Where did everybody go?

In my experience, at live NLH, bet sizing isn't important except for pot control. No one, I mean no one, will get any reads off your bet size.

Aggression is the key. Yes, it is frustrating when you have a strong hand and get no action. But you get action often enough with your strong hands. Playing passively is not the answer; simply take the lead whenever you flop a hand with some value. After you show down a few weak hands that you pushed, they will start calling your value bets, hoping to catch you in one of your "lies." And they are generally very polite about letting you know when they flopped top pair or better.

And one of the most important principals for live NLH: Don't play easily dominated hands, suited connectors, and small pairs OOP. Just don't; muck it. You won't get value from it, and they're not smart enough to exploit it. Play a wide range with position and a very narrow range in EP. There are many more multiway pots (people aren't multitabling, so they're less selective when entering), so focus on position. And aggression at all times.

Tells are somewhat important, but mostly against the donkeys. Generally, relaxed = good hand, tense = bluff (or weak). Better players will mix up their tells, so just try to play that side of the game to a stalemate with them.

P.S. The question of the river bluff rarely comes up; you could safely ignore it. There are some players who river bluff, but if you assume that no one ever does, you won't be far off. Overplaying, yes; triple-barreling, not so much. The most common form for river bluff is call, call, call, raise all in, with position. If it doesn't fit that form, it's probably something else.

Marcus

I get tells all the time based on betting patterns..its a staple in my game. when I see a player make a very small bet I can pretty much put them on a monster or nothing. I dont necessarily pounce on this type of bet because it depends on what I have seen this player do with that bet. Some players trap with this play and some are just weak. Depending on my knowledge from playing with them I can then determine my action based on this.

Recently a new gal was playing my local game and she always make a weak bet when on a draw and a strong bet when she had tp. I absolutely used this against her by making a check raise to her on the turn after she made yet another weak bet and I had player between her and me. she had to fold and she did..

Another player I know loves making super weak bets with a set and when he does this I just fold unless I have something stronger. He almost never bets this weak unless he has a set and was the preflop raiser.

Now about river bluffs. I can say that most player dont try river bluffs against me.. that is if they know me. but the higher you play the more this comes into play as a way to steal the pot when the board is scary. I absolutely agree with you to value bet your hands and most players will raise you on the turn if you are beat so you can bet the flop and turn and if you are raised you can still fold if you only have say one pair.. now back to bluffing..

I played at the wynn this past week and a 5/10 player was playing the 2/5 game while waiting. you can buy in for as much as 1500 so its not a short stack game. We had a pretty bad player at our table that in 45 min never folded a hand preflop.. the 5/10 player moved to my right to get pos on the bad player only for the bad player to move to my left.. lol.. so much for table position.. So 5/10 player limps UTG and I see AA in utg+1 and I make a standard raise to 25.. only he calls.. 5/10 players tend to mix things up so I will just have to see what he does..

Flop is something like J 2 7 with two hearts and one dia.

I cbet about 60% of the flop or around 40 bucks.. he calls. not too surprising..

Turn 7 dias..

that should be a good card for me unless he is floating with a 7.. I bet again.. this time I will bet 85 bucks.. he calls again.. So based on my turn raise rule I feel more comfortable about my hand..

River 10 dias..

So a straight just came in but would a 5/10 player not take the oppty to raise me? I think not so I go ahead and make another value bet of 125.. now he check raises me 350 on top.. so I called time and tried to work it through.. did he slowplay a 7? did he back into a flush? is he bluffing me?

I finally came to the conclusion that a bluff made the most sense because for him to make this value bet he would have to be pretty sure I would bet the river. I had never played with him before and we had only been playing for less than an hour. he is also a 5/10 player and I felt he was very capable of make a river check raise bluff. So I stuck my money in for a call and he flips over 3s.. I win a nice pot.

I am 100% sure that if a heart had come on the river he would have bluffed that too.. that probably would have worked better as the backdoor is just so unlikely.. So bluffs do happen and his line just didnt make sense as a value raise.. players like him look to scary boards against preflop raisers to bluff them .. 4 card st boards is a classic as is a river or turn flush board.. river flush is better since many players may have overpairs that go with the flush and will call there..

h

My comment about bet sizing was about sizing one's own bets, and not to worry it being a tell. My comment was directed toward competent players concerned about sizing their own bets. The general thrust of the comment was "just size your bets for pot control."

Again, although there are exceptions, the general form of the river bluff in these games is: call, call, call, raise all in (representing the nuts). In your example, H, the river raise may not have been all in, but the bluff did fit the general pattern.