Here's a decent few hands courtesy of the MGM Grand $1/2 NL game:

Hand #1
I am in the BB and have about $70 or so. I bought in for $100 and have only seen 2 or 3 flops in the past 45 minutes. Lost $45 on the last hand when I guy with A7 called my AQ down after an A hit the turn and hit a 7 on the river. Guy to my right has only been at the table for about 10 minutes and has raised to $15 about 50% of the hands he's seen. He has not gotten a caller yet, but he is the only LAG at the table for the most part.

I look down and see 2 red sevens. Folds to the button (decent player, doesn't mind gambling once in a while), who limps. Laggy SB raises it to $15. I am pretty sure my 77 is better than whatever he's raising with and decide to push all in. Good move or not? Does the fact that there is a limper on the button change how I should have played this?


Hand #2
2 or 3 hours later. Table has been somewhat tight of late. I have about $250 in front of me, only one or 2 guys have me covered. I am in the cutoff. 2 limpers, I decide to limp with Ac4c. Player to my left raises it up $5. This is the first hand he's played since he sat down about 5-10 minutes ago. Young kid, maybe 23-24 yrs old. One guy calls, I call.

Flop comes T 6 3 with 2 spades and a club. First guy checks, I check, button makes a weakish bet of $10 ( pot is $17 or 18 I guess) and I figure it's time for a play so I checkraise it up $40 more. I put him on AK/AQ, with a small pair as a possibility. Good move? Dumb move? Iffy move?

Assuming it gets to this point, and you've made the checkraise, how do you handle a reraise of another $25 (all in for him)?

Hand #3
Button again, this time with 55. Limper 2 seats to my right is a pretty solid player who likes to gamble every so often. We both have stacks of around $300 or so. Looks like your typical cali dude, with an ipod and hot blonde gf. SB folds, BB checks.

$7 in the pot. Flop comes 45T with 2 hearts. Check, cali dude bets 10, I raise $25 more. BB folds, Cali dude thinks for a bit, then calls.

Turn is an off suit Jack. Cali dude checks, I push all in. Good? or did I overplay it? My fear at this point is with the board so spread out, a LOT of cards will scare me on the river.

Thanks y'all.

Hand 1: More money on the table would solve your problem. I did some thinking about this situation in the past, and 77 is the 50/50 split against someone that raises any pair, that makes 99 a very good hand to play this fast for this amount of money. It is rare that this exact situation comes up for me, but it has happened enough to have some sort of plan. With 77 against many players that can't lay down idiots big slick KQs you aren't really in great shape.

Hand 2: He isn't deep enough to run plays against I would expect 89 to gamble with you. If he pushes you must call the remaining 25 folding is not an option.

Hand 3, I think it is likely for him to have something like the T and a paint card or T9, $50 would have been a better bet.

I'm confused about hand 3. I dont think a lot of those scare cards should really scare you. There is an outside chance that he is playing J10 and a J or a 10 on the river is bad for you. But this guy called a checkraise on the flop an KQ9 should all be safe, there is very little chance he called your check raise with something that will allow him to back into broadway. He didnt raise preflop so AK and AQ seem unlikely. The A and 8 are legit scare cards on the river. But you can still try to extract value from your hand. As i said before bet $50 or $60 on the turn and if a bad card hits on the river call a reasonable sized bet.

AQ is a monster to most live players, TP second best kicker in a raised reraised all in pot looks like top set.

Rdale make a good point. One of the things that I love/Hate about live play is it is much slower than online. Poker rewards patience, and most people are more impatient when playing live since they only play 20 hands an hour instead of 150 like online.

In hand 3, with a set I don't really want to push out people. Just charge them a good price, build the pot. You should be able to see if there's any reasonable straight on the river, you don't have to push him out on the turn. The only hand that will MAYBE call you is 2 pair, otherwise only a higher set. Pushing is not really going to make you money there.