Hand #1
Yeah that preflop call seems terribly loose when I look at it. I went through the DB and it turns out the raiser was a LAG who raised 15% preflop and liked to CB and float, I was probably a bit sick of him (but shouldn't be calling OOP either way).
Hand #2
I really doubt I will be called 50% of the time or more. Those minibets are either extremely stupid bluffs or blocking bets made by some stupidly weak hand like an over pair or top-and-bottom.
One of the reasons I am looking for good spots to bluff is that I am NOT getting called on the river often enough when I am valuebetting. People are definetely calling less than 50% of my bets on the river, more like 20-25%, so I would be giving up a lot of EV if I didn't start bluffing.
I'd say my bluffs get called about a 25-35% of the time. When I say I sometimes make more on bluffs than on made hands it's for those sessions where no draws hit and you always have to fold the turn/river to the opponent, and without the bluffs you'd be in the red.
I also find that people tend to be calling stations *until* the river. They will chase a LOT of draws that they shouldn't be chasing but will pretty often give up on the river. Of course there are monkeys that can't let go of any two-pair but they tend to bust so quickly that they don't stick around long, the ones that fold to the big river bets tend to survive much longer.
And I don't mean to sound snippy, but I've already heard the "It's low stakes just nut peddle" argument a lot of times so I am aware that it is the common opinion. And sure, it is +EV and low variance but I happen to think that:
1. It isn't optimal. You're leaving money on the table.
2. If I just nut peddle I won't get better and be able to move up in levels.
Either way I really appreciate the feedback (and yes, of course I won both hands
)