Hi I'm getting back into poker. This is in my first 5 hands of live poker in probably 3-4 years. I've been doing some studying before I jumped back in, but needless to say I have no reads on villan.

Hero $197 in LJ
Btn covers

1/2 nl home game buy in's from $200-$300. Game is 5 hands in.

Assume any missing action preflop is a fold.

MP1 limps, hero AQ r $11, btn calls, mp calls

Flop ($36): K34
c, hero bets $25, btn calls, mp folds

Turn ($86): T
Hero bets $45, btn calls

River ($176): 8
Hero shoves $116 remaining...


Thoughts?

I don’t love the shove as a bluff as very little changed from V’s standpoint. You block a ton of the draws you want V to have. Seems like V will shrug call most of the time.

Awkward sizes left you with not enough on the river to have any fold equity.

Very rarely will Vs fold on a brick river vs a 2/3 pot bet after calling the previous 2 streets.

Thanks, so basically we are only shoving hearts and Jack's?

My plan was to bet $50 if an A hit to get a wtf confused call from Kx hands.

We are essentially just giving up on all other cards.

Flop and turn are ok I assume?

I'd go $20 on the flop and check/call turn (to a reasonable sizing), then eval river.

I really don’t like turn. Check or full PSB+ I can get behind. 1/2 PSB is just enticing V to call and then killling any FE you might have on river. Stacks aren’t right to pull this off.

Pre/Flop/Turn are solid. For both balance & leverage sake, pretty sure river is a give up situation. Also, people call 3 barrels @ a higher % than we like to imagine, especially on broadway boards that basically bricked out.

This is kind of a weird hand. It feels on the turn like we should be making an attempt to take down the pot, the problem is that the flop action heavily suggested that btn has a king at least. I think with a player behind him, he'd be unlikely to call with less. There are a few worse FD combos he could have, but most likely he has a king or a set. I also don't think he's going to fold a king. Like I think about the various betting options and it just feels to me like on this drawish board, he's going to correctly convince himself that you're bluffing. Accordingly, I think I just want to go passive and x/c.

So I'm gonna start by saying I'm not a super good player but I can offer some incite and reasoning that might change your opinion on whether or not you made the correct decision.

PRE-FLOP: fine sizing.

FLOP: is good sizing as well. I think I'd throw in an extra 1$ chip or two to make it look like I'm thinking about the size instead of just tossing 5$ chips in. I'd also take my time with the bet sizing to again make it look I'm thinking about how much to bet. Not minutes or anything but just enough time so if someone is watching it looks good.

TURN: I really don't like. I would be betting a little more than 2/3 pot. Somewhere around 65-70 since we've got so many different outs. We've got nut straight outs, nut flush outs, and an overcard that might come and will likely win us the hand. We really want to max our fold equity (not sure if thats what it's even called) and this will setup the river. If he calls our big bet than he's not folding to what we have left on the river in my opinion.

RIVER: If we hit the river than we should be getting paid off since we don't have much behind. We save money here if we brick river because we've gathered he likes his hand and can safely give up. There's no reason to toss in our last 100 or so on the river with villains actions. He likes his hand for a reason and won't likely give it up.


I hope I helped in some way. If you disagree, please feel free to tell me why. I'm also learning and don't mind criticism.

Thanks after more thought from what you all have said I really think the turn should be our last barrel and it should be bigger. Somewhere in the $70-$100 range.

As played btn tank called w/ JJ and I vowed to enjoy my table image the rest of the night. Had the hand been 30 min later after I hear villain say to another player "those guys on poker after dark fold too much, I don't get how they can fold top or second pair" it would have been much different haha.

Yeah if he can call you down with JJ that's definitely not great lol. I mean that's the thing, the spectrum of players is like, the tight guys will never fold a king here ever, and the loose guys also will not fold hands as weak as like AT. It's one of those weird spots in LLSNL where poker theory would probably dictate you triple barrel here, but you expect heavy under-folding from these guys. It's what makes them so valuable when you actually have like AK or AA here.