Stacks/Necessary Reads -- 10 handed table

BB (230) -- Was calling himself table captain, VPIP had to be like 65%, think he limped any two cards that could make a straight or flush, was swinging all over the place while I was there, had doubled to like 500ish when he got it in with JJ vs KK on a flop of all unders and turned a J. Had been bleeding down a little bit had lost a decent sized pot with K5 vs..A5 on 55J flop a few hands before this.

Hero UTG +3 (304) -- Youngest guy at the table, first time playing at the casino, had played around 10 hands in 4 hours or so. Most hands won without showdown, but had lost 2nd nuts to nuts in a limped pot out of the small blind where I showed down 95dd on Q7286 on a 2 diamond board and lost to 9To. Would say my image is decently LAG to the guys at the table but I wasn't really playing a ton of hands.

OTTH

UTG limps, Hero Has AKand makes it 17 (bigger than I would normally raise, but the table had been really loose preflop, so I had adjusted my opening size). 1. LoJack Calls, BB Calls, UTG Calls.

Flop (69)
8T4

BB bets 15, UTG folds, Hero calls, Lojack Folds

I Honestly thought about raising, but wasnt sure with players behind. Also felt like folding for 1 bet to a guy I'd seen show up with a million hands was just way too weak with AK. I did think without a diamond that maybe this call is bad, especially with players behind me, but I also assumed he could have a bunch of hands and the smallish C-bet into me as the pre-flop raiser seemed so weak and the rest of the table had just been calling pre and giving up so I thought call was best.

Turn (99)
J
BB checks, Hero bets 80. BB Folds but first says "you don't have it, but probably have better"

I thought about asking what I should do in this spot but I'd rather hear opinions of the line. Initially I thought he was weak and that he'd almost always check turn and I could bet big and make him fold 4 or straight draw, but do I rep anything here when I play vs better players? I checked flop thinking it would keep my range wide and allow me to bluff future streets, but if he bets turn, I pretty much have to fold. Is 80 way to much at my stack depth, the plan when he checked was to bet 80 then jam river if he called or fold if he jammed. But in thinking about betting 80 there would be 259 in the pot and hed have 100ish behind.

In general when I float in live cash games vs worse players can I bet smaller?

Sort of a scattered post, with alot going on but if I'm going to get better vs better players I think I need to have a better general idea of what to do in these spots in position with over cards. Thanks in advance!

10/4 = 2.5 hands/hr = nit image.

Like pf sizing. Coulda gotten away with more looks like.

Flop: Whatever, if you don't think anyone will squeeze, I guess the flat is ok. HU or 3 way, vs. a non spazz (so not this V) I would raise b/c small bet is usually a weak hand.

Turn: pure spew. Just take the free card. Don't bluff/semi-bluff aggrotards. Just wait to connect & get paid.

Looks like you bluffed with the best made hand. V's turn fold confirms he had a draw, exactly what he was repping on the flop. Either that or he can't read hands. Flop was crazy wet, and hero should have been raising flop 100% of the time with over pairs. Need more specific reads on V's tendencies to give any advice beyond that.

Does he have any hand reading skill? If so, he should know you have two overs after you capped yourself on the flop. Flop is a raise or fold situation, but would have been vastly better to fold with a player left to act and board texture that smacks calling ranges.

V seems super loose, but is he super aggressive? If so, you should have checked turn with the attention of calling river in which the draws bricked.

I'm not sure I like betting A-high for value in any situation.

Fold flop.

Your play worked. You folded out the villain. I actually like it but would say to give up after this turn if he called. You're just too far behind a guy like this who will call with anything and refuse to fold. I would have bet 65 or 70 on the turn. It'd accomplish the same goal at less risk.

This sort of play is fine as a rare move if your spazzy/bluffy villain has a fold button and you have a tight image. You can represent top pair/over pair hands and villain can turn up with air/draw/bottom pair type hands. This has to be a rare move, unless your goal is to get into a bluffing war with the villain you have to fold flop most of the time.

Also, as $FishWreck$ noted above, if you are going to raise with made hands then you don't have much of a credible range. If you want to do this you need to have some decent hands in your range also.

:Grunch:

Obviously, the first thing is that playing 10 hands in 4 hours is about the furthest thing there is from a LAG. the L stands for loose and I can't see how you could possibly consider your image loose in this scenario.

In regards to the hand, it's important to tell a consistent story with your actions. A nit who raises UTG+1 has a very tight range to begin with, and flatting the flop narrows it down so much that if V can hand read AT ALL (which he obviously can't) your hand is basically face up because any made hands or big draws that are in your range would have raised his flop bet with such a draw heavy board in order to avoid giving a cheap turn and to prevent LJ from calling with such great odds. Can you tell us what hand you were trying to represent with this line? If you had an over pair, you'd have raised the flop. If you had AdKd, AdQd, AdJd, AdTd, you'd raise the flop. If you had a set, you'd raise the flop. Same thing with a combo draw, not that there are many of those in your range.

I appreciate this advice guys.

In regards to the LAG image...I didn't think I was LAG, but I just showed up with less than premium holdings in the three showdowns I was in and the 95dd hand was so weird that the rest of the table was commenting on me being LAG. Personally I had been playing pretty tight/card dead outside of the blinds. Recency bias if you will, or all Old Man coffee types thinking all younger players are just insanely aggressive all the time lol.

I def think that understanding my own range is a definite leak at this point in time. It seems as if this play works better as R/F flop, then evaluate turns to continue telling the story that I have a strong hand. I do think in this instance my fear was that if I raised flop and got called behind i had no clue what I'd be doing, in which case it seems more like a fold despite me being fortunate and this line working out.

TAG's can show up with junk too, and are capable of bluffing. All that means is that you are playing very few hands, not that you aren't capable of bluffing.

Check back turn.

$17 isn't necessarily a big raise at my loose 1/3 NL table and I see it isn't at yours either since it went 4ways (totally standard, especially after a limper and everyone knowing loose BB is probably going to come along). Is BB or anyone opening a lot? I'd often limp/reraise in any raisey lineup with this stack. Otherwise, I'd target the loose BB's stack and open to like ~$25, which gets in ~10% of stacks preflop in position and sets up a trivial stack off postflop with TP.

Even though it's a lol flop bet, it is still a bet into 3 opponents and the raiser. Plus we have a guy behind us. Plus we have no draw. Plus nothing in the reads has this guy bluffing (although I'm guessing this easily could be a semibluff with a draw). Overall, I'd fold the flop.

Not a great turn card. OESD got there, as did J9/QJ, as did some other random two pairs he might play passively. Also, doesn't sound like this guy folds draws; are we prepared to barrel again on the river (even though I guess we don't have to since A high will win against busted draws).

I think there are spots we can look our for to take pots. I'm not convinced this is one of them (although it looks like it worked). Too FPS, imo.

ETA: With regards to raising the flop, he ain't folding anything he's donking with (seriously, this guy isn't), so if you're doing that you'd better be prepared to barrel (which is generally a meh idea against people who might not have a fold button).

GcluelessNLnoobG

A donk lead that small is almost always weakness. I think raise>call>fold. I prefer raising because you will take it down on the flop a lot, and there are always possibilities to continue barreling, whether as a bluff or for value if you hit, on later streets. I think folding to a bet that small is out of the question, way too weak.

Also, if I was at a table and saw some young kid who played 10 hands in 4 hours, LAG is the last thing I would use to describe him.