3k hands.

Today's No Limit Lessons:

1)I'm too showdown happy with weak made hands.

I made three mistakes that each cost me >50% of a buy-in with marginal made hands and drawing potential.

On the first, I had AcAx in a 4-way pot with one player behind me. The board was Jc9c9d. My hand is certainly vulnerable and may be good enough to play for showdown. It certainly would benefit from some protection. But instead of betting, to bet-fold or bet-call, I chose a loose-weak strategy and check called a half-pot bet.

Two things occur to me in retrospect. (1) The villain is surely drawing or betting a second best hand and virtually any line short of open-folding or check-folding would be better than a check call here. (2) This was an easy pot-sized bet to nearly commit to the bloated pot and encourage semi-bluffing hands to shove over. If one player shoved and another called, I can fold. I think a push/call push is a little thin at 25NL, but better than a fold facing one raise behind you. People are just very weak bettors at this limit without a strong made hand.

In the second, I made a slightly loose call preflop from the BB with Axs to defend a loose and aggro players HJ raise. I flatted, and check-called second pair on a dry board. The turn completed a straight draw and gave me a flush draw. I checked and the villain bet. I thought for a bit then check raised small. Villain thought for a sec shoved over me. I should have snap-folded, but I thought there was a slight chance he was playing a worse draw.

In retrospect, the implied odds in this hand are thin and I have little fold equity. OOP against a loose and sticky opponent, I'll run into some trouble. Folding pre- should be my standard except against steal position raisers. Secondly, if I had raised larger on the turn to straight up commit to the hand, villain might have thought of my hand as much stronger.

My third hand was one where I raised in the hijack with JJ and called a tight 3bettor to spike a set with JJ. The board was 234 rainbow and I checked. The villain bet. In this case, I do think that at least calling is prudent. It's too likely that the villain would cbet the A-broadway hands in his range.

But if I had raised and the villain shoved, I had an easy fold. I'm repping a set, a big pair or AK and the villain should be scared of these with any hand worse than mine. Whether or not that's the play, I just called.

The turn brought a 7, which with the possible exception of an 8 was the safest card in the deck for my hand vs. the villain's range. I checked and the villain made a committing bet. I thought for awhile and check-raised, because I knew a call would be terrible.

In retrospect, I don't think this villain is second barreling with 88-TT ever on this board and I think AK plays scared here as well. A fold would have been better.

2) It's really hard to identify the villains who will raise light, semibluff hard, or fire additional barrels with air at 25 NL. There's folks who will do all this stuff, but fewer than my strategy hopes for. So, I just need to back off in the following ways.

a) stop being a showdown wizard.
b) Tighten up my range in EP and facing EP raises OOP.
c) Recognize and exploit good IP floating opportunities, either for cheap bluffs or good spots to valuepwn someone.
4) Ramp up my aggression even further.

My AF is nearly a point higher than it has been in the past and I think I can take it up another point.