$4 NLHE Full Ring: 2NL Pocket 88's low board on flop weird spot

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$4 NL HE Full Ring: 2NL Pocket 88's low board on flop weird spot

This hand came up. Wasn't really happy with the way I played it and was looking for advice on it. I really didn't have much of a read on the villian. After 36 hands his stats were like 37/12. Villian check min raises my flop bet? I figure I'm crushed or way ahead.

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HAND #1
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Full Tilt, $0.01/$0.02 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 7 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

BTN: $2 (100 bb)
SB: $1.26 (63 bb)
BB: $3.06 (153 bb)
MP1: $0.80 (40 bb)
Hero (MP2): $2.09 (104.5 bb)
MP3: $2.42 (121 bb)
CO: $2 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is MP2 with 8 8
MP1 folds, Hero raises to $0.06, 3 folds, SB calls $0.05, BB calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.18) 5 4 5 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $0.18, SB folds, BB raises to $0.36
 
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matt20

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well i dunno if your ever way ahead of anything he is minraising here 67 possible, flush draws, maybe a 4 and he is terrible. Trips are also a possibility cuz ppl at 2nl like to minraise the nuts. 37 is a wide range of hands theres so much he could have here. You could call his minraise and see if he fires out strong on the turn. This hand is real close and idk if call or shove is better, but I would never fold the 8s to the minraise. At least call the minraise and peel one more card imo.
 
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well i dunno if your ever way ahead of anything he is minraising here 67 possible, flush draws, maybe a 4 and he is terrible. Trips are also a possibility cuz ppl at 2nl like to minraise the nuts. 37 is a wide range of hands theres so much he could have here. You could call his minraise and see if he fires out strong on the turn. This hand is real close and idk if call or shove is better, but I would never fold the 8s to the minraise. At least call the minraise and peel one more card imo.

I didn't know what to make of the min-raise. So I made a small raise (which was the part I wasn't happy about) and he shoved turn.

Hero raises to $0.54, BB calls $0.18

Turn: ($1.26) Q (2 players)
BB bets $1.58
 
thepokerkid123

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His range is ridiculously wide: overcards with flush draw, just overcards, 22+, 5x, 4x, A2, A3. Then again I suck at putting people on ranges when hands play out like this in the micros.

Honestly I think you're ahead as often as you're behind here and it's not a hand I'd want to get a whole lot of chips involved on, if I were in your spot. Folding on the flop isn't a bad option (not the only option though).

Folding to min-raises is so exploitable that even the average $2nl player must catch on and start bluffing you with min-raises before long, plus you've still got some equity against his range (48% if the range I give him is at all accurate, which it isn't).

The safe option is to call the flop, check behind on the turn if you can. If he makes a decent sized bet on the turn, fold.

Alternatively if you're overly agro you can call the flop and turn your hand into a bluff when an overcard hits (any J-K, A's hit his range too hard). That gives you 12 outs that let you bluff him off anything but a 5 or flush and 48% equity against his range even if you miss. I know bluffing is a dumb idea in the micros, but depending on the player I'd do this semi-frequently here.
 
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thepokerkid123

thepokerkid123

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Can't edit my last post, but the last bit about bluffing is stupid. Play for pot control and if the bets get crazy, fold.
 
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His range is ridiculously wide: overcards with flush draw, just overcards, 22+, 5x, 4x, A2, A3. Then again I suck at putting people on ranges when hands play out like this in the micros.

Honestly I think you're ahead as often as you're behind here and it's not a hand I'd want to get a whole lot of chips involved on, if I were in your spot. Folding on the flop isn't a bad option (not the only option though).

Folding to min-raises is so exploitable that even the average $2nl player must catch on and start bluffing you with min-raises before long, plus you've still got some equity against his range (48% if the range I give him is at all accurate, which it isn't).

The safe option is to call the flop, check behind on the turn if you can. If he makes a decent sized bet on the turn, fold.

Alternatively if you're overly agro you can call the flop and turn your hand into a bluff when an overcard hits (any J-K, A's hit his range too hard). That gives you 12 outs that let you bluff him off anything but a 5 or flush and 48% equity against his range even if you miss. I know bluffing is a dumb idea in the micros, but depending on the player I'd do this semi-frequently here.

Results:

Turn: ($1.26) Q (2 players)
BB bets $1.58, Hero folds

Results: $1.26 pot ($0.08 rake)
BB mucked and won $1.18 ($0.58 net)
 
slycbnew

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As thepokerkid points out, there are a lot of things we could do here (and they all make sense to me) - my vote, though, without a read that Villain is pretty agg (i.e., will bluff/semibluff), is to fold the flop. Most players at this limit are going to show up w 66/77 as hands we beat, and then a ton of hands that we're behind, I think.

Gotta admit I'm baffled by his call on the flop/shove turn line. I've found that when I'm baffled at slightly higher limits I can sometimes call in this spot and still show a profit (i.e., it turns out to be a bluff/overcards/draws often enough), but at the lowest limits I can't (i.e., it's 99+, 5x, or a flopped fh too often).
 
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