Two Plus Two Newer Archives - First live session after reading PNL

1/2 NL. Table is loose and pretty deep. I am 300BB deep with 99 UTG. I bump it to $10. Normally I limp, but taking SPR into account and expecting several callers I'm able to get the preflop pot to $60.

Flop is Ts9h5h. BB blind leads out for $20. I raise $120, effectviely putting him all-in. Normally I'd raise less, but with loose players behind me I want them to pay to much for whatever hands they may want to make. The button, who has me covered, calls, and BB folds. We are now heads up in a $320 pot.

Turn is a 7d. I lead for $200 and get put all in. I'm not terribly pleased, but with $270 to call for a $990 pot (plus what I knew about the player), the decision was easy.

That hand clarified the logic behind planning bet sizes that PNL discusses. In the past I would have had a much more troubling river decision and/or wouldn't have maximized the value on my set.

It's also interesting to observe how poorly players choose their bet sizes, folding when they've committed over half their stack and there's twice as much (or more) in the pot than they have left.

At the very least, the info in the book kept me focused on hands I wasn't involved in, since it gave me a new criteria for evaluating players I had already formed opinions about.