[Nick C]

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I like PietM's bet/3-bet idea on the flop, although I'll admit that if we get raised, our equity is probably not quite as good as it appears on first glance.

After the actual flop action, I don't see a turn plan I'm thrilled with. I would probably begin with a check, though. And then I'd probably just call if Villain bet.

If we had taken a bet/3-bet approach on the flop, by the way, the turn would still be kind of awkward, but I would most likely lead the turn if it were HU and Villain had just called the flop.

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Hey, Nick C, you've been around 2+2 for a long time. I'd be interested in hearing your poker life story. Post or PM if you don't mind.

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I'm a casual player, and I don't put in nearly the number of hands that many of you do per week. I had, however, worked my way up to 5/10 limit pre-ban. So my background is mostly in limit, and I still have a better feel for limit strategy than NL strategy.

Post-ban, I've been playing NL almost exclusively. I'm also a little frustrated, I have to admit. The online games are not as good as they used to be -- I've played enough limit post-ban to know this -- and while the deterioration of the games was the trend anyway, I do think the ban accelerated the process greatly.

I had to spend a chunk of my bankroll this year, and meanwhile I haven't been running super-hot or anything (actually, I think I've been running somewhat cold), so I feel kind of stuck in the micros for the time being. I don't really mind that much, but it is true that at this time last year I was playing much bigger. I mean, I don't miss the -$1,000 nights (and there were a couple of those) at 5/10 limit, but then you also give up the big wins.

One philosophical thing I'm still sort of struggling with is that, while I don't really know exactly what the optimal NL25/NL50 strategy is, I do suspect that "optimal" strategy is also heavily exploitable. I'm not as much of a bully at the table as some of you are, but it still feels weird to me sometimes, for example, when I'm raising it up preflop and I know that (assuming the SB folds) the BB has an automatically profitable pot-sized 3-bet -- for this one hand anyway -- with any two cards. (And he doesn't just have that versus the cards I'm holding. He has that against my range.)

That's just one example, but, more generally, I think I don't make as many postflop folds as I really should because -- theoretically anyway -- I think my opponents should be playing back at me more than they actually do in practice.