It's been a while since I've written a strategy article. Lately I've been helping a friend who is transitioning from the limit hold em games here in Vegas to the 1/2 no limit games. With his permission, I've copy/pasted our text log where he sends over questions mid session and I give him my thoughts. Hopefully anyone else in the same boat will find this "article" useful.

Roberto: Weak tight raises to $10, I have 22 in small blind. Was planning to peel, but aggro raised to 24. At that point, even if I think he is isolating I should fold, right?

Me: Yes, folding is correct because you aren't getting set mine odds and your hand plays poorly out of position in a 3 bet pot.

Roberto: In no limit, if someone straddles, is it like limit where my decision is binary: raise or fold?

Me: Not necessarily but in general your overall strategy should be to open raise or fold, rarely open limping.

Roberto: Raise a10 off after 2 limps; 1 call; he checks KJ7 flop and my c bet wins. Trying to be aggressive.

Me: That's good. Probably check back turn if he calls and you miss unless you are gonna fire both turn and river.

Roberto: That makes sense. And I've both checked back and 3 barreled; been read dependent

Me: 2 barreling is ok but only on certain boards, like big little little (K63) when turn comes 9+. It gets all pairs under 99 to fold usually but a K will still call. Then you can give up on river if called twice bc they usually have a K. But KJ7 isn't good bc they can call twice with a draw or pair plus draw so you'll likely need to fire third barrel, and a K still isn't folding. Bottom line is on K63 you gain a lot of info with your turn bet whereas on KJ7 you don't gain much.

Roberto: That makes sense. So you could have same thing with hand like k63 with 2 spades; that might not be a spot to fire a second barrel either?

Me: It's actually not terrible bc it still gets all pairs under 99 to fold, and you're currently beating most all flush draws, so you are actually merging and betting to fold out better (pairs up to 99) but can still get called by worse (non paired flush draws). In that case if the river blanks you can check back and still lose to a K but often win unimproved vs missed flush draws.

Roberto: Okay. That makes sense too. Thanks. I owe you a couple of tacos from my restaurant.