$2 NLHE Full Ring: 3-betting a nit, please help me with bet sizing

Villain Stats (VPIP/PFR/AF): 11/5/3.5

My stats are 16/10 and most people are folding to my raises, possibly because I have gone from $2 to about $5.

Poker Stars - $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em (9 players)
Poker Stars Hand Converter Tool from CardsChat.com

SB Hero: $4.93
BB: $1.15
UTG: $2.08
UTG+1: $2.24
MP: $5
MP+1: $0.82
MP+2: $1.37
CO: $0.19
BTN: $3.50

Pre-flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB and dealt
6 folds, BTN raises to $0.06

Not sure whether 11/5 is actually classified as a nit, anyway please give me some recommendations of what you think my bet sizing should be in this situation.

I'd go toward the biggish size since he's a nit (he has a good hand usually) and you're OOP, .25-.30.

OK thanks, so I didn't do too well with that bit, and after I flopped a boat I feel that I made a right hash of extracting value, as you'd expect from a tourney donk

Poker Stars - $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em (9 players) Poker Stars Hand Converter Tool from CardsChat.com


SB Hero: $4.93
BB: $1.15
UTG: $2.08
UTG+1: $2.24
MP: $5
MP+1: $0.82
MP+2: $1.37
CO: $0.19
BTN: $3.50


Pre-flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB and dealt
6 folds, BTN raises to $0.06, Hero raises to $0.16, BB folds, BTN calls $0.10


Flop: ($0.34) (2 players)

Please help me with some suggestions of how I could have proceeded from here.

Def. bigger preflop (.25 minimum). After that flop it's going to be hard to get a lot of $$s in. You need to keep betting though since he probably won't fold to a single bet. As played preflop, I'd say something like .25 on the flop.

Half-pot on the flop, checking probably looks more suspicious than anything.

I play it like baudib.

My standard would be to make it about 30c preflop here. On that flop, I'm always checking at NL2. They aren't sophisticated enough to understand range balancing or anything like that. We have the deck crushed. Hope they catch up on the turn or river.

I think checking can be OK against a real nit but a lot of nits have a hard time folding when they have a really good hand. He's probably not going to fold like TT+ to a small flop bet. The truth is it's really hard for him to "catch up" so it's rare we play a big pot here.

OK, thanks guys

So now my passive play comes to the fore as I allow the nit to take the initiative from me . One bad habit that I have from tourneys is virtually always checking the flop, which can be useful for trapping people in tournaments but just isn't going to cut the mustard in cash games, where you need to try to maximise value from your hands. Often in cash games I tend to check/raise, but I didn't here because I was scared of frightening them off.

Poker Stars - $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em (9 players)
Poker Stars Hand Converter Tool from CardsChat.com


SB Hero: $4.93
BB: $1.15
UTG: $2.08
UTG+1: $2.24
MP: $5
MP+1: $0.82
MP+2: $1.37
CO: $0.19
BTN: $3.50


Pre-flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB and dealt
6 folds, BTN raises to $0.06, Hero raises to $0.16, BB folds, BTN calls $0.10


Flop: ($0.34) (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.16, Hero calls $0.16

I'm assuming that giving them the initiative is not what a good player would do. What would you recommend doing next?

In cash games (tournaments too) your default should be to cbet a pretty big majority of the time because it is insanely profitable. There are only a couple situations where perhaps you should C/F or C/C. So I would work on fixing that habit of yours. This of course is one of those rare situations. I'd probably look to C/R the turn here as a standard since he stabbed at the flop. Lead the river if he checks behind on the turn.

I would lead if the turn is a heart and just hope he has 1 (or 2). C/R turn seems bad against a nit.

There are going to be very few flushes in his range here. Leading the turn just makes him fold a huge amount of the time unless he happens to spike his 2 outer. I'd rather give him the opportunity to keep up his charade with his 88 or whatever and get another bet out of him.

that's true but he's not going to bet a heart if he doesn't have one, and probably even if he does. but might call a bet. By same token, C-R is going to make him fold everything. I'd C-R against a known spazz.

I don't think he calls a bet very often here on the turn. The old C/C the flop and lead the turn is about as transparent a play as you can get.

C/R looks really bluffy and will make weaker regs spazz out from time to time. And if the turn goes check/check we can lead the river and get looked up quite a bit of the time anyways. Hopefully our run good has kicked in and he spiked his 2 outer by then also.

The bottom line is this. We aren't winning a big pot off a nit very often unless we cooler the crap out of him. So it is splitting hairs to some degree whatever line we take here. I tend to slowplay more here and pray he hits something. Were going to get that river call because he thinks were FOS anyways.

I agree it's mostly irrelevant what we do postflop. I tend to play the nuts strongly to give our bluff lines more credibility.

Thanks guys, this is how it ended up:



Poker Stars - $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em (9 players)
Poker Stars Hand Converter Tool from CardsChat.com


SB Hero: $4.93
BB: $1.15
UTG: $2.08
UTG+1: $2.24
MP: $5
MP+1: $0.82
MP+2: $1.37
CO: $0.19
BTN: $3.50


Pre-flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB and dealt
6 folds, BTN raises to $0.06, Hero raises to $0.16, BB folds, BTN calls $0.10


Flop: ($0.34) (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.16, Hero calls $0.16


Turn: ($0.66) (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.39, Hero calls $0.39


River: ($1.44) (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks


Final Pot: $1.44


Showdown:
Hero shows (a full house, kings full of fours)

Villain shows

Outcome: Hero wins $1.37

I feel that I should have extracted a lot more value from the hand, and that I played it far too passively. Even if I had raised PF to .25 instead of .16 that could have potentially made a quite a big difference to the final outcome.

bet the river for the love of god, he's going to check back all pairs.

Ya I would definitely bet the river here.

The heart might seem like a card that will keep you from getting a call but if you bet big on the river you'll win big pots when they hit their flush and they're gonna fold all their med to small pairs anyways.

You don't even have to bet big, if they have a flush, they'll raise. Bet like 75 cents or something.

OK thanks guys, you have confirmed my suspicions

Very, very early days for cash games, and hopefully a lot of what I learn from playing cash games will also help me to become a better tournament player, too.