Sat pm 80/160 with AC's finest yellow chips, 9 handed. Game is playing wild and loose. We're in the small blind about two Corona's in when...

Laggy fish opens UTG+2, strong expert lag 3 bets in MP, tight solid smooth calls in CO, we smooth call in SB K9, BB calls and UTG+2 calls.

FLOP: Q102
Checks to strong expert lag who bets, everyone calls.

TURN: J
We lead out, laggy fish raises, all fold, we 3 bet, laggy fish 4 bets, we call.

RIVER: 3
We check, laggy fish bets, we...

What do you think about our line on all streets?

J Lot

I imagine you're going to get a lot of Fold Pre comments.

fold pre

Call the river in case he has a set or top two(or 89 straight). One strategy you could consider, is calling the turn raise and donking the river. Might induce a raise again from set/top two while only losing you four bets against AK instead of five.

Flop call has to be trivial with the pot size. Decision to donk turn seems reasonable in general - although it seems like the expert often had a hand already on the flop, so he might be priced in to betting the turn here close to 100% of the time. So you could consider a C/R on the turn, which at worst could lose you 4 bets vs. the expert's AK, but could get you some good value/protection in this big pot.

Preflop I would just fold, especially if I had been drinking.

Though the BB's likelihood for cc aren't noted, the wild and loose action makes about 4/1 (and approx. 5/1 if BB calls) pot odds OOP w a hand that has some decent implied odds and playability postflop. It's better in this spot than like A6ss, which I would fold.

x/r turn and then just call the 3 bet seems to make most sense. Then the money isn't just put it in by you and the guy that either has you beat or is spewing hard, it's put in by all the guys that trapped themselves by calling (or raising) the lag fish's bet.

So that makes the river decision harder. Do we want to go for value and risk the 3 bet by x/r, or do we just x/c and feel like a nit when he shows 89? Depends how often you think he'd spazz w a set or 89.

My mistakes can err towards the nitty and I might even play this hand. OP is laggier than me, so this hand fits into his game even better. And were you really only 2 coronas deep lol?

You should probably fold pre, but realistically I end up playing the hand the same on all streets.

super easy fold pre

having lead the turn, i don't think the turn 3-bet is automatic though you do try to justify it by calling the guy a laggy fish. if he's a complete moron then it's probably fine, but it might be better to just call and bet/3-bet or checkraise safe rivers. given all that, checkraising the turn and calling down the 3-bet is better than any other options.

i don't know how the river is even a question as played

BBV?

I'd like to say I would fold pre but in game I would probably come up with a reason to play usually "big pot brewing"

Flop is fine

Turn is good. I'm not actually too worried about the 4 bet as villain is a tough lag so probably doesn't put your preflop call as AK, so he would raise with sets/some two pair hands and K9, 89 or some pair/draw hands

River is never getting folded but want to get some value if possible so most likely b/c. I would only check if I was going to raise. I'd be more disappointed to get a check back than have to call a three bet.

I'd fold preflop.

I like the flop.

I'd check raise the turn and call a 3 bet.

I'd check call the river.

good choice for your beer

fold pre

I don't have a 3b calling range here, are you sure your reads are accurate? Between this and your SB call makes me wonder if you are ready to play this high.

I guess because you don't have a 3b calling range in CO, then all other solid players also don't have one?

And it seems pretty unlikely to me that his sb coldcall is a significant mistake. It's surely not a reason to tell him to move down in stakes.

The call pf is pretty horendous imo.
And if he calls this , he probably call a **** lot more too, and that mistakes cost a a lot when it's repetitive.

I might be wrong about not having a cold calling range here, but description was "tight, solid". When two lags get araisin, tight solid ain't capping 90%+ of their playable hands?

And i really hate calling three with a dominated K, even with tight solid cold calling between. I imagine his and 3better ranges are heavy w/KQ/KJ.

Well, what is the worst hand you would call there? If you view KQs as an easy call (do you?), then it seems unlikely that calling K9s is horrible. Remember, the expert should be 3betting the laggy fish a good bit lighter than he would against an unknown player. Maybe we just have different definitions of what "horrible" means?

More importantly, who are we to tell this guy that he shouldn't be playing these limits? Even if we assume this is a very bad play (and at least a few pros obviously don't think it is), it doesn't mean that he isn't a winner at these limits. And even if it did mean that he was not a winner, there are plenty of other reasons why he might choose to play in a particular poker game.

that's not how it works against 3 ranges that are all likely to contain hands like KQ,KJ,KT,A9,JJ,TT,99,QJ,QT,...

whether it's an easy call or not, KQs is infinitely better than K9s in this spot

Out of curiosity, how much do you think KQs wins here? How much would you guess that K9s loses?

a little and a lot

Like who? It's clearly awful

there are no experts in this game

who were a) the expert lag, and b) tight solid? (pm me or text me if you'd rather not say here. also, it's your move x3 in chess )

pf: everybody's gunna say fold here, it's not like you're 5 corona's and 5 scotch rocks in yet. by then this is ofc standard. but only 2 corona's? nah. i mean who are you gunna outplay with that hand from that position?

sure the laggy pro is isolating the lagfish, but putting in 2.5 bets OOP w/ this hand isn't the best. yes, ofc, KQs is good and MAYBE KJs since you could actually be dominating some of laggy pro's 3bs (if he's really laggy and lagfish is really lagfish he could be 3b KTo and QJs, but the 9 kicker, even if it's suited, is still too low).

flop: what other options were you considering?

turn/river: this realllllly depends who it is. somebody like roland, who can be mad agro when losing and way overvalues hands, you have to just keep raising the turn b/c he might go 6-7 bets w/o the nuts and it'd be impossible for him to have the nuts b/c he'd instacap AK pf.

but with somebody like yelena, who would raise AND call AKo pf AND can be more passive postflop until she hits her hand AND probably wound't raise any 98 in 80/160 that early, then you should call the 4bet and then it's close between k/r/c the river or k/c. it would super depend on her mood.

if it was like mustafa and he's drinking then i just go to town on the turn kinda thing. the key here is that a) there's no draws so you're def against a made hand, and b) on this board, that most likely hand is a set or (again depending on who it is), 98 or another K9, or maybe even some stupid sh*t like QJ.

only against passive post flop players (is that lagfish? prob not?) would the river k/c be ok. otherwise i'm k/ring and calling the 3bet or 5betting turn. i'd like to get 6-7 bets in there on the turn/river if possible. so either 5bet turn or k/r river depending on who it is and how they're playing.

OP is probably the best amateur player i've ever seen. i have played with many pros and amateurs and he's better play/knowledge wise than many pros for sure. only leaks are alcohol and a bit of the gottawinthispot syndrome sometimes.

def no way in hell he needs to move down in stakes lol.

i can think of players i'd consider tight/solid who'd call 88/99/TT here 3rd in and 4bet JJ+. you have to really consider what's going to happen. if you see jlot in the sb w/ a beer in his hand, you know he's gunna call a bit looser and if the game is playing loose, you can easily get this 5-6way for 3 bets, which is fine.

that said, sure it's not common, but it doesn't warrant the above post imo.

I think this is a fair point also because I probably call at 10 drinks as well. It certainty fold at 2