r/poker

We play once a month and are bored with our same games. Any thoughts on new ones?

Was wondering this because played a few times and the players seem to limp nonstop and big pots rarely brew. In TX where the buyin is $500 you could make decent money with better action. For some reason especially with the $300 buyin limit you get games where you just blind off your stack very quickly especially with the limping and the $10 bomb pots every half hour. It feels like the stack depth is very shallow and the whale factor is gone. It is averted so you lose the minimum but there really isn’t much upside either?

Hey Internet - I play a lot of poker, and this is probably the worst call I've ever seen someone make. And it was me!

Low-stakes cash home game. I had a monster stack earlier in the night and have deleted most of it on a generational late-night run. I get 33 and the board comes out 996. I throw out a healthy bet that's called --Villain here is ahead of me in position and a guy I've gone back and forth with a ton and tonight he's been wrecking me.

Turn brings a 6 straight from hell. Totally counterfeit. I bluff a value bet that's raised to most of my stack.

.....I tank, go into ego-tilt mode..........and call. We go to showdown and he has the boat but that's not what mattered. I would have lost to almost anything. I would have lost to a couple of almonds. I would have lost to the concept of a card.

They're calling it the worst call ever. Genuinely shaken to my core at the effect tilting can have on my brain.

Anyone got a worse one? (Doubt it)

25K WEEKLY GTD $250 buy in
14 left out of 200, ITM
No immediate pay jumps but ICM is a factor. Usually there is an ICM chop at 5 or 6 players so surviving that long is big.

Villain is a trying reg with whom we have history. They are capable of bluffing but mostly play TAG. Covers with 50bb.
Hero 35bb (effective)

V opens UTG +1 at 7handed table to 2.5bb. Folds to bb.

Hero has AhQh in the bb.

Hero has an awkward stack size. With less I would jam but AQ is a little light for getting 35bb in the middle as I don’t think V calls with worse. Probably folds KQ- and AJ-. With a larger stack size 3! would be optimal but I don’t want to 3! and fold to a 4 bet nor do I want to stack off with 35bb this late. I also don’t think it is bad to under rep our hand so I call.

Flop TcTs4c

Hero checks.

Villain Cbets 3 bb into 6.5bb pot. No real bet sizing or timing tells. V range consists of pairs, suited aces, any two face cards, maybe some suited connectors.

Although I don’t have any real back doors I think A high is ahead here much of the time. This board slightly favors bb but not by much as we have close to the same amount of T. I have more of 4 in range. I would consider c/r with some backdoors as a bluff but not with AQ as it is too strong to turn into a bluff. Folding is an option. But I consider that way too weak tight as hero should be ahead of the median of V’s range. So calling is the only real option.

Turn 5d

Quick check/check

River Th

Hero checks
V looks at his hand then quickly bets 9bb

This has me befuddled. If someone is a beginner they will often check to see if they hit their flush which isn’t relevant here. Sometimes intermediate players will look at their cards when they have a strong hand just as an impulse to make sure they really have it before betting. But not many hands make sense. A flush draw would probably bet turn. So would a T to charge the draws/get value. And in terms of combos it’s really hard to have quads. The hands that make the most sense are 66-99 type hands that were too weak to bet turn but now have turned into a full house. But then why would Villain look at their hand? They would know if they had 99. It all seems very suspicious. Generally when nothing makes sense, I am inclined to believe it is a bluff. 9bb is also a polarizing sizing which makes a T or a boat more likely but also makes bluffs more likely. If I had to put a number on it I think he’s bluffing at least 40%. So I have the chip EV to call.

The only other consideration is ICM. I already have 5.5bb invested, this call would be 9bb out of 29.5bb remaining. There are a few stacks under 15bb so even if I call and lose I cover those. And the other stacks are mostly over 40bb, there aren’t many middle stacks left. If I call and win I would go from a middle stacks to 2nd in chips which is tempting.

Do we have enough to put it all together in game and make the hero call? Or is this a fold? Is this something you’d ever consider or just snap fold?

Bet.

Is anyone successful grinding low stakes games that pull promo bucks or is it not even possible?

I seriously can't believe a play a game that takes 6 dollars out of a $30 pot. 3 rake, 2 promo pull, 1 tip?

That is completely unbeatable. The only chance is to have huge pots. I kind of feel scammed because I've been grinding and studying Poker hard and I'm only up $780 after almost 900 hours of play this year. I've calculated that I paid around 25k in rake tip and promo during that period. Including almost 7k in promo bucks and yet to see a single dollar come back.

If you have a long term win rate please tell me what it is?

Hard Rock Tampa 1/2, stacks are 300 effective

I open $10 UTG with 66, get called by a loose passive player in LP, and get 3-bet to $35 by a tight older man in the BB. I call to set mine and LP also calls. Flop comes QJ6r and the old man in the BB c-bet leads for another $35. I raise to $100 with the thought that AA/KK are never folding here and i can get max value by fastplaying, but also if i get jammed on it’s most likely QQ/JJ and I can fold. LP folds and BB snap jams for about $300. I tank for a short bit but stick to my original plan and fold. BB then shows me that he had AA.

So I guess my question here is when a tight low stakes player who mostly limps and rarely even opens 3-bets, should I just completely eliminate anything worse than KK from their range entirely? Later this same session I lost a hand to a different old man who flatted QQ to my open, possibly driving home this point. Wondering if someone who’s been playing this game longer than me can attest.

I played my first tournament last night after strictly being a rec cash player for years. It was a satellite for a RunGood main event tournament, and I ended up winning a seat.

I want to try to be semi-prepared, but I've never really studied tournament strategy and how it differs from cash play. Do you guys have any recommendations for strategy content/reading that I can cram into the next 2-3 days?

Was playing a low stakes live tourney. Blinds like 1k/2k I have about 200k. I picked up AQo with the Ace of clubs in the HJ. UTG limps and I open from the HJ to like 6k, BB (26k) calls and UTG (100k) calls so pot is like 19k.

Flop was
Jc Tc 5h

BB and UTG check and I bet like 10k, then BB shoves for his remaining 26k and UTG and I both call.

Turn is the 6c

UTG check and my question is what am I meant to do here? I have the nut flush draw, a draw to the nut straight and two overs. Given it's live low stakes and the way UTG has played the hand he's unlikely to have any particularly strong hands here and main pot is about 97k and UTG has like 68k behind so if this was heads up and that was the pot I would have just shoved.

With the side pot though I'm not sure what to do cause obviously right now I only have ace high and I'm unlikely to beat the BB player but if I check back and I make my flush or I make my straight I don't think I'll get much out of UTG. Is the play here just to bet small?

I was the kinda guy who always hated on the geek kids with solvers and just disliked the way off play. But then i picked up one myself and it helped me a lot.

Also there is a lot off cope around solvers that it isnt that good or whatever.

You can play perfect GTO Preflop ranges without adjusting and u will print in low stakes. Solvers work.

I see it like a chess engine. A Solver tells u what the perfect Move is. Cant beat the engine. I would love if solvers never were released and it was more feel based, but it is what it is.

I see it like this, a solver is like training mma, you are a complete fighter. Sure maybe forcing striking or grappling in a scenario is better (thats adjusting in poker or exploiting) but having that base that u can play any Brand of Poker is the Key.

Grinding live and online MTTs for a few months (small sample Ik, no idc) has rlly rlly made me mad. Like I refuse to idolize anyone who won a bracelet or whatever cause it’s just a bunch of bs. Yes you have to be good, but winning a 1,000+ player pool tourney is just soooo much luck it’s insane. Even live tourneys that start slower just become shove fests when blinds get deep. Running deep just to routinely go card dead or take a suck out just hurt. Who are these people you hear that won 10 mil-20mil online earnings. Are they just binking one lucky tournament or what. Feels literally impossible to make real profit on these. Too many donks to beat.

(ignore typo in title)

You can tell a lot about a person by how they act at the poker table. You’re around them all the time if you’re both regulars, so you have the opportunity to get a pretty good sample size.

You get to see how they behave in stressful situations, how they treat others when they’re losing, whether they touch buffalo wings and then touch their cards, etc.

I can’t even think of a better place to meet someone.