Hi.

Trying to reform my ways and adjust my game to .50/1 NL. I was going to drop down to .10/.25 NL but I think that would take me a step back since I believe these games should be played very differently.

I think sets are less important in .50/1 NL as they were in .25/.50 NL and under. Less people will pay off enough to make calling raises with small pockets profitable so I'm going to start folding 99 and under to the bigger raises. I'll call a 3x blind raises and under but I will no longer call a 4x blind raise or bigger with small pockets.

I don't think anyone is writing about this so I thought I'd start. What do you think ?

Ok, here is a hand I just played.

I was in SB with AA.

one limper

I raise to $3 preflop

One caller in EP.

Flop: Qd 5d 4s

I bet $5
SB calls

Turn: 7d

SB only had $12 left here so

I bet $12 putting him all-in
SB calls

SB showed Ad 8d .

What can you do ? I know the hand is rather uneventful but maybe some of these hands are what I should be posting. Let me know what you think about the small pocket pairs and calling raises thing.

A lot of players (online) are going to call 3x with Ax. After the flop, if your opponent puts you on KK, KQ, smaller pocket pair, or worse, they're right to call $5. The third diamond should scare you. You need to bet the turn, but just about any bet you make, they are getting pot odds to draw to the flush if they don't put you on a set, AA, or AQ.

But since they have a made flush, it doesn't matter. A small bet and maybe they call, hoping to get you for another bet on the river. If a 4th diamond is on the river, it's an easier lay down. But if they raise you all-in on the turn, can you fold?

Maybe you could have bet the flop stronger, hoping for a fold. But I think you played it right. Just got unlucky.

Raise to 5-6x with one limper and AA. 3x is a pot building raise. 5-6x isolates you down to a strong hand that AA crushes.

.10/.25 and .50/1 are only different in that .10/.25 has worse players. That's a good thing. If you don't have $1500 you shouldn't be playing .50/1.

There's a flush draw out there, you must protect yourself from paying this guy off all the way if he hits that draw. He has 17 on the flop and the pot is round 7.5 in the pot. If that diamond comes you have shown you are willing to pay him off, so act as if he is playing for 17 if he wins. If you bet 5 here he's paying 5 to win potentially 7.5+5+12= 24.5. That's the right call if he hits on the turn, Let alone two cards. Say you bet the pot: 7.5, now he's calling 7.5 to win that same 24. Now he's getting just better than 3-1. He can still draw. In this situation, because you are not willing to fold when the scare card comes, you must bet more than 8 to give him the incorrect implied odds to call and then be able to pay when he hits. With his short stack you can't afford to give him those odds to draw at, you must overbet.

Your thinking about playing medium pairs is wrong.

You need to play small pairs in no limit games. Hitting sets against Overpairs or top pair is going to be a big money maker for you at low limit NL games.

Most people will pay off your set. Not the opposite.

Almost only fold your pairs if implied odds aren't there.

- Jordan

Are you sure you are playing .50/1 NL on Pokerroom ? I hit my set and I rarely make enough to make it profitable. I've been playing there in the last month and I've seen these guys fold to raises. Now if they are folding that often to raises then sometimes they are folding KK, AK, TPTK , etc.

it is definetly profitable to play any pp if you are putting 5 or so percent -around that area- of your stack or less this is having implied odds that if you hit your set and your typically bad player at these stakes will pay you off big time with tp or by chasing a draw where he is far behind at about 85-15 or 90-10

Well, how are you playing it? There are lots of ways to play sets against certain types of players.

Some smart players you can easily get them to fold Top pair, or overpair if you tell them what you have. Bad players normally won't get off TPTK or an overpair regardless.

So I have to ask you, how are you playing your sets and overpairs?

I personally think getting action with a set is nearly impossible to fail on in a raised pot that holds any face card. Almost always in these games someone will stick in with top pair or 2nd pair, and depending on the image you have I think you should be able to get paid off.

I played .5/1 NL at pokerroom all of june. I made $1,500 that month, don't remember how many hours I logged, I could check my records.

Last month I took all my money offline, but just put $50 back on for fun and see if I can grind my way up from the $50 level.

I've played just under 700 hands and profited 4 buyins thus far, so decent start.

- Jordan