sup, dunno if anyone actually read these strat hands threads anymore but i've been so ****ing confused with this one.

5/5 full ring table, I have 800$, vilain covers. Table dynamic, slow nitty, vilain was creating the most action at the table and is a decent player. I play alot with vilain but haven't gotten into any crazy metagame war with him.

5/5/10<---vilain straddles

i'm in highjack with A9 of hearts, I raise to 20

everyone folds, vilain flats on the straddle

flop (pot 50$) AdKd6s

Vilain leads out for 30$
I cawl! <--- line check (calling seems like ur hand is face up, raising might disguise ur hand a bit and make it easier to play on later street? What do you guys think?). vilain doesn't usually lead out with bluffs, leads with draws, or weakish top pair hands, never leads out with nutty type hands.

Turn (110$) AdKd6s7c

Vilain leads for 85$
Hero??
1. Calling: leaves me kinda clueless on river
2. folding: sort of weak, considering his range is still wide and could include fds, weak aces, combo draws.
3. raising: obv not getting called by worse, turning my hand into a bluff, I guess easier to play last street if called?

What would you guys do and how would play river based on turn decision?

From the little amount of live experience I have nobody likes to fold after they straddle so I like to make it like 25-30 here to get me little bit more value especially if we are deep, but w/e no big deal maybe he doesn't call that much.
As far as postflop I would definitely call turn planning to call most non diamond rivers. But yea your read of "decent player" doesn't really tell us much.

+1

I think players worry a bit too much about there lines "turning there hands face up" for one thing that assumes villain can hand read, two it assumes that villain won't suspect any leveling or outside the box plays, three (most importantly) if our play makes our hand transparent then it cant really be incorrect, almost by definition; thinking that we have to do stuff that confuses our opponent instead of making standardish plays is like hiding from the cops in the jail house "they'll never think to look for me there" sometimes your hand can be read precisely because you played it well. Sometimes players do stupid things because its unpredictible but its unpredictible because its @^#%ing stupid.

Standard line here is, IMO, raise a bit more preflop (punish the straddler and raise your hand for value since he priced himself in with bad hands) then post flop go into x/c mode all the way. I would x/c flop all day long and x/c x/c most turns and most rivers.

If villain will straddle and donk bet he can't be too awful good at poker IMO. If he has AX he should only have a couple combos that beat you (AK is less likely cause A) he should never donk that b) he may 3 bet preflop with AK OOP.
Most of his bigger AX combos prolly 3 bet and he might 3 bet AXs (players like to 3 bet OOP vs LP raises with blockers, no?) I'm most worried about A6 here but whatever. I think there are enough draws and other stuff you can beat that you should just let him barell off and be prepared to call it down unless something pretty bad peels turn or riv.

more pre, call flop, call turn, decide on river. Kind of expect him to 3b AJ+ pre vs. your minraise, so we don't lose to a ton of Ax combos besides A6. I'd imagine he defends a ton of random suited hands if he's putting on the straddle UTG, so call turn and likely call non-diamond rivers.

villain should def double pot like 90% of rivers imo

Agreed that people really don't like to fold their straddles live, flatting flop isn't the worst thing you could do here if you think you have the best hand considering is donk betting in to you, I'm putting him on a possibly a weak Ace or flush draw here, pair and a flush draw.

7 on the turn really doesn't change things a ton here, so I don't know why you fold, his lead again seems very bluff-ish. I'm really not sure of the table dynamics and how previous hands were played, this hand seems like you are strictly playing your given hand strength and aren't basing your decision enough on villan's play style and previous hands he has shown down.

If you flat the turn you are folding the river 90% of the time unless a complete brick comes like a 2,3, or 4. I think raising the turn enables you to bluff the river easier, which would have to be jamming basically.

ur biggest mistake is preflop raise size

as played i take NOT's line.

raise more pre. i am flatting this flop almost 100% of the time i think. i don't think it turns your hand face up at all. it keeps your range wide. also, calling is good because you are in pot control mode at this point. you have a decent hand with showdown value. get it to showdown without bloating this pot.

i think i can find a call on the turn. plan to call many river bets, but fold some others.

GRUNCH

This villain description says alot about your leaks and holes in your game. You don't specify how villain plays or his weaknesses. Does he overvalue top pair? Does he chase draws like a mad dog? Does he get overly aggressive if he senses weakness? Does he get paranoid whenever there is a draw and overbets? Is he an ABC player, LAG, TAG, is he capable of adjusting? Does he ever do any advanced plays or is he straightforward? Does he adhere to all the typical casino mantras like "don't wanna be greedy, I hate getting AA cracked, gotta get the drawers out, etc. etc."

Basically, you need to have a better and more SPECIFIC feel and description on your villain's skillset so that you can adjust and exploit your villain's leaks. Otherwise, you are just playing level 1 poker.

Your preflop raise needs to be $45. Yes, $45, not $25, not even $30. You need to take clear control of this pot and define villain's range and take advantage of the fact that most villains will call to defend their straddle. So charge him the max, and the max he will pay is around $45. Min raising his straddle this deep is wrong and borderline re.tarded.

Finally, we get to some concrete villain descriptions and reads. ABout time. Based on your description then we know villain is probably drawing. So, we have multiple +EV lines we can take. We can raise or we can flat. I like flatting and here's why.

This type of villain will continue his aggression on turn especially if he is on a draw (based on your description). So, all we have to do is fade one street (no diamond or broadway) and then we can prison rape him on turn when he leads into us, thus getting more value than raising flop. Basically, we get one raise so lets save it for the turn when the pot is bigger.


The reason we are raising turn is for value, to retake control of the pot, and to charge his draw. you stated V likes to lead out and be aggressive on draws which is what he's doing. Unfortunately, most V's are not triple barrelling missed draws in this spot, so our best chance to get value from his missed draws is on the turn. Of course, if we KNOW V is going to triple barrel a missed draw on river then flatting is fine.

Hmmm.... Thinking about all this, I think I prefer a flat on turn. V bet such that he gave himself incorrect odds on the draw. Plus, we should adhere to "small hand small pot big hand big pot". Hmmm.... yeah, more I think about this, the more i'm convinced correct play here is to just call him down and let him value town himself. I think I call down 100% of all rivers including a diamond. Since it was his straddle, there is a ton of air in his range here. We were also pretty damn weak on our preflop raise so he's got to be putting us on a weak hand, weak ace or even KQ, KJ type hands that he thinks he can blow us off of.

So, yeah, just call him down and let him value town himself and if he flopped gin and got lucky, meh. But calling down here is the most optimal +EV line the more I think about it. If he checks river we value bet 1/2pot on river. But given his aggression I don't think he's checking down.

So call down, and next time, raise more pre.

I did the opposite of what everyone told me on the turn and raised to 215$ to charge his draws and his weird weak aces, vilain calls, river brick, goes check/check, vilain shows 67dd, ouadaphoque

How does Villain not 3bet turn? Seems easier to slow him down that we thought. Use it in the future.

There are multiple problems with raising the turn.

#1, we violate small hand small pot big hand big pot
#2, villain was ALREADY incorrectly pricing himself in for a draw so there is no need for us to up the ante here.
#3, we fold out all of villain's air and basically ensure he only continues with hands that either beat us or fare well against us.

The above are advanced concepts that many rec players just cannot wrap their heads around because it flies in the face of all the "common" casino knowledge that rec players swear by.

Think about it. Lets say villain has KTo and he thinks that you are weak and he can blow you off the hand by betting each street. What does your turn raise accomplish here? Well, it folds out villain's KTo. So instead of villain betting river and you calling him down for an extra $125 - $165 ish, you lose that because you decided to blow villain off the hand on turn.

Same with if Villain had J5dd. We know villain is drawing and thankfully villain incorrectly bet on turn denying himself proper odds. So what does your turn raise accomplish in this case? It folds out his J5dd draw a large percentage of the time.

But notice how villain is able to call with 67dd...

Anyways, think about it. In this spot, raising turn is a mistake. It deflates all of villain's air and given that this is his straddle, a lot of his range contains airballs. Similarly, we have TPWK so we shouldn't be in a hurry to inflate this pot and play a big pot with a small hand...

again, think about it...