2/5 at Bellagio.
Villain in bb with $600, 30 yo Asian guy, doesn't seem like dealer knows him
Hero on btn with $500
No reads, literally the third hand dealt and the first hand played

MP raises 15
Hero with KK raises 45
BB 4bets all in

Lederer says "4 bets always means aces" but I figured 4 betting range here is AA (6 combos) KK (one combo) and AK (8 combos) putting me ahead of his range.

Yes? No?

I don't think this particular spot looks like AA tbh. I put his range at AK for the most part and some PP 99-QQ

BB 4bets from 45$ to 600$? And you have KK? And villain is a unknown? And he is an Asian?

Snap call imo. I have rarely seen aces in this spot live, a lot of time being hands like TT and JJ because people do not like playing them post.

Call, he has to have something like JJ/QQ/AQ and a few combos of AK. I wouldn't mind folding only your 3rd hand, pretty sick! Spot. It would be a feel play. How quickly he 4bets all in, what's his demeanor. What's his age, clothes he is wearing and how his chips are stacked. None of that can be analyzed on the forums.

Snap it off. You're nowhere near deep enough to fold KK pre.

true or false: if you're heads up in position in a raised pot and it's checked to you, if you check behind and plan on calling a bet on a blank turn it's way better to just take the lead on the flop.

false, lots of reasons.

Please elaborate

It's hard to elaborate and you shouldn't think of this as a linear strategy.

Basically, when you bet you want to achieve three things:
1) make better hands fold
2) make weaker hands call you
3) protect your equity

Incorporate these three things in every hand you are playing and see if betting makes the most sense. If it doesn't, then don't bet

the reason i asked was because of a hand i saw where a player opened in LP with TT, got called by the big blind, flop came J93 rainbow, bb checks and he checked behind. turn was a 6 (changes nothing) and the bb leads, he flats then ended up calling another decent sized bet on the river and lost to J8 and i just thought he really played the hand really really bad and if he was going to call a bet on a meaningless turn he might as well have just bet the flop because once the flop is called and the bb leads on the turn, it really helps narrow his range and makes decisions on later streets less complicated.

i don't think checking back in that spot is bad. that's not the best example since having TT on a J93r board is very different from having, say JJ on a K73r board. in the former, betting is fine whereas in the latter checking back is usually the more standard (i.e. "optimal when readless") line.


auto-betting any time you're checked to isn't good. its called "monkey betting" because you're betting but you have no idea why, not much of a plan for further streets, and usually no clue as to how to respond to a c/r.

With a 10x preflop raise going 4ways to the flop and hitting top two pair, my plan is to go broke on this hand. So the flop bet was to get the PSB shortstack all-in immediately, and otherwise against the other villain it'll leave me with a PSB shove on a safe turn. Board is pretty damn drawy (flush, OESD, two high cards). SPR is 4. No?

Results oriented thinking. What if villain had 54o in that hand?

You can't just drool every time the flop smacks ur hand hard...you still have to place priority on how best to keep worse hands in.
Think range and how each villain reacts to a bet with each hand type and proceed from there.
Whether to bet pot or 1/2psb doesn't matter if villain is on a FD..he is still calling , and given stack sizes you can still get itall in the middle by river.
But villains are gonna have alot of weaker made hands that you want to keep in the hand...you also don't want to telegraph the strength of ur hand by the size of ur bet.
Also SPR is really just a Tool for the flop, afaik

If he's on a draw, I'm not looking to play to the river (cuz he doesn't pay off a river bet when he whiffs, and I'd rather charge him the max to chase).

I agree that it's possible that I might fold out some hands that I would rather have him call over 3 streets (like Kx). But in big pots (there's a crapload of dead money in the pot), I err on the side of winning the pot / charging draws rather than milking weaker hands.

What I mean is that on the flop the SPR is 4 and I've got top two on a drawy board; I'm pretty much happy to stack off on non-scary turns, so I'm ok with sizing my bets to do so.

Still really have trouble with protected pots when OOP.

1/2NL 10-handed.

MP1 limps, HJ limps, weak TAG makes it 10 from CO, BTN calls, I call 9 more with 34, BB calls, limpers call.

Flop ($55): 349

I check, checks around to HJ who bets $25, I C/R to $80, BB calls off his last $60, HJ calls $55 more. With the way BB plays, I'm almost certain he has a big flush draw.

Turn ($235 main, $40 side): 3

HJ has about $380 behind at this point, and I have him covered. I don't have a lot of history with him personally, but I know he's capable of putting people to the test if he thinks they're weak. The problem is that I can't really use this to my advantage because 1) The side pot is extremely dry relative to the main pot, 2) He's already spewed off 250bb about an hour ago, so I think it's unlikely he makes a similar move again. HJ may not know that I could easily have a combo draw here, but he's smart enough to know that the board pairing the turn reduces the chance that I have a made hand.

My best guess of HJ's range at this point is Q9,K9,A9,99,TT,JJ,56s,AXcc

I bet $125.

Is there any other play?

Effective stacks $180, hero covers.

Villian HJ- seems solid, hasn't really gotton out of line and has showed the goods so far but is having a rough night.

Hero UTG - viewed as solid but has been raising quite a bit in the last half hour.

Straddle to $5
Hero raises to $25 with 1010
VIllian makes it $60

Standard easy fold right? Have been playing too much online.

Poppa - seems standard. He has too much behind to check as we won't be able to get it in. If you have a good read that he will fold to this bet we could check and hope to just go for half pot if the flush hits and get some value from weaker pairs. This line won't get all the moniez but will get value from a wider area of his range as when you bet this turn it looks super strong so he is likely to fold most hands unless he is bad.

Am I forced to pay off on both of these hands:

Hand 1

I pick up AK and raise to $16. Flop is KT5 rainbow and I lead out for $40 (two callers). One guy calls. Turn is a Q. I bet $75. He has $33 behind and calls. River is an A. Now, I have top two and can beat a lot of this guy’s range, so I have to call when he is all-in for his last $33. He has KJo.

Hand 2
I pick up JJ. Guy makes it $10, I make it $32. He calls. Flop is beautiful. AJx with two diamonds. He checks, I bet $50. Turn is a blank. He checks, I bet $120. He calls. River, of course, is a diamond. He shoves for $100. I call. He has Qd 8d.

In hand 2, I really wish I had bet like $180 on the turn.

Thoughts?

Bet sizing on turn for hand 1 was bad.

PoppaTman, PF call OOP is bad, very bad...

AP, gotta bet turn, but I prob go a bit smaller and maybe keep draws in. Maybe an even $100.

Stickssv3, yes, standard fold this shallow for sure.

Ibkolb's new name,

Obv have to pay both off, but yes, turn bet much too small in hand one.

$1/2 Horseshoe game.

V1 donk fish $100
V2 TAG and is getting more active PF ($6-14 PFR often) and each street, deep stacked $700
Hero in LP with $220

table agreed to a round of straddles. i happened to squeeze the last straddle in LP with 4 limpers, no callers pf. the very next hand, again 3 limpers on the $5 straddle, in LP i look down at TT and make it $35. V1 in straddle calls $35 and V2 makes it $115. Pot is now $190 and we have $195 behind after the $35 pfr.

What would you do and why? for me fold/ship > call. i didnt even think about the donk fish, as for V2, i felt that if he had a big hand he would have raised UTG+1 instead of limping... so i shipped it. bad? good? either or?