2/3, $400 effective

I’m in Phoenix with the in-laws for Christmas. This was played at Talking Stick which is 7-handed. Games seem very soft compared to where I usually play. I’m experimenting with being less nitty.

I’m on the button and the two players to my left in the blinds are very tight. CO is a competent but not-super-aggressive young white guy.

Preflop:
CO limps
I raise to $12 with Q6ss on the button
CO calls

(Thoughts? With the tight blinds I’ve been raising wide on the button and have taken it down preflop quite a few times).

Flop ($25): 9s8h7d
CO checks
I bet $15 (thoughts?)
CO raises to $30
I call (thoughts?)

With the OESD+BDFD+position this seems like a clear bet, even though he's likely limp/calling lots of stuff in this range. When he min-raises I don't see any option other than calling. Thoughts?

Turn ($85): 9s8h7dTh
CO bets $45
I call (thoughts?)

River ($175): 9s8h7dThKs
CO checks
I bet $65, intending to fold if raised (thoughts?)

I’m sure there’s debate to be had, but I definitely don’t think this is poorly played.

I might look to make it a bit more preflop so that they sometimes fold.


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Preflop is fine. If the blinds are tight and you can take it down preflop or on flop enough you can raise just about anything. Most people who get into trouble here are getting carried away or have trouble post flop. As you discovered, the challenge with these hands are not the flops you hit or the ones you miss. It's the flops you didn't quite miss but you have near garbage.

Flop bet is OK, particularly if you have a read that villain isn't interested in hand. When raised say you had AK, fold and move on. You have the low end of a very obvious straight draw and will have trouble making money if you hit and the back door flush draw doesn't justify calling.

Once you get to the turn calling is obvious. You might not have the best straight but villain has a lot more two pair and sets in his range. Against a straight forward competent but not overly creative type I like the smallish bet/fold. You can get a lot of crying calls and raises are going to be better straights.

V played like a donkey on every street so I question your read lol.

Your line is fine.

Are you suggesting a fold here to a min raise? Interesting as I always call here. But it makes sense that you are very unlikely to make money.

Folding to the min raise is definitely fine. I doubt there is a huge difference between call and fold. This is a very good board texture for the in position player which is the main reason I want to continue. Like even if he has 87 or 77 here, think about how many bad runouts there are for his hand.

Folding to the minraise is nuts. Yes he can have JT and we’re toast. He can have lots of other things too. 4.6:1, peel one off


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Raise bigger pre. And change your read on villain, this is not competent. I would make it 20

I'm fine with it except the pre-flop raise seems too small, but I'm used to much bigger raises regardless. I'd go $15, at least.

I'm not gonna hate on preflop in this spot (this can never be horrible), although my default would typically be to just fold. I might lean to getting more out-of-line against someone labelled incompetent.

I'm either/or on the flop. I'm fine with a cbet due to our equity and the fact we can get a bunch of better hands (such as Ax/Kx/betterQx) to fold. But this likely hits him better than us and so I'm also fine with taking a free card now / perhaps delayed cbetting.

In spite of fairly decent immediate odds thanks to the minraise, I think continuing here is actually a little dubious. Our IO vs RIO kinda suck on our "good" cards and I almost always expect to see a turn bet when the flop is minraised (so I don't expect a call to slow the action that often).

Turn is why I think the flop call is a bit meh, but obviously we're not folding if calling the flop (although I'm also guessing we're not exactly loving life at this moment either).

I'm fine with our river plan / sizing once he checks.

GcluelessingeneralnoobG

competent players open limp the CO?

only way i can see this being a good play is if CO knows button will raise with a big range so he can limp 3b. given he didnt limp 3b, CO doesnt seem competent to me.

Grunch

Pre, a little loose against a limper but tight blinds plus the limper having a fold button (I'm assuming given you said competent) means you can barrel him off better hands post flop often.

I would check back on the flop. I think it's a better flop for a limp caller although as button you'll have a lot of strong hands too and I think I'm in a tough spot when I get check raised with my meh draw. If I'm betting this it's small and against someone ultra passive and weak.

Drawing to the bottom end when JT offsuit combos are out there sucks, but I'm allergic to folding to min raises on early streets. Would not hate 100% fold here though.

Turn his bet isn't too big and we beat two pairs now. Can't call a big river bet even on a brick. If he doesn't have big river bets in him then can look to pay turn and river for showdown. Guys who are liable to pot or more the river when they can have it I let this go on turn.

River his range is very two pair heavy after he checks. Sizing down to try to get a call from those and folding to a very under bluffed river check raise line sounds good.

Agreed. I'm interpreting it to mean villain isn't a total calling station.

If his raise range is two pair, 77,88, t9, j9, jt we only make the best hand on the turn 13.5% of the time and he has redraws. We have 21.4% vs that range I would call flop, folding isn't nuts though, it's pretty close.

Q6 sooted should be near the bottom of our range in terms of playability so I would prefer an overlimp preflop although I will mix in raises at times as well. I'd say any raise over 5x would not be good given the lack of playability of this hand postflop.

Flop - check. As played, call. Overall I'd say the hand was well played.

Vs weak live low stakes opponents? Most definitely.

hand played fine (prob better to go 5x pre). nice hand.

fwiw there are a lot of limping opportunities in these types of games. It's almost 2021, it's ok for good players to limp in some situations. A while back everyone would say "Either raise or fold pre never limp" but it's long been out dated as long as you're only limping multi way hands like small pairs, SC's, high suited hands, etc., but in this hand I'm not limping the button when it's heads up, I would still raise (if I'm gonna play the hand).