." He says "Queen high" and flips over Q2diamonds and all my chips go to him.

My thoughts: My learning lesson is to not jam hoping for a fold into a drunk maniac even if he changed and tightened up. That could undo at any time and the drunk maniac play could come back. That aside, if it were any other normal non drunk player, I like my play.

What do you think?

Hero utg1 30b KhQs

Villain 1 cutoff 60b

Villain 2 BB 40b

I raise pre to 2.5b. Both villains flat.

Flip is 8d9d5s checks around.

Turn is Qs. I bet 7.5b. Both villains flat again.

River is a 4c. Villain 2 jams, I call and villain 1 folds. Villain flips over 9c4d for rivered two-pair and I'm out.

I'm pretty sure this is just a bad cooler, but is there any spot I played wrong? Should I have c-bet the flop?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some feedback on a spot I faced recently. I think I played it too passively, and I’m trying to verify if my "survival" mindset cost me a massive chunk of tournament equity.

The Situation:

Tournament: €300 buy-in.

Context: 30 players left, 13 paid.

Action: 8-handed table. UTG shoves 13BB. It folds to me in the CO with 23BB.

Hand: TT

Average Stack: 28BB.

I ended up folding here. In the moment, I justified it by wanting to preserve my 23BB stack for a better spot, but looking back, it feels like I gave up way too much equity by not calling or iso-shoving a 13BB jam with TT. I did not have a solid read on UTG's image, but he looked quite confident with his shove.

My questions for the sub:

1. Against a 13BB open-shove from UTG, what should be the bottom of my calling range here? Am I folding too much by letting go of TT?
2. Strategically, should I be splitting my range? For example: calling with QQ+/AK to trap, and iso-shoving with the rest (JJ-88, AQ)? Or is "flat-calling" a shove always a mistake in this spot?
3. How much does the "13 paid" payout structure (with 30 left) influence this? Does it justify a tighter-than-normal calling range, or is this still a pure "Chip EV" spot?

I play microstakes cash games, and i notice that people will rarely fold draws to any reasonable bet. I know its not good to overbet heads up on wet boards because you extract more value out of weak hands that continue than you would from over charging draws. Multiway though, especially if its 4 or 5 people, overbets seem really good when you are clearly ahead

is there anything wrong with this logic? slow play some nut hands on uncoordinated multiway boards when you don't need a lot protection. Then on very wet boards multiway overbet to exploit people overcalling when you're clearly ahead?