Here's a hand which got me into a bit of trouble tonight.

V1 is a loose passive player (mostly unimportant to hand). V2 is a young LAG with a very wide range (he's won with 73s at showdown). I'm effective stack with $600.

V1 opens to $20 from MP, I call from CO with KTcc, V2 calls behind. Both blinds call.

I think this is a pretty easy call with a hand that can flop well and a pot which is likely to go multiway (based on table).

Flop ($80): Qh9h6c

Blinds check, V1 checks, I check, V2 bets $45. Folds to me and I call.

Should I be betting here? I have an over and a gutshot so maybe it's a good spot for a semibluff but I doubt it's getting through 3 people. Folding with a good amount of equity seems too tight, especially when even K high is often good against this LAG.

Turn ($170): Kd

I check, he bets $150.

I still have a gutshot and my pair of Ks is likely good here a decent amount of the time (V has many flush draws, or even AQ). Should I be check-raising here?

I just call.

River ($470): 3h

I check, V bets $250

Hero?

Thoughts on all streets appreciated.

Fold pre-flop. Loose passives don't raise very much. Some of them believe AK is a drawing hand and should be limped. You're way behind his range. This hand does not flop well. It is more of reverse implied odds hand. When you hit TP, you're likely to win a small pot and lose a big one.

On the flop, you have at most 7 outs and many are not clean. Easy fold.

After making two bad calls, I guess you have to call on the turn with your TP since you have him on mostly FD. If you are right, the draw got there on the river. Why is there even a decision on the river in that case?

This hand is a classic case where a small bad decision cascades into an expensive decision. I'd much rather call with T9s than KTs in this situation pf. You'll have a much better idea where you stand on the flop.

KTs is a nice hand for limping or making the first raise yourself. It pretty questionable for calling a raise. With very deep stacks venturing a call sometimes isn't bad. The flop isn't the sort you are looking for. 3 jacks that are not hearts are your only good outs. The board is super wet so it's easy for villain to be drawing but he did bet into a lot of people so folding is best.

Having called flop you need to call turn and river a good portion of the time. Exactly how often depends on villain. His big turn bet and very value sized river bet likely indicate something but without a better read it's hard to say what. He could have made a flush on the river and now wants a call. It could be a blocking bet with a decent hand that doesn't want raised. It could be an air bluff.

I think calling him a loose passive was a little too generous. He's not that passive and does open a fair number of pots (in general it's a pretty aggressive game). He opens most broadway hands (including offsuit), so KTs is not especially behind. He's not positionally aware so could easily open JTo or QJo here.

I wouldn't go crazy with hitting TP unless it's against the LAG on the button.

What I'm wondering is if I should have considered raising at any point, especially if I think V could be on a draw?

I like a fold pre with the lag on the button. Combine this with a loose passive with a presumably low pfr and you should probably fold. If V1 is a loose pf raiser then you can occasionally 3b.

Fold flop why in the world are we calling a lag oop with a gutshot and over on a two tone board?

I think the only potential for a raise is preflop, but I wouldn’t 3b it too often here. AP I can see the flop call. Both turn and river could be folds or calls, V and game flow dependent. I wouldn’t object to calling the river, though some folds will have to be mixed in.

Grunch

I think with the LAG IP to our direct left I prefer to 3bet or fold preflop. We're going to get ourselves in a lot of difficult postflop situations OOP to an aggro player otherwise. KTs makes a reasonable 3betting hand as part of either an extended value range or a tight polarised range if opener is either way too loose or way overfolding pre or postflop in 3bet pots. If his raise is just tight I'd fold.

As played I think I'd just give up on the flop. It's very multiway and the board hits a big chunk of most people's ranges so V2's bet signifies more strength than usual - and we're OOP.

Only way I'd continue vs a LAG OOP with this type of hand is flop X/R if I thought V was out of line. But as I said above - there's no reason to believe he is in this exact spot.

Why would you think LAG has a lot of draws here? He's IP and can take a free card instead of betting. When the board is this wet and pot is multiway even a LAG is going to tighten up on the semibluffs. The point of semibluffs is fold-equity: villain clearly has none when his opponents are flatting OOP with gutshots

3! or fold pre. You can't go around calling 7x raises as the initial caller and think you're +EV.

AP - bet the flop

AP - idk i'm never in this spot but mostly fold

Hard to block bet IP when you can just x behind SDV

3b or fold pre

Bet flop

AP flop call is fine

Turn is ok ap

River probably just fold

Preflop fine.

Bet turn $100. Take control of the betting away from V, helps control pot size

Am I taking crazy pills? Why are we betting the flop 5 ways with KTcc on Q95hh?

Over + gutter + BDFD + PFR checked + super thin value raise vs. JT/T8/78 + can shut it down if raised or we don't turn equity

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Live players dont bluff raise enough and sometimes dont even value raise enough. Sure it sucks to fold here with bdfd + gutter but if they raise us we’re totally toast and are done with the hand

Vs a tougher table that is more aggro i’d def check since blinds can be trapping and looking to x/r huge draws and sets/2 pair, plus BTN cans still have a hand.

Tbf i dont mind a check at all but i think vs loose passives betting is slightly more +EV as we also get free rivers if BTN folds and one of both blinds call!

So which is it? Or are you mixing up your villains? PF, you didn't know V2 was coming in the hand when you called, so you shouldn't be back justifying your call because V2 is in the hand.

Fold all streets except maybe flop.

V is not a good LAG so I don't really consider it a negative that he's probably calling preflop. For example, he pretty much automatically bets every street which checks to him. He also plays ATC on the button.

I do think I should've gone for the x/r. *He* doesn't have much FE but I definitely do.