Live 1-2. 405 effective.

Hero 425, 30's viewed as solid (main villain most likely views me as bluffy)

V1, 400, 40's loose

V2, 405, 30's. 30 mins at table, looked up hero with 3rd pair after hero bets 60% pot on river. Hero proudly showed a missed open ender w J10. ( I play tightish so will show bluffs whenever I can to help get action ). Other than that hand villain doesn't seem to have been getting really out of line but doesn't really like to fold top pair.

V3 limps $2.
Hero cutoff raises $15 w AsAd
V1, BUTTON calls $15
V2, so, calls $15
V3 filds

Qc9d2c. $47

V2 leads $25
Hero calls $25
V1 folds.

My plan was not to reveal the strength in my hand just yet and re-evaluate the turn because the Donk lead was a little awkward.

Turn: 6h. $97

V2 bets $55
Hero re raises to $155
My plan was to make this raise look like a bluff like I'm semi bluffing with a club draw or AK, and snap call any re raises putting him on a big Queen.


V2 goes all in for $365 total.

Hero calls $210 into $617

How's my line? It was quite weird to be donked into twice, I'll reveal the results tomorrow.

Can you elaborate on this - how did that hand go? What was your line with JT?

Hard to say without it. Based on my low stakes live games, his line tells me we're not good with a pair here. LLSNL Vs tend to play according to their hand strength and I don't often see KQ/AQ put in ~200bbs based on a single bluff they saw from you.

Isn't V also putting you on a Queen here? Yet he's still shoveling money into the pot. Usually that means he's confident he can beat a 1-pair hand. Our AA isn't much different than AQ here.

The bluff hand I played poorly. Straddle is on, 2 callers, I complete bb J10hh.
8s9s5c. $20
Checked around.
Turn 2h
Checked to villian otb who bets $10.
I call $10.
River 9h.
I lead $25 and get called by 57 off.

So how are you playing AA differently then? Call flop, call turn, fold to a pot size river bet? Seems like a weak line to me.

lol snap fold.

V told you twice he has a hand and he doesn't care what you have. What's AA beating at this point?

BTW flop needs to be bigger 2/3+ flop. Charge draws and top pair maximum.

Given the dynamic and position, I would have raised the flop to $100 ($75 raise) and folded to a 3 bet. Planning on checking the turn and folding to a river jam unimproved.

This is a bit parenthetical, but your tactic of showing your successful bluffs should have the opposite effect of what you intend, unless you're playing against a bunch of complete fools. Anybody with six functioning brain cells will figure out that the reason you showed your bluff was to get action next time, when you have the nuts. So that person, or anyone else similarly observant, would be very hesitant to call you next time you made a big river bet. The ultimate calamity would be if they were going to pay you off but folded because they remember your bluff-show move.

You rarely gain by showing your hand when you don't have to. It's free information for everyone else.

I was called, I had to show first. B) it's 1-2, you show a bluff they don't forget and you get paid.

Call turn wtf are you doing

I think once you raise the turn you’ve already committed to calling stacks. I’m not sure I love the raise on the turn though. As you’ve played the hand it’s not entirely clear if you’re ahead or behind here. Once I didn’t raise his flop donk I think I’m just calling the turn donk and then probably calling his inevitable river donk.

Your plan worked. Assumed you snapped it off.


I'm terrible at playing One Pair (1P) hands, including TPTK and OP.

With 100BB, I'm expecting to be happy to get stacks in.

At 200BB, I'm a bit leery of shipping it all unimproved.

As played, I'm expecting to see a flopped set or turned 2 pair.
Not shocked if I see AQ, KK, JT.

grunching

"Other than that hand villain doesn't seem to have been getting really out of line but doesn't really like to fold top pair."

If they are not getting out of line they aren't 3bet shoving turn with AQ, especially with 3 people in the pot. Do you often see rec players donk leading into 2 people with top pair?

Turn is an overplay. Even thinking about raising on the flop multiway is too much. Just call.

This. If you're going to make a plan, then you need a lot more than what's described to alter it. If the plan doesn't work, then you decide if it was a good plan and you just hit variance, or if it was a bad plan and you need to improve it.

So you think a better line is just call Down on all three streets with Aces? That feels so gross to me. It's so rare to get Aces live, so when you're heads up you want to take your opponent to Value town, but if he's betting into you I guess alarm Bells should be going off.

Qc9h2c

So he can have QQ, 99, KK, AQ, KQ, or a combo straight or flush draw. Or less frequently 22, Q9 or turned 66.

...So can you, and those hands are better candidates for raising turn.

...This is his shoving range and he might fold just about everything else that bet bet.

...You don't deserve to win because you got AA and there's nothing gross about getting 4 streets w 1p. You're likely still at the point where you see AA and get all excited bc it means you're about to double up - bad.

I'm happy to call down here. I'd rather raise QQ/99/78s OTT than AA/KK/AQ/KQ.

This guy is either bluffing or has it, when we raise we condense his range to has it. Whereas we can call with this nutty bluffcatcher and he gets rekt when he bluffs river.

i think it's fine, V looks like an absolute fishcake and donkbets are usually garbo pairs trying to "see where they're at". On a texture like this without being last to act I kinda dont like flatting the donkbet because it invites V1 to come along. HU I'm flatting all day just to let him keep firing. Since he seems to show continued interest on the turn I put him on top pair so I'd raise here too to get value from KQ, especially after your JT show. When he 3bets turn my stomach sinks but too late now.

Results. Villain had 99 and took me to stack town.

That stinks, but isn't completely unexpected. *Not a lot of threads from people when V shows up with AQ here, or when H spikes an Ace.


Is 200 BB too much to lose when AA gets cracked? That's the more complicated question.

This is the reason I said to raise the flop donk bet and fold to a 3-bet from this type of player. It's called a donk bet because of people like this - betting into the preflop raiser isn't usually the best play. Also, when they just call, it's because they intend to c/r/s the turn, hence the turn check.

Note that I'm taking both the player type and bet size into account to make this evaluation. If it was a somewhat more conservative player and the bet size was smaller, I might just call and I might raise larger, or even the same raise with the intent to continue betting on the turn.

Why the difference? Because your scenario looks like V1 is value betting and my second scenario it looks like a blocker bet.

This is so much better than raising the turn with AA. Say you raise flop, he calls (or raises) AND then still bets out on the turn? You can take a lot of his bluffs out. Waiting to raising turn also gives free card to whatever V2 AND V1 has (V1 has good price to see turn when hero called). If turn completes a draw are you still going to turn check-raise? Add to that the times you're raising into hidden turned two pairs and sets. Long term that's suicidal.

There's an old NLHE adage - never go broke with one pair. I'll modify that and say never go 100BB+ broke with one pair without good reasons (obv preflop or v loose cannon winning to gamble stacks with weak holdings).

with him being the SB flatting the raise and donking into 3 opponents unless he sucks that bet usually mean a strong holding. im not liking it but atlst flatting the flop. leading the turn again hes telling you he beats KQ+ and AA/KK arent in his range and most of the time im folding turn. occasionally i might flst and evaluate river. loooool your turn raise was just absolutely horrible and does nothing for you. he calls you hate it he raises you hate it and if he was bluffing you took that opportunity away for him to bluff again on the river if that was your read

Call down.

Lose anyway but hopefully only half your stack.

Easy game.

Raising flop seems slightly better than calling and letting button come in for cheap. Raise/fold flop.

I'd raise turn for value in bigger games and against someone competent enough to have JT/cc in their range along with donk bet from the obvious sets/Q9. In a $1-2 game, after calling flop, I think calling down is fine on most safe rivers.

Raising becomes a little problematic because we're not getting anything better to fold, and likely will get worst to fold (KQ, QJ, QT). Furthermore, when we raise, we have to be certain that A) v donked into 2 villains with a draw and B) he's willing to db with said draw when pfr flats. Otherwise, worst range folds, better range sticks around. I doubt v has many draws when he db here so raising is somewhat out of the question.

edit: If villain can have enough Ac9c, AcXc, Jc9c, Tc9c and other club draws/combso draws raising makes sense, but, even then I think raising flop is superior to raising turn.

I feel the need to reiterate my position.

A player described as: "villain doesn't seem to have been getting really out of line but doesn't really like to fold top pair." that bets on a Q92cc board is very likely betting more than a one-pair hand. It is, however, very possible Hero still has the best hand, hence raising on the flop. If V2 did flop a set, it is very likely Hero is beat and V2 will 3 bet.

While this looks like "betting to see where I'm at" (which I don't recommend), it's superior in this case to calling as it either tells you you're beat right away (V2 3-bets), or it gets you to the river controlling the pot size.

The key to playing the hand this way is how the hero describes the villain - aka your read on the player and table dynamic.

raise flop. fold to 3 bet. check back if he calls.

Turn is spew as played.