live $1/2 game. i have about $150 to start hand and villain has me covered. I had been at the table for about an hour and a half and saw villain play multiple pots and overall a loose aggressive player. Hand i played with him he called my turn bet then fired a big bet on the river when i checked with A9 on a 78QAJ board. I called and he said he played the board. I straddled and UTG+3 comes in for $8, the villain calls on the button and folds to me. I make it $28 to go with AKo and villain takes a second then calls. Flop come out 357hh and i take a second then lead for $24 looking somewhat weak. Villain jams on me and i watch him for a minute and he postures same as he was when he bluffed on the other hand i played with him. I called off and he showed J2hh and board ran out 357410hhh i had the K of hearts so was not dead after flush came on turn but overall i read him for having a weak holding and went with it. I was about 52% on flop to win and i fold in this spot most the time but against this player and from previous hands i watched him play i read him for being weak. is this terrible call off?

Pre Flop:

Unless it's a really tight 1/2 table, I make it more than $28 here. We are extracting value, a min raise on a straddle is usually not that strong. let's pound him in and juice the pot if we hit. $35 sounds good to me. Some tables I bet more than this, never less unless it's the tight table we talked about. But with a loose guy in the hand, I'm not concerned. You could easily make it a little more.

EDIT - the min raise button call is weak too, for those who don't know.

Flop:

Bet more. We put ourselves in such an awkward spot by appearing to be really weak here. Not that we are strong or anything. You should have been able to save yourself money with this tiny bet in this exact spot with these exact cards, but this is a game of ranges. Then you get into this war of leveling yourself off at 1/2 like it sounds you did. The call off isn't good. That's a big raise and the sizing is sometimes a ploy to get you to stack off because he knows that you know that you made a weak bet.

fold flop as played. Seems spewy with the action.

You beat naked flush draws and you have a big heart. the K. that takes some FD combos out of his range, so it's worse in that respect even though you have a BDFD with the K. How often does that happen, though? you must have been putting him on exactly a FD to call. That's 3 more hearts in the whole deck. (after a H turn) Basically, you were calling for a flip(ish) or to get absolutely crushed. FOLD FOLD FOLD. It seems you got very lucky.

GL man.

Please read the stickies so we can read your post.

BTW, don't post results. It skews some people's opinions and how they respond.

Yup, not wading through that.

In general with no reads this is pretty bad yes, either you're crushed or drawing to 6 outs. Against aggro Spewy villians it's okay I guess but a lot of the time they will still have a pair at least.

In general. fold. You will either be flipping or crushed, not a good spot to get it in.

C/c flop

Hard to read the post with no paragraphs. I just see a big wall of text and it's harder to read that way.

He has AK w/ a heart in a 3 bet pot on a low all heart board while only 75bb's deep and you want him to fold? Either $35/snap or c/c the flop

As played, The snap call seems like lighting money on fire. I don't think we are shallow enough for this call unless he is a raging lunatic. I don't even know if we can say he shoves all FD with the reads we have. If we bet more we could be more committed to call off, this is true. Marginal for so little reads at best

As played, The snap call seems like lighting money on fire. I don't think we are shallow enough for this call unless he is a raging lunatic. I don't even know if we can say he shoves all FD with the reads we have. If we bet more we could be commited to call off, this is true. Marginal for so little reads at best

For instance, if he is always doing this with AJ AQ because of the weakness we showed, then I'm happy. Not sure if that's combonatorially sound. We should probably just stove it.

I think this is generally the correct answer, but against a real maniac, like this guy, who can and probably will overbet the flop, I dunno.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still trying to figure out how to play against people like this.

I think OP was right to bet, but I don't think putting out a weak bet is advisable unless you want the guy to come over the top.

What do you guys think about an open shove? Let him figure out whether to make a hero call.

I suspect he can dish it out, but can't take it very well. Specifically: some people have good betting games, some have good calling games, not many have both. I'm thinking maybe we should put people into a position where they are playing their weakest game. If this guy is better at betting than he is at calling, them make him call.

ETA: If villain bet/calls top 15% of hands pre, hero has something like 65% equity... just sayin...