I just sat down a couple orbits before. Already doubled up through another player. When I sat down, Villain had about 1200 in front of him. Mid 50's, white farmer with money. plays every pot, raised 2x pot on river with one pair, until this point only saw a couple show downs of his, which he won, but with weak cards.
Hero, doubled up first pot I played with QQ. Table shouldn't have much else to go on from me this early. Stack is around 430.

1/2 NL.

Couple limpers ahead of me
We are dealt JJ in MP. Raise to 12. Button(villain) and EP Guy call.

Flop is A57 rainbow. EP checks, we bet out 20. B calls and EP folds

Turn-- 10. Bet 30, button calls.

River is offsuit 3. No flush draw on board. We bet out 38, button raises it to 138. Hero?

Feel free to comment on any part of this process. Pocket pair with an over card on the flop are a weak point for me. Sizing, possible check on turn? Open to all. If you need any more info, I'll provide. After playing with this guy for another 5 hours, I gained a lot more info on him. But to this point, I didn't have much to go on. Thanks in advance for any comments, I appreciate them all.

You are essentially representing 2 pair or better. Based on your preflop actions, AT or a set are the only hands that HERO has that make sense to triple barrel. These are also the only hands that are strong enough to call a raise. Without additional reads, bet/folding is a gold mine in LLSNLHE because the games are so passive.

As for how the hand is played, you have a value hand preflop and got value there. On the flop, turn and river, you are burning money based on your read of the Villain. Bet and bet big when you have it and check/fold when you don't. No reason to get tricky.

PF raise is fine unless you can 'expect' this guy to raise the pot for you from his Button. These types of players like to take control of the hand, especially from the Button. They may play in a crazy fashion, but they've usually played enough poker to know what's going on. I'm sure he remembered the QQ hand.

Flop be might be a little small, but it's OK with both EP and V in the hand.

Turn bet needs to be much more. 30 into 76+ screams weakness to V IMO. If he's calling a bet, he will call 'any' bet and you want to get your value from him. At this point his image would indicate he has ATC ... what we don't know is does he 3-bet all his Ax hands. A larger bet here should allow us to fold on some Rivers since it's not such an easy call. Even though it may look weak, a c/c here with the intention of Donking out on a lot of Rivers will work against 'these' types as well. Just see if he bets ...

38 on the River is a green light to smack you around a bit. I realize you are putting out a blocker bet here, but in order to 'control' him the whole hand you need to play like you hit the Ace .. This needs to be 55 at a minimum. You did indicate that he went a little crazy on some Rivers so maybe you thought you could slow him down here. This very well could be anything for him, but probably Arag that maybe became 2 pair. Your hand is under-repped IMO but he has to be thinking about what you've been betting with as well.

My guess is Arag or 46, worst case is JT .. maybe 98? GL

Hero betting on Turn and River are no where near 2 pair or better bet sizing. The bet sizing is what V is keying off of here IMO .. in order to blast. V may put us on a pp, but there's no way he's putting us on a strong Ace or 2 pair. He may not think KK/QQ, but he 'knows' it's no better than 1 pair Ax ... at least that's where I would put an unknown in this spot.

Yes, bet big when you have it .. or at least on the Flop (or more appropriately on Turn when HU here) and c/f if you get called down.

You have a hand with showdown value ... so lets try to get to showdown. Again, my assumption is you thought you could blocker bet him but I think he's played enough poker to realize that you are vulnerable here. GL

I agree that the sizing is small and this could trigger the Villain getting tricky. Typical live rec players are clueless on the sizing but they could recognize a small river bet in a big pot.

I think my point was that I am rarely triple barreling. When I am vs recreational players, I am at the top of my range as we all should be.

Pre-flop is fine, maybe with what you say about this guy,make it a bit steeper, 15ish?
On this board I don't like barrelling flop and turn, we are mostly turning an sdv hand into a bluff repping the ace by doing that.
I think in this spot betting flop and checking turn is the way I would go, probably check calling the turn, and then river is possible bet fold if villan checks turn behind, or check fold if he bet turn and bets river. This is all sizing dependant.
In terms of your sizing as mentioned above, your river and turn bets look quite small,

Turn is a check after getting called on the flop. What are you trying to get value from? 7x? There's boards to barrel on and this is not one of them. Fold river.

Puny sizing OTT and OTR are just begging for this dood to either draw out on you, or play back on river.

Seeing as Vs rarely play back on river, you're probably going to have to fold to this bet.


Slow down on the turn or bet like you mean it.

i think pre flop play is fine
i think flop bet is fine
but either check/fold turn which i would do after he calls you flop but
i dont think betting 30 into 78 here is very good i dont think you get any worse to call besides maybe draws and if thats what he has you give him the right price and look very weak imo and the river bet is really soft and any good agro player can put you in a tough spot there if they smell that weakness they will fire that but i dont think he does it with ace rag i think its two pair or better or busted draws could be (A 3) i would just remember if your gonna tell a story in poker with your betting you got make sure it makes sense because theres not much value you get called from if your value betting but if your trying to rep an ace you got to bet that turn heavier and if he calls that check fold river (im not the greatest player to take advice from but thats my honest assessment)

Thanks guys for the replies. Yes I think I was very hesitant to bet much on the river, due to his two previous calls on the flop and turn. So I was basically betting to try and get to a cheaper showdown. He was definitely one I know would have bet large if checked to, so obviously it didn't matter. I still had a feeling my jacks were good throughout, but with the ace on board, I knew it didn't matter if he made a terrible call with Arag, I'm beat.

I ended up folding to the raise, and he didn't show. After playing several hours against this guy, he made a very predictable habit of calling down to the river, and waiting for someone to check or bet small. He would raise it every single time if checked to, no matter what he had. And he won most pots that way. If someone bet small into him on the river, he would raise with junk and muck if called, and just Call with a marginal hand and show. I was able to take advantage of this later on, just wish I had this figured out on the previous hand. But like I said, this particular type of hand is one I struggle with. A part of me wants to bet large and represent a big hand, but another part sees that over card and knows I'm beat, so I don't want to light that money on fire with all the calling stations out there. This guy had over 1500 at one time, and when I left the table 5 hours later he had 250 left. He bragged later that he was into the same game the night before for 1300 and then went to the blackjack tables and blew more. So needless to say, I really hope our paths cross again in the future. Thanks again guys for your input.