Hi all,

2/5, as I recall V used to be a loser/whale in the game pre-COVID, just made it back. Earlier he 3! BB and bet flop, hero called with KJs, hero folded turn on J94dd3c to a jam.

Hero opens $25 AKdd UTG and three callers (UTG straddle on). $650 eff.

Flop ($100): Ks2s5c. Hero $65, V c/r $155. Hero calls.

Turn ($410): Th. V jams for hero’s last $450.

Thanks,
DT

can you pl. just explain pre flop? you're UTG but there's an UTG straddle but you're still opening?

also, what position is villain and where were the other callers?

thanks

Sorry UTG straddle I opened UTG1, ie UTG after the straddle. V was straddle and other callers were co and Sb.

You don't mention but I'm assuming both of the other callers folded when you bet $65. If villain check/raised over multiple people you should give him a little more credit for an actual hand.

With SPR < 7 this is a tough situation. How aggressive has villain been in general? What do you know about villain's preflop range? Can he make this move with AK or a spade draw? What about total air bluffs? Can he have KT and beat you on the turn?

This is almost entirely a live read situation, I don't favor a fold or call. Against some it's reluctant fold, against others you just have to call. With a few real whales or habitual shove bluffers it's a trivial call and you just have to ride out the variance, those are the exception though.

Preflop with a straddle there are a lot of tables I go $30, at a particularly loose one possibly even $35/$40.

It was HU when he c/r. I just remember he was always too loose pre back in the day. I think he could play a draw this way yes.

Can’t stand the preflop sizing. I probably call it off here but I’m a sticky pay-off-wizard.

pre flop is way too small. I'm going 40 here minimum.

as played, if villain is loosey goosey, I'm probably cramming on the flop to get value from all his draws.

definitely calling the turn given all the draws missed.

Against a loose aggressive whale I'm just sighing and then putting my chips in the middle here, especially if I'm correct in assuming he's the straddle since he check raised you.

Here's the range I'm assigning him when he shoves turn:
Bluffs: A3ss, A4ss, 43ss, 64ss, 63ss, QJss (6 combos)
Value: K5hh, K2hh, 52hh, 52dd, 55, 22 (10 combos)

Against this specific range we have 31% equity which makes this a losing call as we are getting slightly worse than 2:1 however if this guy is an aggro whale he will naturally have some spazzy bluffs from time to time or could just think KQ is the nuts here.

in my opinion this is a trivial spot but I'm probably just calling off. The problem with this hand isn't really the turn decision it's your opening size. You should open to $40 in a 2/5/10 configuration (maybe $35 from the BTN). If you just opened to $40 and got the whale in the straddle to call you'd have an SPR of something like 7 where it's hard to go wrong getting it in with top-top on the K52ss flop vs a straddle caller.

Pretty much this. bet-3bet jamming the flop with top-top here is great if OP just opened to $40-$50.

your range has to also include A5ss as pair plus flush draw.

then I'd guess there are probably also a load of other non nut spade draws and even 34o given the price he was getting to close the action.

having called the flop I think we have to call the turn, not much has changed. but i would fold the flop, rather than commit to stacking off w/ one pair in a single raised pot. preflop sizing is fine.

Are you trolling? The villain could print money by raising any two cards for this sizing if OP is folding a hand as strong as AK here.

The EV of raising 93o here would be positive if OP folds this.

Sure, but I think the implicit argument is that the vast majority of our opponents in live low stakes games aren't raising 93o here (or many hands worse than AK), so while obviously at equilibrium we "should" "defend", it's not insane to make an exploitative (and therefore exploitable) fold here.

(I'm not necessarily saying that I'd fold. But in general we don't need to "defend" against bluffs if most of our opponents are hugely underbluffing. You agree we are bluffcatching here right?).

With us not holding any spades, folding flop seems way too nitty. I assume everyone else folded on the fold so we are HU?

Turn, only hands you realistically fell behind of are TT and KT, and both seem like weird c/r from the V. Maybe KT. With that said, I lean into the close my eyes and call camp. He can have all the AXs, including AJ/AQ and QJc meaning if he was already going in on the draw, some of his bluffs picked up 3 more outs if he wasn't already drawing to a straight.

If he took 5s with you on the pre and binked you, good for him.

I'm not folding either of the hands you posted, certainly not vs a whale.

im also calling both

Given just your description I think you have to go with it.

This is a situation where a good live read is what optimizes your EV. The math is probably going to be close unless villain bluffs way to often.

dont think this is particularly close vs a whale. its a very close fold against a range of {22, 55, K5, K2, 52, A5-A3ss, 5Xss, 64/63/43ss} (all flopped 2p+/combo draws), and a whale can definitely have a bunch of other stuff. if you start putting in any non-combo flush draws, KQ, oesd, etc. it becomes very +ev quickly.

Yeah once you include a couple more spade draw bluffs in there this call becomes very easy.

You're 65 straddles deep and you hit top top with AK vs. a whale on a board where he has plenty of draws in range. Jam flop, as played call it off.