Are these Kings any good?

I'd be tempted to call the river, since your hand is underrepped and beats a lot of value hands the old hippie could be betting.

It also feels like you should have either raised the flop or made a chunkier turn bet.

i think especially if your sizing choice ott in the first hand is 45% pot you're better off checking. would likely just range x flop too. ap obviously call down esp given odds. obviously never b/f the turn to a small raise when you bet tiny and have almost no trips in your range lol

2nd one seems fairly clear flop raise to me. turn also looks too small. would not fold the river, i dont see that many combos you lose to and he probably has full frequency 76o, jto, and some t7o / t7ss along w who knows what else to bluff with

looks to me like you are not putting in enough $ with value hands in these hh which is a very large deal when you're playing vs people cold calling raises w 87o. tbh the way you are talking about hands / ranges (i should have b/f kk ott, i bet small so 98 wouldn't fold) seems off threshold wise

FWIW I posted these two hands because I thought I played both terribly.

With the advantage of hindsight, totally agreed I should have raised the flop, and / or made a larger turn bet. These are both unforced errors.

Thinking back, I should have expected BB to donk for a larger size if he was trying to protect 2P with 98, and I probably should have expected V to raise from LP if he had 98. So while 98 might be in their PF ranges, I don't think either of them play 98 this way on the flop, and so it was just bad logic on my part.

On the turn, even if I was targeting 98 to call (and as I just admitted, I shouldn't have been), I could have sized up. Call it a brain fart or whatever. I think I was temporarily auto-piloting, when I should have been thinking about the pot size and how large my bet should be relative to it.

As for the river call - yeah, my hand is under-repped, and beats some worse value. If I were playing against myself, or anyone remotely capable, I think these are default check-call / bluff-catch spots.

But against this V, thinking back, I'm not sure if he really is going to betting many worse value hands when the flush comes in, unless he doesn't see it, or doesn't believe I'd check river with value.

Like I said above, I'm not happy with how I played either of these. I actually do remember thinking that the turn 8 was bad for my range, and probably hit him after he called flop, and so I should check, but then I went and bet anyway. As soon as I did it, I knew it was terrible.

Do you really think the turn is an obvious bet-call, not a b/f, and the river is also a call? That's surprising to me. I really thought I butchered that one.

Would you really check the flop in the first hand? What's the reasoning?

Like I said in my response above, in hindsight, I absolutely hate that I called the flop donk rather than raising, and I hate my turn bet sizing.

I think the river is problematic because he does get there with such a wide range that he could have flushes, and I didn't have enough observation to even guess if he had bluffs. I know I'd have a $hlt-ton of bluffs there, and I could bet thin for value, so against an opponent who plays like I do, it's okay to check-call. But against this V, I wasn't sure at all.

Yes, I saw monsters. Simplest way to put it. I wasn't playing anywhere near my best game that night.

I've never seen V bluff, but I've never played with him before, and this was only an hour or two into a new table opening. I think the Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, his somewhat odd manner, and how wide he was obviously playing pre-flop and on the flop made me think he COULD have some bluffing frequency on the river.

I think it makes sense logically - if he's calling pre with 87o and floating the flop with middling TP's with no real draws, and when I bet less than 1/2 pot on the turn, he could get to the river with a really wide range, such that he'd have a $hlt-ton of hands that can't win unless he bets.

But part of me also thought (again, seeing monsters) that this sort of guy just ALWAYS has it when he bets the river. Like, maybe he pokes his head out with a huge combo-draw on some flops or turns, but when he bets river, even when the PFR checks to him, he just has it.

I think the 87o hand would suggest he has every combo of JT, 76, and 98 in his range. If he's screwing around with a lot of suited (or offsuit!) gappers, then he has combos of J9, T8, maybe T7, etc.

Don't know if this changes anything, but I forgot to put it into my OP - when I was in the tank on the 2nd hand, and looking in his direction, he sort of made a goofy face at me. I actually asked the dealer, "what's his problem?" It was so strange. I might read that as him being relaxed, but I could also see it as him trying to look relaxed or break the tension when he was actually hoping I'd fold.

First hand I dislike everything H did. Open too small, check flop, AP check turn...

Also don't think it's bad to bet/fold turn ... against probably 90% of population limping/calling wide they have almost no bluffs and almost nothing worse.

Like the people who are limping are now turning Ad7d into a bluff, or see that this is a great bluff card for 75o?

Maybe if you check they find some of the things like that, but raising when you bet? Nah.

Also don't think it's bad of him to call flop.

Second hand, I don't hate as much.

Flop I could go either way between raise or call. I'd probably check, if it checked to me.

Turn is too small, but w/e

River I probably sigh call, because I see some limpers decide 8x is good and just bet, but at least most of the time I'd just have bet bigger anyway.

idk alot of this stuff im telling you is easier if you look at solver / have a feel for your overall strategy as opposed to trying to decipher what to do with one combo. eventually when you know the script you don't need to rely on it as much but you are not quite there yet imo.
turn think the raise is too small and you're way too close to top of range to fold, you also bet tiny and he just dont got trips that much in any real range u can come up with. generally these boards easier to just default to checking range as u just dont hit them very often with opening range ~75% of the time you got no pair. esp into 2 u just cant really bet all the time, and if u bet all your good hands u wont have anything when u x. also u get to x/r sometimes if u check and thats pretty great result. the boards u want to cbet are heavier (higher cards) as those are more represented in pre range.
idk the main thing is you really dont want to hero fold huge swaths of your range without regard for sizing / pot odds because that is as another poster described monsters under the bed. almost all these hands you post are against complete unknowns and its just way too big of deviations. the kk sim i used kind of an arbitrary range with an ante to get a wider ip cold call and it has the b/c on the turn vs this size being worth about 14bb (vs 0 for folding to the raise). this guy is not emulating solver strategy but its just way too big of an adjustment to make based on nothing / risk aversion.

river in second hand i mean what can u do. you need to win 27% of the time and you have a heart. if you fold this hand you probably fold literally everything you're checking the river with in a spot you are "supposed" to call 2/3 of your range. i wouldn't aim for mdf but overpair with a heart, esp not blocking any straight draws, is going to be premier bluff catcher here. conceivable random fish could even bet worse for value lol

is interesting because i can tell you want to get better from the frequency / legnth of your posts but its like you're doing everything in your power to avoid the obvious path - play online low stakes, use solvers, review database, repeat ad nauseum.

Instead of being disappointed when everyone folds to a pot-sized bet with KK, I will remember this post. Not trying to keep anyone in, but ready to stack my target, a strong second best hand like QQ. Yes I’m too aggressive at times, but I don’t like fumbling around.

having simmed. h2 looks ok as low frequency flop call in theory (in practice i mean look at these guys you're playing, you are obviously going to do better raising and putting in money), turn size is "right" but again ip prob call every 8x / 9x for 3/4 pot and we thrilled to stack off vs straddle (i think putting either one on 98 on the turn at any regularity is hand reading error), river is good as long as u c/c. u can fold without a heart but calling with a heart makes u about 15$ here and appears to be one of our highest ev bluff catchers, even > 54 and AhAx. sometimes xraises which i would not do lol. real world will not play like this sim (sim has ip checking back a bunch of 4x as oop not really supposed to have many overpairs here given line) but think its still worth seeing ok this is hand i simply have to die w vs most sizes.

Preflop fine. Flop call okay given BB’s sizing, but turn bet could be a little bigger to deny equity. On river, the combo of timing + sizing + profile = weighted toward value, not bluffs. Easy check/fold.

I was really close to bet-folding turn in H1. Didn't like my bet. Hated my call. Really really hated my river check-call, at least until Sub said it was ok, which was surprising.

It may not seem terrible for him to call flop, but it's not great to call with a weak middling top pair next to act in a multi-way pot. BB could be setting up for a check raise, and a single pair of 8's with a 7 kicker isn't likely to be a strong hand by the river.

If he wants to call with some 8x combos, he has better choices, like A8 or something suited with some BDFD draw potential. On 862rb, even if the run-out is T-9, he has to make it to the river, and still only has the bottom end of a one-liner straight. If he doesn't pick up equity and I bomb the turn, can he really hang on?

Like I've said in other posts, I think my flat call of the flop donk and small turn bet in H2 puts me into a bad spot where I'm just guessing what to do on the river. I think theory suggests a call, and population exploits may as well, but having more observations of V's play might suggest otherwise.

I limp in preflop as per my style.

SPR is 5 against the donker and much larger against the guy behind us, so I'm not really pumped about perhaps putting stacks in play with a flop raise. Besides, he's donking ~about what I would have bet myself. So I'm cool with just flatting and seeing what happens.

I probably size up a little bit more on the turn but whatever.

This guy seems to be on the non bluffy calling station end of things, so I'd simply bet/fold the river smallish myself. A check/call might be better against a bluffy opponent if more draws missed, so unless we're putting this guy on something like JT I think we're better off bet/folding. As played, probably cry calling as he could have worse for value (although kinda sucky spot as TP is just so often checked back on this runout by so many).

GcluelessNLnoobG

river can mix fold but not turn w first kk hand

This guy basically can have ATC at all times and can be having acid flashbacks from Woodstock. So I don't see the need for making this too complex.

H2 is standard up to the turn, but when bb donks and then checks turn, he is very heavy to JT,98 and 76 from BB. I strongly prefer a PSB because we have all kinds of mid pairs that need protection in range and are ahead often enough to try to deny equity. We can have 99/88 too and I don't see how anyone can raise us so easily.

River: For all I know on river, this guy is singing "Voodoo Child" to himself and is going to chop down your kings with his A9o. I'm not folding and if he has a flush, gg sir.

Having the Kh and beating some value makes this a pretty easy call.

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