$1/2 Game

Hero - $400 Winning TAG image to the rest of the table. V is new to the table though.

V - 28 y/o white guy. His friend just went through ~$700 in 45 minutes playing crazy gambling poker. He was just raising and shipping every draw and missing. V's friend didn't seem like a drooler. He seemed to know where he was in every hand. He just chose to gamble....A LOT. V appears to be less social and less competent than his friend. His friend was a clean cut University of Madison guy. V is a tattoo'd guy who looks really dumb. Played less than an orbit though. No significant reads. Oh, their 3rd friend was shipping $80 pre into $3 pots twice per orbit + not getting called.

Pre-flop
V limps in MP
Hero limps in HJ with 66
SB completes
BB checks

flop: ($8)
862
I get a physical read on V. He's reaching for chips as if he's going to bet before the action is to him. This is not an act. He likes his hand, but doesn't love it.
BB leads out for $5.
V flats.
Hero raises to $16
All fold except V who calls

Turn: ($45)
Q
V checks
Hero thinks about betting $35, but bets $25 because he senses weakness and wants to set up a decent river shove.
V calls

River: ($95)
5
V open ships for $70
Hero calls

Thoughts?

I think there's an alternative action (at least in terms of sizing) possible on all streets except the river.

Raise to $25 on the flop. That makes it $63 on the flop.

Villain is never folding so it's a slight overpot ship on the turn but W/E.

With these stack sizes, I probably call the flop. We're beating like...everything and no card scares us for that amount of money.

If he likes his hand so much, but doesn't love it, let him bet again on the turn. Don't take the chance of blowing him off of 98 right now.

As played, I like $35 on the turn better than $25, but w/e

PS - your read on the villain is terrible. How his friends play isn't super-relevant. How do you know he's exactly 28? I'm guessing there must have been some conversation or something you overheard. What else was said? It's moot really though because your hand is beyond strong.

This.

Fold river imho.

Why fold River? Think he has a bigger set, straight?

If he does, he played the hand well and is certainly better than what hero gives him credit for.

more on flop, at least $20. tootie's reasoning for $25 is solid. Then it is a lot easier to bet $35 or more on the turn. As played I can easily see V shoving the river with a hand that you can beat. I just played a hand yesterday in which I turned a full house with 55 on board of 4cJc4d 5h. I 4-bet All in (yes 4-bet in 1/2) and was called by AJ. He bet 25, I raised 40 more, he thought and added another 40, that is when I shoved for the remaining hundred or so. At that point I just thought I was going to cooler 45, A4, or any random 4. But he called with just TPTK. point being sometimes people just overvalue.

"But what if he folds?" ... So what? sometimes V just has absolutely nothing. We are trying to make the best decision not get an extra $15 out of this one guy in particular on this one hand.

Ok, you want fold a set to a villan we have zero reads on. Any logic behind folding the river? Folding a set to a short stack on this dry of a board is just really bad advice.

Fold river? Are you high?

50bb deep vs a player who "appears less competent" than a guy who burns through $700 in 45 min at a 1/2 game = I'm just going to shovel money into the pot with middle set.

OP played the hand fine, but I'd just adjust the sizing if I were going to nitpick it.
Flop is ok, but I'd rather just make it $20.
Turn I'd be $30.
Get the remainder in on the river.

I expect to win this the vast majority of the time, rarely losing to 88 and occasionally to 57. V is going to be stacking off here with all overpairs, bizarre-o 2 pair hands and probably stuff like A8.

Ok, you want fold a set to a villan we have zero reads on. Any logic behind folding the river? Folding a set to a short stack on this dry of a board is just really bad advice.

Lol obvious snap. Sorry he had 88 or 97.

Meant 97 in my post, not 57. Had not yet had coffee.

But yeah, this.

Never folding a set for 50bb, readless or not.

Looks fine to me. I might raise HJ with 66 sometimes, but limp is fine. Played well. Hope he didn't hit a straight.

Does not compute. Raise pre.

Why does he have to raise? Not saying it's wrong but what's wrong with limping behind?

He's saying the TAG image is an asset that can be leveraged in position by raising and repping hands much stronger than 66, while keeping 66 as a playable back up plan for its value against missed big-card hands and for it's set value.

Not leveraging that image and playing passively is a waste.

I like 20 on flop so we can go 35 on turn without it being too much over halfpot, hardly matters though, well played nh
Correction, idontworkhere misspoke he meant to say you should 5bet this pre

think we should be raising pf, that's the main mistake.

by limping we're opening ourself to bring squeezed and priced in to call with a hand that's very fit or fold. It does have some merits to limping but we're allowing people to enter the pot with random connectors (which are the hands that bust us in this spot more often than not) as played, make the flop bigger with the intention of shipping the turn.

Our dream common stack off situation with a hand like 66 is us making out set and someone making some sort of TP, 2p hand and over valuing it and by allowing people in with hands that make straights often is adding a LOAD of reverse implied odds, which is the polar opposite of what we want.

Over limping seems fine. You're going to be able to profitably set mine pretty much all the time.

Exactly what type of hands are you hoping people get in with to make 2p hands that aren't random connectors? That seems like exactly the kind of hand we want in there.

Limp is fine. Inclined to go bigger rather than worried about them folding.

Oesd gets there but not folding. Has dumb 2pr often enough

There's nothing wrong with limping if you want to play a passive fit-or-fold strategy and set mine here but OP told us his image is "TAG." Tags are never limping here. Plus, V is a borderline drooler and we rate to have the best hand right now.

We should raise to buy the button and isolate V. If we had 55-22 maybe I limp behind but I think 66 is strong enough to raise here. V is going to miss the flop 70% of the time so we will win the blinds plus raise amount a pretty good % of the time and raising pre makes it much easier to get stacks in when we hit our set.

By limping you still let CO and BTN in the hand to act behind you plus all the garbage 52s, 74s type hands that bad players are likely to limp and crack V with. Our hand is way to good to go 4-6 way to the flop.

We should easily win this hand with a c-bet HU or 3 way on a variety of flops if checked to, and when we flop a set we actually have a chance at getting stacks in.

I fail to see why we wouldn't want hands like 52 or 74 in the pot with us. I will gladly see pots 4-6 ways with 66 all day long. The value of a small pocket pair like this is that we can flop sets and get players to stack off with 2pr and TP type hands. The more people you see a flop with, the more likely you are to find a situation like that.

66 is just on the edge of strong enough to be raising, but there's nothing wrong with limping this hand cheaply to see a pot with (probably) 3 other players, none of which have indicated they have a hand either. I realize this sounds fit or fold fishy, but the real value from this hand is really made when you make a set and are able to extract value from hands that aren't savvy enough to fold when they should.

So we should easily win with a c-bet on a variety of flops, but when we flop a set (which will look just like the rest of the random flops you're advocating we will win on - thus the hidden nature of a set), Vs will just magically be wanting to get stacks in?

We *DO* want people coming along with those garbage hands, but we want them coming along for 5-7 BB so that when they completely whiff the flop we actually turn a nice profit on our PF raise.

And not sure why you are taking things so literally, I am talking in terms of ranges and frequencies, so over the course of 100 identical hands we will occasionally be in position to stack opponents with top pair/two pair when we hit our set.

Limping this hand in the HJ with one bad limper in the hand is not TAG.

why do yoy not open 66?

It depends on who is behind him. Auto-raising 66 from the HJ when we have sticky/solid/tough players behind us can create problems down the line.

Again, I'm not saying not to raise in this spot. In certain cases, I do. As in all poker, "it depends". However, relying on rote strategy alone can miss out on the bigger picture.