Playing at Montreal Casino. Game is 5/5 NL.

I open with AQo to $35. I am called by a middle eastern dude on my left and a chubby white guy on my right. Middle eastern dude said some stuff at the start of the session that indicated that he might know some things about poker and how it is played, some rather sophisticated analysis. I played with him the day before and he seemed decent. BUT! Today he is losing and he is gambling. He has been shoving all in pre a lot in spots that wouldn't generally call for it, and he's been buying in short. BUT! he has shown some preium hands while doing so. Anyway, I take his call for a gambling call, not a trapping call. Chubby white guy is playing almost every hand and losing while doing so. Buys in short (40x is the min) loses, rebuys, etc. He went on a tear when he first sat down drawing out a couple times but lost etc.

Stack sizes :

Hero covers.

Middle eastern dude has $200 or so.
Chubby white guy has $250 or so.

So there's around $115 or so in the pot due to some limpers who folded (cowards). Flop comes 973. White guy checks. My action.




Bonus hand!

Game is 2/5 NL, same venue, and the game is GOOOOD. I had trouble getting to this table but it was well worth the trouble. The table was almost full of fish. 9 way pots, 5 way raised pots, lots of raising. Villian in this hand had a 5+k stack at 2/5 ($500 max buy in) when he cashed out yesterday, I caught the tail end of his session and it involved him winning some sweet pots with quality hands such as Q2s. Floooooooooooosh!

Anyway, villian raises to $30. He is hyper aggro before the flop, and LOVES to raise to $20, from any position. Earlier I limped AQ and then popped him huge when he made it $20 (predictably enough). He was around $160 or so and got it in with J10s. My hand held up. I tried to do the exact same thing the very next hand with AQs but he evaded my trap lulz.

So villian raises to $30 there is at least one, maybe two callers. I have tens. I pop to 130. Thoughts so far? (I will continue the hand after analysis on the preflop action).

Stack sizes!

Me - $580
Villian - covers

1. Hero Checks

2. Hmm/ 3-bet ok I guess. My question is - do you plan to stack off when he shoves? If he's willing to get it in with JTs - I assume he is shoving over you with 99+, AQ, AK. According to stove, it's a call. But when you 3-bet, you have to be willing to stack here or you might as well just call.

For first hand you could bet or check. I think a cbet is +EV, especially with how cally live players are, and you can barrel lots or hit 6 outs. I would bet between 45 and 55, and be more likely to barrel the less I cbet for. Obv only barreling A hi on the turn vs one caller.

Also, you should try to clean up your hand history when posting. Keep the hand action and the reads/live action separate. Do not mix it all together in big paragraphs; you'll get more ppl commenting on the hand and scare fewer ppl into going to another thread.

C-bet flop is not +EV and reasoning is not sound. We have A-high - which could be the best hand easily. But, we are rarely getting value from worse and a call puts us in a terrible spot UI. Also, any bet commits us and we are most likely behind if we have to stack off to short stacks. Check and try to see a turn - re-evaluate afterwards.

Sure checking's cool and all. I don't see how you can be so confident that betting $45 or $50 on this dry a flop would ever not show immediate profit, regardless of options on the turn.

How many 1-pair hands do you expect to jam on us? Overpairs only? I can b/f vs that range and sleep at night.

I guess $50 may be fine. It's a small bet, but it may get the job done on a dry board. I still don't think we're getting value from worse and given player profiles - these guys are calling us down with most pairs (7 or 9). If they shove, it's a clear fold. TBH - hero creates an extremely awkward SPR post flop with a 7x raise. With the presence of short stacks, he should be adjusting his opening raise to 25 or even 20.

I just didn't like the reasoning that betting is +EV since players are cally. To me, that's a reason to not bet - we don't want calls. So, if these guys fold to a lot of c-bets - this is nearly 100%, but I dunno if they are the type to do so.