Three hands from 10NL - help appreciated!

Here are a couple of hands from 10NL. I would appreciate some thoughts on them.

Hand 1

Villain was 21/14/2.0 over 91 hands. His turn line seemed a bit weak after the K came out. I put him either on Qx or a complete bluff.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($18.35)
MP2 ($9.85)
MP3 ($8.10)
CO ($6.20)
Button ($9.40)
SB ($14.25)
Hero (BB) ($3.85)
UTG ($2)
UTG+1 ($3.80)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, 7
7 folds, SB bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.60) 7, 2, Q (2 players)
SB bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50

Turn: ($1.60) K (2 players)
SB bets $0.80, Hero raises to $1.80, 1 fold

Total pot: $3.20 | Rake: $0.15


Hand 2

Villain was running at 36/17/1.5 over 69 hands. Is value betting a good idea here?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($10.15)
Button ($12.05)
SB ($11.70)
BB ($10.30)
UTG ($10)
Hero (UTG+1) ($15.25)
MP1 ($10.25)
MP2 ($2)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 4, 4
1 fold, Hero calls $0.10, 4 folds, SB calls $0.05, BB checks

Flop: ($0.30) A, Q, 8 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.30) 6 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($0.30) 4 (3 players)
SB bets $0.30, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.90, SB raises to $2, Hero calls $1.10

Total pot: $4.30 | Rake: $0.20

Hand 3

Am I always going bust here? Villain is new to the table so not much in terms of reads, but cold-calling a raise and reraise usually only means AA-QQ and AK. I'm not sure if sticking all my chips in is a great idea.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($12.40)
Button ($9.75)
Hero (SB) ($3.85)
BB ($9.90)
UTG ($4.60)
UTG+1 ($11.30)
MP1 ($10.70)
MP2 ($10.65)
MP3 ($10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J, J
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.10, 2 folds, MP3 bets $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.70, BB calls $1.60, 2 folds

Flop: ($4) 7, 7, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.15 (All-In), BB calls $2.15

Turn: ($8.30) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($8.30) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $8.30 | Rake: $0.40

Hand 1. This board is a pretty bad place to barrel 3rd pair given his likely PFR range from the SB. And with a 40bb stack, this is a pretty bad line.

Hand 2. Don't limp preflop. As played, shove the river. This is value town.

Hand 3. 3betting w/ JJ and a 40bb stack is very dicey. This hand plays great for a call even multiway when you're 100bb deep. As played, sure, shoving the flop is fine with only $2 behind.

If you're gonna play a 40bb short stack, you need to learn something about how that changes the game. Hands like T7s need deeper stacks to show profit.

I suggest buying in full (100bb) and learning more about ABC Tagg poker. Short stacking isn't hard, but it requires an understanding of some theory that you don't seem to have.

Good luck.

Hand 1
Sounds good to me. If you have a good read, go with it. Looks like you were right.

Hand 2
If you mean a value bet on the flop or turn, I don't think so. You just want to get to showdown cheaply. If you mean is your original river raise or a possible 4 bet river a good spot for value, I'd say it's good as played. I feel like you're definitely ahead here more times than not, which makes the raise good because many villains will just want to look you up. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to go broke here, so just calling the 3 bet seems fine.

Hand 3
You only had 38BB, so the hand pretty much plays itself.

OK, thanks for the feedback Robb. I thought today I'd maybe try some short-stacking (as that fits in a bit better with my tourney background). But I suppose it's trying to run before you can walk.

I seemed to do better with more money behind me (30bb/100 from tiny sample with >50bb), compared to shortstacking (-17bb/100 from 450 hands <50bb). There's obviously loads of variance in those sample sizes though (e.g. I lost the first 6 or 7 AI slides).

So short-stacking probably isn't for me, but it did open my eyes to the kind of game a lot of folks are playing at the 10NL.

Can you perhaps explain why raising 44 from UTG+1 > limping?

Because limping low PP's is face up poker.

Originally Posted by Nakamura

Can you perhaps explain why raising 44 from UTG+1 > limping?

I didn't say raise. I play 6m mainly, but do have some FR experience. Small pp's just don't play that great oop postflop except when you hit a set, and then oop it's hard to get all the chips in.

At 6max, I open-fold 22 - 66 virtually all the time UTG and at least half the time UTG+1. I'm open-raising all pp's from the CO/BTN. I would open-fold 22-66 until MP1 in FR.

I understand that at 10nl, you can still limp/call small pp's and set hunt profitably. But I don't think you'll be able to at 25nl. So it's better to adjust your opening ranges now, while you're still at 10nl.

The problems with small pp's in EP are:
1. You have to fold to any decently-sized 3bet.
2. You have to cbet air a ton on the flop when you open-raise and miss.
3. It's really hard get all the chips in with a limp/call open from EP because you're oop and super-obvious.
4. Any time you bet the flop without a set, you have to fold to any raise or try to check it down turn/river.
5. You need stacks near 100bb's to set hunt even ip.

Small pp's are great implied odds hands, but getting from implied odds to chips in the middle usually requires deception and position, neither of which you posses on a limp-call UTG (unless it's only the blinds that come along, obv).

I'm not saying you're not winning with these hands, I'm just saying you'll need to play more TAGG-correct soon, so why not start adjusting your opening ranges now, while learning is cheap?

1. Fold preflop. Maybe even 100bb deep too.
2. I like it as played postflop. I really think he's only calling a 4bet with diamonds.
3. Obv. standard with your stack size.