Want some inputs on my line on this hand and how I played it. Was there any more value to extract?

I just sat down in the #3 seat and was a transfer from another table that was way too slow for me. This was literally my 2nd hand on the table, the first one which I turned the nut flush against a guy that wound up being a LAG later on in the session.

I had a full buy in $300 when I sat and only won about $100-125 off the LAG, So I was in the $450 range.

I believe I was the BB at the time cause I had posted the prior hand to get in the action and it was a full table, action limped around back to me, I look down at AJ and throw up a $12 raise OOP. I got 4 callers, and really had no clue of their style of play but all were in the $300-$800 stack sizes.

Flop comes AJ9

Pot is currently about $50-56, now knowing how bad my luck is when I flop top 2 pair and usually get sucked out on by donks,my line at the time was to fire off a C-bet to simply get mostly folds for the club draws or the QT draws and perhaps a lone AX caller without exposing the strength of my hand and try to extract some value.

I fire off a C-bet of ????? Go.....

Hey jerseyrat. Oddly even flopping top 2 here makes me a little uncomfortable. I've read a few posts lately that started with 'just moved so no reads'. Ok that's fine, but if you just moved and have no reads really tighten up that range for a few orbits. I'm folding AJs in EP here until I better understand table dynamics. I want to get a feel for opponents open calling ranges here. I want to know how they play draws, I want to know how sticky they are and how they respond to cbets. I want to get a handle on their emotional states. Is anyone tilting? Anyway without knowing this stuff, Im folding pre here.

As played. Ok. You get called in 4 spots and flop a monster. I hate being OOP against 4 Vs but I lead for $40 into the $55 pot and indend to shove if raised. Only hand I'm worried about is 99 in Vs range and we just have to live with that

Valid points. I was already invested in the BB for $2 so a fold was not an option here, and FWIW the $12 raise OOP was mostly due to the fact I had just literally won and shown down the nut flush, so I was already up and figured I would give an immediate loose image, which could come into play later on. My original line was to flop a J with top kicker, not really wanting the A to come to be honest, cause then I got kicker trouble or to many random AX hands that double pair often. If I missed the flop I was thinking to Cbet small and fold against any aggression. This was my Pre flop thought process anyhow. When I saw 2 pair on the flop, obviously I had to change my strategy for the hand. I was like "Oh just great top 2, gonna loose my whole stack to a flush or set"....


Ill wait the 24 hours before posting for my next action

Pot the flop or go for the old check and raise. Or just turn your cards over and throw them in the muck so you don't lose any money.

We should not be expecting to get folds from FDs and SDs... this is where we should be expecting to get most of our value.

I am typically going much larger pre (e.g. $20).

As played - we should be betting relatively large here, bc we can get value from a ton of hands ... $45 to $50 seems fine.

pretty much all of this with much of the emphasis on potting the flop.

my 2nd hand at the table, i'm not sure if i'd raise to 12 with a bunch of limpers in the blinds. YMMV with that. if you want the laggy image, like you said above, then yeah, you're pretty much gonna wanna do what you did.

you pretty much hit gin. only thing that really sucks here is 99 is not a raise for a lot of EP players at 1/2 and a lot of LP players will just limp it when a bunch limp in front of them. but considering the combos of the hands that are ahead of you (5) or flipping with you (1), Vs are vastly out numbered with the hands your ahead of (worse Ax, FDs, SDs), it's time to play appropriately.

Does this really sound like a good idea to you? I would have made this 20$ pre in order to win the pot or have a much higher chance of only 1-2 callers. I would rather check than make it 12.

On this flop there is no point in being afraid of 99, villains will get stacks in with hands like A9, J9, QTcc, QcJc, JcKc, JcTc. So just figure out the best way to get the money in

If u missed the flop the Cbet with air option will get u into trouble against 4 Vs. Best to check fold if you miss OOP in these spots

cbet for $49

Yes, I'm not sure what my reasonING was behind my bet sizing at the time.. I think I was under valuing a hand like A J cause I have seen it cause big problems before for me.

+1

while at first glance your hand looks great - this board is super wet. so a lot of turn cards can kill your hand or action. any , any 9 or T, even any 8, K or Q can cause you monster headaches... that's like half the deck!

I like a pot-sized bet here - with the plan of re-evaluating my hand on the turn.

Is this 1-2 or 1-3?

UTG post is bad (prev hand)

If 1-2, pre go check or $20ish.

If 1-3, pre go check or $25-$30 depending on number of limpers.

Point is, this hand plays well with a check or a raise, but the point of the raise is to get 0-2 callers, as bloated pot multi-way OOP typically a loser.

You pot size estimate seems off, 4 callers would make $60 + any limp folds - rake.

As others have said, PSB or x/r large here, I prefer PSB. Your plan for the hand is to GII unless terrible turn card.

Use your ONE TIME to get a blank turn.

4 callers total meaning 3 +me as the raiser 48+limpers that folded,please excuse my ignorance as I'm new to posting and all the terminology. Also what is GII??And the game is $1/$2

Yes, I realized that. It was like 23 or 24 cards spelled trouble for me had they hit.

No problem. that would be 3 callers or 4 way to the flop.

gii stands for get it in, meaning shove or allin.

For my advice, it didn't necessarily mean shove the turn, just saying, get a good turn card and then bet enough so that you're never folding.

if you see a abbrv or phrase you don't know, try googling it along with the word poker or poker lingo, etc. (or ask, lol)

A - Table changing from what you think is a bad table is smart. Nice job!

B - How many limpers were in the pot before you raised? obviously if you were BB there were at least 4. Some people develop a standard opening raise and then ad a chip or two for each limper. I don't do it as with a predefined formula but I sort of look at the ragtag gang of limpers and make a determination of what the right amount is to get one or two of them to call. It's not a perfect science but especially out of position we want to keep the field manageable. At the 1/2 games in my room I'd usually open for $12... over 4 limpers id bump to 15 - 17. Winning 8 or 10 bucs from the blinds with an A and a J in your hand is not a terrible outcome if everyone folds BTW.

C - If you are new to the table and not a regular in the room you won't have reads on your opponents. But in the absence of any reads, even "Old Lady" "Old Man Coffee looking guy with a history channel basebal cap on", "Asian kid with hoodie on", while stereotypes can be at least a little bit helpful.

Was the guy you barbecued with the nut flush one of the limpers? What were the details of that hand? it could be pertinent since the 4 callers all saw it play out and its the only info they have on you.

D - Yes there is luck in poker... it is a gambling game after all. However, the cards nor the shuffle machine know you nor your history of bad luck with top two pair. And besides you sucked out on some dude one hand ago so two pair bad luck isn't a reason to bet. The fact that you have flopped fantastic... Top Two on a nice wet board with 4 limp/callers.... there is a reason to bet.

E - Something to consider... do you really want the flush draws or straight draws to fold? Or do you want them to pay you a lot of money? It is true that when the draws (or any hand for that matter) fold their equity you are profiting by that amount. However, often the biggest sources of profit will be from draws paying too much to chase. So consider trying to look at possible draws as sources of value not only as threats to your hand. They are threats to be sure but this change in thinking will go a long way.

So Ac Jh 9c, there are no flopped straights. QT is OESD, KT, KQ are gutters the club suited combos of those hands are not folding to any reasonable bet. KJcc QJcc TJcc have a pair a flush and a back door sd. They are not folding. A9 is of course not folding. AK and AQ is unlikely since they all limped. So Ax hands will mostly be ragged ones that might even tend to fold before a lot of the draws. So the idea that you will fold the draws and keep in the worse aces is not completely realistic. Yes the better Aces will call and the worst of the draws might fold but the more important idea know what little we know at this point is that there is a good chance someone has something they will be willing to call with. Yes 99 has us beat but at least some folks would raise that coming in and we have outs even against that. So we are betting from a position of absolute strength and a goal of value extraction. Even with this bloated pot, stacks are deep enough that should we have to get away from our hand on the turn we can. A decent bet for value here will not commit us yet.

So I would go ahead and bet between 3/4 to full pot here leaning toward full pot since we really can't range these unknowns very well. If the first guy calls he could bring along others who will get better odds but I'd assume someone has a sizeable piece of this flop so we want to get value here.

I'd bet $45-55

OP, what's so tough here? Bet close to pot and let's see the turn.

Can I post my next move yet? LoL...

There were 7 limpers, one of the limpers was the guy that I roasted the hand before which I raised with A9 of clubs after posting,so they thought I was making really loose raises. He folded immidiately to my raise since the hand prior was still fresh in his head.

I wanted to only get 1 or 2 callers didn't expect 3 but ironically the 3rd caller was the one that stuck around post flop c-bet.

Bet pot.

check or raise 15-25 , whatever you think will get 0-2 callers.

AJo id lean towards check since it doesn't play to well postflop
AJs id lean towards raising since it has more postflop playability.

as played id go 75%-1.5x pot expecting to get action from Ax and draws.
or if I was trying to be tricky id go for a big check/raise. but my default would be to bet 90% of the time or more in this spot.

Just off topic, what does a check raise accomplish exactly? When you check raise aren't you telling your opponents I have a huge hand?? Most of the time I have done it, villains have folded.

V's won't fold an ace and might feel priced in to GII with a draw.

there are a variety of reasons for the c/r.

one can be to build a pot with the best hand.
another may be to push drawing hands out of the pot - like FD & SD
a third might be for the meta game... you do this now, everybody folds and you show top two. But the next time, you've got air or just a draw
a fourth might be because it's Halloween and you're dressed as Tom Dwan!

basically - there are two schools of poker playing. the ones that bet to take down a pot (e.g., the guys that bet $50 pre with AA or KK because they don't want their hand to get cracked) and the guys that play the %s & want Vs to chase with bad pot odds. The big difference between the two schools is the first school doesn't know how to fold when they're beat while the second school does.

a check/raise is just one tool that's in your poker toolbox. You might use it because you're concerned that 1/2 the deck counterfeits your hand and you're happy winning the pot now. Or you might use is because one guy a massive calling station that never folds and you want to build the pot (betting for value). Or you might use it to teach the table not to mess with your pots! Like most of poker, it depends....

So, now that you know some of the accomplishments of a check/raise... what did YOU do?

Ok so the hand went like this:
I cbet the flop OOP $35 and folded all around to the last limperIP who paused and RR me to $70. I waited a few seconds and just called the raise.
Turn comes, another J giving me JJJAA I then do what???