Interesting spot came up at my table today & I thought it was post-worthy, especially since I feel like I've had trouble in limped pots lately.

MP is a tricky lag who has back raised a few times in the 2 hours he has been at the table. No history of note with him.

V is a winning player with a very aggressive image. Calls and raises very wide on the button. Might play 90%+ from the button if he can get away with it. Solid hand reader and very capable of bluffing. I called him down on river an hour prior on a $200 psb and he mucked as soon as I called. I consider him the best player at the table and I'm happy to be in his direct left.

I'm going to leave my cards out for the time being. I'm curious how I should play my range here, specifically on the river.

Utg limps $5
MP limps $5
LP limps $5
V limps $5 on the button
Hero calls $3 in SB
BB checks

Flop ($26): 8d6d3c

Hero checks
MP bets $20
Folds to V who calls $20
Hero raises to $65
MP folds
Villan calls

Turn ($174): Ks

Hero bets $95
V calls

River ($364): 2s

Hero bets $125
V raises to $800

I am interested in thoughts on both ranges here and what hands could be calling this river. Thanks!

did you play this hand without looking at your cards?

why should i?

what hands would i complete with from the sb?? suited connectors and suited one gappers and suited aces and KQ and broadway aces and pairs up to TT.

what part of that range would i raise a $20 bet and a $20 call to $65 with?? NOTHING. I am raising this flop much larger than 3x here with any hand that raises. Board is very wet. If I have a set or two pair I raise to 5-7x so $100 to $140 depending on what I feel will get a call and how I feel the other players are playing.

If I have a draw combo draw or whatever I usually just flat call. I might raise all-in with A3dd for 100-150bbs frequently.



this branch of my gametree is dead by the turn. I'm sure i've played this way before. on this turn we should be betting big with our strong value hands since we don't want draws to be able to continue cheaply, also we should be ahead of Vs value hands and we want to be able to extract the max out of them. bet bigger on turn. this is also why Id raise bigger on flop.

on river id be betting big again here with flopped top two or better here. facing this raise on the river feels like we allowed 54 to get there. im still paying it off with my flopped sets, two pair, etc. when he shows us 54 we learn from it and make sure to raise bigger flop bet bigger turn next time situation arises.

you should probably not be calling this river with any hand imo. you let 54 get there and now you are going to get burned. if you have 54 you should be 3betting all in river, fold rest. that being said i would pay it off river too thats partly why i dont play this way anymore.

Your range is pretty capped here, you should almost always have 86/66/33 here and possibly 54dd. Against an aggressive player who is capable of bluffing, I am probably checking all hands here on the river and allowing him to bluff, and obviously I am raising with 54.

As played I would fold as if this player is a competent thinking player, as I mentioned your range is extremely tight leading into the field from the SB all the way, and him trying to bluff you with something like busted diamonds would really be suicidal unless he has specifically Ad4d or Ad5d knowing you don't have 5d4d, but that's just not going to happen enough. He rarely shows up with sets here as he just called the flop with players behind him and he would probably raise pre with 88 and likely would raise turn.

Also since you already picked off a bluff from him once it probably makes it less likely he tries again when your range is almost always value here. His river sizing shows that he thinks you are strong and will call with all those value hands so he might as well go for max value.

As far as what you should call with, there is no difference between 86 and 33/66 here since he should never have a set. His hand should almost always be the nuts and I'd be folding everything but 54.

This is a valid point.

The difficulty starts with completing in the SB. In limped pot, nobody has much at stake in the outcome. So it is hard to get paid off with your IO type of hands. It is hard to get paid off oop as you will be in this hand. Finally, it is hard to steal the pot away when you are one of 6 limpers. Somebody is going to have something that you can't bluff them off at this level of play.

We don't know the effective stacks, nor anything else about the other villains. In a 6 way pot, I'm not certain to be against the villain in question. The result is that I wouldn't limp with anything. I'm either raising or folding, especially if I'm having trouble with limped pots. As stated above, it is clear why you're having problems with them.

So I'm going to take this from the villain's point of view. You didn't bet out on the flop, so I'm discounting sets, TP and OP. You'd be too worried about giving a FD a free card. The x/r says you're most likely on the FD with overs.

The bet on the turn says you possibly now have a pair of kings to go with your FD. Your weak ass bet on the river (1/3 of pot) says you have a capped range of a single pair. A good place to put pressure on you. If you have 2 pair or better, you should be calling. If not, you probably should be folding.

Thanks for the replies. I shouldn't have kept my hand hidden in hindsight. I thought it might make the analysis more complete. Poor by me for omitting stack sizes. For what it's worth, MP had $800, V had $2500, I had $2350. I had 86, called and lost to his straight. I was roasted for the river call at the table (I didn't show) & didn't think it was that bad at the time. Looking at it now, I butchered nearly every street...woof! Wish I could have this hand back haha.