I think one of the leaks in my game is when I have a hand I don't want to stack off with and the pot is starting to brew. Here is another spot:


V in this hand is 40ish white guy wwith sleeve tattoos. seems TAGish. He isn't playing garbage, and is relatively aggressive. Probably limps more than a good TAG, but he is definitely not a fish. It is 1:00 AM on thursday and he is drunk. He is sitting on my left and is talking a lot. I can smell the booze on his breath. He covers hero.

Hero is 30s white guy. Beem playing pretty tight. Havent been active. ($250)

We are 7 handed.

A good TAG opens utg for $7. An OMC calls in the CO. I flat OTB with TT Its a borderline 3! but utg is solid and I don't want to play a big pot with him. I figure I have good set value and I can proceed with caution on small flops. V calls in sb.

Flop($25) 734
V donks $15. His range includes all combo draws, monsters, and maybe some weaker draws and overpairs. Folds to hero. I would puke if I got 3! so I flat.

Turn($55) 7343
V bets $15 again. At this point I kind of rule out monsters, so I'm now thinking draws and top pair hands like A7s or overpairs. I raise to $45 planning to fold if he shoves. I realize my raise needs to be larger to price out draws. I am trying to tiptoe the line between gettong value and not valuetowning myself. He goes into the tank for a long time. Seems like 3-4 minutes. Not sure if the debate was between 3! or folding. He finally calls.

River ($145) 73439

Seems like a good card but during his long tank 88/99/JJ were running through my head. V checks. Hero?

I'd size the turn to 55 and check behind the river.

After your turn raise, you shouldn't get called by worse. He will fold A7, 88 here if he's any good. I don't think you are getting called>50%.

Setmining with TT on the button????? Do not like. Please raise.

Flop as played: raise flop $25-$30 on top of the $15.

Turn as played: Villian's turn bet of $15 means you are way ahead or way behind and I'm thinking way ahead. Must raise and fold to a shove if he has a three.

River as played: Nothing about the villian's moves look agressive at this point. Unless he has 56 or 99 or a 3, you are not going to get him to put much money in the pot. Bet $25 and pray he calls.


Here is the point on the:

and

then just fold. If you can be agressive in this spot you are going to lose money.

Seems like you play a pretty cautious style, OP. Just an observation.

As played, probably a check behind. I don't see him calling with anything you beat. Call/Raise/Bet might not be looked up by anything other than 2Pair+ in this situation.

I don't mind a 3bet pre but flatting is fine. Set mining with TT is just backwards thinking. We have a strong hand and we didn't 3bet to disguise our hand and have weaker hands like under pairs and suited aces get in the pot. We have position and can make money off these situations if the flop is good.

Yay we got a great flop! Flop call is great - I like it and wouldn't raise. You can easily get reraised off your hand with hands like 2 overs and a flush draw or he could think your full of **** because that board is dry. I would much rather raise here as a bluff than with a value hand like TT. These players probably are not that good because you are at the 1/2 tables - but you should never under estimate them.

Turn - I like the raise here because that $15 bet is stupid and the pot is getting kinda big and we don't really want to see a bad river. I would of made it a tad bigger to make it look like I was setting up for a river shove. I don't think $45 accomplishes that. Also it looks like your hand is weak. I may like that raise if I had a monster and was hoping villain would see my raise as weak and come over the top.

River I wouldn't mind a thin value bet. You can check behind if you want - but I think you miss some value. One of the biggest leaks of low stakes players is they don't bet enough rivers. You have the best hand here a ton or villain would of played his hand different. Now you need to size a bet he can call. This comes down to reads. The raise on the turn probably scares him even though it was a weak raise so I wouldn't bet huge. Maybe something like $45 he might call just to see what you have. Vs stations i'm pumping this to $150 but I think this guy may be a bit more cautious and fold to a size that big.

Against a good non-fishy player I might check this back, with him being drunk may change some things.

OTR I think we can definitely get called by worse. I expect most players to 3b JJ+ so we pretty much beat any two pair. and lose only to trips and boats. how many 3s are in this guys range if hes not playing garbage? Does flopped set and turned boat play the hand like this?

I like a small bet of like 60 to try to get a hero call from 88 a 7 or maybe even a busted A-high fd

Depending on what you picked up during his tank OTT, and how he checked the river would be the decision point in checking back or betting $50-$60.

Pre - ok, though I don't think good TAGs raise to $7 from EP with a big hand.

Flop - I'd raise since there are few good turns we will see.

Bet $75. It's unlikely that he has 99 so you should try extracting some value.

Checking back wouldn't be terrible.

Preflop is well played IMO

Flop is fine but a raise is better. I think you still get value from 88, 99, and diamond draws.

Turn raise should be bigger as you mentioned because he's rarely betting $15 OTT with a hand that beats you

Only 99 and 97 got there OTR so I'd make a small half pot value bet to extract from hands like 88

I love your flat OTB w/1010 against an OMC UTG raise. Perfect. OTF I raise a straight forward/passive player's donk bet, although against a drunk slightly agro player I don't mind the flat. It's a low variance/lower EV play, but as long as you understand that it's still fine. OTT you raise $30 more into like $115ish. This is obviously too small. $60-$70 seems a lot better to me. In low stakes the turn is where you make your money by laying a bad price for V's to chase draw, which they often do anyhow. The river is an easy B/F. I'd recommend something around 40% of the pot since our V can't have TP+ a FD. But ultimately size it to get called by a flopped TPGK hand.

Edit: The more I look at this hand the more I'm bothered by the tank call OTT. Villain is heavily weighted to a made hand here, whether it's TP or a FH I'm not sure. But I think we can remove trips from his range since he would likely C/R to price out the draws. I'm sticking with my suggestion of a 40% pot bet OTR, although this is becoming more of an insta-fold if he raises.

There's no one right way to play pf in this situation. It depends on your post flop skills. If they are weak, a 3bet is better. You'll narrow his range considerably and avoid tougher decisions. You have a good situation to pick up more money if you allow this to go post flop with position, so my choice would be to call.

On the flop, donk 60% PSB are rarely draws. He has a made hand. The good news a bunch of his range in this situation is behind you. The good news is that we now aren't all that worried about over cards to our hand. He doesn't have a lot of them in his range. However, we can by calling here. So even if he has JJ, he's going to be real shaky if an ace appears on the turn. A raise is an option, but again we're folding a lot of his range we beat soundly and keeping in the strongest part of his range.

The turn bet polarizes his hand. He is pretty much sitting here with a FH or air. A FH no longer worries about a FD completing. He's actually hoping for it to happen. He folds his air to a raise. Since I can't get value out of his air and only have 2 outs to beat him, I'm happy to see a cheap river. My guess is his tanking is trying to decide if you have enough of a hand to call another raise.

The river sucks because it gives 99 the lead and makes it harder for 88 or 7x to call. Keep in mind that a thin value bet is a failure if the villain folds. You need to be ahead of his calling/raising range. I just don't see enough hands that we beat that will call/raise compared to the hands that we lose to. Check behind.

In this spot I think checking back river is fine. A lot of the time he has missed a draw which isn't calling and the other portion of the time he has the nuts. Your turn raise was a little small but it allows you to get to a cheap show down. I prefer taking the showdown and seeing what hand he took this line with. If he raises you have to fold and will be left in the dark. Not to mention it's really hard for worse to call unless you bet really small. Sometimes that may induce a raise and level you into making a bad call.

I say check and pick up some info and hopefully the pot.

I would lean towards a 3 bet pre because the opening raise is small and 3 bets will often knock OMCs out of the pot.

I'm confused on your ranges for V. You said he doesn't play garbage, but you're including all combo draws in his range on the flop. Would he raise UTG with hands like 75 and 53?

Villain was in the small blind and it was a small raise. I'm sure there are plenty of suited connectors and suited 1 gappers in his range. I do think that a TAG would 3 bet JJ though a lot in the sb. Also pre Flatting on the button is fine for the reasons given (raise utg and not wanting to have to fold to 4bet).

I think your whole play is fine. You can argue here and there for some small adjustments, but overall I'm fine with playing it this way.

But the river is just not the place for trying to put in a thin value bet.
There's is just not enough in his calling range that you're beating.
Maybe his being drunk changes that, hard to say. I'm checking this one down
and not feeling that I missed much value.

Thanks everyone, good discussion. I was a little concerned when he called the turn because I think a lot of the hands I wanted to extract value from fold.

This is terrible advice. Quite often it is far more profitable to play a pot slowly and cautiously than it is to play it aggressively.