This spot came up while I was not playing my "A" game. It was 2am Sunday morning at the end of a long weekend of playing cards in MS. I am not a reg in this room; I probably make it 1-2x a year. Earlier that day I chopped a 20k guarantee for a nice score, and was basically playing 1/3 in a fairly TAG style, content to drink slightly too much and enjoy the conversation before heading home. That being said, in MS you can straddle on the button and I was doing this every orbit. The table was generally willing to call up to $20 pf, and for the most part played fit-or-fold postflop.

About 60-90 minutes earlier, villain sat directly to my left. We began talking, and he quickly identified himself as a reg. He pointed out some of the other regs (which I already knew), and told me what they used to do before playing cards. After awhile, he identified himself as a prop player. This was unusual to me since most places I play don't allow prop players.

Prop players are typically off-the-clock dealers at a casino who, after being called in by the room manager, play in games where there aren't a lot of players available. They can be used to get a new table off the ground or keep an existing one from breaking. They play with their own money (as opposed to shills) but must play whatever game or limit the floor tells them to.

This guy was solid enough, but hadn't been able to get much going since sitting down. He probably started with ~750 and was down after some of his bluffs didn't work and his top 2 pair lost to a flush. We hadn't played any significant hand together to this point. I think he called my button raise once and folded to a cbet on a K82r flop. He had seen me play snug enough, winning a few hands on the flop and turn, and me 4b shove QQ OOP against JJ for 100BB. That's the extent of my reads because I was drinking. But, aside from my QQ hand, neither of us had 3b or 4b. He's also seen me go through about 3 beers at this point.

Hand:

Hero: $1400 on button with QsJs. I straddled on button for $6 (MS straddle), SB first to act.

SB (villain) ~$500

SB limps, BB checks, 3 others limp. I raise to $25. SB 3! to $75, all other limpers fold. I call.

(FWIW I've been straddling every button, and raising about 33% of the times its limped to me. $25 is probably a bit too low, but I expected $35 to fold out basically the entire table based on history. I'd folded out the table 2-3 times this way so far.)

Pot: ~165. Flop: Qc 9d 4s. SB bets $125.

Hero...

Super easy fold pre to the 3-bet pre. Early position l/rr is representing KK+ and maybe QQ or AK. You're obviously doing terribly against that range and stacks aren't deep given the straddle.

Flop is now a tough spot but only because you shouldn't be here in the first place. With the Q on the board, the Q in our hand and the range I gave him before, he has 6 combos each of AA and KK, 1 combo of QQ and 16 of AK. If he c-bets his whole range, I call and see what he does on the turn. If he's c-betting less often it's probably a fold, because presumably he could check some of the AK combos. If he double barrels a lot, it's also a fold on the turn, since if he can ever double barrel AK we're committing ourselves by calling the flop.

If he c-bets but doesn't double barrel much I call flop. On a turn blank (not an A, K, Q, J or spade) I fold if he bets and shove if he checks. On a turn jack I shove. On a turn Q I shove if he bets and check if he checks. On a turn spade I evaluate based on sizing. If turn is an A or K, I don't put another penny in unless it's a spade and I'm getting odds.

One thing I should add: Villain has made friendly comments about my button straddling. He finds it mildly annoying, mostly because he's occasionally chatting with a reg at a neighboring table and this forces him to act first, interrupting his convo.

MIB - I agree that in a vacuum this is a fold pf. I'm more interested in whether the circumstances (me drinking, him being a prop player, the straddle detail i just mentioned, etc.) widens the range we assign him.

Maybe it widens his range a bit, so give him QQ, JJ, AK and AQ? Maybe he has 99 and TT too, or AJ? Problem is as he widens his range, he's going to have more pocket pairs that you might be in a coin flip with, but also more AQ, KQ and AJ combos that have you dominated. Does he ever have a hand that you're way ahead of (QT or JT)? Seriously doubt it.

Prop players typically play pretty tight because they are looking to earn their hourly at minimum risk. Maybe he opens up a bit, but QJs isn't the hand to decide to challenge him. If anything, the fact you are friendly might make him donk bet because he doesn't want to take any more of your money. I'd fold and move on.

This.

(FWIW I've been straddling every button, and raising about 33% of the times its limped to me. $25 is probably a bit too low, but I expected $35 to fold out basically the entire table based on history. I'd folded out the table 2-3 times this way so far.

Hero...[/QUOTE]

Raise to $35 is correct answer. Print money

Maybe, but exactly how wide do you think it would have to be to make this a good call? $50 is enough of the effective stack sizes that we're now basically playing this hand for it's TP value, I'd like to see any realistic range that makes that a winning proposition.

It probably does but you have the wrong sort of hand to play back at him. If you call SPR will be small enough that your committed with top pair but far too likely to have the second best top pair. In effect your hand isn't strong enough for value and isn't bad enough for bluffing.

In any case, unless there is some dynamic going on I'm giving him credit when he makes his first 3 bet. It is far too likely he has an AA/KK that will never fold for bluffing to be worthwhile without more history.