V1: Good 2/5 Reg. Very capable of betting solidly for value and also recognizing good spots to bluff and not afraid of barreling when the situation demands. He knows me as a frequent-rec who is on the tighter side, but capable of making some unusual plays.

V2: Rec. Calling station.



V2 open limps in EP,
MP limps,
CO limps,
V1 in SB makes it 35,
I have QQ in BB and tank (thought about raising) and then call.
V2 calls, MP and HJ fold.

Flop ($115) K32

V1 checks pretty quickly, i think for a couple of seconds and check, V2 checks


Turn ($115) 9

V1 bets 50, I call 50, V2 tanks for like 30 secs and also calls 50

River ($265) 8

V1 bets 155, Hero ?

How tight is V1 from SB? I guess tight enough for you to not 3bet?

As played, fold river. You still have V2 behind you, and it doesn't sound as if he's folding a K, but would he have bet a K on the flop?

I would have 3bet pre unless I knew V1 was really strong. The turn bet looks really small for a big hand since the flush draw came in, especially with two players behind. Now I'm torn on the river, but still probably fold with V2 in the hand.

What are stacks?

Stack sizes?

he checked very quickly on a bone dry flop and then fired twice after you called on two bricks plus your image is tight.

fold.

Probably leaning fold bc V1 should generally have value otr once V2 overcalls turn. Your range has very few strong hands which also allows him to barrel barrel pretty effectively.

What adds to that is hero having the Qs which knocks out a whole bunch of hands V1 would choose to bluff with as well as taking out lots of V2s bway gutters/Qxss. Which means it's possible V2 did ck back some Kx hand at least some of the time on the flop followed by JT and some suited spades that tank/see a river.

It's not impossible you have the best hand either, but lots of things have to hold true to validate a leveling call otr and you're likely better off raising than calling anyway at that point, semi-reasonably repping a few hands > AK like 22/33/99/KK/AA that can be perceived to have kept the fish in the action/kept V1 w initiative on a flop/turn like this.

Let's range villain. Given then information provided, I'd give him a pretty strong range pre (suited Ax, KTs+, KJo+, 88+, some junk that he'd prefer to pick up dead money with than play OOP or fold). I expect him to bet 100% of his air on this flop in this spot (in a vacuum). That neatly narrows his range down to weaker made hands, basically pairs and some A3s/A2s that didn't take a shot at the flop. I expect KK to take this line, but rarely/never 33/22. I wouldn't completely discount Kx because I would sometimes take this line with weak Kx hands, but it's a bit of a reach. A combo or two gets in there in my head.

I don't hate your flop check, it's a check/evaluate depending on reads.

Turn is a super clear call, villain can be plausibly read as "protecting his hand" with his full flop checking range here. He rarely picked up a draw (he doesn't check hands that pick up draws on the flop). Sometimes he turned a magical card that made him change from pot-control to value mode (a set of 9's). I think K9 is weakly consistent with the flop action, but I don't expect him to go ape**** with K9 pre from the SB and I think that's kind of reaching.

River is close, it's really a judgement call for you. I lean towards a fold but I could argue myself into a call. Villain is basically never bluffing the river three ways after his flop line. The reason it's close to me is that he can plausibly have 10ish combos JJ/TT in his value range (sometimes he checks JJ/TT, I have to think), and the hands that beat you given the preflop/flop action are preeeetty narrow (let's say 2 combos of KK, three combos of 99, and a combo of 88... a mystery combo of Kx or two? 98 that forgot to bet the flop and took this line pre?) Both you and the limp/caller came along on the turn, he doesn't have a bluffing range... I don't know. The fish behind you is what tips me into a fold, because the fish will actually have Kx sometimes. Their range after the turn is pretty freaking wide though, and they didn't bet flop, so it's not *that* common.

tangent on pre: I have a gigantic 3-bet bluff range in this spot preflop against this villain (close to ATC initially). I don't care about balance at all in live 2/5, so that means I kind of have to like flatting QQ pre, but if I had any kind of abusive relationship with villain I would raise/stack QQ here without any thought (I think raising is gigantically +EV, but seeing a flop with a strong hand against a bunch of fish is probably more +EV, although I never hate ending a hand preflop OOP).

^ Great post

(until you got to the part about bluff raising his sb raise from the bb with ATC). Don't you want a better hand to 3bet his strong range light

I like the flat pre for that reason - he's likely stronger than a LP raise.

Of course stack sizes need to be addressed at some point itt.

Snap fold

Why?

I'm folding. I'm putting V1 on KJ+ 88/99

You think he raises SB w/ KJ or KQ? And then checks flop? Or, checks flop w/ a K and then bets less than half pot when the flush draw hits on turn? Seems pretty bad to me. Also, why would 88 bet turn?

I am fine with folding, but mainly because the calling station is in the hand. I still might call. Definitely not a "snap" either way as matzah recommends.

Weird spot bc of your choice to not 3b preflop, impartial between calling/folding.

He may be value betting thin vs the weak player assuming you're folding the majority of the time.

If he is actually a good player he prob would have bet the flop with his J10, JQ, spade/spade type hands and barreled this turn. It's much more credible than check/bet turn/bet river. (No one really has AK in their range besides V1 he should be barreling a bunch) We want him to have these type of hands if we call on the river, I just don't think he does... especially with station in the hand who we can't expect to fold a King. He's heavily weighted to value here imo.

Why can't he check a King/AA on this bone dry flop? Also, I can get behind betting 88 smallish OTT when the flop checks through. We can def get calls from worse.

It would be very unusual for villain to barrel twice into two players with second pair for value. A bluff is more likely, but usually AQ would just bluff the flop.

We also still have a player behind us.

I expect to see AK/KQ/KK/99 and some AA.

I'm not saying he should bet river unimproved with 88 after getting called in two spots.

I lean towards a fold, *but* villain's value range is so narrow it'd be wrong to snap fold. HU it's a pretty easy call, but we're not HU here.

Still no stack sizes to comment on the rest of the action, but whatever.

Fold the river. Villain makes a strong bet oop into two players on the river. Most bluffs give up after two players call the turn bet. I'd be shocked if V1 has worse than top pair.

sry, Effective stacks are about $1200 - so all of us are deep enough that it doesnt really come into play much