A8 OTB (Hero, tight image)

Straddle $6, next guy raises to $12 < doing it often with SCs/BWs etc.
Reg and fish in LP call, Hero calls, BB and straddler calls

6-way to the flop, everyone $300 eff

Flop ($72): AA6
OR bets $15, reg calls, fish calls, Hero calls

Turn ($132): 7
OR checks, reg checks, fish bets $15, Hero calls, OR and reg fold

River ($162): 2
Fish checks, Hero bets $35

I played it passively because of kicker issues throughout vs 3 others. OTR, I didn't even know if the fish was checking with A9+ scared of my kicker.

I'd probably check riv. You're only beating A3-A5.

Yeah, but I'm losing to similar number of combos of A9-AJ, and maybe AQ half of the time, right? And I'd expect V to bet larger OTT and/or bet river with atleast AT+. So it looks like his range is more weighted towards A3-A5, no?

A fishy player could definitely show up with a hand like JJ, even KK, and call a modest river bet. He doesn't have to have an ace here.

Weird bet sizing throughout. $15 into 132 OTT... looks more like underpair than the other A.. but with Fish its hard to tell. As played .. sizing OTR if probably just about right to suck in a call from 88

Really weird hand. It's so tempting to raise somewhere, but when I think about it I don't see the point. I like the river bet, but in game I probably just sigh check behind.

Bet is fine, fish has 6x, 7x, pairs a lot and mostly bets his Ax. Bet bigger tho.

FWIW, fish made a crying call with A4ss saying "donation, what's your kicker?"

Seriously? Why has the game gotten so tough that even fishes cringe with trips there?!?!

In 2007, they'd have gone gaga on that flop.

I think the bet OTR is pointless, because at that point, he has nuts or air.

I don't understand the bet or the call OTT. It just seems bizarre to me. If he has an ace, it must be the ace of spades, and so his range would be somewhat wider than normal if he calls a raise. I think the turn is a raise.

Nuts or air? That's not at all true. He's never checking nuts OTR and there is no air that he called with on the flop. I was pretty sure he had Ax or a pair above 6s.

I considered it, but my image was pretty tight so I didn't want to value-own myself against better Ax.

You don't seem to understand the concept. The value of a poker hand is always relative, and the nuts is any hand that you'll lose your stack with rather than fold. Since he checked OTR, he's either checking the nuts or checking air.

I.e. IMO when you bet OTR, you were betting into his nuts or his air the overwhelming majority of the time. Because if he had a medium strength hand for the circumstances, like you did, he would probably bet, trying for a bad decision on your part.

I.e. when you bet OTR, you were just giving him the opportunity to fold his air or move in with his nuts. That's self-defeating on your part, to run that risk in an effort to gain a bit more value.

But at the same time, you want to get value from worse aces. Particularly if he has ace-rag spades, you don't want to give him a free card. You can't just look at one side of the equation; the game is so complex you need to look at situations from multiple perspectives. I was simply saying that ON BALANCE I think it's a raise. If you think I don't understand that he might have a better ace, then there's probably no use in further conversation.

LOL, I'm done arguing if you think this is true.

The corollary of your statement is that we should never make thin value bets OTR in these spots because players either check nuts or air. Not sure if serious.

You simply don't understand the meaning of "nuts or air," and apparently you have no desire to.

And apparently you have no interest in reading, because I said "the overwhelming majority of times." Obviously, against some portion of the pool, you'll get a check and call from a weaker hand. Be thankful that he was indeed a fish who didn't CRAI.

How about using the correct terms instead of calling "relatively better hands" the nuts?