Hand Analysis: $500/$1000 NLHE Home Game (1 Viewer)

Windwalker

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It’s time for another hand from this past weekend. Taking @DrStrange ’s advice, no early dismissals of villains in the description.

Due to the presence of a certain whale-lawyer-player, host upped the blinds to $500/$1000, attracting a pretty pro-heavy 8-player lineup.

Host, you will remember, is the same one who rivered a straight flush in this thread.

Minimum buy-in for this session is $250k. No big pots yet, largest one was about $20k. Only 15-20 hands into the night. Everyone is fresh, no one is drunk. No television, soft music. People are playing poker. Hero is on the button. Most are around $250k, except for Host who has bought in for $500k and V1 (UTG) who has bought in for $400k.

V1 is UTG and has straddled to $2000. Big, ballsy, splashy player. Plays large games in Macau. Considered one of the big private game whales. Not a professional.

V2 is UTG+1, raises to $6,000. LAG pro. Penchant for bluffing, known to be fearless.

V3 is in the HJ, 3-bets to $15,000. GTO-heavy, I’m told. Nitty pro.

V4 in the cutoff calls $15,000. Host.

Hero is on the button. Stack at $275k. Looks down at:

:jh::th:.

Hero?
 
This looks like one of those spots where I'm mildly irritated that I don't get to play TJ suited.

It's tempting, but there's a 3-bet from a nit, in a straddled pot to boot. Hero is only getting ~16 : 1 stack odds from each player and is probably never stacking either unless it's a cooler. It's too much to pay to get too lucky.

But screw it, in strat-thread reality, I call the 15K.
 
fold, but I'll never have a stack like that. If I did, I'd be to skeered to call.
 
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Pretty easy fold with description of V2, unless you need cool hands for PAHWM :wtf:
 
Based on your descriptions of the others players, it’s a reluctant fold from me as well. But what do I know!? :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
Seems like it could be a fun one on the button but probably an easy fold with the description of V3 and a cold call in the cutoff. I suck though.
 
tl;dr - fold pretty quickly. There will be better spots.

Straddle-raise-3b-call. Thinking only of our own hand, I don’t think we have significant blocker/card removal value for bluffs (Like off suit AT+, or suited Ax wheel hands), and unless we hit a gin flop our hand has only marginal playability…IF we even get that far.

This feels like a “calling as a compromise” spot if we flat (ie “I don’t think I can raise and I don’t want to fold, so I’ll just call” thinking is generally not ideal imo).

In game I think I confirm the action, fold quickly, and continue paying attention to the dynamics of this hand for info later.
 
I have a feeling on future streets a lot of feedback is going to begin with the phrase “as played…..”

Calling seems to be inviting a huge isolation bet, and 4-betting seems like an overplay. However, I think I like a small 4-bet more than a call because we are probably more likely to see a flop for fewer dollars. The math probably says fold but life is too short to fold this hand on the button.
 
You're here to play poker, not fold your way into the money. JTs has enough equity to be worth calling in position in anticipation of flopping well and getting money from V1 or V4. With five players you'll probably lose the hand, but the goal is to win money, not hands.
 
Hero starts the hand 125 straddle blinds deep.

JTs is speculative. Hero's great position is tempered by the fact this hand is going to be played at a low SPR. Hero is not closing out the betting and there is some reason to fear even more preflop aggression so early in the session. Big payoff for a successful squeeze.

I vote fold. If Hero wants to test his luck, well sure go for it. I think raise is better than calling if the hand is playing so shallow post flop.

fold > raise > call -=- DrStrange
 
Against a more amateur heavy lineup, this is a great hand to call with in position. Against a pro heavy lineup (doesn’t sound like a great game to be in btw!), I would just fold this pre. The main reason being that we have no idea what the “fearless pro” will do once it gets back to him. He might well want to pick up the dead money and put pressure on the nitty 3bettor.

Now obviously we know you aren’t folding here. The other side of the argument is, that if V1 is always calling, we are getting great odds multi-way. The problem is that we seem to be in a spot against both better players AND way stronger ranges (think JJ+) and so this will always be a -EV spot. In a fun game with amateurs this is a call all day but it’s a good spot to think about the broader dynamics of the game.

As played… :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
In a vacuum, easy fold. It can become a call spot if this game is one where you value higher VPIP for meta reasons (less boredom for you and the whales, good for game aka more invites, game runs more often, etc)

Too shallow and wrong cast of characters for 4bet IMO
 
If V3 is actually GTO heavy he would have made it more like $20k or more. $15k is only 2.5x and is inviting lots of calls behind. With the money in the pot you need at least 28% equity to call but against a reasonable range for these players you only have about 20%. If you assume the blinds fold and UTG just calls (risky), you still need about 24% equity to call, which you don’t have.
This is a fold, but I’m sure you at least called or this wouldn’t have been posted
2C6DCB64-B249-483B-839C-C42ABE606F57.png
 
Prop bets.

Since there's no tv (no sports bets), bets based on the music playlist. And any other random stuff going on in the room.

Basically focus on anything other than the hands to win money.
Red/black baccarat, a player favorite. Pick red or black, and the color closest to 9 on the flop wins (only the flop in play). Natural 9 pays double. All red/black pays double. All same color and natural 9 pays triple. A tie doubles the amount on the next flop. I had to ban this at my house. People stopped caring about poker.
 
Continuing…

It’s time for another hand from this past weekend. Taking @DrStrange ’s advice, no early dismissals of villains in the description.

Due to the presence of a certain whale-lawyer-player, host upped the blinds to $500/$1000, attracting a pretty pro-heavy 8-player lineup.

Host, you will remember, is the same one who rivered a straight flush in this thread.

Minimum buy-in for this session is $250k. No big pots yet, largest one was about $20k. Only 15-20 hands into the night. Everyone is fresh, no one is drunk. No television, soft music. People are playing poker. Hero is on the button. Most are around $250k, except for Host who has bought in for $500k and V1 (UTG) who has bought in for $400k.

V1 is UTG and has straddled to $2000. Big, ballsy, splashy player. Plays large games in Macau. Considered one of the big private game whales. Not a professional.

V2 is UTG+1, raises to $6,000. LAG pro. Penchant for bluffing, known to be fearless.

V3 is in the HJ, 3-bets to $15,000. GTO-heavy, I’m told. Nitty pro.

V4 in the cutoff calls $15,000. Host.

Hero is on the button. Stack at $275k. Looks down at:

:jh::th:.

Hero is aware that this hand is a simple preflop fold. Hero is also loose. And had just won $12k+ the previous hand. It’s not even 90 minutes into the session. And JTs is so pretty. So he calls. Sigh.

V1 has not even pulled his cards together after they’ve been dealt. He’s been looking at his phone. He looks up when he’s told action is on him. He reviews the action thus far. He says, “ah I’m bored, let’s gamble.”

V1 raises to $45,000. Blind. Then pulls his 2 cards together. And peeks. Host asks, “you haven’t looked?” V1 confirms he hasn’t. We don’t know whether to believe him.

V2 calls.

V3 calls.

V4 calls.

There is now ~$196k in the pot. The game just turned, quickly.

Hero still has JTs; sadly.

Hero?
 
One has to wonder what V2 < original raiser > and V3 < three bettor > are thinking when they call vs jam. I wonder how v3 should play a big pair or a big ace here - trap vs aggression.

How does JTs play vs these sorts of ranges? Hero is totally in fit / fold on the flop. The SPR is less than one. No one should be folding a made top pair plus hand. I am just guessing but hero likely doesn't have quite enough equity to continue. But not too far off.
 
One has to wonder what V2 < original raiser > and V3 < three bettor > are thinking when they call vs jam. I wonder how v3 should play a big pair or a big ace here - trap vs aggression.

How does JTs play vs these sorts of ranges? Hero is totally in fit / fold on the flop. The SPR is less than one. No one should be folding a made top pair plus hand. I am just guessing but hero likely doesn't have quite enough equity to continue. But not too far off.

V3's call surprised the heck out of me. Only thing I could come up with is that (in my limited GTO knowledge) in the HJ, A5s is within an optimal GTO 3-bet range. I wondered if he had a hand like that. I also think we all potentially questioned whether V1 had actually 4-bet blind.
 
V3's call surprised the heck out of me. Only thing I could come up with is that (in my limited GTO knowledge) in the HJ, A5s is within an optimal GTO 3-bet range. I wondered if he had a hand like that. I also think we all potentially questioned whether V1 had actually 4-bet blind.
Yeah, V3 should be jamming here all day. It makes me wonder if the tight/nitty read on him is accurate? What hands is he 3betting to $15k and then just calling and taking multi-way like this? Very odd.

Anyway, as played, at this point I actually call here. We are getting great odds, we have position and it doesn’t actually seem like anyone is that strong. It’s a pure gambling spot but folding is too tight. It does show us how in retrospect we can save ourselves so much $ by folding these kinds of hands pre once a 3bet has gone in and we are not closing the action.
 

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