Originally Posted by thedarwinfish
Thanks. So I'm a little too worried about monsters under the bed by the end of the hand.
Well, it's very possible that they could have a Qx, 9x hand in their range still, as bad players might just play it this way. It's not very plausible, because it's likely they would bet at some point. So on the river you would ask yourself "Will they call a bet with worse?", and here the answer is yes. You beat everything but Qx, 9x. Ax hands, TT that are still in their range could definitely call a bet. As well as, you will see some villain call with air here and play the board (2 pair, A kicker). So there is definitely value in a bet. If raised, then it's a pretty easy fold, as they aren't likely to bluff here often, and they aren't likely to ever raise a worse hand for value.
Nice tip BowlBoy about betting if I'd call a bet anyway. I'm still less than a month in here with just over 6k hands to show for it so I'm still figuring out spots that I can get some value out of.
Betting if you would call a bet isn't the greatest tip. I mean it should be understood that the majority of the villains we will encounter will have a wider calling range than betting range in most posts, as the tend to be more on the passive, calling station side (obv dependent on villain, but the majority). However, you generally want to take the line that involves villain putting money in with the widest range of hands. So say, villain raises preflop, and you call from the BB with AQ. The flop comes A73r. Sure if you check, you are calling a bet. Does this mean you should bet into the preflop raiser? No. The reason being is, he is very likely to cbet this flop with a huge majority (possibly 100%) of his range when checked to. However, if you bet, he is pretty likely to fold all of his air hands (KJ, KT, T9s, etc), and even some marginal made hands (44, 22, etc). So check/calling, or maybe check/raising, gets him to put in money with a wider range, thus building a bigger pot more often with us having more equity.
I do modify my PFR amounts according to the table, but I was relatively new to the table. I've had some tables where my minimum raise was 6xbb to thin the herd.
It's funny the difference in play from one table to the next. I am only 2-tabling at this point, but on one table I raise of 3xbb UTG clears the way with maybe a flat call from the BB while on the other table, as I said, I may have to double that to get rid of HALF the field.
Is this a 2NL thing or something that I should be getting used to?
Modifying your raise size is situational. Generally I only adjust my raise size based on position. I'll raise 4x + 1bb from EP, and 3x + 1bb from LP. However, there are times when I will adjust my raise size based on players left to act, stack sizes, or even my hand. It's all kind of dependent, and really not a huge deal, as long as it isn't likely to (1) obviously give away your range, or (2) intimately effect your villain's calling range (to a range we don't want).
