Hero ($300): Mid 20s playing TAG, pretty active recently. Couple players at the table recongize me and are familiar with my style. I literally just played a hand the hand before where I had ATo and took it down with a cbet bluff and told them I was bluffing (was going to be my last hand and we were having a good time).

V1 ($250): 30s black guy playing pretty standard. Have only been in one hand with him when he called me down with a flush draw and led out on the river when he hit it.

Hand: Straddled pot limped 3 places to me in the CO with AQ. I make it $20 and I get 3 callers, including V1 who is in MP.

Flop ($80): KJ8

V1 looks at his chips, plays with him like he's about to lead out, and then checks. Everyone checks including me.

Turn ($80): Q

V1 looks like he wants to bet again but checks. Everyone checks.

River ($80): 4

V1 now bets $20.

Hero? Should I have played this differently on previous streets?

So you have 2-3 people behind you to act? Fold.

Seems finely played throughout. Sometimes you just are weak and it's fine.

this was 1/2/4 right? preflop raise should be 30

5:1 on river? looks like we have to station
people behind aren't likely to have sh**

We should raise enough on the flop to avoid having three callers.

Makes it easier to cbet.

Makes it easier to bet when the queen hits.

As played, our hand might be good. At $20 to win $100 we have to call. He has small pockets, air, and a Jack often enough.

btw what do you guys think about the grabbing chips and then checking?

HU this is usually a sign of weakness

Yes, it's like V is lifting his chips to intimidate the other players into not betting the flop since V has such a marginal hand. As played I just call here since V could have Qx, Jx and medium PP's thinking he is best right now.

I'm okay betting small on the turn so that we don't have to give a free card to 3 players; but with the diamond and vil 1 acting goofy not sure the margin that that's better than checking, if at all.

On the river if we are effectively the button (sounds like Vil is first to act?? and everyone has folded to us??), and even if we only have one to act after us, I can't throw the hand away getting 5:1 and don't see much value in raising and trying to get better hands to fold even with the nut blocker here.

I assume this is a 1/2 game. If so, if I was raising I would raise more than 20. 25-30s to take this down.

If called, you may have fewer opponents here or even be heads up. I would cbet flop 40-45. I don't mind the turn card overall head-up (assuming we are heads up there).

AP call $20.

My only advice here: When I tell my self I am playing one more hand, if I played well and I am up, unless I wake up with a really nice hand, I fold. In this case I would have folded preflop and left.

If OP is grabbing chips and checking for me is usually a weakness. Almost as if opponent wants to see another card and wants to scare away opponents.

If OP is looking at his chips I think he has something and wants to bet it and is more likely to be a strength than if he grabs chips and check.

CBet flop, if you don't at least bet turn.

As played, sigh call?

As played: call river; expect to lose ~50% of the time.

Bet $45 on the turn.

-Pre flop seems too small.
Much to likely to get exactly what we go, a 4 way flop.

Generally, I'd want to be raising here to ~25. Maybe a bit more depending on any specific table dynamics. Given the previous hand, I might go as big as $30 for value as people should be looking you up light after you last hand.

Flop is meh for betting. We rarely get the folds that we want in a 4 way pot, so checking is good.

Turn sucks too, given the diamond nature. Check is fine.
River is a call getting 4:1 imo.

How the hand is described...it seems that you still have players to act after you if V1 is in middle position and you're in the cutoff....am i correct?? Why are you ONLY focusing on him??

I find that generally people grab their chips when they are on some sort of draw but don't want their opponent to bet into them...yes it's a sign of weakness but he was doing that on the flop. Not saying he has a big hand but this board pretty much smashes everyone's range.

Check, check is fine. Just fold it on the river and go home....when you decide it's time to go home...just leave.

Fold river

Described Villain is betting 20$ into 80$ as a bluff almost never and is betting with less than a king slightly more than almost never

I doubt you are good more than 10% of the time here.

I'd probably bet $35-$40 on the turn. There's a decent chance that a pair of queens is the best hand. If not, we've got the nut flush draw and a SD. No one else has shown any interest in the $80 just sitting there.

Having put myself in this spot before, I'm going to speculate that you decide to play one more hand even though you really need/want to leave. Then you pick up something decent and try to take it down pre-flop with a raise. You get too many callers and now you don't want to lose anything more in this pot because you've already mentally "cashed out" for the session. Putting more money in the pot and losing would mean you'd kick yourself all the way home, or worse, keep playing trying to win it back. As a result, you play passively all the way through and find yourself in a marginally uncomfortable spot on the river. Maybe I'm way off, but as I said, I've done this to myself a few times and I hate when I do it.

Lessons learned: 1 - When you're going to get up, get up. Don't play one more hand. 2 - If you don't listen to the first lesson play a super tight range and play aggressively. Bet more than you normally would. You're not creating an image here, there is no long-term. You want to give yourself the best chance to win the pot. 3 - You don't play well when playing "one more hand" because your decision-making is influenced by incentives that shouldn't matter in poker (I'm leaving, I don't want to lose all my chips on the last hand, etc...).

As played, I think you have to put in a solid bet on the turn. You have 2nd pair and the nut draw. You might fold out a bunch of hands that you can't beat (yet) like a straight, two pair, top pair with no diamonds, etc... Even if you don't fold them out on the turn, you set yourself up to bluff the river and represent the diamonds. LLSNL players tend to give more respect to the flush than most because they spend so much time chasing them. And if your opponents have the flush, they are either going to check-raise you and reveal their hand giving you an easy fold, or call and pray that another diamond doesn't hit. Either way you're making your decisions easier on the river by taking control of the hand on the turn.

Bet the turn (if not the flop), please.

As played call the river

Losing money in this pot or my entire stack for that matter was not a concern at the moment (I just won a $1,000 high hand jackpot an hour earlier). This doesn't mean I planned on spewing my stack, but I certainly wasn't going to be kicking myself on my way home for losing a big pot in a marginal spot.

I folded and V1 showed AQ.

wow very exact calculations, are you a math genius or just spewing out random numbers?

do you even pot odds?

I would say its a sign of relative weakness. Like he held a K no kick. If he has air, he just checks without the theatrics. It usually means he has a hand he wants to see showdown for cheap.