What are some truly bewildering things you have seen at 1/2 LIVE?

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ranma187

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There's a reason why lots of people complain about the lowest live stake: you either have total nits or super aggro and loose passive players. Time and time again you can sit their all day and see bad players rake in a fortune and lose it all a hand later.

One anonymous author of the book "confessions of a poker pigeon" argues that it's impossible to make any profit at no limit holdem, simply because at the low stakes... People call your raise on any street with anything and your equitable tight starting hands go down in equity with every extra caller. If you've ever sat down with Kings UTG and raised to 25 instead of your standard raise because you KNOW you'll get to many callers.... and have had 7 callers anyway (groan)... You know what I mean.

Back onto the topic: In calgary one lady who deals at a different casino goes to cowboys to play poker. She only buys in for $100 each time and jams any pair or draw inside and out on the flop or turn. she does this even when she's way past her 100 BBs mark. Every time I have made the trip to the city, I've seen her go down more than $1000 every time. And here I get depressed if I lose one buy in for 200!

I've seen an asian guy make 3 flushes in a row going crazy with every flush draw. Luckily I got my share from him from my TPTK hands.

The same day I saw a guy go all in preflop with every single suited hand. at the end of the day he was down at least 600.

The next morning I saw some kid call an all in preflop bet with a air of 3's because according to him: He hits hits set with 3's 80% of the time." sure enough, he hit his set and busted a guy holding some big broadway pair.
 
TimovieMan

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One anonymous author of the book "confessions of a poker pigeon" argues that it's impossible to make any profit at no limit holdem, simply because at the low stakes... People call your raise on any street with anything and your equitable tight starting hands go down in equity with every extra caller. If you've ever sat down with Kings UTG and raised to 25 instead of your standard raise because you KNOW you'll get to many callers.... and have had 7 callers anyway (groan)... You know what I mean.
The anonymous author of that book doesn't know what he's talking about.
If people are this bad, then your edge is going to be so huge over them that you'll be making a killing.
 
IPlay

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Lol right Tim.

I used to play with a lady like in the OP and one night she got hot and ran up a $800 stack and so did I and I got 3 streets of value and stacks in against her QQ on an A high flop when I had AK. It was pretty insane.

I saw a dude playing blind one night and he ran up a $1k stack before losing it all. And by blind I mean blind to usually River.

I saw two players GII on flop for 120 bbs each. One had a 10 high flush draw, other had a 6 high flush draw with a gut shot straight flush. He said he couldn't fold because of the high hand promotion for $600.

10 high won that hand
 
vinnie

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I have so many stories I could tell for this one. But, two of them stick out.

First was back when Florida had a $100 max buy-in. So, you would play $1/$2, but everyone could only sit down with $100. Things were pretty crazy in the 1/2 games, but I hear they were spreading $5/$10 in other rooms (remember, still a $100 max buy-in). I can only imagine what that was like.

Anyway, I sit down with $100 and am super-fortunate. I have a huge lagtard on my left. I know most people want them on the right, but this guy was better on my left. He would shove every hand pre-flop, no matter what his stack. This means, I could call the blind and then act last after seeing how many other people called his shove. This was not a winning strategy for him, he might get up to $600-$800, but he'd soon lose it all and rebuy for another $100. I knew I would be flipping, but it seemed profitable because it was against a random hand.

I play tight and pick up QQ. I limp it, he shoves, and everyone else folds back to me. He rolls over 8-4o. But the flop is 8-8-4, and I don't spike a queen to improve. I bought it again. That was probably the wildest guy I have ever seen. Just from when I played he was down at least 10 grand on a $1/$2 table. Me? I didn't catch anything significant the whole time. I think I ended up down $100 at the end. But, I would sit that table, and spot, every day if I could.

The other time, we had 4 people all-in on a flop with flush and straight draws. I had KK for the overpair. There had been a $10 raise and I had 3-bet to $30. So the pot on the flop was over $180 (5 callers). I had started the hand with ~$200 and only one of the other people had me covered. I'm just never folding for a single pot-sized bet in this spot. If I got out-flopped, or outdrawn, it happens. Everyone checked to me, I shoved, and 3 other people called. That stinks, because I was probably pretty dead.

The turn paired the highest card on the flop. That sucks. The river missed the straight draws but completed the flush. That also sucks. Against 3 hands, I am sure to be beat somewhere. I show, as I made the last bet. I then reach into my pocket to get more chips, until I notice the pot being shoved to me. Apparently, I had the best hand. I saw that one player had AK, the other had middle pair on the flop. And the third mucked his hand.

So, yeah, people call with crazy stuff. It's not all bad.
 
Jillychemung

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One player was blind shoving his stack before the deal, goes bust and calls up his wife to bring down his pet alligator so he could try to sell it for $500 to keep playing.

Here's the dealer holding the gator.
 

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AATwoPairAA

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1/2 is a crazy game but it all i can play other than 3/6 at my local casinos.

Recently I played at a table where the 7 chair always bet $12 on every hand. He managed a good stack but eventually lost it all. After a few hands of limping in and losing my limp in to his inferior hands that he showed I called with 67s and ended up stacking half his stack.

I always love the drunk player.

I am always in awe of the farmer/millionaire that never folds anything preflop. Seems like his favorite hand is Q 3 o and it always seems to run down pocket aces in his no foldem holdem style.

However most bewildering to me is the good player that berates the fish at the table and runs him off. Yes he may have taken a bad beat from the bad player but why run him off? Be nice and play well and the value of the player can come your way.
 
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quick

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I watched someone shove like a couple hundred into a pot for his straight on river. Other guy tanks and calls with the nut straight on a boated board. No one has a boat, guy who calls out his straight didn't have anything he had like 57o other guy who called wins with the actual straight.

I also had some aggro fishy reg guy who kept building massive stacks than losing them all back over and over. I set mined him, checked to him on a dry board with some overs, he bets over pot, i double it, another guy calls, big stack aggro fish shoves, i insta call all in, other guy calls. I take out two of them in one hand with a set of 6s. Both leave. Aggro fish had like Q2o with no Qs or 2s on board.
 
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I wanted to write my story, read your, changed his mind))
 
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I was thinking this was a 1/2 but was most likely a 2/5 (which is the only two NLHE games at Potawatomi).

Been playing for hours, seriously deep stacks at the table. I had like 1250 and got into it with another guy who had me covered with probably about 1600.

I was in ep and he was either button or CO. I have AKs so I make a little more than standard raise (this is typical in this game) and get plenty of callers. When the flop comes K high with 4 flush and no real str8 outs, I go into "old school" mode and want to make the flush draw "pay to get there" so I make a sizeable bet. It gets everyone to fold around to him, who makes it 3x my bet. Now, we have history, so I quickly take out of his range sets and AA. He had played them differently and wasn't really one to switch up his style. Two pair was a remote possibility since the other two cards were low. So bottom two pair was more likely than either Kings up. So yeah, I figured he either had the four flush, possibly to the nuts or complete air. So I raise him back. He then shoves what was like 75% or more of his stack into the middle. #1) I had bet enough to "price out" his flush draw and after he shoved I explained that to him. #2) The raise was so ridiculous because if he knew math/odds he knows he is 40% at best and possibly drawing nearly dead if I had flush draw with my king.

I take FOREVER to make my decision. I apologize to the table, and after showing my hand (you can do that head's up there) I explain the situation/odds/etc. I'm like "do you really expect me to fold a 60/40 just because you put me all in?" I honestly half considered it, but he made some snide remark about me and I wanted to double up. I felt sick about it though as if it was destined to come for him.

Apparently he thought so too because as we tabled our hands, he goes "thanks for the chips donkey." It made me look at his hand again to see if I was missing something. Nope. 60/40 like I predicted. They feel the need to count out the stacks, etc. before dealing it out.

Do I even need to finish the story? By the way, his MASSIVE hand was like 25c or some nonsense. Not only did the club come on the turn, it came on the river too just to annoy me. Not a chance was I buying in again as he stacks the 2500-2700 pot explaining to me how he was the favorite and I was such a donkey. I try, once more, to explain that he was 40% and would've only been favored if I didn't have a pair like I did better than his undercards.
 
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This isn't 1/2 NLH, but the craziest thing/funniest thing i've ever seen live is some asian guy blow probably 6k in a 2 day span on $100 buy-ins in a $1/$2 5 bring-in PLO game.
 
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This isn't 1/2 NLH, but the craziest thing/funniest thing i've ever seen live is some asian guy blow probably 6k in a 2 day span on $100 buy-ins in a $1/$2 5 bring-in PLO game.

My last casino I watched 24k get blown 1k at a time... and he was there before I got there. They said he must have lost close to 50k. There was plenty of chips (that were his) on the table, but also plenty of others who left after huge gains. This was a 2/5 300-1000 though and, yes, he was an asian who didn't speak much English... not to steretype but just pointing out the truth
 
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something totally crazy

a hand of final table 7 persons table, I was second in command on the table in chips, being button, I get couple of ace of heart and clover, the person after the big bet must, bet everything with 70000 points tournament, 2 more people go all-in, nothing major, being button think happens here? my hand will tread this way? I think a few seconds and go all-in trying to get at 2 forced bets that could hurt me, until one was wrong, because this was with a couple of 2, good think anything that can not be handled opens the flop, jump Excited to see the other 2 aces missing accompanied by a 4 of diamonds, and taking into hand poker, I felt invincible nothing could stop me, fourth street 5 of diamonds, cried with happiness, until the river the last letter was 3 Haci diamond forming a straight flush to the only opponent who could get me out of the tournament and all with a pair of 2 in hand, hand most incredible ever, did not believe for one month, three months did not play up xd
 
Z

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something totally crazy

a hand of final table 7 persons table, I was second in command on the table in chips, being button, I get couple of ace of heart and clover, the person after the big bet must, bet everything with 70000 points tournament, 2 more people go all-in, nothing major, being button think happens here? my hand will tread this way? I think a few seconds and go all-in trying to get at 2 forced bets that could hurt me, until one was wrong, because this was with a couple of 2, good think anything that can not be handled opens the flop, jump Excited to see the other 2 aces missing accompanied by a 4 of diamonds, and taking into hand poker, I felt invincible nothing could stop me, fourth street 5 of diamonds, cried with happiness, until the river the last letter was 3 Haci diamond forming a straight flush to the only opponent who could get me out of the tournament and all with a pair of 2 in hand, hand most incredible ever, did not believe for one month, three months did not play up xd
 
N

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a hand of final table 7 persons table, I was second in command on the table in chips, being button, I get couple of ace of heart and clover, the person after the big bet must, bet everything with 70000 points tournament, 2 more people go all-in, nothing major, being button think happens here? my hand will tread this way? I think a few seconds and go all-in trying to get at 2 forced bets that could hurt me, until one was wrong, because this was with a couple of 2, good think anything that can not be handled opens the flop, jump Excited to see the other 2 aces missing accompanied by a 4 of diamonds, and taking into hand poker, I felt invincible nothing could stop me, fourth street 5 of diamonds, cried with happiness, until the river the last letter was 3 Haci diamond forming a straight flush to the only opponent who could get me out of the tournament and all with a pair of 2 in hand, hand most incredible ever, did not believe for one month, three months did not play up xd

At a live tournament final table, a chip leader went all in 5 ways with 22?

seriously?
 
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I was thinking this was a 1/2 but was most likely a 2/5 (which is the only two NLHE games at Potawatomi).

Been playing for hours, seriously deep stacks at the table. I had like 1250 and got into it with another guy who had me covered with probably about 1600.

I was in ep and he was either button or CO. I have AKs so I make a little more than standard raise (this is typical in this game) and get plenty of callers. When the flop comes K high with 4 flush and no real str8 outs, I go into "old school" mode and want to make the flush draw "pay to get there" so I make a sizeable bet. It gets everyone to fold around to him, who makes it 3x my bet. Now, we have history, so I quickly take out of his range sets and AA. He had played them differently and wasn't really one to switch up his style. Two pair was a remote possibility since the other two cards were low. So bottom two pair was more likely than either Kings up. So yeah, I figured he either had the four flush, possibly to the nuts or complete air. So I raise him back. He then shoves what was like 75% or more of his stack into the middle. #1) I had bet enough to "price out" his flush draw and after he shoved I explained that to him. #2) The raise was so ridiculous because if he knew math/odds he knows he is 40% at best and possibly drawing nearly dead if I had flush draw with my king.

I take FOREVER to make my decision. I apologize to the table, and after showing my hand (you can do that head's up there) I explain the situation/odds/etc. I'm like "do you really expect me to fold a 60/40 just because you put me all in?" I honestly half considered it, but he made some snide remark about me and I wanted to double up. I felt sick about it though as if it was destined to come for him.

Apparently he thought so too because as we tabled our hands, he goes "thanks for the chips donkey." It made me look at his hand again to see if I was missing something. Nope. 60/40 like I predicted. They feel the need to count out the stacks, etc. before dealing it out.

Do I even need to finish the story? By the way, his MASSIVE hand was like 25c or some nonsense. Not only did the club come on the turn, it came on the river too just to annoy me. Not a chance was I buying in again as he stacks the 2500-2700 pot explaining to me how he was the favorite and I was such a donkey. I try, once more, to explain that he was 40% and would've only been favored if I didn't have a pair like I did better than his undercards.

I really want to elaborate on this part here because I don't think he played that badly at all.

So let's say you raised to $25 pre and got 3 callers. There's now $100 in the pot and effective stack sizes of $1225 behind. Let's say that you now Cbet $80 and he raises to $240.

Firstly: I do not think that this is a bad raise at all to be making with a flush draw. It puts a lot of pressure on your 1 pair hands, particularly TPGK that might be hesitant to stack off 250bbs deep. So basically, it has a decent chance of taking down the pot uncontested and the times when it fails to do that, it's still doing okay: it rarely has below 35% equity (unless you have specifically a higher flush draw than him) and if you flat-call his flop raise, then you'll probably check to him on the turn and he can check behind if he misses his flush, meaning he's guaranteed to see both the turn and the river card. I actually think that it's a great semi-bluff that really takes advantage of the fact that you're both deep-stacked and he has position on you.

Secondly: once you re-raise over the top, let's analyse the maths here: think of a raise like "I call your bet and then I put this much more", because that's how the maths works. So you're both in for $240 each on the flop, plus the $100 in the pot already makes $580 in the pot. You have $985 behind. This means that even if you were to shove here, he'd be calling $985 more to win $2550, so he'd only need to win 39% of the time to make a breakeven call. He's pretty much committing himself to stacking off his FD OTF once he makes this raise. What's even better for him is the fact that you only make a small 3bet, so in addition to only needing 39% equity to make a breakeven call against a flop shove, he now believes he has some fold equity by 4bet shoving on top of your 3bet, so it's +EV for him to shove here. The fact that you contemplated folding TPTK only proves that his flop shove was +EV, given that he'd already put $240 in OTF.

And thirdly: I think you're being very results-oriented by saying that he couldn't have had a set there. Why can't he have a set there? Why can't he have Aces up? His flop raising range is going to consist almost solely of semi-bluffs (flush draws only, since you said it yourself that there are no straight draws out there... which is a bad thing for you! It reduces his semi-bluffing range and skews his flop raising range towards value hands) and value hands (sets and Aces up). When there are about 10 combos of realistic sets and Axs hands that the villain can have (which you've got less than 20% equity against this range) and probably only about 10-15 combos of flush draws (which you've got about 60% equity against), then that makes your total equity about 40% against his raising range, so you're the underdog here!

Congrats on running into the bottom of his raising range. You'll run into sets and Axs hands a lot there too.
 
N

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I really want to elaborate on this part here because I don't think he played that badly at all.

So let's say you raised to $25 pre and got 3 callers. There's now $100 in the pot and effective stack sizes of $1225 behind. Let's say that you now Cbet $80 and he raises to $240.

Firstly: I do not think that this is a bad raise at all to be making with a flush draw. It puts a lot of pressure on your 1 pair hands, particularly TPGK that might be hesitant to stack off 250bbs deep. So basically, it has a decent chance of taking down the pot uncontested and the times when it fails to do that, it's still doing okay: it rarely has below 35% equity (unless you have specifically a higher flush draw than him) and if you flat-call his flop raise, then you'll probably check to him on the turn and he can check behind if he misses his flush, meaning he's guaranteed to see both the turn and the river card. I actually think that it's a great semi-bluff that really takes advantage of the fact that you're both deep-stacked and he has position on you.

Secondly: once you re-raise over the top, let's analyse the maths here: think of a raise like "I call your bet and then I put this much more", because that's how the maths works. So you're both in for $240 each on the flop, plus the $100 in the pot already makes $580 in the pot. You have $985 behind. This means that even if you were to shove here, he'd be calling $985 more to win $2550, so he'd only need to win 39% of the time to make a breakeven call. He's pretty much committing himself to stacking off his FD OTF once he makes this raise. What's even better for him is the fact that you only make a small 3bet, so in addition to only needing 39% equity to make a breakeven call against a flop shove, he now believes he has some fold equity by 4bet shoving on top of your 3bet, so it's +EV for him to shove here. The fact that you contemplated folding TPTK only proves that his flop shove was +EV, given that he'd already put $240 in OTF.

And thirdly: I think you're being very results-oriented by saying that he couldn't have had a set there. Why can't he have a set there? Why can't he have Aces up? His flop raising range is going to consist almost solely of semi-bluffs (flush draws only, since you said it yourself that there are no straight draws out there... which is a bad thing for you! It reduces his semi-bluffing range and skews his flop raising range towards value hands) and value hands (sets and Aces up). When there are about 10 combos of realistic sets and Axs hands that the villain can have (which you've got less than 20% equity against this range) and probably only about 10-15 combos of flush draws (which you've got about 60% equity against), then that makes your total equity about 40% against his raising range, so you're the underdog here!

Congrats on running into the bottom of his raising range. You'll run into sets and Axs hands a lot there too.

No. Generally speaking I AM that good, but especially against someone as transparent as him, with all those callers preflop, he would have raised ANY hand that beats me except for the bottom sets. He's also the type that would've gotten it in much quicker if he actually had a bottom set, especially since he put me on ak.
 
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