villain (utg) is a regular in this game. 65+ year old retired white guy. extremely nice guy, but pretty bad at poker. has been on a 2 week heater where he has probably won $20k. within the hour, villain had gotten in a war with another player who was extremely tilted that villain kept beating him in hands, often thru suck outs. the tilter just left the table after blasting off 5 $500 buy ins to villain in the course of about 2 orbits. villain probably feels unstoppable. has been very active preflop. doesn't fold a lot post flop. (covers hero by a ton)

hero (bb) should be viewed as relatively tight, but has been caught squeezing a time or two during this session with mixed results. hero has just gotten out of the red and is up a little for the session. not sure if villain is really paying much attention.

hero dealt AJT92 ($1200)

villain (utg) raises to $20, 4 calls, hero considers 3 betting to narrow the field, but raises or 3 bets do very, very little to deter calls pre flop in the game. hero flats in the bb.

flop: $125, 6 players

7 8 J

hero checks with the intention of c/potting (or should we just lead for pot?), villain bets $85 as expected. one caller. hero pots to $465. villain thinks for a bit and calls with 5 black chips. other guy folds.

turn: $1140, heads up

T

we have about 2/3 psb left. hero?

obviously, the turn is a terrible card for us, but we still have the nut low draw. and although the turn card sucks, i feel villain's range is so wide that he doesn't have to have a better straight or a big flush here. plus we block the nut flush.

i also think we can get some smaller flushes to fold. the guy like to draw, but he also understands that mid/small flushes are not usually good to call ~$700 bets with.

If his range is as wide as you say, plus you have the ace of hearts I say F*** it and pot it and hope either a) you get really small flushes to fold or b) he doesnt have the flush.

i also think that a naked (or nearly naked) A2 makes up a big part of his range here.

Brian, specifically who is the villain?

It sounds as though you've been playing with the guy for a couple of weeks. Unless he has seen you getting out of line in a major way, this is a good time to insta-shove your dry ace. You've got the straight, the top 2pair redraw and the nut low draw if you get called.

Alternatively, you can bet 40% of your stack, then make a "phew, the board didn't pair" all-in on the river if the board doesn't pair, but that's more of a plo-with-the-old-white-guy move, and you'll get looked up on the river with any kind of low and weak flush.

I don't think he will fold weak flushes enough to make betting profitable. I'd check to induce and obviously call off the bet. When turn goes check-check we will likely win 3/4 on a low river card. On a high river card it's possible to either check-call or to bet for value, depending on how bluffy/bluff-catchy he is.

Most all of this. The way he is running he isn't folding any small flush. He will almost certainly bet if you check so don't but of course call if he does. I also think he will always bet any flush if you check the turn so if he checks he doesn't have it and play accordingly.

So, if the turn does go check-check, I would bet the river except maybe with a 7 or an 8 where I would check-call.

Because you have the Nut Flush blocker, his flat of your raise on the flop feels like a NLD + some kind of high equity, which could either be a small flush or some kind of two pair. If it were a more competent villain I'd put a naked straight in his range, but based off what you explained, it feels like he would cram it in on the flop with that.

I think in this spot we need to give him some rope to hang himself. He may put you on a naked straight yourself and feel like he can get you off it with some worse A2xxx hand. Any hand you beat currently probably insta-folds and I doubt we can push him off any flush at this point.

Just since I referred to him as a fish in the title and I know some people in this game read 2+2 I'd rather not name him, but he is a nearly daily regular in this game and a super nice guy. A good sport whether winning or losing. I just don't want to accidentally insult the guy.

Results :

Being out of position, in reasoned that I'd rather put him to the test than to check to him and have him pot it and I have a big decision and hate life. Plus even though my remaining stack isn't a ton compared to the pot, calling that bet off with a flush less than the nuts or 2nd nuts isn't very easy. (Since I had nut blocker)

Anyway, I put it in, he tanked and eventually folded saying he had a draw, but the price was too much. I guess he must have had the A2xxx with a pair or something.

Agreed

If we are already planning on calling off a big bet if we check, why not put him to the test and bet ourselves? That way we make him fold his 8 high flush or whatever instead of letting him scoop or 3/4 us.

Because I think that your assumption that he folds a flush is wrong, or at least it's illogical and you give no explanation why you think he would do such illogical things.

Also, "putting him to the test" has absolutely no value in poker and you should try to get rid of nonsensical thoughts like this, if you want to improve. Bets are made either for value/protection or as a bluff. In my opinion, it doesn't make sense to bluff with this hand, even if we have the nut blocker.

When I first read OP's description of Vil as a 65+ white guy, I assumed he would lay down a weak flush, but after thinking about the description some more, since he was running good it is just as likely that he wouldn't.

tbh, I haven't played any Big O at the Rio this year, so I have no idea what we'd find there.


"Putting him to the test" is just another way of saying "putting him under pressure," which, of course, is the essence of poker: the more decisions under pressure we force on people, the more chances they have to make mistakes.

I see what you mean. Anyway, this spot, in my opinion, is not one where we put him under pressure. If he drew for the flush, he often has nld or something else going with it and I don't see him laying it down, but of course I could be wrong. I have never played with the villain, OP has.

The essence of my point is that this is not a good hand to put pressure on the villain, by betting at least. Maybe checking puts more pressure on him, should he bluff or not?

that's a good point. i guess where i was coming from was that in my experience at least, people do not auto call off small flushes when facing pot sized bets. granted, he is not a great player but not a total idiot either.

i know its sort of comparing apples to oranges, but i know i'm folding baby flushes to pot sized turn bets most of the time. but at the same time i wouldn't be paying off check/pot bets on the flop with a baby flush draw either.

New to forums, big fan of PLO8, itching to try my hand at Big O. Decided to post for the first time b/c this hand intrigues me.

To those who are more experienced, what do you think of just check/calling the flop? Seems as if original raiser's c-bet eliminated half the hands in play alrdy. It would seem that the made nut high/nut low draw with no re-draws either way would be pretty vulnerable, even if we have have the A of hearts to eliminate any nut heart draws. If an ideal turn card comes (i.e. any low card not A or 2 of hearts), we have a big pot (~$400) to bet into on the turn. Granted, the OP made out okay, but just wondering why the better line wouldn't be to make sure the turn doesn't f*** our hand up.

Thanks in advance.