results?

This is what I would take away from this hand:

When we get in big stacks postflop with 54s, which side of the cooler do you think we will most likely be on? And if that's the case, should we be doing something different preflop so that we don't have to play for stacks postflop?

Gimo,butagain,IsuckatdeepstackG

Damn, another sad ending.

I know!

Trick spot. I assess his range to be made of mostly combo draws : 67s, 68s, A2s, A3s, A9s, etc. He could have a set sure - 5 hands. He may even have an overpair and getting playful with TT, JJ or maybe even like ATs, AQs etc. Point is I'd suspect our equity is about 50% ish vs his range, maybe more in the 40% ish range if he is not in that tilt/ bluffy mode. With that though...Folding is out of the question.

In deciding whether to open up shop on him right here or go into passive mode, for me, it would come down to an assessment of his demeanor in this hand - you said he has tilt issues. Is he in that place right now? You said he can bluff - is this sizing or anything else indicative of that move form him? With none of these questions answered confidently I would probably call and assess the turn. Mostly because, this pot is a bit inflated due to the straddle and will be a high variance hand for the stakes we are playing. Its only 100bb here but 300bb for the stakes we are playing.

Very much this. We feel like we can play all kinds of stuff deep, but I question that if we lose giant pots with bottom two or baby flushes and never stack anyone. It's all RIO and no IO when the pots get huge.

I think the only way I get stacked is if it's boat over boat. The thing is you might win $100 or so. Position is so important deep. And just because I got coolered doesn't mean the play was poor.

I agree that you have to go broke with the boat. The question is how we make up for that cooler with coolers of our own or smaller pots where we outflop big pairs and eventually turn a profit overall. StraightFlush vs Nut flush, those won't happen nearly as often as boat over boat. Like I said, If we lose most of the giant pots, we need to win a bunch of small ones to turn a profit.

Eh, I think this is a pretty serious cooler. I think hero has the IO against this particular villain. Someone capable of making big bluffs and overplaying weak hands. You said he probably 3! pre with 99. He only beats you with one combo of 9c5c (I assume the river is the 5h) and you beat one combo of 44. Add on anytime he bluffs with missed combo draws like 7s6s, 8s6s, 8s7s, or Xs9s. We can also add one lol FPS AA combo to fishy villain's range with lines like this too. You should never fold an underfull against his range. You should shove if he calls with 95s, 44, and some 9x. Even half a combo of Xs9s makes shoving correct.

Overall, I think you win more money than you lose against his range. I do think the only major mistake in the hand is not betting larger pre. A min click on the button preflop looks really weak and will get called by all kinds of junk. I assume you played 54s for deception, in addition to binking a big hand deep. Bet it preflop like you have QQ.

54s makes the smallest flush. And the suckiest two pair. And the suckiest trips. And the suckiest boats. And never the better end of a straight over straight situation.

In cooler situations, you are almost always on the bad end of the cooler with this hand. I'm pretty sure the only good end I can think of is the single better flush-over-flush case versus 32s, two pairing against a handful of worse two pairs (53 and the like), and boat-over-boat against a couple of underpairs; I don't even think it is possible (?) to make better trips as we'll be chopping those spots.

Thanks to position you *might* not get stacked in all these cases. But thanks to bloating the pot preflop, you lowered the SPR significantly that it will actually be quite difficult to get away from these cooler hands (and you could argue that you shouldn't be in these SPR pots since you can sometimes be ahead with your flushes against sets, etc.). It's actually easier to get away from these cooler hands with a smaller SPR, and yet with position we can still build the pot fairly big (if we desire) postflop.

FWIW: I'd play the hand the exact same way postflop.

GcluelessNLnoobG