Villain 1 is a reg pro (probably one of the best in the room) and sat down half an hour ago with the table max= 400. He has been playing tight so far today but is known to play a good LAG game.

Villain 2 is a bad recreational player who doesn't hide the fact he doesn't know much about poker. He chases any draws (even gutshots) at any price, value bets his monster hands 1/4 or 1/5 of the pot, really doesn't have a clue...

V1 should have a nitty image of Hero regarding the few hours we played together a couple of months ago (but might also not remember).

V1 (400) in MP and bets 8
V2 (355) in the BU calls
Hero (500) in the SB raises to 30 with AA
V1 and V2 call

I thought of flatting the pre. raise to pot control because we are deepstacked but decided to go for value/ taking the initiative since we are OOP.

Flop (92): K94

Again I don't want to build a huge pot with just AA but the flush draw is enticing me to protect what could very well be the best hand.

Hero bets 60
V1 an V2 call

Turn (272): 5
Hero bets 150
V1 calls
V2 folds

River (572): 9
Hero bets 160
V1 calls and is AI



I seem to often put myself in this kind of situation. Is it a leak?
When does pot control becomes > to protection vs draws?

Hand seems mostly fine to me.
You could think about check calling the river to keep his range wider, as all draws just bricked and he might fold weaker kings to a shove on the river. But he might bet them if he thinks that you're giving up with QQ or what not. And he might ship it in with his draws that missed if you give him the chance to, where as obviously he's never calling with any of them.

He really shouldn't have a 9 here ever unless he flopped 2p with a 9, so the 9 pairing really shouldn't change anything.

So, he should be showing up with boats, quads, AK/KQ and busted draws here on the river.

In general stacking off with an SPR of 5 on a drawy board with an OP is pretty acceptable.

Your words at the end seem to make it pretty obvious that villain had you beat, which is pretty much posting the results. Don't do that--it affects how people will think about the hand.

Looks to me like you played fine. A pro villain should be raising a set at some point in the hand, should be extremely unlikely to have KK (unless he's trying to bring V2 with him) and you had an SPR of just over 5 going into the flop.

If you got coolered, so be it. There was also a gutshot straight draw the whole way.

Pre is a clear 3 bet, flatting here is just leaving money on the table, especially if 2 people are calling you. Given the description of V2, doing ANYTHING other than bombing for value at all times is hugely -EV

How about we make a plan when we bet the flop as to when we want to be all-in, etc.?

Once you get 2 callers pre, your SPR is down to 4:1 heading to the flop, and the hand really plays itself unless the flop is horribly ugly.

Once you get two callers on the flop, I think you have to ship the turn because any smaller bet size just leaves too little behind

Yes, you are all right.

The mistake I made was to bet too small OTF.
If I make it 80 into 90, I am left with a pot size bet OTT and give them worse odds to draw on both street. I also make my life easier.

If you were HU with V1 you might consider checking turn for pot control. If he is solid, you will not get 3 additional streets of value anyway. Your river may get called more often than getting a turn call.

As long as V2 stays in, I'd suggest sizing larger, which will not hinder his decision anyway.

Hand seems fine otherwise. Sounds like he had 44?

Don't second guess the 3 bet that is so standard and just flatting is bad. You make tons of value. You never know what deal 1/2 players will call you pre flop with. The C bet is again standard. 2/3 psb seems good to charge draws, problem is being out of position it's hard to know where you are at. I like the idea of checking 1 street but since there are draws its prob better to check the river . You give your villan a chance to bluff any missed draws and you may not be stack if he flopped top 2 or a set.

The nice thing is, after showdown, you get to throw this read completely out the window.

Yeah... Completely overrated

3bet pre is standard. Flatting isn't terrible but it's not optimal and you lose too much value. Just a cooler, bet bet bet the whole way. Checking is bad and villain can bet bet bet with hands that crush you and stack you anyways

Only K9s, KK, 44 realistically beat you.

You played the hand perfectly minus the preflop sizing. I'd probably make it $50 just to give him really bad odds to call and setmine. When you make it 30 he knows you're not bluffing, so he has every reason in the world to call you in position. By making it 50 he can no longer profitably setmine vs you even if he gets your stack every time. Thing is he's probably still going to try because everybody setmines no matter what at live games. If he does call then V2 will probably flat behind because "implied odds" and now you've got $150 on the flop and can just cbet and then jam turn comfortably.

Regardless when you get called in 2 places here you gotta just put them on draws/stubborn top pairs. I dont think anybody is flatting a set here. The only thing that bothers me is that you have the ace of hearts, but whatever people chase any flush so it's mostly irrelevant when only 2 of them are out there.

The fact that V1 whom you regard as a skilled player not only showed up with K9, but slowplayed it or whatever he was doing should be a pretty clear indicator to disregard all previous reads and label him a fish. He might not be a spewy fish, but he's definitely a fish.

BTW 200BB's is not deep at all for live play so this fear you have of playing big pots is kinda silly. If you cant play 1/2 with $400 then you are playing waaaay outside of your bankroll. I wouldnt worry about AA until I had $1000 in front of me, and even then of course you have to 3bet preflop because you have the best hand, why wouldnt you? Your goal playing deepstacked isnt to just play like a pussy hoping to flop sets and straights and only THEN do you start betting. Yes you will be put to some more difficult decisions the deeper you get regardless of your preflop hand strength, and yeah we hate getting raised postflop with AA. But you do what you gotta do, and playing passive to avoid coolers is certainly not the way.

A 3bet to 50 is too much pre. You WANT worse to call, don't raise huge just because you're afraid to play post flop.

That's the wrong mindset. You're betting for value here, not for protection. Get opponents to call you incorrectly. You said that V2 chases everything, which means he'll put in tons of money with a very small probability of winning. Throw out a large bet, print money. Sucks that V1 had K9 this time.

Agreed. I think villain calls $50 just as often as $30. I just want to lower the SPR so I can shove without thinking about it.