1/2 NL, 9 handed. Funny, I was thinking about how this situation almost never occurs, because after raising villains almost exclusively fold or 3 bet jam. I guess I got what I was asking for by having two of these spots in my last session.

Hand #1: Hour into the session, but villain has moved from a different table and hero has no reads on villain. $300 effective.

With three limpers, villain makes it $17 from CO and only hero calls in BB with 9 9.

Flop ($41): J 9 6. Hero checks, villain bets $20, hero raises to $100 and villain calls.

Turn ($241): 5 Hero? What is our plan going forward?




Hand #2: Six hours into session. Villain is relatively new to this table, having moved from the must move table about 45 minutes ago. Villain appears to be loose passive, but slightly tighter than the average loose passive you see at 1/2. Effective stack size is $500.

UTG +2 limps, MP limps, villain in HJ limps, CO limps and hero raises to $20 OTB with J J, and only villain calls.

Flop ($49): K J 4. Villain leads for $30, hero raises to $140 and villain calls.

Turn ($329): 9. Villain checks. Hero? What's our plan going forward?

Hand 1: Check and evaluate. There are a lot of hands villain can have here and without any read it's really a guesswork situation. Stack size and being OOP really limit your options. The best for you here is that the scare card freezes villain also. With deeper stacks a blocking bet lead would be OK but here your hand is so good that even a small bet likely commits you to the pot.

Hand 2: There are 2 likely draws, hearts and QT, both got there. Villain's limp/call line and the board reduces the number of other hands villain could be on. This is a clear check and see what happens.

H1, 3/4 PSB left? I'd just shove. Dude iso'd 3 limpers and called a massive raise OTF. He doesn't have too many FD's in range. If we shove, we're probably getting called by all his broadway and AX flushes, JJ, & his overpairs /AJ with a club in them. We're basically flipping vs that range.

H2. Donk leads like that OTF are usually TP. We have about a PSB left..? Kind of a ****ty spot as we're likely to fold out most of what we beat on that terrible turn. I probably just milk him with two minuscule bets, or maybe check turn and fire $100 OTR.

@QuadJ 87 gets there, too, in hand 1. So with the two hands, why are we not concerned about rivers in either hand resulting in 4 card flush and/or 4 card straights?

@QuantumSurfer I like the thought process on hand 1. Turn in hand 2 is brutal. I've actually found donk leads to be pretty balanced between top pair and draws.

In hand 1 I'm not too worried because the straights are unlikely and a 4 flush may let hero fold a hand when already beat. But stack sizes really influence things here. Effective is in an awkward spot where any bet commits hero to the pot so hero is really stuck between check and shove. Hero is probably ahead here more then behind but a shove is likely to fold out that hands hero beats and get called by ones that are ahead + a few big draws.

If villain will call with too many one card draws a shove is better but without a read on villain I hate hoping villain is bad enough to make a big mistake in a big pot.

In hand 2 it's really the reverse. In this hand I suspect hero is beat a lot so now hero is hoping to boat up on the river. Plus, if villain checks river hero can go for some thin value as villain is likely to bluff catch with weaker hands at that point.

the main consideration for me in both of these is the relative difficulty of playing the river vs the turn. not only are those terrible turns, but there are now a litany of terrible rivers, too. protection/equity denial is an important consideration but not the only one.

hand 1: as mentioned, the effective stack mandates a shove. vill doesn't need a flush to call, and it's a travesty to give him a free card to a potential 4straight/4flush. shove

hand 2: we now have more than a PSB, but any bet is still committing. this turn is slightly worse in that it completes the main straight draw. I have observed those donks to be draws more often than pairs, but who knows. this is one where it feels like there should be a mixed strategy with this specific holding.

we definitely want to bet our flushes, especially our non-nutted ones. we definitely want to bet our AhX hands with a broadway for fold equity. We probably want to check back our QT hands to protect our checking range. We don't want to bet our Kx/Jx type hands. I think that means we need to bet KK/JJ at least sometimes, if not always. I'm not sure what the factors should be, other than trying to soul read if your opponent has it or not, but I don't think it's a pure bet or check.

in terms of sizing, effective stack is $340 and I think you can bet/call for $140-200.