Always ending up multi-way in cash (1 Viewer)

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playing 2/3 at the casino and this happened a lot

opening to 5-7BB depending on limpers before me and the 3 guys left to me (2 fish and the leftmost a studied semi pro) all call

I’m opening a tight range (slightly wider than GTO) yet these guys are calling a much much wider range (semi pro guy calls even J7o from the BB). I’m playing a pretty much pure raise/3b or fold preflop strat. Mostly limps before me so rarely get to
3b.

Semi pro would 3b premiums including AK
Fish to my left would flat AK

I always ended up post flop a lot of the time out of position (and even sometimes in MP or IP) but always missed the flop

The semi pro often ended up IP and just stabbed a lot of flops because I was checking range (not that they would perceive it that way)

What are you supposed to do there?
Check range and fold any misses every time to a IP stab?
Just open smaller if people are gonna call anyway?

I’m used to online play which is almost always heads up so this is a little hard to adjust to so far
But I think my leaks are postflop

Any help would be much appreciated
 
Live is definitely a much different beast, but the good news is they tend to play worse, it's just frustrating because you see less hands per hour and the bad beats feel worse.

You can open a little smaller to better control the size of the pot if they're just going to come along anyway. This way when you do have to fold you're losing less money.

In addition, you should probably start c-betting some of these flops if the semi-pro is just taking them all when you check. I'd focus on c-betting the high, dry boards (one broadway and 2 lower cards with little connection) which are more likely to hit your RFI range than their weak calling ranges. If they push back, you can call and probe the turn or fold and pick a better spot.

Speaking of better spots, check raise that fool a few times. If you bloody his nose when he's taking stabs with complete air he'll either slow down or spew more chips at you when you've got the goods.

GTO is at best a good baseline to know for live poker, the magnitude of the deviations and mistakes being made by your opponents throw you pretty immediately out of solver land.
 
My completely uneducated view in this specific scenario is that you should be raising pre-flop if the best player is flatting. Having two calling stations along for the ride is great and best when you are in position. Nit up if someone changes strategy and starts bullying.
 
When in early position you could tighten up your range, continue your 3b or fold strategy, and check raise the semi-pro with a higher frequency (even when you miss the board).

Check raising is useful, but probably should coincide with a more disciplined range (10+, & suited connectors, top end semi-suited connectors).

Be prepared to lead out after the turn and fire a second barrel should he call. He may call with a wide range expecting you to hit the brakes. When you fire again it will drive him away when he lacks strength.
 
The various advice above seems good. You may need to both cbet small and checkraise more often to avoid being exploited this way.

You might also want to experiment to see how large you have to go preflop to actually narrow things to heads up. (Unfortunately the answer in some cash games is “ridicilously huge.”)

Anyway, I feel your pain.
 
Don't think about the size you need to get heads up. Think, "what is the maximum size I can open to that still gets called by worse/dominated hands?"

Yes, you are going to end up multiway a lot in live games. When OOP against multiple players, it's not a terrible idea for your default to be check 100. You will do a lot of check folding, and that's fine because you will make it up in the hand you win as they will be larger than average because of the bloat from multiple callers pre. Also, live players tend to overstab when IP. They will just randomly bet something like 77 on Q93 when checked to because they don't know what to do if they check back and get bet into in the turn. So you can check raise pretty liberally in those spots. Don't expect to get a fold right away, you are setting them up to fold later.

When c-betting, remember that players at this level tend to not slowplay enough on wet boards. So when you bet half pot or smaller, they will tend to play very face up. They will raise their 2 pair or better and just call with their top pair or worse and draws. So they cap themselves A LOT. Their bet sizing can often be exactly what it looks like. Smaller bets are generally weak, larger bets (especially on wet boards) are generally strong. However, they tend to slowplay too much on dry, static boards like A28r. Because of this, c-betting these boards trends to be worse than it should be. Their calls no longer cap them as they can have pretty much any AX two pair or the lower sets. So playing a two street game with TP on these boards is often a better strategy as trying to go 3 streets with AK will more often than you think just lose to two pair+ getting called down on all 3 streets.

Live players generally WAAAAAAAAY underbluff. So if you ever get to a river spot where you are thinking of bluff catching, you generally shouldn't, especially for large bet sizes. Smaller bet sizes you can look up a bit more often though. When the draws get there and they raise or bet big, they almost always have it. Don't feel bad if they windmill a bluff at you though because they are bluffing so infrequently that it's still better to overfold as a general strategy.

Live players paradoxically bluff catch too often in some spots. Because they cap themselves so often with TP type hands, you can go pretty thin on rivers that complete draws when you are IP and they check to you. They often think, "I'd never bet one or two pair here, so he wouldn't either. He either has a monster or is bluffing." They also overstab river when they are OOP and you go bet flop-check turn.

Don't expect almost any live player to raise fold pre. If they raise, they are almost 100% calling a 3 bet. They also tend to only 4 bet AA and KK. So you can 3 bet pretty wide sometimes. You can also abuse this by going slightly larger with strong value, and slightly smaller with stuff like KQs, 99, JTs, etc. (ie go 3x with the weaker stuff, 4-5x with the stronger stuff as a 3 bet). Keep the SPR bigger with your slightly weaker stuff to exploit their capped ranges when you want to bluff. Bloat the pot and keep SPR low with your big hands when you want value. They won't adjust enough to this unless you play with them repeatedly over a long time.

Watch some Hungry Horse Poker videos on YouTube.
 
What are you supposed to do there?
Check range and fold any misses every time to a IP stab?
Just open smaller if people are gonna call anyway?

I’m used to online play which is almost always heads up so this is a little hard to adjust to so far
But I think my leaks are postflop

Any help would be much appreciated

I was going to answer all the salient points in this message, but I decided that my long winded answers sometimes go misinterpreted and the nuances I’m trying to explain get lost in the conversation, so I’m gonna keep it short.

A simple fix to some of this is to check raise the turn, most players at these limits do not bluff enough on further streets, bluffing decreases on the turn and gets more rare on the river so picking your spots a little better as when to bluff that will throw your opponents off, they will think you are stronger, because like I said, most players at these limits do not bluff, especially in later streets, so you will be seen as having strength.

But as I always say, your mileage may vary.
 
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I always ended up post flop a lot of the time out of position (and even sometimes in MP or IP) but always missed the flop
How many unpaired hands are in your range in early position? I think this is a great question to ask if you find yourself out of position post-flop with unimproved hands frequently.


Don't think about the size you need to get heads up. Think, "what is the maximum size I can open to that still gets called by worse/dominated hands?"
This is an excellent question. Yes there is a time where an aggressive action that increases the chances of getting heads up is preferable, but the truth is, players don't control this as much as they think. And they certainly have even less control over this when out of position.

But instead of worrying about limiting the field, just worry that you are getting the money in with the best of it. And that's easier to do in multi-way pots when the callers are too lose. Just to give a very broad example, If you are winning 40% of 3-way pots when putting in only 33 1/3% of the money, you are going to show way the best of it in the long run. If you are playing the right starting hands and making good decisions post flop, it won't take long for this to add up for you, even if you lose in 60% of these situations.
 
playing 2/3 at the casino and this happened a lot

opening to 5-7BB depending on limpers before me and the 3 guys left to me (2 fish and the leftmost a studied semi pro) all call

I’m opening a tight range (slightly wider than GTO) yet these guys are calling a much much wider range (semi pro guy calls even J7o from the BB). I’m playing a pretty much pure raise/3b or fold preflop strat. Mostly limps before me so rarely get to
3b.

Semi pro would 3b premiums including AK
Fish to my left would flat AK

I always ended up post flop a lot of the time out of position (and even sometimes in MP or IP) but always missed the flop

The semi pro often ended up IP and just stabbed a lot of flops because I was checking range (not that they would perceive it that way)

What are you supposed to do there?
Check range and fold any misses every time to a IP stab?
Just open smaller if people are gonna call anyway?

I’m used to online play which is almost always heads up so this is a little hard to adjust to so far
But I think my leaks are postflop

Any help would be much appreciated
Post flop you can start betting to gain position if you not quite in position yet. C bet to remove the player acting behind you if its a weak board
 

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