V1 ~ $400 - he hasn't been at the table long and I unfortunately don't remember how he got his stack. I kind of had the feeling that he was going to try to be table captain.

V2 ~$50 - he's on his 3rd or 4th $100 buy in. Seems relatively tight but he's either running horrible or just a donator. I'd lean toward the latter.

Hero covers

V2 limps in MP, Hero completes 76o in the SB, V1 check in the BB

Flop $6 - 976

Hero $6, call, call

Turn $24 - 976 6

Hero $15, V1 $60, V2 all in for less, Hero calls

River $150 main $36 side
9766 3

Hero check, V1 all in

We're beat by 99, 77 and 96 all of which are possible though V might raise 99 or 77 pre.

Villain over bet shoves the pot on a blank card and the impression is that he thinks his hand is good. Can we fold? Do we really want to?

Seems like a call. Not a fist pump call since there are likely no bluffs in his range but the lack of flop raise in addition to lack of raise preflop and the card removal factor of you holding 76 makes it a call for me.

Fold preflop.

AP: Call

Fold pre? For a buck? Crazy.

You might be beat, but folding a turned house? Call.

does V1 come off as competent, in the action? Are things slowed down in the game? Being able to eliminate 99 and even 77 because you'd assume he'd raise those preflop or on the flop makes this even more a call then it already is. More then enough 6x, slow played big PP, and slow played straights in his range to call.

We shouldn't ever be good here.
But that doesn't mean that we aren't..

This is likely a fold without reads that he's a moron.

Wow. Agree we shouldn't be good, but we could be.

Pretty sure I would have bet the river. Don't know if it's better, but I would have hated it to check though.

Don't think I can fold a boat here, but it might be the correct play.

V1 is in the BB. He could have 85, T8, A6 / K6 type hands. He could have some stupid spazz bluff.

Pay more attention at the table. There arent that many big hands. I dont know how you dont see someone double up unless you were away from the table. One of the biggest leaks players have is being on their phones and not paying attention and getting reads. There are no HUDs in live poker. Your brain is your HUD.

No way to advise if this is a call or a fold without a read, but I lean towards call.

Obviously we can treat V1's range as having essentially no bluffs due to there being a dry side pot (although not completely due to lol-live poker).

Given that V1 raised turn, unless he has a naked 6x (or 63), he would have slow-played a hand on the flop. As such, I'd say that his turn range has all T8 , 58, 77, 99 and 6x combos. However due to his check pre-flop I'd reduce the amount of combos of 77 and 99, especially if we have a 'table captain' read on him.


On the river we need to call $330 to win $530, and as such require about 38.37% equity.

Against a range of only boats (77, 99, 69, 76, 63) we have 33.3% equity, which is not the required equity to call here. If we add a small number of straights in (4 combos of T8s for example), our equity rockets up to exactly 50%, giving us a very clear call. If we discount 77 and 99, and add even more straights into his range, this is most definitely a call.

It's worth noting that if we even add a single straight combination into his range of boats our call becomes roughly break-even at 38.46%. This means that if he will play 1/32 of his straights this way, we have a break-even call, and if he plays a straight like this any more frequently than 1/32 times, then it's a profitable call. The 1/32 number comes from there being 32 combinations of straights possible.


A key point which will be debated in this hand is 'surely he'd only shove a boat here', however from playing live poker I can most definitely say that there are a lot of players who would play a straight (or even trips) like this, and that this sort of player is far more common than 1/32.

We don't know. If he has a clue his overbet shove should be done w only hands that beat you. He might think a straight is the nuts tho.

I wouldn't worry much about this exact hand, but take it as a learning point that you need to pay much more attention at the table.

We cannot discount 99 and 77 bc we have no idea if this v raises these hands or not.

3 combos of 99, 1 of 77 and 3 of 69 that we lose to. 3 combos of 63 that we beat (assume he never gets to river with 33). Now he may not limp 63, but if not he's probably not limping 69 either so that largely evens out. 16 combos of T8, 4 combos of T8s, 16 combos of 85, 4 combos of 85s. If my math is right, there's $186 in the pot and his all in is $332, so we need about 39% equity to call. 3 ways to think of this hand:

1. He's only limping with pocket pairs, in which case we're beat because he only has 99 or 77 and should fold.
2. He's limping a wide range, but only going broke with a boat. In this case, we have 33.3% equity and calling is slightly -EV.
3. He's limping a wide range, and sometimes goes broke with a straight too. If I give him a range of 99, 77, 96, 63, 76 and T8s, we have 50% equity and should call, despite the fact that we'll lose half the time. Note that's only 4 of the 32 possible straight combos, and doesn't account for the times he's going broke with A6 or just bluffing.

Against an unknown, especially who's giving off the vibe of table captain, I don't think #1 above is right. I need to play with someone for a while before I assume that they're only limping pocket pairs. So, the question here is does he ever make this bet with less than a boat?

I don't think his betting line really helps us narrow his range much. If he has a straight he flopped it, but if he has a boat he flopped at least two pair (top and bottom pair with 96) so the fact that he just called our flop bet doesn't tell us much, because no matter what he was strong on flop. Basically, against an unknown, I assume that at least all combos of T8 are in his limping range pre, and that he'd sometimes take this line with a straight, so I call.

The way I read the HH, V1 is in the BB so he can have 63 or 96.

Oops, that's right. Then I guess the question is can he ever have less than a boat here, in which case I think the answer is that it's possible and we have to call.

Discount does not mean dismiss. A non-zero amount of players will be raising 77 and 99 pre-flop here, therefore we can discount those two hands by some non-zero amount. Obviously this exact amount is unknown, but is definitely non-zero. When we're playing against unknowns, rather than playing against a range, we're playing against a range of ranges, and some of these ranges raise 77 and 99 pre, whilst some don't.

Regardless, even if we don't discount 77 and 99, as per my post before it's almost certainly profitable to call here.

Yes V1 is in BB so his pre flop range is anything on the weaker side of random. I certainly don't have enough history to know if he always/often raises 99/77 in this spot but I got the feeling that at least 99 he'd raise at least 50%.

Are we at all concerned about V2? Not because we're necessarily afraid of him beating us but because his holding could easily remove hands from V1.

If you have the feel he wants to be table capitain its VERY likely he raises 99 pre, and maybe 77 aswell. I think all hands that beat us would raise flop. I would pretty much snap call. seems like 6x to me .

Hard to see how V2 card removal effect really changes anything here. Basically, the question is whether V1 could do this with anything other than a boat. If not, then we're not quite getting the equity to call, and the fact that V2 may have some of the board cards doesn't really matter (unless he showed 97, which would reduce us to one combo that beats us). Alternatively, if V1 would do this with less than a boat, there will definitely be enough non-boat combos to allow us to profitably call, even if V2 holds T8.

If it's 200BB then, it's almost for sure still a call. 99, 77, unlikely both by play and combos. 96 is cooler brother.

Btw:


Fold Pre. 42-1 you hit two pair or better, and out of position.

Turn: I re-shove. I'm charging draws and keeping in hands that will be scared of draws. Also inertia.

AP: Already stated.

I'm trying to figure out if it's better to re-raise, re-shove turn or just call and check river and hope he bets. I think raising turn is better.

And we can't donk.

Re-raising turn and leading river is right no? Based on our deduction we have to say we're for value more than not, seems like the consistently +EV play for extraction is re-raise turn, lead river.

Pre depends on rake structure

I almost never fold the SB in a limped pot unless I think there's a decent chance BB will raise often. It's probably -EV but only slightly so because an occasional miracle hand covers a lot of limp/fold. Mostly I think my image is generally snug and that folding the SB in a limped pot is a giant NIT red flag so even if it's -EV I think it's worth it for meta reasons.

Certainly OTT we think we're good the vast majority of the time. Re-raise turn/lead river is probably the best play. Maybe 3! to $170.