-EV Rivershoves

If Poker was like College basketball, live poker would be the Big South Conference while Online would be the Big East. Even the worst team in the Big East would go undefeated in the Big South.

I've gone to the Gemini Club about 6 times right now and I can't believe I am playing $1-$3 cash game poker.

When I sit down at a $2-$4 game online. I have to be so focused to have a significant winrate. I have to make adjustments at the correct time, be aware of my image, and try to figure out how every player at the table thinks about poker. I look for small edges.

When I play at Gemini, I feel like I am back grinding $.05-$.10 again. The level of play is attrocious.

When i first went to Gemini, I would open to my standard 2x-4x the blind. After playing a little longer I realized that I could get away with raising to 5x and still get multiple callers. By the end of the day, I was raising to 10x at times and still rarely stealing the blinds.

The winrate in this 1-3 game can be so big since raises to 30 tend to get as many callers as a 3x raise would online, you can essentially bump the stakes up to what plays like a 5-10 game even though you only have to post $4 in blinds every 10 hands. I bet a 100bb/100 winrate is possible.

I do try to stay focused even though I feel you could make money by just only playing AA, KK, and QQ and just betting every street. There are some interesting things I have found that seem to be working in live poker.

For example, there are usually a few decent players at the table. Players that can play there cards well and make money off the terrible players. Though I focus on trying to extract chips from the 7 fish at the table, I do try to play lots of pots with the 1 or 2 decent players. These players play good ABC poker, but they aren't going to be as experienced or confortable at playing poker on a higher level of thinking. When I really turn up the aggression on these players and force them to adjust, then counteradjust, and really turn it into a chess match; their lack of experience makes them very predictable. Especially when we are very deep.

The starting hand values at a place like gemini are a lot different than online. For example, hands like AJo, are kinda of garbage at gemini. The pots tend to be multiway, and the players tend to play fit or fold (or chase), so the value of top pair isn't very good. T9s is much more valuable than AJo and Ajo should usually be a fold.

Suited aces are where it's at since everybody plays any 2 suited cards.

Position seems to be more important at gemini. When the pots get multiway, the value of having someone bet after the flop, then have everybody call, then you raise it up to ruin everybody's party and win all that money that people put in with middle pair is enourmus.

Everybody seems to like to slowplay AA. One hand I remember is one guy limped UTG. UTG+1 raised to $40 with KK (lol at raising to 13x but it probabally works at gemini). UTG+1 only calls. Flop comes AK5. UTG checks UTG+1 bets, UTG just calls. Turn comes Q. UTG checks UTG+1 goes all in UTG snaps and turns over AA . He didn't make a single bet or raise the whole time. This happens a lot.

People like to raise to see where they are at which is really bad and really easy for me to exploit. If I bet and they make a small raise on a dry board, I can come over the top almost every time and get a fold because they want to see where they are at.

Nobody ever folds to a 3bet, and they play fit or fold postflop. If you get deep, you can make a ton of money just by 3betting any premium, good, or even sometimes trashy hand huge then cbetting if the board comes dry enough. I here a lot of people mutter "he has nothing but neither do I and fold". They don't ever think about rebluffing so it is really profitable.

I like to run a big bluff on everybody once. Because next time I bet all in on the river with the nuts, they will say "I gotta keep you honest" and call you with bottom pair. Not sure why.

Why can't anybody fold top pair ever.

Why do people fold and show AK everytime I 3bet or 4bet QJ?

Why do people draw at a king high flush then not bet it when I check to them on the river because they were afraid I had an ace high flush?

Are the games this soft in casinos too?

LOL at Live Poker