Villain has just joined the table playing 6-handed at 6am, no reads other than a friend at the table telling me that he's an aggro whale and recommending that I get on his left. V bought in for 2k and we are effective with 1.7k

V raises to 25 UTG
Hero calls with 9d9c UTG+1, good but straightforward reg calls on BTN and passive, fit-or-fold fish calls in SB

Flop (105) Ks9h6c
Checks to V who bets 75, Hero elects to call, others fold

Turn (255) Ts
V bets 150, Hero raises to 400, V calls

River (1055) 2d (final board Ks9h6c Ts 2d) Hero bets 600 (with 600 behind)

Looks straight forward as long as your friends assessment is correct. With more information on villain you might be able to improve your line but this looks like a simple value play. The T is not a good card for you because QJ and 87 both got there but there are lots of other hands a whale can have. I would expect an aggressive whale to bet river if they had the straight so going for some value is fine.

Shove river

I think it's safe to assume that we are ahead. If V hit his straight I'd have expected a 3bet OTT. (If we are behind we are getting felted anyway).

So if he doesn't have a straight - what is his range? Probably hand like 67 at the bottom end and 66 at the top end. But hands like KQ feels like a pretty good target. Basically bluff catchers. Anyway - I think I'd still shove.... it's big - but it might feel bluffy.

looks fine, its not clear at all villain has anywhere close to the strength to call a shove so betting less looks good

even a bet as small as 200 can be fine if he looks ready to give up or might bluff-shove

You are so deep you need to raise the flop.

I like it as played. And I defiantly disagree with shoving the river, you want a call. If he raises and wins, he shows first and you can quietly muck, denying everyone the information.

I say drop the hammer asap, meaning raise flop and potentially ship turn. Whales are particularly unique, often with high paying jobs to the extent that 2k is literally nothing to them. They'll bet that every hand at blackjack. We're not shipping to make him fold, we're shipping because he's in as long as his hand is live. But once he sees the river and that he missed his draw or thinks you hit yours, he's done. So this guy cbets a reasonable amount on a king high flop after raising UTG. Lets give him credit for a hand and exploit him for it immediately. Heck he might even convince himself you're bluffing because "why would you raise? You'd slowplay a set, I CALL!" I just cant imagine he's going to pitch any big pair to a single raise.

If it's one thing I've learned about playing with fish it's to always fastplay your hands.

FTFY, Honestly though, Javi has the right idea.

90% true, but that is all.

Agree with the fact he might level himself into a call with a bunch of made hands vs a flop raise but his range is so wide that most of the time he just doesn't have a hand he can continue with.

Because of this, I'm not exactly sure how the first sentence can possibly lead you to the conclusion of the second...?

Surely most turn cards give V extra equity to pay us off with but don't kill our hand.

With no history with villain and nothing but a friends word to go on I'm not going to commit to that sort of thinking. Hero doesn't know if villain is that sort of deep pocket stationary bad whale yet. Villain may be the sort of aggro spewy whale where it is better to let them bluff off their stack with call down lines then raise.

With no more information on villain hero doesn't know what the best line is so I see no reason to vary from a standard value line.

I'm raising flop here. You are deep and want to play for stacks. Flatting flop makes it impossible to play for stacks unless someone raises behind.

In these situations I'm trying to stack AK, not squeeze some thin value from QQ or similar.

Problem with this is you dont allow the other 2 people in the hand to make a mistake and call with Kx or do something stupid.

I like the hand as played

Well, it's good to see that the consensus is that we are trying to stack this guy, irrespective of the read from my friend and that raising flop or raising turn have merits. I was a little concerned that the value line was too ambitious when he just called river with 87s for the 2nd nut straight.
Think it was a bit of a gross cooler really but wanted to check I wasn't value owning myself here.

If he didnt have anything on the flop it's unlikely he's going to improve much to give you a pay day on the turn. Trying to "let someone catch up" doesnt usually get them stacked. You might squeak out a little extra value from them if they spiked top pair with something like AJ but usually what ends up happening is you MISS out on value from the flop. Plus there's just not that many hands that have low equity that are going to bet out of position into 3 people. That would be suicide, any hand that bets here is doing so for value.

Also players become very suspicious of sudden heat on later streets, and rightfully so. In fact it's very common to see 6 people check back a flop no matter what the board is. Everyone is afraid of the check raise. You are 4 way to the flop here with a set, instead of confirming their suspicions by being sneaky go ahead and bet now. Often times they'll assume you're just trying to "find out where you're at", and of course letting someone hit a draw or overset you on their terms would be a disaster.

Dont overthink things at small stakes. Someone raised preflop and bet into 4 people on the flop. You have a set, now raise.

Some of the stuff in your post is interesting and I agree there are definitely merits to raising flop but I totally disagree with this bit. Any reasonably aggressive 2/5 player will be Cbetting a ton of their range on a flop this dry. And hands that are betting for value like TT-QQ or TPBK and MPGK will fold to a raise because we rep virtually no bluffs.

This flop isnt that dry with 4 people in it. Nobody is cbetting air here. And of those thin value lines that include TT-QQ they are probably done on the turn anyway, so raising isnt losing you any value.

No thanks, don't want V or BTN folding marginal equity hands or weak draws.

Wait to raise turn as there aren't many turn cards that kill action.

If the flop was suited then raise would be fine, but I wouldn't raise this board when it's rainbow.

Agree with the second part but still completely disagree that 2/5 villains in general (and this villain in particular) aren't cbetting air on this board, even into 3 opponents. To be honest, I think it is a mistake not to cbet this flop vs opponents who are either fit-or-fold or solid/straightforward. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, though.

Definitely agree that if the flop is slightly wetter (e.g. with a flush draw) I would default to raising the flop for those reasons (more hands can call, more action killers) plus because I rep a decent number of semibluffs.

I'm not saying cbetting here is a leak, I probably cbet here as a total bluff maybe 25% of the time in this exact situation. But again, if I'm cbetting air and someone calls, I'm done with the hand anyway.

It's just one of those things where if villain's hand is good enough to call a big turn bet, then it's good enough to call a big flop raise, which of course sets us up to get all the money in easier with stacks this deep.

Raising flops is also something that really puts people off. It just looks bluffy, because you'd wait for the turn right? Like everyone else is saying right? It's good for meta, people get really frustrated when they cant see anything past a flop. A flop raise here could even induce him to 3bet because he's "sick of your ****" and knows he's not drawing dead.

I don't get a shot at 300bb+ stacks often enough to slowplay this flop. I'm raising.

Raise flop to 250

Turn (600/ stack 1.4k): 400

River (1400 / stack 1k): all in

See how much easier it is when we raise flop?

It shouldn't be hard to imagine flatting lines that result in stack offs just as often as raising ones when you consider that doing so will keep more of his range betting turn. I'm not concerned about losing his flop 3b becasue nearly any hand that does that at least bet-call turn.