NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

Very new to NL. Played 3-4 hundred hands at .01/.02 but took the advice of a forum member and went to .05/.10 to at least try to play against players who were conscious. Now have played only about 400 hands at .05/.10.

The same villain in both of these hands and he had me pretty buffaloed so I know I screwed them up. Thats my first question. How should I have played these hands?

2nd question is how to play against this type of villain. Over 90+ hands he ran 26.7/26.7/7.2. He wasn't "fit or fold" as it might look and I don't think he was running hot but he was big winner at the table because he was winning a lot of pots with pot size bets on the flop and/or turn. I never really saw him come to showdown light but he had to be betting and raising light on the flop and turn with some frequency (I think) He was 3rd seat to my right. I didn't have a lot of trouble with the other players in the game but I did with this guy. My guess is he is a better player than the others at the table and was exploiting us but my suspicion is there is a way to play a guy like this and exploit him. What say you?

I was totally lost in this hand and called him down but I'm sure I should have played it differently. But how?
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed)

MP1 ($18.90)
MP2 ($5.95)
CO ($17.80)
Button ($2.30)
villian ($25.75)
BB ($10)
UTG ($2.70)
Hero ($8.65)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/.../smiles/js.gif, http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/.../smiles/jd.gif.
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.40, 4 folds, villian raises to $1,1 fold, Hero calls $0.60.

Flop: ($2.10) http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/.../smiles/6s.gif, http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/.../smiles/tc.gif, http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/.../smiles/qd.gif 2 players)
villian bets $0.8, Hero calls $0.80.

Turn: ($3.70) http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/.../smiles/3h.gif 2 players)
villian bets $0.8, Hero calls $0.80.

River: ($5.30) http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/.../smiles/kc.gif 2 players)
villian bets $1, Hero calls $1.

Final Pot: $7.30

I wasn't as lost in this one (I don't think [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]) But was I OK to draw here? and I checked the river hoping to trap him but alas [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] He curbed his aggro tendencies. Any clues you guys can give me will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed)

UTG ($17.90)
UTG+1 ($5.90)
MP1 ($4.95)
MP2 ($13.80)
MP3 ($2.30)
villian ($34.850
Button ($10)
SB ($2.60)
Hero ($5.05)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/heart.gif, 6http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/heart.gif.
UTG calls $0.10, 4 folds, villian raises to $0.5, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.40, UTG calls $0.40.

Flop: ($1.55) Jhttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...es/diamond.gif, 4http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/heart.gif, Ahttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/heart.gif 3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, villian bets $0.8, Hero calls $0.80, UTG folds.

Turn: ($3.15) Thttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...miles/club.gif 2 players
Hero checks, villian checks.

River: ($3.15) 7http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/heart.gif 2 players)</font>
Hero checks, villian checks.

Final Pot: $3.15

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

Hand 2, fold preflop, don't play drawing hands out of position. Easy river lead considering he checked behind. Bet $2.50 for value.

FWIW I'm not very good at this NL stuff, learning it myself at the moment so take it with a grain of salt.

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

Just so you know im a nl noob too, Anyway here it gos.

hand 1:

On the flop I like the call. Hes aggro enough to be cbeting here with overs. We may have the best hand, and if he checks the turn we can take the pot if a good card comes.

On the turn I fold when he bets out on a brick.

Hand 2: I fold pf. As played bet the river.

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

i would have folded pre flop on that 2nd hand. The first hand looked well played to me

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

What I hate is that where I work those images are blocked so I can not see suits! grrrrrrrr

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

Now at home I can seethe suits AND cards LOL.

#1 - personally I limp in with JJ and hope I hit a set. I'm out of position with a medium pair. Id there is a raise I'll call because of implied odds but your are hoping for a set because this hand will probably not get any better.

#2 - yup - fold PF

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

First off, I hate the advice saying to limp in with JJ...

Now on to the hands.
Hand 1, pf is fine. On the flop, his less than .5x bet puts you in a weird spot. If it was bigger I'd say fold, but since it's so small, and since your hand is vulnerable to any ace or king I'd raise here. a psb sounds about right. from there it's hard to say since the hand would have played out differently.

as played, I'd fold the river. even though it's such a small bet, I don't think you're ahead 17% of the time. A big part of his range was AK and now you're behind that too.

Hand 2, fold pf. even more so since you only have ~50bb (poor implied odds). flop is close but I think you're ok calling. if you had a bigger stack it would be a definite call. lead for $2 on the river. you can't be sure he'll bet since he checked the turn.


as far as exploiting this guy goes, slowplay him more than you would someone else. let him do the betting. go for more check-raises.

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

hand 1 is hard, I find myself in these spots all the time and dont know what to do. You've got a good but not great hand, and you keep facing weak bets. OOP I prolly raise on the flop and shut down. in position I prolly just call, and see what he does, but since he keeps betting small you really cant fold....bleh....I prolly play it the same, but it just feels bad


hand 2 I definitely fold PF, you are sitting with half a stack (and why are you doing that BTW?) so you dont have anywhere near the implied odds to play this OOP. As played the river is an easy lead, theres no reason to think hell bet again, especially since part of your flop calling range just got there. I prolly bet like $2 or so

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

[ QUOTE ]
you are sitting with half a stack (and why are you doing that BTW?)

[/ QUOTE ]

I am only buying in with 50BB so my big mistakes [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] are less expensive!!

But you make a good point that I hadn't really considered. It also limits my wins.

Re: NL Noob Questions 2 hands
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
you are sitting with half a stack (and why are you doing that BTW?)

[/ QUOTE ]

I am only buying in with 50BB so my big mistakes [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] are less expensive!!

But you make a good point that I hadn't really considered. It also limits my wins.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yah, there's nothing theoretically wrong with buying in for 50bb. One might argue that you're slowing your learning since you're going to spend the majority of your NL time playing 100bb.

Other than that though, there's nothing wrong with it. Just always be conscious of its effects on your implied odds.