Hero: young-looking Asian. Haven't been playing many pots. ~$350

MP: middle-aged white guy, seems pretty tight/passive. ~$200

LP: 20/30s black guy, my friend who's played with him before says he's very good. He's been folding/on his phone a lot and generally seems disinterested in the game. Heard he might have just gotten bad beat or something. He's raised a few hands, sometimes bombed the pot PF and taken it down. $2K+

H limps in EP with A2
MP is two seats down, raises to $30
LP is two seats down, calls
Two others call
H calls to close the action

Usually just fold in this situation, but I'm getting 4:1, and feel like I need to call.

Flop ($150): QJ4

H checks
MP check
LP bets $40
Two others fold
H calls
MP calls

$40 to win $190, and MP isn't the type to raise anything.

Turn ($270): 3

H checks
MP checks
LP bets $125
H?

Everyone seems pretty weak. Flopped the nut flush draw and turned an inside straight draw. I feel like an A may also give me the best hand.

Well $125 to win $395 gives u the odds to call if all your outs are available. But I say a check raise on the flop would have been a better play since you have the nut flush draw and double barrel the turn if you have too. You need to be aggressive with nut flush draws imo otherwise you don't get paid when they hit. Even if you get reraised all in on the flop it's a coin flip. However, in this hand you have the odds to call not sure a shove would push him off his hand at this stage since he has put $195 in there. Btw not feeling the call preflop your behind to all Aces and need a magic flop to hit a straight or flush otherwise your drawing like now and in Ep to boot. Position is important esp with these hands. What did you end up doing? And how did the hand play out?

I love playing sooted Aces more than just about anyone and they are great hands multiway but we simply can't call a 10x raise preflop in this spot with just over 100bbs (particularly OOP, but I'd fold IP as well).

As for the flop, this is a clear raise for multiple reasons:

1) Villain's cbet here is very weak here making it more heavily weighted towards hands that can't stand a raise.

2) There is a ton of dead money in the middle...$190 which is over half of your stack!

3) There is only one player left to act. If there were more players left to act we may call to allow them to enter the pot with their lesser draws, but with only 1 remaining there isn't as much value in that.

4) Playing OOP means it will be harder for us to get value when we hit. If we raise to play for stacks we essentially remove our positional disadvantage.

5) A raise in this spot reps super strong and we are likely to fold out many hands that have us beat (ie 1 pair hands, AK, etc) but could still possibly get some value from lesser draws who may get it in due to all the money in the middle.

Even though we are closing the action and going 5ways, I just think this raise is too big to be calling (we're being asked to call $27, which is about 8%, that's just too much). Plus we'll be OOP which will make drawing / getting paid off more difficult postflop.

I also just call the flop. We're already getting the implied odds we need, let's just hope we don't get check/raised by the next guy.

On the turn it is basically just a math question. We've got probably 12 clean outs to the nuts, which is about 25%, so we need to make sure we can get 3:1 overall. We're already getting over 3:1, plus there's still money behind to be won (and it will most likely be the case the pot will be so huge that Villain won't even be able to fold even if a scare card comes up). The only danger is MP check/raising but that seems highly unlikely given how he's played this hand on this drawy board. Easy call, imo.

ETA: I forgot that the pot was so huge on the flop compared to stacks; I agree with others that we should check/raise the flop given the action. I would simply check/shove, which should maximize our FE plus ensures we get to the river to realize our equity.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I feel like MP may be slowplayin have QQ or JJ here with his tight/passive image and a c/c line OTF.

That said, you're barely priced out with your immediate pot odds, but factor in implied odds and the miniscule chance that LP has T9dd and shuts down on blank rivers, and this seems like a call even tho your implied odds are worsened due to the fact that you're OOP.

Definitely folding pre for $30. As played, since I called, I'm definitely raising the flop and will gii if I get the chance.

As played, call on turn with odds you are getting. I hope you bink a non-pairing diamond -- or even better, a non-diamond 5.

Guess I just played this hand pretty ****tily, haha.



Check raising the flop does seem like a good idea. Is check raising the turn bad given the check/call on the flop?

A check/raise on the turn is bad because our equity goes down significantly with only one card to come (even though we picked up a gutshot) and it's not reasonable to expect villain to fold with so little money behind.