Hero is 2/5 rec player taking a 5/10 shot (have taken a few before with some success) on a sat night.

Have doubled up to 2k when I get moved to the main game (top game still running at casino). I am an obvious new face to the game, most of the other players seem familiar with each other and have pretty huge stacks.

This is second hand after I sat down so no great reads other than villain had a ton of chips and had been there a while. I felt I played this hand pretty differently because it was 5/10 vs 2/5 and am wondering about different approaches I could have/should have taken.

Pre-Flop
$20 straddle is on
MP raises to $60
Villain MP+1 (covers by a lot) calls
Hero ($2000) on button with KK makes is $220
Folds to EP who sizes up my stack and calls

Flop ($530) AK2
Villain checks
Hero bets $250
Villain calls

In 2/5 I check behind in this spot very often.


Turn ($1,030) 4
Villain checks
Hero checks

River ($1,030) 6
Villain leads for $350
Hero raises to $850??

I like pre flop, I actually like the flop sizing, not sure why you're checking the turn? I'd think we'd want to lead there for ~$500ish and jam every river.

Preflop sizing should either be a bit smaller or bigger. $220 puts you in that annoying range where villain isn't getting terrible odds preflop but SPR makes it hard not to stack off post flop. I like $175 to get called by a wider range or make it $250 to kill his odds.

Flop bet is fine. I would never check this spot without specific history with villain. An unknown is likely to call once with any pair to see what you do and everything else is a long shot draw.

Turn you should bet again. Villain will mostly fold at this point but if villain doesn't have a hand that can continue he isn't likely to improve to a hand that calls a river bet unless he catches a flush/straight/worse set.

When villain leads river flat call against an unknown. You are mostly winning but a raise mostly folds the hands you beat and gets called by the rare hands that beat you.

With 1.5 SPR why would u ever check turn?

with the straddle and deepstacks and this being live I go for full pot sizing and make it $300 pre. As played (or with my sizing) I like betting half pot on every street just to maximize EV since we have the board so locked up. Checking turn doesnt really serve a purpose imo since there's not really much villain can have to caught up with. He either has TP or he doesnt, and I dont expect to get floated or looked up with lesser pocket pairs here very often, so just get him to pay you off with AJ or whatever.

+1

Just play straightforward, I haz good hand, I go bet bet bet, KISS principle

That is why I thought this hand was a bit interesting. With vilLain only calling twice pre flop and me three betting seems as if my advantage is way way too big to get 3 streets. Is villain really calling 3 streets with AJ? And I for sure lose 77-QQ type hands with a turn bet?

I thought a turn check opens up vilLain to either bluff river with a worse pair or to check call a larger bet with an A10-AQ type hand? Is this not a good approach?

Which hands do you think a good villain doubles me up here with if i go Bet bet bet?

To clarify: The original raiser folded to your 3!, and V called the $60 and then called your 3! OOP?

Guess what kind of players usually play like this? Loose passive fish. Just take a bet, bet, shove line against this guy. Fishy McFish might punt 2K with Ax. Especially, if he has AQ.

Sizing pre seems fine, would be the minimum I'd go. 300 max.

Smaller otf, probably should be continuing ott unblocking ax, as played otr jamming is your only size, this minclicking is no good.

Raise river for sure, I'd be shocked if villain chose that sizing with any better made hand besides top set

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Whenever you think about checking back turns with a strong hand, I’d consider first betting small - like $250-275 is going to be really hard for V to fold to after he calls flop bet, and you get a bigger pot going to river = more opportunity for larger value.

That being said, in this spot I think you should just be looking for a b/b/b line that will get all money in by river. 250/500/shove probably.

Pre a smidge bigger, flop smaller, turn is fps. Checking turn with AA or AQ would be fine

This. Turn check seems like FPS. Yes you might not get 3 streets of value against Ax, but you might. And the math supports taking a chance on it because by missing the turn bet, we not only miss the value of the turn but also drastically smaller sizing on the river, or have to announce more precisely the strength of our hand by raising V's bet.

I don't like the check on the turn, either.

I also don't understand why we raise the river? If we checked turn to induce, what worse is calling? I think I'm mubsy from too much PLO, but I just don't see the value in raising river? Maybe he'll call w/ two pair or lower set? Maybe he'll fold a straight? It just all seems so unlikely. I guess since we hold the Ks he has fewer hands to call with that beat us?

Yes this too. With the turn check and now river raise, you are super-polarized and I don't think you are getting anything worse to fold (straights and flushes are getting great odds to pay $500 to win $1,380) and the only value hand that I can see calling is 22.

Correct and 1000% agree at 1-2 and 2-5. At 5-10 against the new fish at the table "me" I was expecting to get called lighter with villain closing action to isolate me.

This makes a lot of sense as I would be blocking so many of his strong aces.

His pre-flop line really had me thinking there was no way I was getting 3 streets of value. Frankly I don't think a thinking villain is going to call 3 streets with even AQ at 5/10 with my 3! PF (and he is probably worse than AQ with preflop line).

Am I wrong there?

And if villain has a lower pair anything JJ and down which would seem to be a huge part of his range with pre-flop line isn't checking either flop or turn to induce the only way to get 2 streets?

Genuine questions, in these rare monster flop spots I find it hard to balance my tendency to almost never slow play with needing to give villains some room to try to make a mistake...

River was a close decision for me because of this thinking. Obviously if I bet turn and he led river I would just call. If he shoves over my raise I obviously puke.

If I lose to a 3-5 that called a 3 bet and floated flop with a gutter so be it. The only real hand I was worried about was AQ and I felt villain would have sized bigger with this.

At the end of the day felt a bit too tight to just call river given turn action and I felt villain can talk himself sometimes into calling with specifically AQ maybe AJ and suited A2 or A4 that a lot of fancy players like these days lol, and obv all worse sets.

But sizing I was hoping to get crying call from Aces up and maybe AQ/AJ...

Agree if I knew villain had Ax I think b/b/b not too big each is a good line.

I might have been overthinking how to some type of value out of a 66-JJ type hand.

Kind of why I posted the hand, I struggle in these spots where a stronger line gets more out of a smaller portion of villains range, and how to balance that.

Okay so first of all I like your pre flop sizing you rep your hand. I believe villian calls with a lot of Ax combinations here especially AQss AJss A10ss. With that being said I like the flop sizing however I would elect to bet a little over 2/3 pot on the turn to deny equity to any spade draw. And we don't want to give villain the right odds to call and hit his spade spade draw if he has it. Also the way villain played this hand its kind of hard to decipher his range because he checked turn? Then jammed river? His play made no sense at all given the hand. I think I make a crying call here and allow him to show me Axss for the backdoor flush. Gross spot.

Against an unknown it's guess work. You don't have any read on how wide his preflop range is or what it looks like, how passive/aggro and weak/stationary he is post flop and what that range looks like or how much he will call or how good/bad he is in general.

If you knew villain's flop call range was mostly AX and he would give up those hands to heavy of action then bet/check/bet is best. If you knew he would float flop with hands that can back into something and then give up on turn/river if he didn't improve then not betting turn is a big mistake. If you knew his preflop range is mostly pairs then bet/check/bet goes back to being better again because now you want to give him every chance to make a worse set.

Yes that's what this looks like and the math doesn't make it optimal. Even if you mostly get folds when you take the bet/bet/bet line the times you do get calls will more than compensate not getting a few extra bucks out of 66 - JJ.

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Results
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Villain calls my river raise and shows 22 for flopped underset.

I debated my line after and hence the post. Obviously I left a decent amount on the table, if I bet turn we almost assuredly get it all in on turn or river.

That said I think going 3!, the B B B in a 5/10 game just blows villain off of so many hands I can get a decent win off vs. taking one street off (flop or turn) and letting villain convince themselves they can win by bluffing or with a top pair hand. I am surprised that people seem to think I could have gotten 3 streets of value against an AQ AJ type of hand.

IDK... in this spot I definitely made the wrong play and seems most advocate betting both flop and turn! Thanks for the insight!

The problem with "taking one street off" is that you are just just losing one street, but you are losing sizing on the next street as well.