Hey all, a little background. I use to play a lot of poker online pre black friday (almost exclusively SNGs and Tournaments) and just haven't made a very successful transition to 1/2 and cash games in general. Hoping to be posting a lot more in the upcoming months, as I have made it a 2017 goal to get back into Poker. I have a full-time well paying job, so poker is really something as a hobby that I'm passionate about, and would make for a good side income.

Hero: TAG younger Asian guy (often viewed as overly aggressive) with roughly 150bb at 1/2 NL. Has shown general good thinking and decision making without getting out of line. Villans are all the generic old guys who show little aggression without a monster. From observation, these villians have no real understanding of bet sizing. Villians have all been stationy to smaller preflop raises and are roughly the same stack size as me.

(5-Handed)
V1 UTG: Limps
V2 EP ($200): Raises to 11
V3 Cutoff ($100-150 roughly): Calls
H ($300) on the button: flats with 35 on the button

BB, V1, and V2 call and we are 5 ways into the flop.

Flop ($56): A 7 10

Check to hero in the button, where I bet $15

Thought Process: Seems too low, but I was scared of overbloating the pot. This bet was not to take down the pot, to really obtain information on where I'm at, and mainly to make a blocking bet as I hoped by taking aggression on the flop, the turn would check through to me again.

Results: Villians BB and UTG fold, and it's 3 way to the river (Villian EP and Cutoff).

Turn ($111): 4

Checks all around to the hero.

Thought Process: I'm pretty sure that I have at least 1 minor ace in here and potentially a second pair with gut draws, gutters, etc in the range of the 2 villians. I believe the two actions is to either bomb the turn or check the turn for a free card as I also obtained a double gutshot to the straight as well. I elect to take the free card, as I'm not sure I can push the villian with the ace off his hand, especially if he's Villian Cutoff with a shorter stack. (Any thoughts here on this check?)

River ($111): 8 and I get there.

Checks to me where I lead out with $75. I notice in the corner of my eye, V2 EP is extremely frustrated and nearly throws his cards. Both Villians fold and I take down the bet

Thought Process: : I'm fairly confident now V2 EP has an Ace, and V3 cutoff is stuck on some kind of float/draw (like 8-9 or similar) that I'm not worried about due to the check back to me. My biggest question here: Is my value bet too high? If i see that visible tell, and the passiveness from how the V2 played his ace, there's no way they're calling such a large V-bet.


Any ways, would love everyone's thoughts and any hints on improving my formatting to make it easier for you guys!

Your thought process is good. I think with the way you describe villains you could potentially bet around 1/2 pot to try and get a call from an ace, but the difference is pretty small. A lot of times low stakes nits seem to be overly scared of flushes.

Hey man, welcome back to poker! I had a similar hiatus and have a similar life to poker situation so I can definitely relate.

The preflop call is pretty thin. I love playing hands in position, but 3/5suited just doesn't have a lot of playability to it. Should be a fold pre.

If you do call, please check this flop. You don't need to "see where you're at", you are behind and need a heart! If you're betting here it is as a semi-bluff and should bet 1/2-1/3 of the pot.

Checking the turn is fine. River bet is ok, would prefer about a 1/2 pot bet here to elicit a crying call from weak A.

Folding is better pre-flop (money-wise. Calling is more fun ) unless your opponents are truly terrible.

I like how you played it otherwise. You could be smaller on the river, but it probably doesn't matter much.

Calling preflop is good, but only if you're going to fight for the pot in spots like this.

Everyone checked to you on the flop, and you have equity. Bet more--2/3 to 3/4 pot. You're trying to get pairs lower than aces to fold.

The turn was the best non-heart card for you. You picked up a ton of equity. Bet 2/3 pot again. You may get a weak ace to fold, and if you don't, you'll win a bigger pot if you hit one of your many outs on the river.

Fold preflop, ainec. 53s is pretty garbage. You're not deep enough to play a super weak one-gapper against an EP open.

Check the flop. A bare-5-high flush draw isn't good. You won't fold out four opponents often enough, especially for such a small bet.

Check the turn. Whatever villain's have that call the flop probably don't fold to the 4d. You pick up some equity with a gut shot. River bet is good.

PF. mid-stacked, I'm dumping this hand most of the time & considering 3b stealing if I've been card-dead for like an hour and have a nit image.

Flop: I'm not in favor of waiving the "I'm on a draw" flag. Considering our aggro image is likely to get call wide, especially at such a fishy price, I'd just check this back. Even if we're betting so low that we do get a good price for our FD, the action invites c-raises. If I were to lead here w/a draw (higher one preferably, 3-5 is trashy), I'd go at least 1/2 pot as a semi-bluff & I'd do it against 2, maybe 3 Vs max pending their tendencies and a really solid perception of me. My intent is to fold out worse. Betting for information as you suggested is not a reason to bet. Not sure how good a blocking bet is here either since it invites a c/r. You already know where you are once you see the flop cards. There are 9 outs that help us most of the time. Yes we have a runner-runner SD, but we must account for the times those are inferior. I'd just take the free card here.

Turn: Excellent play and reasoning.

River: To quote Jay-Z , "If y'all n***** ain't talking 'bout large money, what's the point?" You called to hit a flush and get paid, can't fault you for that. The issue is that we've already played our hand face up that we're easy to read. We could argue that river sizing was large, but what's the point? The lead-up to this moment is where the problem lies. Check flop, check turn, bet river ~1/2 if checked to there as well. We have no fold equity here IMO, so just hope to connect.

If you are scared of overbloating the pot, the flop must be a check. Potential bigger flush draws out there. The line which you took is also fine, but the flop bet should have been bigger, say 30-35 to take the pot down immediately (given the table generally plays fit/fold strategy) and fold to a raise/turn bet in case you miss the draw. Turn check is good here. River bet should've been around 1/2 the pot or even slightly less to give the players enough odds to call with their 1 pair hand . The way it was played in the end, it seems just 1 person might have a weak ace or a middle pair.