UTG: $350
HJ: $1000
BTN: $1000
SB (hero): $1050
BB: $900

It's a straddled pot (BTN is the one who put on the straddle).


Preflop: UTG calls the $10, HJ calls, Hero calls with AJ, BB calls, BTN checks

Flop is Q84 ($50)

Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $50, HJ and BTN fold, hero calls BB folds

Turn is 4 ($150)

Hero checks, UTG checks

River is 5

Hero bets $125, villain calls


Brad thought villain had been playing pretty tight and was strong on the flop, and got the feeling villain had an overpair or a set on the flop. Brad was also concerned about a short stack limping in from UTG.

He starts talking about the hand at 3:53. Wasn't sure I liked his line so I'm curious what others think about the line and his thought process in the hand.

I mean I'm not involve with the limp pre-flop, in fact in my view it's pretty terrible, but from the flop onwards it looks relativley standard.... I can't see much value in raising the flop, turn and river seem pretty obvious in my view.... Any particular questions on the hand as it all looks pretty liner to me, save pre-flop

I'd raise pre. I guess he had a read though, so whatever.

Flop seems standard.

I'd donk the turn, since I want to get stacks in and feel like he checks back too often with the range we're trying to get value from. River is fine as played.

I was curious about all the betting rounds except the river which is an obvious bet. PF really surprised me and I thought he played this really passively.

@browni3141 If you raise pre to +- $50 and UTG goes allin and the other players fold do you call?

Why cant we raise to 40$ or 50$ pre, and then just fold if he goes allin pre on us for 350$ total?

That wont happen that often anyway. Even if playing shorter than 100 BB stack, almost any villains at this level have a wider limping range UTG than only premiums that theyre looking to limp/shove.

Ya even tho the UTG stack size seems shallow because of the straddle, we can still raise/fold since most players won't think of their stack as shallow and will be pretty nutted with the obv L/RR in straddle from EP spot....

ISO pre and play a nice pot in position by bet/bet/bet line with this runout. If we don't have AJs in our iso range preflop in a 5 handed game, we are missing valewwwww

In a 5 handed game I'm raising AJs from literally every position.

But fish gunna fish.

After that, hand seems mostly fine.
Turn check is debatable depending on the tendencies of the UTG player.

I probly raise pre. But i dont think the limp is terrible at all. In fact, with no reads at all, I probly just limp.

Anyways, flop seems like a pretty clear check fold. Just dont see how we are making our money when we dont bink our 18% ott. Even when we do, I dont think we get paid very often. If we were in position facing this bet, i think its +ev to call, but being oop just kills it. Its check shove or chk fold, and i dont think check shove is profitable. Pretty easy fold otf.

Pre is terrible. rest of hand is standard

limp pre is bad. flop/turn are as normal as it gets.

How do we make money calling the flop bet??

Pre is fine depending on reads and game dynamics. BTW, this appears to be a full ring game, not 5 handed.

Bet flop, bet turn, as played river is fine but we won the minimum.

Seems terrible all around

???

pretty standard hand.

only thing I don't agree with is missing value on the turn.

turn, donk 75.

river. donk 100. He is going to call everytime.

Pre: Raise.

Although I and everybody else on here at least call this when we check this flop, I somewhat wonder if it's even profitable to do so, getting only 2 to 1 otf and another 2.5 to 1 otr... Yeah 4.5 to 1 is better than the required 4 to 1 (odds against turning our flush), but we've also gotta consider the odds that the board 4-flushes otr or that villain boats up, or that villain simply folds top pair to our $125 river bet... Maybe we think we have better than 4 to 1 odds of turning a better hand than villain (ace peels), but if any more money goes in the pot, we're not doing all that great and there's some RIO there... Also, a turn donk line is only going to get us value some of the time.

I definitely don't have a problem with calling the flop bet, but being honest/analytical about it, I think it's closer than we'd like to admit.

can x/c flop really be better than x/r? villain potted the flop. can someone explain?

UTG potting with two people left to act after him (HJ/BTN) and another two people before (the blinds) is rather strong. I don't want to x/r in this spot. I'd feel better if I had like Ac5c because then UTG could have some FDs/combo draws that we dominate.

Exactly. We can make an exploitative fold vs a strong range. I would fold this. Id call $40 otf ainec, since our Ace high *could* be good, but not 50

I understand that he is perceived as strong here, but he potted the flop. How is x/c going to be the best choice? We're not even sure we can extract max value if we bink turn OOP.

i guess my question is more how profitable is it to x/c when villain pots it and we are OOP

X/r feels best here given stack sizes, or lead.