1/2 nl holdem. 5 euro straddle.

Villain- Seems to be decent regular bought in for about 800euro. Haven't played many hands.

Hero: 150bb - tight enough image.

Straddle on I open to 18 in co with jsjc. Btn calls. VIllain in sb calls.

Flop : 7h7d9h - Villain leads for 20, hero raises to 60, btn folds, villain calls.

Turn: 2c - Villain x, Hero bets 120. villain ai for 200. Hero calls

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Pre: Seems fine. Annoying that the button called, but you can work with that.

Flop: I don't like raising here. It's a raise for value, and you are asking for a lot of bricks to hit the turn and river with you already being behind. I would just call the flop. You are behind pocket Q+ and any 7, and I don't see a ton of bluffs here aside from AhKh-Ah10h

Turn: With the before, I would have sized smaller. V here with play could just call, but with 200 behind facing a 120 bet, it's fold or shove here. As played, call makes sense because you are obviously pot committed.

Really don't like this logic. At all.
No.1 remember in poker if it's +EV for our opponents it's -EV for us. If villain is competetent at the slightest he should never rock up with QQ+ here. As he is OOP and expect him to 3bet that range. Also leading $20 into $61 does nothing for him holding QQ+ so lets disclude QQ+from his range

No.2 We DO NOT have the Jh which is a good thing as we block none of villains flush combos. If Villain does have a flush draw, putting $20 to win the $61 pot + Hero's $20 call is basically getting 4:1 odds with 2:1 equity which is +EV for the villain thus -EV for us. With two overs and a flush draw Hero is actually a slight dog against.

No.3 Villains range is capped due to the flop and preflop action, he either has a type of flush draw, 9x, 99, 7x. Maybe even 88/66 type hands. T8, 86 oesd JhTh, 8h5h combo draws are also very possible
Against the draws we MUST bet and not only that bet a size that pot commits us as we must deny the right odds to call for Villain. 2/3 pot to 3/4 pot i think is good, so roughly $120-$150 would be my bet. To bet an amount where you can bet fold accomplishes nothing in this scenario. May as well check and let flush draws see free rivers. Our decision to either check or bet depends on our read on how weighted Villains range is to 99/7x relative to flush draws. Sucks pot committing ourself as we can't fold to his x/r shove with 99/7x but we CAN'T check back the turn if he has a draw and like i said, a LARGE % of his range in this spot is going to be a draw of some kind

Really don't like this logic. At all.
No.1 remember in poker if it's +EV for our opponents it's -EV for us. If villain is competetent at the slightest he should never rock up with QQ+ here. As he is OOP and expect him to 3bet that range. Also leading $20 into $61 does nothing for him holding QQ+ so lets disclude QQ+from his range

No.2 We DO NOT have the Jh which is a good thing as we block none of villains flush combos. If Villain does have a flush draw, putting $20 to win the $61 pot + Hero's $20 call is basically getting 4:1 odds with 2:1 equity which is +EV for the villain thus -EV for us. With two overs and a flush draw Hero is actually a slight dog against.

No.3 Villains range is capped due to the flop and preflop action, he either has a type of flush draw, 9x, 99, 7x. Maybe even 88/66 type hands.
Against the flush draws we MUST bet and not only that bet a size that pot commits us as we must deny the right odds to call for Villain. 2/3 pot to 3/4 pot i think is good, so roughly $120 would be my bet. To bet an amount where you can bet fold accomplishes nothing in this scenario. May as well check and let flush draws see free rivers. Our decision to either check or bet depends on our read on how weighted Villains range is to 99/7x relative to flush draws.

I don't see a good reason to disclude QQ+ from his range. People do really strange things at this level, and that flop can miss a lot so the 20$ bet could be a value bet/seeing where V is at in the hand. I suppose I should ask considering effective stack size, how often do you think V is calling the raise here on a draw? Considering the hero's action, if I was the V, I am assuming another barrel on the turn putting me in a Shove or fold position.

The V is basically committing to a shove on the flop with a flush draw and without history, I am not making that assumption (the only thing we got is the OP called him a decent play. Most decent players don't chase flush draws without a pair or something that doesn't autolose in showdown. Let's assume he is though for the sake of argument, and you put the AhKh in V's range, he chose to shove all in for his last $260 on a two card draw?

I think you are inappropriately capping the V's range here. Not every player 3bets Qs up. There is this trend in cash games I have been seeing (it might be anecdotal) where players are limping or flat calling raises with high pocket pairs to mine lay. It might not be happening here, but it doesn't mean it's impossible.

You obviously don't check, but you don't bet an amount that causes the V to shove back. I think the way the V is playing takes most of his draws out of his range because he could fold here a good chunk of the time if he isn't beating a two-pair. Even if he has the drawiest of draws (some weird **** like 8-10h), he is drawing to 37% on any pocket pair you have, and has >0% of folding you out.

Yes given the x/r on the river i'm going to lean towards Villain having a hand that is crushing JJ. What i was trying to get at is if you're going to bet the turn you can't bet an amount that you can bet/fold.
From the description of Villain (which I'll admit isn't very in depth) Villain seems to be a TAG. It's highly unlikely in a straddled pot a decently competent player will flat OOP with QQ+ then lead a third pot on a pretty wet flop. So i dont believe I'm incorrectly capping his range to not contain QQ+ as it realistically just shouldn't given there's a straddle, an open from late position and a call on the button. Unless villain perceives Hero to be a nit to only open KK+, there is no reason Villain is flatting QQ+.

I feel like we agree with a good chunk of each other's comments, apart from the QQ+ range which is fair.

My issue here with how the hand was played is that the V is never bluffing here. With the H's turn bet, a shove from the V has >0% fold chance (never deal in absolutes my Jedi friends). Assuming the V has some skill in reading (which I am making based on the OP description, I can assume safetly), this V either is reading the H as bluffing and has either a pocket pair or AhXh and thinks his high card might be good. That is the absolutely bottom of his range and as you pointed out, he has pretty good odds to draw and might even have the best hand if he thinks the H is bluffing.

I guess let me ask the turn action since that is the other source of disagreement: What are you hoping for from the V? With your and the OP's sizing, a call here is never happening. It's fold or shove.

Results?

I don't get this, V's range isn't capped at all here. As you note, he can easily have all the strong hands here, and much more likely that he has trips than H does. Hard for him to have a better overpair than us, but that doesn't cap his range on this flop.

I would often just flat the flop bet, but raising is OK too, especially multi-way and given the small sizing.

Once you raise flop and get called, I'd check behind turn. We're giving up value v. the draws to save money on the times that V has 7x.

Once you bet turn so big, you can't fold. You've already put in 2/3 of your stack with an overpair.

What do we hope to achieve with the turn bet? Deny odds from draws, extract value from stubborn hands such as 9x if V assumes H is bluffing. If V folds, H picks up a 90BB pot....

he may think you have AK and is shaking you down here

Thanks for replies.
Maybe my turn sizing was a problem here. If we make an 80 bet on turn we might keep in more of his weak hands, we still pot committed either way though. ``
Because villain flop lead was so small I raised and with the player behind didn't want him getting in cheap. When he just calls I incorrectly weighted his range towards more oesd, 1p holdings, bad fds, so I bet turn to get value off these hands.
Villain shows up with 8s7s .