I've been at the table for about 4 hours and there's 2-3 fish, 4-5 tightish but still bad regs, me, and one middle aged LAG who is villain in this HH. He has been picking on me the entire time I've sat down. Pretty much calls 90% of my opens and 3bets me everytime there's a squeeze opportunity or I raise his blinds.

Against the other players I've seen him semi-bluff a lot and he also overbet cbets the flop a lot, which is why I insta called his flop bet. Stacks are capped at $100, I have about $500, LAG has $400, and we both have everyone covered.

Hero is dealt KJ in UTG+1

Preflop ($0):
UTG limps, Hero calls, MP calls, CO raises to $12, UTG calls $9, Hero calls $9, MP folds.

Flop ($35):
J62
UTG checks, Hero checks, CO bets $45, Hero calls $45

Turn ($115)
A
Hero checks, CO checks

River ($115)
8
Hero checks, CO bets $120, Hero???????

Oh and if you're wondering why I overlimped KJ in UTG+1 it's because this is 2/3 live and nobody except the LAG ever raises less than AK at this table.

The others are fish and bad regs, so you decide to play like them?

Fold pf. You don't want to play KJs in EP because it is the classic RIO hand. If you think he's bluffing on the river over 40% of the time, you can call. Most people don't bluff that much, so it is a fold.

Sigh... soo bad all the way around.


First of all, the LAG has you so tilted that you'll never be able to play properly sitting with him at the table. You have convinced yourself that the lag is "picking on you" and that hes just making plays in an attempt to run you over. Believing this in itself is a form of tilt. Has the LAG shown you a lot of bluffs? Is there any other reason for you to believe he is "picking on you" other than the fact that he has 3b you and been aggressive preflop?

First of all, FOLD PRE. Or atleast open raise.... you've really underrepresented your hand from the get go and you've totally relinquished control to the CO. It looks to like you are afraid of open raising because you didn't want to get 3b by the LAG. Take note, that this would have saved you money in this spot because I'd hope you'd be able to get away from a 3b OOP with KJs.


You're river decision is much harder than it should be because you've totally polarized your range by calling his over bet on the flop. Once again this is why we don't play easily dominated hands from early position when we have very aggressive players that have position on us at the table.

Fold pre.


Anyway you've basically stated to the CO that your hand includes a jack by calling the flop. Now the turn comes an ACE and you check. That's all fine and good but it's a great scare card for mr. Lag but I honestly believe at this point he's made the best hand.


Given the way you played this hand and you obviously don't give the LAG credit for the ace, the river is a perfect opportunity to bet fold. A good sized "blocking bet" would have been best in this situation, especially if villain hadn't seen this play from you before. A bet of $65-70 would have been strong enough to prevent your opponent from raising anything but two pair + and he will typically just call if the ace smacked his range and we'll still make some value if we are looking at a similar hand like QJ, KJ etc.

Because of how horrible the hand was played from the outset, you were doomed to lose money if he's got you beat... but losing 65-70 on the river would have been much better than calling off the $120 that you did.


Fold pre.

This is actually one of the few spots/dynamics where I don't hate limp-reraising. Obviously if you get flatted you'll get in some awkward spots but as long as you think he'll fold most of his range rather than call to a pot-sized 3bet then its not a terrible spot for a steal preflop, especially since its unlikely anybody else has anything with the action they've taken.

As played flop and turn are pretty standard, on the flop you're very likely to have the best hand and probably want to just let him fire. Turn was unfortunately one of the cards that not only is a scare card but also hits villain's range pretty solidly.

River just depends on a whole host of factors like how thin he'll valuebet, if he seems to understand bluffing or is just a maniac, how often he's been betting the river big and what he's had the times he got looked up, etc. I'd probably fold though, most LAGs would bet the turn rather than have a hiccup in their betting when bluffing.

Meh, fold.

It kind of looks to me like he hit the ace on the turn but was worried that hero could have a monster like a set or AJ so he checked it back.

Now when hero checks the river, he knows he has the best hand and is overbet value betting something as weak as a raggety ace.

There are a lot of Ax hands in his pre-flop raising range.

Fold> c/r bluff allin > call.

Seriously though you should be limp/raising vs this guy and look for a spot to check raise him on the river with a weaker than normal hand.