Saturday afternoon at Harrah's Las Vegas. Action has been good and loose. Two new players have just sat down to the table, replacing a fairly large stack and a drunk guy.

Villain in this hand is one of those new players. He is a mid 50s caucasian male with glasses, a mustache and a t-shirt. He sits to the immediate left of his friend who claims it is the first time that villain has played in a casino. Villain appears confused about how to post his blinds. I am guessing that villain and his friend have played in home games together before and that villain may have a very basic understanding of the game. Both villain and his friend bought in for $100 each. This is the second hand they played; villain won his first hand and thus sits with $117.

Hero is a late twenties caucasian male who wears a hoody and listens to music on Bose headphones. I have about $600 in front of me at this point. I've been playing very tight today (VPIP/PFR of 9/7), but villain doesn't know that.

On to the hand. Folds to HJ who calls $2. Hero raises to $12 in CO with A 6. BTN folds, SB calls, villain calls in BB, HJ calls. Flop comes A K 5. Checks to hero who bets $25. SB folds, villain hesitates for 5 seconds and calls, HJ folds. Turn 2. Hero ???

I found the situation to be a bit tricky, since villain's range is probably wide (given what I know about his experience level) and I have very different objectives depending on his holding. If he has a flush draw then I want to keep him in since he is almost always drawing dead. If he has an ace with a slightly better kicker then I want him to fold. If he has a gutshot then I want to charge him to get there. Assuming that we do bet, what amount do we think plays best against his entire range? Villain has $80 behind.

Pot appears to be $98 minus rake and he's got $80 behind?

Ship it and live with it.

Yes.

If he has $80 we put his stack in right here. I think he has Kx here if he is the kind of player I am envisioning. They love those middle pair calls not minding how much it is. Then you shove for the rest of their little tower of red chips and they lol fold.

I wouldn't shove it. Against a good player, I'd ship and hope to fold out some of his Ax.

But this villain isn't folding an ace. So I'd rather just pot control and see what happens on the river. Bet $40, obviously call if he CRAI.

OTR, I'd just check it down if my hand doesn't improve. Villain has A8 here so often that we're just owning ourselves when we ship the turn.

Why did you make it $12 pre after the limp? I'd be more inclined to make it something like $16+ which the limpers would be more likely to fold to and if they do call they need to smash the flop or they know they're just burning more $ if they want to call our c-bet.

If V were deeper, I'd still bet ott. A river 5 or 2 chops it and we could probably even bet him off the chop, it charges him for a fd that won't be good if it comes, we could value bet if we river the 6. As shallow as he is though, I just shove.

How about a same bet of $25, shove rivers we improve, and check behind if we don't?

We get a little more in pot from draws/second pairs, and lose the least if he is ahead with his atc range.

This is the exact logic I had when I was deciding how much to bet. I figure if I shove I mostly tend to push off the hands I want to continue and only get action from the portion of his range that already has me beat (I think he tends to get married to A9+). I don't understand why a shove is considered mandatory simply because villain is short.

Results:

Hero bets $40, villain tanks. His friend to the right begins whispering advice to him, dealer tells both players that this is against the rules, and eventually villain mucks. Although I can never be sure, I tend to think villain had a draw with very bad equity and I wonder if I would have been better off betting something more psychologically appealing, i.e. $35, $37.

yea, I'm glad we both think $40 is the right bet here.

But I could see arguments for a slightly smaller bet, as we can milk his weak draws and Kx hands.

Again, shoving doesn't make much sense to me, as villain is auto-folding everything we beat...

Shoving turn is bad in my opinion, as it shuts down the flush draws we want to get there, and value owns hero when he's behind. I say bet 1/3 rd pot and play some poker on the river.

It gets worse fd's to call ai drawing dead. We're about 35-36% to win or chop if he has A-better kicker. People call with bad fd's lol, that's what makes us win. But the more important aspect is that we're not deep enough to consider much else.

"Glasses, mustache, and a t-shirt"? "Hoody & Bose headphones"? Does this have anything to do with the hand or poker? I love how you had to specify the brand of the headphones as if the villain would have said "Those aren't Sennheisers headphones? I call!" LOL!

I'd bet 1/2 to 2/3 the pot. I see no reason to ship it when villain's range could easily have you beat.

"If this guy believed the Bose marketing team, he'll definitely give me credit for the nuts here. I'm all in!" --Villain.

Meh. its ever so slightly relevant what type of headphones, etc. People wearing expensive headphones at poker tables are slightly more likely to be regular players which could effect the perception the table has of hero.

Not something to put much stock in. But live poker necessarily limits information on opponents in certain ways (mostly hands played together) so sometimes any little bit of information helps.

Bet flop bigger say 35-40 and ship the turn easy game since u aren't very deep.

No offense, but when most regulars at the 3-5 NL see a guy wearing his hoody, headphones (not earphones), and sunglasses, we laugh. Mind you, this is in all Los Angeles poker rooms (we're the heart of "Hollywood").

Most of the time, it's for show (he wants to look cool). But, if it's not for show, it means you leak tells that need to be concealed. Not to mention you handicap yourself by not listening in on conversations to improve your reads.

BTW, audiophiles don't buy Bose cuz they're a rip-off; you can get much higher quality headphones for cheaper.

im kinda surprised this hasn't been said but at a loose table, why are we bloating the pot preflop with this? you will go multiway very very often, (like 4+) with little fold equity. why not limp it and stack some fool with 10 3dd.

im not saying you should always limp it, but if you have been playing tight id rather limp this hand (because long term it doesnt have a super high EV in raised pots) and raise my high cards hands for value, or a weak hand for fold equity.

Yeah initially I was thinking this, but it sounds like hero just wanted to try and get a pot with a suited ace in position. Nothing wrong with grabbing position 3 ways at $39 and control. We just got a 4th customer in with the small blind calling inviting the big blind and limper in. I see your point definitely. I just think since we get the button to fold it, we have what we want with this pre-flop plan.