KK: Hero has no clue

[BoxTree]

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$5/$10NL with a $400 buy in? YUCK!

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I really don't understand why people keep bashing this form of game. When you first buy-in, you're pretty much required to play disgustingly tight until you double up. Then you can loosen up depending on the other stack sizes (and player quality but the players are usually so bad that this doesn't factor into whether you should loosen up). The high blind structure is ignored by many players who play too loose, call too many raises, quickly become very shortstacked, push in with crappy hands, and rebuy. It's a great way to keep money flowing into the game.

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This is pretty much the opposite strategy you should employ. If the blinds and antes (in hold em's case, just blinds) are large relative to your stack (this case of 40bb qualifies). Then you should actually loosen your starting hand requirements and steal alot. This is str8 out of Theory of Poker.

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The passage from ToP to which you refer pertains primarily to limit play where you MUST loosen up in a game with a large blind structure to prevent from being overcharged by the antes/blinds. However, in NL (where you make most of your money on your implied odds as opposed to the preflop equity of a hand), you're only playing two-street poker so it's best to get involved with hands that stand to be ahead preflop and on the flop. This is str8 out of GSiH.

[soah]

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This is misquoted out of Theory of Poker.

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[BoxTree]

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How many people called between you and villian?

The fewer people, the less likely he has a 5.

Also, raise more PF. Probably way more.

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Three people between me and Villain. Two people behind him.

I suppose I could have raised more. Sometimes I do. On this particular hand there were enough deep stacks at the table that a larger raise probably would have been better. But I don't think I'd ever raise more than 6x the BB when first in.

[98romaine]

Tough spot, it comes down to if he has the 5 or not. Check the turn, if he bets, try to get a read off of him. If you lead the turn, I think you have to be ready to put your stack in, you can't build a pot this big and fold.

I play in a similiar live loose 5-10 game, very deep stacks. You can make a 5-10x the BB raise and sometimes get 4-5 callers, with a big PP in EP this created to some difficult flop and even more difficult turn decisions. I tend to limp in EP with big PP and will usually limp-re-raise preflop to thin out the field.

Hope it turned out well for you.

[BoxTree]

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I tend to limp in EP with big PP and will usually limp-re-raise preflop to thin out the field.

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I devoted an entire thread to this exact topic. The general consensus was that I was giving up too much by attempting to limp-reraise in a passive-to-typical game. I'm still not sure where I stand.

[Leptyne]

I don't like any of the possibilities for villain if you check. With your stack size I think you push here.

Once again we see the difficulty of playing these hands OOP.

Raise more preflop.

[radioheadfan]

There's no good way to play aa/kk out of position as the aggressor with 6 to 7 people to act behind you. If you don't flop a set you're gonna be facing sick decisions throughout the entire hand, as your post exemplifies.

Raise to whatever amount is gonna get you 1-3 callers or simply limp it and go for the limp reraise.

This is a disgusting spot. Given your description of villian as loose but decent after the flop, I probably bet an amount on the turn the leaves me a way out of the hand without giving him too cheap a look at the river. I'm thinking around $500 and folding to a push. Of course, if villian is smart and thinks you're capable of folding a big pair here, then I'm more likely to call the push since he knows you can't have a 5 raising like that in EP and may try to push his draw representing the 5.

You may just have to lose alot of chips here. Oh well.

[radioheadfan]

I love how this thread has nothing to do with the hand that was posted.

Keep up the good work gentlemen.