This is part of the reason I suggest raising flop. V2's range can now be AQ, KQ, etc... or sets or top two, or possibly KJ. We don't have much information, and we've made our perceived range look like draws which incentivizes queens to bet big for protection making it more difficult to suss out 2pair+ .... In game, I'm probably going to flat and try to soul read the turn. Luckily we have the advantage that KJ shouldn't bluff a dry side pot.

ship now, as played

arrr in

I hate trolling but man this one has to be trolled, or it is a troll...

This is why we should have raised the initial bet..... This is a stupid spot now, I'm torn between raising and calling, I think tbh the best play is to just jam it in now, anything that beats us will bet the dry side pot on the turn, as will a bunch of q's so we are going to be calling anyway in a weird spot on the turn, so just get it in now and have done with it.

I pretty strongly disagree that this is a reason to raise the donk. Raising for information is a valid strategy sometimes, but not here. Betting for information is bad when villain's will continue with better and fold worse. Betting for information is very valuable when villain's will raise better and just call with worse. I believe raising the donk just gets BU to fold worse and call/raise with better in general.

This is a spot I do not know how to deal with very well. I have underrepped my hand a bit and am facing a raise on the flop from a relative unknown. Because I've underrepped my hand, I believe I am too strong to fold, but I also tend to get very Mubsy in these spots and go into call-down mode. In retrospect I think it's probably better to just ship the flop, because villain is unlikely to continue bluffing into a dry side and will probably usually try to pot control worse hands than mine on the turn. I still beat plenty of hands that he could do this with and he may still call with worse, also, it's not too terrible to fold out some hands with 5 outs which may not put money in the pot to future action anyway. However, I decided to call, expecting him to play honestly on the turn given the dry side.

2|5, $200-$1000, 9-handed. Most players at this table don't have a ton of money, though. One dealer even sat down and thought it was a 1|2, lol.

Hero HJ (covers table): Young white guy. At the table about an hour and unknown to the players in the hand prior to today. Probably seen as TAG by anyone paying attention.

Villain 1 UTG ($200): Sat down very recently. Two hands ago he limp/called J5dd against my KK, check/shipped a T97dd flop over my PSB, bricked out and reloaded.

Villain 2 LJ ($195): Seems loose and fishy, although I haven't recalled any interesting showdowns from him. Has previously limp/called UTG and donked 1/2 pot 4-ways on KJxr, which everyone folded to.

Villain 3 BU ($600): Sat down recently also. 40s-50s white. Has said a couple things that indicate he is at least trying to think about the game.

OTTH:

V1 straddles for $10, V2 limps, Hero looks down at AA and raises to $40, V3 calls, V1 calls, V2 calls

Flop ($160):
QT4

V1 checks, V2 bets $55, Hero calls, BU raises to $155 (the exact size of V2's stack), V1 folds, V2 calls all-in, Hero calls $155

Turn ($625):
A
Hero?

with a dry side pot leading at this turn will look like 2pr+. that being said checking could be disastrous if V3 checks back and rivers a straight. you could lead turn for $200 half V3s stack or just jam. I like leading for $200 rather than jamming for some reason. feels right.

^^^ agree

shove might be a little too strong because the other option of leading say 200-240 is so much better IMO cause I think we can get our stacks in pretty easy on river.

Maybe the A scares him?

Check is cool, he shouldn't have too many gutters in range, sets (including btm set) will be compelled to bet (for the same reasons you want to bet), QT/KK likely doesn't bet again but we might still be able to find value otr in a protected pot and a hand like that will be hard pressed to call facing any sizable bet. Jam over any bet, get there against KJ, hold against sets. Not concerned about J9.

Flop is a call to the donk bet and a rejam over the raise. You can't not go broke here when the SPR is approximately 3, and calling flop to decide later streets is pretty silly.

OP, you want to have some highfalutin balance discussion in your KQs thread, but you are butchering AA fundamentals here. Playing AA correctly has such a huge effect on winrate. Between the two threads, 90%+ of your focus should be here getting these basics down.

Sorry for the long delay. The end of the hand is not terribly interesting anyway, IMO.

Pretty much my thinking exactly when I checked. I don't think I have anything to add.

SPR is actually closer to 4, but I think I still agree.

I'm not even sure what this means, and it's not helping me or anyone in the forum to improve their game. The amount of quality posting in this forum is pretty low, unfortunately. I am finding less and less value in asking for advice here, which is a big reason why I start threads so rarely. Perhaps I should look into coaching services instead.

Two mistakes in a hand is hardly a butchering anyway, especially when one is a minor, debatable sizing error.

2|5, $200-$1000, 9-handed. Most players at this table don't have a ton of money, though. One dealer even sat down and thought it was a 1|2, lol.

Hero HJ (covers table): Young white guy. At the table about an hour and unknown to the players in the hand prior to today. Probably seen as TAG by anyone paying attention.

Villain 1 UTG ($200): Sat down very recently. Two hands ago he limp/called J5dd against my KK, check/shipped a T97dd flop over my PSB, bricked out and reloaded.

Villain 2 LJ ($195): Seems loose and fishy, although I haven't recalled any interesting showdowns from him. Has previously limp/called UTG and donked 1/2 pot 4-ways on KJxr, which everyone folded to.

Villain 3 BU ($600): Sat down recently also. 40s-50s white. Has said a couple things that indicate he is at least trying to think about the game.

OTTH:

V1 straddles for $10, V2 limps, Hero looks down at AA and raises to $40, V3 calls, V1 calls, V2 calls

Flop ($160):
QT4

V1 checks, V2 bets $55, Hero calls, BU raises to $155 (the exact size of V2's stack), V1 folds, V2 calls all-in, Hero calls $155

Turn ($625):
A
Hero checks, villain checks back.

River ($625):
7
Hero?

Weird spot... Neither of us can really have any bluffs in our range with a dry side-pot, so shipping it seems very strong. Plus we block AQ combos... But I know I'm being owned every time when I bet less than all-in and villain ships (and of course I'm calling). Not sure exactly what I do here. I guess as a default, I'll just bet like $300 and call the rest if he puts it in. Putting some money in on the turn - even if it's only a $100 bet - would have made it easier to believe a river shove can get called by worse.

Yah I would have liked to see $150 on the turn and the rest on river.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that on a multiway dry flop and having turned top set, hero has somehow made it to the river without ever having bet or raised postflop.

I guess if I'm going to snark, I should say that I'd have raised at my first opportunity OTF, also raised at my second opportunity, and bet (small) OTT.

Also betting small on this river. Rooting for V3 to have backdoored a flush.

Bet turn for sure man as played.

As played lead river for 40%