Hi all,

I've recently moved to a new area of the country and my main game (mid stakes LHE) isn't widely spread. As a result, i'm trying my feet at NL for the first time in a very long time. This was a hand last night that I'm unsure about.

Hero is BB with about $400is behind

Pot limps 5 ways to the SB. SB raises to 9. He is a regular and always short stacks. He is very tight and has about $80 behind.

I look down at 2 red tens and call, as do the rest of the limpers.

Flop comes 2, 8, 6 rainbow

SB checks, I bet $40 all fold to the cutoff who calls. Cutoff just sat down at the table and posted. He has $160 behind after the call and this is his first hand. SB thinks and then begrudgingly folds.

Turn comes 10s

I bet $80, villain moves all in for 160 on top. I call.

River comes 2c

Results in white
Villain mucks hand but tells me that he misread it and thought he held 79. SB freaks out and tells me how he folded JJ and that my play is garbage blah blah blah.

So a few questions here.

1) Do i raise this hand preflop? I am new to NL and probably playing a bit tighter than I should be, but I feel like SBs PFR range isn't very wide from what i've seen of him over a few sessions. Probably TT+,KQo+, KJs+. Removing the unlikely TT from the equation, I don't think I'm doing very well against his range and as such, I don't want to play a large pot with him just yet. Is this correct thinking or should I be 3betting in this spot?

2) On the flop, after villain checks I view JJ-AA to be very unlikely as I think he bets those for value with the board being what it is. I bet $40 here. With my main concern showing weakness, I feel I have the best hand. The pot is a nice size and overcards on the turn are no good in this multiway pot. I want to win it now, so I bet $40 into the pot of about $50.

3) Is the turn call on the shove automatic at 1/2? I have just started playing the game, and I've seen people get stupid with all sorts of hands when they shove. I don't really know anything about villain, but 79 is in almost everyone's range in the spot. Honestly, I didn't take my time to think it through and just snap called. This is pretty bad and I think that if I took a bit longer, I would fold without any reads.


Sorry for the long post. Thanks for everyone's time and thoughts.

Welcome to the forums. If you could post pot size (on flop, turn, river) it makes it a little easier to track the action.

To clarify, after flop you said remaining V had $160 left. Then after you bet $80 on the turn, you said he raised $160 on top. $160 "On top" would mean he had $240 left on the turn.

I would raise this pre 9/10 times. This is one spot I'm ok with not doing so. We are BB, would have to 3b and play the hand OOP. Flatting the 9 is fine.

Betting 1/2PSB+ is generally not going to be read as weakness. $50 is not a sizeable pot to begin trying to steal. Also if you are going to try and take it down, you should have an idea of what amount gets the job done. It's not always a bigger bet, sometimes its over a PSB. Very table and V dependent.

Until you feel comfortable making these kinds of reads, I would think more along the lines of betting for value (which you are here).

First, if 79 in someones range here is very table/V dependent. If you think he l/c garbage, then you should most definitely be 3b this pre.

Even still we are getting 5.6:1 odds. Even if he's got the straight we have 11outs meaning we need 4.2 odds to call. Mathematically it's a call. Fwiw, I'm never including 79 in his range and happily snap calling.

Thanks for this. In regards to the flop comment. I used poor grammar. What i meant to convey is that PFR was villain I was immediately focused on. When he showed weakness, I felt like 1) my hand was best at that point and thus should VB it and 2) I want to take the pot down on the flop as there are many cards in a multiway pot like this that will scare me. Does that make a little more sense?

On the turn, what other hands do you think Villain will push with? Do people do this with hands like two pair and TPTK?

Let's look at preflop action first.

Whether to re-raise here is determined by several factors:

1. How tight is very tight?

It's obvious that after SB folded the flop, he's very ABC post-flop and very willing to let go of his hand. This was a very important piece of information and something you would have already gathered from observing other hands.

With above information in hand and a better grasp of SB's preflop raising range and sizing into 6 people, there is your answer whether to 3bet pre.

2. What about other players behind, any obvious spots to keep in hand or isolate?

If there is a spot that often plays too aggressive and too wide post-flop, then there is definitely merit in keeping that player in the hand and play TT as bluff catcher or to set-mine for monster pot.

3. Understand that 3-bet here commits you to the pot and that you're not folding if SB shoves.

With these three things in mind, I would make my decision whether to 3bet or call.

Your thought process is right on the spot. I like both relative to pot sizing and its absolute sizing.

Correct way to assess this situation is to do two things:

1. Assess villain's range.

2. Calculate pot odds.

If V's range is wide enough that you have the proper pot odds to call, then this is a call. If not, it's a fold.

And table bantering is very standard and most poker related chatters floating around poker tables are utterly garbage. The best trick is to tune out these BS chatters while maintaining a +EV environment, whatever it may be.

Thanks for this. One of the big reason I didn't 3 bet preflop is because I also didn't want to play the entire hand OOP multiway. Is this something that i'm weighing too heavily?

There isn't a bet sizing in which you would need to worry about playing the hand post-flop.

Plus why would you be concerned of limpers when you're IP against the raiser?